Are you the vessel? I asked, transmitting the mental image that Brain had given me before. Vessel wasn’t the best translation possible, but it was the only word I could come up with.
Yes. Though I suspect you don’t know what that means. I am the Overseer, the central intelligence network that contains all knowledge of our hive. I am at the same time their knowledge, their direction and their voice, the Vessel explained. I found myself shrugging at these words, not knowing what they meant. I transmitted a few images of his comrades to him, with Brain in particular as their leader.
You have made contact with my pod. Excellent. I would ask that you take me to them. Though the task is not particularly an easy one. As you have seen, I am fractured. Though you found my central body and my intelligence core, I am still lacking one of my major components. My memory shard. All collected knowledge that I have attained here is more or less missing from my mind. This renders the entire purpose of my visit to this world useless.
The Vessel motioned towards a small hole in the left side of its torso. Close examination revealed that there was a jagged hole, almost like a puzzle slot missing the right piece. I cannot leave this wood without the memory shard. And I fear that a most wretched creature has devoured it.
I shrugged at that. Lucky for you we’re good at killing wretched creatures.
Perhaps. But how does one kill the darkness? It asked. For my light beats it back. Flames bring it great fear. But what can harm the shadow beast? How can one kill what you call a Titan without form?
I groaned at those words. You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t tell me that the eternal shadow out there is actually a Titan?
I fear that it is true. It is a Nursery Keeper. Monsters, as you call them, must be born in darkness, in the shadow conditions of their own world. This terrible caretaker provides darkness that nourishes. But it is still a beast of its own. It feeds upon those who are foolish not to carry light.
So there it was. There was no shadow beast. At least, not like what we had thought. There was no large, fierce creature scampering around in the shadows, looking to eat us. Rather, the shadow itself was the monster, a Titan, in fact. It loomed over us, watched us, hungered for us and when an opportunity showed itself, it would lunge upon anything in the darkness that was fatally wounded.
You seem distressed.
We thought the shadows were something else, I replied. Just a product of some kind of spell or maybe a natural wonder.
You know little about these things? Or even your own world, to believe that eternal darkness could be akin to landscape? The Vessel said. There was both incredulity and skepticism in his mental voice. As the Overseer, it seemed he actually had a personality, similar to a human mind.
It’s a long, horrible story, I replied. I don’t feel like getting into it right now. Not when we’ve got a Shadow Titan to kill.
So easily you take this task? Do you not wish to know what is in store? Do you not wish to analyze the risks and the dangers involved? Surely you cannot agree to slaying something you scarcely understand. Mere moments ago you had no idea the darkness was a comprehensive being. Now you so readily agree to slay it?
I chuckled a little. I’m guessing this is your first conversation with a human, isn’t it?
Indeed it is.
Well, you’re going to learn a bit about our tenacity, stupidity and above all, willingness to roll the dice, even when all the odds are against us, I replied. I turned my attention to the unattended corpse of the Orphine. It was full of fresh, delicious Bloodpoints to boost my numbers even more. Tell me how you ended up stuck in that monster while I prepare.
My enthusiasm served to both confuse and amuse the Overseer. It had a capacity for understanding humor, but not quite sarcasm, so it struggled to interpret my statement. I began to harvest the Orphine, all the while listening to the tale of the Overseer. Fortunately, he was entirely unlike his brethren. For while Brain had carefully revealed facts to me, as slowly as possible as to avoid divulging anything truly pertinent, the Vessel was eager to tell everything to me, holding nothing back.
The Vessel’s memory was missing how exactly they came to arrive in our world, but they had been running from Titans. Apparently, whatever had invaded us had also helped itself to other worlds all the same, infesting, killing and devouring everything that they could. The Masara had stumbled across a world being consumed and attempted to escape, landing them here. The invaders broke through to our world, saw how prime and full of life it was, and began their invasion same as anywhere else.
What the Vessel could not tell me was whether there was an intelligence directing these invasions, or if they were simply like locusts, swarming across a vast network of worlds, just looking for the next meal. As far as he knew, there was no clear sign of intelligence, though what his memory stores held remained to be seen.
Once this ‘pod’, as they were referred to, landed in our world, they hid themselves for quite some time. First in the woods, then in the mountains and finally, inside the body of a fallen Titan. When on a reconnaissance mission with a few actual Venators (called Sogorn, the race of tiger-men that Rashar was a part of), the Vessel was surprised by a swarm of red Masara. He attempted
