“That fool-!” As soon as the second version of Cerulean appeared, the truth became clear to Westrisser. The original raptor construct might have set out to create a superior version of himself to be used as an image, but that option had been much more palatable to the original before the improved version captured the original and kept it around as a tool. Now the vicious experiments of the soul committed by Cerulean were coming to a head and Malloon would be caught in the crossfire.

A strike heavy enough to wipe away an entire city. Westrisser supposed he understood why the one version of Cerulean would consider this amount of force necessary but still felt bitter about being caught in the crossfire.

For a moment the leader of the Peregrine Serpents wavered in how he should proceed; he had his own pride and power. His own image should not be underestimated, even by Cerulean. He could intervene, especially considering the broken weapon wielded against him. The Nether Ritual activated in fits and starts, huge crackling waves of energy blasting out from the rising tower of darkness. Already, a strange light blossomed in the core area of the working.

In the end, Westrisser turned away. His mind ran the calculation and decided it would not be worth it. Perhaps he could intervene in time. His success would have been much more likely if he had been outside of the barrier when the process began, but it was too risky to start within the city and pass through the gate.

The hammer of the Nether RItual would fall. But he refused to allow this development to end his research.

His eyes flashed as he spun around. He looked at his daughter once. “Follow.”

Then he launched himself from the walls, heading toward his experiment lab.

*****

Fear gripped Randidly so tightly that he didn’t move for a half second. Too much emotion and information clogged up his processing, so the world seemed to freeze.

Very gradually, tiny slid forward. He saw every development with the utmost clarity, even while he remained in a horrified stasis.

Behind him, Sulfur’s evolution failure continued to catastrophically go off course. His existence degraded, his valuable energy stolen away.

The original Cerulean chuckled, seeing the replacement personality that had so long oppressed him now helpless as the Nether Ritual shivered into motion. The two Nether Kings and the elderly goblin woman took a few steps back from the unstable working above them but realized that escape was impossible, so they shared a glance. Despite their earlier conflicts, it seemed they were the type to easily set aside their differences when the problem of survival came up. Malloon remained silent, completely mute before the descending threat.

Above them all, significance swirled lower, the impending weight of this moment in history leaving its mark. All the separate, small actions of each individual became a ripple that spread and mixed in chaotic waves, blended energy and intention, an unpredictable and viciously implacable shift that would gladly grind them all to dust.

The moment of inaction passed. Time rushed forward and Randidly hummed into motion to keep up with it.

His eyes began to glow as he rallied his spirits. His right hand clenched. He looked at the ripples, at the intersection of all the decisions that led to this moment, and saw how this had gone in the original timeline. Malloon wiped. The improved image of Cerulean ripped to shreds by the cruel revenge of the original. Likely, based on the fact Cerulean’s name had vanished from history, the surviving raptor construct took a massive wound in the process. A war would follow, a massive war, sweeping up the Aether and Nether forces, setting them against each other until one side demolished the other.

Likely the contributions of Westrisser creating Dungeons would eventually lead to the victory of the Aether forces after a long and vicious struggle. It would be a chaotic environment, perhaps exactly the sort of arrangement that would allow a secret organization to aim for the heart and soul of the universe while everyone else was distracted.

Randidly hadn’t had his new awareness for long, but he saw massive ripples occasionally, so dispersed and expansive their effects weren’t much. However, when such ripples could reach the entire scope of existence, they could not be underestimated.

And yet, despite the anticipation in the Nether above, despite the powerful forces that had nudged events to create the current situation, Randidly stood at this crossroads with a revving Nether Core and burning resolve. He forced his body to relax, despite the tingle of adrenaline and his howling fury due to Sulfur’s pain. He looked at the millions of ripples, at the unintended consequences of the actors, and saw a way forward to save his Soulseed companion.

Different aspects became important. The hack-job done by Cerulean on the Nether Ritual, lowering its defenses. The absence of Bleak Sky, muddying the Nether leadership. The threat to the lives of the remaining Nether Kings, meaning they focused on their own survival rather than their goal. The vicious gaze of Cerulean on the replacement image, his entire attention focused on vengeance. The powerful Nether Ritual with no one at the helm, about to explode in a partial activation. The ridiculous amount of image fragments and stagnant Nether filling the air, so dense an average person would have their lungs melt just from taking a breath.

The ripples whispered with possibilities. He saw a path forward. His Nether Core revved, stabilizing the memory one extra time. He reached out and brushed up against his images, specifically the Stillborn Phoenix. He visualized it in his mind’s eyes, sharpening its edges. He saw the darkness and the milky light along the event horizon. He saw the discharge at the boundary, the electromagnetic radiation, the light radiation, the pull of entropy, the beginnings of physical collapse, and the fracturing of possibilities.

From his emotional sea, he pulled deeply, dragging out all of his worry, his anxiety, his fears. The cloying, suffocating feelings that could erode the mind with stress and drown a man laying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Those dark emotions surged together until become a horrifying, all-consuming need. His emotions sung with desire compounded until it became forged necessity.

This manifestation would need to be the most undeniable usage of images he had ever done.

Right as the grand Nether Ritual began to buckle and hum as it attempted to bridge the gap between the ground and Pine up above, Randidly raised his head. He needed to act. “The Third Authority: Intangible Burial.”

The memory shuddered as the demand of a Nether King crashed against the significance urging for the repetition of history. His Third Authority possessed less direct combat power than his First, but that didn’t mean it was any less powerful. It could almost unilaterally remove any intangible aspect, depending on the sharpness of his intent.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have been enough, as he aimed at the massive Nether Ritual, had Cerulean not hacked its defenses to pieces. As it was, a gap had emerged. The Nether Kings weren’t trying to protect it. Several aligned unintended consequences. Randidly reached in and plucked one of the core intangible aspects out.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of Unimagined Tolls (GD) has grown to Level 1010!

*****

Devick stood at the window of the building, worrying at her choker, as she looked out across the devastation in front of Malloon. The conflux of energy and quick movements had been too much for her senses to follow. Most of it had been chaos.

On her left stood the Nether Herald Demetrius. On her right was Jotem, the half-origin beast. Both radiated worry, frantically watching the situation develop outside of the Skyislands.

Almost intuitively, Devick had done her best to follow the movements of Nether King Hungry Eye. He had thrown himself in front of the foes aiming to harm the skyislands time and time again. During the middle portion of the battle, he had staved off the flood of dangerous Nether threatening to sweep toward the skyislands.

Devick felt both warmth and jealousy as she watched him, wounded and without his left arm, standing in the sky. Warmth because of the effort he poured into protecting them. Jealousy because she wasn’t qualified to join him in that position. For the first time in quite a while, she regretted choosing to dedicate herself to Hobfootie.

Without a Class, catching up to a Nether King felt impossible. The prodigious distance between them couldn’t even be bridged by her burning stubbornness. Devick might choose not to acknowledge her lacking capability, but a part of her knew her body would give out before she could help Hungry Eye even in the slightest.

“This… might be our end,” Demetrius spoke slowly and sounded almost ill. “Even at this distance, when all of that energy is released…”

Devick pushed aside her individual feelings, sensing a shift in the Nether King. The huge Nether Ritual seemed on the verge of shattering. Not in a sad, old collapsing house sort of way but in a more vicious, lashing-out-before-death sort of violence. Even from here, its power pressed against her skin.

And of course, Nether King Hungry Eye chose that moment to step forward. “The Third Authority: Intangible Burial.”

The sky rumbled in response to his words. The pressure from the Nether Ritual changed. It didn’t seem to lessen in any way, but the pressure definitely felt different. Devick narrowed her eyes, trying to see the shift. Despite the Nether King, the Nether Ritual began to activate. The light in its core area brightened.

Beside her, Demetrius gasped. “That…! How?! Nether King Hungry Eye somehow managed to sever the Nether Ritual’s core aspects without destroying it; considering the damage already done to the Nether Ritual, the precision required is ridiculous-”

“He didn’t stop it?” Jotem’s body, as usually happened when he was worried, began to inflate.

“...no, it’s still about to finish its activation.” Demetrius shivered. “But the Nether King used his authority to remove the connection to Pine. The Nether Ritual should have dragged his gaze to this location, eradicating everything with the power that founded the Nexus. Yet now, it is a bridge built to nowhere. Very literally nowhere. If it activates as it is now…”

The Nether Ritual trembled slightly, the pressure reaching the breaking point. Then it activated, and a hole the size of a city block was punched into space right at the top. Wind and Nether howled as suddenly this flaw in the universe began to devour everything in the surrounding space. No thunderous wave of energy descended to burn away them all, but Devick yelped as the suction was powerful enough to grab at the Skyislands and shake them.

Gradually, the skyisland began to list and drift toward the flaw in the world.

Biting her lip, Devick pushed herself to her feet. This is all part of the plan, right? I trust you. You… you won’t let anyone hurt me.

Right?

On the heels of the sudden hole being punched in the world, several powerful figures began to move. However, none moved as quickly as the Nether King that so obsessed Devick. His strange image echoed out with enough force he knocked all others aside. For a brief moment, he achieved dominance over the environment. The hole the Nether Ritual to nowhere had created… became a massive eye.

The eye opened, and woe to all that must endure its hunger before it would be sated.