Chapter 55: Bonding (Patreon)

Aby watched as the drake shambled over to his usual bedding, looking for all intents and purposes to be a walking corpse. The core was completely at a loss as to what had happened, one moment it was simply observing something in one of its halls, the next, it felt one of its stronger bonds assault it with a feeling of displeasure so strong that the core itself felt a nearly physical pain, something which had only happened a few times before.

Following this link back to the offending creature, the core found that it was the drake. It took Aby no time at all to realize that his mind was in complete disarray, and even the few prodding thoughts it sent to the drake fell on deaf ears as it were. Instead, he was focused only on his face, the utter agony he was feeling towards the crystals within his skull was more than apparent, and even without the link the core had with the beast’s thoughts his actions made it completely obvious he was in pain.

Though, to call it that was apparently an understatement, and the core had to devote a serious portion of its mind to constantly healing the drake in his self-destructive rampage. It was entirely likely the drake could have skinned himself otherwise, a morbidly impressive feat considering the toughness of his hide and the relative weakness of the ground he was scraping against.

However, the endless healing and restoration that the drake was getting seemed entirely pointless, whatever it was that the crystals in his flesh had done wasn’t something the core could ‘fix’, because apparently there was nothing ‘broken’. Of course, Aby couldn’t understand how anything painful enough to make even it feel discomfort by association could be considered at all normal, but no amount of disbelief could change the facts. And the fact apparently was, this was the burden that came along with the drake’s newfound condition, something the core knew nothing about and apparently had no way to correct.

After only a few moments of intense focus and monitoring everything about the drake and his status, the core realized that the scales lining his jaws, already warped and deformed by the many shards of gemstone blasting them apart, only got even more distorted after shards of yellow crystal began forcing their way through the gaps. The mangled texture and appearance of the drake’s jaws was left in an even worse state, and there was hardly a scale on his face which could be called anything but deformed. Instead, the drake now had a few more crystals added to his 'collection'.

While they weren’t as many nor as large as the original gems, they were still plainly visible, considering that there was now a line of upturned scales and shiny spines on the upper right half of the drake’s jaw which weren’t there before. Aby simply couldn’t help but be fascinated by this despite its worry and displeasure, they were growing so quickly that the previous pace was nothing in comparison.

Thankfully for both parties, though, this growth wouldn’t last forever, and only a few minutes later, the drake finally managed to smack the side of his head on the limestone floor with enough force to set something into motion. A crystal clear crack resounded through the floor, and the core itself could have been fooled into thinking it much louder than it actually was. Aby watched as many of the largest crystals on his face simply sloughed off, falling into the bloodied waters unceremoniously. They were rather small, compared to the rest of the gems on this floor, and they had no mana running through them, at all.

The core wasn’t able to analyze them for very long, though, before an entirely new sensation flooded its awareness through their bond. Where before it was stuck trying to ignore the link with the drake because of how severely unpleasant the sensations which came through were, it was now met with something utterly new to it, and nearly intoxicating. 

Aby lacked the words or even thoughts to perfectly describe the new feeling, but the sheer pleasure which the drake currently felt had come through their bond in much the same way as his pain had done so, manifesting as a feeling of relief, giddiness, and comfort so intense as to be palpable. The core was apparently not as well equipped to deal with this as it had been the pain mere moments ago; it was left absolutely reeling for a few moments, so jarring was the abrupt change in sensation.

It was only after a few long seconds did the core come to its senses, then try to ignore or smother that pervasive feeling coming through from the drake, an endeavor that didn’t see much success. It switched its approach soon after, trying to bear with it like it had done with the previous discomfort, hoping that the feeling would die down faster than it was. And unfortunately, it seemed to be harder to bear with this than it had been to ignore the utter pain from before, something which confused the slightly muddled core. It could only guess this had to do with the sensation being an enjoyable one rather than an uncomfortable one, but it had little to back that guess up.

Aby continued to watch as the drake dragged itself out from the pit of its own creation. It wasn’t all that wide, but the beast had blasted his way to the limestone floor that lay beneath a few meters of sand and water with nothing but its rabid thrashing alone, an impressive feat, all things considered. The drake wasn’t quite so vigorous now, after the ordeal, however, and as Aby watched the utterly defeated and still somehow elated drake toss itself into its growing nest of elemental crystals of all shapes and sizes, it couldn’t help but wonder what exactly it was that had just happened.

Thankfully, its musings were made much easier when the drake lost consciousness a second time, and it appeared that this time was sufficient for it to truly be asleep, as the shared ecstasy quickly faded into the background. Aby felt a pang of disappointment at this, after all it had never felt quite as comfortable as it had during that, but it was far more than just relieved to be back in full control of its faculties.

It used its now cleared mind to examine the drake again, though it appeared that it was surprisingly capable even when unable to exert the full force of its focus, as a few more passes revealed very little it hadn’t already noticed. In fact, the only thing it spotted that had escaped its gaze initially was the color of the new crystals, and even now it had only barely seen them. They were just barely lighter than the originals, a shade of yellow almost indistinguishable.

Another enigma added to the core’s ever growing list, no doubt, but this time it could possibly be attributed to the ‘age’ of these new sprouts. The already existing ones did seem to get a few shades darker, the larger they grew. Still, Aby didn’t want to be certain of anything before it had conclusive evidence, and unfortunately evidence and information were two things it severely lacked at the moment. 

And so, it took a moment to watch the drake writhe on his makeshift bed, a behavior that the core was familiar with, and then pulled its mind away from this floor, a bit unnerved at everything which had happened. It was very rare that the core found itself in a situation like that, where it felt a genuine discomfort with something, and every time it had stemmed either from Sela coming under some form of threat, or when a particularly strong connection with a creature relayed some immense and overwhelming thought, emotion, or sensation. The only other time it had experienced something of the sort was when it thought that Sela was a threat to it, something it found silly in hindsight, since Sela could do no wrong, but the fear which it had felt at that moment was something it wished never to experience again. 

Of the other two possibilities, something threatening Sela was the most similar to that fear, the core would spare no effort in order to ensure that Sela never fell, even forcing its creatures to go against every instinct they have if it meant sparing Sela from such a fate, something it would only otherwise do should its own life be in peril.

However, neither option had the same lasting impact on Aby as the second possibility tended to have. Aby wouldn’t be forced to ruminate on the fear it felt when it or Sela were threatened. There was no mistake that the core would never forget such an experience, but it would also not be confused or unnerved in the same way.

It made sense to Aby that when it or its partner came under fire, it had every right to be terrified, as there was nothing in the world could be more important than eliminating the offending cause. However, should it be forced to feel that level of displeasure or even comfort without warning, without apparent reason, then that was different.

It never knew quite what to think when something like that happened. It had no frame of reference when it came to physical pain, nor did it ever hope to get such an experience for itself, but the wall of displeasure it felt from the drake had made it clear that such a thing was utterly abhorrent. Likewise, it had never had any experience with pleasure, either, not physically, not anywhere near the level which had just been broadcast to it, and the complete change from the first to the second left it even more confused than just going through one or the other.

In other words, Aby simply had no idea what to make of sensations as such. Whenever a situation like this happened, it always tried its utmost to avoid or correct it, be it by healing injuries as soon as it could, allowing creatures to do what they’d normally do rather than going against their natural instincts, or otherwise doing its best to ensure that it didn’t have to deal with sensations even a fraction as powerful and pervasive as the ones which the drake had shared through their bond.

Thankfully, almost none of the creatures within its halls had a bond capable of sharing such an overwhelmingly unpleasant feeling, most were not even intelligent enough themselves to have that same level of aversion and repulsion. It was only when a creature was more than a simple bundle of instincts and reactions did the core really feel something from a single example, and even then it needed to pay attention to really feel comfort or discomfort from it.

Unfortunately, it was also usually the more intelligent creatures that the core paid more attention to, both because the smarter ones tended to be more advanced anyways, and thus were more important to it, and because they also simply demanded a ‘larger’ bond with Aby to begin with. 

“Aby, can you point Carmine and me to the fifth floor, please?” Its rather unpleasant thoughts were suddenly interrupted, though, by its ever faithful partner. The core immediately turned its mind to the eighth floor, focusing its mind onto Carmine and Sela, both gazing expectantly at the floor and the ceiling, respectively. 

It didn’t waste the chance to change its line of thought either, and as it followed the pair up one of its larger hidden tunnels, it found its worries being washed away. It wasn’t long before the duo were on the sixth floor, heading up into the darkness above, and Aby was content to watch the two’s antics for a little while.