Chapter 295: The Ore-Flesh Beast

The faithful cavorted around me, lost in celebration, while I simply watched from my place on the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder. The other disciples were nearby, scattered throughout the crowd and attending to the Great Core’s faithful in their own ways. Needle was teaching a few interested tiny Coreless how to use small needle-spitters, their diminutive muscles straining with the force required to pull the strings back. The Unrepentant One pitted himself against a few of the stronger faithful, competing over who could carry the largest rocks. Will was checking in on those who organized the others, making noises at them one by one. The Grateful One had hardly managed to walk a step without one of the newest tiny Coreless grasping onto her limbs, eventually ending in an evershifting pile of little ones atop her.

It was hard to know what to focus on.

In the past, when there weren’t so many [Little Guardian’s Totem]s and the faithful to wear them, I had been able to check in on each and every flare of emotion that crossed the connection to me - or, at the very least, the strongest of them.

Now, there were more strong emotions than I knew what to do with in a single moment. The connections stretched out wide, spanning this many-nest and the two previous, each with their own faithful to draw my attention.

It was glorious - and overwhelming.

I wouldn’t change it for anything.

I couldn’t help but think back to the time when I was the only follower of the Great Core, a tiny snake alone behind our wall-cracks. Then, the weakest of bad-things could have threatened us both. Now, the Great Core’s glory was known far and wide, with more faithful than I could have ever imagined possible.

Faithful that were far more powerful than I ever would have imagined, too. The Great Core was truly the Greatest of all Cores.

I hissed with satisfaction, curling contentedly across not-Needle’s shoulder. Her hand reached up to brush against my scales, miraculously finding a spot that had just begun to itch.

It wasn’t the only itch; deep within my soul, in the mind-nest that contained my very being, a seed continued its attempts to bloom. It scratched at me with sharpened tendrils that occasionally burst free from its shell, constantly reminding me that it existed - that I was close to something monumental, if only I knew how to get there.

As I watched the Coreless cavort about in [glee] and [celebration], the seed twitched again. A few more tendrils reached out, roots brushing against me, before they retreated shyly back into their shell-cracks.

Not yet ready. Close, but not yet.

The tingling of the seed was only matched by the other pressure that pressed against my mind-nest. The [Soul Fragment]s of the blasphemers - and one unfortunate bad-thing that had been forced into the mix. Hissing in wrath and pain, the conglomeration of souls that I’d forced into service waged war against me, raging against their continued subjugation.

I wrapped them in my mind’s coils again, once more crushing them into submission before they could force their way free.

Absorbed Soul Fragments Temporarily Subjugated.

[Death Boost] Extended.

Just as I began to relax again, content in the knowledge that the souls of the Great Core’s enemies would continue to fuel my strength, I noticed something odd slipping through one of the connections I was bound to - one of the invisible linkages I held with the Great Core’s faithful. The [Little Guardian’s Totem]s were a constant presence that was hard to ignore, but most of them were currently experiencing similar emotions.

This one was different.

It was [excited], [fearful], [thrilled], [saddened] and more, all at once. It wasn’t often that one of the faithful experienced such a dizzying mixture of emotions at once, all seeming to conflict with one another. It could have been nothing. It also could have been something.

I dove in curiously, slithering through the connection, my thought-flesh drifting towards the faithful at the other end.

“...a little further now,” the faithful murmured under his breath, striding down a sort of tunnel that I’d never seen. At its end, there was a large moving-wall guarded by two other Coreless. They weren’t two of the Great Core’s faithful; I would have been able to feel that. Still, my faithful somehow convinced the pair to step aside with a few noises, and he stepped through the moving-wall with hardly any resistance.

I wasn’t sure what the purpose of the moving-wall was, nor why two Coreless were standing beside it. If it couldn’t be trusted to block the entrance to the next tunnel without any Coreless around to watch it, then why was it even there?

Before I could figure it out, my attention was drawn away to more important matters. There was a sudden surge of [worry] and [fear] from elsewhere in the many-nest. I slipped away from the connection that led to the faithful that I’d been watching over, instead plunging my thought-self into one of the others.

“It’s going to be okay, sweetie,” the female faithful whispered, stroking the hair of a tiny Coreless as she watched from within the embrace of nearby plant-flesh. The sounds were comforting; I could feel it in the way that the tiny Coreless’ trembling eased, and in the way the [Little Guardian’s Totem] around his neck began to release a greater sense of [calm]. “The Little Guardian is watching over us.”

Despite the comforting tone of her words, she shivered. Her hand reached towards the [Little Guardian’s Totem] hanging from her neck, clutching it between clammy fingers.

Something large creaked in the cavern ahead of the two of them, but it didn’t sound like the Great Core’s plant-flesh faithful for once. I couldn’t make out what it was - not unless the faithful whose perspective I had slithered into chose to turn around and look in its direction. Instead, I could only see the thick plant-flesh that blocked her vision.

The faithful and her tiny spawn were at the edge of the ring of plant-flesh that I had grown to surround the many-nest, hidden from something that approached it. I wasn’t sure what had brought them outside, nor what was bringing them back in with such desperation, but I was sure I’d soon find out. As if responding to the thought, the nearest plant-flesh seemed to pulse. In a wave of undulating colors, thorns found themselves faced towards the unknown threat, barbs pointed in the direction of the unknown, and spore-sacs inflated aggressively.

My faithful’s vision turned, looking back towards the tiny Coreless beside her.

“I need you to stay here for me, sweetie,” she whispered again. “Can you be brave and do that for me?”

The tiny Coreless looked up, nodding [tentatively]. As my vision started away from her, I sent a thought-hiss towards the surrounding plant-flesh, commanding them to keep the small one particularly safe. I wasn’t sure what it was that my faithful was hiding from, but I thought it might have been rather dangerous.

She inched closer, plant-flesh gently swaying aside with every step, until I finally caught sight of the thing that was making so much noise - just as it finally stopped making noise. My faithful stopped along with it, and her [unease] spiked.

There was an ore-flesh beast coming to a stop just outside. It was massive, more than two not-Needles tall and fifteen long, split into segments that undulated oddly as it moved. Mana sparked across its entire surface, shining brightly with arcane power. Its segments, formed of shining ore-flesh, did their best to imitate the ultimate form - as if each came together to form something as close to a slithering tail as possible, though split into more pieces than I could easily count.

Even restricted to the paltry senses of my faithful, I could almost feel the mana radiating off of it. The ore-flesh beast was as powerful as it was unthinking. Another creation of the Coreless, like the ore-flesh that they stretched across their skins.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I wanted it. I would have it. The Great Core demanded it. Unthinking as it was, its powerful form would still be a worthy addition to the ranks of the faithful. For, surely, even an unthinking beast could be made more under the light of the Greatest of Cores.

The ore-flesh beast hissed, steam rising in a cloud.

It split open.

Ore-flesh spilled aside like a liquid, moving seamlessly away from its center mass. In that mass, I spotted the Coreless that must have created it. The first of them ducked beneath the cracked-open shell, standing taller than nearly every Coreless I knew. If it weren’t for my undead-self, that overlarge example of a blasphemer that I had captured and made my own not so long ago, he would certainly have been larger than every Coreless I had ever seen.

Even then, it was close. There were only a scant few slithers in height between the two, and this one was covered in ore-flesh that looked dangerous. It fit like scales, every piece perfectly placed against the next. I couldn’t see a single space that could fit my fangs, unlike the ore-flesh that had covered the blasphemers.

The other dozen or so Coreless that followed them were no less equipped, though none came even close to the utter size of the first. Regardless, I could tell that they were dangerous. It was in the way they moved. Some stepped in a way that propelled them too far, mana-enhanced strength bound tightly within their limbs. Others simply moved fast, in a way that reminded me of the-female-who-was-not-Needle.

Even those who did neither were clearly different from normal Coreless. Closer to the Great Core’s first disciples than anything else. Powerful.

I let out another thought-hiss, and the plant-flesh surrounding my faithful began to wrap itself tighter around her, shielding her from view until even I would have struggled to spot the eyes that watched from between the spaces in the plant-flesh.

The faithful had a moment of [surprise], followed directly by [gratefulness]. She opened her mouth, and I commanded the plant-flesh closer to the mysterious group of Coreless to rustle and shake in distraction.

“Thank you, Little Guardian,” she whispered, one hand wrapped around the [Little Guardian’s Totem] at her neck.

The sudden rustling of plant-flesh drew the Coreless’ attention, and a few of them began to move close enough for my faithful to hear the noises they made to one another.

“Fucking outers,” one of them spat. “Can’t even take care of their own city. It’s only been a year. What is this shit? I could barely even see the damn towers over it - and what in the Skies is up with the height of those fucking trees?”

“Careful,” another said, taking one step forward followed by another back when the plant-flesh bristled aggressively. “Look. It’s responding. I don’t like the look of this.”

“‘Course it is,” the first spat again. “I say we just plow straight through it in the manacrawler. See how it responds to that.”

The other laughed. “You volunteering to explain the damage to command? Last I checked, these crawlers cost more than your entire bloodline has ever earned.”

“Please, it’s not like it’ll even take a scratch. This thing could take a minor Ascended and keep going.”

For a short while, the two stopped paying attention to the plant-flesh in front of them. Instead, they focused on each other, making even more incomprehensible noises. If they had been connected to me through a [Little Guardian’s Totem], I was sure that the noises they continued to make would have been accompanied with [aggression] and [anger].

It started abruptly.

In a flash of motion that my faithful’s eyes could barely keep up with, the first of the Coreless slammed into the other.

The blow landed with the sound of two boulders colliding. It sent the second of the Coreless tumbling backwards, ore-flesh scraping tiny furrows across the cavern floor before he caught himself on one knee.

For the briefest of moments, the only thing I could hear was my faithful’s ragged breathing.

Then, the fallen Coreless stood with a roar that shook my faithful’s very bones. It was a physical thing, mana manifesting in a way that I’d never seen before from a Coreless - with sound sharpened into a deadly fang.

[Sound Shaping], almost, but not quite so controlled. Whatever it was, though, it was strong.

Something in my faithful’s ears popped. She almost fell to one knee, held up only by the plant-flesh that wrapped around her. The [Little Guardian’s Totem] heated across her palm, where she held it tight, and the damage repaired itself.

By the time that it did, though, and the faithful whose perspective I was watching from looked up again, the Coreless had finished fighting amongst themselves. Now, the fast one was holding a hand to his head, wobbling. Meanwhile, the one that had done something with his voice was being confronted by a few of the other Coreless.

They didn’t seem to care that the fast one had started it, only that they’d been affected by the powerful roar.

It took a while for them to settle and decide to return to the insides of the ore-flesh beast; a few more brief fights broke out in the meantime, each one concerningly powerful even if they were brief. It seemed that while the strangely powerful Coreless were volatile enough to confront one another with very little reason, they were also volatile enough to suddenly decide to stop with just as little reason.

I was momentarily curious about what that kind of volatility might feel like through a [Little Guardian’s Totem], but I dismissed it. If the [fear] and [recognition] that spilled through my faithful’s own [Little Guardian’s Totem] was anything to go by, then these Coreless were not members of the future faithful.

She knew them. She feared them.

That was fine. I wasn’t sure that I could have trusted them around me, anyway. With the kind of volatility that they were showing, combined with the absurd mana-enhancement that all of them clearly possessed, I would have been in constant danger of forming a false-life any time they came near.

It wasn’t until a short while later that I realized what was so familiar about them.

“Aggressive, aren’t they?” one of the Coreless laughed, the ore-flesh surrounding him turning incorporeal and allowing a lashing vine to pass directly through his body. He faded back into existence immediately afterwards, reaching out a hand to grab the vine before it could escape. It thrashed in his ore-flesh covered grip fruitlessly, neither able to injure or escape.

It was the same ore-flesh covering that the Grateful One now wore, scavenged from a dead Coreless in the second of the Great Core’s many-nests. All of them wore the same, I now realized.

I also realized that meant the Coreless were far, far more dangerous than even their impressive mana-enhancements made them appear.

The laughing Coreless sliced apart the vine with an ore-flesh fang, cutting straight through it and examining the remains.

“Weird.”

He tossed it aside; the severed length of vine writhed where it landed, the remnants of [Spore Puppeteer]s roots doing its best to continue the lost battle - but only for a brief moment, after which the roots, bereft of a living host, died out.

“...very weird.”

The inquisitive Coreless abandoned the remains of the vine, instead walking closer to the edge of the plant-flesh that I’d created. I allowed a few more vines to whip in his direction, curious about his reaction speed. Even without being one of the Coreless that was as fast as not-Needle, he was still quick enough to allow each and every attack to momentarily phase through him, slapping fruitlessly through his incorporeal form.

It seemed like he couldn’t keep it going forever, though. Eventually, the Coreless retreated and phased back into existence entirely, no longer choosing to contend with the aggressive plant-flesh. Still, it was clear that the Coreless’ reaction speed was more than enough to handle the surrounding plant-flesh with ease. I had to assume that he wasn’t unique. That all of the Coreless in the group could do the same.

Which was a problem.

The oversized Coreless who emerged first from the ore-flesh beast folded his arms, the ore-flesh that covered him scraping together with a metallic growl.

“Alright,” he said. “It’s time to stop playing around, Malken. It’s too difficult to tell just how far these Skies-damned plants have taken root, and I’m not going to force everyone to flicker-phase our way through. We’ll go ahead and push our way through with the crawler. Hopefully our xenlite pickup will still be waiting at the other end. Everyone, load back up.”

As the gathered Coreless began to return to the ore-flesh beast, slipping inside of it just as easily as they’d exited, my faithful started to turn around and leave. She carefully walked through rows of plant-flesh that swayed away to allow her passage. Somewhere behind her, I could make out the sound of the ore-flesh beast beginning to move again - and then a deafening cacophony as plant-flesh crumbled against its hardened surface.

I let out another thought-hiss, and the plant-flesh around my faithful stopped merely allowing her passage. Instead, they sped her along. With that, it didn’t take long at all for the faithful to reach the place where the tiny Coreless was still hiding. She scooped the little one up in her arms and continued to run, heading for the nearest offspring of the Darkwood Guardian.

Their home, I assumed.

I took a moment to command the plant-flesh around it to grow faster, pulling from the potential of the other plant-flesh that existed within the many-nest. It grew thick; dangerous; powerful.

I did the same with the plant-flesh that I knew lay in the path of the ore-flesh beast, though I couldn’t be entirely sure of where it would eventually go.

It mattered little.

The unthinking beast plowed straight through, and my connection to much of the plant-flesh in its path disappeared.

My faithful and her tiny Coreless were eventually passed by undetected, but I knew that it wasn’t over. I knew that, whoever those new Coreless and their ore-flesh beast had been, they were likely my enemy.

One that, if I were being honest, I wasn’t sure the Great Core’s faithful and I were yet strong enough to defeat without more sacrifices than I wanted to accept.

I needed to prepare.

Just as I had that thought, I felt another spike of strange emotions from elsewhere in the many-nest; it was the same faithful as before, the one who had defeated a moving-wall that was being accompanied by two Coreless. After being surprised by the strangely powerful group of Coreless only moments before, I wasn’t about to leave any stone unturned or any crack unchecked.

I slithered down the connection again, slipping away from the faithful I’d been accompanying and into the perspective of the other.

Immediately, what I saw made me begin to salivate. It seemed that I’d been worried for nothing. There, resting gently in the hands of the faithful, was the answer to the very problem I’d been facing.