The Great Core's Paradox

Eli staggered, the shakiness in his legs less from fatigue - his mana-enhancement meant that he wouldn’t feel that, not without the situation turning significantly worse than it already was - and more from, well, fear.

There was a lot of that right now.

A whole lot of it.

Even ignoring the persistent fear that a tiny Ascended monster would slither its way out of the ground and decide to take a bite, Eli was faced with a more immediate fear - the once-human thing right in front of him.

The thing that just refused to die.

Even Sergeant Horik’s spear taking it in the chest hadn’t been enough. Sure, there was a second or two where Eli had thought it had, but it hadn’t.

And that was the problem - because Eli had, after working through the fright of a damn spear flying over his shoulder midstrike, started to move on to another enemy. It wasn’t until something sharp pierced through a gap in his armor, skewering him from behind, that Eli realized he had made a mistake.

The thing hadn’t been dead, after all.

One panicked dive to the side later, paired with a jarring landing that Eli would rather not remember, brought him back to relative safety. Or, at least, safety in regards to near-certain death being in front of him rather than behind him

Not really any form of safety at all, when he actually thought about it. So he tried not to think about it.

Instead, Eli lifted his spear again, raising it into a ready stance. His newest wound itched terribly, feeling as if ten thousand bugs were crawling inside it, weaving a web that stitched its tattered edges back together. Beneath it, he felt a familiar pit opening in his stomach, one that would eventually begin to widen if things got any worse, carving a hole through his flesh.

Literally. More than once in the past, Eli had been reduced to an emaciated wreck, begging for any scrap he could get to sate his body’s needs as it tried to tear itself apart. He had learned to carry extra bits of food wherever he went, just in case. Anything to satisfy the neverending need that appeared if the worst should happen.

Though, at the moment, there wouldn’t be time to reach for any of that food. Eli’s hunger would have to wait.

The enemy advanced, shedding copious amounts of black smoke with every step from where Sergeant Horik’s spear was still thoroughly lodged in its stomach. It had gone right through the former guard’s armor, piercing through the shining metal.

Which was impressive, but it didn’t seem to be slowing it down very much. Still, the way that most of the smoke concentrated itself around the spear that impaled its stomach gave Eli hope that the wound was at least doing something.

Probably. It was hard to tell. Either way, it wasn’t doing enough to stop the thing. Not even close.

Eli was really tempted to run. He looked around, eyes frantically scanning his surroundings. The other members of his squad were struggling with their own enemies; the only one who wasn’t struggling was Sergeant Horik.

Instead, a dense, black cloud of smoke had formed at his feet. Something moved inside it, and the smoke swirled about.

The urge to run grew a little stronger.

A thick cloud of death essence wisped around me in both my bodies, from both of my perspectives. As my snake-self, I moved quickly, knowing that - even with the black cloud that was filling the air, hiding me from sight - I wasn’t safe. Not in my important body, at least. Because I had two right now.

Which was still a little weird.

Shaking off the thought, I let myself sink into the ground, finding safe shelter in the stone below me. Safe shelter that I sorely needed; I had pushed so much death essence into the undead once-leader that I was running dangerously low. Though, I had a feeling that the life force I had absorbed through [Life Hunter] was helping me out there by bringing me just a little closer to true life again. It didn’t feel like it was taking as much death essence to keep myself going as it had when I first reanimated myself.

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While that was an interesting thought, it wasn’t one that I had time for. The world was still moving above me, and I hadn’t been paying enough attention to it - and so, with my mouth securely latched onto tail to begin regenerating my mana again, I focused more of my attention on the new perspective that I had gained.

I needed that focus.

Moving the once-leader’s body was more than a little…frustrating.

It didn’t help that he wouldn’t stop making so much noise.

I’m going to fry you when I get free, you stupid snake. Slit you from mouth to tail and -

I squeezed the Coreless’ mind tighter, catching him within my coils and forcing him to be quiet. Even with our new connection, I wasn’t entirely sure what he was trying to say, and it was more than a little distracting. Something about food, maybe? And also blood. While I couldn’t understand the noises themselves, they came with images and feelings somewhat similar to what I got from my [Little Guardian’s Totem]s - just a little clearer.It was enough that I got the idea that he really wanted to kill and eat something, but that was about it. I didn’t feel like trying to figure out any more than that, and I didn’t bother to test if I could send any thoughts in the other direction.

Whatever he was trying to say, it didn’t really matter. Neither did finding out if the effect worked both ways. It wasn’t the time for things like that. Not with everything else going on. I focused my attention outwards, pulling it away from the merged mind-nest that contained me and the once-leader’s thoughts.

My body felt weird. Too large, and with too many limbs. I focused on one of those limbs and tried to wiggle the fingers at its end. I wasn’t sure if I did it right; I couldn’t see. A cloud of darkness surrounded me, hiding the rest of the world from view.

Right up until it didn’t.

A boot came down, the force of the blow strong enough to push a section of the darkness away for a brief instant. My bones shattered.

Again. It wasn’t the first time this happened.

The bones reformed in a series of sickening cracks, using up a portion of the death essence that kept my Coreless body going. The cloud briefly thickened, only to thin ever so slightly a moment later. But only by a small amount.

Now that I was in control of the body, it was easier to tell what was going on. The cloud of essence that wisped off of the Coreless’ flesh was partly just bits here and there released naturally, a small amount of it used up and then released into the air in order to keep the Coreless’ undead body, well, undead. It was the rest of what was being released that was a problem.

Even as an undead, the Coreless’ body could only hold so much death essence - and I had crammed in far, far more than what it could properly hold. The extra amount was disappearing faster than it should have naturally, forcefully propelled into the air when the Coreless’ body was unable to properly hold it. Maybe if I had done things more slowly, if I had let the body gradually adjust to the death essence inside it, carefully let it grow more accustomed to storing it, things might have been different. As it was, a lot was going to waste.

Luckily, it wasn’t entirely a waste. Just mostly. At the very least, it gave me a little bit more time to figure out what I was doing by hiding most of my borrowed Coreless body away. Not enough that I could stay safe, considering that the cloud of essence was centered on my body and wasn’t actually a good method of hiding at all, but enough to slow down the Coreless that continued to crush me.

He didn’t seem to like stepping in the smoke for very long.

“Argh!” my attacker shouted. I heard him step back again, his giant boots crashing against the ground as he walked. I could feel it, too. Sense the tiny remnants of death essence that had moved from the smoke and into his flesh. Small enough that they winked out quickly, disappearing from my awareness as they were used up, but large enough to make the Coreless unwilling to stay standing in the cloud of death essence for longer than he needed.

Luckily, I didn’t have that problem.

Instead, I was dealing with a different problem. A horrifying, disgusting issue, one that I had only realized I would have to deal with when the Coreless stepped back. I gathered myself, praying to the Great Core for strength, and sunk my fangs into the problem.

I had to stand. With my…legs.

Oh, just the thought made me want to vomit. I tried to remind myself that it could have been worse. There were only two legs. Eight would have been absolutely horrifying to possess. And besides, two legs were only one missing leg away from being a tail. Sort of. So it was okay.

…

It wasn’t okay. It was awful. The legs were so…rigid. I couldn’t even bend them right; they only went in one direction. Not like a tail at all, even if I cut one of them off and tried to pretend.

I couldn’t slither like this.I had tried. It didn’t work. Which meant I had to use my new legs the way whatever horrible being that had created them intended.

I tried to stand, the slowly-diminishing cloud of essence shifting around me as I rose to my feet - and then dropping again as I instantly fell, pitching forward onto my face.

How do legs even work?