Randidly’s Engravings spread out from his skyisland to hang in space like luminous butterfly wings. The strummed time continued to warp the memory, but the sphere of stability around Randidly’s position spread outward.

Preparing for the finale was important, but he also couldn’t overlook the necessities of getting there.

As he pulled the threads of energy together to create that rarified foundation, a grin stretched across Randidly’s face. The more he worked, the clearer he could feel the approaching threats, beyond the potency of the Pinnacle event. The air practically hummed with it, the shadow of the imperative of ‘possible’.He gazed up, searching for additional interference from Elhume massing outside the Dungeon.

Even after several seconds of intense focus, he could only click his tongue and shift back to the work. For better or worse, the solidified Dungeon exterior prevented Randidly from sensing anything in particular outside of the memory. Then he gazed down at the confrontation between Aether and Nether: the Prophet had manifested his weird light and fought against Deganawidah. Yet even that didn’t seem particularly close to spilling up and affecting Randidly.

“Where will you come from…?” Randidly muttered. He flexed his hands, poised with gleaming threads of Mana waiting to be woven.

But the universe didn’t answer. He could only shake his head and continue to work. The movements he made created blinding rainbows as he continued to sew the foundation. He stood in the middle of a massive network of connections, keying their positing into Yggdrasil, and by extension, his own body.

I can start to see the shape, Randidly’s wicked grin spread out as he looked at the flow of significance. Once I’m locked into position… then you will start bringing the threats? Well, let’s see what you’ve got left after I’ve established myself…

At my age, I’m not afraid of a slugfest with just about anyone.

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 1031!

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 1060!

Ideally, Randidly wouldn’t need to affix himself and his image in place in order to host the Pinnacle event. But already, bits of the memory began to tear at his rather rough temporal acceleration. When the implied power of the Pinnacle began crackling around, the damage would worsen. Even with Deganawidah’s significance working as a counterweight, the memory would be in danger. The only material that Randidly knew would be able to withstand the strain… was his body.

The Engravings tightened around his position. Overlapping halos of Mana settled into place, putting him in the middle of dozens of complex runic rings. Energy channels flickered outward from his limbs, sinking into the skyisland. Those butterfly-esque patterns that kept the skyisland protected grew more brilliant with each passing second.

Randidly took a deep breath and looked up at one particular spot.

A shiver ran through existence. Then, right on cue, a presence forcefully ripped its way through the edge of the Dungeon and crashed into the memory. A massive, swirling image ripped through the surrounding sky like a greedy tornado. Next to him, Devick hissed and manifested her malicious image around her body. However, even the crimson-haired woman’s antagonism rapidly faded as the powerful reverberations of that image expanded.

Randidly’s eyes widened in alarm as he looked at the forceful entry; they hadn’t reinforced the edges of the Dungeon, but even Neveah believed that hadn’t needed to. Dungeons possessed enough natural defenses, once established, due to the energy and temporal differential between the inside and outside. If Elhume planned on steamrolling the construction-

Randidly’s features stiffened. Because after the interloper entered the Dungeon, the barrier behind it began to reinform like stretched elastic. Somehow, the edge of the Dungeon wasn’t fundamentally violated by the passage. But it took the first breezes coming down from the image in the sky for Randidly’s expression to warp into annoyed fury. A split second later, a look of chagrin stretched his features. He recognized this image.

Randidly could only wince as a second figure flitted out through the edge of the barrier in the wake of the first. “I completely forgot about you… and the way I’ve been whirling up time… how long have you been stuck outside of the Dungeon? …what sort of existence did you have out there?”

Mae Myrna looked down at Randidly with hollow eyes while the Monarch of Karma’s image began to rampage through the memory, building up more and more momentum. Underneath his ministrations, the fundamental structure of the world began to change. Randidly’s hand clenched into a fist, but he felt Yggdrasil whisper to him. Now that he had become the anchor point, he couldn’t move easily.

They might be poisoning the world, but he could only remain in this position or all the foundational work would be wasted.

He could only watch as the world state image of Mae Myrna swept through the distorted sky. Where the edges of her image touched the temporal reverberations that Randidly created, the rapid hurtling toward the finale eased and slowed. Randidly eyes sharpened, but he could really only watch as Mae and her puffed-up Monarch expanded their influence.

Randidly scratched his cheek. His muscles practically itched to explode into motion. Honestly, sure, you gain a lot of benefits by affixing the image to a location. However… tch, do I really need to just watch her build up momentum?

Yet at the very least, Randidly felt a sense of relief. Here, at last, was a foe.

This, he could fight.

His Nether Core’s rotation accelerated, but even as his limbs were flooded with significance, he didn’t see any effective way to strike back while they remained near the boundary of the memory. So he folded his arms. He poured his emotional sea into Yggdrasil, stretching out the canopy until emerald leaves fluttered down like rain. The image reverberations he released generated an aura of boundless life.

Opposite that came Mae Myrna, who believed everything must be ‘deserved’.

As Randidly watched the two images interacting with each other, his expression soured. He had never considered their existences in context before. Randidly’s Fatepieces had now explicitly poured themselves toward the creation of a miracle. They wanted to use alchemy, determination, and ingenuity to build a future that could surpass the limitations of the past. In a world that treated human life so casually, Randidly disdained the world.

He pooled power and twisted details to birth impossibility.

Mae looked at Randidly with gaunt eyes as her image raced out and stifled the temporal reverberations, setting back the passage of time to what was deserved. Her own image felt rather small, but the armored figure next to her practically blazed with it, with all of the strange ideas about justice and balance, writ into a molecular, almost narrative level. This was fed into space and regurgitated, over and over again, until it became truth. To Mae and everything she wished to create, Randidly seemed like a fool; he sought to uncouple inputs from outputs.

Or at least, to no longer accept the bleak outputs they had been given for so long.

In the end, they held aims that ran counter to each other. Mae Myrna sought to perfect the System in which they lived. Randidly wanted to break it and escape. As her world-state image was given more time to expand, Randidly’s temporal manipulations had been almost completely squashed. Sweat trickled down his back and he barred his teeth. The third attempt had been stalled out, just like that. Meanwhile, the time limit for Ghasthund given to him by Elhume’s interference wouldn’t slow.

If she had simply stayed back, Randidly would have likely had to make some cutting sacrifices in order to restart the process. But with every moment, Mae drifted closer. She followed in the footsteps of her Monarch of Karma.

“Why have you come, Mae Myrna?” Randidly called out. He observed the Monarch of Karma closely, noticing the flickering distortions around his armored limbs, as space couldn’t quite suppress the being. He had his suspicions who was within the armor, but that was less important than figuring out how powerful this being was currently.

In the original timeline, it had taken Elhume, the Patron of the Borrowed, and the Patron of Feathers to defeat this monster, and that had only been accomplished with the Hierarchy of Karma.

However, revisiting that information made the hairs on the back of Randidly’s neck tingle. He pressed his lips together. I know that is what they claimed happened, but… did the Patron of the Borrowed… really die fighting against Mae Myrna…? Then—

“Did we deserve to be tossed aside and left in isolated space, Randidly Ghosthound? While hovering in the abyss between life and death, did we deserve to have time drawn out so it seemed like we floated there for an agonizing eternity? Which sickened god would consider this fate justice; if you name them, I will slay them before your eyes.” Mae Myrna’s voice retained the resonant quality she possessed that first time the two had met, when Randidly had stumbled across the Cult of the Savior for the first time.

Yet now, all of the liveliness and hope and been hammered out of her. She became a tool of her image, a host more than anything else.

Even still, Randidly had to wince. “I’m sorry. Outside forces invaded the area and I had very little choice.”

“I do not blame you for your resistance of the invaders. Obviously, to repel an unwanted intruder is necessary. No, Nether King Hungry Eye, what I resent is your methods.” The two new arrivals continued their slow stroll across the sky. As they neared, Randidly could see… that as the Monarch of Karma stepped, bits of stone and debris rushed up and formed into steps beneath his feet, which immediately began to degrade as he moved forward. “Just like these invaders… you transgress the natural order. You believe you are a better wielder of their fell tactics, but do you not pollute the world in the same way? No, the problem is not who grips the handle, the problem is the fickle existence that permits such horrifying outcomes. Such tools should not be raised so easily.”

Randidly’s gaze flickered. The world state image had spread throughout the sky and now it began to grind directly against Yggdrasil. Mae’s creed might be a world state image, but Randidly’s image could support a whole world. Quickly, the two’s energies began to spit and bubble. Proximity and the volume of energy behind it forced the two together, but they were like oil and water. To be forced together would only destabilize the area, with no common point on which to settle.

Once the boundaries between the two were set, significance began to flow along the battle lines. Randidly observed the clashing currents. His Nether Core drew power from the rapid accumulation of history. With gritted teeth, he forced his temporal accelerations back up to about half of its previous speed. “What you suggest requires too high a price.”

“Justice is a reward, not a price,” Mae Myrna said.

The two descended, moving from one step to the other out of the sky. Randidly’s gaze moved to the visored face of the Monarch of Karma. Even from her, he could feel how much this insidious image had been compacted and stuffed into his frame. “And what about you? What do you think?”

“I… think-” A man’s voice came out of the helmet, stuttering as though he had just woken from a long sleep. The Monarch of Karma’s shoulders shifted slightly. “You… transgress. Therefore… all you deserve… is death.”

He raised his hands and conjured a massive sword of energy. Pure Aether, all humming with the insidious world state image.

Randidly flashed his teeth. As always, he felt much more comfortable once the opposite drew their weapon. “Alright then, come see if you can claim my life. Because I have a few more transgressions left on my to-do list.”