The Core: The Dark Enemy

3. Restraining death by a thread

"Its mind is slippery. It has been changed by too many forces and now flows without restraint." said a massive star-shaped geode-like being that slowly floated deeper through the expanses at random. Tethered spikes of nearly unbreakable matter would rush from holes in its surface to feed, whipping its hooked victims back towards its awaiting cage-like maw at the back of its body. It was built like a roving fortress, fearless and indomitable. It was huge, the fourth largest of the remaining seven.

"Let it flow. Who knows, it might capture a new way of existing." said a truly immense being made entirely of expanding gelatinous cells, tentacles, and gaping sinkhole maws. True to its nature, it flowed and captured any creatures in its way, making the landscape into a hellish never-ending expanse of feasting. Of the seven, the slime was the largest of them all, covering extremely immense distances with its ever-expanding body.

"I suggest we dissect and use it for our purposes. Cultivate its mind and plant seeds to grow and spread us." said an Eldritch abomination of a creature. Where the geode was formed from crystals and rocks, this creature was formed from legs and wriggling limbs that propelled itself rapidly toward any living thing that caught its massive Omni eye centered in the middle of its infected-looking body. Any unlucky creature that caught its notice would be quickly and expertly converted into its expendable minion, infested with cells that would cannibalize and zombify its new host. These new puppets would rove and fight until an internal timer would cause them to self-destruct, spreading their infested cells to new hosts. The Eldritch made this suggestion, not out of hostility towards Kevin, but simply because it was acting on its nature.

I heard the voices speaking as though I was laying back on my hospital bed still in complete darkness. The difference now though, was that I could see glimpses of each speaker's nature and thoughts whenever they would speak, drawing my attention towards their minds and pulling me inside. It was a bizarre and odd experience, almost as though with each moment of exposure to their inner thoughts, their overpowering nature was infecting me.

I prayed that wasn't the case. I didn't want to start thinking of everyone I met as though they were a host to infect my will upon.

"It is afraid." came a soft voice that sent shivers through my soul as my awareness immediately focused itself on the speaker and rushed towards its mind. A softly glowing being unlike any I had ever witnessed floated slowly through darkness. No, that wasn't right... it created darkness around itself, turning off or completely absorbing the ambient energy continually provided by every material in its dimension. Just this act alone caused many of the natural inhabitants to flee before its movements, fearing the loss of life-giving energy. It was ghostlike, made of seemingly delicate tendrils of toilet paper streamers that gently floated around its body as it moved. Of the seven, it seemed to be the smallest, simply a creepy rippling form that almost seemed corporeal. It sported a head... if a warped birdlike skull that was merged with its torso could be called a head. The head didn't have any eyes, simply sporting sockets where eyes might have been. Its chest seemed to be made of rippling thin flesh over delicate ribs and pulsing folds that resembled gills. In the direct center of its upper chest, there was a golf ball-sized hole that was surrounded by blue pulsing light. The blue light and softly glowing flesh made the being give off the impression that it was just like an Anglerfish, tempting fearless creatures in for a tasty meal.

The hole in its chest made me think that it might have actually contained another of those small ball-sized relics that the dead male swarm each held. Could these balls serve a purpose to these fearful creatures?

"And able to learn and question its surroundings it seems."

Touching this ghostlike creature's mind made me want to drain the life from every living creature around me. Life was tasty. I could feel my soul trying to fight against this nature, it wasn't my true nature at all, yet the power of its suggestion was ageless and insidious.