Chapter 172: 172: The Long Way ‘Round

I knew that, despite all of its inherent inferiority, the Lesser Core wouldn’t be easy to approach. Its lair was surrounded by thick sheets of spore-mist and stolen Coreless, both of which would be a problem. While most of the corrupted were easily dealt with, there were more than enough of them to simply throw themselves at us and pin us down. From there, The Unrepentant One and the-female-who-was-not-Needle could finish us off - and that wasn’t even taking into account anything that could be waiting unseen.

They needed to be separated.

Devouring the Little Puppeteers was just the thing for that.

Level 3 Little Puppeteer Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 14/20.

Each time we found and consumed a new one, I cast myself back towards the [Little Guardian’s Totem] of either of my stolen disciples to check for a response. At first, there was nothing beyond a faint change in the air, only noticeable because I was looking for it.

We kept going.

I devoured more, reveling in the thought-light’s acknowledgements.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 15/20.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 16/20.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 17/20.

Finally, there was movement. The spore-mist surrounding my disciples had become significantly thinner, sparking a response from the corrupted that guarded the Lesser Core.

It had taken a long while, but I couldn’t expect much better. It wasn’t the spores’ fault, as disgusting and inferior as they were. They had been formed by something lesser - so, of course, they were lesser as well.

I sent out another thought-hiss towards my gold and blue protector, willing him to be ready. They might not have known exactly where we were, but the corrupted knew that we were close.

Then again, that was exactly what we had wanted. We moved on in a search for our next victim, keeping a watchful gaze on the mists around us. They flickered with phantasmal shapes reminiscent of the corrupted themselves, but they were only near enough in form that they could distract and put us on edge.

And, given that the only corrupted that could threaten us were still defending the Lesser Core itself, it failed at putting us on edge. Distraction was all that it could manage - a distraction that wasn’t nearly strong enough to save our quarry.

I devoured yet another Little Puppeteer, savoring the taste of its soft-flesh.

The thought-light flickered again, reflecting my joy in its own unique way.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 18/20.

The mists around us started to thin further, proving the effectiveness of our efforts. Parts were so ragged as to be almost gone entirely while others still managed to hold on, overlapped by the influence of another nearby Little Puppeteer. It was those overlaps that told us where to go next; if the mists frayed, the Little Puppeteer was far. If it thickened, it was close.

We moved on towards the next, following the clues left in the spore-mist. The Grateful One had caught on to our efforts long ago, eagerly following behind Will - and sometimes pushing ahead when I prompted him to move off course by mistake - in order to hunt down the Little Puppeteers. Through her [Little Guardian’s Totem], I could sense the [eagerness] with which she hunted. She took a great deal of [satisfaction] in the Little Puppeteers’ deaths, feeding each and every one into my open maw piece by piece.

The horrid things sprouted from the corpses of dead corrupted, bursting from their chests and absorbing the remnants of their bodies in one final insult. That meant that they could be found wherever the corrupted died. Sometimes, that dependency on corpses meant that the Little Puppeteers could be easily found, simply laying in the middle of the many-nest’s pathways. Other times, however, they were in more subtle places.

And yet, even in those times there could only be so many places to search. That was their downfall. The Coreless were just too large. There were no wall-cracks to hide in, no small-tunnels to form a shield. Searching for a particularly hidden Little Puppeteer, we turned off of one of the many-nest’s many paths and into a nearby nest.

It was as ruined as any other, breathing the same green mist as everything else. The moving-wall was, as expected, broken and useless. I sent a thought-hiss to Will, causing the gold and blue Coreless to kick its shattered remains aside.

As The Grateful One stepped inside, a wave of spore-flesh entered my mouth, trying to latch on and tangle with the spores already inside. They lost like all of the others. Still, it was enough that The Grateful One and I came to the same conclusion.

“It’s in here somewhere…” The Grateful One murmured, a hint of [realization] in her [Little Guardian’s Totem]. She started to walk through the nest with purpose, effortlessly defeating the moving-walls that stood in our path. Each time, they creaked and wailed in despair - yet she never showed a hint of hesitation, firm in her resolve.

The moving-walls received no quarter, as was only right; they were harboring an enemy of the Great Core.

Another moving-wall slammed open, a resounding bang roaring alongside it for the brief moment it took the spore-mist to swallow the sound whole. Another one came right after. And then another, the walls of the nest starting to shake just as we found our prey at last.

The Grateful One ripped the Little Puppeteer from its corpse-nest in a single motion, shoving it up towards me as she moved back towards the nest’s entrance.

I swallowed it almost entirely whole, only needing to tear a small portion of its flesh off beforehand.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 19/20.

The moving-walls put up even less of a fight than last time, still hanging open in abject defeat. With every step, the mist cleared out further - until, finally, it disappeared entirely. We finally made it out of the nest as its walls shook one last time, a green-black Coreless smashing into its siding with a vicious crack of bone and rotting wood.

“Skies…” The Grateful One murmured, staring in [shock] at the battlefield around us. Corrupted Coreless twitched and writhed on the ground, buried in mounds of spore-flesh and debris. One of them had more strength than the others, beginning to pull himself upward on shaking limbs.

Will stepped forward and slammed the edge of his ore-flesh into his knee with a sickening crack, the spore-roots infesting him following one of my earlier commands. It wasn’t as effective as it might have been if I was directly controlling how they chose to make him fight, but it was clearly more than enough to defeat the corrupted that had come for us. Will was just too well-defended for the emaciated Coreless to injure with only tooth and nail.

The Grateful One sighed, leaning over the now-crippled Coreless. She batted his hands aside when they got close, chewing on her lip.

“I don’t suppose we have time to help right now, do we?” she said to herself, because nobody was around to truly answer. I gave her a hiss anyway.

She leaned a little closer, looking the injured Coreless in the eyes. He chomped down in her direction, his pathetic fangs looking like they could hardly pierce through anything.

“Just hold on. We’ll be back to help you later. Just…hang on a little longer.”

Then, a hint of [regret] in her [Little Guardian’s Totem], she turned away and started walking. Her fists clenched at her side as it briefly shifted to [anger] before the emotions wisped away entirely. She sighed again, stepping back into the mists. Will followed silently behind, blood still dripping from glowing ore-flesh.

We continued onwards, the once-mighty mist little more than a thin covering. A few Corrupted had found us, but - without my stolen disciples at their side - they were weak. Useless. It wasn’t all their fault, I supposed. The Lesser Core had used them poorly. Wasted what they could have been.

We left them behind just like the others, careful not to injure them beyond what was necessary to keep them down. Unfortunately, that was sometimes a lot. Spore-roots didn’t feel pain nor sympathy.

More than once, I was forced to send a single drop of vitality through a dying Coreless’ flesh, staving off inevitable death. As uncomfortable as she seemed, The Grateful One was thankful for that.

She didn’t need to be. I just didn’t want the Great Core to lose its future acolytes.

Finally, we found the last of the Little Puppeteers needed for my [Spore Puppeteer] upgrade, sending it down my throat.

The thought-light flickered.

Level 27 Little Puppeteer Consumed.

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Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 20/20.

Blooded Trait Upgrade Received!

Blooded Trait: [Spore Puppeteer V] Increased.

[Spore Puppeteer VI] Acquired.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 0/40

As [Spore Puppeteer] increased in strength yet again, I took a moment to think. With the Little Puppeteers almost entirely dealt with and the horde of corrupted Coreless already diminishing in size, I needed to make sure that we had a way to deal with the stolen disciples. Even more than the other corrupted, it was important that they live through the battle. While the corrupted that we had crippled would be future acolytes of the Great Core, the disciples already were - even The Unrepentant One, the least of the Great Core’s disciples in faith. More than that, they were both strong enough that I knew they could be relied on; while other Coreless might eventually become strong, the disciples already were.

They needed to survive.

I turned [Spore Puppeteer] to the task, making a new set of vigor-infused spores. With the increase in my control over [Spore Puppeteer], I changed the spores just a little further, attuning them to my chosen purpose.

A thought-hiss later and Will was standing before me. He opened his mouth wide, and I cast the new set of spores out in a careful breath. His mouth-flesh wriggled visibly as old spore-roots pulled aside enough to let the new latch on and quickly form roots of their own.

He breathed again. Gold and blue motes glittered against the light of ore-flesh, new spores released with every moment.

I was careful, ensuring that the new spores would only spread as far as I wanted. They were more infectious than the rest, and had no qualms with stealing from Will’s strength and energy to power the creation of the spores that he had begun to breathe.

Left alone and allowed to spread, they might eventually drain Will into a withered husk.

They were dangerous.

Still, they might have been what I needed - because I had changed more than just that.

We waited beside what was likely the last Little Puppeteer in the area, close enough to the stolen disciples that I could almost catch their scent-taste on my tongue. I had already used [Illusion Spark] to communicate with The Grateful One as best I could. Hopefully she understood.

Will, wonderful and thoughtless protector that he currently was, didn’t require such hopes. He also didn’t require convincing. That was good because he was being put in the most danger. While I was sure that Will would surely sacrifice himself for the Great Core - as I had already seen him do in one of my false-lives - it was nice to know that there were no doubts.

There couldn’t be; my spores would never question me. Still, I would do all that I could to make sure that he didn’t die while still keeping the stolen disciples alive as well. That was the reason for my plan, in the end.

I bit down, tearing into the Little Puppeteer’s soft-flesh. A minute amount of death-venom was all that it took to kill the plant-flesh bad-thing. It relied on its spores to stop any attackers rather than having any form of real defense.

I made easy work of it.

Experience Gained!

Level Up!

1 Trait Point Gained.

I had managed to injure enough Little Puppeteers through our travels that I received a new reward from the thought-light at last. It wasn’t anything I could use yet, my trait points still almost entirely depleted, so I put thoughts of it aside.

Then, as quickly as I could, I swallowed the corpse.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 1/40.

It was doubtful that I would be able to reach the thought-light’s next achievement. The Lesser Core wouldn’t last much longer if we were successful, and I had no way of knowing how many Little Puppeteers were still alive. Regardless, it was nice to see. One more increase might be possible with enough luck.

A hand plucked me from the ground, depositing me on a cold shoulder of ore-flesh. Around us, the mist was starting to thin. I sent Will forward with a thought-hiss, pointing him towards where I knew the stolen disciples were waiting.

Meanwhile, The Grateful One ran a more indirect route, following the light of [Illusion Spark]. Then, when I was sure she knew where she was going, I threw my vision into the-female-who-was-not-Needle.

Will was standing in front of me, ore-flesh fangs held in my - her - hands cutting at his defenses. I sent out an urgent thought-hiss, forcing Will to pull not-Needle closer with a sweep of his ore-flesh. My vision pressed against his chest, all but blinded. It didn’t matter. Another thought-hiss went out.

Will’s face quickly leaned into my sight, teeth bared for a bite. Then, just as fast, my vision was sent spinning as not-Needle tumbled away. In the back of my mind, I could sense the nascent spores infesting her flesh. I set them to writhe and twist, causing as many problems as they could without killing their host.

With only a single bite, it wouldn’t be enough. The [Little Guardian’s Totem] around her neck would wipe away my spores as surely as it would the Lesser Core’s. Still, a bite in the right spot would do a lot to help slow her down.

Fighting alone, Will would need that.

Not-Needle quickly made that apparent as she rushed forward in a blur of speed, racing towards his blind spot. Yet, with me watching it all from The Grateful One’s shoulder, it was less than blind.

Another thought-hiss sent him whirling around, the ore-flesh that had once almost crushed me meeting not-Needle in a damaging blow that caused my vision to vibrate. A few more thought-hisses later, once I noticed the stolen disciples starting to struggle against the Lesser Core’s control enough to slow their steps, I retreated back into my own mind.

Will’s fight was important, but so was what we were doing.

The Lesser Core had lost two of its defenders; I didn’t want to give it time to realize it needed to recruit another - or further awaken one that it already had. The darkwood tree loomed above us, a terrifying threat for all its many flaws, one that my spores still hadn’t come close to converting. It was just too large. I could feel a few of its roots off in the distance, gold and blue crisscrossing their plant-flesh in a weave of color - and maybe in a week or two more I might have been able to take some of them for myself - but its base was frighteningly clear of my influence.

Still, I knew that it was one of the most mindless of bad-things; our continued survival proved that was true. And yet, it could end our very lives in one simple move. Just like the Guardian bad-thing of the Flame Core.

Except, this time, I couldn’t simply choose to throw myself at the problem again and again. I only had one chance.

A giant branch rustled high overhead, leaves turning with an invisible wind - or maybe I was imagining that in my anxiety. I looked away, turning my mind towards something else I had seen in my stolen disciple’s vision.

Just in case things went wrong when sneaking into the Lesser Core’s nest.

I sent The Grateful One straight for it, hoping that I wouldn’t end up needing it - because I certainly couldn’t rely on it. Still, it would have to do.

Zendran

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