Novels2Search
The Sovereign Swarm
Chapter 79: The Battle of the Heartbeats

Chapter 79: The Battle of the Heartbeats

Mar was pulled into Envy's body and their mere presence crushed the new-formed consciousness into paste as the majesty of millions of minds filled up a single brain. Time seemed to slow as Mar felt the pain of having gone from a grand collection to a singular individual, the power of their presence burning the cells of the altered fish as Mar destroyed the physical vessel they were contained.

"No!"

They screamed out both in mind and with Envy's mouth as Mar began pouring power into instinctively adjusting the body that served as both vessel and prison for their mind. Mar felt Envy's flesh and bones bend and expand to make room for the rapidly enlargment of the brain which was the main focus of their efforts. Flesh, bone, and energy were all altered and converted respectively to add mass and complexity to the brain of Envy, so that it could hold the millions of minds that had been poured into it.

Time was not only slowed from Mar's perspective, that was the first thing they realized as the pain and fright started to leave them and they could focus on the less immediate concerns of survival and towards the source of their discomfort. Through the eyes of their host body Mar could see a vast throneroom that seemed to be underwater as it filled with beautiful shaped coral edifices and statues formed out of sandstone and covered with seaplants to take shape of clothing and similar.

Before them in the mostly empty throneroom floated a woman. She was tall and strong-looking with crimson hair flowing around her like a cascading waterfall, seemingly completely unimpacted by being submerged in water. Her eyes were dark globes almost shining with power and authority while also at the same time almost seemingly absorbing the light in the room into themselves like black holes.

The rudementary magical senses of the vessel made Mar able to sense the magic radiating of the woman in question as well as the nature of what held Mar in place. Unlike spells and rituals employed by mortal magic users and Ysandra this was not a finely woven web, or an idea of magic put into a neat box. The magic was simpler than that, like a royal decree enforcing it's will...it's viewpoint on the world above everything else. It was...strange because Mar had no direct prior experience with primal magic of this kind before except in one instance.

"Elemental....this is like when we fought the elemental of magma."

Mar spoke to themselves and they saw a smirk appear on the face of the elf-like woman before them and then Mar heard a voice reply evenly in their head.

"Oh we are not like elementals at all...some might say we are the reverse."

Surprise flared through Mar's mind for only a moment as the fact that this unknown entity could hear their thoughts was not all that surprising all things considered.

"Let me be a proper host and introduce myself."

The woman made a mock bow before she continued speaking with her mind, the same mischevious smile on her lips.

"I am Tyrama, Queen of the Grand City of Almura. Warden of the eastern seas, sovereign of the sea-leigh, and envoy of the kelp forests. Now, I called you here to converse about a little prank that my daughter has been doing using magic learned from studying you."

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"We do not negotiate."

Mar simply replied as the bloated eyes of Envy focused on Tyrama who spread out her arms in an inviting gesture.

"You will make an exception for me."

"No."

Mar stated simply before reaching into their vast reservoirs of power and activated a simple miracle. [Destroy Magic]. Power poured out of Mar and into the primal magic holding them in Envy, and Tyrama flinched for a moment as Mar tried to tear their bindings asunder.

Power drained out of Mar like a leaking dam as they began sacrificing distant Units to help fuel the attempt as Mar felt their proveribal hands meet iron chains. Tyrama frowned and clenched one hand into a claw as the pressure on the magic trapping them in place intensified.

Time in the area slowed further as if the water around them became tar as Mar felt the power they called upon starting to burn out their vessel as their flesh melted from the strain. With each moment that Mar was not freed their initial confidence faded and was replaced by worry and then fear.

Tyrama floated in place like she had been rooted to the spot by an anchor as the silent battle of wills and their respective natures caused the strands of reality around them to warp and warble under the collective strain.

"It is like... arm wrestling."

Mar realized as the two parties wrestled over the magic keeping Mar locked in a vessel. As the seconds turned into minutes of pushing Tyrama grinned bloodily after having bit her lip while focusing.

"Your vessel is the familiar of my daughter, my daughter serves me. The vessel is a part of you, so that means you are a familiar in addition to everything else. My perspective matters more."

The words were clearly meant as some kind of attempt to break Mar's morale and instead, Mar did what they did best; compartmentalize. Mar began slicing their mind into subroutines to focus on different aspects of the struggle, one of which took the effort to analyze the contest and Mar came to a startling conclusion.

"I am losing....and yet they are not stronger than me."

If Mar was to put it into words it would be less like arm-wrestling and more like pulling rope where one party was down in a well and the other had to try and pull up. Pushing against Tyrama was like pulling a person up from a well, fighting them and gravity at the same time, while they only had to fight you. Magic met the faith and power of the Swarm and as the two forces clashed, it became apparent that Tyrama would win due to sheer attrition unless Mar spent more resources than they were willing to.

The stalemate stood like that...only the respective heartbeats of the two parties could be heard as they focused all of their might on making the other give in. Ultimately...what ended the conflict was not one party giving in to the other, but flesh giving in to the strain.

Suddenly the melting effect reached the massively expanded brain of Envy and broke several of the nerves connecting the brain tissue. Mar lost control over their miracle and consciousness at the same time in that moment and with a sudden reality warping crack the contest ended.