Chapter Twenty Three.

I'd quietly left the room after Murgui's outburst ended and he settled into a curled ball of misery. While my own emotions were in turmoil and I definitely felt sorry for the poor creature, ultimately I'd known him for less than an hour by then. There was a lot to unpack from that story, and the raw emotion he displayed made me deeply uncomfortable.

On the one hand, it was completely understandable. Veris told me the Achorai had disappeared over eight thousand years ago, and if I believed Murgui then he'd been down here alone since then. He was obviously happy to meet me and have some company, and I could get lacking some social graces after that long in isolation. On the other hand… maybe get to know a guy for more than a few minutes before you offload your darkest secrets??

In any case, the story had only reaffirmed my earlier decision to pass this problem on to someone else as fast as possible. Even just minutes after that terrifying energy beam had cleansed the leaking void corruption I could already see new branches twisting their way into the air. Given how far away the sphere was, that meant the corruption was spreading disturbingly fast. The only question was how the heck I was supposed to get to someone who could help.

Haven was bigger than Earth, I knew that from talking to Veris (and vaguely remembering my yeet-based initial entry to the world). I wasn’t sure of the exact proportions but based on my limited information I guessed it to be about half-again the size of my old home planet. That put the planet’s ‘core’ at somewhere between nine and eleven thousand kilometers straight down—through monster-infested tunnels that my weakened body was in no shape to fight. On top of that, I still hadn’t accomplished my original goal for heading this way—to find a way past the Achorai’s wards. It would do me no good to traverse my way for years up to the surface and then not even be able to approach civilization.

Murgui said they’d built a city here, but where?? Are any of them alive and sane enough to help me?

It was frustrating to have so little information. I had nothing to go on, no helpful quest markers or convenient personal assistants. Just me and a giant floating apocalypse ball.

I started at a slight shuffle from behind me but it was only Murgui, shyly making his way forwards from his room. His expression was a mix of embarrassment and hope that made me want to give the guy a hug.

“Sorry friend Kosimar, makes very sad to think about past. You are… not leaving yet, yes? You need something? I can help?” he asked, anxiously.

Damn it, how can I not be friendly after that? It’s like the squid/bug equivalent of puppy-dog eyes. I sighed internally and —begrudgingly— admitted a new member to my mental circle of friends. Maybe I was being too trusting or naive, but there was just no way for me to get out of this situation alone. I needed a new ally and while Murgui was a little… ‘socially challenged’... he was still an ancient and demonstrably powerful being. My only other option was to try and create more [Blightlings] but… I couldn’t do it.

Not just because my mind shied away from guilt over the thought of abandoning my friends and just… replacing them, but because I literally couldn’t. I might not have been forced all the way back to the size of a giant roach, but I was tiny now— I didn’t have the biomass to create more than one new minion, and even if I managed that… this place was a wasteland. I hadn’t sensed so much as a bug with my aura the entire time I’d been here. If the titanic death-beams were anything to go by then the heart-ward was just too hostile for life, and with no sources of food my new [Blightling] would be stuck in its base form— undoubtedly useful normally, but totally outclassed down here.

“Yeah, I could actually use your help.” I said.

He brightened immediately and quickly scuttled over to me— sitting down cross-legged to be closer to my height.

"What you need, friend?"

I took a minute to organize my thoughts into a mostly coherent list. I’ll start off with the most pressing.

“Dezzahn. You said I was tainted by his essence, how do I get rid of it? How do I fight him??”

Murgui rubbed his tentacled chin thoughtfully. “Is tricky. In big way, Corruptor’s essence is you. Using it makes you stronger, but makes him stronger too. You feel this, yes? Cold, hungry thing, strung like spider-silk in thoughts. Helps you survive at first. Feels like instinct, but is not.”

That made a horrifying degree of sense to me. I remembered all the times my consciousness had been shunted aside by what I’d assumed to be my body’s instinctive reactions. Losing control and turning into exactly what Murgui just described— a mindless, hungry beast. As my powers had gotten stronger, so had my apparent psychosis. I still remembered what being a Shoggoth felt like— my thoughts twisted into something utterly alien and yet branded into my memories so I could never forget. It was nauseating and I felt intensely violated to have had that thing rooting around in my mind for so long, I couldn’t stop myself from shuddering at the recollection.

Murgui noticed and reached out a hand to gently ‘pat’ my puddle.

“Safe here, friend. No use his power, no influence on your mind. Opposite of earlier is true too! Weaker you are, weaker his essence. But too weak and you go *poof*. Not very helpful now, sorry. But good to know, yes?”

Bobbing affirmatively I found myself briefly lost in thought. If anything I do to strengthen my body just strengthens Dezzahn’s hold on me, then the only thing I have is Cosmos. The thing about that was that I’d already fought him once, and absolutely had my ass handed to me. Facing him as I was now would just be a repeat of what happened before, only this time there would be no one left to sacrifice themselves saving me. I had to tamp down a surge of fury as I imagined the gloating monster’s features towering over me once again. I’ll kill you, Dezzahn.

When I calmed back down I asked my next question.

“Ok. I need to find a way to get past the Achorai’s wards and up to the surface. Do you know a way?”

“Hmm… is not easy either, and for same reason.” Murgui replied. “Corruptor’s essence specifically targeted by wards. Achorai hated his kind, spent centuries hunting them after they learned to work wardstone. There are keys— used to study captured monsters— but they all inside the great city. Inside wards. Same problem for surface, could take water pipe almost whole way but is warded there too. Is how you came through my roof!”

He followed this up with a series of whooshing and crashing sounds, animatedly waving his hands to pantomime my earlier entry. I cringed a little as I remembered my brief stint as a living cannonball after whatever it was in the pipes failed to delete me. A small spark of hope still lit at the phrasing of his response though.

“Not easy... but not impossible, right?”

“Well…” he equivocated nervously for a minute while my impatience built. Why is he being so cagey with all his answers? It’s like he’s deliberately avoiding giving me any pure negative— oh. The source of his anxiety popped into my head abruptly and most of my impatience evaporated with it.

“Seriously man, I’m not gonna just leave if you say something can’t be done. I’ll stay for a bit, ok?” I told him with some exasperation. Not like there’s anywhere I can go…

His shoulders sagged with relief for a moment before he finally finished his earlier sentence.

“No, is not impossible. Just very difficult. Easier for you to climb back up and fight Corruptor now as you are than to enter great city.”

Damn it.

“Then what can I do?” That spark of hope from before had dimmed considerably. I’ve lost too much, and I’m too much lost. This was almost exactly what I’d feared would happen when I first came to this world and realized how my new body worked. I was too small to be a threat to the kind of being I needed to fight if I wanted to survive.

I only had one shot left, and Murgui was the only one who could help me.

“World-shaping… can you show me more?”

He stiffened immediately. “I… I don’t know… Last time was teacher did not go well…”

I winced at the reminder of his past. “I know Murgui, and I’m sorry to ask. But I really need help and you’re the only one who can—”

“Ok-am-convinced-let's-go!!” He sprung upwards and scooped me up with one pair of his arms, practically skipping down the hallway while humming happily to himself. I was too stunned by the abrupt one-eighty in his mood to do anything but settle in for the ride.

Wow, I guess he really does love to teach.

We left his home behind and made suspiciously rapid progress across the ash dunes of the heart-ward. I say suspicious because I had the distinct feeling that Murgui was… ‘skipping’ steps. Like he’d take a step forwards and a dune that I thought had been far away would suddenly be right in front of us, only to vanish behind us just as quickly.

Before long we came to a large plateau rising above the ash dunes. With another ‘skip’ we were suddenly on top of it, standing roughly in the center of a flat stone circle a couple hundred meters across.

The view was spectacular and melancholic all at once, the endless dunes lit by the otherworldly glow of the broken sphere in the sky. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss looking out at it all, like something in me could tell that this place had once been a garden of unsurpassed beauty that was now destroyed forever— even without having heard Murgui’s story. Curious, I asked him what he called this place, wondering if there was some special significance to the location.

“Um… the big rock?” He looked at me quizzically.

That answers that, I guess.

Shrugging at my apparent weirdness he set me down and sat cross-legged in front of me.

“Is good spot for teaching, very open and no sinking into ash. Now—” Spreading his hands, a wave of air rippled out from him and encompassed the plateau. I felt the laws all shift subtly, not changing anything but almost like the world was paying attention and waiting for Murgui. “Two paths exist for world-shaping, each has good and bad. Mine is [Harmony].”

At his words, the air trembled, while he exuded the same peaceful feeling as when he’d offered me [Peace] earlier. It was relaxing, and I could sense a bizarre… willingness, in the laws around us.

“Path focused on joining wills with world, means changes are cheap but limited in scope. Can’t destroy, either. World does not willingly harm itself. Other path, you have taken— [Law].”

The peaceful feeling ended with jarring abruptness, the air now feeling stiff and cold. My own [Law] felt suppressed within Murgui’s field for a moment before my Ideal rebelled against the intrusion, forcibly expanding out from me in a wave of starlight. Rage bubbled up from throughout my aura as my soul screamed in defiance against the foreign mana.

“WE are Cosmos. Our will is [Law].”

A fractured divide formed between our two auras, with Murgui’s larger domain enveloping my own as I seethed below.

“[Law] does not bow.”

Just as my fury was about to boil over, it vanished. I was left mentally stumbling for a moment until I saw Murgui had switched back over to [Harmony], though he seemed exhausted by the brief conflict.

“What… was that!?” I asked, fearful at my loss of control.

“Was [Law]. Not natural for my kind, too much… tyranny. Uses strength to make world change. Means you can do much, but is very expensive to force will. Also gets very angry when ‘outside’ law tries to force in.”

No kidding. His voice was weary and I could sense that using power that way had taken a lot out of the poor guy, which told me that acting against the nature of your ‘path’ would have costs. Given that he’d no problems blocking off the giant death-ray from earlier, those costs must be severe.

He took a minute to steady himself before continuing.

“Like before, many problems are from perception. Others—” Reaching out, he poked my blob. “—are from disharmony. For you, disharmony is easy! Your body is wrong.”

Well, that sure clears it up. He chuckled at my mild offense.

“Not what you think, friend. Most are born to their bodies, so body is right. You… were not. Body is from Corruptor, taken fully-made. Wrong. Can live in it, but has disharmony with soul.”

Dismissing how he’d figured out I was a foreign soul, his words made sense. He was probably referring to my soul’s ‘synchronization rate’—currently at… 27.4%, which seemed higher than the last time I remember looking at it. I couldn’t help but flinch back again as my thoughts brushed against the shoggoth-memories seared into me. Gibbering laughter scraped across my consciousness like nails across a chalkboard and it was several minutes before I could speak again.

Murgui waited patiently while I recovered, eventaully murmuring quietly when I came around, “Some scars don’t show on skin, yes?”

I grimaced and nodded my blob. Can blobs nod? Well he seemed to get the intent, anyway.

“Yeah. So how do I fix it? The disharmony?” I asked.

“Hmmm… more tricky. Must act according to Ideal, bring soul and body into alignment. When moving together, harmony increases. Does not go down— harmony lasts long as you do.”

Wait… that sounds like exactly the opposite of what I’ve been doing.

Ever get that sudden realization that you’ve been an idiot? That you’ve been making your life crazy harder without knowing and it took an outside influence to point out? Yeah, it sucks. I’ve been actively suppressing my aura’s influence on me ever since that first time where I got delusions of grandeur. Maybe I’m paranoid, but I’ve been quietly over-analyzing my thoughts for the influence of my [Law] so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself again. Ironic that I was so focused on that one area I didn’t even suspect the real danger lurking in my thoughts.

The one time my synchronization had gone up significantly (and I braced myself to think of it) was as a Shoggoth, when everything in me was working together to fight Dezzahn’s leech form.

So what if— My thoughts were interrupted by a flash of light in the distant sky. At first I thought it was another tower firing up, but as the light got brighter I saw it was actually some kind of glowing… bird?

“Hey Murgui, whats that? It looks like a bird.” I pointed at the approaching entity.

“Hmmm… Silly friend, that not a bird. Is a lady, with wings!” He said after a moment of observation. Then he frowned.

“She looks upset.”