It's a castle of food. I didn't know what to expect, but a giant castle made out of rock-hard overcooked food was, rehm. Not on the list. It looks like a castle, but its bricks are charred meat. Are these his emergency rations?
"Gluttony, I'm coming in."
...
I walk into his castle without hearing any reply.
I know he's here. I can see the blob eating on the second floor. What's his deal?
As soon as I reach underneath him, a huge sigil blazes. The sigil tries to seal my lineage. I stop in my tracks.
Seriously? It's the Dragonblood Sigil.
I hear Gluttony upstairs.
"I covered my entire castle in these sigils, my beloved Chronovoid. I know you don't want to become a gluttony, but I want us to eat each other forever! And so we must!"
The hell is his problem? Didn't Love say he loved me? What is— oh, damn. That's SO gross.
I mean, he wants to do that... Forcibly? That isn't love or lust. It's downright insanity.
*schlorp*
*schloop*
*chklop*
He's coming down the stairs. Rahm, it's more of a ramp.
*plflirp*
*plorp*
*chlorp*
He reaches out and puts a tentacle on my tail.
Really. There first?
He rubs his tentacle on my tail.
Do NOT tell me h— my tail is NOT a tentacle!
"Gluttony, why did you Will-leech Justice?"
"She wanted to tell you what I was doing, my sweet! Thought it was unjust! So I did some things to her mind. Very normal."
"That's the exact behavior I warned you about. As is trapping me with a Dragonblood Sigil."
"It doesn't matter! You're here now. Let's eat."
His tentacle's maw opens wide, clearly intending to bite my tail off.
"Let's."
I turn around to the immense surprise of Gluttony, my tail whipping out from his maw. As I turn, I blast his body with my only talent:
Void Fate.
I got it when I evolved to Fate Dragon. It ate all my other talents— but that's fine. It does just one thing. Alter reality. Present and future. However I so choose.
Kinda overpowered! I'm not complaining, since now Gluttony's the one locked in place.
"You! How can you escape from my trap?!"
"It's quite silly that a sigil exists solely to restrain dragons, don't you think? It's not in my draconic inheritance. It was invented by the gods to restrain us. Only us."
His large eyes go wide.
"What did... You do?"
"I changed the definition of a dragon! Our new genetic template makes us smarter, stronger, and faster than ever. We grow more quickly, too. We've also become more prideful and greedy than ever before. But! We now care more for others, are more careful with our immense strength, and above all, we possess an innate instinct for justice and fairness that we lacked. Today's dragons are too different from yesterday's. The sigil no longer applies."
Well, that's all true, but the real reason the sigil doesn't work is because I figured out how to make our lineage absorb Antimana more effectively. It thus requires thousands of times more Antimana to seal a dragon's movements. Which, of course, would make us evolve so quickly that the seal would become useless within less than a second.
I simply don't believe gluttony deserves to know how amazing my dragon species is becoming.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Rah, I'm so happy. I can praise my kind's most admirable features and yet still not be praising us enough.
"WHAT? Why that? Why not change the sigil, if you can do something so absurd?"
"The sigil will remain as a reminder to all dragons: this is what happens when your strength becomes hated."
Hundreds of arrays light up all around us.
"Or loved. Thanks for letting me stall."
"Suicide?"
"After you killed the others, I knew. You can't be eaten the normal way. So! If I can't have you? NOBODY EVER WILL!"
I shake my dragon head.
"You know this won't—"
The room is blasted by hundreds of different spells, lasers, and metal weapons at the level of the most powerful sin. Gluttony's obviously killed, but I can stand in it like nothing's happening. My freakish gooey physical body's too weird; my fate powers too strong. They even silence the sound of the barrage as though it's all nothing.
What's the point of this?
Then, as if to mock that I'd once again let down my guard, something slips into my mind.
I try to figure out what it did, but the thing already died. It impacted my Origin and self-destructed.
I mentally replay what happened and realize: this thing is based on Meme! Gluttony must've taken control of Kaliwot without me realizing! No wonder her memocyte's so absurdly fat.
...
Hrr.
Status.
Name: Chronovoid
Talents: Void Fate
Lineage: Origin (Viroid Variant)
Rank: Chronovoid
Species: Chronovoid (Fate Dragon)
Weapon: None
Stats:
Str: 2.22 (1.71q)
Sta: 2.01 (1.71q)
Int: 2.88 (1.71q)
Wis: 2.56 (1.71q)
Will: 1.15 (1.17d)
Hrah?
Status, Lineage.
Origin (Viroid Variant)
A physical representation of your Will. It can carry abilities, memories, and thoughts, but all subsumed within it are ultimately subservient to your Will.
You've upgraded your Origin with 'Origin Programs!' These allow you to create modules which can carry out many tasks. The precise implementation is up to you, but loosely functional programs can be created via intention alone. Uses the Will's language model.
Your Origin has become excited after being stimulated by an unknown attacker. Its former void contamination ability (Origin Crystal) has been provoked into evolving and is now ### contamination! (Origin Viroid)
Origin Viroid becomes stronger and excites the Origin more as it spreads.
Number of permanent Origin threads: 121,719
Nooo, medamnit! I just fixed that stupid Origin Crystalization! You can't be serious! This has to be that uncontrollable fate talent. I refuse to believe the same thing happens EVERY DAMN TIME I get arrogant or lazy.
I check my Origin carefully for any sign of uncontained spread.
Rheum.
It's not spreading 'viroids' without my consent. Rawh. I haven't gone back to being a hungry unkillable void monster.
Wait, no. I already am an unkillable void monster. Worse, I also devoured fate.
Damnit.
What I meant to say is: the giant unkillable void monster, myself, isn't being force-fed like before.
That's... Good? I think? Rawh, it's definitly good, but I'm not sure if it's true.
I put my Origin thread near a random bit of Origin Crystal and feel the same excitement as before.
Rokay, the unkillable void is also still hungry. Three for three. Hraaah.
Now, to test the Origin Thread itself. I transfer myself to a random planet in the lower universe to avoid spreading more of my Origin into the god realm. Adding more could be bad considering how much is already up there... Due to me getting my head lopped off. Rowh. That's a weird thing to think.
I poke my Origin Thread into the ground.
Viroids BLAST out in a huge orb, like the shockwave from a bomb. I will it to—
STOP STOP for the love of all that EXISTS STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!
The orb of Origin Viroids stops growing at the size of a large asteroid or small moon. Around 120 kilometers in diameter.
Holy hell!
It started wicked fast and was going exponential. This thing could encompass the whole universe in no time.
I try to retract my Origin Thread, but then realize— I don't wanna. My mind starts drifting toward annihilating all the matter I've enveloped in such a thick and permeating—
Stop, stop stop stop.
I try to retract it again. My mind fights my Will fiercely. I ignore it, though, having learned from the first time.
I'm refusing my own mental orders? What the heck?
I check my Will. Nothing wrong. I check my mind. Something's very wrong. I follow it outside.
Roh, god. Roh me. What IS THAT?
There's a section of my mind that's somehow 'attached' to the huge orb of Viroid I've created. Is this what Gluttony was developing? A Will-merging memocyte?
If my Origin hadn't stopped it...
I mentally check Kaliwot.
Her 'Meme' has grown larger yet again. Her now bowling-ball sized Will, still dramatically undersized for her physical power, is glommed onto by a moon-sized blob.
image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/157.png]
On Meme, there it is: faculties for Will-merging. If my Origin didn't kill my invader, perhaps my Will would be just like Kaliwot's. Subservient to a massive memocyte who isn't doing her nearly as many favors as she believes.
Since Kaliwot doesn't have any ability to spread her Will, hrr. It's likely Kaliwot's altered memocyte is Gluttony's test product. I did watch Kaliwot but apparently didn't pay close enough attention to Meme.
I check Meme's Will through Kaliwot. They're so merged, I don't need a second Origin thread. Which, I wouldn't be able to do anyway, because I'd involuntarily eat him... Roh, wait. Is he not considered edible anymore? Hr. I don't know. In any case, my Origin Thread isn't trying to eat Meme.
I find what I'm looking for. There's a Gluttony leech in here! So THAT'S why the thing was eating her alive. Her Will didn't have a Will leech— her memocyte's Will, inside her Will, has a Will leech. Sheesh!
I kill the leech, then send a message to Meme: 'Do better for Kaliwot or I'll destroy you. I've learned how.'
Which is true. I feel like I can use my mind to wrench him right out of there without exposing my Will to his faculties. Void Fate is simply too powerful.
He sends back 'sorry' and starts nourishing Kaliwot's Will.
Finally, you obnoxious git!
Pathfinder, Will leeches.
The map pops up, but Meme isn't shown. Hruh, so he's not considered a Will leech himself. Though, I do still see countless red dots. Ahrah, my mistake. I'll fix those.
I rig up Pathfinder to Void Fate annnd...
Auto-cast.