The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

Randidly ripped through the temporal fabric and suddenly several separated timelines crashed together into a messy pile of forces. His outside zone, the middle borderland where the Vulpis Squad and Edraine had been fighting, and also the area above Elhume’s body once more were brought into alignment.

Gusts of wind blasted out from the sudden 'imapcts' but were smothered by an even more ominous presence.

Pine manifested in the sky above Randidly, opening like the mouth of a vengeful god to swallow them all. And then on and on, eating through the entire Nexus without ever experiencing satiation. The dirt beneath their feet began to steadily vanish, scrubbed from existence by the weight of Pine’s shadow.

For a split second, the people in the middle timeline withered underneath the pressure released by Pine. Their images sputtered and shrank. This brave group of soldiers had experienced extremely impressive Nether Core development, but that just meant they weren’t instantly gobbled from existence by that ominous mouth in the sky. They shrunk and hunched their shoulders, their life force stripped from their skin, the emotion sucked out from their bodies by that vast absence that had once been a Shallah.

The hanging conglomeration of Grand Fates left by Devick wavered uncertainly, even their power suppressed by this being.

Guided into place by a beacon of rage, Randidly’s image snapped into existence and extended across them all. He wore a cloak woven from a thousand nights, he was a World Tree that stood up against the forces of the coming apocalypse, he housed an event horizon of his own that released an intoxicating song of annihilation. His eyes blazed as he looked up at the situation Pine and Solomon Rex had created.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Yyrflesh Vessel of Yggdrasil (GD) has grown to Level 1455!

Congratulations! Your Skill The Homunculi Pursues Perfection (GD) has grown to Level 1095!

They primed Pine to the point he would arrive in the Nexus like a wrecking ball. His once-empty emotional sea was filled with choppy and thick waters that spun and spat. Deep, complex currents guided all that potency into destructive whirlpools. Randidly’s eyebrows drew together. They haven’t been trying to prevent a problem; since realizing they could make use of me, they have been making the problem worse so I would have no choice but to help, or all the people in the Nexus to die.

Randidly’s protection didn’t just cover his immediate subordinates below. He stood between doom and the rest of the Nexus, soaking up the brunt of Pine’s constant need to devour significance. In a way, Randidly did feel responsible; he had liberated the worst and deepest danger from Elhume’s frozen body. Yet after that point, it was the machinations of these two blithe horrors that led to this situation. Do the lives of these people… really mean so little to you…?

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrflesh Vessel of Yggdrasil (GD) has grown to Level 1481!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nyx’s Successor Births Fate (GD) has grown to Level 1120!

“Is this what you wanted?” Solomon’s voice rose above the dull grinding of reality being stripped away in the presence of Pine’s corpse. “Mutually assured destruction, Randidly Ghosthound?”

“You believe you are so different from us,” Compared to the clarion release of Solomon’s voice, Fiero whispered. But the words carried just as well due to his hissing voice. “And yet, here you are dooming the Nexus in the same way we have. Heh, not only have you stolen the possibility from us, but you are also walking the same Narrow Path to reach the top. Your self-righteousness didn’t amount to much, in the end.”

Randidly pressed his lips together. More and more of his skin began to burn, as he channeled so much of the need of Pine and endured it with his body. His halo or protection channeled all the burden onto himself. Yet this absence too was a sort of ‘Truth’ one of a corpse plucked clean by cosmic horrors and infected with their most destructive impulses.

But exposure would refine his vessel. And then-

A flicker of movement caught his eye and Randidly glanced down. In the umbrella of protection he had cast over the Vulpis Squad, a legion of porcelain dolls began shakily standing. And at their center, Randidly recognized the warped form of Xershi’s creator, it’s limbs someone resonating with the pulses of time.

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His lip curled. Actually, I’ve needed a little boost. Songstress?

An event horizon opened like an eye and eclipsed the left half of Randidly’s face. His gaze turned down amongst the lingering resistance and ravaged the unsuspecting dolls. They crumbled from existence, all of their animating essence devoured by the dangerous music from the void.

Congratulations! Your Skill Hungry Eyes, Hollow Heart, Cadence of Tragedy (GD) has grown to Level 1167!

“YOU!” Xershi’s ancient master’s liquid body bulged and swelled as his minions died. Its torso became a mouth that opened and revealed vicious teeth. “Randidly Ghosthound! Why do you always insist on stopping me, when I’m so close-”

Randidly flexed his hands and tore open a rift in the air and shot down toward the liquid metal octopi. As powerful as the image reverberations were, this ancient being cackled and shifted through different temporal layers to dodge the attack. But today had been a long day for Randidly; not only did he need to fight through millions of Timeless fists, but Yggdrasil had taken a few bites of time to develop to its final form.

So roots swam rapidly forward to catch up to the attack, wrapping around the temporal waves and pulling them aside to clear the path to the target. The dark rift glided forward. Right before impact, Xershi’s master seemed to realize the danger. He rapidly twisted his body, his liquid metal becoming a vortex to smother the attack.

Randidly smiled. That defense would have worked before this long series of fights, but not after. He finally understood the vessel he possessed. The notes of truth sang in his chest. He pressed his will against the world-

-and the rift he created devoured Xershi’s Master until nothing remained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Singularity Engulfs the Finite (GD) has grown to Level 750!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Singularity Engulfs the Finite (GD) has grown to Level 861!

Congratulations! You have reached Level 100! +8 Stats distributed between (Base Names) Vitality, Perception, Resist, Intelligence, and Control, +38 Free Stats! +1 Stat to a Mental Stat. +1 to a Physical Defense Stat. +1 to a Mental Support Stat. +2 Control. +156 Health, +165 Mana, +160 Stamina, +6.5 to all Regenerations! +1 to Health and Stamina Regeneration! +2 to all Stats

Due to Guidance of the Wraith Adder, +4 Dreadful Alacrity and +2 Bonus Stats!

Due to the Alchemist’s Passport, +3 Cognition of the Aberrant Alchemist, Deity’s Ruthless Cerebral Scope, and Exquisite Piety, +4 Predictive Synapses and Grim Intuition

Due to Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, +1 Grim Intuition, +1 Predictive Synapses, +1 Exquisite Piety, and +3 Discretion of the Apostate Moirae per Level.

Due to Hierarchy of Burden, +4 Homunculi’s Engineered Perfection and Carrion Dragon’s Carapace per Level.

Due to Visage of Obsession, +10 Discretion of the Apostate Moirae, +50 Mana per Level.

Due to Codex Hexahedron, +7 Grim Intuition, +6 Chimeric Indifference, +10 Stamina per Level.

Due to Keystone of the First Ghasthund, +8 Predictive Synapses, +15 Grey Monarch’s Authority.

Pantheon Intervention. Recalculating…

Congratulations! You have reached Level 100 and unlocked the possibility of creating a Grand Fate!

Grand Fates currently available to you: Myth of the Alpha Cosmos is open to you! Randidly Ghosthound, Moirae Chimera is open to you! Temporal Wanderer and Cultivator of Miracles is open to you! Genesis and Cataclysm, the Cycle of a World Tree’s Seasons is open to you!

The Vast and Fleeting Path of the Shallah will soon open to you!

*****

Devick sat on her butt, looking up at the swirling vortex of energy they had helped to consolidate. On either side of her, Lowanna and Enmya were similarly splayed out with their limbs stretched wide. Their exhausted pants were the only noise left in the destroyed valley.

“I cannot believe… truly, how can he contain such darkness?” Enmya huffed out his words.

“All living beings contain multitudes, Enmya. Do not underestimate the complexity of the soul,” Lowanna chided him. Still, she also seemed dazed by their recent experiences. “However… the Ghosthound is uniquely animated by the presence of the Alpha Cosmos. Even I… well, I did not expect this. It is… fascinating.”

Around them, amongst the stretches of broken ground, the fractured bodies of the zombie Randidlys lay like a thousand toys discarded by bored children after they broke from vigorous play. Devick liked their haphazardly sticking limbs, their vacant eyes. It simultaneously filled her with a horrified thrill, to be standing in a graveyard of his negative emotions. Although she hadn’t served the main role, she had fought through his darkness and emerged unscaled.

Devick’s eyes slowly rose and looked at the result of their efforts. The thick and dark energy of Nether smoothed and refined itself to the point it had become a translucent membrane of energy, with a gleaming emerald core sitting in the center. And at the center of the emerald core…

“It looks like an eye,” Devick whispered. Enmya grimaced.

Lowanna gave a slow nod and said. “Indeed. And the balance isn’t fully complete. I would say it currently sits at about 95%; it will still accelerate and stabilize further. And when that happens… Randidly Ghosthound’s Hungry Eye will truly open. He will stand on a new plateau of Nether accomplishment. One not seen for ten thousand years.”