Devick pressed her fists against her hips. She glared out the window at the unexpected phenomenon. “Now, what sort of fuckery is this? Of all days, not today! Can’t you come back tomorrow?!?”

She currently was staying in one of the finest guest suites on the Nether King’s Skyisland. She had slept like a baby, wrapped in the softest sheets she had ever encountered and lounging across almost twenty pillows. Yet when she woke up this morning, the horizon promised a gloomy future. In the face of her powerful glare, it didn’t even flinch.

Over the low hills around Malloon, the clouds had gathered and propped themselves up into an absolutely baleful approximation of a face. Huge, building-sized hollows in the cumulous cloud sketched a pair of gaunt eyes. As Devick watched, the massive rift in the side of the cloud opened in the approximation of a mouth. For thirty seconds, it expanded and expanded, the ‘jaws’ stretching to provide an opening almost as large as the rest of the cloud, revealing the fluffy lined throat within.

Then the cloud face began regurgitating a veritable waterfall of water vapor. The clouds along the horizon began to darken, almost poisoned by this cloud’s presence. The edges of the lips deformed, bulging underneath the flow it released.

Devick growled and leaned up against the window. “I will not forgive you for this, clouds. Should you continue to vex me, I will seek to end all weather. All evidence of its existence will be eliminated. I will claw your fickle power from the sky and break it over my knee. The air will be dead and empty, all water will flow from my hand or not at all. For a thousand generations, your existence will be suppressed, until clouds are forgotten and my legend is worshiped in your place.”

The cloud face remained blandly unimpressed by her tirade. Or perhaps it was shocked across time, triggering the initial widening of the mouth.

Biting her lip, Devick tried another tack. She was not above soft power when she needed to wield it. She batted her eyelashes. “Today’s my birthday. Please wait until tomorrow.”

Again, her words triggered no response from the clouds. Perhaps she had been foolish starting with the rage, Devick reflected. Due to the sky having seen the depths of her fury and her promised retribution, it would not now fall for a gentler approach. Pouting, Devick turned away from the window and wandered over to the breakfast table. She ravenously tore into an apple turnover, muttering to herself about how stubborn weather could be.

Beneath her feet, she felt the hum of the skyisland’s Engravings change; they would be descending to land in preparation for today’s match.

Devick went to the mirror and slapped her cheeks. She wet her fingers and dragged them through her long, crimson hair. For good luck, she cocked out a hip and aimed both pointer fingers at the reflection in a cool pose. “Alright. Let’s make a miracle.”

By the time she was dressed and left the hotel, the skyisland had landed on the ground. She used the side docking area so she wasn’t swept up in the throng of people trying to get into the skyisland. But she did pause and look at the thick queue of people waiting to attend the Hobfootie match.

Children sat on their parents' shoulders, pointing and screeching in glee at the buildings. Groups of older kids dashed after each other and wrestled next to the line, playing while their parents held their spots. And almost two-thirds of the attendees wore jerseys or special pins with various teams’ colors, with the Miracles overwhelmingly represented.

Devick grinned, pleased despite the relative unknowns that chatted so excitedly about her exploits. Yes, this much adoration is natural.

She had intended to move to one of the nearby hills and go through some last-minute physical training, just to get her blood pumping, but she was distracted by several large wooden crates laying on the ground near the special entrance. Spotting Jotem and the Patron of the Deep, Devick wandered over. “What’s all this then?”

“An exquisite gift. Likely an apology for so viciously attempting to have my nephew killed,” The Patron of the Deep spoke cheerfully. His eyes gleamed and his massive body trembled with obvious relish; apparently, an expensive gift such as this was enough to erase any hard feelings. He floated forward toward a box and pried off the top. From within, he removed a polished plank of hardwood. “Ah, simply look at this grain! The slight coloration is positively irreplaceable. Truly, with this-”

“The wood comes from Swacc. He claims it is a gift, but how can this be anything but a trap?” Jotem cut in with a scowl. “We should toss the lot of it into a bit and burn it.”

The Patron of the Deep sighed and spared his nephew a glance. “The Nether King has already examined the wood and found no spec of outside interference. Swacc has simply admitted to being an inferior player in the great game. You are simply bitter that the Nether King allowed me to do whatever I wish with this wood. Ah, I have such plans~”

The smaller, half-Origin Beast threw his hands up in the air. Devick hummed to herself and left.

In the end, both clouds and wood were minor matters. Her entire concern was to win the Hobfootie match in a positively domineering fashion. If she could bring honor to the Nether King, he would undoubtedly reward her.

*****

The crowd roared, dragging him back to the present. In front of him, the Hobfootie match was in full swing. Yet it only took a few seconds for his focus to swing.

Randidly shifted in his seat, glancing briefly to his left out the windows of the observation box. Even now, Bleak Sky’s horrid-looking cloud manifestations leered closer to Malloon. From the upper box of the stadium, Randidly could just see out past the edge of the stadium toward the horizon, where the city’s doom stalked closer.

The significance above Malloon continued to churn with increasing force. The tension rose and rose. It had gotten to the point that there was an invisible pressure leaning against them all, although it seemed obvious that few noticed it as distinctly as Randidly himself. Each rotation of his Nether Core seemed to press up against the interference of the world, creating some amount of friction. His usually smooth flow of Nether through his body was slowed by the strange environment.

Not a lot, but enough it put him on edge. Especially as time continued to pass and the effect only grew stronger. Randidly narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ghosthound’s Acute Nether Nose (M) has grown to Level 1041!

Despite the heavy Nether, no flames of conflict could yet be detected. It seemed that Nether King Bleak Sky was not yet prepared to attack the city. With a sigh, Randidly turned and looked down at the Hobfootie match. They were entering the final third of the match, as both the Miracles and the Iron Giants had lost several of their players and struggled to maintain their position on the field. At the moment, the Iron Giants held the lead, 67 to 59. They began playing more slowly, keeping control of the oblong ball and the crushers, attempting to lure out more of the Miracle’s players and eliminate them.

In the center area of the field, two individuals with crushers prowled about, waiting for the focus of any player to break. However, the center was Devick’s area. She glided at one of the crusher holders, unleashing a brutal series of heel kicks. The other crusher postured by raising his ball, trying to bluff her into retreating.

However, Devick had become a woman possessed and didn’t cease her attacks. The other player hesitated, unwilling to risk giving up both of the crushers. In that space, Devick slammed her elbow into her opponent’s gut and shattered his knee with a whipping low kick. In her wild and wickedly exact movements, Randidly could see the blooming power of her madness. She realized that Miracle’s had been pushed to the ropes early in the match by the Iron Giant’s offensive tactics, putting them immediately at a disadvantage. Since then, they had engaged in small skirmishes and gradually made up ground.

Small scratches, always making sure to come away with more flesh than she gave up.

Those gains came at the cost of the scoreboard deficit. And sensing the rising momentum of the Miracles, and the fact that Devick was visibly improving over the course of the match, improving at a rate that Randidly had seen in few individuals other than himself, the Iron Giants now intended to end this farce.

One of Malloon’s most storied teams would not permit any loss. Not against an unknown, first time participant in the tournament, no matter how impressive their path to the semi-finals had been.

Iron Giant’s team captain unleashed a sharp whistle. All of the players in the central area pivoted from their sparring and pounced toward Devick’s position, even as she cracked her guy’s jaw and pried the crusher from his fingers.

She whipped around, her crimson hair spinning around her body. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the six opponents now attempting to defeat her. Randidly acknowledged it was the only possible strategy at the moment; Devick propped up the spirit of the Miracles. If she were to fall, the game would be over, no matter the score.

A wide grin stretched across her face as she looked around. “My, my. So many enthusiastic suitors. Please, stop. I’m blushing. I’m not woman enough to handle you all~”

They didn’t acknowledge her joke. But a few did hesitate as she raised her crusher and prepared for a throw. They moved to surround her evenly, so they could cover any gap Devick might attempt to open with a crusher. Devick apparently didn’t mind those odds. In a viciously quick motion, she raised and threw.

Perhaps surprised at the inaccurate throw, one of the encirclers stepped to the side on instinct. The crusher whizzed past his head, even as the team captain of the Iron Giants hissed. “You fool!”

The crusher crossed into the left area. Rather than striking at the other team, however, it caught the oblong ball mid-air, which three of the Iron Giants had been tossing back and forth to keep the Miracles from being able to catch up. Due to a strange bounce, the ball spiked almost directly down from the impact point and up into the air. But as it rose, Jawem arced through the air and plucked it up.

The crowd roared its approval. Not only were most of the audience fans of the Miracles, but they hated the opposition’s defensive tactics for the last ten minutes. Now that the tide seemed to be turning, they threw all their effort into deafening the players with their cheers.

The stern-looking follower of Devick looked over at their leader, where she remained surrounded. “Are you-”

“When am I not sure?” Devick chuckled. The surrounding warriors began activating Skills, striking at her from six directions at once.

Jawem pressed his lips together and punted the ball up into the air. Devick took a few delicate steps to the side, swaying around a haymaker of a left hook from the nearest opponent. She leaned back, avoiding a conjured golden spike that would have pierced into the back of her skull and blended her brain to paste. It passed harmlessly only an inch from her nose. She spun left, twisting around the lizardperson who had thrown the hook and coming face to face with the Iron Giant team captain.

He bellowed and stomped, the ground in the surrounding few meters rupturing. Devick somehow predicted the way the ground would break because she was jumping just as the stone beneath her feet bulged. With the combination of the opposition’s Skill and her own jump, she spiraled up into the air, not missing the chance to crack the Iron Giant’s captain in the temple with a kick as she ascended. The attack only staggered him slightly, but as Devick’s body rose out of the encirclement, the whole of the audience seem to rise with her.

She’s channeling their emotions, Randidly hummed thoughtfully. A side effect of her growing image, but it’s enough like Paolo’s ability to empower herself that she’s only going to get stronger. Looks like they might actually pull off a-

At that moment, one of the replaceable players for the Iron Giant began to emit orange flames. The sight might be familiar, but the amount of power channeled down onto the field had reached new heights. Randidly narrowed his eyes and looked left, into the luxury box next to his. Larson Cerulean once more interfered with the match.