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Chapter 259: The Unmoving Wall

I stood triumphantly on wobbling legs, basking in my greatness - and, at the same time, I laid atop the Coreless giant’s flesh, my fangs pushing deep inside him. The Coreless shuddered, one hand raising up to slap at my snake-self with scale-shattering force, but the rest of what I had accomplished was enough to stop him.

Even if only barely.

His former allies, turned undead one and all, held him down with a ceaseless determination that few could match, ignoring the way that the giant Coreless’ struggles drew more and more of the death essence that kept them going from their flesh. But even as they inched towards their final deaths, the giant Coreless moved closer to his first.

Until, finally, that death found him. His life force slammed into me with all of the strength that such a giant should have, more solid than the other Coreless had been. It still wasn’t enough to bring me back from my undeath, but it was close. It wouldn’t be long now.

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

With a twist of will, the thought-light cut itself off. The giant Coreless became mine. I hissed in dual displays of glee, both Coreless-self and snake-self happily announcing my victory. It was hard to hiss as a Coreless; the sound didn’t come out quite right.

Maybe I had judged the Coreless wrongly for their failures. But still, I eventually managed, so there was no real excuse.

Beside my selves, the tunnel fell silent, the battle won. One by one, my battered undead began to pull themselves off of their newfound ally. A few didn’t quite make it, their limbs too broken by their efforts and their stores of death essence too low to repair them.

I didn’t have enough death essence to do that, either. Not enough to waste, anyway. Not for these weaker Coreless. It just wasn’t worth keeping all of them anymore. Just existing caused them to lose small parts of their death essence over time, pushing them closer and closer to their final deaths. Keeping them going just wasn’t something I was willing to do.

One by one, I bit into their exposed bits of flesh, using my control over the death essence inside of their bodies to draw it back towards my fangs. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked; with a little effort, I could reabsorb most of what I had given them. What remained, anyway. Though it felt a little odd, having the deathly liquid pull itself up the channels in my fangs, I quickly managed to return it to its proper place.

I pushed the injured undead to their final deaths, luxuriating in the comforting glow of the thought-light.

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

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

Requisite Experience Awarded. Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Level up x1!

1 Trait Point Gained.

Requisite Experience Awarded. Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Level up x1!

1 Trait Point Gained.

They weren’t the first of the former blasphemers to be lost recently, but it was the first time that I had intentionally sacrificed a few of them, reaping the reward for their deaths. They were surprisingly effective sources of experience. Far more than most bad-things, though nowhere even near what something like The Golem had given me.

I could see why so many bad-things tried to hunt them.

Then again, bad-things tried to hunt everything. They tried to hunt me

. They were bad. It was just what they did.

I refocused, turning my attention towards my Coreless as the bulk of the group approached my gathered crowd of undead. A few of them moved faster than the others, already beginning the process of stripping away the dead ones’ skins of ore-flesh and hastily wrapping the skins around themselves. I didn’t pay it much mind; I couldn’t use those skins. Besides, I already had my own.

Some of the other Coreless seemed like they minded though, filling the air with loud and incomprehensible sounds.

“Hey!” one shouted, hobbling towards the group of Coreless that had already nearly finished placing the skins of ore-flesh over their own. I considered healing whatever injury he had, but decided against it for now. I needed to save all the mana that I could for a little while; the recent fight had brought me pretty low. “I said that the next set of armor was mine!”

“Should’ve moved faster, then. Or taken it off of that kid that went past. I doubt he’d have been able to fight you for it. Skies, you could probably go find it now,” another Coreless replied, one hand waving in the air towards my newest undead. “Doubt he’s still with the living - even big ol’ Horik didn’t make it, the mean son of a bitch.”

The first Coreless’ lips twisted upside down. “I ain’t stealing from a man who’s still dyin’, guard or not. Gotta give him some dignity. ‘Sides, it wouldn’t fit me anyway, at his size. Did you see how small he was? Skin and bones covered in metal, that’s all he was. Not a bit of muscle on him. Bah!”

Whatever the noises they were making at each other meant, they quickly trailed off, looking towards me. Towards my Coreless-self, anyway. I stood - stood! - proud, allowing them to witness my newfound mastery over legs.

“The fuck’s wrong with this one, anyway? Can’t even stand straight.”

If only they were wearing [Little Guardian’s Totem]s so that I could feel their admiration properly. I was forced to imagine it instead.

Good enough for now.

After a moment of thought, I slithered over to one of the armored Coreless; the one that had carried me for most of my time in these tunnels. He reached down, already knowing what I wanted without the need for [Illusion Spark] to command him, and pulled me onto his shoulder.

I hissed lightly, coiling inwards so that my mouth could reach my tail, and then we were on our way again.

===

Soon enough, we found our way to where the tunnels had begun. To the Not-So-Great-Enemy that I had faced at the beginning of my journey in the tunnels, the giant moving-wall that had already tried and failed to stand in my way - and now tried to block my exit.

I stopped my Coreless with a brief flare of [Illusion Spark], staring down my former enemy.

It had already lost once. I had been merciful that time, despite its choice to stand against the Great Core. Obviously, that had been a mistake on my part - because as I slithered towards it, moving down from the Coreless that carried me’s shoulder and bumping against the Not-So-Great-Enemy with a meaningful press of my snout, it chose to defy me again.

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It didn’t budge.

With a displeased hiss, I returned to the Coreless’ shoulder, already preparing my response.

Because now, with my Coreless-self, I didn’t just have horrible, disgusting, awful legs.

I had arms - a moving-wall’s greatest weakness. Every moving-wall I had ever seen had easily fallen before the Coreless’ grabby limbs, and I knew that this one wouldn’t be any different.

A second victory over the Not-So-Great-Enemy was assured.

I stepped out from behind the crowd of Coreless - walking was still hard, I was slow! - and moving towards my enemy, arms already raised and hands grabbing at the air threateningly. The moving-wall stood quietly, still refusing to budge.

For the moment - but soon enough, my Coreless-self’s hands touched the stubborn moving-wall, and its fate was sealed.

I pushed.

…

I pushed.

…

I pushed, great puffs of air bursting from my snake-self’s lungs in sympathy. My Coreless-self didn’t need to breathe, but the sheer exertion had a strange way of making me feel like I needed to breathe anyway, and it wasn’t limited to a single body.

I fell back, giving up. The Not-So-Great-Enemy was a more difficult opponent than I thought. I looked down at my arms. Was I doing something wrong? It seemed so easy when the Coreless did it. I grabbed at the air experimentally, flexing my fingers.

Grab. Grab. Grab, grab, grab.

I braced my Coreless-self with my horrible, horrible legs and pushed again.

…

Nothing.

“...think he knows that it’s a pull, not a push?” one of the Coreless behind me said, talking in quiet not-hisses towards the others. They responded with not-hisses of their own, each just as unintelligible to me as the first.

But I didn’t need to know what they said. It wasn’t important. What was important was what they were seeing. My failure to defeat the moving-wall.

Its successful stand against the Great Core’s chosen Champion.

I was filled with anger. No, fury. First, the moving-wall stood in the Great Core’s path, like many before it - and while that wasn’t acceptable, many others had done the same before it. But now, it was doing something worse.

It was making me look bad in front of the Great Core’s newest followers.

I did the only thing that I could. I used what I had available, commanding those followers to destroy it, letting them take part in the Not-So-Great-Enemy’s defeat. In its humiliation.

It wouldn’t just move. It would break.

The Coreless followed my will, kicking viciously at my former enemy and passing quiet not-hisses among themselves as they worked.

“...why not just open it and walk through it?”

“...not worth questioning. Just break the damn door into splinters.”

I pulled myself upwards on the Coreless that carried me’s shoulder, hissing in audible satisfaction as the moving-wall collapsed. [Sound Shaping] amplified the noise, making it more than loud enough to announce the Great Core’s final victory over the stubborn moving-wall.

“...fucking Skies, that gets me every time,” the Coreless jumped, scratching at his ear as if trying to remove an incessant itch. “Nearly pissed myself.”

Ignoring whatever the Coreless had tried to say, I focused on [Illusion Spark] again, pointing the Great Core’s newest followers towards a place past the ruined moving-wall, causing them to move into the cavern outside. My undead trailed behind and, as they walked past, I had a thought.

With gleeful satisfaction and a twist of death essence that felt like victory, the largest of my undead moved, taking one of the stone-breaking fangs that some of the Coreless carried on their shoulders and using it to smash at the walls and ceiling of the tunnel again and again. The fang landed with great, powerful booms, and the stone did the only thing it could.

It shattered, a painfully loud crash echoing through what I imagined was the entire many-nest. Jagged, giant boulders buried what little remained of the moving-wall, a nearly solid wall of rubble filling the space from one side of the former tunnel to the other. A few bits of null-water leaked through what few gaps in the broken stone that there were, making any entry all but impossible.

I wouldn’t want to try, that was for sure.

Now that was a proper wall. One that didn’t move at all!

Stupid moving-wall.

With my final victory over the Not-So-Great-Enemy over and done with, I pointed the Great Core’s newest followers towards our next goal. Returning to my disciples.

Their [Little Guardian’s Totem]s had been giving off feelings of [worry] and [uneasiness]

for a while now. They were fine; I had checked to be sure. None of them were in any danger, though they had been wandering around earlier. While most of them were together again, The Grateful One was now separated from the rest, but even she seemed fine. Not that I thought too much trouble was likely, with most of the disciples surrounded by so many other bearers of the Great Core’s light. A great many [Little Guardian’s Totem] filled the tower-nest from earlier, where all but The Grateful One waited - the only[Little Guardian’s Totem]s in this many-nest, their bearers sickly and weak. And I now realized the reason for that.

Not all of the Coreless wanted to bask in the Great Core’s light. Were there more blasphemers hiding in the towers of the many-nest, keeping the Great Core’s followers confined and weak?

I would need to find out.

Still, looking at the Coreless that I had already saved, I wasn’t too worried. Compared to the Coreless’ continued inability to communicate, it seemed like a quick, easy problem. Even a single [Little Guardian’s Focus] would be enough to fix the majority of it, letting the bearers of the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s safely solve their problems themselves. Which was good, because I wouldn’t always be able to do it for them.

I guessed that meant that I would need to make more [Little Guardian’s Totem]s for the newest of the Great Core’s followers, too. Again, not too hard.

My mood brightened,and I looked towards the thought-light to brighten it further. It flared in my mind as it always did, satisfying proof of my successful service of the Great Core.

Name: Paradox

Species: Snake, Ouroboros, Undead

Major Title: [The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail] [Little Guardian] [Reanimated]

Minor Titles: [Minor Mana Core] [Venomous Retribution] [Touched By Fire] [Ascended Seeker]

Innate Traits: [Venomous II] [Life-Death Inversion MAX]

Blooded Traits: [Paralyzing Venom IV] [Poisonous Blood III] [Illusion Spark IV] [Clinging Grasp III] [Sound Shaping VII] [Chains Of The Creator I] [Anticoagulant IV] [Constriction I] [Spore Puppeteer IX] [Ascended Sense I] [Ambusher’s Vision III] [Streamlined Scales V] [Sting IV] [Enhanced Lungs III]

Resistances: [Piercing Resistance - Intermediate V] [Venom Resistance - Intermediate II]

Level: 75

Trait Points: 20

Core Skills: [The Endless Cycle] [Chrono Fire] [Verdure Parasite] [The Golem’s Fading Heart] [Transient Reanimation]

Lesser Core Skills: [Mana Manipulation XI] [Mana Venom XI] [Mana Fire VII] [Little Guardian’s Totem MAX] [Life Essence Manipulation IX] [Life - Invigorating Bite XIV] [Life - Vitality XVII] [Life - Vigor XI] [Life - Vigorous Spores IV][Little Guardian’s Focus XII] [Death Essence Manipulation IX] [Death - Venom X] [Death - Enervating Bite XII] [Death - Wither XII] [Death - Weakness X]

Level Rewards: [Traveler] [Mana-Life Conversion] [Mana-Death Conversion] [Mana Restoration] [Mana Blood] [Life Hunter]

Description: A growing Ouroboros, symbol of the eternal.

I ran my thoughts through what the thought-light showed me, thinking over the battles in the tunnel, and what each new death had gained me. I even realized that, if I wanted to, I might be able to gain more if I were willing to destroy all of my remaining reanimated Coreless. With how much experience their deaths gave me, it would probably be enough to reach level 80 and pick a new Blessing. I probably wouldn’t, since the undead were useful to me as they were, and there was no hurry to receive the experience they could give me. But if I wanted to, I could. Just jump straight to the next level I wanted to be.

The choice was nice.

I stared at the thought-light some more, basking in its glow.

Though, satisfying as it was to see, looking at it made me feel like I was missing something. My Coreless-self’s lips begin to turn downwards, and my snake-self released a confused hiss.

There’s something…

I finally realized what was bothering me. A few specks of death essence weighing on the corner of my mind, barely noticeable when compared to the torrent that filled the group of undead beside me. And it was still in the tunnels that we had left behind.

Three specks of essence became two. Then one. Then none.

The essence was gone. Drained away. But not in keeping one of my undead moving. I knew what my reanimated felt like, and the thought-light would have told me if one of them died even if I didn’t have such an obvious connection to them. This was something else. Something far worse. Because, even as the death essence disappeared, the thought-light never came.

One of the blasphemers that I had bitten was still alive in there somehow, and I was too distracted by everything else to notice.

Stupid, I hissed at myself.

For a moment, I thought about trying to go back, to chase down the somehow still-living Coreless and finish what I started. Maybe even claim him as one of my reanimated undead, and see if their strange resistance to my death essence led to anything interesting.

But then I looked at the rubble-wall and decided that it probably didn’t matter. I doubted that they could get past the piles of rubble. Even if the Coreless was strong enough to lift the stones one by one, which I didn’t think they were, they would tire long before they ever came close to getting through.

More importantly, I couldn’t get past the rubble-wall safely. Not with the occasional stream of black-water that flowed between some of the cracks and pooled on the ground below it.

It wasn’t worth risking my death - undeath? - to ensure the punishment of a single doomed blasphemer.

I decided that what I had done was good enough.

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