[So, things haven’t been so good lately. Part of the issue is not having a backlog. Having that would be good if I get sick or whatever. Regardless, the failure is mine. Gotta step up my game though, especially if I’m going to do a particular thing in the near future. 1000+ words each update. Five days a week. That’s the commitment for now. It really isn’t much is it? I thank you for your patience]

This is a serial, first part HERE

Chapter 55: The flower that is not never blooms

-Feel free to watch. Though there may be less for you to see than you might wish, end transmission- Doctor Bones warned the Corpse-eye.

Quite honestly, Doctor Bones was glad that the being that noticed them was more curious than it was malicious, though with the nature of these things, he was fairly sure that Quplikhe would be more than happy to tear him apart and have a look around the rags of his spirit and bones. Thankfully it was wary of the seal inside him.

-Sure thing-

-Was it this thing-

-No, that sends the spinning things out to play-

-Huh, that’d be bad-

-Next time this kinda thing happens, let’s be a bit more active about having defences up-

-Optimization, Optimization!-

-This one then-

-Done, the spooky eye won’t be listening to us anymore-

-Just wrong, eyes shouldn’t listen-

-The real issue is how to get within the brambles- Doctor Bones mused.

“Oh, oh! Is it time? Will you finally use the Red Armageddon?” Miss Fern cried.

-It isn’t that destructive, rather it isn’t for destroying anyway!-

“You’re going to use it anyway right? right?!”

-…-

Doctor Bones raised up an arm.

-Rocks, get ready to bring us inside the brambles-

-The brambles are sorta in the way Director-

-Shhh, just do what he says, otherwise he might spook you!-

Outside the coffin, the very air, no the space rippled. A shining tear formed.

-LOCALE…-

Quplikhe’s many eyes contracted in terror and it fled some distance, hastily dispelling the sealed space it had created. It watched in awe as a crimson rod of ludicrous proportions fell as might a dragongod. The undead attacking the brambles felt the mighty shadow of the bat over them, and after a stupefied moment of incomprehension, all but the most mindless fled.

-What brutal destructive power- Quplikhe admired, though impact had not yet occurred.

Doctor Bones would have objected, but he couldn’t hear it.

-… ANAESTHESIA!!!!!”

A thunderous crash that sound of which alone destroyed much of the brambles, a blaze of cleansing fire from the impact, and then the red bat itself. The brambles writhed and for all the destruction, the hole that opened up just revealed the sight of more thorny growths. Still, Doctor Bones was satisfied, after all, he shouted…

-Now!-

The rocks rolled over the controls and the coffin shot into the gap. In mere moments, the brambles closed over as the plant contracted, stopping its slow advance. In a moment, the coffin was not visible, as for the mighty pillar of destruction, it had broken into red sparks that faded away as the dying embers of a life at its limit of limits.

-That was terrifying Director!-

-I’ll never say anything bad about him again-

-He’s not spooky anymore-

The rocks rattled at the thought of the ‘red armageddon’.

Quplikhe still watched of course, but, that was all it was going to do.

After a while, various undead returned, many curious about what had happened, but most just wanted to feed on the vigorous lifeforce of the brambles. Inside, the brambles converged on the coffin as if to crush it to pieces, but with a flash of blue light, the brambles became more docile, and ignored the coffin, ignoring it, save to move out of the way if the coffin came close.

-It’s squirming Director!-

-That’s just nasty-

-I’m going to say in the coffin-

-Same here-

-Me too-

-We don’t even have hands or anything, so its best we say back-

-We’d be of no use, really-

“It does look pretty dangerous, hey aren’t you lot rocks? Wouldn’t you be fine?” Miss Fern worried.

-No, they aren’t wrong to be wary- Doctor Bones said, eyes flickering.

Outside, the brambles were being suppressed by the death energies of Necrobyssal itself, within however? It was almost like a sealed space. A bubble of sickened life amidst death, a deathbed? Most would be subsumed by the brambles the moment they went in. A whole world within a dimension, perhaps almost a dimension within a dimension. What was radiating from the brambles was an endless enduring will. That was what Doctor Bones thought at first.

-I’m wrong. The will isn’t coming from the brambles, it feeds on that will, this… could it be?- he mused.

-Hurrah, Director isn’t going to send us out to get eaten by an overgrown briar patch!-

“Would it really eat you?”

-Who wouldn’t eat us if they could?-

-Rocks have all kinds of vital minerals you know!-

-We’re really good stuff!-

“Oh, maybe I should try a bit, you won’t miss a few flakes will you?”

-A-ah, I don’t think you can ea…-

-That look in her eyes! She’s gone!-

-Drooling, she’s drooling!-

The rocks scattered as Miss Fern chased after them.

-Director, please stop thinking and save us!-

-What are you even thinking about?-

-Isn’t he trying to figure out what the brambles are?-

-Ah, she’s got me! She’s got me, Nooooo!!!!-

“Just a nibble, you’ll be fine!”

A rock jerked around in panic beneath Miss Fern’s hooves, but just as she was about to do something dreadful, a voice sounded out.

-Corpseflower-

Everyone paused.

-It should be a corpseflower, shouldn’t it?-

Miss Fern, snapping out of her gluttony trotted over to Doctor Bones.

“A corpseflower, but Doctor…”

-Yes. If it is a corpseflower, there should be a flower, or at the very least a sprout-

Yet he could not sense the life of the brambles converging to such a thing. It was just a knot that sprung forth from a well. An enduring will. That meant that…

-Whatever about a flower, the corpse, the undead… whoever this is growing from has not departed from us-

“You mean there’s someone alive, uh unalive under all that?”

-Spooky-

-That can’t be comfortable-

-Most corpseflowers don’t bloom from undead… As I thought, I’ll have to go to the ‘corpse’ All of you should stay here, for your own safety!-

An enduring will, a flower that would not form and so never bloom…