Somewhere Someplace

A hidden door of sorts located in the farthest corner of this resurrected luminescent sphere, away and obscure from most eyes—concealed by both angle and a conveniently placed large boulder. A door so strange, being of polymer and complex metal yet disguised by a layer of cavern rock; with a sizzle of air, it had opened, leaving a perfect rectangle-shaped hole in what had been blueish purplish rock.

«Woah…» Gold outlined brownish-hazel eyes so gazed up with a freeze, seeing that growing central mass of a throbbing tumor—which now appeared more wrinkled in its shape.

As if the beating heart, the commanding brain, of this empire reborn, vines connected to it as if arteries and veins; it pulsed with a resonating hum felt only by that which was attuned.

«Huh…» Nevertheless, she herself had finally arrived. «What…the fuck is that? Is that a… Huh…» And she was still processing what she had just arrived to. «Oceans… 'Asset gone rogue' was a total underseller… This is a nightmare—we can't use this place as staging ground for the proxies… The heck happened here?»

{We were outplayed by a nebular blob, it seems.}

Abruptly, her gold outlined eyes had brightened. A device—angular and geometric in shape, slightly triangular, and darkish brown in coloring—imbued in her ear had activated with a similarly gold-colored light.

{Its strings out tugged ours. Or perhaps we never had strings attached to begin with.}

«C.C.?» She tilted her head, calmly surprised. «Directly beaming to me, huh? It's been a while…»

{I have had Whispering Oceans retract elsewhere. You can perhaps see why.}

«Yeah… I can.» Indeed, she could. «Is it safe for me to be here? I am connected to Oceans, as you know.»

{Technically, you are connected to Oceans' other. And you are but a single root of a greater tree; already minute effects will only be more minute.}

«Yet the issue is when all those tiny effects accumulate over time, isn't it?» There was a tone in her voice; her outlined eyes drifted back up to that mass above… «So, that blob… What is that thing?»

{Some kind of local deity, apparently—a vampiric 'demigod'. An 'Ephwäulmoÿl', according to the subterranean elven mythos, although the Protector elf herself was skeptical as to whether this thing in particular met the profile. But it was here this entire time.}

She nodded her head… «Yeah… I'm not gonna bother pronouncing that. Anyway, cool. But what is it actually?»

{I do not quite know… I am still analyzing it.}

«Hmm?» She raised an eyebrow. «Is that a genuine 'I don't know' or a 'I have already figured out everything but I am pretending that I do not know' I don't know?» She was, indeed, respectfully blunt.

{…that could be an equal possibly. Frankly, I have not any the clue.}

«It's any a clue…» she corrected, sighing; «Fine… So, what can you tell me about it?»

{It seems to be some kind of compound intelligence, probably. There is an evident emergence occurring, and there is structural compartmentalization. It has goals, an agenda, and it is developing a comprehensive root network—a physical…bio-essence one. In some ways, it is remarkably like us, except…}

«Not as developed, slick, or cool—or stable…»

{In a manner of speech… The mechanisms are actually quite fascinating. It seems to be predominantly an essence-derived biological…thing first and foremost than a pure essence composite entity entangled or integrated with a physical substrate. Assessment remains on-going, however so far it appears that it cannot directly project its essence far without biophysical vectors—network veins, nerval vines, and particulate matter.}

«So, its root network is physical, not metaphysical… Got it. It's basically less a compound super-phantom and more a weird…superorganism thing-a-thing. This whole place is like its body, then?»

{Yes… Almost. Although, I am not sure if 'superorganism' would be the appropriate label. It is something different—more complex…}

«Hence why I said 'thing-a-thing'…»

{What complicates precise classification is that it has properties of both a composite essence entity and a biological or physical host of essence. While operating in a near-total synchronized concert, there still appears to be a degree of separable individuation between essence and body; it is not a true indifferentiable union. Although parallels can be drawn between a phantom and its possessed host, the essence itself is not the entity per se… A composite essence with a compound host. It is almost an inverted parallel of us…or perhaps even something entirely intermediate, which is fascinating considering Nebula alignments themselves are—}

«Okay, you are starting to go on a confusing side-tangent.» She was again blunt. «Skip it, please.»

{Suffice it to say, the essence may not be close to magenta, but the structural parallels are…quite interesting—very.}

«Right…» She tried to remain focused on point. «And you said it was always here—like, this whole time?»

{Reduced, inert, and terribly atrophied but otherwise present, yes… It was emitting a subtle resonance hum at a very fine and thin attunement frequency. I had only barely noticed it, but that was what brought it to my attention—and this sphere.}

«Ah… So, you've known it was here this entire time?»

{Yes… And its hum was what certainly had attracted that grim walker here too. His essence seems to have an innate attunement to the thing's precise resonance frequency, which further corroborates a deep ancestral connection—an attunement so fundamental that his essence inherited it even without maternal transmission.}

«So, kinda like me and Oceans and his other?»

{Perhaps that is analogous, although not exact. Regardless, most likely, at some point he must have been close enough to cause a harmonization and, upon arrival, a progressive and gradual synchronization. He himself was completely unaware.}

«So, he was being affected by it this whole time—even when we made the deal with us?

{Seemingly so. And although the grim walker was already pathologically disposed towards excessive devoration, he had been an active serial predator for several years now, operating in shadow; it was only until his arrival here that he made himself noticeable. It is entirely possible that the thing's hum was nudging his essence's consumption temperament as to accumulate girth.}

«…so, basically, he was always a Guild women predator, but the testicle blob nudged him to devour the whole essences of thirty ladies in too short a time, over-bloating his Nebulic essence which began to do the next thing it knew to do…»

{Direct assimilation and transmutation of the surrounding environment into a stabilizing self-sufficient habitat sphere, yes. Transcendence from its host, a common propensity for this class of Nebulic essence after critical girth accumulation. This was a motivation for empowering him.}

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«A motivation, you say…» She sharply noted. «No doubt the other was to stage some kind of 'boss fight' for the Fed trooper…»

{Well, their records did indicate the existence of 'special' decontamination instruments that do not exist in our Hive's own records, suggesting developments after our war. I was perhaps curious to see a demonstration.}

«Ah, so that was the full plan, huh? Let the Nebulic vampire's ultra-corrosive over-bloated essence transform this place, then bait the Fed trooper into a fight with that gargoyle-man, letting her decontaminate this place for us all the while the locals rule it out it as a potential staging ground, whereafter we'd move our proxies in through the super-not-so-secret-duper tunnel…»

{Pretty much.}

«…yep, and that plan's gone great.»

{Indeed… The rate of transformation exceeded predictive expectation, suggesting a preexisting environmental disposition—which aligns with this sphere already having been a fully developed Nebulic habitat sphere long ago.}

«The seeds were already here, but the grim walker was the fertilizer?»

{And the fuel. Environmental modification was not the only thing; his essence also began to reconstruct it—or rather, it began to use his essence to reconstruct itself… Frankly, it is difficult to differentiate what preceding developments were his essence's actions or its own due to the harmonized synchrony. But after redevelopment crossed a critical point, people became explicitly targeted: brain matter, spinal columns, nervous tissue—essentially the biophysical correlates associated with essence—were incorporated into the thing's structural mass.}

«Real pretty…»

{However, it was only after the direct integration of a complete and living central nervous system with fully realized essence that total revitalization was achieved—after which matters exponentially escalated.}

«Wait, so… It gobbled someone up and is…what? Using them as an analog steering wheel?»

{I am not definitively certain why it needed someone's nervous system and essence to be implanted to become fully revitalized, beyond too many speculations. Nevertheless, the person, being a random denizen in effect whose essence had gone largely unutilized, was an unsuitable vector; it is gradually siphoning—or assimilating—the grim walker's essence to compensate… Although, perhaps it was always intending to do that.}

«Uhuh…» She nodded her head, slowly. «And the person it gobbled… They still in there?»

{Unlikely. Her body was completely subsumed, beyond her spinal column and nervous systems, which have likely been…adjusted. If this thing is a compound intelligence, it is possible that traces of her personality and memories remain as dominant, although I consider that unlikely—or at least unlikely to have noticeable behavioral effect.}

«So, yeah… Steering wheel, not the driver…» She stared into the blob, focusing. «You said it was a 'demigod'… What's its potential origins?»

{Unknown, though I have my speculations. This thing was undeniably an object of deep cultural and religious significance to the former inhabitants of this Nebulic habitat sphere—a mutual entanglement, perhaps even collective synchrony. However, it is unlikely to have been a deity collectively manifested by the former inhabitants' shared internalized religiosity.}

«…it predated even them, too?»

{Yes. It was most likely the source contamination node for this Nebulic environment; it possibly operated as a type of 'harmonizing custodian'—a facilitator or mediator for the self-nourishing cycles that sustained both this sphere and the contaminated population's own essences, mitigating predatory vampirism.}

«I already know what that works, thank you very much… Could've stopped at 'harmonizing custodian'.»

{Suffice it to say, the former inhabitants certainly developed a deep reverence and collective worship of it which, in conjunction to their own likely contributions to this Nebulic harmonious sphere, evolved into a deeply integral attunement between it and them. And regardless of its initial origins, the thing's present incarnation is directly to tied to the genocide that happened here. According to what it itself had disclosed to the grim walker—}

«Wait, it can talk?»

{It can communicate in a manner, yes. And according to what the grim walker was informed, it was born from, quote, "the screams and cries unleashed by that horror" which "beckoned a shriek through harmony's plane between, from which by their mangled spirits was laid to being her", end quote.}

«…so, a bunch of…crying whiny vampiric echoes?»

{That is a possible conclusion. The atrocity would have left extremely noisy and traumatized echoes, and Nebulic essence already has a propensity for revenant activity. Yet this sphere was noticeably devoid of any echoes or discernable residuals thereof upon initial discovery.}

«If there was a deep connection between the people here and the testicle blob, it didn't just…witness, but experienced what happened. It went completely batshit insane, didn't it? Ate its own?»

{I can only speculate what happened, considering the lack of readable traces beyond it itself. It is possible that the noisiest echoes compounded and merged with the original harmonizer, forming a malignant compound that incorporated the remaining residuals into itself—a ravenous devourer sustained or perhaps simply motivated by constant consumption and assimilation.}

«So, like a ravager, huh… Guess I'm starting to see parallels…» There was a momentary tension. «Anyway, why don't you talk to it? Interrogate it yourself…»

{Perhaps I might—later.}

«I was jesting…» She sighed…

{Regardless, the elven civilization responsible for the genocide purportedly had a struggle with the thing post emergence. I am uncertain what exactly caused its gradual atrophy—whether it was a before or after consequence. But this sphere was ultimately sealed and isolated in the aftermath, besides that one tunnel and the hidden path the survivors had used to escape—the grim walker's own method of entry.}

«Never mind the huge fucking vector tunnel…» She turned her eyes around, looking at that which she had exited. «So, am I supposed to pretend it doesn't exist right now even though I just exited from it?»

{To the contrary, I was going to address its presence—of which is by no means a coincidence, neither is the location of this sphere nor the thing itself. This area was possibly a feeder originally.}

«…a feeder, huh?» She stared deep into that rectangle hole.

{For the System's quarantine. This particular kind of Nebulic essence is rather cumbersome, after all—even for me.}

There was a developing wrinkle in her lip… «…ah, so is this why you've been…» And a change in her tune.

{Regardless, there is much to be—}

«Sol,» yet she abruptly interrupted, «but you are turning fuzzy, aren't you?»

{…perhaps that is so.}

There was somber scowl on her face, atypically enough. She kept staring into that tunnel. She was not one to be like this.

{Time, I should caution, is a far more potent and affecting rust than Nebula's touch.}

«…an inevitability either way, is what you're saying, then?» There was a sigh. «Fine… Well, if your exposition dump is finally over, I'd like to get to my mission now.»

{Nothing has been preventing you from walking.}

«Jee, thanks for now clarifying…» She thus began to move… Yet her eyes remaining gazing about, as if taking it in. «No… One more thing…» There was an uncharacteristic hesitance in her voice. «Tell it to me straight, C.C.: was this what you were planning all along? Reawakening this…fucking blob… Were you…keeping…your true intentions from us?»

That was…certainly a question.

{Truth be told, I…do not have an answer. I do not know.}

«…» She stopped moving.

{Jester-7, we have taken far too much time with this scene. It has served its purpose, therefore—}

«My name.»

Oh no.

«Do you remember my real name? You haven't forgotten, right? The promise…» Her voice was…actually emotional, in its own way. «We might ultimately be duplicates, a copy amongst copies of—»

{That is your interpretation, and this is not the appropriate scene for this discussion, nor the intended point for these revelations—}

«See, this exactly why I am asking this—everything's always about 'story', 'scenes', and 'narration' now.» There was a genuine charge in her voice, quite surprisingly. «I am not some 'character'; I am an operative of this Hive, and I'm old—maybe too old…» There was a pause, an emanating angst. «You've calculated everything to make sure that I end up dead from this mission, haven't you? Because it makes for nice theatrics.»

{…when…did you begin to believe that I have become so malicious…to my own?}

She herself could feel the sharp sting, as if traces ricocheted onto her own heart… «…you are Sol, C.C.; we are interconnected and interwoven… What you are experiencing reverberates throughout the whole Hive; it affects all of us… And I have no idea how much of my talking or feelings right now is me or your subtle influences, and you don't seem to know either.»

Abruptly, however, a name was spoken.

A name was heard.

And the Jester froze. Things flashed within, a melancholy in her breaths accompanied by mellow relief; she calmed.

{Even when splintering from entropy's rust; even when all else has eroded to dust; my one and eternal obligation remains constant: I will carry you all forward. Everything that you were and had been, before and after; both your names and who you are now. I will never forsake this Hive.}

«…'til the end of time.» She exhaled. «Okay. That's all I wanted to hear. I'm ready to die.» She began to move again, finally.

{The water conduit system above has been completely overrun. Remaining denizen forces are withdrawing; points of entry are being closed and blocked. The thing will be entering a consolidation phase. Vine-tendrils and network veins are rooting themselves all throughout the subsurface infrastructure; it intends to sprout onto the surface. You now have a limited window before matters become very ugly.}

«Back in my day, you were super specific and detailed, telling every parameter—such as, say, how much estimated time I have.» She mocked an elderly voice. «Jester-7 to C.C.: Acknowledged; double timing it.»