The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

Randidly knew he shouldn’t find the situation funny, but it was difficult not to laugh. He readjusted his hand on his chin to cover his smile and give him a reflective air.

He stood in his Alpha Cosmos, standing on one of the highest peaks in the rugged mountain range that had acted as a border between the two most powerful countries. Looking below, almost a hundred thousand soldiers marched toward each other, determined to exterminate the opposing side. Huge engines of war belched fire as they were shifted into position. The two factions were bellowing at each other, slowly whipping both themselves and their opposition into a frenzy.

Behind Randidly the pantheon of his Alpha Cosmos awkwardly stood. Azriel, Alta, the Earth Golem Emperor, the Spriggit Thief, and Tziech the Monster King were all staring at the ground and waiting for Randidly’s response after they had contacted him and urged him to come to investigate the situation.

After a long silence, the Earth Golem Emperor coughed lightly. “I suppose this can be considered my fault-”

“You fucking think?!?” Alta snapped. Her anger was like a physical presence on the summit of the mountain. A whiff of that terrible heat that she had carried in her chest for so long spread outward from her shadowy figure. “We haven’t become GODS! Just administrators! Think with something other than your weapon for once!”

Randidly resisted the urge to wipe an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. Ah…I remember when I first caused widespread turmoil in my Soulskill… I suppose they certainly learned my ‘style’ of leadership.

“Don’t be dramatic. Everyone here is at fault.” Azriel sighed and shook her head. “It certainly is… more complicated than I would have thought to run a world. Because we each act independently, we are woefully inefficient. In the future, we should communicate more. And perhaps create a set of guidelines for the rewards we give...”

Randidly’s mouth twisted again. It shouldn’t bring me quite this much joy to see that it wasn’t just that I was bad at handling my early Soulskill, but its actually just quite a difficult thing. Heh, it’s actually kind of funny. Especially because Azriel spent so time lecturing me previously about being able to accept a loss and see the bigger picture…

...what’s the bigger picture now, Azriel?

“I simply believed that hard work deserved to be rewarded,” The Earth Golem continued, casting Alta a stubborn glance. The Metal Queen folded her arms across her chest and snorted out a thick stream of smog. “Perhaps I did not consider the long term consequences of some of the Paths I gave out to some intrepid individuals that prayed to me, but I believed the rewards of those Paths were justified.”

“But it created imbalance.” The Spriggit Thief frowned down at the ground. “The rest of us weren’t giving out Paths with such rich rewards like that, so a percentage of the populace shifted their beliefs to chase your relatively more lucrative Paths. And your demands of your followers… well, they disturb the established governments.”

“Pah!” The Earth Golem Emperor waved a large hand in the air. “True men should experience the entire world! Mystery and adventure breeds heroism. If one stays too long in one home, one will begin to think that home is the whole world!”

“Significant segments of the population starting to migrate definitely will alarm a government,” Randidly said softly as he looked down toward the marching soldiers. Gradually, he was re-establishing control over his amusement, to the point where he could safely speak. “So then… They needed a foe to unite the people, keep them in place. Due to the fact these two countries have already hated each other for so long… this choice was a pretty inevitable conclusion. I’m just surprised that hostilities escalated so quickly.”

Hah… and this was on normal time… I shudder to think what would have happened if these six had to administer a world with accelerated time like I did… honestly, the fact that I managed to salvage anything at all is pretty admirable… and that things reached this point only after two months...

But just as quickly as it had come, Randidly’s amusement waned. He watched as the vanguards below neared each other. Captains barked orders for their soldiers to make a final check on their weapons. Randidly could see the nervous expression on the young soldiers' faces, see the sweat on their necks as they fiddled with their swords and axes. With his Grim Intuition, Randidly could practically breathe in the swirling tension below.

Powerful Classers slowly warmed up their bodies in preparation for the fighting that was to come. Both sides came determined to slaughter their opponents. If this was allowed to happen, this would be an unimaginably bloody battle. Especially because of the recent explosion of growth in this world due to the recently arrived pantheon of administrators.

“It can’t have just been a few powerful Paths,” Randidly said slowly. “What else is at play here?”

“Don’t pretend like you possess wisdom,” Alta said spitefully. Although she seemed to perform her duties as a new member of his overlay System’s pantheon quite responsibly, her antagonism toward Randidly hadn’t decreased in the slightest. “How many of your previous Soulskills have crashed and burned? And then you used the ashes of those to create your next one?”

Alta’s criticism mirrored Randidly’s own bemused thoughts so closely that he couldn’t help but chuckle. The entire assemblage looked at Randidly with weird expressions as he stood above the marching armies and chuckled. Alta’s face went red with embarrassment and fury and her gaze became even more flinty.

I don’t want to insult you, but its still slightly endearing that we made the same mistakes. But I suppose you also won’t like it if I point out that despite my past failures, we are all here working together now… which counts as a success in my book.

“...no matter who is at fault, this situation is dangerous.” The Spriggit Thief looked at Randidly. “We will investigate the source, but we need to stop the battle. Can you solve this? Our power simply allows us to provide benefits within the System. In terms of interfering directly…”

Turning away from the pantheon, Randidly looked down toward the people below. His emerald eyes scanned through the mass of bodies until they settled on a familiar figure. Immediately, Randidly released a long breath through his nose as he confirmed something. Then he considered very carefully how he should help his Alpha Cosmos.

On the frontlines, Ileot Swacc had been the most powerful figure on the battlefield. But in the end, he had been sealed by the horrible darkness of the duplicate Vualla he had created. The image of Ileot’s hands covered in black energy, strangling his own neck, had stuck with Randidly.

Power is only ever half of the battle… Randidly turned and looked back toward the group of individuals who had gathered. His eye drifted to the side, where Tziech sat quietly, looking down toward the looming fight and pondering the problem. If I’m to assume more of a kingly role in my life, I need to find solutions to problems that don’t always rely on force. And for this situation…

“This is what happens when you give people too much attention,” Alta folded her arms across her chest. “Instead, simply allowing them to live their lives like I do-”

“Alta, all you do is ignore them. Your followers have started holding blood rituals to try and grab your attention,” The Spriggit Thief said with exasperation. “I don’t think you can consider that a victory.”

“None of them are now leading a crusade,” Alta sniffed disdainfully.

Randidly finally lifted his gaze. It’s clunky to point it out directly, but it would certainly be a clever and regal way to solve a problem. “Intimidating them would only work in the short term. And the movements of the Earth Golem Emperor’s supporters were alarming, but that only explains the Republic’s movements. Let me ask again: What’s going with the Armgrast Empire?”

Several of the pantheon frowned, but no one spoke. After several seconds, Randidly gave Azriel a pointed look. “These sorts of unexpected things happen when we aren’t honest with ourselves. You know how the Prince cares about you. Did you really think you could just walk away without saying anything…? Have you contacted him at all since becoming a part of the overlay System? Or does he simply believe that you disappeared from the palace and were lost in the border with the Republic?”

Azriel’s silence was all the answer he needed. Shaking his head, Randidly lifted the Philosopher’s Key and thrust it into the air. As with the outside world, the key could bridge a path created by karma and open a path even in the Alpha Cosmos. As a Philosopher, I might seek the truth for myself, but I can allow those around me to benefit from the lessons I’ve learned. There is no substitute for communication.

Congratulations! Your Fate the Philosopher’s Key has grown to Level 94!

The key turned and the portal opened. From the vantage of a nearby cliff, the headquarters of the Armgrast Empire could be seen as a buzzing hive of activity. Randidly looked sideways to Azriel. “If you don’t want to go, you don’t need to. But until you face this, things won’t change for the better.”

Azriel’s expression was complex. It was one of the only times that Randidly could ever remember Azriel not having an almost insufferable surety about her. She simply looked toward the portal for several seconds, not moving. The volume of the armies below grew larger as they finished their initial preparations and moved toward each other.

The beginning of the battle was only a few minutes away.

“I don’t know what to say to him.” Azriel finally said.

Randidly gestured to the portal. “That doesn’t mean you don’t still need to talk to him.”

With a quick nod, Azriel proceeded through the portal. Slipping into the strange existence as part of the overlay System, she disappeared and sped forward to meet with the Prince of the Armgrast Empire.

Feeling rather satisfied with how he handled the situation, Randidly turned to the rest of the pantheon. “Moderation is the key; that’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way. Too much interaction and people become spoiled and expectant. Too little and they become resentful and bitter. Sometimes, your actions as the representative of the System will draw criticism. And if you decide to change your methods, you will often be criticized just as badly for your new method.”

“Then what do we do?” For the first time since Randidly had arrived, Tziech looked up and spoke. The King of Monsters looked at Randidly with a serious expression.

Rather helplessly, Randidly shrugged. “It’s not a perfect solution… but you care. Both about the work you do making the System work and about the feelings of the people. You are the fulcrum on which everything turns; that puts you under the most stress. But you are strong. So at the end of the day, never forget that you all want to accomplish the same thing as the people do: to make a better world. It’s just the people experiencing the System obviously have a different way of expressing it than you will running it.”

Some of the other individuals in the pantheon stepped forward with questions and Randidly did his best to answer them all. But he was rather relieved when Azriel returned only a few minutes after she had left; although he had some experience with this, he was very much learning the hard way from his experience.

“So, everything solved?” Randidly asked.

For a second, Azriel was thoughtful, but then she shook her head. “No. Well, one issue was resolved. The Prince was very glad to hear from me. But he said that things had already gone out of control; even he can’t stop the war between the two countries now.”

“Err-” Randidly paused. Alta’s hatred-filled gaze toward Randidly intensified. “Out of control?”

“Yes, aside from resolving the personal issues, my visit to the Prince was meaningless.” Azriel nodded. “But thank you, I do feel relieved after the experience.”

After feeling like he had adequately solved a problem, to be told that there was no effect was rather unpleasant. Yet rather than being mad, the same surreal humor that made him smile when looking down at the familiar sight of his Soulskill in a world war had him chuckling now. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand how serious war was; he truly did.

But rather… Randidly could only throw his hands up in the air; life never seemed to go the way he expected.

Even if I think I know what’s right, if the people I lead don’t cooperate… Randidly scratched his cheek. No that's wrong. It's not that they didn't cooperate, but that I misunderstood. I can open up the paths with this key, but that doesn’t mean it will always lead to the right answer… No matter what utility the key gives me, it’s only a tool. That’s why it’s more important that it belongs to the Philosopher than that the Fate is a key...

And as Randidly thought that and looked down at the battlefield, several notifications rang out.

Congratulations! Your Fate the Philosopher’s Key has grown to Level 95!

Congratulations! Your Fate the Philosopher’s Key has grown to Level 96!

…

Congratulations! Your Fate the Philosopher’s Key has grown to Level 99!

So only one step away, Randidly thought with a fair bit of shock. He raised his hand to scratch his cheek again but stopped himself immediately with an awkward smile. All of the surrounding individuals were giving him heavy looks.

Sighing, Randidly could only give in to their demands; he stepped toward the edge of the summit and the vivid image of the Grim Chimera manifested around his body. The skin of his chest grew pale and translucent with his appendages became covered with leathered and thick skin. His left hand was a claw and his right hand was a bone spear. Two tails flicked idly back and forth, one at the base of his neck and one at his waist.

More than that though, Randidly’s Nether Gatekeeper tier power gathered a thick current of miasma around his body. The figure of the Grim Chimera slowly began to swell, fueled by the ambient Nether that was drifting up from the mountain range beneath him.

Still, it’s not like this means all of my efforts are for nothing, Randidly reassured himself as the Grim Chimera grew larger and larger. More and more energy swirled through Randidly’s body. After all, they say that the threat of violence is the last argument of kings.

Now the size of a skyscraper, that towering Grim Chimera roared its madness and descended between the two bloodthirsty armies.

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