Randidly spent almost an entire day within Yggdrasil, carefully going over the minute details of his image. He had already made preparations for this process unknowingly when he had begun making a push to spread his image out to include an environment. The ambiance of Yggdrasil had been steadily developing. He had generated a whole ecosystem around the world tree and now he could walk through it, sharpening the details and the realism of the birds, plants, and predators.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 419!

The shifting shadows from the wide branches of the world tree, the powerful natural archways in spots where Yggdrasil’s roots broke up through the surface, and the serene glades where rainwater pooled beneath the world tree… Randidly wandered through all these places and observed his own image. Occasionally he would stop, focusing his efforts to sharpen the details into a more cohesive whole.

He moved slowly, savoring the feeling of the warm and moist ground beneath his feet as much as he was spending time working. Sometimes he would leave strange idiosyncrasies and instead just adjusted the colors of the environment. He delighted in the immersion and indulged that feeling. Because his own emotions toward his images mattered. Especially for the nurturing Yggdrasil, Randidly released waves of happy contentment into the surroundings that steadily influenced the image.

The colors grew brighter. The flowers spread their petals wider. The distant sky was warm and wholesome.

Gradually, Randidly could feel the image shifting in tiny ways. The distant adjustment of pieces brought something more profound into alignment. There would be no grand transformation from this sort of work, but Randidly reinforced his foundation and deepened his understanding of himself by taking his time with this task.

The next time he attempted to combine all three of his images, it would be that much simpler to keep them in balance. The base of Yggdrasil had widened.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Inscrutable Mien of Genesis (M) has grown to Level 343!

But eventually, Randidly felt a headache growing; even his powerful mind was nearing exhaustion. Likely, the fact that he could continue so long was already a marvel to the average Nexus citizen. No wonder they utilized supplemental Aether mechanisms to ease the difficulty of the process.

Randidly could only smile wryly and sigh, exiting the image projection. The warmth of the sun and the ground vanished; Randidly had returned to floating in the empty shaft. The aura of positive emotions he had accumulated began to dissipate.

Several of the Nether Gatekeepers below him were surreptitiously peaking up toward Randidly, likely disturbed by the image projection. But Randidly ignored them for now and rubbed the bridge of his nose. I’m actually surprised how solid Yggdrasil suddenly feels now; that sort of minute refinement definitely makes the image combination process more manageable. But damn, if even I’m exhausted from that effort, with my Intelligence, Wisdom, Focus, and Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae all above 1000…

These fucking so-called Sculptors are masochists.

Randidly huffed out a breath and shook himself. Then he produced his Hierarchy of Burden and moved to the 2nd level of the electromagnetic drag. Instantly, his body began to twitch and tremble. But after a few minutes, those side effects diminished; Randidly’s body was somewhat used to this amount of electricity.

Then he produced Acri and began practicing Ripple of Amenonuhoko with the Fatepiece active. He wasn’t trying to be exceptionally controlled, but simply practiced corralling all of that potent natural energy while his body was less than cooperative.

Honestly, the combination was horrible. Randidly could barely display a fraction of the true power of the spearmanship while he was enduring the Fatepiece’s sympathetic bond. The electromagnetic discharge was almost a direct counter to the extremely fastidious requirements of Ripple. He hemorrhaged his carefully gathered natural energy with every out of alignment thrust.

But Acri was pleased just to be able to train and the struggle-filled practice was still quite useful. Gradually, Randidly learned the ins and outs of his muscular system and how to take advantage of actions that didn’t require as much fine control. At the very least, he could still display an acceptable percentage of his usual power.

This training wouldn’t improve the graceful pinnacle of what Ripple of Amenonuhoko could accomplish, but his baseline understanding of the Skill improved. Just witnessing himself accidentally dispersing his natural energy with a poorly timed twitch was a useful experience. Repeated failure could define the exact limits of success in a way that repeated accomplishments could not.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Impunity (M) has grown to Level 401!

Randidly couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the Skill Level notification. Ha, even after three hours of training, I didn’t manage to earn even a single Skill Level for Ripple of Amenonuhoko. Even if I’m becoming more familiar with it, the System clearly takes a dim view of this sort of Sisyphean practice.

So Randidly shook himself again, deactivated the Fatepiece, stored away Acri, and expanded his Willpower to create an image projection once more.

He initially recreated the Grim Chimera with the intent to work more on the environment around it, but hesitated after he observed the familiar figure in front of him. In terms of environment… Randidly wanted to create a home for the Grim Chimera. To make that as concrete as possible, he wanted to have a strong, certain understand to use as the base.

Randidly showed his teeth to the streamlined violence of the Grim Chimera’s form. ...which probably means that I should start gathering more planets into the Alpha Cosmos before I refine the Grim Chimera… that real home will become its backdrop…

Also, since they exist… I should investigate these Chimeras that are popping up…

For now, Randidly set those thoughts to the side. Instead, he shifted his focus to his final image: the Stillborn Phoenix.

If anything, the shaft darkened as he manifested his third and greediest image. The small amount of ambient light began to swirl and spin like sink water above a drain. An implacable and absolute darkness manifested in front of Randidly, surrounded by a swirling nebula of melting light and emotions that couldn’t escape the grip of the egg of depression.

The image itself was a study of absence. The most domineering core was simply nothing. Only by viewing the steady stream of other matter being devoured could Randidly see the shape of his image.

Randidly was slightly surprised to notice that the image was definitely growing. He could feel the tugs of the image on his body as he stood before the image. Apparently, the emotional diet was spurring expansion.

A short crackle of electricity sparked out in the draining nebula as a batch of violent emotions flared up in an attempt to escape their fate. But those struggles proved useless; the Stillborn Phoenix greedily sucked in the emotion’s struggles and then continued to reel the emotion itself into its maw.

Randidly stared at the feasting image for several seconds, quite at a loss over how to proceed. The Stillborn Phoenix’s area of influence steadily grew, gathering more and more ambient Nether and emotion into a swirling vortex. Randidly carefully began adjusting the details of its manifestation in the world. He roughed up the edges and injected overwhelming feelings of need into the Stillborn Phoenix’s depths.

But Randidly’s face quickly settled into a frown. Lightning cracked again as another batch of emotions tried to resist the Stillborn Phoenix’s pull and failed. Randidly was struggling with what to do next when the lighting sparked for a third time.

Then Randidly blinked. A few seconds later, a wide grin spread across his face.

“I knew when I made the image of the Stillborn Phoenix that it would be the most obtuse of my images…” Randidly said to the empty space. “Especially because there was a fatal flaw at the core of the image: I was creating something I couldn’t see because it couldn’t exist, but was somehow manifesting anyway. Which left me with the problem of figuring out the proper way to evidence an overwhelming existence that shouldn’t be…”

Randidly flicked his wrist and produced his Hierarchy of Burden. His emerald eyes began to glow as he looked at his Fatepiece. “...but isn’t that what an image is? Something that shouldn’t exist but does? And now I possess an answer key; I have an ancient tool to absorb the deadly drag created by a powerful image. It will take some time, but as long as I proceed through this Fatepiece and reproduce the details in the image…”

The core of the Stillborn Phoenix will steadily become more concrete.

Randidly looked up sharply. His senses flowed out to his image and he began making minute adjustments. The center of the Stillborn Phoenix was the concept of an egg within a black hole. But it was immeasurable depth laying across substance. Randidly adjusted the energy field in the surroundings so that the ‘positive’ substance started reacting to the ‘negative’ absence of the image.

Bolts of black lightning flickered briefly around the edges of the event horizon, but the sound was devoured by the Stillborn Phoenix. So suddenly it seemed like the Egg of Depression was spreading out disjointed and sharp black tentacles to try and seize the surrounding space.

As Randidly continued to adjust his image, the sense of rejection from reality grew. The silent black lightning grew more intense. The influence of the Stillborn Phoenix grew more powerful. Randidly licked his lips and continued to work.

*****

Sam sat cross-legged on the dirt floor, rubbing the back of his neck. After several months of meticulous resource gathering, several weeks of preparations, and three days of work, his latest project was finished. In the fading evening light, a cloak of brilliant golden feathers glittered as it lay across a mundane wooden coat rack.

Sam sat and watched his creation with rapturous attention. In the distance, he could hear the sound of an intermittent splash and the persistent rustle of the wind. In the sky, the sun slowly sank toward the horizon.

At dusk, all the light seemed to vanish from the cloak. The dark feathers hung heavily on the cloak, no longer able to hide the mass of their existence with golden light. Sam knew from his experience in the last week that the final product would be incredibly heavy; each feather was as long as his forearm and heavier than an adult man. In total, the cloak weighed as much as an industrial dump truck.

To the current humanity, that was still within acceptable limits. But Sam knew that this product would have a limited appeal at Kharon’s Auction. Still, he attempted to fulfill his vision, if only to break past the limit of VII.

When the sun had completely sunk below the horizon, the feathers lightened again. But this time, they glowed luminously silver. Sam allowed himself a flinty smile. He stood and pressed his hand against a feather, testing its sharp edge and bringing up its attributes.

But what he saw filled him with disappointment. “Another failure, huh…”