The Great Core's Paradox

“I think something’s happening.”

I twisted into attention at the noise coming from below, pulled away from my experiments with the changes that [Death Boost] had wrought upon my scale-flesh. The branch upon which I rested all but creaked under my touch; enough that I knew, despite my small size, I could snap it in two with a flex of my length, should I only wish it. Even a small portion of the strength of a single Coreless had done much for my physical power.

Although, it was a rather small branch, I was forced to admit. I wouldn’t be coming close to shattering the bones of bad-things anytime soon, not unless I once again invested into increasing [Size] for a few of my level rewards.

Or subjugated a few more fragmented souls.

Hissing, I pushed the thought away for the moment, peering down below me. Needle, likely alerted by her rather remarkable degree of perception, was pointing towards something in the distance that I couldn’t make out. Even [Ambusher’s Vision] did little to help; it allowed my eyes to cut through the darkness, somewhat, but it didn’t do anything about the sheer distance between myself and whatever it was that Needle had seen.

She said something to the other Coreless, likely explaining to those without the sight to make out what she could, and I found myself wishing that I could understand what it was. Bad-things? Blasphemers? Or was it something good?

I had no idea, and the emotions that ran through the nearby Coreless’ [Little Guardian’s Totem] made it difficult to tell.

“There’s a bunch of little lights moving out from those towers in a group,” Needle said. “The big, white ones in the center. It’s hard to see from here; the towers put off enough light from their enchantments that the glow is a bit more difficult to see, but…I’m pretty sure it’s people. Lots of them. Ones in enchanted armor.”

The other Coreless’ [Little Guardian’s Totem]s finally lit up with [concern] at whatever Needle had said, giving me at least a small clue about what she was seeing - or at least letting me know that, whatever it was, it probably wasn’t good.

There were a few mutters from among the gathered Coreless, a susurrus of unintelligible sounds that drifted on by.

“...found out about what happened at the mines, could they?”

“...give ‘em a good wallop!”

“...all we know, it could be nothing.”

I dipped down and alighted on the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder, stretching my scale-flesh across the glowing ore-flesh with which she covered herself. Absentmindedly, she reached up to scratch at my head-scales. Beside her, one of the other Coreless looked as if she wished to do the same; the female Coreless that had been part of the group to invite the Great Core’s light into this new tower-nest.

However, she never went any further than that; before the Coreless could reach out for me, the-female-who-was-not-Needle had already turned towards her and called for her attention.

“Sylvia,” she said softly. “We don’t live here, so we don’t really know. Is it normal for them to move around like this, or should we be worried?”

The female Coreless just shook her head. “I don’t think it’s -”

Needle spoke again, cutting off the female Coreless mid-jabber. “Wait. Okay. Looks like they’re not coming towards us. They’ve gone around in a different direction. Any idea what this is about?”

Again, the same female Coreless shook her head before speaking. “No. But volunteers were already sent out to most of the other towers earlier. If there’s something important going on, someone closer will likely see it and come back to let us know.”

“Volunteers?” the-female-who-was-not-Needle asked, her voice vibrating against my scale-flesh as it pressed against her neck.

The Coreless cleared her throat [nervously]. “To spread the word about what you can offer. That’s what you wanted, right? Nobody’s been brought back, yet, but the first of them should be coming soon…”

She paused, and the connection to her [Little Guardian’s Totem] lit with surprise. “Or now,” she said, pointing in a different direction than the one Needle had earlier. “Looks like someone’s coming.

A new wave of emotions flowed through the assorted Coreless’ [Little Guardian’s Totem]s in response to her words, and I turned my head in the direction of her pointing finger. This time, [Ambusher’s Vision] was more than enough for my vision to pierce through the darkness between myself and what the Coreless had pointed towards.

In fact, it was a little too much. I hissed in discomfort at the sight of a large number of fire-sticks, quickly flexing the muscles that rested near my eyes to deactivate [Ambusher’s Vision] once again.

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Once I’d recovered from the disorienting effect of the fire-stick light, I found that I could make out a large group of Coreless approaching from somewhere across the vast expanse of the cavern - though, admittedly, it didn’t seem as if they’d traveled too far. My eyes flicked towards a large tower-nest in the distance, understanding that they’d likely been only recently within its walls. Even with a quick glance, I could tell that the tower-nest was in slightly better shape than the one that I’d placed my most recent [Little Guardian’s Focus]es beside.

But not by much. It was still a rickety thing of darkwood and crumbling stone, a far hiss from the bright tower-nests of white, shimmering stone and glowing ore-flesh that rested in the center of the giant cavern. I wondered at that difference; what made the tower-nests of the Coreless so different from one another? It wasn’t like the difference between far-off many-nests, where variation would be expected due to being created in different areas and with different resources. These tower-nests were fairly close together, formed in the same cavern as they were, even if that cavern was extremely large.

I quickly decided that it was likely yet another of the Coreless’ strange characteristics, leaving it at that. If I tried to understand every weird thing about them, I’d never get anything done.

Rather than wasting my time thinking on it further, I let my scale-flesh fall limp around the branch, and pushed my mind back toward the once-blasphemer giant that I had taken as my own.

My Coreless-self jerked into motion, its lumbering mass rising from its position against the nearby plant-flesh where I’d left it. There were a few odd kinks here and there, legs moving stiffly in a way that a proper tail never would, but I soon pulled myself to my feet.

The tiny Coreless that had collectively decided the giant, frozen Coreless’ form was perfect for a bit of climbing and clambering jumped off of him with a series of [excited] shrieks, though a particularly determined little one did just the opposite, only holding on tighter to my Coreless-self’s back.

I tried to pluck him off for a moment, but my Coreless-self’s arms couldn’t reach. Something that I knew wasn’t a problem for every Coreless, as the tiny ones frequently twisted themselves into odd shapes for very little reason at all. But when I thought about it, it was only the small ones that I’d seen do so.

Yet another design flaw of the Coreless; apparently, they naturally grew vulnerable points as they became more powerful. Almost the entirety of my Coreless-self’s massive back was unreachable, arms unable to rotate far enough to touch it. What was the point of having arms and hands if they couldn’t be used to grab things?

First legs, now this. I had to stifle my hiss of disgust, not wanting to make the Coreless feel more ashamed of themselves than they should already be. It wasn’t their fault that they’d been designed to be so odd and disfigured.

Perhaps, with enough service to the Great Core, they would be blessed with superior forms. A tail, at the very least. Maybe stretchier arms. I decided not to dangle that hope in front of them. Many would never see it come to pass, and their lives would only feel the worse for it. There was no reason to make them suffer.

Deciding to leave the tiny Coreless at his place on my Coreless-self’s back, I walked towards the gathering group of Coreless at the plant-flesh forest’s edge. Occasional bits of plant-flesh caught on the large swathe of dark skin-flesh that the other Coreless had draped over my Coreless-self’s giant form. Meanwhile the fake-flesh of darkwood that had been placed over my Coreless-self’s face was much less cumbersome - and, more importantly, I liked how it looked.

It was a thing of carved whorls and sculpted threads; the whorls twisted into snakes made after my own image, and the threads - shaped into the same ore-flesh threads that the once-blasphemers had used to bind the Great Core’s followers in the place of hidden null-water and humiliated moving-walls - found themselves broken and shattered each time the whorls and threads met, as if forming a depiction of the rescue of the faithful I had enacted.

All in all, much better than my Coreless-self’s normal face. I approved of the change. The once-blasphemer’s soul, still buried inside of the giant Coreless somewhere, didn’t. That only made me approve of it more.

By the time I reached the gathered Coreless, tiny Coreless still in tow upon my Coreless-self’s back, the approaching Coreless had moved much closer to my own - though still at least a few minutes from arrival.

As they approached, I continued to scan the group, searching for any signs of the blasphemers I’d met previously, as well as that tell-tale glow of ore-flesh that marked a particularly dangerous Coreless. I didn’t see any, but the light of the fire-sticks meant that it wasn’t a certainty.

Still, as far as I could tell, none of the Coreless that I could make out matched the appearance of the blasphemers. At least not the ones in the front, leading the way. In fact, the approaching Coreless seemed little better off than those of the Great Core’s newest tower-nest, and that was before I had brought them under its light. Now, with the trio of [Little Guardian’s Focus]es placed within the forest, they were all but glowing with health - which only made the condition of these newest Coreless seem worse.

Satisfied, I let my Coreless-self fall still, pulling my awareness back away from it. A shudder ran across my scale-flesh as my mind began to reinhabit the perfect form; fangs, a tail, no legs. As it was meant to be.

If I didn’t see some sort of joy in the idea of controlling a giant body to smash my enemies into tiny pieces, I would never even personally inhabit a Coreless at all, pitiful, malformed things that they were.

I returned to my proper self just in time for the Coreless to walk close enough to begin speaking. Not that I understood any of it. Fortunately, I had Coreless to handle all of that for me.

“...Jerry here says you have guaranteed food and protection,” the male at the front grunted, eyeing a Coreless beside him. One of mine, I realized, noting the [Little Guardian’s Totem] that I could sense around his neck. “Sounded ridiculous, but given…” he motioned towards the forest of plant-flesh. “We believed him.”

“Good,” the-female-who-was-not-Needle said. “Because it’s true.”

The male Coreless eyed not-Needle warily. “And what would it take to get some of that for ourselves?” he asked.

“Why don’t we talk about that?” Will cut in as he suddenly stepped out of the forest and into the gathered crowd, his voice carrying an aura of authority that even I noticed - though the way that the nearby bearers of the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s perked up at the sound accounted for most of that. He motioned towards the group. “Come on in, and we’ll see what we can do.”

I hissed softly, watching dozens of new Coreless wind their way through the old, following at Will’s heels. Seeing that they seemed friendly, I sent a careful reminder towards the spore-puppets that infected the plant-flesh through which they walked to treat them as such - unless, of course, they proved hostile towards my disciple. My recent experience with the blasphemers had proven that I couldn’t be too careful.

Still, as soon as the first of the new Coreless was handed a [Little Guardian’s Totem] to handle, I knew that my suspicions were unwarranted.

I felt nothing but [awe].

The Great Core had received its newest supplicants.

They wouldn’t be the last.