Chapter 305: Shared Acceleration

Current Progress: ….3%

The thought-light continued on, even as my fangs dipped through the usurper’s flesh. In that same moment, [Acceleration Gale] began to fail me, wrapping itself around the usurper’s body just as it did my scale-flesh. It wasn’t a surprise; when I came so close to another, close enough that my fangs slipped beneath flesh, [Acceleration Gale] automatically adjusted to compensate, the time-hastening wind eager to spread. It was as if it hated being confined. It wanted to slip free, to stretch far and wide until it encompassed anything and everything.

I knew that I couldn’t fight it and the first usurper all at once.

I didn’t even try.

Instead, I let the gale run wild. It spread even further, catching against the nearby plant-flesh and the flames that had begun to consume them. [Mana Fire] twisted under my direction, shifting into a blaze of [Chrono Fire] that formed a ring around the first usurper and I. The time-swallowing flames reacted strangely to the winds of [Acceleration Gale], rapidly growing in strength and effect until I was confident that the two of us were almost completely isolated from any interference.

If the second usurper tried to slip through the flames, he would find himself slowed for long enough - between the fast-spot of [Acceleration Gale] that surrounded the first usurper and I as well as the slow-spot of the enhanced [Chrono Fire] itself - that the fight would already be over.

I simply needed to make the time I’d stolen count.

Current Progress: ….4%

I shook my head, flinging away the distraction of the thought-light even as my fangs rent through already-rotting flesh.

“You!” the first usurper hissed rather impressively. I bit down again, stoically ignoring his attempt at slithering down the proper path. There would be no forgiveness, no matter how impressive of a hiss he could manage.

In what I could only imagine was panic, the usurper tried to fling himself in the previously dying faithful’s direction - in his [Little Guardian’s Totem]s direction, more accurately - only to slow as he pressed against the [Chrono Fire] near his feet. I carefully stayed out of it; though I could ignore the slow-spot of [Chrono Fire] with [Traveler], that would also mean that I became immune to its opposite in [Acceleration Gale].

I bit down again and again, taking advantage of the new difference in time between myself and the usurper, emptying out the venom in my fangs even as I made sure to keep the illusion of the powerful serpent between the two of us and the outside world.

With no stolen [Little Guardian’s Totem] to restore his wounds and important portions of his powerful ore-flesh removed prior to the ambush, it was little surprise when the thought-light appeared before me again.

Mana-Infused .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ Defeated.

Calculating .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ Strength.

Requisite Experience Awarded.

Level up x3!

3 Trait Points Gained.

I took only a single moment to revel in the victory, important as it was. I had already learned in my previous false-lives that the usurpers were different, down to their very souls. With the overflow of mana that infused them, I could become more powerful than ever through [Death Boost] - but that very same overflow made their souls more difficult to contain than any other I’d captured.

I braced myself for the mental battle that was to come, already prepared when the thought-light flickered again.

Mana-Infused .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ Soul Fragment Absorbed.

Rage.

Hatred.

Refusal.

In a flurry of emotions, the dead usurper’s will clashed against mine, throwing itself against the portion of my mind-nest that collected all of the soul fragments I’d captured and contained. In the midst of its thrashing, other fragments were spurred to rebellion as well, and it was all I could do to keep my coils wrapped around them.

Soon enough, though, I began to adjust. It wasn’t my first time capturing one of the usurper’s soul fragments; it was only due to the strength of the [Death Boost] that the usurpers provided that I’d even been able to survive until the end in that first false-life against them, when everything had gone so terribly wrong.

In that false-life, I had been able to mercilessly crush the souls of the usurpers, even despite their power. Something about being surrounded by the deaths of faithful and disciples alike had made that part of me stronger; terribly so.

In this life, I didn’t have that strength in me. I was grateful for that, even as I was forced to put everything I had into just keeping the captured soul fragment contained.

I hissed in defiance, slowly inching my coils around the fragmented souls that were attempting to escape. Little by little, I squeezed - until, finally, each of the rebelling pieces of soul that I held within me surrendered once more.

Absorbed Soul Fragment Temporarily Subjugated.

[Death Boost] Extended.

The change hit me all at once. In that first false-life, it had been a surprise. This time, I knew what was coming. As [Soul Fragment XII] became [Soul Fragment XIII], my scale-flesh hardened more than ever before; my fangs sharpened in a way that was near-equal to the previous twelve soul fragments that I’d already subjugated. As I’d learned in that first terrible false-life, [Death Boost]’s [Soul Fragment] effect wasn’t something that was properly revealed by the thought-light alone.

A single fragment could be equal to all of the others that came before - and I knew that, among the usurpers, there were stronger fragments still to be gathered.

Current Progress: ….5%

Finally, the dead usurper fell to the ground below me with a clang, his upper half slipping free from the slowed time of [Chrono Fire] that had held him in place as I pulled with a vicious tug - something that I would never have been able to do before, moving a Coreless so heavy with my scale-flesh alone.

Now, though, I could - slowly, and as long as the Coreless was unresisting, at least.

Still, it was a meaningful change.

Activating [Traveler], I briefly shed the time-twisting effects of both [Acceleration Gale] and [Chrono Fire], passing through the flames that would have otherwise attempted to block my path. All the while, I kept a tight hold on the image of a powerful serpent that surrounded the two of us, [Illusion Spark] hiding everything that had just happened from any of the Coreless watching. To any outside of the illusory serpent’s light, it would just appear as if the serpent had swallowed the usurper and briefly coiled around where he’d once stood. With the benefit of the ambush attack and time-hastening effect of [Acceleration Gale], very briefly.

With the flames of [Chrono Fire] left behind me, I released my hold on [Traveler], allowing myself to accelerate once again. In that moment, I moved far faster than I ever could before the first usurper’s death, pulling the illusion of the great serpent along with me. I already knew which way to go to find the second usurper; though the false serpent blocked me from viewing the outside world, it only took a single moment for me to slither down the mental connection to one of the nearby faithful’s [Little Guardian’s Totem], catching sight of the enemy through borrowed eyes.

I lunged, and the illusory maw of the serpent snapped around him.

“...what in the…” the usurper gasped, looking around quickly as soon as he found himself inside of my illusion. Unlike the first usurper before him, this one was entirely enclosed within his ore-flesh. There were no obvious weaknesses for me to exploit, no tantalizing bits of flesh for my fangs to sink into.

It only took a moment for the usurper to spot the corpse left motionless behind me.

“Malken!” he shouted something, and I could recognize the anguish in his voice, even without a connection to allow me to feel it myself. I hissed in delight, revelling in that small victory, and his head turned down to find me.

“...you!”

I wished that I could vanish, camouflaging myself with a covering of light, but I was already doing too many things at once. It took too much of my attention to constantly match the coloration of my scale-flesh with the background as I moved, adjusting it to work from every angle that I could possibly be seen from. In that first false-life, the ability to do so had played a large role in my eventual victory, as horrifying as it was. It had let me bide my time and avenge the defeated faithful and disciples, striking in the moments when the usurpers least expected it. I’d slithered into their nesting places. I’d caught them when they were sleeping. I’d attacked them when they were mating. I’d taken them one by one, until I’d gathered enough soul fragments that I didn’t need to be quite so careful anymore.

Now, though, I couldn’t do that. Not if I wanted the faithful to see. Not if I truly wanted them to understand what happened to those who challenged the Great Core; to those who moved against them, and I, and us.

I had been set on it from the very moment of that first rebirth, when I’d torn my way out of shed scale-flesh and set my eyes on Windgiver again. I’d been set on it even when I’d failed after that - and after that, and after that. Now, I knew for certain that - of all the winding tunnels of time I could have slithered down - this was the path that the Great Core wished for me to follow.

The thought-light confirmed it.

Current Progress: ….6%

Deep within me, something momentous continued to take effect; it pulsed within my scale-flesh and somewhere far, far deeper. I felt it within the core of my very being, and in the connections that I held to each of my faithful, and in the very air around me. If only I could focus on it, I knew that I could discover more of what it meant.

I didn’t.

I lunged forward, even as the second usurper roared and charged in my direction. [Chrono Fire] breathed in his direction, but it didn’t have time to do more than slow him a little. He pushed past it, striking down at me with one of his fangs.

A tendril of plant-flesh reached out for his leg at the same moment, sending him toppling to the floor. I twisted to the side as the usurper flickered mid-fall, passing through the vine that held him fast. The fang struck the ground beside me, landing violently enough to spark against it.

I hissed, striking at the face of the usurper as he landed next to me, but bounced off of the ore-flesh that covered it. It made my fangs ache, but it was worth it when I watched the usurper’s head knock back, where it was caught by a second vine and pulled.

He flickered out of existence again with a grunt, forcing the plant-flesh to lose its hold.

While he was distracted, I set fire to the area as best I could, once again relying on the surprising combination of [Acceleration Gale] and [Chrono Fire] to alter time’s passage in my favor. It wasn’t until he pulled himself to his feet that he realized the problem, finding that his lower half had begun to move at a significantly lower pace than the upper. He fell again with a frustrated roar.

I breathed more [Chrono Fire], smothering his lower half in time-warping flames.

One of his fangs clattered to the floor, and a tendril of plant-flesh sacrificed itself to reach into the blaze and toss it beyond the usurper’s reach. I wrapped myself around the fallen usurper, hiding within the ever-growing [Chrono Fire]. Even as it blazed, I forced more and more plant-flesh into its embrace.

As diligent faithful of the Great Core, the plant-flesh went eagerly; I could almost see it in the way that the [Chrono Fire] flared to greater heights around their quickly-ashened flesh. It was as if their desire to serve the Great Core made them burn brighter and hotter than ever.

Yet, as the flames licked around me, I could only feel a slight warmth. Just as they always had, the flames that I created wouldn’t harm me directly. They could steal my time, but they could not burn my scale-flesh - and with [Traveler] activated, they couldn’t even do that.

I watched as the second usurper turned shadowlike with a shout, activating the power hidden within his ore-flesh in an attempt to tear himself free of the [Chrono Fire] that held his lower half fast and pass downwards through the stone beneath him.

I watched with delight as he learned that the time-swallowing effect of the flames couldn’t be so easily escaped as that. His upper half started to slip through the floor beneath him, but his flame-wreathed lower failed to follow.

If I’d had more time to build up the strength of my [Chrono Fire], or to trap him within it more securely, it might have even ended right there as he found himself trapped beneath the solid ground, dangling from his captured lower half until he was forced to rematerialize within the stone. I knew, though, that it wasn’t enough. Eventually, his leg would slip free from the flames. They didn’t stop time; they only slowed it.

I didn’t want him to die that way, anyway. I wanted him to see me as he died.

I followed him down, carving through the stone of the floor with [The Golem’s Fading Heart]. It melted like mud around me, wet and sodden. As soon as I left the flames’ effect, I deactivated [Traveler] again, allowing [Acceleration Gale] to hasten me once more. The wind whipped around me in the small-tunnel that I’d formed, whistling in glee.

In moments, I’d managed to uncover the place where the shadowlike usurper’s head dwelled, drifting slowly downwards. He turned towards me, and an immaterial fang whipped in my direction, but he couldn’t do anything. It was the posturing of a fearful bad-thing before its killer, taking one last moment to appear more dangerous than it was.

The immaterial fang passed through me, unable to materialize again without condemning the usurper himself to the stone that wrapped around and through him.

It was…pitiful. If the usurper had wanted it enough, the fang could have meant my end. He could have taken me with him, sacrificing his life in exchange for mine. I would have simply gone back again, tearing myself free of dead scale-flesh, but he had no way of knowing that.

It was the difference between us - the difference between the usurpers and any of the faithful, I was sure. There was no doubt in my mind that not a single one of the Great Core’s Coreless would hesitate to make that sacrifice if they thought it was necessary.

Now that I knew there was no real threat, I only hissed with delight as the shadowlike fang passed through me a second time. It was as if the usurper thought that I was an idiot bad-thing, able to be scared off by a bit of simple posturing.

Current Progress: ….7%

I hissed again, this time letting loose another gout of [Mana Fire] directly at the usurper’s head. As it twisted into the time-devouring [Chrono Fire], I could see the moment that the usurper truly realized that he would die.

It was just as satisfying as I thought it would be.

The part of his head that I’d uncovered twisted and thrashed, trying to escape the flames that dwelled within it. I, meanwhile, continued a little further downward, creating another small-tunnel beneath the usurper and setting it alight with another gout of fire. I nearly fell as, just below that, the stone the usurper had trapped himself within finally ended. Only [Clinging Grasp] kept me from falling through the empty air below it and down into a lower section of the tower-nest.

If the usurper reached it, he might live. I knew him from my previous false-lives, just as I knew all of the usurpers. This one was unnaturally durable, his flesh enhanced by mana in a way that would have made my fangs struggle even without the ore-flesh that covered it. He could have survived the fall to the place below.

He wouldn’t make it that far.

I tunneled back upwards, shaping the stone in my path, even as the second usurper continued to thrash in place. It was satisfying to see; if only the usurper had attempted to stay and fight, I might not have been able to kill him so easily. Not without more of the usurpers’ soul fragments to strengthen my fangs.

Instead, he’d relied on the power of his ore-flesh to pull him out of the flames, and it had failed him - and now, his own failure would do what my fangs could not.

Current Progress: ….8%

As I slithered back to where the faithful waited, I let my attention flicker across my disciples’ connections; for all of their faith and power, they were struggling against the usurpers that I’d set them against. Just like me, their fangs and needles struggled to pierce the usurpers’ flesh - whether that was because of the hardness of the ore-flesh itself, or because of its ability to simply ignore their strikes by passing through them.

If things kept going the way they were, I knew, they would eventually fall. Already, all but Needle and the Grateful One - who it seemed hadn’t yet attacked the usurpers that surrounded her - had taken wounds that their [Little Guardian’s Totem]s were forced to heal. Even without their usurpation, the enemy Coreless were strong.

I watched one of the faithful that was assisting my disciples go down, their head separated in a flash of ore-flesh that even the mana that flowed through them couldn’t save them from.

I stiffened, for a moment feeling as if it was all going to happen again. It wouldn’t be the first time that things had gone wrong against the usurpers. I’d thought that I’d changed things enough, that the instructions I’d provided the Great Core’s followers would carry them past the struggles of previous false-lives. Yet, even now, punishing the Great Core’s enemies was not without sacrifices.

Current Progress: ….9%

The thought-light flickered again, as if taunting me with the knowledge that something that could solve everything was likely on its way - but far, far more slowly than I wished.

Still, there was something else that I was waiting for. Something that I knew would appear far more quickly than whatever was happening to my [Little Guardian] title. Just as my connection to another pair of faithful disappeared, it finally happened.

Still caught within [Chrono Fire]’s grasp somewhere below me, the durable usurper materialized directly inside of it. Caught within both stone and magical flame, his life ended in an instant, and the thought-light flickered before me.

Mana-Infused .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ Defeated.

Calculating .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ Strength.

Requisite Experience Awarded.

Level up x2!

2 Trait Points Gained.

Level 90 Reached

Analyzing Potential Reward Choices…

Only One May Be Selected.

I didn’t wait for the thought-light to reveal my choices, already knowing what I’d pick. There was only one thing that would let the Great Core’s chosen faithful survive against the strength of the enemy. It was something that, in that first terrible false-life, I hadn’t been able to properly use. In that horrible life, the usurpers had been able to seize it for themselves through their stolen [Little Guardian’s Totem]s. In others, I simply hadn’t moved fast enough, not yet understanding the fastest way to defeat the durability of the second usurper’s flesh.

This time, though, things were different.

I made my choice, watching the thought-light flicker in front of me.

Windbound: You are a living symbol of Time’s infinite passage, and have grown to emphasize that passage of time with a stream of directed wind. You provide a personal [Acceleration Gale] to any and all creatures under the effects of one of your abilities, manifesting a hastening aura of wind around them. (Provided by: Ouroboros, [Acceleration Gale])

At the same time, two other things happened, the thought-light seeming as if it could barely keep up.

Mana-Infused .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ Soul Fragment Absorbed.

I was already ready for the first, mentally crushing down on the rebellious soul, even as the thought-light flickered again with the second.

[Life Hunter] activated.

In a burst of life mana that forced me to lose my hold on [Illusion Spark] at last, I came back to life at last. I continued crushing down on the soul fragment, even as a golden light far stronger than [Illusion Spark] could ever create tore its way through my flesh and out into the remainder of the tower-nest.

Absorbed Soul Fragment Temporarily Subjugated.

[Death Boost] Extended.

The light continued onwards, seeming to move in slow motion outside of the influence of [Acceleration Gale] - both to me, and to the faithful who now possessed an [Acceleration Gale] of their own. It radiated through them, and I felt their [awe] and [wonder] as it passed, even as they finally noticed the way the world had slowed around them.

The thought-light flickered, and I noticed that the [Little Guardian] upgrade started coming faster.

Current Progress: ….25%

I hissed with glee, even as my attention turned back towards the fight against the usurpers-that-would-have-been.