A second passed, but the dramatic pain Randidly usually associated with Elhume’s strike didn’t pound him into the ground.

It doesn’t hurt, Randidly thought with a strange sense of distance. Out of habit, he completed the spear thrust, shooting a spreading tear in space that ripped its way up into the clouds like a vicious rocket. The sluggishness vanished, burned away by the familiar movement.

Yet still he stood, trying to understand the purpose of that Aether.

Randidly felt his Class vibrate as the strange Aether constructs passed through him. He rocked back on his heels as the influence spread, instantly alarmed as the strange intrusion spread through him and into the Alpha Cosmos. He nudged his Nether Core into faster rotation and pulled these strands of energy through his body, preparing for a follow-up.

Then the notifications began popping up in front of him.

Congratulations! Due to your achievement of a Mille, you have the ability to create a term to affect the Nexus-

Recalculating…

Congratulations! You have created the term ‘Ghasthund’. Compiling definition…

Congratulations! Ghasthund has been defined based on the subconscious desires of your inner world!

Ghasthund: When-

Pantheon intervention. Recalculating…

Randidly’s whole body seemed to hum, his alarm growing at every notification. However, after the Pantheon intervention, all the notifications stopped. A final notification didn’t arrive. Periodically, recalculating popped back up, but it appeared to have stalled out there. Randidly sent a message to Lucretia. What the hell happened?

That bastard Elhume is apparently smarter than we thought. Or at least, got a hint of your plan when he looked at you, Even through the message, Randidly could sense Lucretia’s strain. That blast triggered the defining for your term prematurely. Currently, Alta and the Golem Emperor are holding the process at bay, but we can’t keep it like this forever. And now that its started, it needs to be defined soon. Or it will just define itself.

Recalculating…

Randidly’s expression darkened. He chewed on the inside of his cheek. How long?

On the low end, Sixty-two minutes, Lucretia responded almost immediately. A few seconds went by before her follow-up message arrived. But… I suspect that’s just Alta being pessimistic. If I had to give you a true estimate… maybe eighty-five minutes? Give or take. We might not have experienced it firsthand, but we certainly felt when you fought against time itself. And that Bounty girl is nothing if not competitive. She’s been itching for a chance to make your jaw drop.

Randidly’s lips quirked at that, wondering how Alta Bounty went from a terrorist attempting to annihilate his Soulskill into the most stalwart defender of the Alpha Cosmos. Having her helm the defense effort against the latest of Elhume’s tricks set him slightly at ease. But he set that aside for the moment, to look up at the sky.

“Eighty-five minutes is plenty of time, you bastard.” He cracked his knuckles. “You think this is enough to fuck me? If you wanted to preserve your little bottle of regrets, you should have acted while you had the chance.”

Recalculating…

His attention switched to his Status Screen. After scanning through, Randidly pressed his lips together, somewhere between exasperation and amusement. Competitiveness burned in his emerald eyes. His goal had been to get 25 Skills over a thousand, but currently he had only reached 24. But on a second scan… there were almost a half dozen Skill within twenty Skill Levels of a thousand.

“Hell, might as well go to thirty,” Randidly barred his teeth at the sky.

With a single step, he hopped back down to where Devick was working. She spun around and raised her fists as though she was going to fend him off, then lowered her arms with a dramatic sigh. “Do you want to get killed?! Don’t sneak up on me like that! Err- obviously not that I could just kill you- ahem ahem, what a beautiful day- No, well, you look up at the sky and the world does seem to be ending right on top of us—”

“Easy,” Randidly chuckled and patted Devick on the shoulder. Below them, the nearly finished Engraving pulsed with Mana. “Thanks for the assistance, you saved me a lot of time, but now why don’t you sit down and watch? Who knows, maybe just observing me will be enough to earn you a Skill?”

“Psh, you know arrogance isn’t charming,” Devick folded her arms across her chest but still stomped over to the side and make room for him to work.

Randidly threw out a chunk of Mana into the ground. It exploded through the glittering array beneath his feet, rushing through the threads and evening the Mana depth, drawing out the portions so the lines were completed. “But you’ll need to keep me from being disturbed while I finish. Can you handle that?”

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 993!

Devick’s whole demeanor changed; her playful grumpiness fell away. She nodded solemnly, the picture of a loyal and reliable subordinate, despite her messy mane of crimson hair and the dirt stains on her knees. “I’d martyr myself for you, Hungry Eye. Oh, actually, is your name actually Randidly- ah, I suppose we can talk after.”

The ground beneath his feet began to heat up and vibrate, filled to its limit with Randidly’s energy. He released waves of the Songstress of Absences energy through the surroundings, destroying and removing all the impurities in the air. Then he fueled the pattern beneath his feet meant to act on the flow of time, causing it to branch out and cover a larger area.

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 994!

Congratulations! Your Skill Siren’s Dirge of Bottomless Taking (P) has grown to Level 952!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 1002!

Twenty-five, Randidly thought mentally. The rumbling beneath his feet grew more intense as the Engraving dug into the ground. Then, with a sudden shift abrupt enough that Devick yelped and fell on her ass, a giant chunk of the land beneath Randidly’s feet tore itself out of the ground.

A new sky island, the venue for Randidly’s final challenge, began to float up into the chaotic clouds. Partially he made this choice because he didn’t want the reverberations to damage the nearby Homewell, partially because he didn’t want interference from Deganawidah or the Cult of the Savior, but also… Randidly shook his head at his own behavior.

This is the final challenge… isn’t a dramatic venue a critical element? Especially to get the Aether to behave correctly. Shape is important. A little flair never hurt anybody.

Congratulations! Your Skill Footsteps of a Legend (L) has grown to Level 967!

Congratulations! Your Skill Siren’s Dirge of Bottomless Taking (P) has grown to Level 963!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Footsteps of a Legend (L) has grown to Level 987!

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 1024!

The Skyisland drifted out away from civilization and toward the densest mass of clouds. Already, Randidly pulled kinetic reverberations from the battlefield between Aether and Nether and began fueling his personal maelstrom. The Songstress of Absence continued to suck away all the ambient energy, creating a nearly inert zone around the Engraving to prevent any unexpected variables from developing. And every second, he deepened the Engravings beneath his feet. His Nether Core rotated quickly as began feeding Nether into the grand working. Nether Ritual and Engraving coexisted, their effects multiplied by the presence of the other.

Congratulations! Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath (M) has grown to Level 1000!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Footsteps of a Legend (L) has grown to Level 1001!

Randidly nodded in satisfaction. Then he checked the time. Still seventy-nine minutes to go before Ghasthund defines itself… shit, it’s going to be close.

Yggdrasil hummed in warning and Randidly’s head snapped up. Two figures cut across the sky, making a beeline for their position. Although Randidly felt a bit of annoyance, he also felt a flutter of anticipation in his chest. Because the two individuals that shot toward them were Elhume and the Patron of the Borrowed.

The air around Elhume crackled, practically destabilizing with just his presence. The powerful image he had constructed seared the space around him. His insights into the aspect of the void left even Randidly impressed.

“You haven’t lost Mae Myrna yet… but I wonder how close you are to standing on the cusp of the Pinnacle,” Randidly whispered, almost unimpressed. But that didn’t mean fighting Elhume would be easy in his current, drained state. Yggdrasil pulled energy through the air, flooding his body with the force. He rolled his shoulders, feeling his body quickly adapting to the energy. His heartbeat quickened.

Of course Elhume would show up now to delay him in his third and final attempt. A one-two punch of present and past Elhume. But still, Randidly couldn’t deny he felt slightly grateful. After all, nothing helped Skill Level more quickly than a powerful opponent.

Congratulations! Your Skill World Tree Sips from Every Realm (T) has grown to Level 1053!

Congratulations! Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 1000!

While Randidly congratulated himself on reaching his 28th Mille, Devick scrambled over to stand next to him. “Uh, they are heading straight for us aren’t they? Well, you just take it easy; that’s why you brought me along, right, to handle riff-raff like this?”

“Yup.” Randidly glanced sideways at Devick, his lips twitching. She possessed enough wild aggression to actually mean what she said, but she also should be able to sense both of the auras of the approaching duo. Even the Patron of the Borrowed possessed a great deal more power than she, no matter how much her Grand Fate had Leveled in the past week.

Yet she had no doubts she would find a way. In Devick’s eyes, Randidly saw a very familiar mindset. She would somehow manage to do it, because if she didn’t she would die. And she wasn’t willing to die, not quite yet.

It was how Randidly had lived for almost thirty years, underneath the thumb of the System.

“It’s almost annoying how similar we are,” Randidly shook his head.

Devick frowned at him, clearly surprised by his words. “Are we really that similar? Let’s talk again about how many Skill Levels I gained just by helping you. The current total sits at three hundred and thirteen-”

Randidly scratched his cheek. “Ha! Okay, I’ve had a better opportunity to develop, but its about ideology. You know, that bastard Fatia Cerulean told me that he and I were the same once: that we walked the Narrow Path. A path climbing across the bodies of those we surpassed. A path built on corpses. I think… he would say you walk the same Path.”

As Randidly paused to gather his thoughts, Devick’s expression darkened. Perhaps she felt the same ring of truth in those accusations as Randidly had. Then Randidly cleared his throat. “But you know… there are other ways. That’s why I became an Alchemist: to create a Path for those who follow where there never was one before.”

“...what sort of Path is it?” Devick asked.

Randidly considered how best to answer the question, the one he had spent his whole life chasing and now only had a half answer, and felt rather stumped. “Haaah… What would you say if I said my Path could lead you straight toward power with minimal deviations, without requiring you to oppress those around you? That there were no consequences for the journey, that you didn’t have to compromise your integrity, that you could make the impossible possible with this Path?”

Devick squinted, trying to tell if he was joking. “...I would say you are an idiot. And no, I'm not interested in purchasing an estate-share from you.”

“Yea, maybe.” Randidly straightened. His smile widened as his Fateset responded to her words. “Perhaps that’s my role. To show you how rewarding it can be, to be the right kind of idiot.”

Randidly clapped his hands together and prepared to receive the first two guests of his third challenge.