The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

His Nether Core steadily spun, gathering and concentrating his significance into energy. The three small grey bubbles drifted around the central area, now that he didn’t need to endure as much strain. Even Randidly’s senses were lost in that horrifying sense of depth that was beginning to emerge as he continued his experiments.

His Nether Core resembled an upside-down tornado, with a wide base of whirling darkness narrowing to a sharp point. Randidly’s tail guided that point out through his body and into the world, becoming the basis for his power. The more he used it, the more he felt a small amount of bitterness at his prior attempt to create a Nether Penance, which would have been the equivalent of a Fate.

I was grasping blinding, He admitted to himself. Even now, it’s likely still impossible. But once I have a better understanding of the way Nether Functions...

He hummed in pleasure as he made a small discovery about the second pattern with which he toyed. Randidly would have loved to lose himself to the Nether Empowerments for the next several days. However, while he compared the first Empowerment Ritual with the second, someone stomped up to his room and knocked on the door.

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 363!

He slowly raised his head, flames of Nether Weight licking up from his pupils to give his features a pale illumination. As he released a breath, he eased his focus.

After allowing his Nether experiments to dissipate, Randidly opened the door to find Lady Iellaya standing there with a grim face. She beckoned for him to follow without commenting on the darkness of his room or the oppressive presence of Nether. “Unfortunately, we are getting deployed. You’ve been appointed temporary overseer under me, in charge of a few squads. Including your elite one. Grab your stuff and let’s get going.”

Randidly blinked and tried to recalibrate himself with this sudden development. “What…? We are getting deployed?”

“We still aren’t sure what was taken, but we underestimated how badly the Swacc Family wanted to get their item back from the Pinnacle Seekers.” Lady Iellaya grimaced. “They have mobilized fully, perhaps for the first time in a thousand years. They pulled an army of about a hundred thousand out of somewhere. Their hidden reserves are not to be underestimated. That army is making a push through the space dominated by the Pinnacle Seekers. And from the reverberations coming out from that area, someone is attempting to ascend to the Pinnacle.”

Randidly was trying to decide if it was worth it to skip this recruitment call as Lady Iellaya grunted and prodded him in the chest. “So officially, we are there to keep the peace. But I suspect that we might be there to keep other Pinnacle Seekers from interfering. The Nexus doesn’t want more individuals to step onto the Pinnacle and doesn’t mind utilizing the Swacc Family to interfere- and don’t give me that look, you are coming. Don’t you think it’s strange that we were chosen? Commandant Wick wants an excuse to fuck with you more, to get deeper in your head. He wants you to rely on our relationship to avoid this.”

Randidly allowed a breath to hiss through his teeth as he imagined a smile curling across the furry face of the Commandant. That did sound like the sort of action he would take. Despite his desire to continue sharpening his advantages when it came to Nether, he would follow Lady Iellaya to this new battlefield.

If only because he was curious. What did it look like when someone attempted to ascend to the Pinnacle? Exactly how much difference existed between the Speculum he witnessed and that final accomplishment?

After contacting Randidly’s Elite Squad, the two of them traveled up the Nexus to Military High Command. Randidly noted that most of the streets they took were deserted, even before they arrived. Soon, the pair of them walked up the wide entranceway of Military High Command.

After the abrupt end to the Imperium Ball, Randidly’s impression of the heavy marble building was one of abandonment and desperation. But now when they approached, the whole place was filled with bustling soldiers. The shadows of the massive pillars next to the doors covered hundreds of soldiers. A few higher-ranked officers bellowed out orders and groups formed up together on the wide steps before the doors.

They swam through a river of bodies, all drawn into the swirling maelstrom of this mobilization. And the only thing on the soldiers' lips was the tantalizing possibility that everyone secretly wished to achieve: the Pinnacle.

Then, as Lady Iellaya led him forward away from the main flow of bodies, those formed up groups marched down and away, heading to the teleportation platforms. Every second saw another flash of Aether discharge as the heavy Engravings activated. Randidly was almost bemused as his Aether senses tingled by its proximity; that teleporter had consumed about as much Aether since they had started walking up the stone steps in front of the building as Randidly and all the people and planets he supported did in a day.

“Not just us, huh?” Randidly remarked as he read the complex emotions of the crowd.

They moved past the steps and onto the flat area, where more officers were in quiet discussions about their marching orders. Lady Iellaya swept past them without even acknowledging them, heading toward the massive door into the Military High Command.

Once there, she moved her eyes meaningfully to the large crack in the heavy marble of the door frame, the one that had emerged when that strange earthquake shook the entire Nexus. Apparently, they hadn’t yet had the time or effort to repair it. “We are the only ones who will need to be in the thick of the action, unfortunately. Also so we take the political flak if something goes wrong. The rest of them… the Nexus is more dangerous now than it has ever been. Military High Command is unwilling to take the chances that they get taken advantage of by an outside force like the Swacc Family has been.”

*****

The air rippled and parted. And from the depths of this place came the strangest smell of old leather.

“This is the Sanctum,” Velio Dunn, gesturing to the floating stone platforms in front of them, which led to a series of rotating stone pillars. From within the encirclement of those stone pillars, a light purple light shined.

All of them seemed suspended over an abyss. Despite the innocuous smell of leather wafting up from below them, Edraine did not want to brave the depths of this place.

She raised her hand to screen her eyes and looked around carefully, wary of the space they currently inhabited. Velio Dunn had led her through some of the oldest Nexus Ways that she had ever seen to get here. And she had also seen him drill directly through the fabric of reality and utilize spatial tears to shake off pursuit. And through all of that, somehow they had come to a barrier that Edraine hadn’t even sensed… and it immediately parted before Velio Dunn.

Engulfing them in that strange scent in the isolated space.

Edraine was confident that she could hold her own against Velio, even in his rapidly strengthening state, but the mysterious circumstances of their journey made her deeply unwilling to take any risks. She resisted the urge to pinch her nose closed.

Velio noticed her hesitated and chuckled. “I promise you that this location is safe. The barriers here are old images, from the original races, which is why they seemed somewhat unfamiliar to you. But these old things were abandoned for a reason. The Sanctum is impregnable for the average person, but someone like us could find a way. The energy required for this place to resist a break-in would beggar even the significance stores we left here.”

“What about pursuit? Are you sure that the Nexus authorities do not know we were aiming for this place?” Edraine asked.

“They might know that we were heading here, but they don’t know the location.” Velio shook his head. His eyes were glittering; he seemed to be caught up in some emotion Edraine couldn’t quite read and simply drinking in the surroundings. “Like I said, the secret of this place stretches back to the Second Cohort. Aside from myself and one other… I don’t believe there are any left alive that remembers the method to arrive at this place.”

Although she was still unnerved, Edraine pressed her lips together and walked behind Velio as he approached the soft illumination of the Sanctum. Every direction around them was filled with a fuzzy darkness that stubbornly refused to give underneath the focus of her Perception. As they moved from one floating stone to the next, the bridge dipped very slightly, as though straining to support their weight. Their footsteps echoed, as though the darkness around them was not as infinite as it seemed.

“So what is it?” Edraine asked. She was almost annoyed; Velio seemed so caught up in this place that he wasn’t helping her understand the importance of their journey here at all.

“A political compromise,” Velio eventually released a breath. “The transition between the Second and Third Cohorts was rough, as I said. In order to keep up with rising Aether needs, Elhume embarked on a grand project to create a super race that would more easily develop powerful image. Unfortunately, during the final stages of the project… well, even I don’t know exactly what happened. Some say Elhume was betrayed and his wrath shook sky and stone. Others believed that this was always his plan, and the project was just a pretext so that his targets would be at their weakest.

“What I can say for sure is this: Elhume had the support of eight powerful individuals through the Second Cohort. They were the original Patrons. Two were killed in the chaotic transition period. Afterward, as the project was disregarded due to the need to rebuild, the remnant forces feared Elhume. So they demanded that the remainder of his Patrons be sealed. In essence, they wanted Elhume to give up some of his power as a show of good faith. Perhaps due to his own struggles at that time, he acquiesced.

“The reason I’m so confident that no one else knows this location was that I was one of the twenty guards that were charged with choosing the location and taking the secret with us to the grave. And considering the fact that this place hasn’t been disturbed, it appears none of my fellows gave up the location before they died,” Velio took one last step onto the final stone platform, before the rotating pillars.

Edraine scrutinized the tattooed man, his features dyed purple by the light released by the Sanctum. “You were targeted?”

“Oh, yes. Although we never found out by who,” Velio replied. “Perhaps at the beginning of the Fourth Cohort, it became obvious we were dying off one by one. We considered telling others about this place… but we worried that it all was a ploy of Elhume to force us to reveal our secrets. Of course, by that time Elhume had established the Engraving Guild and Military High Command and had absolute control of the Nexus anyway, so I suspect it was actually another power that wanted to contact the original Patrons. But what comes next is the hard part. The way this place was constructed was very specific: we will need to flare our images and attempt to wake one of the sleeping Patrons. They are bound in their cells, but only they can open-”

RUMMMBLLLEEEEEE!

The circle of rotating pillars ground to a halt. Velio’s look of pure surprise made Edraine’s lips twitch. But she also felt the stirring of something truly dangerous through the stone pillars. After stopping their movements, there was a bright pulse of light. Then, as the two watched, the stone pillars slid outward and created a three-meter opening for them to walk forward.

“Someone is already awake?” Velio muttered. Then he rapidly walked forward into the purple light.

I hope these secrets are worth it, Edraine thought to herself as she followed.

The light was not natural light, but some sort of sophisticated image. However, every time that Edraine tried to scrutinize it directly, it dissipated like fog beneath a midmorning sun. Each step she took carried her deeper into the light until all of her senses were somehow muzzled by its overwhelming presence.

She was just relieved when she continued forward and she could still hear Velio’s footsteps. They stood in front of a massive stone edifice, all dark grey granite piled together to form a primitive tower. A bridge of stone led forward to a dark hole in the tower’s side. That same purple light seeped up through the cracked floors, providing some basic illumination. Edraine quickened her step to follow Velio Dunn through a glimmery archway.

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