Eternium ~ 40!

<All right.> I was staring at the Silverwood tree above me. Glaring might actually be a better word. It seemed nervous, for a tree. <Here’s the deal, I know that you can hear me, I’m hoping that the reason you haven’t been responding is that you simply don’t form words in the same way that other beings do.>

<Maybe you even have been talking to me, and think that I’m rude for not responding via scent trails or something.> I allowed this explanation graciously. <However! Now that I know that there is a way to connect to you, by the abyss you and I are going to become friends!>

Alrighty. The next step after making a personal connection to the tree was to make an energetic connection to said tree. Mmmhmmm. How had this not already happened? Was this guy just a chubby leech that had been mooching on my power for so long that I didn't even think of it anymore? Was it going to reject the connection to me because it had as much as it needed without ever having to let me bond? It was time to find out.

According to Eternium, what I needed to do was… strange. I needed to give Mana to the tree even as I pulled Mana from the tree. This would only work if the tree wanted it to happen, which weirded me out a little. Trees weren’t supposed to want things. I’m a rock, I should know how strange it was to want things. I needed to make a stream of power… done. Connect it to the root system… done. ‘Kay. Now, if the tree wanted a connection to me, it would take the offered power and use it to forge Mana that would come back to me. If this happened, we would create a system similar to the Meridians used while cultivating.

I waited and waited, but nothing seemed to be happening. I kept the power going, but I needed to be doing other things. I took a look at the surface and winced; things were a mess up there. We were slowly flying away from the territory owned by Eternium, but he wasn’t going to let us go all the way out until he was safe from the Desolation aimed at him. I thought it was strange that a SSS-ranked dungeon Core was threatened by a rock falling on him, but it made more sense from the perspective of planets colliding. 

While Eternium could likely destroy the planet if it tried hard enough, it would take a lot of time and preparation. Also, it had defenses in place, but who prepared for the moon to fall on them? That would be madness! Oh, right, wait. That was the issue here in the first place. Oh, there was a new Mage in the Mage’s Recluse? Let’s take a look at who… Dale? Oh, that was good for him! I should look in on his progress and see- Wow! Dale! My goodness, he and Minya were certainly enthusiastic to have reached this level together. I’ll leave them to… celebrating for now. 

I thought back to the long conversation that Eternium and I had been having. There was very little gain from the deal I had been forced to make. He knew everything that I did, and in return he had given me a method to potentially protect myself. I wasn't pleased that there was so much luck involved to make the protections work, but a chance was a chance. The modifications to the infernal cannons were being prepared right now, since I had a feeling someone was going a little power-mad upstairs.

A strange fluctuation brought my attention to The Master, who had warped into the dungeon. Right where I used to be located, actually. He looked around, frowned, took another step and popped into existence next to me. His voice was a bit too accusatory for my tastes, “You moved.”

<I do that pretty frequently.> When there was no response, I called a Bob into the room and had him translate for me. The conversation was far easier at that point.

“I want a favor.” The Master more demanded than asked. 

<Another one?> I quipped, though Bob was too slow to state my words before The Master continued.

“I need you to save my necromancers. The people that were all relying on me. They were enslaved.” The Master was staring at the Silverwood tree, which seemed to be moving in a breeze despite the lack of airflow in this area. “Surely you understand that following the orders of another, instead of your own, is the height of despair.”

<I get it, I really do, but what am I supposed to do?> I took a look at the newly enslaved people, had Bob shrug for me. <Their own aura prevents me from absorbing the collars they are wearing right now. If they enter my soul space, I suppose I could eat away at them. But what sort of relationship would that leave me with Barry, who might take that opportunity to destroy me for going against him? Are you going to protect me from his wrath, forever?>

“Save them all and I will destroy him myself.” The Master swore to me. 

I ignored the special effects this created, and had Bob stare at him. <What if one of them dies? That oath suddenly becomes nullified and I am all sorts of up poop creek without a paddle.>

“I did everything for this! To save us!” The Master punched a wall and filled the room with rock dust and rubble. “He stole it all away for a power play! He will doom us all for his ego!”

<For now, unless you can explain to me what I can do to help this situation, I need you not to be here.> I had Bob wave at the entrance. <If there is a way that I can think of to save them without truly risking myself, I’ll do what I can. I cannot promise anything, though. I truly hope you understand.>

“Of course I understand.” The Master slumped against the uneven wall, somehow forming the unbelievably strong stone into a kind of chair. “Centuries of people putting themselves first, no matter how hard I try to keep them seeing the bigger picture and understanding the benefits that working together can actually accomplish. What could we do, what could we make, if we used the millennia of life we can attain to lift each other up instead of fighting for scraps of ephemeral power?”

<I like your vision, Ter.> I chuckled as he sent a bolt of nothing whizzing past Bob’s ear and left a hole all the way through my dungeon before vanishing from my perception. Bob didn’t laugh along with me. <Got it, no nicknames. Look at things from my perspective. My entire life has been a fight for survival, and I don't see that changing for a long, long time. Even the people I save; I need to be wary of! Since people that are too powerful could pop me from the outside or the inside for no reason beyond wanting to see what happens. Give me a way to protect myself, or kill my foes on your own, and I’ll save your people.>

“The only thing that I could give you to defeat him would be me, and you are too weak to create a deal with me with you in charge.” The Master started pacing around the room, his uncontrolled power making the stone warp under him. “Could I give them all memory stones from you? Let them know that they will be resurrected if they die in the area?”

<All I know is that I couldn’t bring them back at their current power.> I started thinking over the offer, it wasn’t a bad deal for me. <Would they submit to that? I think that they could regain their power, but if they were to die, they would come back far weaker.>

The Master could only hold up his hands and shrug. “They would take the deal, and if not… I feel that I could make this choice for them. It is in their best interests.”

<Good, good.> I laughed, making The Master flush with fury. <Nothing says ‘I care about you’ like forcing someone’s mind into a gem and killing them. In fact, I feel like that story is somehow… familiar…>

“I assume you are speaking on your personal experience?” The Master stated the words almost blandly, but I could tell that the situation was getting to him. “I had nothing to do with your other half going through a portal in time and creating you. That is… more confusing than it is realistic.”

<I’d rather not think about it.> I told him, glad that the conversation was moving along. <The unbridled chaos mixing with that portal could have created or done anything. What if we had somehow connected to a potent, untamed creature? Or summoned a meteor that came through from space? It could have ended all of us in an eyeblink and we’d have never known what happened.>

“So, you won’t agree to attempting to meddle with time?” The Master was… joking, I think?

<Never again.> I firmly announced. <I will never intentionally attempt to change the past. Nothing good comes from that.>

“Fine.” The Master sighed, holding up a hand. “Could I get a bag of about ninety Cores please? I have some brethren to ‘liberate’.”

<I look forward to it.>