489. Hunting, 9

(Rose)

Something changed.

At first, we didn’t really distinguished it against the usual waves and oceanic flows.

So we kept growing, nibbling on the small elements we could find, staying hidden.

My thoughts kept growing into a huge neural network.

As if I was only a growing brain. A huge brain, unpacked, uncompressed into a skull. Growing freely like a tree.

I didn’t feel any smarter though.

I could feel the waves of that ocean we were floating in, through the movements of my branches and roots against one another.

Nothing out of the ordinary flows reached us before that moment.

A part of us was suddenly feeling stretched and ripped apart.

We lost a good chunk of recently grown space.

We braced ourselves immediately for an ensuing attack, but nothing followed.

R - What happened?

N - I think we reached something material that moved away. I don’t think Magenta noticed us, since we didn’t prevent the movement from happening.

R - We reached a shore?

N - We reached something at least, without noticing.

But what? We decided to carefully probe into it.

We decided to carefully probe into it. Given our fractal aspect, we didn’t lose much and it was easy to locate where that edge was. We use ourselves to define the space we’re in, like anything blind.

The cut dendrites opened very tiny new heads, out of their cover of night.

We had our first glimpse of reality around us since we got here.

We took a picture, a quick glimpse and absorption of the bare minimum of light and T.I. flowing around there. We avoided being noticed.

The picture was far too dark, but we were able to process it internally.

What we saw was not unfamiliar to us.

Human shapes in foetal posture, inside giant translucent fruits.

I’ve been in a few before. And Nightmare has used similar processes before.

N - We’re close to Magenta’s genesis domain. Were most organic nutrients go probably.

R - Where the priests are born?

N - Possibly.

R - What will happen to the part of us that left?

We mostly speculate about it.

A small scale replica of us has been caught in a body that left.

It won’t carry much memories, but it will possibly interact and affect the thing gone.

A part of our mind has been partially duplicated in that separation... But it’ll likely not interact much with the mindless thing that’s gone.

The more we think about it, the more we realise we have an immense opportunity though.

We could act even further like a disease to Magenta.

We could try to focus our growth into a replica, duplicating ourselves cleanly. Our copy would then merge with one of these bodies just there...

R - We could then escape much faster, pretending to be one of them.

N - Think bigger...

I hardly get it. More than stealing a body allowed to live around here to escape?

N - We could try to hijack the genesis domain entirely.

An immense opportunity, as a virus to a great organism.

If we grow intelligently in that domain meant to turn nutrients into living organisms, we could possibly hijack it entirely for our own purposes. Bypassing the bigger will of that thing, we could create anything we want, and parasite all its resources and tools, without it noticing anything.

If we do it perfectly, the being that swallowed us in the past won’t realise how badly it’s infected with our will.

There’s room from there to parasite its energy and nutrients for ourselves.
There’s room to hijack its reproductive organs for ourselves.

And there’s possibly even room out there, to contaminate its very brain...

~

So far, we’ve grown a lot, by ourselves. So as a disease to Magenta, we’ve been dormant. We’ve remained hidden in the first phase of a contamination.

Now that we’ve reached a shore in that ocean, an organ of that wider beast, we have the chance to evolved into a new phase of contamination.

The question is which? Unlike usual diseases, we’re able to think and chose our strategy.

The first thing we agree on is to have a larger ambition than trying to escape as soon as possible within one of these creatures it makes in chain.

Maybe we will get our seed, our last resort into one of them though. So that if an immune system wipes us out here, a copy of us does actually escape and returns to Earth.

But that last resort aside, we now aim for bigger things. Because we still have the element of surprise and patience on our side.

Nightmare wants to hijack the genesis domain, the place where organic materials are assembled into bodies.

I want to reach the brain behind it all to destroy it gradually.

My idea is way more perilous. But if we manage to do it right, we could shatter that thing entirely and instantly., for good. Make it unstable and unfit to exist anymore.

We have opposite ideas there. Should we focus on stealing the power to create, or the opportunity to destroy?

We argue about it for a short while.

But then we realise the options are not really mutually exclusive.

What matters is being steady and cautious not to get noticed.

So we’ll grow slowly still. We will tap into the feeding network as discreetly as possible.

We will infect the genesis domain, but not to overcome and hijack it from the get go as soon as we can. We will spread and remain dormant, getting ourselves ready to act when we decide to.

Meanwhile, we will begin growing infection cells of a new kind.

At a later stage, we will hijack a very small piece of the domain to replicate the infectious cells faster.

We will spread ourselves inside the beast like a virus, but still very gently, not at maximum output achievable ever. Slow linear growth, nothing exponential.

To continue to appear inert to any aspect of an immunity system this god will have.

Our multiplied cells will gently map out the entire thing by spreading inside of it and sometimes returning to us.

And we will grow seemingly dormant viruses or parasite aspects of ourselves, inside every organ we can find.

metastasizing gently, building forces slow and steady, and waiting for a later signal to attack.

Carefully, cautiously. Calmly. Coldly.

We’ve grown in the dark so far. As discreetly as possible, we will start germinating from now on.

As discreetly as possible, we’ll grow our strengths.

An unavoidable conflict between a disease and its host is in sight.

Moreover because both sides are not only trying to instinctively survive, but have an intelligent intention in mind.

Both sides want to destroy the other one. It is a war, to some biological extent.

Nightmare and I didn’t want it. Magenta might have. And I ignited it...

I want to see its rightful end now.

I have to.

I will.

One way or another.

~