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Chapter 50: Holding Back the Charge
🕑 Added 2021-11-07 07:22:00 +0000 UTCWork was quite the task. It rarely involved anything new, being more a job around focusing on the same thing over and over again, making sure that no steps were done improperly. The Core had certainly nailed that aspect of its life down, having done work multiple times throughout its life. This usually showed itself in larger projects like the Panelling of its Domain or the improvement of its skills. Either took more than a few hours to get right, bordering on several days or even weeks. Though, the latter had only happened once. Or maybe twice, depending on how much one trusted the method used to calculate the travel of time.
Ah, time. The Entity couldn't get enough of it. More time allowed for more work and more stress. Such two things perhaps should have grown in the same way, stress going down when more time for work came around. If more things were done, it must have meant that the Core would have less to stress about, right? Of course, it didn't, no matter how much the Entity wished it did.
For with time came the potential of work. And this potential didn't just sit idly by beside the Core. No, of course not. Instead, it was distributed evenly among all living, everybody able to work as hard as they possibly wished. And this meant that a certain other creature within the confines of the world could work as well. The [Queen of Hollows], the controller of the [Undead], and the source of all the stress that the Core would possibly need. How the Entity hated knowing that the ant was up to something. Something close to two weeks had passed without an attack and the Core was starting to worry. Most of that time had been spent preparing itself for any attacks, though the latter parts had been spent digging out that damned line.
The line meant to figure out where the Colony was at. That was the goal, after all, meant to have the potential for everything the Core would ever desire. A way out of stress, a way that would lead to it thinking in peace while slowly expanding, and making sure that it would reach its goal of omnipotence without ever risking its own life. That wasn't too much to ask, right? The Entity certainly didn't so.
And all it would require was that the Queen died while in the Core’s sight. But, normally, for the creature to be within its, it would need to step onto the Entity’s domain. That was something best left for the most unlikely of scenarios, the Core knowing it would face something to impending doom if such a thing were to ever happen. The ability to actively spread the Black Mana, making it grow with one’s reserves… the Entity wasn't sure if it would be able to beat the Queen in a war of attrition.
Likewise, it would be impossible to win at all if the previous strategy was anything to go by. The creature would simply create a massive amount of [Undead], throw them at the Core, and see how it went. If the Entity became weakened substantially, it wouldn't be too hard to simply go in and slaughter it. If not, then the Queen could simply try with more creatures next time while also not putting any risk on herself. It was a perfect strategy against one who couldn't relocate quite so easily.
Or it was more than the Core’s instincts refused the notion of moving around. While the loss of work would have been substantial, there shouldn't have been anything technically stopping the Core from just putting out a constant current of Mana and just… travelling with the ants for a few days. It would be the opposite direction of where the Queen had come from previously. And since there was little chance of the [Queen of Hollows] following along for pure revenge, it only made sense to do just that.
Yet the sheer thought of it made the Entity’s innards tighten. It felt the crackling only heard during previous bouts of Memories, yet… it was different those times. When the Core thought of leaving, the pain would be different. It would be closer to a warning than anything else as if its mind was trying to make sure that the Entity understood the consequences that would come from retreating. And since the [Title] behind the crackling had given points to the Entity, had upgraded it, there was no doubt that it could do the opposite as well. If the eCore didn't live up to the requirements, it would come as close to perishing as it possibly could. And the thought alone was not something it wanted inside of itself.
The idea of losing everything, of losing the ability to sense, manipulate, and otherwise interact with the world again just seemed too damning. The Core knew that it had likely gained those skills due to the memories put out. If everything was taken away, it wasn't sure it would be able to repeat its previous feat, forcing it to sit amongst a sea of rocks without ever being noticed. It would likely even lose its mind, forced to think as much as the other non-sentient beings.
That was to be avoided at all costs, meaning that the Core would stay where it already was. And maybe that wasn't the biggest loss of all. As long as the task could be completed without the Queen setting foot inside the Dungeon’s Domain, everything would be fine. No issues would be had.
And that dream had slowly started to become more and more of a reality, the clues slowly putting themselves together. Through hard work and dedication, days had been spent on expanding the network of thin Mana-Lines. Going straight out for five hundred meters had done nothing, shown no creatures of any kind. It was barren and without caves, even. That hadn't been good to see at all, the Core having nearly lost hope to start with.
That only furthered itself when it tried to go the right, digging out further and further in that direction first. A whole hundred meters was travelled, showing nothing at all. Cave systems were had in abundance, yes, but there was no life within. Only stale air and dirt-filled those caverns.
It was good to see space, however, the idea of the cave system being further out let the Core know that things were still larger than what had already been seemed. There were just… empty pockets, only filled with stone and dirt. There had been hints towards them having more at some point, yet it seemed the time had worn the walls down to a point where it all collapsed upon itself. The Core hoped it could avoid that with what it personally sat inside. However. When getting back to the search for the Colony, some success was found later on. While the actual location was still amiss, a few hints towards the true location was found.
What was one of the main requirements of a Colony? While an actual placement was important and all, it was nothing without its inhabitants. And those inhabitants were rare creatures that simply sat inside doing nothing. Instead, they were out gathering resources, food, and whatever else might be needed to sustain the creatures. This could especially be seen with the [Giant-Ants], the creatures working collectively to take large pieces of dead bodies over… somewhere.
The initial Sonar out on the left side had only allowed the Core to see so much. With a radius of about twenty meters, it was to be expected that some creatures would go out of sight near instantly. But it was nothing that deterred the Entity, the promise of getting closer fueling its determination more than ever. The actual process after that was quite hard, however, the requirement of knowing where the Colony was based on the creatures walking close by it being unsustainable when still far out.
Because the Core was more certainly still far away, even when it had travelled over half a kilometre from its domain. The Colony of ants was not close by, lest the Core would have been attacked far more often. No… there was still a kilometre or two before anything could be seen.
And when the Entity was still so far away, it was quite hard to find any creatures returning to the Colony. There were many other directions one could walk, after all, and areas already explored hardly needed more ants inside. Which meant that the Core simply had to travel in the direction it had seen the ants walk towards and hope for the best.
That led to something close to a cat and mouse type of game. Ignoring the fact that the Entity had no idea what either of the two aforementioned creatures was, it could see itself in the place of the cat, having to find the other creatures that were always able to escape its sight in the last second. The lacking radius was quieter restrictive in larger searches yet anything more would require a large sphere to hold in the Mana. And it was already taking enough time to get the energy to the current location, the travel-time being quite annoying. With so low a density, it was hard to pull in Energy from the rocks around in small enough amounts that it didn't destabilise anything while also being enough to make a difference.
It was better to just wait. But that waiting let any creatures close by escape, forcing the Core to never use the same ants two times in a row. It was terrible, inefficient, and there was absolutely nothing that the Entity could do about it. But that was fine. Progress was being had, no matter how few the steps are taken were. Sometimes, there would come any creatures for nearly two hundred meters while another would be found within twenty-five.
Oh, yeah, the Core had taken down the amount of distance needing to be crossed before another sphere was created. By the current point, it knew the Colony to be within five hundred meters, making it crucial that it got the actual direction right. The chance of overshooting it to the side was not something it wanted to happen, forcing it to take more careful steps from that point on. And it was fine for the Core to do so. The time spent on the extra spheres was less than what it would take to retrace one’s steps back for several hundred meters, making it a deal that could be rejected.
And… slowly but sure, progress started to become noticeable. The amounts of ants spotted became more and more, going up in frequency and number of spots. Each pulse of Mana sent out could wake the interest of up to ten ants at once, though the animals never did know where the energy came from. It seemed that hiding several meters down in the earth and not being there physically helped to obscure the actual location to an extreme degree. And the Core was perfectly happy with that, knowing that no creatures would be going around and digging for the Mana-Lines. One breach was all it would take, after all.
Not thinking of that, however, the Core continued. The direction of the ants were opposites, some travelling out and some travelling in. It was obvious who was who, luckily, those bearing items in their mandibles were the ones that the Core needed to pay attention to. And that was something it most certainly did, following the creature's exact locations while moving further in. At points, it even moved itself up closer to the ground to make sure it could see a little further. Progress needed to be quick, after all, but safety was likely just as important.
It was very important. Within five more spheres of distance, all showing increasing amounts of density in creatures milling around, the need for safety was one step above anything else. For the Colony had been found.
And it was a glorious sight.
Not glorious in the way of the architecture of structures being big and large. For there were no such things. This was still just a grouping of ants, after all. While they certainly separated the outside into neat sectors, it was all by pure instinct and nothing else. There were no defences other than the creatures present, no thoughts about the ergonomics of travel. The creatures walked atop each other when they felt the need to and nobody minded it at all, every single creature focused on getting to one spot from another.
There was even a pasture of [Moss] being grown. It was the original, green variant of the species. The amount was clearly not enough to feed all the creatures present, however, making the Core wonder why the plant was there, to begin with. What was the Queen thinking with such a minimalistic build?
That was answered when the Core got further into the Colony, having only seen the outer parts at that point. Or… maybe its answers weren't answered. It was closer to them being ignored in favour of thinking about the sight in front of it instead.
There hadn't been a single time where the Core had wondered what ants looked like when first being born. Why would it? The Entity had already owned a Pattern that depicted the form of a full-grown creature, making it stupid to even think about a younger, weaker form for it. If any thoughts were had about it, they would be snuffed down instantly, the ideas present in it doing nothing for progress at all.
And the Core was happy about that decision, knowing that even thinking about the treatment of the younger ants would have worsened the sight seen in front of it. What had it truly expected? That the larvae would be cared for or something? May be fed as they grew into actual ants? No, that would have made too much sense. Letting them do such things would have been too… motherly.
Or maybe that wasn't the right word for it. The Queen Ant, the one in charge of creating the creatures. She was a type of mother since she created them but she certainly wouldn't have cared for them. Such a task would have been saved for the surrounding ants. Yet… none of those were seen. Not to say that there weren't any present, a few coming in every couple of seconds, dropping off one or more larvae into the pile.
A pile that constantly expanded and deflated as those beneath were brought back to life, the pressure of all the bodies on top crushing their innards. It was brutal to see and even more brutal to realise that it was going on without pause. Those larvae that had stayed there the longest, those at the bottom, had slowly but surely grown out of their encased state, starting to fight there a way to the top of the pile to escape. They were still small though, making the pressure continue to smash down on every limb. The exoskeleton constantly became bent and broken, making the creatures suffer wounds that should have caused death.
Yet that Black Mana, the one brought forth by the circle on the ground, made sure that death was not permanent. The creatures were stopped from dying, were stopped from not reliving the pain over and over again. There was not a single thought in the Core’s mind around it being effective. Instead of wasting resources on caring for the younglings, the Queen threw them into a circle that stopped death before just waiting for them to grow. From the standpoint of feed being saved, it was logical. From the few remnants of ethics present in the Core’s mind, however, it was something that needed to be destroyed.
Building up a sonar again, it became apparent the circle of Black Mana seen was only one of many around the Colony. The Entity was sickened from that fact yet also knew that it changed little. They would all be destroyed, no matter how much work would be required.
Thinking instantly about using White Mana to do the job, the Core drew back on that idea as quickly as it could. The [Undead] had not been seen yet, but that did not mean they weren't around somewhere. A plan needed to be made.
