It was more than a little longer, or at least it felt like it. The tunnels leading to the Lesser Core seemed endless, a mess of twisting and turning darkness, filled with corpse-thing after corpse-thing hiding within. They threw themselves into our path in great waves, and I found myself more and more grateful for the assistance of the disciples.

With the increasing strength of the Lesser Core’s aura, I found that I actually needed them. I was forced to spend most of my time curled inwards, mouth firmly attached to my tail, with only brief moments spent otherwise - the times when I paused to bite into the flesh of a Coreless with [Life - Vigor], or to create a [Little Guardian’s Focus].

Like now.

The Unrepentant One, still fighting the increasing levels of [nausea] that apparently came with repeated usage of [Life - Vigor], huffed and stepped backwards. Not-Needle, who had mostly recovered - or, at least, she wasn’t vomiting as often anymore, which had been absolutely disgusting to witness - took his place, ore-flesh fangs flashing in a brilliant sequence as she quickly smoothed out edges and carved away mistakes. By the time she was finished, the waiting statues were…

Acceptable.

Barely.

If I really looked, I could easily find mistakes; a misshapen scale here, a gouged-out divot there. It wasn’t worthy. It wasn’t right. The Great Core deserved better. I itched with the need to fix it, to run scale-flesh across stone-flesh and let [The Golem’s Fading Heart] turn the statues into something better. Something worthy of the Great Core’s glory. It would have been hard on me, with the time that it took, the Lesser Core fighting against me all the while.

It wouldn’t have been worth it. Not when it might weaken me enough - maybe not this time, but possibly the next, or the time after - for me to start actually dying, rather than slithering along the line of healed and not-healed. I couldn’t do it.

Fighting back waves of guilt, I let go of my tail and quickly slithered forward. A chill set itself into my scale-flesh as the healing effect of [The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail] disappeared, beaten back only by the streams of vitality that continued to warm my blood. Occasionally, I pulled at a drop, using [Life Essence Manipulation] to guide it past the barrier of mana-laden blood that kept it from pressing against my flesh.

Heat bloomed against my scale-flesh, pushing back the growing chill and repairing what had been destroyed. The thought-light flickered.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vitality XV] Increased.

[Life - Vitality XVI] Acquired.

I was more thankful than ever for [Mana Blood] and [Mana Restoration]. If I hadn’t chosen them…

It hurt to even think about, but I would have ended up under the Lesser Core’s control again. Even with so much mana at my control, and even with my life essence based abilities stronger than ever, I was struggling.

It was galling; the only thing that made me feel better was the knowledge that something like this couldn’t be easy for the Lesser Core. Raising corpses again and again, eating away at all life within a wide range around it…

It couldn’t do it forever. I hoped. Even a Core didn’t have endless mana. Not even the Great Core, let alone a Lesser one.

I hissed in apology at the thought, but was quickly forced to turn my attention away as scale-flesh found stone-flesh.

Light bloomed as [Little Guardian’s Focus] took hold, infusing the embarrassingly crude piece of stone-flesh. I heard my Coreless let out a collective sigh behind me, [relief] flowing through the connections to their respective [Little Guardian’s Totem]s as they reached out to attune them to the newborn [Little Guardian’s Focus].

But I wasn’t done. I slithered to the side and began to focus.

“I still can’t believe we didn’t think to do this before,” one of the Coreless jabbered. I was concentrating too much to tell who it was, let alone to attempt to guess at what the noises meant. The weave in my mind was slippery and hard to grasp, even with my skills doing almost all of the work for me.

“It would’ve helped in Verdant Grove, that’s for sure. I don’t think it’s easy on him, though. It keeps taking longer than before,” another quietly hissed.

I kept pushing, ignoring the way that the weave of mana and life essence trembled and shook, the way that the parts that made it began to fray. When they did, I just added more mana and life essence, even if I mourned their loss.

I needed them so that I could stay alive, but I also needed my Coreless to stay alive.

Making more than one [Little Guardian’s Focus] would help with that. I just wished that it wasn’t so difficult; trying to make one within range of another [Little Guardian’s Focus] didn’t feel right, like the aura of the old [Little Guardian’s Focus] was fighting against the creation of the new. I had noticed it before, when trying to form new ones at the outside edge of the old, but it was nothing like this. It was a little harder, maybe, but not terribly noticeable.

This, though…was a struggle.

I pushed through it anyway, knowing that my Coreless would need it to resist the growing strength of the Lesser Core’s killing aura. Knowing that I could do it. It wouldn’t be the first time.

That didn’t make it any easier to do, especially with such poor excuses for statues. It was harder when they were ugly.

I did it anyway, praying to the Great Core to understand. To allow the change. A rush of mana and life essence left me, filling the fraying weave that was [Little Guardian’s Focus] and repairing its faults.

And then there was light, and a second [Little Guardian’s Focus] was born. I hissed in relief, and my Coreless hissed behind me.

After a moment to rest and heal myself again, I started to work on the third. It was even harder than the second, but the light eventually bloomed. The thought-light flickered alongside it.

Lesser Core Skill: [Little Guardian’s Focus XI] Increased.

[Little Guardian’s Focus XII] Acquired.

I hissed with joy at the sight. The Great Core was with us, thankfully, even if we had formed terrible abominations in its name. I let out another brief hiss before a bout of guilt overtook me at the thought.

Maybe we could fix them on the way back.

Valera let out a sigh of relief, the ice invading her veins finally beginning its retreat as she attuned to the final Guardian Statue. A great warmth radiated from the [Little Guardian’s Totem] hanging from her neck, far stronger than it had recently been. Great enough that it was closer to a flame than real warmth, almost scalding in its intensity. Strong enough that Valera had checked her skin for burns at one point, even if that didn’t make any sense. Healing didn’t burn. It was probably just the contrast; the difference between the deathly chill in her limbs and the healing warmth at her chest.

She still checked again, sneaking a peak underneath the gaps of her armor. It was fine, even if attuning to a third Guardian Statue within the same range always made her [Little Guardian’s Totem] feel like it was going to melt. Luckily - or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it - three Guardian Statues placed beside one another seemed to be all that the Little Guardian could manage; they’d tried for a fourth once, and the little snake had actually fainted.

Only for a few seconds, but it was an awful, awful few seconds.

They never tried for a fourth again. It wasn’t worth the risk, even if the lack made them more vulnerable. The Little Guardian was already struggling without pushing himself that far; he had slowed during their trek, grown more sluggish. Now, he was only pulling himself from his curled-inward position when he needed to create new Guardian Statues or the path forward forked out in multiple directions.

As cute as the sleepy-looking little guy was, Valera was worried. They wouldn’t be able to rely on him when they found the Core. She risked a glance back. The tiny snake was wrapped around Elara’s shoulder, where Doran had passed him when the mana strain became too much. Smart of him, she had to admit. Valera was still struggling with her own mana-induced nausea. She should have given up earlier than she had, but the feeling was pretty exhilarating. Pushing past your limits like that always was. Doran had clearly thought the same, even if the big lug pretended that he didn’t.

The grin on his face as he turned undead into mangled pulps was a bit too big to really hide, though.

A few scales flaked off the Little Guardian’s body, revealing a mass of blackening flesh beneath it. A moment later, new growth surged in, almost immediately replacing what was lost.

That part was less cute; Valera had to fight a sudden urge to vomit. The nausea from the mana strain was still getting to her a little, though it had simmered down some, becoming more of an ever-present discomfort than anything else. Some things still made it swell again, though.

Suddenly, Kala hissed sharply, distracting Valera from thoughts of illness. “Stop!” she said. “I think I see a light ahead.”

Valera squinted. There wasn’t anything but darkness, like a yawning pit, a hole in the world. Still, Kala’s mana-infusions had enhanced her perception to a ridiculous degree. Valera wouldn’t argue. “Do you see the Core?” she asked, hands flexing on the hilts of her swords in anticipation - not that they’d ever really left. There were too many monsters around for that.

“No,” Kala answered, eyes narrowed and bow at the ready. “It’s coming from around a bend. I don’t think it could be anything else, though. Not with that color of light. It’s almost entirely black, with just a hint of purple; that’s probably why you can’t see it from here. Blends in with the darkness. I almost didn’t notice it.”

Erik sighed, pulling the shield from his back. “I guess this is it, then,” he said. “Everyone behind me. We’ll take this slow.”

With rasping breaths and fast-beating hearts, the Seekers - and one curled-up, slowly decaying shoulder-snake - carefully pressed forward. Turned a corner.

Stepped into the light.