It had been quite a while since Randidly had met the Creature face to face. He had seen the husk of its body that had been consumed by Zone 1 to create an infinite power plant, but its consciousness had already been consumed at that point. Which, as it turned out, ended up being eminently frustrating for Randidly who had so doggedly pursued the trace of the Creature’s Aether to that point.

Perhaps then, the last real confrontation between them had been the invasion of his Soulskill. Which had been a clash that had deeply scarred Randidly, not just due to the damage the Creature’s monsters had inflicted on his inner world, but because of the sacrifices that Randidly was forced to make among the people who worshipped him in order to win that bloody battle.

Before Randidly had shifted his land to make the Seven Lands, quite a bit of his Soulskill had been a graveyard.

Randidly pressed his eyes closed as he walked slowly down the stairs. The Nether continued to swirl around him, but he was no longer in any hurry to cut to the source of it. To be here was to feel that the Nether was a slowly building thing, even if it was obvious that the pressure here was building rapidly to something. Although the momentum Randidly had built with his gathered Nether was destroyed by this working, it had slowed this down and also severely depleted the Nether that was flowing to the surface.

Likely the dangerous areas of Nether saturation would recede in the short term, giving him enough time to deal with this threat.

Hopefully.

The other benefit of a slow descent was to feel out what was going on around him. As he was now among the thickest of the Nether flows, it was immediately clear that Randidly had underestimated the scope of what the Creature was hoping to accomplish. Even now, as he strained his Nether Sensation outward, it was difficult to get a picture of what this much Nether would do.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 59!

Barring his teeth, Randidly forced his feet to continue to carry him forward. He glanced downward once, having proceeded halfway down the spiral staircase in a few minutes. With the additional distance covered, his Grim Intuition allowed him to perceive several more details about the platform waiting below.

The platform itself only covered a relatively small space, perhaps the size of a basketball court, cast ritualistically in jade, obsidian, and silver. The three colors blended together in geometric lines that made it difficult to look at the platform for too long without growing dizzy. In the absolute center of the platform was a stone dais, on which Azriel was resting.

Floating above her was a swirling series of those same ivory metallic bars, whirring rhythmically to a pattern that Randidly couldn’t quite grasp. Small tendrils of extremely dense Nether spun delicately inward to join the extremely dense core of Nether floating in the middle of the metal which looked like a tiny black marble.

It was only when Randidly saw the source of those dense tendrils was through Azriel’s body that Randidly gritted his teeth. When he studied it more closely, it was possible to see a hole beneath her that allowed Nether upward to filter through her body.

Randidly twisted and glanced over the outside of the staircase, to see the huge flows of Nether that looked like black rivers, flowing down to join a huge mass of Nether that waited below. There was a matching series of ivory metal pieces swirling below, these built on a commensurately larger scale to manage the huge flows of Nether and condense them to tight strands that would flow upward.

They swirled around, appearing briefly like Skills, but then shifting to look like a ribcage that contained the huge mass of Nether. They spun and twisted, constantly on the move.

Then, far sooner than Randidly would have liked, it was time to face this foe one more time.

Dongggg.

The sound of Randidly’s footstep as he finally arrived on the platform echoed strangely in the empty space surrounding them. Space that was only filled by Nether. Yet the noise seemed like a deliberate sign because the Nether that was whirling around them began to accelerate. The small amount of time Randidly had bought by bringing counter-swirling Nether had been burned off. Some small portion of the Nether around them flowed down to the area next to the Creature and touched two discs of metal that were laying on the platform.

Different curved bars of metal spun upward, slowly manifesting themselves as two Nether Beasts shaped-like-Skills that were truly at the three-star level of strength. Bearing Lyra’s sharp and lovely features, grown into womanhood, the Creature smiled. “It’s been too long, Randidly Ghosthound. I’ve missed you.”

Randidly had prepared a sharp comeback, but the raw emotion in her tone stopped him. Slowly, his expression grew solemn. The Creature… legitimately means that. She missed me.

Somehow that made him even warier.

“You try to use me or control me every time we meet,” Randidly finally said. “I can say honestly that I had hoped I would never see you again.”

“You’re lying,” The Creature’s smile burned with genuine pleasure. “It was quite a disappointment, wasn’t it? To chase me and find nothing for so long? So long as you feel traces of my touch on you and the Earth, you will want to meet me. Such is your hypocrisy… and your charm, I suppose.”

“...maybe I would feel better if I could track you down on Earth. But it’s because I don’t want you to destroy any more lives with your machinations.” Randidly’s gaze hardened as he glanced over toward where Azriel lay, still in her crimson gown, with her hands folded over her chest. This wisps of Nether slithered up through her. And even if there were no negative side effects that Randidly could see, that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried. “And seeing this just confirms that I was correct to worry.”

“Such a convenient vessel,” Almost fondly, the Creature reached out toward Azriel. Then she shook her head and looked back toward Randidly. “Another has already hollowed her out to carry an image, so it was quite easy for me to do something similar. If things go as plan, she is the fertile soil I will use to grow my gift to you. But before you can save her, I’m afraid there is one more test for you to pass-”

Without waiting for the Creature to finish, Randidly reached out and pulled at the Nether that was flowing down into the two Nether Beasts beside her. Although they were truly composed of Nether, Randidly recognized that they were just as false as the Nether cores that the grand formation created. The runic engravings on the metal bands were what shaped the working. The Nether was not naturally drawn into those strange discs.

A false bubble was no bubble at all. So Randidly used his Willpower to make himself the core, and the false cores before them his bubble. And then they were his to pull freely. Engravings couldn’t stand up against his Willpower.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 85!

As the Nether flowed easily out of them, the bands of metal groaned and collapsed to the ground. For the first time since Randidly had walked down the staircase, the constant smile that was upon the Creature’s face twitched and waned. “You… how did you do that?”

Satisfaction bloomed warm in Randidly’s chest like a sunflower. To see the Creature so confused was… a welcome feeling. This time, things would be different. The Nether spun around him as Randidly took a step forward. “If you wanted to test my ability to handle Nether, this is far from enough.”

“Yes but... how? If you can work Nether right now...” The Creature hissed. And then something dawned on Randidly that had the satisfaction in his chest dimming and wilting.

“...you legitimately don’t know. You cannot see outside my Soulskill, to what’s happening in the real world,” Randidly said in wonder. His emerald eyes narrowed as he considered the Creature in front of him. “...you are just another sliver of The Creature’s personality, left here amongst the old core of my Soulskill. I’m surprised you managed to persist through so many rounds of destruction and rebirth for the Soulskill, but still… you were probably just triggered by the surge of Nether inside of me.”

After hesitating for a second as it studied Randidly, the Creature opened Lyra’s mouth again. “...you likely have begun to rely on Touch from Beyond recently. I’m surprised you are aware of the term Nether but do you think this matters? The fact that you’ve had to rely on the devasting power of my gift just proves-”

What the hell are you saying…? Relying on Touch from Beyond…? How long has it been since I had that version of the Skill...

“You truly know nothing.” Randidly said slowly. His stomach felt… odd as he considered the Creature. Yet he didn’t wait any longer, instead proceeding directly forward toward the Creature. “You… you probably don’t even understand how much trouble your true body is in.”

This was a calculated gamble on Randidly’s part, but he wanted to confirm something. Or maybe he wanted to shift the conversation so the Creature would stop just seeming so… so...

Thankfully, the Creature took the bait, even as it lowered herself into a fighting stance. “Hmph, do you think I would fall for such an obvious bluff? I can sense plenty from the core of my existence. And if you are capable enough with Nether, then I will just beat you into submission the old fashioned way. Then we can have a nice chat about how we will proceed”

The Creature blurred forward. It was quite fast… but not so fast that Randidly couldn’t keep up. No, in fact, it was quite easy to keep up. The acceleration the Creature displayed was fine, but its top-end speed was relatively bland.

It was… disappointing. What Randidly felt in his stomach was disappointment.

No, this was a test that Randidly was designed to have triggered long, long ago. The strength of this shade made that immediately obvious. But Randidly wasn’t going to let go of this opportunity to suppress even a fraction of the Creature’s consciousness just due to a lucky break on his part.

Chimeric Avoidance. Nether’s Caress.

With almost the same series of hyper quick steps and sways that he used against the guardians to get here, Randidly maneuvered around the Creature’s vicious slash and twisted to strike at her back. As he did so, he gathered all that dense and available Nether in the air to create a blade in his hand.

The Creature spun around to block the descending blow with its arm, but it was still forced several steps backward by the clash. And Randidly didn’t miss the way that Lyra’s slender arm began to smoke and sizzle as Nether ate into the image the constituted this sliver of the Creature.

You idiot, I fought as an image for too long to not know how difficult it is. Randidly thought almost sadly. Why are you… why is it like this…?

As the Creature righted itself, Randidly raised his arm and pulled even harder at the surrounding Nether, causing his Nether’s Caress Skill to hum with the pressure of controlling so much Nether. It simply took far too long to this version of the Creature to recover its footing. It was… pathetic.

The blade in Randidly’s hand grew from a dagger to a long sword, then to a greatsword, and then to a towering pillar of dense and volatile Nether. His hand tightened, gripping the Nether blade and burning his skin in an attempt to inject a sense of reality to this almost surreal experience. Yet even with the pain, nothing changed. A small and impotent Creature in the form of Lyra still miserably looked upward at the blade that Randidly had conjured.

Time to fucking end this farce. What the hell is going on…?

Congratulation! Your Skill Nether’s Caress (M) has grown to Level 113!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether’s Caress (M) has grown to Level 114!

Randidly felt an empty echo of enjoyment watching the projection of the Creature in front of him pale, but it was ultimately made completely unsatisfying by its low mutter. “How…?”

Randidly slashed downward, sending vast reverberations through the surrounding Nether. The Creature dodged to the side, but Randidly maintained his grip on the huge pillar of Nether and slashed again. And again. His arm continued to accelerate as Yyrwood Body of Yggdrasil and Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality merged together to urge him to impossible speeds.

When he finally caught it with a glancing blow, the Creature couldn’t help but reel backward. One of Lyra’s arms had been burned away by the Nether. The image of her flesh around the shoulder began to corrode from the dense Nether.

Yet the reason why Randidly didn’t follow up with another attack to shatter the projection in front of him was that the Creature began to laugh. “Do you think that your strength changes anything…? You can kill me if you want… it doesn’t matter. I’ve already accomplished my goal by being here…”

The Creature its one remaining arm and gestured to the dais on which Azriel now was lying. “You have two choices now that the ritual is activated. Accept this power which I give you… or release all the Nether and drown your Soulskill in it.”