The Great Core's Paradox

Elara had become depressingly familiar with corpses as of late. More than she ever thought she could be. It was hard not to, what with the time she had been forced to spend as a Core’s puppet, pulled by strings and spores in whatever direction her captors pleased. Forced to walk by the bodies of those that didn’t make it; of people that might have been friends, or family, or anything in between - not that she was ever made to look close enough to check whether that was true. If someone died facedown, well, she’d never see their face.

Though that didn’t stop her from imagining it.

Regardless, Elara had grown familiar with corpses. With the way they smelled, the way they looked, the way they decayed.

And, as she stepped forward to meet the tide of monsters that assaulted them, their many mouths slavering and limbs scritch-scratching against the stone with an alien fervor, Elara was reminded of those corpses. If only they laid themselves down, letting their limbs fall where they may; if only they stared more blankly, or did any number of things that they rightly should have, then they might appear as dead as their ruined bodies claimed they were.

Elara had become depressingly familiar with corpses; and these were corpses, even if they pretended that they weren’t.

Which was why she wasn’t at all surprised when, after her blade came down and nearly decapitated the first enemy that came near, it was only a brief moment before the thing got back upagain.

It was, by all appearances, already dead. What was a little more death, when added to the mix?

She brought her blade back down again, and aimed for a leg this time.

The snake slithered through the tunnel, cool stone sliding against bitterly cold flesh. Around it, a black cloak of death visibly surged, black wisps momentarily appearing and tugging it in another direction. The undead snake turned, obeying the silent command despite the tiny, almost nonexistent voice that said it shouldn’t.

That it should resist.

Elara bent backwards, spine popping uncomfortably with the motion. A body, all tattered flesh and crumbling bone, surged overhead. She let herself fall down the rest of the way, throwing a hand backwards and letting her knuckles press against the ground. Then, with a rapid spin that nearly snapped tendons in its ferocity, she brought the other hand upwards in a slashing motion - a single blade held tight within its grip.

The body split in two, and Elara called out. “Doran, got another crawler for you!”

The bisected body was already starting to twitch, raising itself from yet another death. Soon enough, its front legs - the only ones that remained, with its lower half recently removed - scrabbled at the ground, attempting to drag the beast’s remaining pieces with it.

“Disgusting fuckers…” Doran muttered, tiredly stepping closer with battleaxe in hand. The blade flashed, and the body split in half again - this time in the other direction as the shining metal cut from head to torso. It slumped over, finally dead.

In the meantime, Elara had already turned back around, ready to meet yet another moving corpse. After a few waves of the unsettling beasts, the Seekers had grown used to the unique dilemma they provided; fortunately, their early mistakes had gone unpunished, protected by their enchantments as they were.

Still, they had already been tired at the start, and the persistent nature of the enemy only made that a growing problem. Valera, in particular, was flagging; her breaths were coming in ragged pants, even as she occasionally forced herself into a blurring series of motions that left ruined bodies in her wake. Her fighting style was much more draining than that of the others, and it was beginning to show.

Erik, meanwhile, was showing his worth as the team’s bulwark yet again. Teeth and claws broke again and again against the man’s tower shield, the repeated impacts failing to even leave a scratch on its surface. The monsters had long since started to change tactics - a surprising show of intelligence, given everything else - and suicidally thrown themselves around the man’s defenses, willingly suffering wounds in doing so.

Except, with the monsters’ undying nature, it wasn’t suicidal at all.

That was where Elara came in. She had moved in to fill the gap in the defenses as soon as it started to form, utilizing her enhanced body control - and the reflexes that came with it - to slash and stab at the enemies that left the most durable of the Seekers alone. When it became too much, she simply let her armor’s enchantment activate for a few moments, letting the charging monsters slip by to be handled by Valera and Doran behind her.

Kala, unfortunately, was ill-suited to the fight. A bow was a poor choice against something that refused to die; it couldn’t crush bones or sever limbs. She was forced to mostly wait in the back, occasionally attempting to pin limbs to the ground with a well-timed shot or two.

Of them all, though, Doran was most in his element - they had quickly learned that his mana-enhanced strength and sizable weapon allowed him to bypass many of the monsters’ advantages. They couldn’t back from the dead once their body was mangled beyond belief.

Even so, the tide seemed unending, and Elara wasn’t the only one to begin to worry.

“How...many more do you…think we’ll have to…deal with?” Valera asked between pants. Elara risked a glance backwards, noting that the woman’s hands were visibly shaking, the exhaustion of an extended battle working its effects on her body.

“I think they’re finally starting to thin! Just a little bit longer!” Erik responded from his vantage point in the front; Elara couldn’t see it herself, but the shield bearing Seeker was notably taller than she was. He would be able to tell better than she could.

With that encouraging thought, the Seekers worked to battle the horde for a little longer, crushing bone and slicing flesh until the stubborn monsters finally began to still. By the time the battle neared the end, Elara knew that the others were in poor shape; even with the advantages that her mana-derived body control granted her, Elara’s toes and fingers had started to tingle and go numb somewhere along the way, fighting against her efforts to move them properly. More than that, exhaustion had long since begun to creep in, with every Seeker stumbling unnaturally at one point or another.

But finally, when the ground was coated in shattered corpses and mismatched limbs, it seemed over at last.

And then an orb of light slithered out of the darkness, beating back a portion of the shadows with its familiar glow.

The snake pulled itself forward, blood and death pressing against its tongue. The tunnel it slithered through was dark, though that wasn’t anything new; the tunnels had been dark for a long time, with only the barest illumination spreading from some point atop the serpent’s head. Not enough to truly see by, too little to judge its surroundings with any degree of accuracy. But the snake didn’t care. It simply moved where it was told, wherever that might be.

Even if a small, hidden part of it balked at the notion - one so small that the snake hardly even noticed.

Time passed, lost in a series of thoughtless slithers, and the snake finally encountered something new. Sounds; thuds, cracks, rings. The serpent continued, pulled along by the cloak of death that draped across its scales.

And then there was light; brilliant, blinding, in the darkness. That tingling buzz at the edge of the snake’s mind droned just a little louder. More insistently.

A crowd of corpses rested against the ground, illuminated by the moving bits of light; revealed by a group of radiant somethings that momentarily brought the serpent to a halt.

But only for a moment.

“Is that…?” a voice called out in [disbelief]. The snake flinched, stunned by the sudden sensation - one that, despite its distance, felt so much stronger than anything the snake itself could manage to feel.

Wisps of death surged over the serpent’s scales, pushing it back again. The snake slithered forward once more.

“Skies above, it is.” It happened again, that sudden [disbelief] that threatened to send the serpent’s near-empty mind reeling, this time multiplied five-fold. Again, the serpent flinched. Again, the sensation was wiped away by the cool touch of the serpent’s master.

“He’s so…big! All grown up - and I missed it! Where did my little baby snake go?” one of the voices wailed, an odd mixture of [pride] and [mourning] hammering at the serpent’s emptied mind again. One of the blinding shapes blurred, and then hands stripped the stunned serpent from the ground. The snake found itself being lifted higher, brought above the overwhelming radiance that kept it nearly blind.

A face stared back, teeth displayed. [Happiness] surged, startling the snake yet again, and the figure cooed.

“Hey there!” the figure said, teeth still bared. “We foun-”

Death surged, beating back the startling sensations. Wisps of black, smokey and ethereal, drifted from the serpent’s scales.

“Oh.” The hands shook. “Oh, no.”

[SURPRISE/HORROR/GRIEF].

The snake lunged, a cloak of death urging it forward. At the edges of its emptied, mutated mind, a mournful hiss began to rise.

Scales wrapped around flesh. Squeezed. Twisted. The figure fell, a crimson waterfall streaming from its neck. The world’s mana invisibly surged, pushing towards -

Mana-Infused .̸̠̑.̸͉͂.̷̞́.̴̋ -

- it stopped.

The radiant figure rose again, not even noticing the screams that came with its rise. A cloak of death splayed across its ruined throat, just barely visible past the coils that still wrapped around that tattered flesh.

The hissing within the serpent’s head rose to a breaking point; a fever pitch, rising and falling in an endless wail of grief. The snake’s coils loosened.

Tightened.

Flexed.

Twisted.

Mana surged again, and -

Mana-Infused .̸̠̑/̷̧͖̮͚͐̕.̵͙̣͍̩̜͉̏/̸̩̖̐ͅ.̸̮̙̰̖̜̾̽͌̌̽͛̾͐/̸̛̗̘̼̳͕͔͕͚̈́̈̑̅̑̚.̴͉͉͌̃̊͆̈́̄͘.̶̱̔̌̓͊̚/̸̜̞͉͙͔͖̬̇͋͜.̵̘͔͇̘͇̄̓̃͜/̵̧̺̼͖̠̮̩͚̒͒̑̂̈̿̃͠ D-

- halted, falling back as the figure tried to rise. The coils loosened. Tightened. Flexed. Twisted, more sharply than before.

The figure’s head fell free, the sound of its fall dampened by an unearthly bellow and a wave of [SURPRISE/HORROR/GRIEF].

A tiny section of the world’s mana invisibly surged once more, rushing towards a visibly stunned serpent.

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

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

Requisite Experience Awarded.

Level up x2!

2 Trait Points Gained.

Level 70 Reached

Analyzing Potential Reward Choices…

Only One May Be Selected.

Revealing Possible Rewards Unlocked Through Species: Undead And Its Interactions…

Death Boost: You are born of death, and may temporarily imbue yourself with a small portion of the strength of those you usher into its arms, growing more powerful from the fallen. (Provided by: Undead)

Necrotic Venom: You are born of death, and your venom bears its touch. Adds a withering effect to venom. (Provided by: Undead, Snake)

Blighted Rebirth: You are born of death, and will be born of it again. Your body is healed and reanimated upon final death, providing a second chance at undeath. This effect does not free the undead ouroboros from the influence of its original reanimator. Blighted Rebirth may only activate once before needing to be selected again. (Provided by: Undead, Ouroboros)

Revealing Possible Rewards Unlocked Through Species: Snake And Its Interactions…

…

The cloak of death surged around the serpent’s scales, flexing its will and pushing the serpent’s choice towards [Blighted Rebirth]. The hissing at the edges of the snake’s mind grew, spiking in intensity, and death’s control wavered slightly.

With a sudden mental jerk, the serpent chose something else - something that had always waited there, ignored. Always seen, but never wanted. A blight on the thought-light’s rewards, something that the snake-that-had-been had avoided even thinking about.

Something that, for the first time, was needed - necessary, even if the choice itself felt like the worst kind of betrayal.

Scales of Devotion: The scales shift as your devotion is altered further; provides powerful protection from the mental control of any being not connected to your Chains, while greatly increasing the mental and physical effects of [Chains of the Creator]. (Provided by: Snake, [Chains of the Creator])

Reward Chosen: Scales of Devotion

[Scales of Devotion] Acquired.

My mind cleared as the touch of death fell backwards, even as an old influence began to rise in an attempt to take its place. My mana shifted, turning gold. Tiamat called, her sudden thought-hiss breaking past all my mind’s defenses.

[INTEREST].

I lunged towards my scale-flesh, brilliant streams of gold already running from my fangs, knowing that in the next moment Mother would -

[SUBMIT].

The thought-hiss crashed against me, and I cowered underneath it. Mother was right. I should submit.

I wished that I could - but I couldn’t. I was already dead, an overwhelming wave of life essence ravaging my body, the substance long since spilled from my fangs. Breaking reanimated flesh down into nothing, and turning it to ash.

I died one final time and, this time, not even the touch of Death itself was able to bring me back.