Chương 153: 135: Twinkle Twinkle Little...

Delta remained with Alpha's still body, his life essence seeming to dwindle by the moment without whatever soul or mind Marrow had taken. The history of Turtog hasn't been as clear as Delta would have liked. The author had collected conflicting tales about the tales. The people there claimed Marrow had messed with the ritual to try and claim the throne, using necromancy to steal power. Calmer sources claimed that the King has called forces beyond his control, his stubbornness destroying his land.

Delta felt sad at the mention of a Druid being harmed in either tale. It reminded her of Mrs. Dabberghast, her kindly face and her love for plants. This book? It didn't change that Marrow and her Darkness was harming Alpha. It didn't matter their reasoning or past. The only thing that mattered was here and now! Her Symphony was still trucking through Marrow's fortified castle, tearing flesh and statues down with terrible force.

Marrow was moving between using her death magic and some odd form of life magic, a sort of cloying infective magic that turned Piggles and Spiders to mush or made them turn on their allies. Delta couldn't do anything about that other than have them removed and replaced, but her Mana... it couldn't sustain this type of assault, even breaking the rules. She was waging war and being a Dungeon, she couldn't- Delta paused. So, why was she doing both? A smile spread over her face.

Mharia was through her father's seed and already using up her Mother's. They would regain their power over time, but she still had her two strongest seeds. Her siblings. It had been close at first, but between herself and Delta, Mharia proved to have more control over her spending. Delta's Mana had been flagging for some time and Mharia was getting a little concerned that she might have put Delta's capabilities above what she was actually capable of... She idly held the container holding the boy, Alpha, thinking.

There was a strange lull in Delta's actions as the pressing domain pushing against Mharia's kingdom abruptly vanished as if Delta had been destroyed.

"No!" Mharia stood with fury. Then it started to grow, faster and faster until it overwashed what Delta had before, pushing like a howling wind that instantly blew through her back-up seeds, making Mharia pull on all stored magic to sustain herself.

"W-what-" Mharia began, but her confusion couldn't last as to her surprise... three more of those monstrous shambling horrors emerged from the Dungeon. One was hard enough, but four? Mharia gripped her staff and took a deep breath she didn't need. What had the clever Dungeon just done? Mharia was dying to know.

"Say it," Delta said with a wipe of her hand across her brow. I refuse. I know the joke and it's terrible. Nu the ever grouch was ruining her fun. Delta glared at him until he finally sagged in surrender. Captain... all non-essential power has been diverted to phasers.

"Understood, Number One. Prepare Photon torpedoes, full speed!" Delta barked as Nu just sighed harder despite her grin. Despite her mood, it was disturbing. She had given her Dungeon a warning but seeing them all in stone, frozen and lifeless like the dead Dungeon? It hurt Delta, but knowing it was temporary helped. They just needed the Mana that Delta was using back and everyone would be okay. The dead Dungeon she had gone to had given the idea.

If she turned off all the monsters, traps, effects, and kept the rooms open. Delta could redirect the freed Mana to the fight ahead. There was so much Mana, Delta had to make four more Symphonies just to prevent herself from exploding at the rush. Then her four had merged into a single goliath Symphony. A lot of spiders and Piggles in one place. The rest was spread into the space, claiming as fast as she could to have power. Her orange Mana rushed forward, almost ecstatic to conquer the enemy.

Like happy little workers. It was enough to let Delta materialise in Marrow's Antechamber. A gigantic three-headed dragon skeleton awaited her and Delta looked up at it, eyes hard, the ancient bones shuddering as joints moved joints, grimy fangs as long as Delta as herself.

"Move," she warned it as if it had an option when it was Marrow's pet. It growled low in its non-existence throats. A massive flesh covered hand moved over Delta's head, crashing through stone and mortar to grab the dragon.

"When Mother asks you to budge your little boney self... obey," the quartet of Maestros snarled as they crushed the skull in a single squeeze. The skeleton launched itself at Delta's friends, taking the battle outside to a hall. Delta trusted them to be more than enough. Delta's family was better than any pets Marrow kept, it was a simple fact. She began to climb the stairs, the dark red fabric spreading orange with each one she took.

Then it was just her and the giant door which Marrow drew herself tightly behind, like a coiled serpent. Delta knocked politely and the doors opened on their own. Marrow was in the center of the room at a pristine table with elegant but slightly tarnished teapot and cups steaming away. In another chair was an orb with the glowing tiny light of Alpha and Hero as if they too were invited to this mad tea party.

"I'd make a 'we're all mad here' reference, but I don't think you'd get it," Delta said tersely. Marrow looked up, her lone good eye crinkled with amusement.

"Your hair wants cutting," she said conversationally. Delta paused mid-step at the unexpected throwback line.

"I don't think-" Delta began and Marrow giggled.

"Then you shouldn't talk," Marrow said simply as she poured tea for Delta's spot at the table and put milk and sugar in the middle of the table. Delta couldn't actually do anything to Marrow for the moment, her Mana pushing against the room and their two monsters clashing outside with no sound reaching them. She sat, if nothing else to avoid looking lame standing.

"How do you know lines from a novel that doesn't exist in this world?" Delta asked quietly. Marrow stirred sugar into her cup with a spoon that was slightly scratched up, bearing a kingdom emblem of a pickaxe over a river.

"I'll give you a clue," Marrow said slowly.

"You remember that dreadful knight waiting for you in the main hall?" she asked and Delta remembered the horse knight. Levix or something.

"Notice how he's not respawned, nor is he at my side?" Marrow went on as she sipped her tea. Not really, Delta didn't like to devote her limited precious brain space to people she disliked. That could be room she gave to cute puppies or great jokes.

"When you defeated him, you were likely rewarded by the... Sister," Marrow said, clearly wanting to use another name. Delta thought back to the reward. Corruption Resistance. It had never quite come up, but not long after she got memories of her brother back.

"What is the corruption you think you gained 'resistance' to?" Marrow asked lightly.

"To you people, the crazy cult people in my basement," Delta said easily.

"We're not a cult. A cult implies a religious dogma. Since that is the norm in this world? We're quite anti-establishment," Marrow argued abruptly, sounding petulant.

"Besides," she said off-handedly, "my faith died when gods murdered my family. You become quite broken after that," she said.

"You sound broken," Delta said coldly. Marrow looked up.

"I have no more liquids in my body. I'm also driven insane by the voices of my insane siblings I consumed to save them from said god. I've grieved for 100 years. If I still cried, I would be insane," she tutted as if Delta was the rude one.

"But no. Not us. Memories don't just 'fade'," Marrow said as she sipped more tea.

"When the Sister and Brother plucked one, two, three, four, five little birds from the abyss and squished them down or maimed them... pieces fell off. Things happened... things are happening," Marrow pointed out and before Delta could ask what she meant, the entire room shook and Marrow's staff began to crack. The girl didn't seem bothered that her power was literally strangling itself, her domain on the verge of losing. Marrow reached over and without any word, let Alpha's soul free, Hero squawking as he fell.

"I don't care for them, but they were never going to die," Marrow said with a smile.

"What is wrong with you?" Delta asked, standing as her Mana began to leak into the room.

"I miss my family and I am so tired," Marrow said simply as she stood.

"But the wait is over. Come on, show me what Delta is! I want to see the essence of Decay! I want to see life growing from stagnation! Let me see... the Corruptor!" Marrow said eagerly and Delta didn't hold back. She crashed into Marrow like a tsunami. The inside of Marrow's soul was caked in death. But in the center of it all was a quiet girl sitting in a turned over minecart, reading a book by a candle in a tunnel. The girl looked up, but from the crack behind her, poured light.

"We never needed to make our stars," the unfamiliar girl said with a more awkward voice.

"They were here all along," she finished and everything changed.

Maestro didn't have four siblings, every new Symphony of the Nightmare Delta had spawned was like adding an instrument to his arsenal. One of them had far more spiders than Piggles, let it scuttle across the ceiling. Another seemed to be made more of mushrooms, squishing as it flowed forward, sucking skeletons under its mass. They sort of stood out in the place. Marrow's castle was long gothic high-vaulted hallways that had gloom and doom as its fashion center.

Tacky, but Maestro never let a dive bar's appearance stop him giving it his all in a performance. His current... performance, was a rather rowdy creature that tore chunks off the main body he had. The Symphonies oozed and morphed together, pulling apart just as easily to deal with back attacks. The dragon-hydra... thing was a little like a Symphony. Anytime Maestro did damage like crushing its ribs or snapping a spine, nearby zombies and skeletons would abruptly collapse into dust, feeding into the mess.

Bone uncracked, spines unsnapped, skulls uncrushed, and lots of other little nasty details. Like it now had skeletons as tongues, the little pests wielding blades, stabbing everytime the dragon bit into Maestro's bodies. Maestro was stronger, but this thing was prolonging a fight that Maestro couldn't afford to have lasting.

"The arm bone is-" Maestro began humming before he ripped one of the dragon's fearsome claws right out its shoulder joint, "-not connected to the shoulder," he said grunting as some foul acid it sprayed from its fangs ate into a fair number of spiders. Instead of marrow in its many white bones... It had acid. Maestro just loved that development. Still, nothing a little make-up and star glam wouldn't fix before the next show!

He lifted his entire mass, touching the ceiling before he tried to crash over the dragon entirely, letting his Piggle horde eat it down to nothing. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. A Piggle got through to the bone and acid sprayed, eating holes in Maestro's back-up dancers. The dragon used the unbalanced weight of Maestro, his side now having spreading acid burns, to make him fall to the side and into a wall.

To Maestro's surprise, the wall crumbled to reveal an open space beyond. For a moment, Maestro almost thought he was outside in the subpar sun compared to his Mother's Second Floor. It was a large circular throne room that had a scorched circle in the middle. Two broken and sad looking thrones sat side-by-side, patched together with novice hands. It looked like a set from a play almost, lifted and transplanted into this alien environment where it clearly didn't belong.

It stank of old blood and something like rotten potatoes. They crashed through a white marble pillar, the stone shattered across the space. Combined, Maestro had sheer mass, but the thing with fighting a foe made of what was essentially building blocks was... The Dragon broke down, becoming snake-like to coil around a pillar, its heads snarling.

"Number 34, you philistine idiot. Never turn into a snake!" Maestro thundered. The thing lunged, squeezing so hard that Maestro was cut in half, but the two halves merely returned the favour by pulling on the dragon-snake-hydra from each end, snapping it into two. They toppled into the burned out circle, spraying bone chips, acid, mushrooms, and decay. At the top of the circle, closest to the thrones; a symbol began to glow, burning through the years of filth and dust.

Marrow's seed was like a mutant strawberry. It had four bulging tumor-like secondary seeds grafted onto a singular small seed, the tiny thing torn and ragged from keeping the other seeds from falling away. But to say Marrow's seed was small? That was the highest of lies. The thing towered over her with its mutant-hearts beating out of synch.

"When a seed is taken by a monster, life also ends. The seed is taken, purified and added to that monster's power. This is why monsters evolve, mutate, and are a threat. They are artificial hunters of seeds," Marrow's voice came from around Delta, she was in the ground, she was in the falling gentle rain, she was in the dozens of bone-shaped gravemarkers. This world was Marrow.

"When a seed is taken by an outsider, what are called 'gods'. The seed is added to their power, allowing them greater strength in this once free universe. Seeds act as relays. If a god is strong enough to be summoned, they don't need our seeds. Not really, but having them lets them influence more," the girl went on as Delta walked towards the seeds, intent on finishing this.

"When a seed is taken by a Dungeon..." Marrow's voice said as the ghostly image fell into line with Delta, as if they were taking a stroll together.

"The seed is converted, stripped of the Lost Sibling's power and infused with the Brother or Sister's strength. Like Hermit Crabs, one would say," Marrow said casually. Delta spun, finger pointed.

"Stop it. You're being creepy and weird and I don't trust a single thing you say or do," Delta warned. Marrow blinked once, then kept walking.

"No one is asking for your trust, Delta. Quite the opposite," she said, brushing down her dress. The girl looked different inside, her face different and voice rougher. This was what Marrow saw herself as... not the pretty and skeleton girl outside.

"Delta. Look at my clumsy efforts, look at my seed," Marrow insisted. Delta did, not liking how when all the seeds compressed to an extent, they would almost be a rough sphere.

"A seed planted in the ground to grow and provide life to the world around. Our seeds were meant to be testament to our growth... the seed they turned you into was meant to serve them. Your ability to assimilate and take in seeds is what makes a core a core," the girl said and sat down abruptly.

"When you absorbed a strong seed utterly, it allowed you to grow and develop, reclaiming parts of yourself. You reclaimed a strong sudden burst of humanity and that was dangerous to the Sister. She made you resistant to that. You could remember more if you had been allowed to experience the seeds as they were," she said flatly. Delta was quiet for a moment.

"People are the original Dungeons. If they killed one another or defeated factions of the siblings, their seed grew and so did their power," Marrow said and Delta looked down before she pushed Marrow backwards, making her little legs fly up.

"I get it. You can spin it as Sis and Bro are refusing to let me and the others remember or go home cause they need us, but Marrow... I already kind of knew that. I like them, but they're kind of idiots when it comes to details," Delta said dryly. Marrow flailed before she sat up, incredulous.

"Brother thought the key to fixing people was to release monsters. Monsters!" Delta waved her hands erratically.

"Sis has poked holes in reality to let in things with too many hands or tentacles and she didn't put any rules in place! She just opened her front door to hoodlums and sat in her kitchen to play Sims!" she went on, pacing now.

"They tried to make a god without ever asking if they should and they're still paying for that, but at least they're trying. Sis is so... socially inept that she thought sending flat deadline messages and informing us of how I might die every two seconds was 'helping'. My new brother, who you kidnapped by the way, is traumatised into being unable to eat without a prompt or quest! He needs therapy and the closest thing I have to a therapist is Fera! She's a bartender!"

Delta yelled, the world around them shaking violently. Delta bent down and grabbed Marrow by her pretty little collar.

"I am infested with Mushrooms. Everytime I try to make something cute it's horrible, everytime I want it to be horrible, it's cute. And now, I have someone who I guess had a shitty life due to their actions and is now at my door being a pain in my rear. You want lore bombs, Mharia?" Delta asked as the girl seemed to shrink away from Delta as if she was too bright.

"I am doing the best I can and your great 'enemies'? They are a bunch of kids who don't even know how to ask someone for help. All they had was each other and now they can barely have that. Your war? It's a playground scrap on a deity level. I am so goddamn tired of it," Delta said, dropping the girl.

"They took you. Ripped you from your world-" Marrow tried and Delta held up a finger.

"Shush," she warned.

"But they-""Ah bubbub!" Delta cut her off.

"The seeds-""Zip."

"The-"Nix!" Delta said and Marrow finally went quiet, mostly out of sheer frustration. Delta rolled her neck, feeling rather good at being able to make an unruly child sit down and take notes. Almost natural.

"Now, I beat you, I take your seeds, you overflow me with humanity using... five people at once that are soaked for a hundred years or so in power and I go nuts when I get my traumatic flashback, turning on my friends and the Siblings, sound about right?" Delta said aloud. Marrow just glared. Delta bent down and the world was turning orange, but not directly touching the seeds.

"You shouldn't have let me in here, Marrow. It's pretty personal," she said brightly.

"Now, you said 'five little birds' and you didn't answer how you knew about dear little Alice in Wonderland," Delta reminded her.

"Devour me or kill me. End this charade of humanity," Marrow glowered, more commanding than asking. Delta sighed as if Marrow had pushed her too far. She began to send her mana into the soul, looking for parts that were still 'spongy'. Marrow began to twitch slightly, eyes widening.

"Tell," Delta repeated and Marrow squirmed.

"G-get your... peasant fingers out of there," she warned, reverting to a much less controlled personality than before. Delta wiggled the spots and Marrow seized up, choking before she snorted... twitching on the ground, going red. Tickling was not how she wanted to defeat the evil lich girl, but soul-tickling? It was far worse. But as she distracted Marrow, she was slowly cutting away her seed-tumors. Two of them were deeply wrong, sprouting parasitic limbs to try and snare Delta.

Delta crushed them without even looking, their black forms turning mushy and orange. The essence inside was freed. Delta didn't absorb them yet, No, she had a better plan and as such, she searched for Maestro. Maestro had kept her updated on his progress, including what looked like the exact same godly summoning circle found in the book she had read.

"Revenge is best served to someone who actually deserves it," Delta said as she sent the infected seeds off, mostly converted into a godly source. How Marrow had kept them in line all these years was insane. The circle was almost ready now and with the seeds, the dragon-hydra was collapsing from lack of Marrow's mana. The seeds weren't exactly someone Delta could just make physical, but the fun thing about rituals was that they could be symbolic and metaphysical in what they accepted.

Maestro focused, glowing power flowing to the circle, the infected seeds.

"You know what is neat, Marrow?" Delta said conversationally as the girl wheezed in exhaustion from her torture.

"When you open a door that seems too heavy to close... you only need to do it an inch at a time," Delta said as the circle began to blaze with power, absorbing enough of the mana left in Marrow's Dungeons to do its purpose.

"And with these offerings? I want nothing. In fact... I want to give these back to the realm of gods... absolutely free," Delta commanded as she pointed forward, grin wide. The ritual circle exploded as the energy shot up through the ground.

Holly trembled as she felt that... power flare once more. Her soul, scabbed and scarred still ached everyday, but now it burned, before it turned slightly soothing. A beam of orange light shot skywards, a star blazing in the twilight. It went for an old star rather than a new one, fading into it for a moment. The star did something she had never seen before. The slightest edge of it became eclipsed as if some moon were moving over its light.

Holly bent over as something else happened, she looked down, sweating as... one of her fingers abruptly turned wooden, a sheen of Blackthorn wood. Holly stared, then she smiled.

The World Tree and its 'heart' rippled, some of its upper leaves abruptly wilting as its energy seemed to restrict itself. Ygg felt his most distant roots wither and sent a command to Beta. He needed her to set up more fear. His myth... his story had to grow quicker. The girl, mostly immune to his infection, was quite open to more honest manipulation. Pride and fear. After all... Ygg could only grow solid in this world even as his door closed. The story of the Monstrous Dragon and the tree it feared.

He would root himself into this world, one way or another.