After they finished discussing the particulars of the Hierarchy of Burden’s usage and before Randidly allowed Seeker Thunder Wing to make several sketches of his Fatepiece, he shifted the topics. “I actually have another issue to ask you about. Do you know if it’s possible… to buy planets from the Nexus?”

“Hmm?” Seeker Thunder Wing dragged his eyes away from the Hierarchy of Burden and looked at Randidly. Then he chuckled. “Based on the expression on your face, you are overthinking this. Buying a planet? Ha! Remember, the Nexus only begrudgingly distributes energy to most planets. If you take a few off their hands, they’d be delighted.”

“Even if those planets have produced active Nemesai that are helping with the most recent Cohort?” Randidly persisted.

Again, Seeker Thunder Wing chuckled. But this time his expression twisted into something much more sinister. “Do you think that matters at all? And between you, the Head Drill Sergeant in an emergency draft and a minuscule and replaceable Nemesai, which do you think the Nexus would rather keep happy? Even worse… in the end, the Nexus would gratefully break its promise regarding energy and use you as an excuse. The under-clerk in charge of that sector would give his stamp of approval without thinking twice.

“If there is one thing that the Nexus doesn’t lack, it is worlds with intelligent life. There are many twisted individuals that relieve their stress by going into some of the stored Dungeons, ones currently unattached to a new Cohort, and just slaughter every unfortunate being they find. No one bothers to investigate such genocides when they are discovered, they just select another Dungeon to use. That’s the sort of place the Nexus is.”

To that, Randidly had no answer. But it was a powerful reminder of why he struggled so hard to gain power enough to protect Expira.

Seeker Thunder Wing eventually left with a glowing expression of euphoria at handling such an integral piece of Nexus history and Randidly retrieved his Fatepiece. For now, he intended to wait before he activated the red electromagnetic layer. Figuring out how to fight effectively with his new balance was more important, especially considering that he had to duel against Seeker Dusk Jackal in five days.

But just as he was readying himself to seek out one of the Frost Matriarch’s assistants, a familiar feeling rose in his chest: the heavy machinery of the Eidolon Crucible was activating. A gleeful smile covered Randidly’s face. Heh, I’ve had five years of refinement and you’ve only had four or so months go by. This should be fun…

Randidly’s vision turned blurry and he floated down into a dreamlike state. The unfortunate and awkward state of his body was completely abandoned; here, as just a manifested will, Randidly was near-unstoppable.

Congratulations! Your Skill Reign of the Eidolon Crucible (L) has grown to Level 280!

Influence +9!

Congratulations! Your Skill Reign of the Eidolon Crucible (L) has grown to Level 281!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Reign of the Eidolon Crucible (L) has grown to Level 311!

Influence +13!

When Randidly awoke from the experience, he swore viciously and raised his hands to press against his throbbing temples. “What the hell was that?!?!”

For the first time since he had obtained the Eidolon Crucible Skill, Randidly Ghosthound had almost lost to the people of Kharon in a battle of wills. Even now his mind was murky and exhausted from the extended battle. And this happened with the benefit of his new, obscenely dense Nether Core. Something had clearly happened on Expira. With but a thought, Randidly slipped into his Alpha Cosmos.

Randidly’s current interactions with Expira were unfortunately complex. Since affixing his Nether Core to the deepest portion of the Kharon Academy Labyrinth, Expira had become protected from the eyes of the System by becoming part of his bubble. The details of the arrangement were confusing to Randidly, but essentially he and the Alpha Cosmos could swap positions as the bubble around Expira. So when Randidly was out in the Nexus, the only way for a foreign force to travel to Expira was through his body. Even he couldn’t use his Philosopher’s Key to directly portal to Expira any longer. When he was within the Alpha Cosmos, the Alpha Cosmos became the bubble, and theoretically, something could then make it to Expira.

But only if that outside force managed to make it to the Alpha Cosmos.

For Randidly’s purposes, it just meant that the only way to get to Expira now was to go into the Alpha Cosmos first and then use his Philosopher’s Key. However, no sooner had Randidly appeared inside the Alpha Cosmos than he sensed Lucretia’s awareness lock onto him. He was standing next to a gurgling stream and a second later, Lucretia’s ghostly manifestation wandered out of a nearby treeline and made a beeline toward him.

The long-time presence in Randidly’s Soulskill and the former Karma Witch of Tellus studied Randidly critically for several seconds and then smiled. “Look at you, fully grown and self-contained. Thank god you are alright; it’s been so long since I’ve heard from you. When the temporal distortions arrived and the influence of the Pantheon expanded without any word from you, we feared… well. Considering your history of making insidious enemies…”

Randidly couldn’t help but chuckle, but then his expression quickly shifted back to one of the utmost severity. “What do you mean, the Pantheon’s influence expanded? And temporal distortions?”

Lucretia tilted her head to the side and her lilac hair swung for a brief moment across her face. “You didn’t know about this? Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Even I only realized the core of Nether energy on Expira was responsible for both after several years of studying the phenomenon. I believe that energy node is weaving Expira and your Alpha Cosmos closely together-”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Randidly held up a hand. Lucretia nodded and fell silent, allowing Randidly to turn his focus inward toward his Nether Core. It truly was his core, only a thought away. When Randidly expanded his focus just from the churning Nether Core and its growing significance and to the wider situation around it… he started to have an inkling about what Lucretia was talking about.

Through those archways that appeared between Expira and the Alpha Cosmos, Randidly”s Nether had created thick, woven bands of Nether that had subtly bonded the two worlds within the greater bubble of Randidly’s energy.

Influence +14!

Randidly opened his eyes. “These temporal distortions… did they affect Expira or just the Alpha Cosmos?”

“Both,” Lucretia answered shortly. “As far as I can tell, the temporal distortions were done to keep the Nether and Aether in your body in balance while you were improving very quickly. So time was sped up in these two worlds to keep up with your physical shift since both were part of your person anyway. All in all… it has been about five years since you’ve been in the Alpha Cosmos. And at that time, you were only in here briefly to drop off that Nether Prophet that’s galavanting with the Frost Dragons. So another five years before that since you’ve been here and spoken to any one of us. About a month or two after you dropped after the Nether Gatekeeper is when the Pantheon gained control of Expira as well, although they’ve been very cautious about the changes they make to the established Class System.”

Randidly blinked several times. The first chunk of time for the Alpha Cosmos experienced was just me in the Shaft. Then after it was connected to Expira… what caused the time dilation the second time? When my stats jumped upward? Or was Lucretia’s guess right and it was when my body was balancing Aether and Nether?

Could me tearing apart portions of my flesh and regrowing it have some sort of symbolic significance…? Or was it the Grim Chimera somehow affecting these worlds when it remade my body against under Elhume’s shockwave…?

Randidly pursed his lips. “Two questions. How much time has passed for Expira then? And also, has there been any… disastrous weather occurrences? Dangerous monsters running loose? Damnit, has Expira experienced its first Calamity then?!?”

Lucretia shook her head. “Apparently there was a problem with the Calamity; you should talk to Alta about that. But Expira has gone through the second five year stretch with us. As for dangerous weather phenomenon… around a year ago, there was a disastrous earthquake that affected both worlds. Thousands died: in some places, the ground just split open and devoured any buildings unfortunate enough to have been built there. But luckily the worst affected areas in both cases were sparsely populated. Also around that time… a new breed of monster appeared on not just Expira and the Alpha Cosmos, but all of the connected planets.”

Five years… well, that at least explains why the Eidolon Crucible was such a struggle, Randidly reflected. With the same five years of growth, just because there are so fucking many of them, I don’t have much of a margin for error…

But the fallout from Elhume happened a year ago for them? This… doesn’t really clarify the mechanism for the time dilation… when I do decide to evolve the Grim Chimera, will that cause a few years to go by…?

Lucretia continued speaking, appearing to not noticing Randidly’s distracted thoughts. “These new monsters are Level 99 and generally keep to themselves. They stake out hunting grounds and don’t make much trouble unless they are challenged. They come in all shapes in sizes, depending on the local monster populations, but there is one unifying feature: their names have ‘Chimera’ added to the end.”

Lucretia favored Randidly with a sardonic smile. “Your Expira’s Zone 11 popularized the common term for these Chimeras, although I believe most people in the Alpha Cosmos and other worlds attached through Danger Zones say it without truly understanding it. They are called… ‘end game content’.”

Reaching up with his cool metal fingers, Randidly pinched the bridge of his nose. So this is the equivalent of me growing a tail, huh Grim Chimera…?

They chatted about the specifics of the deadly earthquake, which caused Randidly’s heart to squeeze with guilt, then Randidly nodded and pulled out his Philosopher's Key to seek out Alta. As he did so, he froze; due to his perturbed mood during the conversation, his forest green tail had unraveled itself from his waist and began flicking fitfully back and forth. Lucretia’s gaze had locked onto the tail and her eyes sparkled.

Randidly coughed and opened a portal, intently controlling the tail to wrap itself around his waist once more.

He found Alta quickly. Her gaze on him had changed to more resigned and serious; most of the furious heat that had been Alta’s trademark during her life had steadily dimmed over ten years as a minor god, Randidly supposed. Unlike Lucretia, Alta wasn’t quite so investigatory in her pursuits.

“We don’t really know why the problem occurred,” Alta shrugged. “When your Nether Core appeared in Expira, it cut off the overlay System completely, but also weirdly blocked portions of the base System; Lucretia says its because a portion of the main System utilizes Nether as its medium and your Core now supersedes that. So the Calamity didn’t come and the Nexus Ways no longer work. And also- huh?”

Alta blinked. Her brow furrowed. “Ah… Randidly… do you have a tail now?”

Randidly’s mouth twitched. His traitorous tail had sneakily unraveled itself once again and even expanded to its full length while he had been listening to Alta speak. He decided that it would be petty to deny it at this point, so Randidly nodded jerkily like his neck was rusted stiff.

To his shock, Alta's lips twitched into an expression quite reminiscent of a smile. Then she coughed into her hand. "How... interesting."