[Dr. Vladislav Alexandrovich Kerenski]

The experience gained had ballooned my body and strengthened my shield.

I didn't know how large I was now... but everything inside of me screamed that I had to level up, to put all of my gains into focus NOW or I would burst, ignite from excess of untamed power and perish.

I listened to my inner desire to evolve.

"Level me up, Sassony," I ordered.

I dreamt of Mother. She was waiting for me patiently... for all of me, across all of the Astral Ocean, across the infinity of possibilities. She was there, gathering power, getting stronger... aiming to become a god.

Every single possible version of me converged into her, feeding her insatiable desire for power.

Pain. Incredible pain shot across my body.

When I awoke... it was already over.

I was in incredible pain. My mighty shield was gone, only shreds that remained of it floated about through the gloom, sparks of dying soul-shards shimmering across my vision.

Legonnie was stabbing me in the top of my body with her claws. The little, brave shard had managed to wake me up, interrupted my evolution.

I looked ahead. A truly monstrous Phantom was there. It had torn right through the whale's outer membrane and its dying organs and was now finishing off my last few defenders in the heart chamber.

The Star-Polygon hunter had found me. Levelling up here was a mistake.

It was bleeding profusely from a thousand cuts inflicted upon it by my now ruined killer-shield. Alas, it wasn't injured enough, its body was already rapidly healing.

I tried to rush away from it and sharp, pyramidal teeth closed over my body, crushing, snipping off my threads.

Pyramidal tentacles reached out from its maw and devoured Legonnie.

Luck showed me a flash of what was awaiting me... but it had come far too late.

I didn't want to end up bound to Mother, didn't want to be her servant, didn't want to be another step on her stairwell to absolute, divine power.

I aimed Sectus at the core of my soul and fired at my heart. It wasn't quick. It was incredibly painful and slow. I bled from within, my insides dying, collapsing in on themselves like a dying star, like a ship that was sinking into the crushing depths of the Mariana Trench.

I ended myself just as I had killed the whale.

The last of my soul shards dissolved away right before the Hunter brought my empty, ossified shell to its Hollow Mother.

[THE END]

[

[Chill, study the hexagonal remains, eat, grow and multiply] [Investments] [Dive into the vein] [Escalation] [The whale's heart]

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