Chapter 326: A Primordial Playground (1/2)

I smiled, ”Let's say it'll be less a garden and more a home. Eldritch tend to have a nasty reputation, so calling it a garden comes with some unsettling insinuations. Like you're going raid our planet or something.”

Plazia beetles hissed, ”Wording aside, the point is still the same. Where shall I settle myself in your domain? Anywhere will be suitable for me.”

I raised a hand, ”Actually, you'll be rooming beside someone I think you should meet.”

Before heading to the abandoned tunnel beneath Mt. Verner, I swooped the mass of bugs into my pocket dimension. I walked back up to Torix's research lair as no one recognized what I brought in. After crossing a few doors, we reached past the settled territory of the tunnel. I pulled Plazia out of my dimension, and the patch of insects seethed,

”Where am I? What is this place?”

I pointed at a patch of an unused concrete wall, ”This will be your room.”

Plazia's slithering ceased, and he reattuned to the new reality. Plazia murmured, ”That stasis is true and utter. Having my environment change as such...It is unsettling.”

I smiled, ”It'll be like that for everyone coming from you know where.”

A warmth came over Plazia, and his tone rose, ”Hm...It shall be, won't it? They'll cross the veil while separated from time. In one moment, their dimension is collapsing around them. In another, they live without fear.”

His patch of insects hoped around, ”It will be a sight worthy of etching down to memory. Let's begin.”

Plazia's bugs shifted into primordial mana, the forms ethereal and haunting. They mushed into the concrete, melting through solid stone and generating enormous heat. Like an infection, they spread outwards and created more of their own kind. Within a minute, an empty space ample for a two-story house existed. I stepped into it, glad a doorway actually fit me for once.

Once I stepped inside, Plazia's magma insects carved out their runic configurations. Through a psionic tether, he transferred mana to charge it, but at a slowed pace. Giving him a hand, I placed a palm onto the runes.

They flashed into a charged state, the instantaneous flood of mana almost shattering the cipheric markings.

Plazia pulled himself away from the energy flow, and Plazia hissed, ”I see you've assimilated many of those furnaces already.”

I gave him a nod, ”I have.” I lifted a hand, primordial mana spawning as my system inputs died out. I gave it a nod, ”Yeah, it's back again. You can go ahead and come over.”

Plazia simmered his words like burning coals, ”Are you certain of my arrival? I'll be nested beside your loved ones, able to kill them at any point. Perhaps giving me that leverage is giving me too much trust?”

I kept my gaze on him, ”You've been able to get into this place for a long time already, but you never took us out. Hell, your insect approached me without me knowing.”

I swirled primordial mana around me like a dense cloud, ”If you wanted to harm us, you would've already done so. It's less I'm putting you in our midst and more like I'm just fully aware of it now. Besides that, Schema exiling me from his system might be a boon more than a bane at this point. We'll have to see, in all honesty.”

Plazia cackled before mouthing, ”And many believe you're a fool.”

I sat down, ”I am. I'm just trying to be less of one.” I opened my status, sending Torix a message to come over, ”I want you and Torix to meet real quick. I think you two will get along.”

I peered up, ”Well, either that or you'll hate each other. Honestly, I can't tell.”

Plazia's insect manifestation swirled about, ”It depends on whether he's fine with a mind well beyond his own.”

I raised my brow, ”Ooh, those are big words. We'll have to see how they play out.”

”Oh, we shall.”

I leaned forward, ”Most certainly so.”

”Indeed.”

”Yes.”

A silence passed over us before Plazia chimed, ”Hm.”

I raised my brow, ”Don't think I'm going to let you get the last word in.”

Plazia threatened, ”I'll put a portion of my consciousness to the task, and you'll grow bored. This is a war you'll lose...Harbinger.”

I narrowed my eyes, ”Hoh, you think I can't do the same thing? I got nearly twenty minds working full throttle right now. Continuing a grunt fest like this? It's child's play.”

”Then let the playing of children begin.”

”Hur.”

”Humph.”

”Hgh.”

”Hurgh.”

Torix walked into our room, his hands interlocked behind himself. He peered at the pile of insects and me having a grunting contest. Torix's fiery eyes flared, ”Was there a falling out between your message and my arrival?”

Plazia let go, giving me an official victory over the hivemind, ”No. He's merely childish.”

I leaned back, ”What? I'm just having fun.” I smirked, ”And winning might I add.”

Torix stepped up to Plazia's bugs. The lich coughed into a hand, ”Ahem...I see your form isn't precisely imposing, but one's physical self doesn't judge the might of their mind, so to speak.”

Plazia laughed, his voice echoing in the empty, concrete room. The hivemind scoffed, ”You will find I am more than this.”

A cleave through dimensions popped up, and Plazia wrenched it further apart. The hollowed Sentinel stepped out, and the hivemind came in while oozing primordial mana,

”I am Plazia-Ruhl, of Many Faces.”

I got deja vu.

Torix gave him a curt nod, ”And I am Torix Worm, the Harbinger's Erudition.”

As the dimensional rupture clashed shut, Plazia peered around. He sat back, falling onto a basalt throne. Mirroring Plazia's attitude, Torix sat down into his own umbral cloud of mana. They both stared at each other for a moment, sizing the other mastermind up.

Torix leaned forward, steepling his fingers, ”I can see you're a Ruhl. Legend has it that each member of your kind is a supposed Genius.”

Plazia peered down at Torix, ”We are.”