Chapter 262: A New Light

Chapter 262: A New Light

I let out a hiss, flexing my coils. The Coreless had been making noises at each other for a while now, sounds flowing back and forth in a seemingly never ending torrent, a flurry of emotions running through their [Little Guardians Totem]s.

We had shoved ourselves into the rickety tower-nest, filling its rooms with far too many bodies. For a little while, my disciples and I had gone back outside, the Coreless jabbering back and forth at once another, but we had eventually returned and rejoined the crowd. Even for those without [Little Guardians Totem]s, I could tell that the severe closeness of the crowd was making the Coreless uncomfortable - especially the ones that ended up pressed up against my undead. They flinched every time a wisp of death essence passed from undead to living, making their teeth chatter and tiny bumps raise on their flesh.

I wasnt sure that was healthy. It made me a little concerned about what I might be doing to the-female-who-was-not-Needle with my presence. But only a little. In the end, I figured that, even if it was a problem, it was something that should be easily fixed. My disciples had already come into close contact with death essence while trying to reach the Death Core, and that was significantly moreintense. Malevolent - and they were fine. As long as they eventually received healing, nothing should go wrong.

And I wasnt planning on waiting much longer on that, anyway.

At the outer edges of the crowd around us, I could see the natives of the rickety tower-nest. Could feel their [relief] at my return through their [Little Guardians Totem]s. It wasnt hard to notice that some of the Coreless were [nervous] about being near me right now; the few times that the-female-was-not-Needle pushed past them, bringing me close enough to them that they were touched by the small wisps of death essence that were being continually shed from my scale-flesh, they drew back. Got a little more hesitant to come close.

Another reason to bring myself back to life fairly soon. I didnt enjoy the constant pangs of [hesitation].

I didnt feel that same [nervousness] and [hesitation] from the Coreless that I had just saved, but that was probably only because I couldnt. They didnt have any [Little Guardians Totem]s. Something that would need to be fixed, and soon.

The-female-who-was-not-Needle must have had the same thought because, before I could even convey the need to her, she had found a small Coreless carving away at a block of darkwood. I could see the beginnings of something resembling a [Little Guardians Totem], still weak and powerless, forming behind his hands. She spoke to a larger Coreless that was standing beside him for a little while before she kneeled down and gestured towards the carving in the little Coreless hands, making noises at him.

Hey, Ive got a special job for you, not-Needle not-hissed, the sound not particularly loud, given the din of the nearby crowd. The small Coreless eyes flicked towards me, and then back to my disciple, but he stayed quiet. I made sure not to lean towards him, not wanting any death essence to get too close. He wasnt the tiniest Coreless that Id seen - not even close - but he was small. He might be affected by it more than the larger Coreless, and without a [Little Guardians Focus] to fix any problems that caused, I wanted to be careful. Howd you like to see some magic? not-Needle asked.

The little Coreless mouth turned upwards, and his head moved up and down rapidly, a burgeoning [excitement] in his eyes and [Little Guardians Totem].

Okay! not-Needle said, her own mouth turning upwards in response to his. I leaned over a little to watch, though I was still being careful not to get too close to the small Coreless that she knelt in front of. She continued to make noises at him, sometimes pointing at the [Little Guardians Totem] hanging from his neck, sometimes pointing at the carving in his hands, and sometimes pointing at me.

Eventually, the small Coreless head moved up and down again. His hands continued to move, a tiny fang of ore-flesh carving lines into the darkwood between his fingers.

Even if I couldnt understand the noises they made at each other - I had a feeling about what was being asked. I approved of her initiative.

Still, I decided to ask as well, joining the-female-who-was-not-Needles indecipherable words with a request of my own. Just in case. In a flash of light, a brief image of a [Little Guardians Totem] being sculpted by a crude, faceless Coreless appeared. The sight set the little Coreless eyes to sparkling, [awe] traveling across the connection to his own [Little Guardians Totem]. After a few more noises were passed between himself and not-Needle, the Coreless began to carve the block of darkwood in his hands with greatly increased fervor.

I hissed, satisfied with my success, and settled down to wait.

It wasnt long before I was presented with the first of the newest [Little Guardians Totem]s, the-female-who-was-not-Needle having pushed her way through the crowded tower-nest and recruited a large number of Coreless to begin creating them, most of them far older than the small Coreless that she had first spoken to.

Because apparently the tiny Ascended that had wreaked havoc on the mines wasnt only some sort of avatar of death. That was only due to the newest of its abilities. Abilities that David found far more interesting - and far, far less horrifying - than the power to turn the dead into a creepy facsimile of life.

Most of those creepy facsimiles had been sent along with them. The need for the undead escort had taken a while for them to explain to the snake, and had devolved into a particularly talented artist being recruited to draw scene after scene on the walls of the tower until they thought the snake had understood what was happening. Even after that, the Ascended had apparently chosen to keep the reanimated Overseer Leo and Sergeant Horik, having them stay behind with the Seekers and their tiny Ascended. David didnt think that was a good idea, but two creepy corpse-people would be relatively easy to hide. Easier to hide than a giant group of former prisoners, at least. Even if one of those corpse-people was ridiculously, unnaturally large.

Between the undead accompanying them, the occasional enchanted armor and weapons that had been stripped from the bodies of dead guards, the guidance of a map to find the way, and the promise of Guardian Statues that would keep them even safer as they traveled, David was feeling good about their chances of getting where they needed to be. More than he had ever imagined he could have felt when walking through the dangerous tunnels outside of a protected city.

And, more than ever, David was looking forward to the things that he would see when he arrived at Orken. He imagined it was a utopia, at least compared to Erandur.

And even if it wasnt, it was surely on its way there.

I wriggled in anticipation as the Coreless chipped away at a large block of stone that the Unrepentant One - with the help of my new giant undead, one of the only two reanimated Coreless that I had decided to keep with me when the newest of the Great Cores followers had left for the first of the Great Cores converted many-nests - had finished hauling over towards the outside of the tower-nest, carving it out from a nearby wall. Only the effect of [Clinging Grasp] kept me from falling off of not-Needles shoulder at the sudden movement.

At the same time, I stood beside us as my Coreless-self.He - I - was only wobbling a little, now. An impressive improvement.

I had seen real Coreless with less ability to stand than I had! Only the tiny ones, but they had the advantage. They were born with legs. Did a Coreless need to learn how to stand, or walk? I wasnt sure. I hadnt needed anyone to teach me how to slither. Either way, I was proud of my accomplishments, even if they were related to something that still disgusted me.

Pushing the thought aside, I had my Coreless-self reach over to my snake-self, giving it a small bite to renew a portion of its reserves of death essence. And then I reached further down, towards not-Needles side. She flinched a little, another brief spike of [fear] appearing as she stared at my Coreless-selfs death-touched flesh, but a quiet hiss and a reassuring flash of [Illusion Spark] was enough to help settle her back down.

A quick rooting in one of her skin-mouths let me find what I needed and, as my snake-self slithered off to accelerate the process of carving a new [Little Guardians Focus] for the followers within the many-nest, my Coreless-self began preparing the ground for what was to come. My disciples quickly realized what I was planning on doing, and began to make noises at the other Coreless, after which they began to help.

Though none of them were even close to as helpful as the reanimated giant was; his every blow cracked the ground far faster than multiple strikes from any of the others. As my Coreless-self spread seeds into each crack, I activated [Verdure Parasite] and forced them to grow.

It was slower than before; with my personal reserves of spores dead and unable to return while I remained undead, I had less sources of plant-flesh to draw from. Still, there were enough seeds - and enough spore-roots growing inside of them - that I could at least get things started, even if I had to focus on growing only a few of them at a time.

So, naturally, I focused on the most impressive of them all.

Another offspring of the Darkwood Guardian began to reach toward the caverns ceiling, sapling that stretched over and guarding the nascent [Little Guardians Focus] that I was sculpting right below it. It wasnt particularly impressive yet, but I knew that it would be.

By the time that the [Little Guardians Focus]s defender had reached two not-Needles in height, my snake-self was nearly done with sculpting the stone; a few more finishing touches here and there, [The Golems Fading Heart] making any errors easy to fix, and I was done.

And just like that, a [Little Guardians Focus] was born, a new light shining upon the many-nest. My disciples approached, each placing their [Little Guardians Totem] into the flaming maw of the new [Little Guardians Focus]. The other Coreless that had come to help create the [Little Guardians Focus] followed, and I watched with satisfaction as they placed the newly-attuned [Little Guardians Totem]s around their necks - and all but fell to their knees in surprise when its healing washed over them.

It was good to be appreciated.