Chapter 189: Chapter 188: The Golem’s Fading Heart

 

The enemy descended; slithering, hissing, twining their deceptively small length down a bundle of vines. It looked weak, a tiny thing that even the least powerful of The Golem’s many defeated enemies could have swallowed whole. Only the Core embedded into its flesh, smaller than even The Golem’s own Core-heart, revealed the danger that hid behind its scales - marking the tiny creature as an Ascended.

That, and the plant-flesh that it so clearly controlled. The roots never blocked its path; the vines never shied from its touch. Instead, they moved with it - for it, even - as if its commands were as important as those from Mother herself.

Mother didn’t like that thought. Not at all.

The Golem did his best to ignore her, as hard as that was. She was loud, enraged, and simply…Mother. The Golem was supposed to listen. Mother knew best, even when he didn’t understand. He had to listen.

He didn’t, focusing instead on escape, drowning out her roars with an overwhelming desire to live.

One of the vines holding The Golem’s Core-heart sizzled, [Slime’s Gluttony] working faster as the imprisoned Ascended desperately wrapped as many tendrils as possible around a single length of plant-flesh. The tendrils were smaller, less able to stretch without a form to stretch through. They always were; they had never been able to move very far beyond the safety of one of his forms, whether that was mud-form, clay-form, or before-form. They were vulnerable, the only real part of The Golem’s body that could still feel pain, with his former heart replaced by an indestructible Core. Only the enemy’s apparent ignorance of their existence kept them safe.

It wouldn’t last much longer, but he hoped that it would last long enough. Despite his panic, The Golem had reasons for fleeing in the direction that he had. The obvious one was his need for stone, but that wasn’t the only reason. There was a second one, one that The Golem was hoping the approaching Ascended didn’t know about - a means of escape, buried beneath a mass of plant-flesh and a workably thin floor of stone. A giant cavern, one deep enough to be deadly and vast enough that the former Stone Slime had encountered it multiple times already; he had broken into it more than once while forming the tunnels to cross underneath the killing waters. He was more than aware of how deep he needed to dig to reach it as a result. It wouldn’t take much.

With a powerful enough [Tremor Touch], he could find it again. With his Core-heart’s resistance to damage, he would survive the fall, even if his tendrils were pulverized by the impact. It would be painful, but they would regrow. He just needed to live.

The Golem’s tendrils squeezed tighter. The vine almost snapped, weakened enough that only a few ragged strips of plant-flesh still hung from the points his tendrils had touched. He moved on to the next, and weakened that one too.

The enemy slithered closer, traveling along an outstretched bundle of thick vines that held like solid ground, its weight far too little to unsteady the clump of plant-flesh. Its Core shone brightly despite the size, and The Golem’s tendrils instinctively twitched in its direction. They wanted a taste. Judging by the drops of liquid running from the enemy’s open jaws, it wanted a taste of The Golem, too.

When the enemy leaned forward, mouth opened almost impossibly wide for the thing’s size, a few of his tendrils stuffed themselves within the gap. The snake flinched backwards, surprised, confused, and a little pained by the invisible touch of [Slime’s Gluttony]. It wasn’t enough to scare it away - not even close - but it was enough to keep the enemy cautious. More importantly, it was enough to keep them away for just a little longer while The Golem’s tendrils worked at the vines holding his Core-heart captive.

Another vine weakened, and the prison weakened with it.

The enemy bent closer again, more cautiously than before. A few tendrils moved to meet it, dissolving bits of flesh. Its opened jaws snapped shut in another flinch; unlike before, the tip of a single fang pierced through one of the invisible tendrils. Something hot seeped in the wound, running through its ethereal flesh; the damaged tendril started to wither, like plant-flesh exposed to rot. Painfully, horribly so.

With a strength boosted by pain and panic both, The Golem lashed his tendrils at the weakened group of vines, pushing and devouring all at once. They snapped; a hole was made, and his Core-heart slipped through - but not before a line of blue flames burst from the enemy’s mouth, coating one side of his Core-heart - and more importantly, the tendrils connected to it - in terrible, agonizing fire.

 

---

 

The bad-thing fell, its innumerable tendrils outlined by the [Chrono Fire] that had reflexively spurt from my jaws. It probably hadn’t been the best option with so much plant-flesh around, but the need to slow the bad-thing’s escape had overcome that concern. I had been so close to defeating it; only the pain that assaulted my mouth-flesh had held me back. Now, with the bad-thing’s tendrils more visible due to being coated in [Chrono Fire], it was only a matter of time before I could achieve my true victory.

As long as it didn’t escape again.

I forced a set of vines to rapidly grow downwards, letting me wind down its length. It was much slower than falling, but it was much better than dying from a fall. I was still too easy to kill, even if I was stronger than I had once been.

Meanwhile, the bad-thing had already hit the ground, its descent only slightly slowed by the budding slow-spot of [Chrono Fire]. Already, the fire had begun to spread - the spore-roots and plant-flesh that surrounded it began to die to the flames, but their sacrifice wasn’t entirely in vain. The slow-spot formed faster as [Chrono Fire] spread, enveloping the fleeing bad-thing within the distortion it caused, and a few flickering embers ignited a large section of the bad-thing’s remaining tendrils.

Outlined in fire, the impossibly translucent tendrils were easy to see. A few slowly thrust downwards as I neared, seeking stone. The ground trembled. More tendrils joined the first, and the ground shuddered.

The vine that I was using began to burn as well, flames slithering up its length. I was forced to let myself drop the rest of the way, falling into the comforting warmth of [Chrono Fire]. Unlike everything else, it would not burn me. And, with [Traveler] active, it wouldn’t slow me either.

The ground shook further as the bad-thing continued its attempt to escape, the sounds of groaning earth growing even more powerful.

I leapt towards the bad-thing before it could escape, [Traveler] letting me pass through the slow-spot that was building around it with ease. I opened my mouth as wide as possible, ready to force the slightly over-large Core down my throat even if it didn’t want to fit perfectly.

And then the ground stopped shaking; instead, it shattered entirely, and I realized that there was nothing but empty air and darkness below the carved-out cavern. In a panic, I closed my mouth and wrapped my coils around the bad-thing’s Core, a combination of [Clinging Grasp] and [Constriction] allowing me to grip it tight.

Neither of those stopped me from falling, but they did mean that we fell together. We would end together, and then my next life would begin. I hoped the Great Core found my efforts worthy.

The flames of [Chrono Fire] wrapped around us both, warming me and burning my enemy, as we dropped through the darkness. The bad-thing’s tendrils - those that still remained, at least - tried to reach for me, but they were slow and easy to defeat while within the embrace of [Chrono Fire], and they only slowed further as the slow-spot that surrounded us grew in strength. I sunk my fangs into sluggish, lethargic flesh, destroying them with death-venom one by one. Even that happened fairly slowly, the venom no longer affected by the effects of [Traveler] once it spilled from my fangs.

After that, I had nothing to do. We were still falling. Slowly. Eventually, the ground rose up to meet us - and we met it in turn. Slowly.

Very, very slowly. When we finally touched down, there was hardly even a sound - I realized that the slow-spot that [Chrono Fire] created had turned what should have been a deadly fall into a very safe, very long, and very boring one.

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…Oh.

In a bit of a daze - and more than a little disbelieving - I pulled myself off of the bad-thing’s Core. The stone was slick against my scale-flesh, almost impossibly smooth. It felt nice.

Victory would feel even nicer, I knew.

I thought back to the end of my last false-life; to that single promise that I had made. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A follower for a follower.

I sent out a thought-hiss, making sure Tiamat would remember it too.

<RETRIBUTION>

Then, ignoring the blasphemer’s roars and stretching my jaws as wide as possible, I consumed her Ascended.

I claimed my true victory - and the Great Core rewarded me with flicker after flicker of the thought-light, each seeming to appear almost simultaneously. Seeing what came first, I realized something important. I had consumed the Ascended’s Core and only then it had died. In a way, the Ascended’s - The Golem - life had been tied to the Core itself. The rest of its body wasn’t needed; if it had been, the Ascended would have died when I destroyed the last of its tendrils.

---

Level 152 Ascended: The Golem Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Integrating Ascended Core…

Ascended Core Integrated.

Core Skill Created: [The Golem’s Fading Heart].

---

My scale-flesh began to itch immediately, making it obvious what would come next. I didn’t even need the thought-light’s confirmation. It had already begun. The thought-light flickered again and again and again, each one overlapping the next.

---

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Level Up x 22!

22 Trait Points Gained.

 

Level 40 Reached!

Level 50 Reached

Analyzing Potential Reward Choices…

Only Two May Be Selected.

 

Condition Met.

Core Skill - [The Endless Cycle] Renewed.

Beginning New Cycle.

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Before I could do anything more, [The Endless Cycle] activated; my scale-flesh tightened in response. The world fell away. When I pulled free from my shed scale-flesh a few moments later, the thought-light was still flickering, just as I had hoped.

 

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