They had purposefully designed this training ground out of sandstone, but still the stone was smoking and cracked. Alana filled the surrounding area with orange fire, pushing past her previous limits. Her focus slid amongst the tongues of flame, carefully sharpening and enhancing the image. In the aftermath of Randidly Ghosthound’s clash against Earth’s foe, Alana had not been able to keep still. She positively blazed with passion.

The next time this world needs that amount of strength in order to survive, Alana swore to herself. I must rise to the challenge. I’ve lived in Randidly’s shadow for far too long… This planet doesn’t always need him to be its hero.

So Alana threw herself into training. In terms of ‘heat’, the recent events pushed her imagination into overdrive. The heat continued to steadily rise, the orange stone around her barely able to withstand the high temperatures she was releasing.

When she could no longer find areas to improve in her flames, Alana picked up a spear and began to smoothly move through different attack styles. Then she shifted to more defensive spear work. Each movement was one that she had performed thousands of times. That was Alana’s strength. The slow accumulation of repetition. In terms of dedication, she had almost no equal.

It was only a matter of time before that accumulation became true power. And with the current motivation in her chest, her previous pace would soon be obliterated. Her direction was set.

For now, Alana satisfied herself after several hours. Because she felt Wivanya sitting outside of the training room, radiating impatience, she eventually wrapped up her practice and calmed her soul down. Only when she was perfectly at peace did she walk across the semi-melted sandstone and open the door, frowning at Wivanya. “Is something the matter?”

“We just received word that the Order Ducis is hosting a duos combat tournament in order to distribute the Runic Tablet,” Wivanya said quickly. Her sinuous neck undulated as she talked, revealing her excitement. “This is the chance that we, the Frost Dragon Brood, have been waiting for. You and I must participate and win this tournament.”

Alana considered that piece of news. A tournament certainly would make the current undercurrent of political struggles much more manageable. Rather than the Zones beginning to plot against each other, they would throw all their effort into preparing for the tournament.

Mostly, Alana’s response was a strange sense of curiosity toward what happened in Randidly’s fight that would push him in this direction. It was definitely out of character for him to intervene now after setting up the whole chaotic rush for the Runic Tablet. Hopefully, it was proof that he was maturing under the heavy weight of the world’s expectations.

That thought made Alana shiver; she couldn’t imagine the sort of pressure that Randidly had to endure. But the fact that he continued to endure it alone was the reason that the fires in her heart burned so brightly. That determination once more flared to life. Alana was strongly tempted to turn right around and walk back into the training area.

Still, her Willpower was currently depleted after her training session. So Alana calmed herself down and looked at Wivanya. “So, if we participate and seize victory, do you know what you want to name the Earth? We shouldn’t compete unless we have a distinct goal in mind. Preparation is key.”

“Of course I have a name,” Wivanya snorted out two blasts of chilled air. “There is only one appropriate name, considering who the savior of Earth is. We shall rename the planet… Ghostworld.”

Alana blinked.

“It’s a play on words,” Wivanya said smugly. Her tail flicked back and forth. “It’s like Ghosthound, but an entire world. Only in this manner will the glory of the Ghosthound be preserved for all time. Ghostworld… doesn’t it have such a nice ring to it?”

Alana could only shake her head at the single-mindedness of the Frost Dragons.

And then she giggled as she pictured Randidly’s expression if they ended up winning the tournament and choosing that name.

*****

Randidly, Tatiana, Wolfram, and the ogre assistants heatedly discussed Kharon Academy for almost six hours. By the end of the time, Randidly had to admit that he hadn’t worked out all of the details of the administration yet, as most of his focus had been on the design and structure of the Academy. It was clear from Tatiana’s expression what she thought of his prioritization skills, but she had agreed that he didn’t need the details yet.

The changes to the governmental structure and the construction of the agricultural and residential floating islands would take quite a bit of focus of their own. For now, Kharon’s government would throw itself behind these relatively simpler projects until Randidly had some more concrete thoughts on how Kharon Academy would function.

Which meant Randidly was left alone once more. Almost immediately, Randidly produced the Philosopher’s Key and created a connection across the world to the hideout that Ace had been using. He had put this task off for long enough.

Although he was given a stay of execution for the problems passed up to him by Tatiana, that didn’t mean Randidly wasn’t busy. If anything, he felt overwhelmed by the things that he had to accomplish before he left the Earth.

The act of choosing between them was almost as exhausting as the fight against Kaan Swacc had been. Almost.

At the beginning of the fight with Kaan, Randidly had abruptly became aware of the influence he had on the people around him, even when he tried not to have an influence. That sticky sort of connection was just bred into human behavior. Randidly could ignore the people around him, but considering his accomplishments, they wouldn’t ignore him. Even if he hid deeply, they would look for him in order to obtain an advantage, expending valuable time and energy in the attempt.

So it was better for him to act openly, revealing his intentions. He should manifest his desires in a clear manner. And now that Randidly considered the problem, he thought of a lot of changes he wanted for Earth. Once again, he found the list of tasks in front of him growing. As he understood his influence, he recognized the proliferating number of methods he could use to accomplish his goals. It was honestly intimidating.

But at least now, these were tasks he wanted to accomplish. They were no longer just things that he felt were necessary.

That small shift drove him forward. So now, he went to the hideout of Ace and quickly located Yystrix’s memories that had been previously stolen. Or rather, that Yystrix allowed to be stolen as one last annoying stunt from a confusing and complicated individual. But at this point, Randidly couldn’t hold it against her; she was dead and would have no more playfulness in her life.

Forgiving the dead was easier, somehow.

Ace… Randidly frowned as he strode through the dimly lit caves and arrived at Ace’s own quarters. Rather than a human dwelling, it truly resembled the domicile of a monster. He had an amalgamation of straw, crumpled shirts, and folded cardboard as a large nest-like resting area. Several monster corpses were hanging against the wall, likely draining of blood so Ace could cook the meat later. But most disturbingly, the corpses had been hung above a basin to catch the blood. By this point, the whole area was thick with flies.

Yet Randidly’s Grim Intuition continued with its disturbing competency as he glanced over at the area. There were cracked remnants of dried blood in the shape of lips at the one end of the basin.

Shaking his head in disgust, Randidly forced himself not to reflect too deeply on what he was seeing and walked to the corner of the room. There he found a square tile with a symbol that looked vaguely like four fleur de lis spreading outward from a central point. As soon as Randidly reached out and touched the tile, he felt the presence of Yystrix’s memories.

Holding it in his hand, Randidly released a breath. This was the last unstable element present on Earth. Now that he had obtained it, he felt part of himself relax. Well, there is also the blood egg… but I currently am holding it and will investigate how dangerous it is before I leave. Despite what Ace said in the dream projection… if that creation of his turns out to be dangerous, I’ll crush it without remorse.

The one thing humans have no trouble creating is more weapons...

Then Randidly took another glance around. The place was disgusting, but not dangerous; it was clear that Ezekiel had used that brief period of time where Randidly hadn’t pursued immediately to come back and clear things out.

His connection to his father was something that Randidly knew he should address. But now didn’t seem like the right time for it.

A blast of the Tug of Tragic Silence annihilated the flies in the room. Suddenly the cave dwelling was very, very quiet. So Randidly pushed his Grim Intuition into the memories cautiously, very aware of the fact that even now, several days after the fight, his mental energy was still recovering. Truly, he had pushed himself too hard against Kaan Swacc. The simultaneous activation of three images and Skills left him drained.

So if there was a trap within the memories, Randidly was perhaps more vulnerable now than he usually would be. The only reason he took the risk was due to the fact that Ace had exposed himself to the memories and only made himself deranged as a result. That didn’t seem like the sort of trap that Yystrix would lay.

In another way, perhaps the gamble was a bit based on faith and trust toward Yystrix’s promise: no more tricks. These memories were genuinely something that she wanted Randidly to possess.

When his perception entered into the memories, Randidly immediately felt the oppressive wave of rejection that Ace must have exposed himself to repeatedly. Gradually, Randidly began to frown as the pressure intensified; no wonder the man had looked like shit toward the end. But then a few seconds later, something clicked and the pressure folded in on itself. Randidly found himself floating on a small piece of rock with a brilliant starfield glittering around him.

Above him wasn’t a milky way that he recognized, but a golden sunburst of cosmic radiation and brilliant stars. In front of him on the piece of rock was a small card and a button with the play symbol on it. Randidly first picked up the card.

I want to give you some context, but not all of my secrets. So I’ve taken a page out of your human’s book and created a movie. I hope you enjoy.

P.S. You will likely need to be at least as strong as I am, in terms of images and Engravings, before you can crack open all of my memories. So if my directorial abilities leave you unsatisfied, work hard.

-Yystrix

Randidly chewed on his lip and lightly brushed his fingers against the button in front of him. Immediately, he could sense the images and memories that Yystrix wanted to show him folding inward to form a tunnel. The golden starfield began to warp and spin, opening up a circular space directly above him.

He couldn’t tell how long the memories would last, but it was clear that it wouldn’t be something he could easily peruse, as Randidly had hoped. So for now, he lifted his fingers off of the button, took away the tile, and then opened a portal to another location. The movie wasn’t going anywhere, and there was always more to do.