Dungeon Core: Bugged Ascension

Chapter 7. Expanding Horizons. ~DNA.

Today’s been a busy day.

I take a little while to just meditate for a bit, breathe, and try and let my mind work through the chaos. Being able to splinter myself has helped me practice other forms of mental regulation than just sleep.

While sleep certainly helps, and is probably still necessary, it leaves me vulnerable, especially when I’m too tired or overwhelmed. And without some compartmentalization and meditation, all the stuff that’s happened today would definitely put me under for a while. So, I sit, I breathe, I observe passively while an ink black lynx charges at a bunch of kids, mauling them with superficial injuries.

I sigh…

So, yeah. The guild people- hatched? I guess. Cutest and I put a big whammy on them, then sent them on their way. Part of me feels like I should feel a sort of way about that, but it’s also easy to review their delve. Did they deserve to go out the way they did? No. Not really. But the world isn’t a nice place, nor a safe place. There were signs aplenty for them to back down, and thanks to Life, their cascade of mistakes didn’t have to result in their final end.

Ultimately, while I may be the Lord of this Kingdom, my children are the ones who really live, breathe and toil in the world. When their decisions make sense to me, and sometimes even when I don’t understand them, I trust them to be trying their best. The steps they take to keep us safe, to make us strong, or to stay true to themselves? Yeah, I can back those up wholeheartedly.

I’m also really proud of everyone being so welcoming to the newest addition to our family, even if the poor girl is still resting. Honestly, I don’t really expect her to really wake up anytime soon, even if their slice of Realm/ Barrow is rapidly changing to incorporate the various seed patterns that the Mu’Reign favored. Not that it’s that much of a surprise, with four experienced architects working together to support and help bring into focus the unconscious vision of the place with its creator.

Though, getting to watch firsthand as the sky shoots stretch out the membrane of the world and provide more space is fascinating. Though I can see how even though Cutest’s Barrow and Life’s Realms are working together to support this new budding ecosystem, the overlapping life and their flows of magic were initially interfering with the project. So, when the choice came to try to go up, or down to get some relief from the stresses, up was chosen. Way up.

Now, Moth’Her is sharing a more physical space bound under the scaffolding of the grand staircase. Some quick but rather well tested experiments between my magi-scientists have shown that Barrows, or Realms can operate far better when there is less constant overlap of life and magic. Some occasional brushes and swathes are fine, but it’s when each side has solid anchors of magic near the same location, that destabilization starts accelerating. Which I suppose, makes for hunting opportunities, so, yeah.

Taking a better look at Thing’s grand project from both far away and up close and… By Authority, that child does not do thing by half measures. He seems to have finalized the design as essentially a ramp, while using the otherness properties of the Realm Woods materials to allow for steps to be both there and not there. Thus, a longer hike on the outer edges would be an easier climb.

Still, the first waystation is not present until around a hundred and fifty meters in the air. And after the first of the staircase’s five spirals while you’re approaching some of the tree tops, the abrupt switch into pure skywood makes it a step of faith. After that, it just goes higher and higher, a journey, mostly unharried by winds, and after completing the second spiral also completely free of visual obstructions, as even Life’s trunk makes the shift into skywood.

From a purely adventurer’s perspective… it’s breathtaking. Taller than any of the trees around you, except the one you’re climbing along. Able to spot some special nodes rising above their neighbors.

As a hanging spiral garden for my newest Omen to awaken to, it’s pretty darn awesome. So long as she’s not afraid of heights. We’ve decided to keep her core pretty close to my lungs and it might be an over consolidation of power, but for all my splinter-selves, I think and see and feel best closest to my Organ Cores.

---

“~Why the long sigh Father?~”

I envelop my lungs to speak more solidly with Life, “I think I need a new Core. I was hoping to allow these delves to become something more commonplace before changing myself again, but I don’t think we have that luxury.”

He murmurs with the wind and creaks with the weight of swishing his outrageously massive dome-like crown, “~Do you think the Gaes will fail?~”

I shake my head, “No. I think I’m least worried about them; on a Quest to start fresh, a gifted life with sealed memories as the prize? A good compromise, and perhaps something to think of implementing more permanently. Time will tell on that, I suppose.”

I stand and hop out of the nest he’s crafted for me, bringing an afterimage of my lungs along, even if they stay in place, my visualized connection retains force, “It just seems like everything is a rush all the time, and mostly, I’m just worried I’m pushing everyone too hard, too fast.”

I feel my heartbeat echoing strongly in my chest, “Power is required to endure. Peace and benevolence can only be granted by those with sufficient might to enforce it.”

Life nods his agreement to Thing’s reply, and I mimic him, “I know. I know.”

I take in a deep breath, “That’s why I’ve decided to expand. At the moment, I’m pretty sure I’ve kind of capped each of you from growing our or even your own domains. I think, even if it might be an issue with the Alliance, that being able to consolidate the whole of the Leyline under a single territory would be a better move than trying to delve deeper into other bodily aspects. But I’m open to other options.”

With a sweeping gesture, I call attention to all of us as I speak further, “My body, my Domain is stronger than most would even suspect. I think its high time I leveraged that to make an intentional move to have us be more secure within that aegis.”

I turn and lower my voice to a whisper, as now every member of our group is ‘close’ and at attention, “Taking inspiration from our newest member, there is a piece of myself that I could grow, that would embody Growth Itself. As a caution to prevent it from forming prematurely, I will leave it unnamed, though I would like to discuss it and other suggestions before I make my Choice.”

---

As expected, that discussion took longer than I had hoped, but I feel like there were plenty of good points all around. The arguments that Smith had for choosing a stomach or even making a skeleton were good ones. The stomach certainly feels like something that would allow me to buffer and better control the massive surges of Mana when invocations of whatever craziness happens.

The idea of picking the skeleton also had some good merits as well. It should give my domain some stability and resistance to outside forces, and also might help control or better direct my influence. But despite all that, it feels like ultimately, the stomach would be a stopgap for my own lack of self-control, and the skeleton just feels like something far too selfish.

Eventually, Smith conceded to my own point of view, not that he was vehemently opposed to begin with, “[The consolidation and centralization of power does come with issues of its own. But when it’s all said and done, a united territory can be made stronger than separate, allied ones. And despite all my misgivings about your all too frequent episodes of extraordinary power fluctuations…]”

His shifts his attention to Leo, who is barely present in this meeting of the minds as he spawns a new body and races through the woods towards his next opponent, “[Your work with Leo proves that you at least can regulate the immense tides of magic at your disposal. Though, if you’re not going to take something to better serve as an anchor or buffer for your excess, all of us will be counting on your control not slipping. The larger you grow, the more intense your failures will become.]”

As he was feeling the discussion was coming to an end, he leaves the roost within Life he had taken to return to his home, “[Just remember. Until at least one of us attains our own and true Mythical status, we are still quite vulnerable to those few but world defining powers that are out there. Gnat, Ruth, and I have had long discussions about the nature of the Mantle, and the consequences of trying to wield it for something as small as our little community.]”

Her voice is hesitant, but she follows up on Smith’s point as he departs, “{Ruth shared her people’s history with the Gestalt Kingdoms. Despite their monstrous nature prior to the Treaty, or even the War that led to it, there wasn’t real conflict between their peoples. At least, not in Times Past. But something changed with the previous Herald. They still don’t fully understand how, why, or when, but they believe they may know what.}”

She gets a faraway look even as her swarm emerges and wraps around her like a coat, “{The thought is that he changed himself. During our talks about how it feels to be… that, I confirmed that there isn’t really anything different about them but also somehow, nothing understandable. They expect that he had to have altered how he viewed the Challenges he was facing in order to aim the Herald’s power at what he wanted. But then he started to lose himself, until in the end, it was a mercy and a release for their whole species when he was slain.}”

She looks abashed, “{He was a high God when he took on that Progenitor’s Mantle for his own, long- long ago. He could bear its weight enough to separate himself from the power. But for me, I don’t even realize I change when She comes upon me. I never feel a change in me. I just know when I wake up after a session, I can recognize how alien the thoughts were. About the only influence I’ve had, is to make her think about your touch, dad. But I just can’t comprehend how her mind interprets it.}”

I hug her closely and tell her everything is going to be okay. But I don’t speak the real words on my mind. That her situation is another reason I decided on the Thyroid. I’ve seen with each return, the difference in how smooth the transition is when Pestilence leaves, versus the chaotic ripples of Gnat’s arrival.

Even with my Liver serving as the access point to my Domain for the Leyline. I’ve seen how the domains clash despite it all, even with our Alliance smoothing things over, when large magics are wrought. And so far, nothing I’ve done matches the scale of Gnat being sent back to us. Although her departures themselves are an elsewhere sort of movement, unbound by the Rules as I know them, her return must be traumatic on a scale I can scarcely imagine.

Even if there isn’t any outward fallout from her returns, magic of that magnitude surely has an impact on us ‘little’ ones. I think that, more than anything, is why Aurora Hephaestus was so amenable to essentially losing his base of influence. Because there will be sometime during the process where it will be my Kingdom that not only fully engulfs his own, but also utterly consumes it.

When that day nears, we will have to have a longer or at least deeper discussion on what comes next. For now, he’s willing to cede great swathes of his territory to my expansion, as a tithe or dowry for the courtship of my daughter. But their relationship is early enough, uncertain enough, that he cannot give up his sanctum, not yet. So, once all the |Thermal Spring Mountain| is mine except for the cavern that holds his wealth… we’ll see.

Perhaps strangest of all, I find it easy to imagine not one, but two sets of organs for this process. The Core: Thyroid is a quaint little thing that somehow has, for some reason, become a flight of whimsy. Entertaining Dreams as it flutters around like a butterfly that it only somewhat resembles. I suppose I should have expected something unusual to happen, and with Dreams acting as both my voice and the barrier of skin protecting my domain, their closer relationship makes sense.

However, as I have needs to both grow myself, yet also to not cause so much chaos that I force an intervention from outside groups, it cannot be my ‘skin’ that expands beyond. But for that, there was an easy solution. Much like the wall of flesh serves as a warning system of unusual activity, so too can hairs reach beyond and yet be anchored within that sturdy place.

For now, I bear the burden of the excess stimulation myself, not particularly having a Scion in mind to take on this extra responsibility, nor wishing to bring in another while our youngest still sleeps. I take this time to focus more upon me and what it means to be who I am, and what I am becoming. Because with both her name and her likely purpose being tied so closely together, that echoed imagery bound to my soul is… intimidating.

I’ve always done my best to be a Father for my children. Yet with the inclusion of Moth’Her, even if her presentation remains dormant just as much as Helix’s does for propriety’s sake. I will have to more thoroughly investigate in the future. Because despite my hesitance and the touch of disquiet about the ease with which it came about, it is something that is nonetheless etched upon my soul. For now, she is as much a part of me as he is, and I’ll take my time coming to grips with what that means.

Regardless of changes, large or small, the new Core is performing admirably. I can feel the expansion beyond the borders of Dreams, and I can also see the growth that Life has done, reaching and tunneling through the below. And while I considered bestowing these sensations on him, as he was already making his own pursuit to connect with the entirety of the Leyline’s Land, I ultimately know that would be shortsighted.

Life is my trunk, an axis upon which I may twist and turn, and he will encompass all of me that will pivot, but despite his greater size, he is still very much ‘within’ me.

The introduction of so many new species to my Template Library and stories told of those still beyond my grasp. The discovery of just how bland our local town is compared to the Gestalt as a whole. All of this has better prepared me for finding my new self and opening my eyes to the possibilities. Each of my children help distance me from the instinctive expectations that I must be limited to being merely human.

I feel a rippling through my legs as Leo undergoes another death and rebirth. The cramping sensation anywhere else would be an agony, but through the eldritch path that Leo created for himself, it is merely a tool to affect the steep changes at the speed his essence desires.

When I look around us, from the edges and compass points of Life’s crown, I see the world as it billows out around us. I see it both as it is, and through the lens of the limitless possibilities that magic can bring forth. Nothing needs to be uniform, not even the chaos I have wrought through my |Forest of Dreams|.

So, when a dragon lands upon a curtain of my hair and disgorges a veritable greenhouse of exotic plants, insects, and all other manner of brightly colored creatures. When that grand creature, not yet having approached my true borders, unfurled and set up artifacts of power to change the environment to better suit them. I observed. I bundled together those dyeing streaks of hair and secured their follicles under Thing’s watchful gaze.

For while my Divine influenced {Motif} of Biodiversity and my son’s of Welcome are both highly receptive to such a gift left just beyond our ‘borders’, I have enough caution instilled in me from Smith’s stories of the menace of dragons.

Though I will not condemn them out of hand, a healthy dose of caution is more than warranted, and Thing is by far the most meticulous of my children. When the dragon left, just as unobtrusively as it initially arrived, I tasked Thing with monitoring and ‘gentle corrections’ should the habitat destabilize too much of the local area.

Guided by my visions for the future, I’m wanting to encourage new and distinct branches or wings that are separate from the |Forest of Dreams| to form their own enclaves in case my current or future children want to have their own spaces. Still, considering his history, I perhaps unwisely keep our visitor a secret from Smith. But I feel as though he already has too much to worry about, with heavy decisions about his own present and future, his home and Gnat.

Besides, what’s the worst that could happen.