Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 84!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 85!

The strange, warped perspective meant he stood at the foot of the citadel of darkness, the towering pillars of significance stretching up in front of him. Each of the metaphysical bricks of their construction contained secrets about the fabric of reality. His codex pulsed and spun, rising through the towers to reach those loftiest peaks and find what waited at the top. There, he found his first true hints regarding an ascent to the Pinnacle.

The Fatepiece activated and he could practically hear his brain begin to wheeze.

Randidly’s vision swam as he was swamped with information from those most significant events within the memory. The small bits of his Codex spun and tumbled, dragging a net through all the significance and pulling out all the details it could manage. And considering the Fatepiece’s advanced Level, that was quite a bit. The base of his brain burned, as though the rushing information had begun throwing off sparks with its passage.

A clearer picture for the finale of the memory began to emerge, even just from the information he was not receiving. To his surprise, the touch of the Nether Arbiter Lowanna vanished entirely as he rose to the most significant memories, those that would persist to the end. He felt her presence through much of the middle section, with far-reaching consequences for the Nether people, and then it just abruptly vanished. Unsurprising, considering she should have been captured by the Cult of the Savior quite a while ago.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 87!

Randidly bit his cheek to keep his attention from wavering. He tried to ignore the sweat trickling down the back of his overheated skull. His Codex ascended, gathering more information.

What did give Randidly pause was that at the very same point that the Nether Arbiter was no longer relevant, Deganawidah’s presence vanished. These two towering monoliths of the modern Nether forces vanished entirely. The remnant threads relating to the Nether forces were thin and disparate, although numerous. No wonder the Third Cohort saw the systematic shattering of their culture to the point that no Nether Kings existed any longer.

Still, Randidly pushed his focus upward, past the mysterious developments of Nether toward the soon-approaching moment of Elhume’s Pinnacle. He found a thread relating to Mae Myrna, which wrapped tightly through Elhume to set the stage. Randidly peered farther and farther up, glimpsing the future. When Mae and her strange world state image were vanquished, Elhume’s energy changed. His massive river of significance clashed with Pine, and the Cult of the Savior and-

Randidly blinked. Elhume has… two important insights?

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 88!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 95!

The sweat on his neck evaporated from the heat radiating off of him, leaving only salt behind.

Randidly felt his particular folding of perception beginning to come undone and forced it to stay in place. Even if he was only a few hairs away from collapsing as he peered through the convoluted threads of meaning in the memory, he refused to concede that last bit of distance. Truly, he felt thankful he had deviated from his usual modus operandi and took a quick nap. He believed he still would have been able to complete the rush Leveling of his Fatepiece, but he would have needed to fall into the hyper-focused methodology of the Visage of Obsession to endure.

And for all the benefits it brought to him, it numbed him to the unexpected. He wouldn’t be able to get a clear a picture as he was now seeing. Maybe he would just catalog the threats and move on.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 96!

At the top of this dark citadel of significance, its buildings fluttering and ethereal like sculpted storm clouds, he found a knot of connections even he couldn’t parse apart. But taking a step back, he could clearly feel the two parallel lines of Elhume.

On the one hand, there was Elhume’s drive to protect Pine and the Nexus at large. Yet this insight, as it stretched toward the finale, grew increasingly plagued by a strange… blight. Only after Randidly observed for a few seconds did he realize that this was Elhume’s strange emptiness, stemming from his researching into absence and void and incorporating it into his mundane fist attacks.

A powerful image, yes, but also double-edged sword bleeding him dry.

On the other side, Randidly felt Elhume yearning for more than single fists with which to strike his enemies. These were the tempered thoughts of Elhume, rather than his base instincts. He had a deep curiosity about the world, wishing to understand the Nexus. And as Randidly dug into the associated threads, his eyes widened at a realization.

It ran through the core of him, defining his actions even as he tried to ignore the truth. Elhume loved Mae Myrna. No matter how much he buried his feelings, they remained there, burning at the core of this second insight.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious from their tense interaction. However, Randidly had too busy absorbing other information to put together the pieces. And now he could see the moment that Mae Myrna returned, when she had raised some poor fool to become the Monarch of Karma and Elhume was forced to slay them, how it would shatter a part of him.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 96!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 97!

From there, as his Codex continued to climb, the details became hazy. The ambient energy became difficult to parse apart. But when Mae died, the part of Elhume that had loved her, that wanted more, started drifting more toward the aspect of himself focused on the void. The two insights came together in a perfect union. And then—

A confusing mass, beyond even the Dread Homunculus’s methodical dissection. A mess of events and interactions which tumbled into the chaos of battle.. An overwhelming force. A revolution of the Nexus, a moment perfectly within Elhume’s hand, surrounded by the interference of the Cult of the Savior and Pine.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 98!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nyx’s Successor Births Fate (GD) has grown to Level 1062!

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Insight of the Smoldering Abyss (P) has grown to Level 1020!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nyx’s Successor Births Fate (GD) has grown to Level 1063!

The Songstress of Absence made a surprise appearance in Randidly’s overwhelmed psyche, wielding her wild hunger to pull apart bits and pieces of the dense knot in the middle of the Codex Hexahedron. A lot of the connections were broken, but they became that much easier to process.

In that space, the Dread Homunculus could devour the pieces cleanly, giving Randidly a greater sense of the event that ended the memory and shaped the modern Nexus. Even in the strange perspective, Randidly could feel the hairs on his arms and legs beginning to stand on end as he looked at the approaching Pinnacle through his Codex.

He had known an entity reaching the Pinnacle was profound. But this—

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 99!

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Insight of the Smoldering Abyss (P) has grown to Level 1026!

Congratulations! Your Skill Gospel within the Seething Torrent (P) has grown to Level 1023!

A god. For a moment, an individual can truly become a god. Randidly shivered, his Nether Core becoming wobbly just from the presence of this entity. The aura he brushed up against went beyond Aether or Nether. He could feel the hints of the energies around Elhume he desired. But also, he could peer beyond this moment to the next developments, beyond the limits of the memory.

Riding that searing mount of righteous fury and godhood, Elhume opened up the Nexus for its Third Cohort. Those waiting jackals, organizations similar to the Cult of the Savior, jumped at the chance. A whole influx flooded toward the opened gates to this isolated universe, to instill their own Hierarchies and gain a little bit of an advantage on a universal scale.

The god moved. The invaders all suffered and perished. Nine fists of annihilations were waiting for them-

Nine? Randidly frowned.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 100!

In addition, due to possessing and mastering the Codex Hexahedron, +7 Grim Intuition, +6 Chimeric Indifference, and +10 Stamina per Level of your Class!

Warning, some damage to your Class detected! Please see a Village Spirit for additional details.

The crisp settling of his Fatepiece unfortunately broke Randidly’s concentration. He found himself back sitting on the hill, gasping and sweating from what he had witnessed. But at the same time, he looked at the Codex Hexahedron floating in front of him and felt how it had changed. Strange runic symbols formed on each side of the smaller cubes that constituted the larger whole. As it floated there, the smaller cubes took turns popping out and rotating to quickly it made a whizzing noise. Then they settled back into place, a new symbol sticking outward.

A sly smile crept across Randidly’s face. He reached out and pulled on the threads of significance running through the world. A sphere popped into his palm, perfectly pitch black without any edges, more of an absence than an object. A notification popped up in front of him.

Congratulations! You have located the Sixth Fatepiece of your Fateset, Paradox of the Alchemist. Warning, the Sixth Fatepiece has been scoured clean by an incredibly potent energy. User will need to first instill a powerful idea into the object before it could be Leveled!

Warning, please note that this process is irreversible. Once the Fatepiece’s name and abilities has been set, they will not be able to be changed. If the Fatepiece is foolishly created, user’s potential will be severely impacted. The whole of the Fateset might even be weakened. Please see a Village Spirit for more information.

Randidly nodded slowly. “Alright, all the pieces are in place. And I at least can predict some of what’s going to happen if I move forward with this plan. So next—”

The sky split open as a beam of pure Aether slammed down. It ripped through the still-solidifying edges of the Dungeon and pierced right into the memory. Randidly’s head snapped up, a powerful silence settling across him as the Songstress of Absence screamed in fury; Elhume’s strange Aether construct had activated.

The hammer ghosted down through the sky without a sound. But that unholy light made Randidly grit his teeth.

He leapt to his feet, but his body responded sluggishly. By the time he had realized the attack was coming, it was already upon him. He growled, bringing all three images together to resist. They mixed into a powerful attack, Randidly’s arms moving, Acri slithering into place even as he thrust his spear. The force of the movement tore through space.

But the attack phased right through his motions and slammed into Randidly’s chest.