Chapter 193: Echo-Focus

Chapter 193: Echo-Focus

My mana burned like streams of fire-waters running through wooden channels. It thrashed like a leviathan of the deep, causing mana-water to roil in its wake. It struggled relentlessly, unwilling to move as I willed.

I/The Echo, even sculpted into the proper shape, wasnt the skills natural host; lifeless stone and living stone were not the same. Far from it. That difference had meaning. One had far more power than the other, and that very same power required more power from me in turn. The living stone-scales resisted, asking for more and more from me to hold the [Little Guardians Focus] steady.

I gave it what it needed, holding desperately to [The Golems Echo] all the while. I needed to see if it worked. If I/The Echo could become something more. Something greater - a symbol of the Great Cores power, even more than I already was. It would be the ultimate form of spite, a true severing of the hold that Mother had over

The thought caused me to stumble on nonexistent legs, nearly forcing everything to come undone. The Echo flickered inside its shell of stone, caught between reality and unreality, and I finally found myself again within the gap. I wasnt the Echo. I wasnt the Golem. Tiamat had never been Mother. Not to me.

But to the Golem, she was.

I panicked for a moment, scouring my thoughts for signs of Tiamats meddling, barely managing to stop myself from pushing the Echo away in disgust before I realized what was going on.

Core Skill: [The Golems Fading Heart]

Description: A weakened combination of the Golems accumulated Core skills, warped by the touch of Time to hold a vestige of his memories and power.

Devouring the Golems heart had affected me more than I thought, and something about [The Golems Echo] made that effect stronger. Brought me closer to the memories I had absorbed as the Echo grew in strength and I fell further into the instincts necessary to control it.

But was that really a problem?

Though thinking of the blasphemer as Mother disgusted me more than anything, none of the thoughts that came with it had been positive. If anything, there had just been a new aspect of my hate - the faded remnants of the Golem, I realized. One of broken trust and long-brewed spite.

A grudge that I had no problems accepting. In a moment of decision, I let myself slither further into those thoughts that were both mine and not, keeping a careful hold on [The Golems Echo] and the growing mana-weave that was [Little Guardians Focus] all the while.

It was difficult, with the way that the bad-things above kept striking at my/the Echos scales. Distracting. Bits of stone sprinkled down at the occasional lucky blow; not enough to cause any real damage, but enough that it was hard to ignore. Every new crack and crevice meant that the [Little Guardians Focus] became just a little harder to use as my/the Echos form was altered from the perfection that it had been.

I/The Echo shifted slightly, wispy tendrils stretching out to gather more stone. I blindly softened and scooped the material up, hardening them into a jagged series of spikes that soared outwards and ripped into flesh. It was hard to tell where to aim, but there were apparently enough of the enemy above that my true eyes being buried under the earth hadnt mattered. Something had taken the blow. More than one, even.

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

In another flurry of motion, the damaged stone-scales were repaired. I breathed a little easier as the strain of casting the [Little Guardians Focus] slightly diminished. Slightly.

My mana still strained, burning like fire through my fleshy body, but it was easier - and as the weave of mana and life essence that was the [Little Guardians Focus] layered itself over my/the Echos scales, the bewildering sense of connection grew further. More than ever, I felt as if I were in two places at once, in two bodies at once - one of flesh and one of stone, but each undoubtedly me.

Paradox/The Echo.

My stone body was more distant, not quite me in the way that the flesh was, but it was close enough to be strange. That sensation only grew as the [Little Guardians Focus] came closer to its final moments, as if the transition brought the connection between the Echo and myself closer to the surface; I could feel the mana pressing against my stone-scales, pushing deeper. I could sense the way that it forced change upon them.

It was glorious, and I almost lost my hold on [The Golems Echo] yet again.

When the light began to shine upon my scales of flesh from above, and the mental connection to the Echo/myself increased again, I knew that it was finished.

The [Little Guardians Focus] had completed.

The Echo-Focus was born.

A sudden memory, captured within an Ascendeds fading heart, accompanied its birth.

The Golem was dying, a tiny snakes jaws opening wide around his heart. He couldnt blame the little creature for it, even while Mother roared. Even while the sounds of chains rattled in his mind. She was angry. The Golem wondered at that.

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Level up!

1 Trait Point Gained.

With the bad-things defeated, and my mind straining under the necessary focus that [The Golems Echo] required, there was only one thing left to do. Stone coils scraped across the ground, moving just a little bit to the side. When they found their place, tendrils stretched out, scooping up stone. Shaping it, forming a new statue in front of twisted coils.

Finally, with the strain mounting, I let my concentration lapse. Inside the [Little Guardians Focus], an ethereal Core disappeared, leaving its shell of stone behind.

I pulled myself free from the floor at last, controlling my scale-flesh once again, and slithered into the light of the now-motionless [Little Guardians Focus], only to stop at the tiny sculpture resting against its massive coils.

A Golems Heart. Broken Chains.

And above them, clad in shining scales of stone, a dead Ascendeds hope for retribution.

The thought-light flickered.

Name: Paradox

Species: Snake, Ouroboros

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

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

Innate Traits: [Venomous II]

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 VI] [Ascended Sense I]

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

Level: 56

Trait Points: 24

Core Skills: [The Endless Cycle] [Chrono Fire] [Verdure Parasite] [The Golems Fading Heart]

Lesser Core Skills: [Mana Manipulation XI] [Mana Venom XI] [Mana Fire VII] [Little Guardians Totem MAX] [Life Essence Manipulation VI] [Life - Invigorating Bite XI] [Life - Vitality X] [Life - Vigor III] [Life - Vigorous Spores IV][Little Guardians Focus XI]

Level Rewards: [Traveler] [Mana-Life Conversion] [Guardianlink] [The Golems Echo]

Description: A growing Ouroboros, symbol of the eternal.