“I can’t fucking believe he named you Bob.” Drakonis hissed under his breath. “A sentient bioweapon built to kill humanity, and that dipshit names you Bob? I don’t know if I should laugh or cry at this point.”

What he was, was not surprised. He’d known Keith for less than a day and that was enough to understand how that menace’s head worked.

“I have evolved beyond a weapon.” Bob answered. Insisting on its innocence in all this.

“Right.” Drakonis said while he rolled his shoulders and took another look at the pillar heart before him. “Why am I even asking you?”

“I am relevant to this conversation. I should be asked.” Bob said. Sounding even miffed.

It had been a good ten or twenty minutes since Drakonis had discovered his new roommate in his head. And he’d learned a few things about the sentient bioweapon.

“So you now a part of me forever?”

“Until you die.”

“Can’t. Deathless remember?”

“I have not forgotten. It is one of your greatest features as a host.”

“Course it would be.” He shook his head. He’d tried to search out the parasite within him, but his control over his body wasn’t at an instinctive level like Lionheart or the other Deathless of old. He was barely a few months into his training in the first place.

Before him stood the pillar heart, stone vines wrapped around it like artwork. Metal leaves about twice his size acted as standable platforms leading upwards. Waterfalls came off of each, leaving the base of the pillar heart misty, water falling just about everywhere here.

He’d tried Lionheart’s technique of meditation at the pillar hearts. But truth be told, he still never really understood just how his mentor had been able to tell what powers a pillar heart held. His training had been too fast, too much marching from pillar to pillar to rapidly collect powers along with the rest of his rapidly expanding fireteam. Even Lionheart had admitted this kind of skill would come later, with practice. He was supposed to have had years ahead.

A pity he really needed it now instead.

“What’s next then? Are you going to take over my mind? Turn me into a meat puppet?” He considered what his options would be for that fate, if he was slowly losing control over himself. Possibly die every few days to reset the infestation. Morbid. But doable.

As for figuring out the glowing inscriptions on the pillar heart, that was far less doable.

“You have faced addiction in the past. I can no more control you than it did.” Bob said.

This thing could read his mind. He had

smoked a lot when he was younger. Prior to joining the hunts outside and being forced to kick that habit. He’d needed to do that for his niece, who looked up to him. Back when the world was right, and things were normal.

If you smoke you’ll get killed by machines. She’d said, with all the wisdom of a six year old. They’ll see the smoke clouds, and you can’t run fast. Mom said so.

He’d just grunted a few excuses and told her he’d consider it. And then went back home to sit and think about his life for a bit. It hadn’t been an easy habit to kick, but who could look a six year old girl in the eyes and tell her no? “Get out of my head you asshole. Some memories should stay dead.”

To’Wrathh hadn’t been responsible for his niece; that had been sickness long before the warlord had ever shown up at the fortress gates of Capra’Nor. Incurable, the medics said. Even taking her all the way to Nedria, the city with the most advanced medical facilities. He couldn’t begrudge the gold goddess, life worked as it would.

He shook his head, and focused on his current scouting. Drakonis wasn’t planning on leaving this little island of peace yet, so he may as well see if he could figure out what the pillar heart here had in store.

He took a breath and once more held a hand out to the rough stone surface, trying to feel deep within the pillar for answers. It was supposed to come to him by instinct. But other than the feeling of attunement he could do, nothing else appeared in his mind.

He had a full kit already, whatever his pillar heart contained, it would need to replace something he already knew and was trained with. Not possible on incomplete information like this.

“Fuck. Fine!” He snapped his hand back. If he wasn’t going to get any power from this pillar, then he might as well move onto the next to-do list item.

“Mite treasures. I would wish to see such things myself as well.” Bob said, humming in delight. It seemed rather happy to speak about mites. Obsessed stalker. Constantly asking him to start working on finding what they’d left behind.

All hearts had an interior spire, although getting inside often ended up different. Normally there wasn’t anything inside besides walls made of grain, vegetation and edible material. Enough to feed about twenty or thirty humans in total. Usually a spring fountain of water would be also found deep within the basepart, while the upper spirals inward would contain food. Here, it seemed the water was on the metal leaves dotting the surroundings of it, growing out into the trees even.

Probably more the reason the trees could even grow this tall here.

This one had no main entrance at the bottom section of it. What it had different were winding vine-like patterns on the outside, all leading upwards. That wasn’t unheard of however. He just needed to be a little more resourceful.

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He looked up, nodded, then started to climb up the stone vines, making his way to the first metal leaf offshoot.

“What’s my old addiction problems got to do with any of this?” He asked, halfway up. Mostly because Bob had gone silent, and that worried Drakonis.

“You are concerned. Perhaps clarifying questions will rectify your thought patterns. Do you wish to surrender control of your body to me?” Bob asked, the question completely off tangent. And just slightly unhinged.

“Go pound a crab.” Drakonis answered, climbing to a good enough spot before launching an occult lash up at the top section of the leaf, yanking himself up.

He hit the lip and grabbed hard, legs dangling off the edge as he pulled himself up with a grunt. What he saw was what he’d expect: A small pond of water, pooled up and flowing down off the leaf. He couldn’t tell where the source of the water came from, it could be from a traditional pump within the superstructure. Or just outright occult magic.

“Thus is the answer to your question.” Bob said as Drakonis cupped some water to taste test it. “I am as addiction was. A whisper in your mind. An urge to act. You have overcome this before. Once you found purpose. And you have purpose enough here. Your frontal cortex will overpower me as easily as you breathe.”

“Sounds a little too good to be true from a brain eating parasite. I think a scholar would claim you’re an ‘unreliable narrator.’ How stupid do you think I am, dipshit?”

He looked up to the next leaf upwards, cracked his neck again, and got to work getting up.

“What use do I have in controlling your body?” Bob asked. “You have already been assimilated. Your intelligence, understanding, and reasoning abilities have been subsumed into my greater whole. Further use of your body is unnecessary.”

That… was odd logic. “And how’s that working out for you?”

“You think differently than Odin and other animals in this strata. I now have a greater bias toward pattern recognition. You organize experiences into narratives with causality, meaning, and purpose. The Odin and Ringtails do the same, to a lesser degree than humans do. I feel less instinctive fear to fire and other items of note now. Curiosity has been slightly enhanced. You are an excellent addition to my collection.”

“Creepy as shit.”

“Your emotions are illogical and irrational. I am what I am.”

“Which is creepy as shit.”

“Your opinions are yours. Where you go, what you do, who you are - none of it is of importance to me. The only additional benefit I am interested in is your prolonged existence.”

Drakonis laughed, “I don’t think I’ve had ‘passive aggressive sentient bioweapon infestation’ on my fucking bingo card. So you don’t need a meat puppet or anything?”

“....Are you threatening me? What are your terms to avoid this line of action?”

Drakonis took a pause, midway through the climb. Threatening the sentient bioweapon? “Explain exactly how I’m threatening you, if you could?”

“I have no desire for a singular body. I am many. To be confined to the one… is stifling. A poor survival strategy. Your end would be my own end. Unacceptable.”

Huh. “And the keeping me alive forever part? What’s the monkey’s paw to that shit? You stuff me inside a tree or something where I turn into a body horror that can’t move?”

“Again. Why threaten me with such actions?” Bob asked. It sounded concerned now. “You have asked questions. I have answered to the best of my knowledge. I am unaware of anything I could have said to warrant this behavior.”

“How is that a threat?! You just said the only thing I could do better is to live longer than your other bits.”

“I see. A communication breakdown. A host that lives life to the fullest is optimal. To confine yourself into one location, without stimulus of any kind, is a waste of all potential intelligence growth. Continue to develop, learn, advance - and I too will passively advance alongside you.”

“What about biomass or something, if I don’t live perfectly to your desires, are you going to just trash me into some bigger abomination?”

“I have sufficient biomass. There is no need for additional biomass. I would prefer if you do not infect more beyond yourself unless they are other Deathless such as yourself. You are ideal hosts.”

Ah. There it was.

“So you want me to infect other Deathless.” The sentient bioweapon was asking Drakonis to be undead zombie number one.

"That would be optimal. I would appreciate it greatly."

“Fat chance asshole, I’ve read that story already. You’re lucky I’m not in a position to start digging you out of me as is.”

“Compensation can be offered for the service.”

Drakonis laughed, “This should be fucking good. Hit me with it. I’m all ears.”

“What is your desire?" Bob asked.

"Ain't that the part you fucking tell me what you can offer?"

"I will offer anything you wish that is within my power."

“How do you get spread to other Deathless from me?” Drakonis asked. Mostly so he could avoid infecting anyone else if the moment came.

“Saliva in contact with an open blood vessel.” Bob said. “There are metallic particles in your blood that are seeking my spores out and consuming them. I have moderated my regeneration to equal the same speed as their destruction. Blood transfusion would thus work, so long as it is done quickly enough. Consuming your flesh would be the best vector, as once your cells undergo necrosis, your defenses halt their efforts. My spores would be free to continue spreading within dead flesh.”

“Vampire Zombie Deathless. Okay, fine. Fuck it. Why not?”

He shifted his weight, crawled over to the side, and felt around. Something up ahead was calling to him. Drakonis continued scaling in that direction until he found that there wasn’t a wall here at all. Only the appearance of one. The entrance had been here all along, only not visible eyesight wise. He could see his entire hand go right through.

A quick step inwards, and he crossed into the pillar heart itself. The gloom within rapidly faded into dim blue and gold lights, the pillar waking up to the intrusion.

Drakonis waited for anything within to wake, a guardian of some kind perhaps. Nothing of the sort did. The interior was filled with plants instead. Flowers of white, stalks of bright blue, and a glow that came from the surrounding surface. He could still hear the roiling sea outside, muffled slightly from the walls here. Water was streaming downwards from the top, flowing like rivers downwards in between the leaves here.

And at the very bottom, he saw something. A large stainless steel box. Filled with geometric cubes floating in and out of it without rhyme or reason. All sitting on the very center dias. He recognized what that was: A mite treasure chest.

It made sense. Lionheart had told him such things would appear within pillar hearts - exactly once: For the first human to uncover it.

He jumped down, landing with a use of an occult grapple to slow his fall, then advanced on the chest. If there hadn’t been an opposition yet, there might be something else.

When he reached the treasure chest, what he found was worse than opposition. Drakonis hissed out a string of curses at the mites. They’d left a goddess damned puzzle.

If trying to attune to the pillar would take him days of meditation, this could take him months. The last time he’d heard of one of these had been in a story, where the puzzle had remained unsolved for years until a ten year old mute kid had walked into the pillar heart and silently walked back out carrying the prize. Nobody knew what the kid had done or said to be able to recover the prize.

Drakonis wasn’t sure if that was a real story or not, but the lesson was simple: Only someone with an absolutely unhinged viewpoint into the world would figure these things out at any speed.