Chapter 224: The Core’s Inner Sanctum

Chapter 224: The Core’s Inner Sanctum

The heart of the Cores lair, its inner sanctum, was a mess of bones and flesh and stone. Corpse after corpse covered the floor in varying states of decay, the amassed flesh broken up by giant stalagmites that both ringed the cavern and sometimes cut through it. The massive pillars of stone were like buttresses for the bodies that surrounded them, allowing the unmoving corpses to rise up against their sides in piles of meat and sinew and bone. Purple-black light and wisping smoke spilled from the gaps between the greatest of the gathered corpses, the majority of the light only noticeable due to the odd way that it intermingled with the wisping smoke and the shadows beneath them.

The greatest source of the light, however, was something else.

The Core. It rested on a pedestal near the back of the cavern, the path to it blocked by the combination of stone and massed flesh. More than most Cores, it looked evil; the light that it gave off was closer to a black than anything else, flecked by shades of purple that provided bare amounts of contrast. It warred with the more gentle light given off by the Seekers mana-infused armor, and that was the place where it was most visible. And, though the Cores light was significantly stronger, its coloration was a near-perfect match for the bits of light that flowed between the gaps in the corpses, something that made Erik wary. That light was coming from a different direction. There was something underneath. Many somethings, it seemed.

The Little Guardian let out a baleful hiss, the sound garbled and muffled by his own tail. Valera made a light shush, gently warning the angry snake to keep quiet. Even that was loud within the cavern, echoing off of the walls before breaking itself against the piles of dead like waves against a shoreline.

Erik raised his shield, careful to keep it between himself and the nearest of the motionless corpses. Corpses that, from what hed seen, should have been moving. They werent.

Which meant something had changed.

Even more, Erik could already tell that something was missing. Something that all Cores tended to have, especially the more dangerous ones. The ones that had already established themselves, like this one clearly had. His eyes darted around the cavern, soaking in the sights, vision trying to seep through the gaps of piled flesh. There was nothing but the light, and the smoke, and motionless bodies.

Nothing to do but keep going.

He stepped forward, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Erik hid within the shadows of the doorway, six-year-old body doing all that it could to meld into the darkness. The boy was slight, still, even if he was bigger than many of the children his own age. Small enough that he could easily curl himself away near the bottom of the door's frame, head peeking out from below as he checked for danger. Nothing there; just a set of chairs, two bodies, a set of empty bottles, and eyes blessedly looking elsewhere.

He crept forward on hands and knees, ponderously slow. Words, slightly slurred and overloud, covered his approach. Kept him safe, even as he made his way across the room, even as his heart raced in his chest, sounding like a thousand thundering drums. Kept him -

The words cut off, and the floor creaked.

"Erik?" one of the voices asked. "Is that you?"

He froze mid-crawl, one hand still in the midst of reaching forward, as if remaining motionless would keep him from being found. It didn't.

At least that meant that he knew which ones to ask for.

His earlier thoughts on the danger found in Cores inner sanctums quickly led to a series of stories about ones that his father had found in his life. An Ice AspectCore, where his breath had fogged the air and a giant made of ice had blocked their path. An Air AspectCore, where every other step threatened to send him flying upwards on invisible pillars of wind, with a powerful winged monster ready to swoop in and take advantage. A Water Aspect Core, surrounded entirely by mana-water. They failed to reach that one, unable to reach it, let alone fight its strongest defender.

And that was something that they all had, in the stories. A powerful defender, one stronger than all the other monsters that the Core had created.

A final defense, one that often took everything the invading Seekers had to defeat.

By the time that the stories were over, the boys eyes had already begun to droop in exhaustion. The excitement had been too much. Still, there was something that he couldnt help but ask.

Can youcan you teach me to be like you? So that I can be in the stories, too?

His mother and father shared a look. A long one, filled with meaning that the boy couldnt understand. Finally, they both sighed.

If thats what you want, son, his father replied, face filled with worry. I wouldnt be able to stop you from doing what you want when youre older, anyway. But I wont be satisfied until youre strong enough to shrug off a blow from some of the strongest monsters in the stories Ive told you. Your mother would toss me in the null-water if I let you get hurt when you didnt have to.

When he looked back, the boy was already asleep, a smile on his face.

As Erik stepped forward, the light spilling from between piled corpses surged. The bodies twitched. Melted into one another, flesh spilling into flesh until a single creature remained.

It was an amalgamation of flesh and bone, fashioned from a wide variety of disparate corpses. At each of its joints were glowing crystals, emitting a light that caused the flesh around it to warp and stick together, becoming closer in appearance to an actual creatures flesh and muscle than it was anywhere else. As the light traveled onward and weakened, the nature of the corpses that formed its body began to become more obvious; strange, but not necessarily less deadly. Heads and limbs randomly jutted from the edges of its flesh, many of them tangled up with one another - but enough able to move freely that it would be hard to get past their defenses. Each of its many limbs were capped with a wolf-like corpse, their legs slipping about while their teeth snapped and snarled at the air.

Ah, there it is, Erik thought. The Cores defender. At least that mysterys solved now.

He was starting to wish that it hadnt been. This was going to hurt. Badly.