“Deal,” Randidly hissed. Velio Dunn just stared at him with a physical intensity in his dark eyes, like a man about to die of thirst who had just stumbled upon an oasis. And now he couldn’t decide whether he was going to throw himself in head first or approach slowly to savor the experience.

I got careless. Randidly gritted his teeth so hard his jaw began to ache. He twisted back forward; he didn’t dare look away from his Nether away. He couldn’t, not really. His whole body shuddered in agony and anxiety as the forces of significance within himself tried to wrangle the energy in front of him.

Randidly’s abdominal muscles tightened. He forcefully suppressed the urge to turn and look at Velio again. There was something profounding humiliating about being forced to endure the agony of absorbing a planet in front of this fucked up hitman… and it was made even worse by the fact the man was obviously enjoying the strained show.

A brief tremor ran through Randidly’s body, causing a very small flaw to emerge within the Nether Array that was dragging Tellus into his body. A burning line of agony forked sideways across his torso. One of his ribs popped underneath the pressure. He could feel his tight abs fray at the edges as he tried to keep himself stabilized.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 369!

... I don’t have the spare attention for you right now… Randidly hissed and shut out Velio Dunn and Claudette and everything else. It made him even more vulnerable to a sneak attack… but Randidly had endured a blow from Velio in the past. With the improvements he had made since then, he was confident that he could survive a strike.

Besides, Velio might have complained that most people he challenged too quickly, but that was because he was overwhelmingly powerful. Randidly truly believed that man to be one that would decide to savor the approach before quenching his thirst.

The only question is… what exactly does he crave so deeply…? But the distraction caused another twisting pulse of pressure to run through the array. Randidly shook himself and redirected his attention to the energy flowing outward from his Nether Core.

Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 389!

He threw every ounce of his Willpower into stabilizing the Nether array. With his tail flicking back and forth, the out-of-alignment support structure gradually smoothed. The prehensile appendage was the only part of himself that could move freely and it used that freedom to gracefully spin out thick strands of Nether. When the horrible grinding pressure of the process had the rest of his body tense and sweating, his tail brought the Nether Array back on track.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 370!

Significance swirled around Randidly like he was a drain in the Nexus portion universe. He was sucking at the thin layer of Nether beneath the System, but an energy movement that significant began to drag Aether along with it. Meanwhile, inch by inch, the essence of Tellus poured into his body.

Influence +4!

Influence +4!

Influence +4!

…

Randidly couldn’t resist releasing a groan. For a brief second, Velio Dunn’s amused laughter distracted him and the Nether began to twist again, but his tail had somehow developed the equivalent of ‘balance’ in regards to utilizing Nether. No sooner had he lost his equilibrium than it acted and restored the proper framework. Randidly calmed his breathing and ignored how his exhales were coming out as steam. Nether roared through his veins, warming his muscles.

Randidly felt like he was a dog chew toy stuck in the maw of a tyrannosaurus rex. The moments of prolonged straining, desperately pulling without any shift in the Nether Array, were commoditized packets of hell that he had to simply withstand. And it was made even worse when a moment’s distraction lost him all the momentum he had built up within the array.

I… suppose I have no choice… He hated his weakness and the danger he put himself into, but Randidly ruthlessly shut off access to his physical senses. He floated in darkness, orienting himself by the complex flows of energy that he had created.

The Nether Array strained for several seconds and Randidly trembled… but then it gave the slightest bit. He tightened his grip on the Nether Array and pressed again.

He knew that Velio was probably saying something snarky and hypocritical, but he couldn’t acknowledge it. The margin for error right now was practically nonexistent. Partially because of the process… but also partially because the addition of Tellus to his Alpha Cosmos felt… different than the prior planets.

The significance that thundered into his body was wild and free, just like the spear-users that populated Tellus. Immediately, Randidly felt their resistance to being incorporated into the rotating current of energy within the Alpha Cosmos. The significance flowed freely… but there was friction as it incorporated itself within Randidly’s Nether that was the worst sort of mental indigestion. And this was just the start.

In those strained moments of hellish stillness, more and more significance funneled down through Randidly’s Nether Array and crammed itself into him.

His body stiffened and his chest cavity was steadily collapsed underneath the mounting pressure of absorbing this planet. His breath hissed involuntarily through his teeth as his lungs were compressed. His muscles flexed, but he remained almost totally transfixed. The Nether Ritual heaved and thrummed, tension running up and down through the support structures.

Tellus barely budged.

He could hear the whispers of the planet’s significance. We do not need you, stranger. We can take care of ourselves. Such is the way.

Influence +5!

Influence +5!

…

Yet he could not dwell on how far he had yet to go. He could only force himself to ignore his weariness and continue working.

Randidly would have licked his lips if he could. Nether howled outward from his rotating Nether Core and crashed through his body. That Nether initiated a current that tugged on the Nether Array, urging the assimilation of Tellus. But this was not a planet that had been left to cool for a long time. Even though most of modern Tellus’ history was the slog through the Second Calamity, the spear-users had not bowed their head even when a large portion of the population wasted away without enough access to Aether. They were still growing, rebounding with triumph after Shal had finally broken the stasis of the planet.

His senses were blocked, but Randidly felt the emotions of the population below clearly. Tellus must also have experienced a fair amount of time dilation since he had last been there, because a decade seemed to have passed. The small sputtering emotions of infants and babies were everywhere. The planet was rebuilding and expanding from the huddled groups of survivors in the Central Region.

Aether flowed freely, partially due to the heavy donations Randidly had made to stabilize the situation on the planet. With the high ambient energy, new Styles were flourishing. To Randidly’s developed senses, the half-formed images were like clumps of mist clinging to the shadow of a sloping meadow. They were insubstantial and feeble, clinging to the dew cooled grass, yet they added a profound sense of wonder to the planet he was trying to absorb.

I’m one of you, Randidly responded. His Nether Array began to hum. The dark energy of connection and memory began to amplify his memories of that place. The struggles of the tournament, forcefully being made to acknowledge taking the lives of other, earning his first real subordinates… leaving, and then returning. Fighting against the Wights until Randidly had to bury hundreds of fellow spear-users along the backs of the Hallat River...

Within his Soulspace, the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night began to shine with a bright light. Thin threads of gleaming spider silk shot out of the Dreamcatcher and anchored themselves at different points of the Nether Ritual. Randidly was somewhat stunned that the Dreamcatcher activated in this way, but then he gripped those new anchors and pulled.

Space shuddered. Randidly could feel surprise from both Claudette and Velio Dunn as Tellus shifted a noticeable amount. A tremor ran through Randidly; that movement came with a commiserate stab of agonizing pressure at the base of his throat. Still, to have such a step forward, Randidly would gladly endure more pain than that.

His eyes blazing, Randidly tugged again. Now that he knew that the connections were stable, he did not hold back at all and pulled Tellus with every ounce of his being. Those memories continued to strengthen those glowing threads. Yet at the same time, more significance flowed into the Alpha Cosmos. A stifling sense of fullness and suffocation filled him. More and more significance forced itself down his throat.

This… because of everything I’ve done there… the accumulation of significance within me… I cannot fit- Randidly felt tears forming in the corners of his eyes. He had yanked Tellus to partially within him, aligning with his significance, but now he felt something… catch. And with a planet halfway absorbed-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 392!

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 393!

Something within Randidly’s carefully constructed Nether Array tore as physical sensations forcefully reasserted themselves within his body. He was tumbling through space, but the agony of feeling a planet expanding within his Crossroads of the Alpha Cosmos, before it was totally absorbed, meant that Randidly’s thoughts were a frantic mess.

But he did hear Velio Dunn laughing from above. “You can’t blame me for that! You were taking too long… you aren’t just allowed to stall out forever, Mr. Ghosthound~”

Randidly’s collarbone had cracked and flecks of bone had torn through the soft muscles of Randidly’s back, but as he was tumbling downward those wounds rapidly began to knit themselves back together. Velio Dunn had clearly not used even a scrap of an image in that strike, but still, Randidly felt good that he hadn’t been seriously injured by the cheap shot.

The gradual sting of him falling into Tellus’ atmosphere is what eventually woke him up and refocused his attention. Randidly’s tail had again been barely stabilizing the tattered remnants of his Nether Array, but even it couldn’t keep it up indefinitely. The complex spiral of physical and energy movements was gradually analyzed and sort by Randidly’s high Intelligence.

He whipped his arm around with enough force to briefly neutralize the gravity of Tellus and reached for the array again. The planet trembled, teetering between crashing back into its perch upon the Nexus Ways and sliding the rest of the way into Randidly’s mostly full Alpha Cosmos.

Randidly gripped… and blessedly enough portions of the array remained that everything didn’t unravel underneath the pressure. The reinforcements from the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night remained anchored. His memories pulsed. Significance was howling around Randidly as being that much closer to the physical planet meant that it could spiral up around his body and grip him.

Influence +6!

Influence +6!

...

Once more that state of tension spread through his muscles. His limbs rapidly grew rigid and he began falling toward the surface of Tellus. But to Randidly’s surprise, the pain within his body shifted to something entirely different. Rather than burning and grinding on its way into his body, the significance of Tellus seemed to be gripping Randidly’s Crossroads of the Alpha Cosmos… and forcing it wide open so the planet could roll forward.

Randidly groaned. The effect was good, but the experience-

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 371!

But the significance within the world was determined. There is a foe? Then let us fight and kill this transgressor. We shall teach them the power of a determined spear user.

RUMBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEE

There was another huge spatial quake. Randidly’s straining Willpower, with the significance of Tellus forcing the passage open, finally pulled the planet over that last hump. Then that significance became a battering ram of pressure that forced the planet the rest of the way forward. A shiver ran through his body and the planet in front of Randidly vanished.

Influence +7!

Influence +7!

…

Randidly’s expression was distorted as he hung in the empty space. I know I said I would experience pain to speed up the process, but uuuugggghhhh….

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 372!