The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

With a surprisingly delicate tinkling, the second barrier shattered. Another blast of primordial air puffed out to fill the central area. In its wake, the undulating, plant body of the Patron of Blooms rolled forward, generating in Edraine the sharp desire to stumble backward out of the way. She immediately suppressed that desire, studying this second Patron carefully and standing her ground.

Especially now. These concentrated, unyielding targets were excellent practice for her image.

The Patron of Blooms took a deep breath and stretched her creaking limbs. “Oh my. Oh, oh, the restrictions of the Sanctum make it difficult to see everything around us, but I can sense some things. The Nexus has certainly fallen to pieces while I’ve been away, haven’t they?”

Velio Dunn’s expression darkened. “Elhume continues to make a mockery of the original goal-”

“Shush, child, I’m busy thinking,” The Patron of Blooms waved her hand, and blessedly, Velio didn’t continue through one of his anti-Elhume rants. The thorny, vine creature seemed to be considering. Small strands of plant matter twitched and tightened, keeping her person in a state of constant motion. “Now… my children… eh? This- my home planet is- Oh, but I sense several strong… wait, why can’t I…? Has everything truly been lost?”

As her muttering became softer, Edraine could feel the Patron’s image shifting erratically. The powerful, chaotic impulses wracking her mind were so intense that they leaked beyond the bounds of her body and spread out through the air. Edraine pursed her lips. If nothing else, releasing these powerful individuals, ones who seem to be slightly tainted by the edge of madness from their incarceration, should distract Elhume for a fair amount of time.

But it would be foolish to believe that there won’t be unintended consequences now that they are at liberty.

Velio looked at the Patron for several seconds while she continued to whisper quietly to herself. Then he turned to look at Edraine. “Let’s take a short break to recuperate and then we can proceed to the next Patron. Based on the reaction, I believe the Patron of Blades should be-”

“Yes, yes, I’ll leave this place to you too. I have some small matters to take care of,” The Patron of Blooms interrupted, suddenly done with her whisper monologue. She waved her fingers at Edraine and Velio and then strode for the door, thick vines slapping against the stone ground and pulling her forward. Edraine glanced at Velio and raised her eyebrows.

“Wait!” Velio said. Some of his previous intensity, worn away by his childlike sense of wonder at having made it to the Sanctum, returned as he walked up to the Patron of Blooms. His eyes were sharp. “I understand that you probably have many personal matters to address after being locked up in here for thousands of years, but now is not the time to be swayed by emotion. Without a full understanding of the situation in the Nexus-”

“Almost a dozen people are attempting to reach the Pinnacle right now,” The Patron of Blooms said. Then she shrugged. “I might be vain, but I think it’s pretty clear that I’m small potatoes to Elhume. There is no better time than now to accomplish a task covertly.”

*****

Randidly’s brows knitted together as he felt the chaotic waves of images turn into a mass of oppressive energy that radiated to fill almost the entirety of the Nexus. In the starry nebula above the former home base of the Frost Matriarch, several new light sources began to pulse with a sickly green light. The illumination started small, but gradually the color was leached out of the surroundings.

All across the Nexus, lights dimmed and were blended away until everything was pale and ghastly. Detail only remained in the contrast as color seemed to drain away in the face of this monumental occurrence.

Yet what transfixed Randidly were the images! Yggdrasil, the Grey Creature, and the Stillborn Phoenix all condensed across his body, seeking to memorize the varied and extreme image examples that reached for the Pinnacle. Randidly felt a vast and wide-open sky, the damp and dripping bowels of planets that birthed monsters, and also a sharp tang of ozone as a thunderstorm crashed upon the ground. Each of these was warped by distance, but most notably they were all being widely stretched by the tide of emotions that each individual brought to this attempt.

Randidly could feel their hope, their desperation, their long-suppressed fear and craving. They wanted power. Now their grasping hands stained the entire Nexus.

With so many sources of these expanding waves, those clear clarion blasts of image and emotion soon became a chaotic bog. The previously distinct flavors of images and response from the Path to the Pinnacle began to blend together into a mass of certainty that settled in Randidly’s heart, urging it to beat more quickly; change was coming.

Beyond that, there was another variable that Randidly couldn’t quite understand; as if in response to the image, a neutralizing buzzing seemed to rise from some fundamental portion of the System apparatus and press against the images.

As all these powerful individuals fully flared their images and opened the door, the ghastly green tint grew even starker. Everything surged together and very obvious consequences of this challenge left Randidly feeling vaguely anxious.

I really wish I knew more about the process of the Path to the Pinnacle, Randidly chewed on his lip and tried to make sense of the chaotic energies. The System is obviously having different responses to the different images, but I don’t really understand why. It doesn’t seem like the powerful ones necessarily are surrounded by more static… could it just be a base defense installed by Elhume? I’ll need to ask Lady Iellaya.

Even as the Aether became increasingly chaotic, Randidly was able to identify all of the different energies straight due to Nether. Although the layer allowed by the System was thin, a single person attempting to reach the Pinnacle would have been significant, let alone so many surging together in an impromptu heat and dyeing the Nexus green.

It was also through Nether that Randidly located a second image that felt familiar through the chaotic surges of power: somehow, Seeker Thunder Wing was attempting to reach for the Pinnacle. It was no wonder that the image of a lightning bolt had seemed so crystal clear to him.

But how is it possible that Seeker Thunder Wing is attempting it now? He wasn’t even close to being a Speculum when I encountered him last, Randidly wondered. But then a surging counter movement drew his attention. He couldn’t see the disturbance, but through Nether he felt it with chilling clarity.

Elhume was a physical force, tearing through the energy reverberations that all these ‘Pinnacle Seekers’ released. His attention was solidified violence, ripping and destroying as the spirit of the Nexus’s creator charged forward through space to reach these challengers to his dominion. Through Randidly’s Nether senses, he could feel that Elhume had almost reached one of the first Pinnacle Seekers.

From the circumstances, it seemed that this opening of the door was an important point of interference. Based on the fact that the Nether King had safely persisted in the Path to the Pinnacle once he moved through, there wasn’t much even Elhume could do once they managed to step onto the other side.

However, for one of the attempers, the process of manifesting that door took too long. No sooner had the bleak shadow of Elhume arrived at one of these individuals than those image reverberations sputtered and died; Elhume had directly squashed this challenger and then set off toward another.

One possible Pinnacle image, severed instantly by a furious tyrant.

“You would think that with so many attempting this at once, Elhume wouldn’t be able to identify them,” Claudette sighed and shook her head. “Well… truly, Elhume is a transcendent being, to be able to accurately sense their location through so much interference.”

Randidly glanced at Claudette but didn’t correct her. With the spectral green tinge, she looked unfamiliar floating next to him. To Randidly, it seemed obvious that Elhume was also relying on Nether to keep track of these people. The images and strange static from the System might confuse the Aether, but the significance remained an obvious trail to tracking down them all.

However, another question floated to the top of Randidly’s mind as he turned back toward the action. Was it distance that made Elhume choose that individual? Or just bad luck? Because they weren’t the first person to try and reach the Pinnacle.

Elhume’s next destination was a cluster of three individuals. Based on the notes of wildness and freedom that Randidly could sense from them, they were most likely a group of isolated Pinnacle Seekers. Perhaps they believed that banding together would give them a better chance of resisting when Elhume tried to stop them.

The System interference flared higher, dwarfing even the different images until everything but Elhume was just a chaotic soup of bouncing energy waves. And Elhume was a veritable glacier of ill-will, rumbling from the first unfortunate fool to the next three.

“This is our real foe,” Randidly whispered quietly. He continued to speak even after Claudette glanced at him. “This long shadow cast by Elhume… your suitors and Commandant Wick are our current problems, but they grew into their current selves because the environment rewarded them for their darkness and malicious methods. For the sake of those that follow… for the sake of those who rely on us for protection…”

Claudette’s gaze toward Randidly changed as she heard his words and begun to hesitate. They were working together to resist the plans of Don Beigon, but Randidly had never stated his own private mission so directly. But looking up at these massively powerful players clashing, he saw no point in hiding it.

Even if she didn’t join him, Randidly doubted that she would use this information against him. The image refinement had created a certain understanding between them.

Claudette released a slow breath. “If that is truly what you intend, then you will never stop fighting. Even if- even if you somehow manage to catch up to Elhume, others will not give you peace. Watching Elhume now, do you think he achieved what he wanted, even with all the power he has? If he had, why would he struggle so hard against those now trying to reach the Pinnacle? There is no peace at the end of the Path you are suggesting.”

As if on cue, Elhume reached the group of three Pinnacle Seekers. It was a distant, invisible struggle. These lasted a bit longer than the solo individual, but one, two, three seconds passed and then had been annihilated just the same. Their destruction echoed out through the Nether layer, slapping Randidly like an unexpected splash of cold water.

The amount of force Elhume utilized must have been horrifying for him to feel it so clearly. Then, without pause, the most powerful figure in the Nexus turned and aimed for a new target: Seeker Thunder Wing.

“There is no peace,” Randidly’s eyes glittered as he thought about the generous explanation that Seeker Thunder Wing had offered for the Hierarchies. “For me at the end of the Path, yes. But this was never about me.”

Not since I became the Alpha Cosmos.

Perhaps it was because of his meeting with Seeker Thunder Wing, but Randidly could practically feel the heavy footfalls of Elhume as he devoured distance and approached his next challenger. The soundless impacts blasted out through Nether, setting Randidly’s tail to flicking fitfully every time they reached him.

Meanwhile each of the doors, at different paces, were cracking open-

RUMMMMBBBLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEE!

An oppressive cry of fury boomed outward; Seeker Thunder Wing’s Path to the Pinnacle door was one fo the first to open. The chaotic energy interference around his image finally ceased. In the next instant, Seeker Thunder Wing’s image vanished and the door closed, leaving Elhume seeping in fury. But the most powerful individual in the Nexus didn’t pause. He turned and made a beeline for another nearby individual, whose door had not yet opened.

As more proceeded to this special venue, the greenish light that soaked the Nexus began to fade.

I wonder then if the difficulty in opening the door to the Path to the Pinnacle is related to how powerful your image is, Randidly speculated. Which is why there are so many individuals attempting it; you don’t need to be at the Speculum Tier.

Of course, if it was so easy you could manage it without reaching the Speculum Tier- unless they were inspired by the actions of the Nether King, and intend to simply remain there until they can reasonably make their own attempt?

All in all, Elhume reached and crushed two more individuals before all of those who opened the Path to the Pinnacle had escaped. So of the sixteen individuals how had attempted it, only ten had made it.

Randidly remained fascinated that the entire time, the first individual to start the chain reaction hadn’t been targeted, although Nether informed him that person was the closest to Elhume. It made him wonder if Elhume hadn’t encouraged one particular individual to do it, to draw out all the others.

Which probably meant that those who intended to wait and train at the base of the Path to the Pinnacle would not easily find peace.

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