The cycles continued. Worsening, but not to the point that Randidly wasn’t able to endure. Through every roadblock, he understood how to advance.

At this point, his preparations were simple. He stretched his body until he worked off any lingering tension and then exerted his will to call to him a small bit of interference. Hundreds of shades of darkness, the variations of night and despair he and the Alpha Cosmos had encountered on their journey, wove themselves into a mantle of woe across his shoulders. All sensations, all foreign incursions or forces first need to endure the implacable disdain of those layers before they could affect him.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ghosthound’s Cloak of a Thousand Lightless Horizons (GD) has grown to Level 1100!

Congratulations! Your Skill Arch-Heretic’s Thaumaturgy (P) has grown to Level 807!

He didn’t like using his images in order to blunt the worst of the damage, but the Dread Homunculus assured him it was fine; in fact, it was quite a bit more interested in the data it could gather when he utilized his images. The more he could endure, the more it could attempt.

Honestly, Randidly began to resent the constructed being for how often it complimented him on being such an excellent experimental subject. He could clearly feel that the criteria for this grand achievement rested in a very mundane truth: Randidly Ghosthound was extremely durable.

When he started being complimented between every horrific wave of pain, he started to feel rather insulted.

The forty seventh wave of pain felt somewhat different than those that came before. It began with an opening of his chest cavity— he could feel the Dread Homunculus carefully carving through the flesh of his organs, removing each piece in turn, careful that none of the complex connections between them were damaged.

His Nether swam uncertainly through the sudden hollow inside of his body, unsure what ot make of the shift. Other physical processes also stuttered to a stop, confused by the recent developments. His body was only kept alive by the dense Aether that animated his person.

Randidly had settled into a meditative position in the depths of the Badlands, in the cavern of the lava worm that Hank had fought against three times, finishing with a draw, a loss, and a decisive victory. Around him, the lingering magma pools continued to cool. At the very least, Randidly believed that no one would be mad enough to follow him into the steaming depths of this place and disturb him.

And honestly, the pressure he released could suffocate a weaker individual. He isolated himself for the benefit of everyone involved.

He could feel an increasingly worried pulses coming from Lowanna, as her sharpened instincts for Nether sensed the approaching collapse of the Sonara, but now that he had started this process, Randidly wasn’t willing to give up the benefit these harrowing experiences would provide.

Once all of the organs had been safely removed, which involved all of Randidly’s instincts screaming that he would soon die and Randidly forcefully suppressing before they worsened the process by causing pointless spasms, the Dread Homunculus clucked his tongue in pleasure. The image wove a strange and caustic energy from horrifying sources, all the worst and most useless portions of Aether and Nether mixed together, all the most dangerous and suppressed impulses from the Alpha Cosmos, and all of the looming consequences swimming around in the Nether of the memory.

Looking at that energy, Randidly had some empathy to his opponents, who feared what his alchemy could accomplish.

This strange and concentrated liquid, an alchemic miracle of instability and degradation, was then painted on the inside of Randidly’s skin. His bones were carefully lathered. He shivered as the furious embers of pain began, rapidly rising into an obliterating agony as his body was cleansed.

For a while, he simply swam through the sensations. He gritted his teeth; struggling would only make the process worse. He forced his eyes closed. Usually he would breathe or circulate his Nether in order to calm himself, but the former was impossible with his organs removed and the latter quickly devolved into a negative vortex without veins to guide the flows.

So he sat in stasis and allowed time to pass. He endured the pain, refusing to allow it to scour his mind clean with its simple and pure suffering. He wondered how much mental annihilation he would have been forced to heal if he hadn’t activated the personalized Cloak of Nyx.

The pain continued, building further. And further. He scrunched his eyes closed more tightly. He felt sweat beading across the surface of his confused body.

Until a moment came where the pain had already peaked and now steadily fell away. To know that the worst had passed was such a blessing. Randidly trembled again, this time in relief. Wave by wave, the pain receded. He reached up and scratched the back of his neck, wondering how much time he would have until the next pain started.

However, Randidly wasn’t out of the woods yet. Because after the interior of his body had been thoroughly purified, his organs were added back and knitted together by the Dread Homunculus, one by one.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

And it seemed like that horrid substance his image had cooked up hadn’t yet dissipated. It was the equivalent of rubbing an eye after cutting jalapenos. Multiplied by the scale of a thousand. The previous pain of his skin, bones, and muscles was nothing compared to the drilling pain as his organs tried to acclimate.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ghosthound’s Cloak of a Thousand Lightless Horizons (GD) has grown to Level 1114!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nyx’s Successor Births Fate (GD) has grown to Level 1099!

Yet this too eventually passed, leaving Randidly drained but oddly satisfied by the experience. In a way, the pain had definitely cleansed him. Yggdrasil brought warm roots of pure energy up to his mind, smoothing away the tears and reconstructing the pieces blasted by pain. Randidly cracked his neck. He assented to the next wave of pain to begin.

During the forty-eighth wave of pain, Randidly observed the Dread Homunculus drilling into his bones, draining out the marrow, and then igniting the valuable substance. Idly, Randidly acknowledge that this Self-Vivisection was teaching him more than he cared to know about torture.

The forty-ninth wave of pain was blessedly quick. The Dread Homunculus drained out his blood and performed a variety of transfiguration processes on the rich liquid. The passive image physicalizations associated with the World Tree meant that the transmutation circles continued to degrade, but the Dread Homunculus had prepared hundred. Over and over again, Randidly’s blood proceeded through refinement.

This was a different sort of pain. Rather than agony, Randidly felt weak and drained. Yet this too he endured. When the blood was eventually returned to his body, it gurgled happily and flooded his limbs with invigorating warmth.

The fiftieth wave of pain cut through the core of Randidly; quite literally, the Dread Homunculus began slicing away layers of his brain to understand they physical cage in which their powerful self had been inserted. Each slice felt like the Visage of Obsession, more and more awareness being cut away-

-and then Randidly blinked, the pain fading from his awareness. The Dread Homunculus buzzed with pleasure, sending him a series of complex impressions to try and explain the epiphanies it experienced while cutting apart his brain. Randidly grimaced and checked the time; almost an hour had passed during that last wave of pain. The cracks in the memory were spreading. Probably within the next hour, there would be physical manifestations of the approaching doom.

Fifty needs to be enough for now. Good work. Randidly sent to his image. Then he ceased the Self-Vivisection and completed the Path.

Congratulations! You have completed the Homunculus Advances: The First Self-Vivisection Path! What an astonishing achievement! Through great adversity and interminable suffering, you persevered. The Dread Homunculus quickly abandoned any fears it possessed regarding the limits of its experimentation, testing and refining every aspect of your body. In the process, not only have your capabilities been increased, but you have opened up the possibility of further advances.

Congratulations! +100 to all Stats as the Dread Homunculus improves all aspects of your physical form! Your Skill Homunculi’s Monstrous Tenacity (P) has evolved into the Homunculi Pursues Perfection (GD)!

Your Stat Uncommon Metabolism (Un) has evolved into Homunculi’s Engineered Adaption (L)! Please note, this is a special Stat: as a fight against an opponent continues, the Rarity will cease to describe its true power. The longer the fight proceeds, the higher the true Rarity will climb. It is possible for the (GD) designation to be briefly appropriate.

Randidly’s jaw cracked. His veins practically sang with the flow of blood. As the aches and pains from proceeding through the waves of pain were addressed and healed, he definitely felt the benefits starting to accrue in his form. He shook his shoulders and slapped his cheeks. With the Alchemist’s Passport, he opened a portal with a simple wave. Yet he didn’t immediately step through.

Now that the painful part is out of the way… I still have 16k more PP… one more Path to choose? He brought up a much abridged version of his Path options.

Alchemist of Past and Present 0/10000, Song of the Void 0/????, Reality from Echoes, Moirae and Alchemist Ascendant 0/15000, The Homunculus Advances: The Forbidden Second Adjustment 0/????

Sorry buddy, but we are going to wait a bit for… the Forbidden Second Adjustment. Randidly told his Homunculus image. It assented, receding from the fore of his mind to examine the prodigious amount of data gathered through the Path. Randidly considered his other options.

“Between the two Alchemist related Paths… I suppose the one including Moiraes is preferable. And I have enough PP. So… just that or the Song of the Void…” Randidly rubbed his chin, genuinely unable to choose between them.

To his surprise, the Songstress of Absence spoke up; it would like to wait before taking a Path that would improve its capabilities. The image had rather recently evolved, and knew the eventual result would be more powerful if they engaged in more fights before committing to an evolution Path.

Randidly accepted this generosity gracefully. So he began pouring PP into the Reality From Echoes, Moirae and Alchemist Ascendant Path as he stepped through his portal. For each 100 PP spent, he earned a single free Stat point.

Randidly popped out into the land of the silver dust, the holy area of the Nether people, which formerly housed the wandering settlement of Wyndaos.

Lowanna and Enmya waited at the head of a massive gathering of Nether individuals, the former doing a much better job at hiding her impatience, despite the fact she had a much better idea of the approaching threat. The millions of Nether people sat waiting for him, ready to proceed to a whole new world.

“It is time,” Randidly said, even while he continued to feed PP into his new Path. Somehow, it felt appropriate for both to occur at once.

Lowanna nodded. “And so, the deal between us is struck and fulfilled. As soon as we begin… the significance will gather. Are you prepared for the bindings?”

“I’m prepared.” He nodded.

The grand columns of Nether individuals began to move, marching forward as Randidly widened the portal. The Nether Heralds engaged in a massive humming song, slapping black wicker instruments to create the underlying beat. As they moved, Randidly watched as young Nether beings released elaborate paper kites into the air. Like the sigh of a deflating balloon, a glittering silver wind rose across the land. The wind spun the kites up in a whirling spring of ascension.

The Nether beings departed from their ancestral land, leaving folded constructs of rainbow gliding in the air above them.