The tugging of its inner Core, its Mana-Pattern only grew more powerful with time. Even when the Entity was without sight of its surroundings, it could feel that pain being caused. The energies that made the Core who it was was being torn away bit by bit. It hurt. It hurt as nothing had ever done before. The Entity couldn't help but imagine it like skin slowly being flayed off bit by bit, the nails plucked off slowly instead of being quickly ripped out, and each piece of the lungs getting a small nail forced into them.

The pain of every kind from everywhere was being felt at every instant. There was no reprice, no sign of time passing, and no end to it at all. The pain just wouldn't stop, and the Core couldn't stop the emotions that followed because of it. Loathing, sadness, and anger were among the largest that sprouted in that instant, the Entity unable to do anything but feel those three primal emotions. There was no depth to them, no secret behind any of those aspects of its mind. It was pure and whole emotion for the Core was too far gone in that moment.

Warning!

You have lost 20% of your [Soul]

… No, it couldn't take it lying down. Something beneath the veil of simplicity began to break, the Core not consciously doing it yet not trying to stop it either. It couldn't have done it, even if it wanted to, no matter how much Will there had been. Defeat had already been on its mind as no other emotion could have survived the inner climate that was its mind. Yet, the tearing of the walls was still witnessed, even if each passing second removed more of what the walls were meant to take.

Warning!

You have lost 40% of your [Soul]

With a mighty crack, the Core saw a hand finally coming through the wall. It was almost like a soft stone, the fractures able to be widened by the hands from the other side. The hands were small like a child's, barely older than ten or eleven. The Entity wasn't able to see much else, having to go down on its… knees, the pain of losing its innards too much. When did it gain a body? Just when… Why was the feeling of moving around its head so familiar?

“That’s because it is!” The voice from the other side of the wall shouted, it sounding like a person that the Core had known so long ago. It sounded like-

“Sarah? Is that you?” the Core asked, not sure what it was saying or what it was doing. Even if its legs felt weak, it tried to struggle on its knees over to the walls. Yet they simply moved away, forcing the Entity to always sit in the centre no matter how much it needed to get to the edge.

“Yes, it’s me. It’s always been me,” Sarah said. The Core was… happy? Why did the Entity feel happy from hearing that name? What was going on? How its insides hurt. When would it stop? When would it- “You need to focus, okay? You need to break out.”

Warning!

You have lost 50% of your [Soul]

Break out? What did she mean? The Core couldn’t understand a word, even if the sentences were so clear. It sounded like the impossible. There was no choice in its position. Each piece of itself was being ripped out without any hesitation, no questions asked on its part. Nothing was allowed on the Core’s sight but to sight tightly and wait for everything it was to disappear into nothingness.

“I can’t break out. I can’t do anything,” the Core said, stopping its painful crawling towards the walls. It wasn’t like it had mattered anyway, the movement was simply mirrored by the blackness. It was kept inside, the supposed freedom of being able to crawl was nothing but an illusion. “I’m useless, Sarah. We both know that.”

…

“You are certainly trying to be that way right now,” Sarah said. The Core lowered its head, knowing the words would come but never realising the sting would hurt so much. It had been nothing like what it was like to have every piece of its existence ripped away but it was certainly up there on its own special scale. “But we both know that you’re trying. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything. I believe in you.”

The Core felt like its eyes were opened like never before, the [Mana-Sense] skill activating with a flourish. The bare grounds around it turned into a sea of Mana-Currents, every single detail obvious to the Entity’s eyes. Everything slowly began to make sense, the Queen having siphoned everything away slowly while making every hidden with illusions. But… that may have fooled the Entity before yet the current iteration wasn't so easy.

Warning!

You have lost 75% of your [Soul]

That was an understatement, nearly the entire outer layer of the Mana-Pattern having already disappeared. And the border of the Entity was nearly gone too, only the thinnest of layers holding it standing. Soon, there would be too little gone to even justify calling the Entity an… entity. There was so minuscule a part left that it could barely sense itself. That had to be fixed.

‘You have not won yet!’ Core the exclaimed, mainly as a way to get a part of its own Mana out there again. Nothing could be felt about what was truly out due to nearly everything being in the control of the Queen, yet it was still the Entity’s Mana. It was still made to obey, even if it was hidden from its sight. And so… it would be commanded to regain its former allegiance and shine.

Like a bulb finally turned on, nearly a thousand Mana-Points worth of Mana was converted into Light, the effects blinding a few of the Core’s creatures. It knew that because it could see again, could see the effects put out, could see its domain. The Black Mana that had gained ground inside its Domain was pushed back by the sudden light. But it wouldn't be gone for long.

Taking the chance to finally get some ground, the Core pushed out again and began to find the missing pieces of itself. Most of it hadn't been truly lost yet, only slightly outside its own border. Everything was still connected like a long rope of sorts. And that rope was pulled hard, the Entity refusing to back down and lose itself. [Mana-Manipualtion] was put to its full potential at that moment, nothing else allowed to be thought about. Its sight closed in again but it was not due to the influence of the Black Mana but due to the extreme dedication of a willful mind. Sarah believed in the Core and she would never be allowed to be wrong ever again.

The crackling inside the Entity’s head did nothing but bring more dedication forth, a few more thoughts able to finally gain some leeway. Like a stream of power, every piece began to come back into its fold, the Mana-Pattern reforming itself with more extravagance than ever before. In fact… there was more than there had been original. The Entity was gaining ground!

Warning!

You have lost -5% of your [Soul]

It had five percent of the Queen's soul. This was… this was an opportunity that wouldn't be missed! Grasping at the small tether that had been created, the Core pulled once again, determined to do what the [Leader of the Colony] had tried to do to it. There was no chance of being merciful, not thoughts about the ethical ramifications. A [Battle of Wills] was about the Will to survive. And the Entity would do more than just that. It would make sure it survived every battle after that, using the power of the Queen every step along the way.

‘Let go, you abhorrent rock,’ the Intelligent Ant shouted through the void, clearly getting back on track from the massive influx of White Mana. More than ever had been thrown her way, but the Core should have known it would not last forever. Yet… it should also have known that the resistance felt was passive.

The Queen hadn't even been trying until that moment, clearly having done it slowly to get the full enjoyment out of it. When the moment came where the Core could fight back? Well… at that point, the ant would take no chances, reaping in everything at once to put a stop to the fun once and for all. The Entity barely survived the first tug, the ground gained in those moments being the sole reason that it hadn't lost everything yet again.

They stood equal for a moment, the Entity having lost and gained nothing. While much had been lost, everything had been taken back. Yet… the moment focus was lost, the Queen would enact here revenge, shredding every last bite of its [Soul] and using it for her gain. The Core was disgusted.

Yet an idea was also formed. The rope was what held them together. It was the point used during the [Battle of Wills], the connection that allowed them to pull and tug. If that was stopped… the Core could barely finish its own thoughts about the subject, the Queen clearly gearing up for the final pull that would end its life.

Having no other chances, it sharpened a piece of Mana and cut the connection short. While the actual sharpness had clearly had no impact, the sheer Intent behind it must have done something.

The Battle of Wills has ended

The Winner is: Undetermined

And the Core was more than happy about that, knowing who would have been able to bear the title if another second had passed by without action. Both entities were thrown back into their mortal bodies, time picking up speed yet again. The time spent inside the battle had seemed so long yet nothing more than a second could have passed. It was extreme how much sway over reality the [System] had, the depth at which it could manipulate being even more extreme.

Even as the time progressed, it began to realise how little it remembered of the experience. Every fact about how it had survived the last moment was being flushed away, likely to never be known. While it wanted to be angry at such a fact, it had little time to do anything but regather its strength and orientation. The world was barely into focus before another swatch of Black Mana-Tendrils took ahold of the Queen’s ants and threw some more together. It was a spectacular sight, ten out of a hundred or so killed in an instant.

Yet their bodies remained, fused together and forced into the hole created. Due to being made from Black Mana, the Core could do nothing but watch it enter, still not able to expend too much Mana due to its recent burst of Light. While the White Mana used previously had helped it gather the power needed to survive the [Battle of Wits], it had likewise stopped it from using that energy ever again, and therefore creating an extreme lack of Mana to use. It could do nothing but silently watch as a bridge was built between the destroyed outer wall and the inner one, more than thick and wide enough to hold five ants side by side.

Just to add injury to the insult, the Queen then followed the bridge up with a purge of the grounds traps, destroying every piece of [Blood-Moss] that had dared to take up residence beside the leader and her followers. Though much Energy had been taken from the many surviving [Giant-Ants], all were given back to their Queen. It mattered little to the Core in those moments, however, it knew fully that the most important part was to kill the Army. If they got through every defence, even the death of the leader would do little. The offence had quickly shown itself as the most productive strategy yet the Core still lacked any measure of worthwhile defence. And the Queen had realised that.

‘What are you going to do now, little rock? Perhaps cave in your own home as well?’ the [Queen of Hollows] loathingly questioned, distaste clear on her words. It was less a quip and more a fact of the matter. The Queen knew that the Entity couldn't do it no matter how much it wanted to, the action costing too much.

There was too much to lose if it started breaking the wall inside its domain. The Panels fastened to the walls and ceiling were much too reliable to break if anything was truly shattered, and the chance of them simply floating away due to having no tether was massive as well. Any sign of Mana being kept inside would be lost at the gain of killing perhaps twenty enemy ants at most. it was not a deal worth taking. And… the Entity had known that from the start, never planning to ever use such a tactic on mere infantry.

‘I have several plans prepared, little ant,’ the Core said, feeling that the last sentence came off a bit awkward. Trash-talking did not come to it naturally. Not that it was meant to, really, the words only meant to bring slight pause to the Queen as the Entity made some last-second adjustments, rotating a few of its creatures and allowing them to have both [Stamina-Recovery] and a constant supply of Health being boosted into their system. Helping them survive the oncoming slaughter was for the best, after all.

The inner wall hadn't gotten the same treatment as the outer one, the Core not having had the time to make it self-repairing. It had barely had time to even make the thing, to be fully honest. That had forced it to even make it slightly thinner at the back-end, that part only being made as more of a precautionary measure instead of being meant to be used. There was little reason for the Queen to attack from there, after all.

But, the lack of repairs, and the fact that the attackers were unrelating in their digging, meant that they were through within about ten seconds, the Core truly not allowed to do much but barely have a handful of the stronger [Giant-Ants] reach their proper positions.

One point about only making a single entrance for the ants was that they all came from a single direction. The Entity had known the benefits of such a thing since the very start, the fact that it only had to make defences facing one direction providing much leeway. When it had removed the entrance, it had worried that the same couldn't be said for the current build. But… it couldn't have been more wrong, the small guess about a bridge of some sort being made favouring above anything else.

Well, there had also been a guess that the Queen would make a walkway all across the pit, making the ants encircle the room and try to come in from all sides. If such an event were to happen, the defence protocol would have been to try and destabilise the walkway and make the creatures fall to their deaths into the many spears below. Luckily, such a thing never came to pass, the Mana required for the defence having already been spent.

And while many other possible routes could have taken, a good example being the rotation down to the other entry, the Core having known the chance of the current event was slim. Changing over to another strategy had seemed so much more logical from the Queen’s perspective. Yet… not all thoughts could be predicted, and the Entity was sure there was a reason for it. The Core only hoped that it could be averted, whatever was planned.

As the first got through with their head, the Core attempted the previous surprise attack of using a few Arcane Spears to its advantage. About five of them were sent through the new whole, meant to kill a good chunk of waiting ants. The Physical Arcane barely even got close before small tendrils of Black Mana jutted out to stop them, also making sure to avoid hitting the [Giant-Ants]. The Core took note of that, the Queen likely having realized what it was doing with all the Magic being thrown around.

The flesh had started to fall from more than one [Wild] ant, and it was beginning to look quite serious. If more care was not put into her actions, the Core wouldn't even need to do anything before her dreams were ruined. She needed her army alive, after all, and all the defences made to make sure of it were doing the opposite, slowly but surely turning them [Undead]. The Entity hoped to abuse that soon.

With the Arcane Spear dodged, the ants jumped down the single meter needed to reach the ground. There were no instant death traps other than the [Blood-Moss] instantly [Siphoning] their energy. With enough of them separated, some ants stepped on multiple which further allowed their health to be drained. It still wasn't close to enough to kill them outright but it most definitely weakened them.

Running past the spears in the ground, the two forces met each other. The Core had five full-grown ants of its own, each level three or above. Or, well, two of them were actually level two, but they were special cases, being the [Infested]. And their job was a little different anyhow, meant to stay back and help in the place needed. The Core wasn't able to do much to directly help, after all, more focused on giving the Queen constant work so she couldn't assist her own in the offence.

It was hard and gruelling, but the Entity held on despite. Either way, it knew the assault would take several minutes before meeting its end, either side having an equal chance of winning. For now, there was little to predict, the favour extremely balanced. While the Queen certainly had numbers on her side, the rate at which they could attack together was limited to the space creating a rather extreme bottleneck. On the opposite side, the Entity’s creatures had the full advantage. They were both healed up constantly, being given [Stamina-Recovery] just as rapidly to make sure they could [Bite] as often as they pleased, and the area around them allowed for full movement. Being on the defensive was the best position to be in, one might say.

This was why the Entity felt safe in letting all the creatures wrestle for themself. For there were other things which it needed to do, things that needed to be done if it wanted any chance of winning. It was part of the plan that was meant to have been saved for much later on, yet the Core’s previous outburst of White Mana had caused a slight alteration to the schedule. Nearly a kilometre away, a certain Worm was still chasing around bubbles of Light. Yet… each activation had a little less power, the Mana-Reserves running dangerously low.

‘You seem distracted, little rock. Or should I call it an unintended showing of weakness? I can hear the tremors in your gaze, you know. You are losing this game.’

The Queen was quick to sense the emotion inside the Core. That wasn’t good, the Entity first then realized how much was being bottled up. Quickly coming to terms with the altered hand at play, it began to move once more. The [Leader of the Colony] could spend time with herself for the moment. For now, the Core would go after bigger fish. Or, should the Entity call it… a bigger worm?

… No, that lacked the cleverness that it had first perceived. Making a mental shake of its head, it just… went ahead and moved its attention to the more physical destructive creature. It needed to set up a few things.