The final barrier lted away. At the sa ti, a resonance began to erge, with Randidly as the core.
Randidly felt the confusion and fear imdiately from Laplace, curdling the air and weakening its world-state image that had so damaged ti. His own Grand Fate gleefully pounced forward and began to rapidly establish its dominance in the unprotected environnt. Yet Randidly stood still as the barrier in front of him disintegrated into a million glittering pieces, leaving the animating shape of Laplace exposed.
The resonance… felt strange.
Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy nds Eternity has grown to Level 1392!
Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 1392!
“I will slaughter you all!” Laplace screeched, all of its grim self-possession evaporating in the face of a genuine threat. Yet with the opening, its rigid temporal weapons swiftly beca unwound. The Eternity suddenly seed too weak, so vulnerable.
All that remained was the decisive strike. Yet Randidly felt Tiamat’s hand on his shoulder and understood the intention of his image. He felt a similar trembling from his Nether Core, giving him the sa warning. His eyes glowed as he suddenly saw how to move forward was to return to a Path.
Even though Randidly could step forward through the widening door, he lingered at the edge. He slowly drew the Alchemist’s Passport back and stored it away. Energies lashed back and forth, wrapping the two in a sea of chaotic collisions. Yet Randidly’s mind remained fixed on calculations. The Alchemist began to laugh.
This is a Pinnacle Event, or the closest I will co to one. I created the shape, even if not all the details are right… Randidly felt the rich energy that the step would bring him; transgressing the boundary would eliminate the last fragnt of Laplace’s defense and allow Randidly to unmake this Eternity, even if it would probably be a slow and agonizing process for Laplace to actually die. The resonance urged him forward.
He could reach the Pinnacle by following that feeling, just like so many before him. And then he would be presented with the choice, the one explained so authoritatively by Nyx. As she said, he could not have it both ways. He would either step through the threshold or beco the Threshold.
Yet…
“That is your way, not mine,” Randidly said quietly. Powerful forces howled around him in a churning maelstrom of force. “I do not need your Paths.”
He did not step forward across the Threshold. He did not step forward and birth a universe from the slow death of Laplace-- honestly, Randidly had enough trouble with supporting universes as it was. Instead, he smiled.
“...we deserve better than this fighting. Even you, Laplace. So the blow I strike will be the blow you’ve always asked for, with every action you’ve taken.” Randidly enunciated every word, his voice humming down to sowhere deep in the underlying fabric of the universe. And as he spoke, his intent beca more and more clear. “You have played with the flow of ti. You’ve unhitched the narrative connections that add context to life, and gleefully too. So this is your Ghasthund, Laplace; may it be all you’ve always pursued. I might be blind to Truth, but you are numb to Weight.”
Without a barrier, the words could move forward and touch the deepest aspects of Laplace. Just like that, the universe shifted.
Laplace was an Eternity, a collection of Accumulated significance and history. Yet it was a corrupted being of Nether traits, one which broke down the fundantal bonds which gave Nether its punch.
So Randidly kicked out the rest of its support structure and gave the monster exactly what it had asked for. While the storm continued to rage around their conflict, the typhoon-force winds and world-ending explosions had beco the lightest breeze. Laplace had beco completely Weightless, unable to grasp anything, lost in its own confusing and twisted history.
Laplace was like a world-champion bodybuilder thrown into an environnt without gravity. All its bulging muscles could only quiver as it tumbled around helplessly.
An old monster like this will eventually adjust, Randidly readily admitted as he observed the shift in temporal currents. They wrapped around him but felt as smooth and glittering as silk. Not an encumbrance or a burden at all, with all the weight of only hearing a story about history, rather than experiencing it. But for now… precisely due to how long you have lived and behaved this way…
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Randidly began weaving Nether together as he returned to his body. He took a step back from the bloody body of the fat-ard serpent. He gestured and created Nether Rituals reinforced by Weight, restricting Laplace’s influence. The Eternity seed to realize what was happening and lashed out by summoning those tos, but now the most dangerous portion was the sound of fluttering pages. The words and traditions upon the page were naught but air as they lost the accumulation of their history.
Two things happened at the sa ti as Randidly began sealing this Eternity until he could rid the Nexus of the problem. First, the glittering sense of montum, that promise of power he had felt in front of the “Pinnacle’ threshold, vanished. The Alchemist used delicate fingers to extract a very special ingredient out from the process.
At the sa ti, Randidly’s Nether Core began to pulse in a determined frequency and accelerate its rotations. His Aether and Nether were so intrinsically connected that he began to drift closer to experiencing an Eternity.
But for now, his attention turned elsewhere.
“You will regret not ending while you could.” Laplace hissed the words. “With every fiber of my being, I will seek out and punish your people until I have eliminated all evidence of your foolishness-”
“That’s what waits outside the Nexus, isn’t it?” Randidly practically ignored the Eternity. He stood arms akimbo and squinted up at the pillar of light holding back the darkness. “Desperate, petty individuals scrabbling at the door to godhood. Well, that’s fine. I have a way to deal with them. And you will be my one warning, so I need you alive and yapping like this. But first-”
Randidly looked up at the sky and spread his arms. The pressure Laplace had wielded had vanished entirely. So when Randidly’s potent Nether Core began to stir the significance in the area, all the broken remnants from their collision gathered at his whim. With the whole chamber as a stage, he wove a grand Nether Ritual that engulfed them all.
*****
Devick watched Randidly Ghosthound’s back the entire ti. Her nerves had been twisted back and forth like an over-wrung dishrag. She felt sharp spikes of elation followed by deep gulfs of fear as Aether and Nether clashed in front of her. And she felt it when he won. All the pressure from the serpent monster vanished. Yet obviously, that bastard Randidly wouldn’t bother to take a break. No, he launched directly into his next quest, creating a giant Nether reaction that rapidly expanded from their position.
She released a breath. Next to her, the monkey popped and beca…
Devick blinked at the new form. Then she slapped her hands across her mouth in order to cover up a blooming grin. You’ve got to be fucking kidding .
Because Pine had transford into a partially translucent, grey-furred, spectral puppy. It looked up at her with wide eyes, its oversized ears flopping adorably across its face as he considered her. “What is he doing now? How will he destroy all that darkness?”
What am I, a fucking mind reader? Devick glanced again at Randidly. Although… if I could read minds… hehehe, I wonder if sotis he takes peeks at when he thinks I’m not looking, or thinks- ahem ahem, stay focused. Celebrations and post-climax climaxes can wait a bit. Randidly right now…
The ghost hound next to her continued to look at Devick with absolute trust, so she really examined Randidly and tried to figure out his intentions. She saw his expanding Nether Ritual. She felt the fact that his tension hadn’t diminished, even as Laplace had been neutralized, rolling around helplessly in front of Randidly.
Devick nodded slowly. “I don’t think he will destroy all that darkness. Just like he left Laplace alive. After all, that’s… the subconscious of the Nexus? All of the dead souls and discarded images? You can’t just cut that away.”
“If we do not, it will smother us. It has beco too large, too onerous.” Pine said quietly. “It is proof of… all of our failings. That part is better off cut away and slaughtered.”
Randidly appeared between them. “You cannot just ignore or force away your failures. Otherwise… well. You end up like Elhu.”
A bleak expression crossed the puppy’s face, but it shook its head after a few monts. It watched Randidly, whose hands still threw out complex patterns of Nether. Pine said. “What is your intention?”
“To bring the Nexus into alignnt. To prevent it from collapsing under the accumulated weight, from earlier mismanagent.” Randidly grimaced. “It will not be easy. That weight… honestly, the negativity is insane. I guess its still hard for to conceptualize the grudge that can build over three thousand years of fighting and killing. But I think it’s possible.”
“Is this Nexus worth saving? Simply move the individuals to your Alpha Cosmos, Randidly Ghosthound. Allow… this place, this body, to collapse. None will mind the switch and you will achieve a fresh start.”
Randidly looked at Pine, pausing in his work. Beginning with just a small movent, he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. This universe is worth saving.”
You are worth saving, Randidly’s eyes said to the ghost hound hand sitting in front of him.
The dog sat absolutely still. But Devick could tell from its downcast gaze it did not believe him.
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