In that deep darkness of the night right before dawn Randidly felt strangely weightless Or rather he felt like the Earth beneath him could no longer influence him As his body was filled with the significance emotion meaning and connection of Aether and Nether gravity’s influence over him was steadily shattered His body became the dominant force in the surrounding space
Objects in orbit would be pulled toward him
With the increased strength came understanding And of course the more of that grey crystal in his chest that slowly deteriorated the more disturbed Randidly became by his insights First he began to rethink his plot to absorb the weight of the finals Because what the Nether did structurally in order to achieve the sensation of greater density was establish a network around and through his images
Unlike his images which could become true physicalizations through Aether Nether instead provided a network of energy veins that ran between his various images Perhaps obviously this was the energy of connection and balance But after he finally provided the elements of that connection his physicalizations could become that much more concrete
They were insubstantial inky serpents hanging in the Soulspace between his images They reminded Randidly of the blue veins of the Great Rift
This new addition to his Soulspace resulted in two things one very positive and another slightly disturbing The positive thing was that Randidly experimented a bit and the Nether veins made it significantly easier to utilize multiple Skills at once The disturbing thing was that this ease of complex activations came because of a resonance and inexplicable interconnected certainty that Randidly had seen in only one place before
This Nether network he subconsciously built on himself displayed all the insubstantial and ambiguous traits of karma
Which probably meant that karma Skills and also his Philosopher’s Key relied on an equally giant Nether Network to function Which was probably Elhume’s Nether equivalent to the mountain range of crystalized Aether that Randidly had briefly encountered and by which he had been shattered
For several seconds Randidly considered how little he truly knew about the Nexus His fingers flexed and dug into the grass covered ground of his island He released a sigh and lowered his head
“The Pinnacle gets farther away every time I look at it huh ” He said quietly to himself as he considered his Soulspace The small half built karmic network only existed between his images and the images of the people whose significance that he had used It was as frail as a sagging spiderweb
Yet there was an unexpected deviation from the typical Nether veins The connections through that weak Nether network did find a small purchase outside of himself in Alana Donal Because he already had an Aether connection there the veins had found a single support point outside of himself And as he inspected the twining lines of Nether Randidly suspected that at least half of the physical boost he felt came from this outside support Studying it gave him quite a few ideas about how he could extend this network even further around himself
But should I really extend this karmic network Randidly’s eyes slowly opened That would boost my strength but it would put tethers of Nether in people who might not be able to withstand them Someone of Alana’s caliber would barely notice the addition probably my other Aether connections could withstand it as well but is that the sort of strength that I want
A strength built on the backs of others Will I follow the Path of Lady Iellaya No of course not My strength will be my own
His emerald eyes flashed as Randidly recalled the Nether King in the sky above Earth with enough clout to attack the Seventh Cohort directly The power displayed there had been entirely within the hands of the Nether King Rather than being raised to that capability based on support from others an almost chemical reaction had occurred within the Nether King that Randidly didn’t understand It was somewhat akin to a caveman viewing the inner workings of a nuclear reactor
It might be impossible for him as a human to replicate that feat but Randidly certainly wanted to make an attempt before he borrowed power from outside sources
And with that thought Randidly gently reached out and plucked the thread of Nether he had subconsciously woven between Alana and himself The spectral tether wriggled in his fingers for a bit before deteriorating Instantly he felt some of that sense of gravitational immunity fade It wasn’t that the physical gains had evaporated but the leverage that Randidly could wield was lost He was once more just one body trying its best to rival the power of the System
“And that’s why it’s fun ” Randidly grinned He flexed his hands and stood He pulled out the Philosopher’s Key and opened a portal to a deserted ravine in the Nordawn Mountain Range Once he was there he stretched his arms wide and released the tight cap on his images that he had studiously been maintaining while the other individuals in the tournament were training and fighting Which he reflected might have been pointless it did not seem Earthlings absorbed the images of others in the same way as Tellus
But occasional self denial was always a productive exercise Whether it was the new veins of Nether running through his physical images or it was due to the strain of suppressing himself his images now roared out and instantly began to warp the surrounding space Even the darkness of the valley seemed to quiver in some instinctual warning Randidly’s smile widened
Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold The Inscrutable Mien of Genesis All Things Succumb Yet Time Whirls the Earth
The three Skills activated smoothly giving Randidly an unprecedented sense of insight into his own strengths as he reached for a world where he found a superior method of utilizing Nether The thin support veins he had recently obtained fed the intellectual and spiritual strain between the three images balancing them precariously together Perhaps All Things Succumb Yet Time Whirls the Earth would normally have difficulty grappling with seeking an answer in regards to Nether but the purple black revelation energy and the harsh light of Genesis spoke of impossible new beginnings Those two sources of light were like traffic controllers walking behind the heaving machinery of the Grim ChimeraÆs ultimate Skill guiding it safely into the sky
Congratulations All Things Succumb Yet TIme Whirls the Earth has grown to Level 204
Soon there were two Randidlys making different attempts to solve this problem Nether seethed in the two duplicated Nether Nebulas The ground around RandidlyÆs physical body shuddered and then sharply cracked Then there were four
Congratulations All Things Succumb Yet TIme Whirls the Earth has grown to Level 205
Congratulations All Things Succumb Yet TIme Whirls the Earth has grown to Level 229
The strain was immense It was only ponderously that the Skill chugged forward creating eight RandidlyÆs experimenting with Nether
And just like that the three Skills collapsed painfully twisting Randidly’s smile into a grimace Those spatial distortions in the surrounding area were snuffed out like candle flames pinched by cold fingers Peace returned to the dark valley marred only by the cracks in the ground directly beneath him Randidly chuckled and rubbed the side of his head to ease the throbbing headache “Well it’s easier but it’s still not easy “
Truthfully the combination of Skills he had tried had been quite ambitious All Things Succumb Yet Time Whirls the Earth was a Skill that Randidly still didn’t have complete control over The Grim Chimera had a thread of Nether in it that meant that the activation was closer to a prayer than it was a predictable process Adding other Skills into the mix increased the cost of fueling the Skill exponentially