“If there was any justice in the world,” Nrorce reclined on the chair, his gaze up on the stars. The goblin swirled his drink as he considered the dark sky. “You would be able to thrash that oblivious son of a bitch. He’s lucky to know a woman like you.”

Helen couldn’t help it; she giggled. The powerful mead brewed by Nrorce filled her with warmth, even though her Stats meant that the sense of intoxication never moved past a feeling of weightlessness. “Yea well, it’s been a long while since I could threaten him. And if you didn’t like Randidly, why did you bring him back to work on your farm?”

“Honestly? Because I thought that he would hate the work. Who would have thought that secretly he was a farming enthusiast?” The goblin man said with disgust, earning another laugh from Helen. But then Nrorce shook his head. “No, obviously I have nothing against your… talented friend. Just… I know from experience how idiotic men can be. How much we can miss because we are wrapped up in our own lives.”

For several long seconds, the two stopped speaking, simply looking up and admiring the glimmering diamonds in the sky above Nrorce’s planet. But soon, the beauty of the scene made Helen extremely exhausted in the silence. She might not like it but now was the time. They had danced around the topic for several days during their talks, but she felt her mouth moving to address it. “Nrorce-”

However, both of them straightened and looked toward the South gate before she could finish her question. They exchanged a glance, stored away the chairs and mead, and then hurried down to the South gate.

Spatial distortions were small, but the Engravings around the farm lit up and revealed someone was accessing the white lightning corridor.

When they arrived, Helen felt her heart drop out of her chest. Randidly was leaning heavily against Claudette Beigon, clearly having difficulty remaining conscious. His tail was limp at his waist and Acri was cooing in concern around its master’s arm. There were no wounds that Helen could see on his body, but she could immediately feel, even though he wore the image suppression gloves, that his aura was feeble.

“What the hell happened?” Helen snapped, immediately moving next to the two of them and taking Randidly’s weight from Claudette. Randidly was so out of it that he didn’t even struggle. Helen’s eyes were sharp as she looked at the other woman with suspicion.

Claudette shook her head vigorously and raised her hand, as though to show she didn’t have any weapons. “I- It was-”

But Randidly’s muttering silenced both of them. “...I had to get it, Helen. I got Tellus in the Alpha Cosmos. So… so if you want to visit home… I can finally… Shal...”

He trailed off and at the same time, Randidly’s body stiffened. The force of his involuntary grip on Helen’s shoulder was probably enough to leave a bruise, but she didn’t flinch as she felt some of her veins rupture. Helen felt a small spark of joy at the news Tellus was part of the Alpha Cosmos, but now wasn’t the time to focus on that. She gave Claudette Beigon another sharp glance, noticing the woman’s sundress, pristine blonde hair, and general look as though she was on holiday.

Claudette waved her empty hands. “We… we moved while the Swacc Family was supposed to be distracted by attacks on their other bases… we acknowledged it might be a trap, but Randidly insisted. And after we showed up at the planet that Randidly wanted… after he started doing… whatever it was he was doing, Velio Dunn showed up. Before Randidly had even finished the process, Velio ambushed him. And then-”

“They fought.” Helen finished. It wasn’t hard to extrapolate the rest from there. Whatever strange tension ran through Randidly abruptly relaxed and his bone grinding grip on her shoulder eased. She took the opportunity to move closer to him, sliding her arm around his waist and pressing her hipbone up against his.

Being so close to Randidly made Helen very aware of how large he was. His heartbeat thundered through every inch of him; she could feel it with any portion of her body that was against his. His limbs were long, almost too long, and as sleek his muscles seemed from afar, they were firm and radiating heat that soon had Helen sweating. Helen bit her lip and looked around at the worried face of Claudette. “I think… I think I can take him somewhere that he will be able to heal. But-”

Nrorce was suddenly there, his small eyes narrowed as he prodded Randidly’s chest. “Huh. Just giving him time to recover… will take a very, very long time. I recognize this; he’s been hit with a Mandate. It's an old Nexus punishment… But this fellow is sturdy, ain’t he? Most people have their Classes shattered by experiencing something like this. Heh. You weren’t kidding about how stubborn he was.”

Then Nrorce leaned back and looked up at Helen. “...but this sort of injury… Willpower isn’t enough. It depletes something vital from your Aether.”

The goblin trailed off, still staring up at Helen. His eyes were suspicious and helpless. She could read what he was asking in his narrowed eyes and the tilt of his head.

Is he worth it?

“...the reason that he was injured was due to me. Because I… couldn’t protect him during his work,” Claudette said. She put a hand over her collarbone. “I will pay any price in order to help him recover. I can acquire some medicine through my father’s connections-”

“What he needs is Aetherium.” Nrorce responded, not even bothering to look at Claudette. The blonde woman sucked in a breath. “If you can scrape that up… be my guest.”

“Aetherium…?” Helen asked. She moved Randidly’s arm across her shoulders and he obligingly slumped against her body. The closer he got to her, the more overwhelming his heat was. But despite his size, Helen’s physical Stats meant that he felt so, so very light in her arms.

Nrorce nodded slowly. “...essentially a chunk of raw meaning. Pure, perfect meaning. I believe that it is possible for certain individuals to refine it using several powerful images. But since I don’t think any of us can do something like that… right? So, we need to rely on the raw form-”

“It’s a byproduct…” Claudette whispered. “...of when someone takes the Path to the Pinnacle and fails. When their image shatters… the ‘good’ parts become chunks of Aetherium.”

Nrorce nodded slowly, the wrinkles on his face deepening. Then he turned away. “Follow me. Bring the kid. ...before I change my mind.”

*****

You have been made in my image. Work hard.

Randidly grimaced as the powerful image that clung to his psyche pulsed again, sending out a wave of power that pressed against everything that he was. At this point, he had totally lost sensation in his physical body. He could ground himself with his connection to the Alpha Cosmos and Nether Core, but that repeated burst of memory was steadily eroding Randidly’s sense of self. He could feel himself drifting, a plastic bottle bobbing across an endless sea of meaning.

Congratulations! Your Skill Lesser Aether Inoculation (M) has grown to Level 199!

Perhaps Randidly would have been able to resist the significance of this memory at his peak. But Randidly had gone through the absorption of Tellus and then the fight against Velio Dunn prior to being thrown into this situation. Both his images and his Nether Core had been pushed to their limits… and into that exhausted shell, this horrible image invaded.

Congratulations! Your Skill Lesser Aether Inoculation (M) has grown to Level 200!

Randidly didn’t even have the spare energy to examine the memory and look for extra meaning or identify when or where it was from. Randidly simply had to spin his three images together into a tighter and tighter mass, resisting the memory’s inexorable tide. His Class and Skills creaked and groaned underneath its influence. His Nether Core was hanging by a thread, unable to generate enough Nether to withstand its force.

You have been made in my image. Work hard.

The image pulsed again. A horrible ache ran through the core of Randidly Ghosthound. And at the same time, some part of him felt a powerful pang of embarrassment.

Was Velio Dunn seriously suppressing this inside of himself the entire time… and I was only able to fight him to a fucking draw!?!?

There were a few benefits to the agonizing process of resistance, however. As with all training, the difficulty made it an especially good experience. His three images were more tightly integrated than Randidly had ever managed to accomplish in the past; necessity had shoved them together. As a result, the previously diffuse power that Randidly usually wielded with them had been concentrated.

The only problem was how weak each individual image currently was in comparison to Velio Dunn…

Suddenly, a new pulse arrived and caused Randidly’s concentration to briefly slip. Because instead of the strange portrait of Elhume and Yystrix, the source was behind him, deeper within his Soulspace.

Randidly twisted his focus around and examined the new arrival. Compared to the domineering grip of the words of Elhume, this new memory/image was… warm. And almost loving. Its pulses that spread throughout Randidly weren’t trying to warp him in the same way as the first. He only hesitated for a split second before he dragged most of his remaining consciousness over to the gently undulating memory.

Randidly sank into it easily. And suddenly, all of the mental pain he had been enduring vanished. The change was so abrupt that Randidly sucked in a breath. His Nether Core stabilized and began churning out vast amounts of thick Nether that could swirl around his person. His images could lick their wounds and Yggdrasil released a pulse of healing aura through all three of them. Rapidly, they began to recover. Randidly’s foggy awareness cleared, giving him time to look around.

Underneath the continued influence of the Elhume memory, Randidly could sense this warm image slowly being worn down. It was being consumed to protect him. But at the same time, Randidly felt himself rapidly strengthening. There was something… so very real about the memory. Even just being inside of it gave Randidly a sense of peace.

In the memory, the sun on his skin was warm. He was standing on a grass-covered hill. At the base of the hill, there was a waist-height stone wall. And upon that stone wall, a small, blue-skinned goblin was spinning.

“Daddy daddy!” The young goblin called. She did a clumsy roll across the top of the stone wall and then popped back up to her feet. “What this! Shadow Daggers!”

The young goblin struck a pose. Liquid shadow flowed up from her shadow and into her hands, quickly forming into two daggers. When they had completely formed, she flailed wildly through the air, threatening to overbalance herself with her wild and aggressive movements.

A younger and kinder looking Nrorce chuckled as he walked on the dirt path along the wall. “Very impressive, Ivlin. Very cool. Promise you’ll protect daddy if any monsters show up.”