Chapter 1505 (1/2)

The Fifth Cohort Rally Station reminded Randidly of the teleportation relay stations pretty directly. It was perhaps five times the size of the initial teleporter relay that Randidly had landed on as he arrived at the Nexus and was part of a closer orbiting ring of landmasses, but otherwise, it was the same rather dusty stone plateaus floating below the brilliant star system that felt so close to the Nexus.

In addition, it didn’t appear to be a very well developed area. There were a few cramped buildings toward the middle of the Rally Station, and there appeared to be a few construction crews working to throw up a few more hunched buildings, but it was obviously a desolate location.

Randidly paused as they arrived and looked to his left, off the edge of the Rally Station and toward the Nexus. Because the Rally Stations were floating in a much closer ring, the Nexus was no longer just a lurking shadow in the distance. Now, Randidly felt like he was standing at the base of an enormous mountain range. The bottom portion of this central gathering place was covered in thick mist, but Randidly could now see exactly how massive the foundations of the Nexus truly were.

From that churning, rumbling, mysterious machinery rose the Nexus proper. It was a towering pillar that was topped with a gleaming city of which Randidly still couldn’t make out any distinct details, despite his 200 more points he put into Grim Intuition. Narrowing his eyes, Randidly stared toward the massive Nexus for several more seconds. Then he turned and followed Octavius toward the grouping of buildings at the center of the Rally Station.

“Are you ready?” Octavius asked in a low voice. “You just need to report to the Rally Station Superintendent. He will indicate where your recruits will be reporting in twelve hours. Then you should proceed to that area and begin making preparations-”

“I got it, Octavius,” Randidly waved his hand tiredly. The Overseer had been nagging at him the entire trip to the Rally Station. In spite of himself, Randidly couldn’t help but spare another glance toward the Nexus. At the very least, he was beginning to understand why the Nexus was so difficult to perceive with his senses: there were different layers to its reality.

When Randidly had activated his Tier I citizenship, he had felt another piece of Aether attach to himself. But rather than affecting his body, it seemed to act as a lens that let him witness a layer of carefully manicured Aether that layover and under certain portions of the Nexus. The reason that he needed Citizenship to work here was because he would have been unable to perceive the Rally Station without this Citizenship.

That realization had been… disturbing. He had been walking past an entire Nexus that hadn’t even been able to notice. Not that Randidly had spent much time exploring the Nexus, but it still bothered him quite a bit. The more time he spent here, the more he realized he might still be underestimating what was present here.

However, now that he was aware of what he had been missing, Randidly could see the ‘shadows’ of these other layers all around him. They were especially dense around the Nexus proper, but he could tell that there was a lot to the Nexus that he wasn’t currently seeing. As he now looked through space, his Aether Perception just barely was able to brush against those secret places. What had briefly appeared to Randidly as a strangely industrial energy plant with a city built on top of it now became only the barest tip of the iceberg.

Octavius looked at Randidly with an exasperated expression as he continued to focus toward the Nexus, and not on the task at hand. “...if you understand, that’s fine. Just remember that although the compensation you can receive is lucrative, that’s not just because of the Nether threat. It’s because these ‘elites’ you’ll be training are the pet projects of people of actual clout. This might be a time where the pen will be mightier than the sword; making some connections in the Nexus wouldn’t be such a bad outcome from this. Earning the approval of the Superintendent would be a good start.’

Randidly nodded to show his agreement, while inwardly knowing that him being able to charm some of these people into friendship was almost guaranteed to be impossible. But there was no reason to so obviously douse Octavius’ hopes.

Three squat and grey buildings crouched in the middle of the Rally Station with only a few feet of space between them, as though they were gathering together for warmth. A featureless grey flag flew at the top of the largest and, seemingly, the squattest. Randidly raised an eyebrow at Octavius. The Overseer shrugged. “An old habit of the Nexus military. They fly a blank flag over their central commands due to one of the only successful attacks on Elhume to ever occur. Apparently, his images were so damaged that they were unrecognizable for months afterward. This blank flag is a symbol of the Nexus’ ability to recover from anything.”

Randidly nodded idly. There weren’t any guards at the door, but as the duo approached the doors opened and two sharply dressed lizard people stepped outside to hold the doors open for them. They both had a sword strapped to each hip and saluted as Randidly and Octavius approached. Randidly pressed his lips together slightly when neither would meet his gaze. Somehow, that irritated him.

As he walked past them, he sensed the first thread of strangeness and paused as he passed over the threshold. Randidly didn’t miss the way one of the guards audibly gulped as he did so. Pursing his lips, Randidly continued forward.

The mood within the building was just as intense and foreboding as the exterior would have suggested. In front of them was a long grey hallway lined with black doors. The handles to the doors were white. They passed quickly through this monochrome limbo, Octavius heading straight down the hall and Randidly followed at a more considered pace. He focused on the emotions in the surroundings. The Stillborn Phoenix was still working on improving, but he could gradually get a sense of a place by breathing in some of the ambient emotions.

This place… Randidly frowned. He could taste the edge of madness on the air. And it seemed to seethe around them, constantly growing worse.

At the end of the hallway was a black door that was larger than any of the others, manned by a guard. The doorknob on this door was silver, which a nearby guard twisted to open the door for the duo. This guard did glance at Randidly, but his eyes were narrowed and nervous. What was the strangest was that the fear that Randidly sensed… was clearly directed toward him.

That caused Randidly to blink.

Within the door was a normal office, if a bit tackily decorated, also in monochrome. There were impressively large windows along the far wall, but without curtains, they were just rectangles hanging on the wall. A humanoid with pale skin sat behind the desk, his eyes moving rapidly back and forth Octavius and Randidly, searching for something in their expressions and postures. Randidly’s mind began to spin with more certainty. The madness that he had briefly sensed outside was originating from this room. It even smelled like desperation in here. The pale-skinned humanoid had started it, but now the emotion had spread to cover the whole of the building.

Worse, there was a familiar image lingering here.

Witnessing this central point of the madness, Randidly almost immediately recognized that image. Gradually he began to frown. Commandant Wick…?

“Drill Sergeant Ghosthound, Sir!” The man behind the desk sprung to his feet as though his completely obsidian chair had only just been belched out from the mouth of a live volcano and walked around the desk with a face covered in fake smiles. As he was wringing his hands, his pale knuckles were red from the stress-induced pressure. “So glad to finally meet you sir. I’m the Rally Point Superintendent, Jym Xeruth. Ah… I bet you want to see the new plans, sir. No doubt you noticed the construction outside. If you will look right here…”