The next four Blood of Tiamat - an odd name for the revolting monsters, I couldn’t help but think - proved to be an exercise in willpower to consume. More than anything else, it was my pride that stopped me from giving up. They were disgusting, sure, but I had earned them. It was their deaths that had served as an example of my worth as the Great Core’s Champion, both to myself and to the numerous Coreless that had cowered at the edge of the black-water.

I wanted something to show for the experience, something that the thought-light could reveal to me any time I called for it. A new trait - hopefully a powerful one - that proved what I was capable of, even without needlessly relying on the Great Core’s ability to bring me back to life again and again.

With that in mind, I was nearly trembling in anticipation - and more than a little nausea - by the time that the last of the fifth Blood of Tiamat slid down my throat.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 5/5.

Analyzing Blooded Trait…

Acquiring Blooded Trait: [Chains of the Creator I]

For the first time, I didn’t feel my body transform in response to the addition of a new trait. My flesh didn’t warp. My scales didn’t mutate. Instead, I felt just a little better. A little stronger, a little less tired, a little more energized.

But beyond that, nothing else.

Nothing except for the thoughts that pressed against my mind. It started quietly, as if slow to react to my presence. A careful prodding, a hiss of emotion that I could barely hear.

[...curiosity]

I tried to prod back, unsure on how to respond. The quiet hiss was understandable, but at the same time almost alien. Other. It wasn’t like the flickers of the thought-light, that bright flow of information that was as much a part of myself as my own flesh. It wasn’t the warmth of the Great Core, that ever-present comfort that had created and shaped me.

It was something new.

[CURIOSITY/DEMAND]

The alien hiss pressed in again, painful in its intensity, sending my mind reeling and commanding a response. It was a wave of noiseless sound that blasted against my consciousness, a command that urged nothing less than obedience, that tried to grasp me within its claws until I couldn’t help but respond.

I pushed back, all but spitting in annoyance. My own answering hiss was something far quieter, more distant than even the first prods that had pressed themselves against the edges of my mind. I sent it back in the direction of the intrusion, feeling it follow a mental link that I knew hadn’t been there just a few minutes before.

Something that had been created by [Chains of the Creator], the trait given by consuming the Blood of Tiamat.

Pushing my answer across was difficult; the link felt as if it went far off into the distance, invisibly flowing through tunnel after tunnel, cutting through the World Dungeon on a far-flung journey towards what lay at its end. By the time that my answering hiss reached its destination, I knew that it would hardly be audible - just a tiny, nearly imperceptible request for information.

The information came quickly, rushing itself down the link with far more force than I thought possible. It was more than the crude emotion of before, a package of thought and images that forced the world outside of my mind to fall away.

I saw a massive Core, glowing with power, resting upon an even larger pedestal. The cavern around it, much like the Core itself, was larger than anything I had ever seen. Even the walls of the nest cavern were too far off in the distance; I knew that they existed, that they were there, but that was only because the walls of the World Dungeon always were. I couldn’t see them.

The air inside of the cavern swirled with a thick coat of visible mana, more vibrant than anything I had ever seen, filling with it a glow that put the light of mana-water to shame, that made mana-lit ore-flesh seem dark. It churned chaotically, a primal embodiment of the mana that all Cores were attuned to.

Then, the massive Core flashed. The chaotic mana twisted. Something formed.

It was something that defied belief; something that made the might and size of the flame-serpent seem insignificant.

It was a bad-thing, pulling itself up onto four powerful legs, a single claw on one of its feet more than enough to match the size of one of my Coreless. Its head formed a serpentine visage coated in blue scale-flesh, with two sharp horns jutting backwards from just behind its frill-like ears. Spikes ran down its bulky, sinuous length, coming to an end at the tip of its impressive tail. Wings splayed outwards from behind its shoulders, and even the smaller claws that stretched from the bat-like limbs looked like they could pierce through ore-flesh.

The image changed again, and I watched as the impressively large bad-thing smashed its way through stone tunnels far too small for its bulk, giant shards of stone bouncing off of hard scale-flesh without leaving a single scratch. Finally, it broke through the end of the tunnels, pressing out into yet another massive cavern. Unlike the place of its birth, this one was not coated in a miasma of swirling mana. Instead, it was filled with a vast lake of brilliantly glowing mana-water.

The bad-thing dove into its depths, and I followed along as it swallowed anything that approached - until, finally, it devoured a glowing Core at the lowest part of the mana-water’s depths.

It Ascended, just as I had.

The image in my mind shifted again, and I saw the massive bad-thing lift a claw against its own scale-flesh. I saw drops of blood fall from where it sliced. I saw the blood shift. I saw a wave of new bad-things form from the drops. Their flesh was twisted and repuls - the line of thought shattered. I watched the blood shift again, birthing brothers and sisters of beautiful, twisted flesh and varied forms.

The images ended at last with a final hiss, this one more understandable than what came before. A Name like my own, gifted by a Core.

[TIAMAT]

The Name that it pushed into my mind came with more than a simple name, just as I knew that my own would, if I tried to send it across. I knew that I was Paradox. I was The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail.

In the same way, I knew that I had encountered Tiamat. I had met The Mother of Monsters.

Distantly, I could sense the ghosting of fingers against my scale-flesh. I could hear the urging hisses of the-female-who-was-not-Needle. I could feel the cool stone where my length had slumped and collapsed.

Distantly.

My mind was altogether too occupied by the awe-inspiring Other that pressed against it. Tiamat. It pushed and prodded against me, but I knew that I could let myself hear it more clearly.

[INSTRUCTION]

I found myself pushing my intentions to the thought-light, demanding the thing that I knew I needed. It flickered, responding to my will just as I had chosen to respond to Tiamat’s instruction.

Available Trait Points: 4

Use Trait Points To Upgrade A Trait?

For a moment, I hesitated over the choice that the thought-light presented. I knew that this was what I needed, what Tiamat needed from me. But, for some reason I couldn’t place, I hesitated.

Something new slammed across the connection between us.

[INSTRUCTION]

This time, the thought-hiss came with a new set of images. It revealed the way that The Mother of Monsters was linked to her children. It displayed the way that they grew in strength as they became nearer to her, both in distance and in mentality. It gave me images of the creatures that were linked to her, their might increasing visibly with each step they took towards Tiamat.

It was compelling. I could use strength like that, I knew, if I wanted to…

What did I want to do, again?

For some reason, the thought panicked me, and I tried to send my confusion towards Tiamat.

[SUBMIT]

I hesitated again before I could push towards the thought-light, still stuck on that bewildering question.

What did I need strength for?

It was something important, something at the back of my mind. Something that I had always known, but currently couldn’t place.

A new series of thought-hisses roared across the connection, sending my mind reeling again.

[CREATOR/GOD/SUBMIT]

Oh. That’s what it was.

Finally, I didn’t hesitate, spurred onwards by the newly-stoked devotion I felt towards my Creator.

I sent something back.

{REFUSAL/RAGE/HATE}