Chapter 285: The Way Inside

Though, in fairness, most of those decisions had been made before he learned how exhausting it was to care whether someone else survived them.

"We jump to that ledge, cross the pillars, and reach the lower platform," he said. "After that, we can get close enough to attack the main body."

Jade followed his line of sight and nodded. "The second pillar is unstable. Aim for the one behind it."

He stepped back, then launched himself toward the broken ledge.

His boots struck stone. The impact jarred his knees, but the ledge held. He turned and extended a hand toward Jade, who jumped after him and caught his wrist. He pulled her up, and they continued toward the next support.

The moment Jade landed, the wall above them shuddered. White tissue spilled over the edge.

It struck the platform and spread rapidly, growing into a barrier of overlapping blades. More strands descended behind it, sealing the route they had just crossed.

The Hive Mind had anticipated their approach.

Gideon stared at the barricade, then at the mass retreating toward the bridge.

"Oh, come on. You can imitate monsters, manipulate people, and grow swords out of your own body. Now you’re playing strategist?"

The layered voices of the Hive Mind drifted through the canyon, each one slightly out of sync with the others.

"You will not reach us."

Gideon rolled his eyes. "You’re right. I should probably go home and let you eat everyone in peace."

"Join us. Your strength will be preserved. Your desires will be fulfilled. You will never be weak again."

There it was again. The offer.

Apparently, the parasite had decided that threatening him wasn’t enough, so now it was trying to recruit him. Gideon couldn’t decide whether that was an insult to his intelligence or a compliment to his combat ability.

"You know what your problem is?" he called back. "You keep offering me things I don’t want."

The tissue surged toward him.

Gideon met it with his sword. He cut through the first layer, then the second, forcing his way toward the main mass.

The tissue was tougher where it had grown thickest, but the Unbreakable Sword could still sever it with enough force. Jade followed close behind, redirecting the severed strands before they could wrap around their legs.

The moment Gideon opened a gap, the Hive Mind closed it again. He struck a second time but more tissue rushed in.

It was like trying to dig through a wall that was actively repairing itself. Every second he spent cutting was another second the parasite gained on them.

Worse, he could see the bridge shifting beneath the mass. The Hive Mind was moving faster now, dragging its outer layers along the ground while the aberrants it had created scattered across the surrounding platforms to slow their pursuit.

Gideon gritted his teeth. He could keep cutting. He was strong enough to carve through a considerable amount of the tissue, and Jade could help keep the path open.

But the parasite had an enormous body, and there was no guarantee that reaching its center from the outside would accomplish anything.

He needed to understand what they were actually fighting. His mind returned to the figure he had glimpsed earlier, a human shape suspended within the white mass.

At the time, he hadn’t been able to get a proper look. The tissue had closed around the figure before he could determine whether it was a corpse, a mutated host, or something else entirely.

But the Hive Mind had reacted whenever he approached that area.

It had protected the figure.

And now it was moving away from them, carrying that same concentration of energy deeper into its body.

Why? If the host was already dead, there would be little reason to protect it so carefully. The parasite could simply abandon the body and continue spreading through its network.

Unless the host was still alive.

Gideon’s expression hardened.

He remembered the people who had been swallowed by the white mass, the ones who had fallen into illusions constructed from their memories. The Hive Mind could reproduce voices and manipulate what its victims saw, but that didn’t necessarily mean it could create a fully functioning consciousness from nothing.

The people it swallowed were trapped in fabricated realities while the parasite used their bodies and memories as part of its network.

If the consciousness inside the mass was the central nexus Patrick had suspected, destroying it might sever the connections between the Hive Mind and its infected hosts. The people under its control might finally have a chance to wake up.

And if he could reach the host, he might be able to stop the entire network.

The problem was getting there.

"Jade!" he called, stepping away from another wave of blades. "That concentrated energy you’re tracking. Is it protected by the outer tissue, or is the entire mass connected to it?"

"The entire mass is connected," she answered, her eyes following the shifting strands. "But the concentration itself is much denser. It’s different from the energy moving through the rest of the body."

"So cutting the outer layers won’t necessarily hurt it."

"Not unless we reach the right place."

Gideon let out a humorless laugh. "Wonderful. We’re fighting an enormous parasite with a moving target hidden inside it, and the only person who can track that target is standing next to me while the whole damn settlement collapses."

Jade glanced at him. "You forgot the part where it keeps making monsters."

"Thank you. I was trying to stay optimistic."

She smiled briefly, but her expression soon grew serious again. The Hive Mind was approaching the bridge, and the structures around them were beginning to buckle. They were running out of time.

Gideon looked at the main body once more.

He had faced the Verdant Devourer when he was far weaker than he was now. Back then, the serpent’s scales had resisted nearly everything he threw at it. He had survived by turning its own body into a trap, allowing himself to be swallowed and then carving his way out from the inside.

It had been a terrible plan. It had also worked.

The Hive Mind was not a serpent, and entering its body would be considerably more dangerous than getting swallowed by a giant aberrant. It could manipulate his senses, bury him in illusions, and possibly turn his own memories against him. If the network reached his mind before he found the host, he might end up trapped just like the others.

Still, attacking from the outside was getting them nowhere.

Gideon adjusted his grip on the Unbreakable Sword.

He wasn’t particularly fond of plans that involved voluntarily entering the digestive system of a giant monster. He had already done that once, and he considered it an experience he didn’t need to repeat.

Unfortunately, the universe had never shown much respect for his preferences.

"Tell me something," he said, keeping his eyes on the Hive Mind. "If I can get inside that thing, can you still sense the consciousness?"

Jade turned toward him. She studied his face for a moment, and he could practically see her putting the pieces together.

"Gideon, what are you thinking?"

"Cutting it from the outside is a waste of time. It keeps repairing itself, and every time we get close, it moves the target deeper into its body." He nodded toward the retreating mass. "If that thing has a central host, I need to reach it directly."

Jade’s eyes widened slightly, not with surprise at his willingness to take a risk, but with the realization of what the plan would require.

"You want to enter the Hive Mind. But even so, do you think this thing will stop moving to the evacuation route?"

"I’ve had worse ideas and you are here." he grabbed her hand, "I need you to make sure you can alert the people that might still be in that evacuation point and didn’t know the hive mind was moving."

"That’s not reassuring."

"Would you prefer an honest answer? I think there’s a very good chance this is going to be unpleasant."

She exhaled through her nose, almost laughing despite the circumstances. Then she looked toward the mass, her expression settling into determination.

"If you can get inside, I’ll keep tracking the energy concentration for as long as I can. I may be able to guide you toward it. But it will take time, I need to save the remains of my people first."

Gideon looked at her. There was no hesitation in her voice. She understood the risk, and she was still willing to help him. He had known she would be stubborn about saving her people and he hoped she wouldn’t sacrifice herself for it.

He wanted to ask her about it. But the Hive Mind was already crossing the bridge.

There would be time for that conversation only if they survived.

"All right," Gideon said, turning back toward the mass. "Let’s get inside before our oversized parasite decides to move house again."

He then bought another teleportation scroll from the system and gave it to her, "Just in case, you know where you need to go. Cinder of Dusk will always welcome you and your people."

Jade’s eyes started to tremble, but she took the scroll and put it behind her jacket.

"I understood. But you need to survive, Gideon." She kissed him gently.

"I will."

He raised his sword and started forward. The Hive Mind responded immediately. Its body swelled, and dozens of sharpened growths erupted from the white tissue, forming a wall of blades between them and the retreating mass.

Gideon tightened his grip on the hilt.

He was done chasing it. If the only way to stop the Hive Mind was to enter the place where it kept its consciousness hidden, then that was exactly what he would do.