The thought-light flickered in response to my decision.

Traveler: You have flowed through time, and it has flowed through you. You gain the ability to more freely flow through time distortions, and are able to greatly reduce their effects on your form at will. (Provided by: Ouroboros, [Chrono Fire])

For once, I didn’t feel my body change. I didn’t feel my scale-flesh warp, or a new organ form, or anything like that. Instead, I just knew.

I looked forward, and I simply knew.

I knew the ways that the slow-spot around me formed itself, created of interlocking swirls of distorted time, the ways that each piece linked together. I knew the places that would allow me through.

They weren’t visible - not in my sight, at least. They weren’t holes where time managed to slip through, allowing the light from outside to reach the flames where I waited. But still, I knew that - for me - they might as well have been.

I turned around, pulling my tail from the slow-time that had trapped it. It slipped free with ease, winding its way in a curving path through the openings that I knew existed.

And then I pushed myself forward, flowing through the slow-spot that surrounded me.

A moment later, I was free.

Unfortunately, that mostly meant free to fall, with the way that the slow-spot had stopped my platform of flesh from falling in the first place. The ground caught me.

I writhed in pain for a second before straightening myself to take in the scene around me. Just as I had expected, the Coreless had reduced the bad-thing that hid within the flame-water into a bloody husk, tearing it to shreds with a viciousness that warmed my heart.

That warmth quickly faded, lost underneath the fatigue of my many recent lives. I had strained myself, I was sure. In the end, the lesser Core had been more powerful than I expected.

I managed to hold my head up high, hiding my weakness. The Coreless disciples were watching, and - as the Great Core’s chosen - I had to hold myself accordingly.

They each made noises as they saw me, begging for my favor, desperate to receive recognition for their assistance in my victory over the lesser Core and its disgusting bad-things. I gave it to them with an approving hiss, understanding their need for it.

They broke into heated conversation, fighting over who they thought had deserved the honor of my approval the most.

I assumed.

The Unrepentant One spoke first, face split into a scowl at the knowledge that it hadn’t been meant for him. Obviously. He still had a long way to go before he even began to earn my approval. “We take our eyes off the thing for one second, and it eats the damn Core. Fucking great.”

The-female-who-was-not-Needle made a few noises in return. “We don’t know that for sure, do we?”

He pointed behind me, making a few more noises. I followed the movement, catching the sight of the sacred slow-spot that I had created around the bad-thing’s mouth-flesh. Even still, it floated in the air, all but frozen in time with the strength of the slow-spot.

I preened at the sight, proud of my new ability’s resemblance to one of the Great Core’s own powers. Proud of what it meant.

Just before I turned back, the flames of [Chrono Fire] that hid within the shell of slowed time burnt themselves out, causing the floating mouth-flesh to fall to the ground at last. It hit with a wet splat, a trail of blood finally managing to escape and run its way across the floor.

“Fair point. I think he earned it though, don’t you?”

“Earned it or not, Orken doesn’t have that many Cores. Now we’ve lost two to the thing.”

“It’s not like we could have gotten to it ourselves, anyway…”

Will made a strange noise, clearing his throat. “What’s done is done. I’m more interested in if this changes anything. The snake may have saved our lives and led us through the Dungeon before, but what about now that it got what it wanted?”

I slithered towards the Coreless. All but the-female-who-was-not-Needle took a cautious step back, aware of their own unworthiness. They had borne witness to the Great Core’s newest blessings; they had seen [Chrono Fire] with their own eyes.

Their awe was natural, but I did not want it. Not right now.

Though the-female-who-was-not-Needle held still, I knew that she must have been awed in her own way, left frozen by the things she had witnessed. I could not fault her for it.

I slowly twisted my way up the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s body, finding my perch upon her shoulder and resting my head. It felt heavy, despite my joy at the Great Core’s newest blessing. Defeating the lesser Core and its awful bad-things had been more difficult than I had expected. Though the Great Core, in its infinite power, brought me back each time I died, it did little for the mental exhaustion that came with constant failure and continuous death.

I was tired.

Later, I could receive the Coreless’ praise. For now, I just wanted to sleep.

It felt like it had been a long time.

Valera reached out a cautious hand towards the strange little monster that slept on her shoulder. He simply breathed in and out slowly, peacefully - nothing like she would have expected a wild monster to do.

He should have been untrusting, hostile towards anything that wasn’t created by the same Core that had created him.

He wasn’t. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, she had to admit. Even she recognized that he hadn’t been her biggest fan - not at the start. Why would he be?

Yet now, as she rubbed a finger slowly across the smooth scales of the tiny snake’s head, she knew that things had changed. For whatever reason, the little snake had accepted her - along with Kala, Erik, and even Doran - as something to be trusted.

After he had fallen asleep on her shoulder, everyone had a long talk about what to do. Doran wasn’t wrong about the loss of the Cores. It stung. Every new Core that they managed to capture was another source of safety for their friends and family. Another way to beat back the darkness of the World Dungeon.

Even so, getting rid of the Cores was still helpful on its own. The further away any Cores were from Orken, the less likely it was that monsters would attempt to raid it. She knew that it was well-defended, with its docks floating above the null-water as every proper town and city did, but that didn’t mean it was invincible.

No town was.

In the end, she managed to convince the others that it was a net gain. They may have lost access to the Cores, but they had kept their lives. All of them were aware of how easily things could have gone differently. All of them were aware of how easily the same could happen in the future. Maybe, with the little snake around, that could become less likely.

Another troubling problem was how long their resident monster continued to sleep, and how heavily. Exerting itself in the way that he had must have taken its toll. Valera had become used to the way that it hissed in response to her attempts to befriend it, always on guard. Yet, tired as it was, it didn’t even notice anymore. Here and there, the little guy shifted slightly, tightening its coiled grasp on her upper arm, but it did little more than that.

Even when they were forced to sneak by the Flame Formicans again in a search for a way out, it hardly budged. Even when that had almost gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Fortunately, the monsters were in disarray after the loss of their Core, and they managed to make it out okay.

Still, to not have woken up from that?

The little cutie must have worked hard to keep them safe.

Guided by their maps, it only took a couple of days for them to reach their destination.

Home sweet home, at last.

Orken awaited.