As Randidly was preparing to head back to Nrorce’s farm, he received an unexpected message from Commandant Wick.

Please consult me on your choice of dress for the Imperium Ball. I am an expert in these matters.

Randidly stared at the message for several long seconds. He wanted to laugh, but also somehow was too exasperated to do so. That tension built until he muttered out loud. “Does this man really want to interfere with this faerie tale romance to the point he wants to dress me up for a ball…?”

More than anything else, this stunk of Commandant Wick’s crushing desire to control and restrict. Even though this was but a side plot for the Commandant to create trouble for Don Beigon, he wanted to seize every detail.

For now, Randidly set the obnoxious issue of how he would dress for this ball aside. Instead, he picked up his guilt toward Nrorce and opened a portal with the Philosopher’s Key. When he stepped through to the waiting goblin world, Randidly’s stomach curdled further. Only a short time had passed, but the grass was increasingly brown and stiff. The clouds in the sky were grey and listless.

Aether was more than energy; it was image and emotion. With no Aether coming into this world… it was rapidly fading to a featureless rock.

Randidly hurried inside the farm after wrapping his hands with the familiar gloves. Of course, Randidly could already tell that the formation beneath the farm no longer functioned, so the Engraving sigils on the glove were cold and dull. He still took great care to suppress his own image reverberations and walked toward Nrorce’s house.

Helen was sitting on the stone steps in front of Nroce’s house and looked up as Randidly approached. But when she saw his expression, she shook her head slowly. “Nrorce… hasn’t yet left his inner chamber. That little… pah. Representatives from the other goblins are pounding on the doors constantly, but… he hasn’t moved. I wonder if we should consider it lucky that the doorbells don’t work any longer...”

Randidly’s heart cooled somewhat and he nodded slowly. “...he probably needs some more time to process this. That Aetherium… was precious. And since he took it out for me, I’ll handle the sort term issues of this planet.”

Randidly raised his eyes to the sky and released a low breath. Most of his attention had been on fine-tuning his Nether Core and images recently, but that didn’t mean that he lacked the ability to utilize Aether. Rather, it was safe to say that now that Randidly had his Nether Core, the lion’s share of the Aether-based capabilities shifted, rightfully, back over to Neveah. Her ability to utilize Aether was so intrinsic and graceful that Randidly gratefully could devote his energies to other pursuits.

Sensing his intent through the Soulbound, Neveah directed a huge wave of Aether out of the whirlpool of energy she maintained between them. All at once, Randidly skin was singing with the vibrant animation of shape and emotion upon which most of the Nexus was based. A plume of invisible power stretched upward before beginning to curl in a grand arc, spreading over the surrounding surface of the planet.

Motes of light glimmered briefly in the air, but just as quickly as it came it was gone, being absorbed by even the air.

The next wave of energy Randidly produced sank slowly into the surface of the ground and slowed the decay of the planet. Randidly’s features tightened as he sensed the state of the soil. Truly… how have things on this planet devolved so quickly…? With this little Aether in the surroundings… its a wonder that these people are still alive…

Randidly quickly directed a current down below the surface of the farm and into the Engraving there. He carefully avoided the main barrier around Nrorce’s farm, lest he activate it and give the goblin the wrong idea, but he did shuttle energy through the ancillary nodes, which distributed out through channels within the ground to various areas.

Again and again, he kept the current of Aether up, gushing out the pure, raw Aether into the environment. Gradually, he spread his reach across the whole planet, distributing the energy into currents that-

“Uh, Randidly…”

Helen’s words brought him back to himself and Randidly opened his eyes to a suddenly vibrant sky. Around them, the grass of the farm had risen by several inches and continued to creep outward as he watched. The fields were suddenly a chaotic riot of blooms. The orchards were swiftly expanding to become a dense jungle environment, filled with heavy hanging fruit. Farther away from the farm, the effects were more muted, but Randidly could feel the planet almost immediately respond to the energy he provided.

From beyond the farm’s wall, in a nearby refugee camp the goblins had erected, Randidly could hear the sounds of rejoicing.

He speechlessly spun on his heel and examined the surroundings. Is this the equivalent of a person on an extremely strict diet… suddenly re-introducing high-fructose corn syrup into their meals? Still, this sudden amount of growth seems extreme… Perhaps there was a mark left by the System’s image of growth that’s present? Even if the cells of this planet couldn’t grow then, it was indelibly marked. And now, my Aether triggered it...

Helen cleared her throat as she examined the surroundings becoming more unruly by the second. “Are we…?”

Randidly looked at her, wondering what she meant for several seconds. But then he remembered Nrorce’s frown and could only grimace. “...yea. We are going to need to trim everything back down to size. Preferably before he recovers and notices the difference.”

Helen stared fixedly at the continually lengthening grass in their surroundings “But since everything is mixed together anyway… the barrier around the farm is down, letting outside images in… If I just utilize my image to speed the process along-”

“Heh. Feel free to do as you wish,” Randidly’s mouth curled into a grin. As he turned away and strolled toward the tool shed, Helen watched his back uncertainly. If she was willing to draw the ire of Nrorce by flaunting her image inside of his farm, Randidly wouldn’t mind. Somehow, he doubted the Nrorce would be reasonable about it, no matter what the circumstances were. And since she was treated favorably by the goblin anyway, it was rightfully her job to absorb his negative emotions.

That would make Randidly’s conversation with the talented chef that much easier.

Unfortunately, Helen groaned and followed after him. The two picked up sickles and quickly got to work, sheering away the extra greenery that sprung up in the surroundings. The work was mindless and annoying, but the smooth and simple motions gave Randidly some time to come to terms with Expira fighting against the Calamity in his chest.

He had chosen this. He believed it was necessary for Expira to develop. He wanted to give the people of his home planet an easy life, but Neveah and Tatiana had made some good points on his previous visit; he could not handle everything alone. Randidly was confident in his resolve, but should he fail… should he be unable to change the Nexus, it was important that he set up the steps so that someone else could rise to the occasion.

Gradually, the planet grew used to the energy that Randidly was providing to it and no longer grew so explosively. Randidly and Helen cleaned up the farm and got rid of the extra greenery without having to rely on images. Without the gloves suppressing his physical passives in such a dangerous manner, it was actually pretty simple. Randidly just had to be careful not to move quickly enough to destroy anything.

As another day passed and Nrorce continued to remain in his inner room, Randidly distracted himself by introducing the concept of the Hierarchy of Burden to Helen. During their downtime between feeding the bears and the pheasants, they moved outside of the farm and gave her the chance to attempt the physical training.

Randidly found the sight of Helen clenching her fists and chattering her teeth quite amusing. Which, of course, only incensed Helen further as she struggled against the intermittent surges of crimson electricity through her body. After a few hours of practice, she could withstand three of the twenty levels of the electromagnetic barrier, but her temper compelled her to challenge Randidly anyway. To make it fair, Randidly activated the rest of the Fatepiece for himself, so he had the other seventeen layers of electricity.

“Fuck. You.” Helen hissed as she flexed her fingers and conjured the seeds of horror that swirled in the air around her. The tip of her spear jerked side to side and her stance was a mess; The electrical impulses made it difficult for her to control her muscles. But Randidly didn’t miss how poignant the details of her images were. Helen had truly been pouring herself into developing her image.

Of course, the specter of the Grey Creature floating behind Randidly shook his head sadly before accelerating forward at her robotic form. Randidly didn’t even move his physical body at all but attempted to imitate the vibrancy and solidity of Velio Dunn’s images during the beginning of their fight.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 447!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 264!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 265!

The claws of the Grey Creatures smashed against several of Helen’s Horror Seeds. Both combatants were largely immobilized, so the only effect was that Helen growled in challenge. The air around her darkened as she conjured more and more of her image.

Randidly pressed his lips together. She can forcefully suppress the electricity with her image… and her body managed to get acclimated to the third level so quickly… but ultimately, this is probably close to her limit in the short term. She simply doesn’t have my Stats...

He set that concern aside for now and mobilized the Grey Creature. The image launched itself forward into Helen Depths of Horror Domain. Fighting against her from afar, Randidly got to experience exactly how powerful Velio Dunn must have been to toy with him, just by relying on image projections.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 448!

Gradually, Helen’s image forced Randidly’s back as she forced herself to move and broke the stalemate between them with several clumsy stabs of her spear. In the end, the ungainly physical support was surprisingly powerful. Randidly furrowed his brow and mobilized every single point of his Willpower into his strikes to slow down her advance. The Grey Creature lashed out again and again, but the more organically it moved the more Randidly encountered movements or positions that were slightly outside of his understanding of the image. In those moments, the power weakened and Helen stumbled forward with a triumphant expression on her face.

Of course, those current failures were more bricks in the foundation of his image. But he also now had to face his subordinate's smirk.

“I’ve got you now-” Helen hissed, but as she stepped to within spear’s length from Randidly, he shamelessly increased her share of the Hierarchy of Burden to four portions from three. Instantly, her body began rigid. Only through the narrowing of her pupils did Randidly became aware of her incendiary fury.

After she had calmed down due to several hours of sparring without the Hierarchy of Burden, during which Randidly had unreservedly walloped Helen into submission using his vastly superior base Stats, they could finally refocus on other matters. Randidly forced himself to turn to a few messages that Tatiana had sent him recently, asking for advice on how Kharon could be guided. Sighing, he sent her a few basic tenants to follow.

Prepare for things to get worse. Take one task at a time. Always move forward.

Keep your promises.

Randidly spared a few casual moments for actually viewing the rising chaos on Expira as monster raids on civilized areas became more frequent, but he rapidly realized that his own training was sharply impacted by that attention.

He couldn’t watch. He had made the decision and planned on standing by it. He would check in and mourn or celebrate when it was over but until then-

Of course, what if it doesn’t end? The bleak thought popped into Randidly’s head and rusted his joints to stillness. What if… Expira won’t be able to withstand this decentralized Calamity?

Randidly’s gaze turned heavy; his eyes darkened from emerald to the peaty darkness of a swamp. Within his chest, the expression on the Grey Creature’s face grew ever more stark and strained.