The [Undead] were beings fueled by Black Mana, kept alive by the energy coursing through their bodies. It allowed the great strength, great will, and the ability to survive almost anything but total annihilation. But it also allowed them one massive weakness. The White Mana, the opposite of what it was. White Mana was everything that the void wished to be, though, so the Black Mana was also the fatal weakness of the White, making it a power of dominance instead.

Yet both still sought out each other no matter what. If White Mana was close, anything made of the darkness would seek it out in an instant. It was a sobering thought but certainly, one which the Core held close to its heart. There was nothing more important than that in the current situation as well.

While the Circle of Black Mana could be destroyed with the use of the Light, the Core knew that every being slightly close to the Darkness would be able to tell its exact location without the minute. And that wasn't something which would help anyone, the Entity knowing everything would be easier if nobody knew it was there. The ants couldn't hurt it, yes, but that was only due to it being so far underground compared to them. Within a few minutes of dedicated work, they could most certainly dig down and attack it, severing its connection further along.

And the Queen… the Core wasn't exactly sure what she would be able to do yet, but the Entity didn't want to test it out to check. It was best to lie low for as long as possible. Though, that did not mean it would move on from the circles just yet. No, they would be dealt with in the only way that the Core knew which didn't require the presence of Light.

It had to go through and find the weakness, slowly digging deeper and deeper. The Black Mana was perhaps able to consume all in its raw form, yet its structure was compromised the instant it was used to construct anything even slightly advanced. And a pit made to keep them alive in their current state no matter what was certainly just that. The Core had learned the fact about the fault in complexity early on with the Black Circle growing during its encounter with the Queen. Their talk, allowed through the Circle of Mana, had allowed it to realise just how the faults worked and how they could be used.

And that was exactly what the Core did. With the Black Circle of the current time not growing, it was quite easy when compared to how it had been previously. By slowly digging through the layers of Mana, finding the small holes beside the imprinted runic figures, it became possible to go deeper and deeper until… the very bottom could be found.

It was quite a sight to see. With the complexity at such a scale, the Core found every single surface inside the Runic circle filled with… well, Runes. Not the most surprising thing to find, perhaps, but it was certainly in a much higher abundance than what the previous Circle of Balck Mana had held within itself. Perhaps it was a question of complexity, the more complex features requiring more images? The Entity had no real clue, not understand Runes, to begin with. And neither did it care much for them, more focused on the final layer. By pressing the right spots correctly, the cracks slowly started to form more and more. With enough time, it even started to fall and shatter, making the entire circle unstable, flashing with a bit of colour before finally dispersing into nothing, the void reclaiming the Black Mana it had lost for a bit of time.

And with the lack of a Circle holding the larvae away from the sweet release of death, the pit of creatures was slowly emptied of the living. The Core did not look on for long, however, already starting to move on to the next circle. Though it did take the Pattern from one of the corpses, sure that it could find some use for the secrets held within. Being able to make a creature grow overtime didn't sound too bad, at the very least.

There were eight in five circles in total when counting the one which had already been destroyed. They each sat in the corner of one of the inner rooms, though calling them that implied they had been created with thought. it was more likely that they had been found and then used, the Colony not able to think hard enough to create something like that themself. The Core certainly didn't want to think of them as anything close to intelligent anymore, their ability to deprive a creature of its nature seeming despicable. Or maybe it was more due to the Core’s aversion to causing extreme pain. That was more likely, now that it thought about it.

The lack of desire towards hurting anything at all was quite something. The Entity had always based such thoughts on quick deaths being more efficient, yet that didn't explain the… emotions coming forth at seeing the extreme sights of Black Mana being used. There was something more to it. The deeper parts of its mind were screaming the answer yet it could not hear, too clouded about destroying the remaining circles.

And that was exactly what it did. By moving through the walls, extending the Line by shorts burst of about twenty meters, it was able to get close enough to the various circle and establish a link for just enough time to destroy each of them. Each took less than five seconds to do, the pathway inside being the same with each. The Queen had not spent enough time making sure each was unique in any real way, though that might have been intentional. Variety created issues not found commonly and that just had to be a nightmare to work around. The Core was certainly unsure if it would have done it any different.

But thoughts like that were kept away. Doing something like it would imply that it wanted to work with Black Mana. The very thought did not but cause disgust. Disgust that the Entity wasn't sure were originated from. It couldn't understand. Sure, it had seen and despised the effects of the darkness, knowing that it would likely be the tool that could cause its demise, yet that did not mean that it would be so utterly resentful from it. Black Mana was meant to be a tool just like any other type of Mana. So why did it feel so much hate?

That hate nearly made it screw up the last of the five circles. It was able to destroy it like any of the others, of course, but had accidentally touched one of the inner edges for a few moments, making the circle grow slightly in size. Just enough to notice if attention was already put on how it looked. Those few moments of increased size caused the Core many issues.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The first and foremost was the creation of Black Mana in slightly thicker amounts inside the circle. Instead of just bringing the larvae back to life, it instead made them better. It created a group of [Undead]. While not initially a problem, the Core was easily able to ignore such things, it fully understood the consequences of having a lot of Black Mana around a lot of creatures. It meant that they grew like nothing else. And while the source of Black Mana had disappeared, a few moments of strength had allowed them to regenerate it for themself.

Using quite a bit of Mana, the Core created a five-ton slab of stone just a meter or two above the pit. With no real hesitation, it allowed the slab of material to fall down on the undead, crushing many of them in an instant. Yet some were still alive, their reluctance to die even when nearly their entire bodies had been crushed being their main factor of survival. While the Core wanted to stay back and ensure their demise, it knew that were other things it needed to get down. And with how few were alive, it would take more than a small while before they would be able to do anything.

The Core had to get further inside and see more. And that was exactly what it did, building along the Mana-Line more and more, sending out pulses every now and then. Further inside, there was much less to see. The living ants seemed to stay outside of the inner parts of the Colony, preferring to away instead of being close. The only living creatures seen were those that carried back new larvae or brought food inside. It was a disgusting thing, most of all due to how the Black Mana likely inside seemed to cause erosion in the living. While it didn't settle on the creatures in the same fashion it normally dead, devouring any sight of other types of Mana, it instead dug away the layers one by one, parts of the body removed until only the exoskeleton remained.

The ants going in and out all held traits that showed as much, their sides riddled with holes, missing organs, or even some hanging out. They were not quite dead, not quite alive, and more than close to formally being known as a [Undead], only needing to take the final step to it. The Core was sure many did, though it had no clue where they went after that fact. However, with how strong the Balck Mana inside seemed to be, there was no doubt that it would show itself soon.

Another twenty meters allowed its entrance into the centre of the Colony. It was a disgusting feeling that was given through [Mana-Sense], the Core feeling something creeping down its very essence. The Black Mana was thicker inside there than anything seen before. It was disgusting, abhorrent, and could be described by so many more things that would never give it justice. The emotion felt at that moment was stronger than anything else, the desire to destroy the Black Mana more overwhelming than anything.

And that was before the Core had even seen what was truly inside. For what it… was something it would have never guessed. The [Queen of Hollows] was there, just as the Entity had expected her to be. She stood beside the very middle of the room pulses of Black Mana dancing out of here, the Currents moving in mystical patterns from the very start. Some formed into various Runic Formations that began to encircle the tall cave, orbiting around the very middle point. Some were very large and some were small and some had text on them that changed every time the Core tried to look at the content. Most simply caused headaches, however, making the Entity instead look towards what could be seen at that very middle.

For the Runic Formations were orbiting more than just a point in space. They were orbiting a creature, one bigger than anything seen before. It was long, thick, and wider than anything seen before. Every part of it was made of bone, more added to its innards every single moment that the Core looked upon it. The head, the top of the creature twitched with every addition, opening up every second to reveal rows and rows of teeth, all sharper than anything the Entity had ever witnessed. The long and smooth form created by the bone rivalled the entire length of its domain. It was larger than anything else.

And it was alive, under the control of the Queen that just stood there, continuing to improve upon it. Every single undead ant that had been created had been stopped instantly, made to instead be assimilated into the ever-growing creature that stood before the Core. And the sight caused nothing but more revulsion of the thoughts contained about it. The monster needed to be destroyed, its very presence worsening the state of the world’s balance. The Entity needed to do something. Looking upwards through its sight, the Core noticed how truly tall the ceiling was, being more than twenty entire meters above the monster head. While it was still over twenty meters long and three meters thick, there was still much to be worked on about it. The Core would not allow such a thing to happen.

Creating another addition to the Mana-Line, the Core began to put its presence up higher, moving through the walls of the cavern. When enough height was reached, it slowly began to put some ever small lines throughout the ceiling. It was close to enough to be extended for more than twenty meters at the longest yet the sheer amount allowed for much ground to be gained. And with that ground, the Core began to do one single thing.

It made the ceiling shake. It made it degrade, all forms of stability were removed. The points made to bear weight were ordered to collapse, and, within only a few moments, chunks of stone that weighed several tones began to rain down falling ten meters in a single second. From its position, the Core looked on, hoping the death of the creature would be swift and painless and that it had brought enough weight.

Such thoughts were stopped, the ideas of impending success stopped quickly. The Runic Formations from before, seemingly intended to float around doing nothing, had created a barrier the same instant that the ceiling begin to form. They ignored the rules of reinforcement and pressure, stopping multiple tons without much energy within them as if the pressure on them did nothing but fuel their strength to new heights.

That… that was unacceptable! The Core sought the death of the Worm. It wanted, needed to see the creature die before peace could be felt. And it needed the Queen crushed with it. Putting pressure on the Mana-Line, more and more Mana was pushed over to the current position, allowing for smaller lines to be created in the remnants of the ceiling and whatever was above. More and more was made to fall, the tons turning from the tens into hundreds. Nothing was allowed to stay on top, every piece of stone and rock being forced into filling the cavern beneath with matter. The insides need to be cracked.

The Runic Formations held for the briefest moments, their ability to Siphon the energy of pressure to defend those beneath seemingly able to create a standstill, yet there was only so much they could do when the mass above increased by tenfold. Within moments, the remaining ten meters of the cave was filled with stone.

The massive amount of Black Mana was spread thin over everything, as the container originally holding it was crushed. Even a thousand pieces of exoskeletons could only do so much, their combined structure was no match for a hundred tons of stone on top of them. The Core, so blinded by anger and hatred before, looked upon the sight it had caused. Chaos had been created, a cavern destroyed. Within had been the Core’s mortal enemy, the [Queen of Hollows]. Trying to detect her now, the Core found nothing but destroyed Black Mana. And that could be taken care of easily with enough Light in a steady stream.

Dared the Core think it or say it? There was a chance that it just might. The Entity had won the fight over-

‘Did you really think it would be that easy?’