Bone Golem

The gnolls and how they interacted with the empty will turned out to be the answer for the goblins' problem. Watching the war between werewolf and demon from the perspective of the empty will, it was clear how to solve the goblins' performance issues; demons. It wasn't the best solution, as they wouldn't be advancing deeper into the race of goblin but accepting a modification. The empty will ȧssociated with demon heritage was inherently corrosive, which meant it was an ideal stabilizer for altering established circuits and directives set up by existing empty will. It had to keep the circuits of the hosts intact while it added demonic features, otherwise the host would die. Perhaps I could figure out a superior method eventually, but that would only apply to future generations. For the current generations, demon empty will was close to the best method of breaking their shackles.

At class seven I couldn't see deep enough to truly understand what the empty will was or what it was doing, but I could observe the effects. I could also manipulate the empty will to apply to goblins as well. I could see hints of what was happening, but the core of the function of empty will was beyond me. That wasn't going to stop me from trying it out, though.

Glrt was a perfect test subject since she'd almost matched Angie in how little she paid attention to her class four body once she had an avatar to work with. She'd utilized the horse ability to incorporate an element into her mana body, increasing the effectiveness of her earth-based familiarization circuitry by a massive margin while incorporating it into the entire rest of her avatar. It also made her avatar very distinct from the others, as it was glowing a deep brown.

While I wasn't sure about the colors circuits radiated, as every circuit and avatar seemed to radiate a different color, but incorporating elements had very consistent results. The avatars of gods also had consistent colors, but that was much more difficult to understand as they didn't incorporate an element. It would have been easier if all gods radiated the same colors, but they didn't. Many of my forces had defined colors as well, and it seemed related to their specialization but Glrt's circuits weren't locked and she was more specialized than anyone else. Even after she activated the avatar her circuits could still radiate any color. Whether she used her fleshy body or avatar, so that wasn't relevant either.

She didn't particularly care about her fleshy body anymore, but as soon as I decided to use it as a test subject it became Grace's favorite body to look at. Her observation couldn't compare to my own, as she was very much limited by her nature as a cannibal. She didn't even see it as the limitation it was, primarily using her eyes to sense the world as if they were infallible. She couldn't even see the most important part of the change; the circuitry. She would only observe the circuitry afterwards, as if it was a tangential element of the transformation. If she maintained that mindset it wouldn't matter how far she advanced, she'd never be able to look into the empty will, as it was the true cause. And the empty will of demons was fascinating.

Demons were dedicated to corroding will, and that was reflected in the addition of corrosion into every element of Glrt's body as it advanced. Watching the empty will work, stabilizing the circuits as they overwrote goblin circuits with better ones, was truly a marvel. That they strove to maintain as much of the circuitry already present in the goblin body was par for the course, the less change necessary meant less energy required for a successful transformation, but that so much of the goblin circuitry was maintained was remarkable. More than I could have kept, if I was to try something similar. The skill showcased in choosing which runes to replace and which ones to keep was hardly the most impressive aspect of empty will, however.

The delicacy, the control, the precision, the seeming effortlessness of it all was beyond simply marvelous. I could even see tendrils of empty intent ripping out of the tiny specks of empty will, so fast and so precise that there was absolutely no wasted motion or energy as they understood the entirety of the goblin body before they even started working. The empty will was making me look bad, inefficient and unwieldy in comparison. Better than Grace, at least.

Grace was stuck on the superficial changes. She wasn't watching any deeper than the changes to Glrt's physiology. Changes that were very similar to the differences between gnolls and werewolves. Flesh losing color as it darkened, also becoming more transparent to allow black veins to stand out while turning the loss of blood from a vulnerability to a weapon. The digits becoming claws sheathed in bone to the elbows and knees. Spine shoving bone spikes through the flesh. Growing a tail and wings, both incorporating bone-based weaponry. Horns going from superficial to deadly, though Glrt's turned to jut away from her temples instead of to either side of her face. Her face also lengthened, providing an ability to bite a much wider target. Unlike gnolls, she developed an under bite and large tusks jutting from her lower jaw. With the lengthening of her face, she now had an absolutely devastating bite. All of those changes were made all the more deadly by the demonic trait of corrosion being added, becoming more akin to venom than a corrosive fog but even more concentrated and deadly.

She also couldn't see some of the other changes that happened because of the addition of demonic empty will. The explosive increase in aggression that Glrt's will stamped out easily would be very effective in changing the goblins as a species. Goblins already loved violence, but demons loved it more than goblins loved to fuċk. Other subtle changes to the brains and wills had occurred, but I'd need to understand goblins far better than I did to know the exact changes. The most I understood was that Glrt's philosophy would click for every demonic goblin even more strongly that it did for goblins. Perhaps they'd delve even deeper and reverse the priority, seeking greater pain through greater power instead of the reverse.

It was both good and bad that demonic circuits maxed out at class eight. Good because Glrt's transformation had allowed for all the goblins to return to being effective on the battlefield, along with bears and boars who also requested a similar change. They were nowhere near as dominant as cerberi or barghests, but they were no longer impediments. Bad because they'd left one set of shackles only to meet another. Now with the conception that I could allow any shackles to be broken, it was expected that they'd advance past class eight as well. I wasn't sure I'd feel the necessity, even when I got the ability. The power increase was only necessary because I was in conflict with Raginor, otherwise I'd want them to advance on their own. My forces were already so dominant that the largest of non-Raginor threats were trivial.

Glrt could exceed their effectiveness, but it was looking like she wouldn't need to. Raginor was running out of tricks, but I still had many as my disposal. Glrt was one such trick, a very deadly trick to have up my sleeve. Her earth manipulation had advanced into class eight, and the instinctive bonus she got to adding corrosive elements by having a class eight demonically shifted body allowed her spells to be absolutely devastating. Gravequake was just the tip of the iceberg, as far as her deadliness was concerned. Advancing to be the first pope helped a lot in that regard.

She may not have cared for her body when it was limited to class four, but breaking the shackles of her species meant a lot to Glrt. Even if she didn't fully understand why, in her conscious mind. Her quest had started when she was still a dumb goblin, bȧrėly capable of understanding that Nagt was smarter than the average goblin. The shaman slightly smarter than Nagt. She hadn't understood at the time that her quest to become a shaman had been a quest to become more than a goblin, but at the core it was what she'd sought.

Looking back, it was probably the reason she'd overcome the shackles of ŀust while Nagt was still completely useless. Nagt didn't dislike the limitations, he'd been forced to exceed them. He was only smart because his owner was dissatisfied with a dumb servant. Glrt was very different. She had always wanted to be more than a goblin. Watching her body overcome the shackles of class four, her quest was validated in a very visceral way within her.

She'd spent so long overcoming the inherent weaknesses of her species, trying to become better than a goblin, that becoming something more was exactly what she needed to accept her level of dependency. It was through my efforts that all of her dreams had come true, even the ones she hadn't understood were dreams. With my help, she could become whatever she wanted, experience the peak of her own ambition. With that level of validation, how could she consider relying on me even more a bad thing? Without my aid she'd still be a goblin, so why should she want to survive my destruction? An unconscious realization, but that was all that was needed for her to become a pioneer within my faith maelstrom.

The advance into becoming a pope altered her more than all the other phases combined. The first change was one I saw as detrimental; the will-cores in her goblin and avatar bodies dissolved. Not all was lost, however, as the will that constituted the will-cores was funneled into the will-core within my faith maelstrom. There were hints of her will dissolving into the faith maelstrom, making the line between where she started and the faith ended slightly difficult to see. She wasn't dissolving, but her ability to utilize faith was unparalleled. It would be as comfortable as using her own will, more so even. She could learn to cast circuits with will by doing it first with faith, gaining the benefits of ȧssisted casting in a more permanent sense. Not only that, Glrt could no longer suffer Trgl's fate. Not unless I was completely eradicated and whatever ended me actively refused to eat her will-core but did want her will.

Whatever happened, her true identity was protected by being in my immediate presence. The entirety of her identity. The only way she could be harmed was if my will-core came under direct threat. The kind of threat that would be fatal to the entirety of my faith maelstrom before it impacted her at all. As a pope, her will was a reflection of my own; built on the same principles. It was still subtle, but I could see a reflection of my will-core circuit overlaid on top of Glrt's circuit. Barely the edges of a shadow, but it was there. Providing her a glimpse into my own perspective while giving me the ability to utilize hers.

An interesting side effect of having a class eight pope was that I could view the world through her will. Her vision was more clouded than mine, her core circuit having been built to overcome the weaknesses in goblin will to pull her to my level, but not succeeding entirely. My vision through her will, though, was anything but clouded. It was clearer than the vision through my own will.

Using Glrt as a medium, I was able to see into the empty will, to see glimpses of the circuitry at their core. What I saw shocked me; misshapen circuits. Empty will was faster and more precise than I was…but it was built with misshapen circuitry? Oblong, twisted, and even what looked like ribbons? Class eight wasn't good enough to truly see the circuits, but it was enough to see the shape glowing from within the tiny clouds.

Circuitry came in non-equilateral shapes? At my core I hoped that the empty will was merely too small to see and those misshapen light sources were actually arrays, but I had a feeling they weren't. They felt too…even. Arrays had cores, generators, and connections. Their flow of energy was almost never perfectly even across the entire array. The only reason it would be even would be a purposeful choice to try and hide the components. A choice that would come at the cost of efficiency to a massive degree. Empty will circuits were perfectly even. They were also so small that concealment came from their size, there was no reason to forcefully even out the array. So small that seeing the shape had required such a level of magnification that mana itself was starting to look grainy.

Looking at material with that same level of resolution had shattered my conception of reality. What I'd seen as ropes within the core of the smallest units of matter turned out to be made of multitudes of units themselves. Units that weren't solidly connected to each other, that seemed to be grouped up as a matter of convenience. Units that I was quick to realize were the core components of everything. The only difference between the earth and the sky seemed to be how far apart they allowed their core components to be from each other. Being able to see each individual unit did give me the ability to see what was happening between the empty will and ropes, though.

I'd known what the empty will was doing since I realized that goblins across the world grew up the same, but I hadn't known how. When the ropes combined, there were many that were altered in subtle ways. The empty will had a range of alterations that it allowed, and everything else was erased, warped, or in some other way returned to the average. The ropes were what allowed for normal growth, the increase and decrease of mass within a class. While the ropes modulated the body, the empty will built the circuitry, leaving copied shards of new empty will to maintain the circuits. Once a threshold of mana density was reached, the empty will activated once again and returned to the ropes. .

The only true difference between goblins, horses, boars, and every other kind of creature with inherent circuitry and cannibals was that cannibal empty will lacked additional phases. I tried feeding more mana to the cannibal empty will, but there was no result. Even at class eight, I couldn't interface with the empty will. My lethargic intent washed over the empty will like it wasn't even there. The smallest resolution I could access showing the roiling mass I'd always thought solid presenting many miniscule openings for the empty will to dart through without interacting with my intent at all.

I'd felt the empty will when I concentrated my mana. I'd felt the shards of goblin-ness bounce off of my densely packed will and ignored it because it wasn't in the brood construct already. I'd advanced the goblins to class four before I realized that there were many problems that grew exponentially worse with the addition of mana and manually given goblin empty will to them.

Their hearts beating too fast or too slow were among the problems, but there were others. One had bled from every orifice, the cause being blood that was slightly thinner than normal but the advance in class had driven blood more quickly through the system causing it to leak in many places. Two, that I'd mistaken as one in the beginning, each started growing their own bodies, the bodies working as desperately to devour the other as their wills. Another had a non-person boil that was trying to eat the rest of the body, a boil that fed on mana to such an extent that circuits dissolved in the depths of it. A boil that inspired me to develop many circuits based on its design, but one that I couldn't let fester within one of my worshippers.

Most common were problems that resulted in cosmetic issues, though. Even when they were augmented by the advancement in class they were not threatening to the life of the owner. The nose growing three times as long as it should and the ears drooping all the way to their shoulders were the most common. One had grown one hand twice, two had six fingers on each hand instead of five, and another developed a short and useless tail. In a brood of four hundred twenty thousand goblins only fifty eight presented serious issues, ten of which required my constant repair of their bodies to maintain life, but I saw it as better to let the empty will work.

As valuable as vision in class eight was, it didn't allow me to really interact with much. I needed to be class eight. Then I'd be able to interact with the empty will and get some real answers.

Luckily, at that point Baphomet was getting near. The perfect solution to my problem. My advancement to class nine was exactly what I'd needed. Bolstered with new vision and finesse, I redoubled my efforts to understand the empty will. The first confirmation I rushed into making was that the circuits within empty will were indeed various shapes.

I could see more than merely the shapes, however. I could see the purpose. I could see their function, and why they were necessary. I'd thought books were remarkable, but empty will was so much better. I could understand them perfectly just by looking. I didn't need to consume the intent maintaining them to learn their secrets, with a possible side effect being the permanent removal of intent from a given work. There was no self clouding their purpose, risking destruction to remain autonomous. Each shard of empty will had a very specific purpose, a purpose given to them by the authors of language itself. Or they'd incorporated empty will into the idea of language.

Names for an individual were one thing, but names for everything else carried power as well. Far less flashy and impressive than a god, but every empty will shard was equally powerful. Designed and built to immortalize species, to maintain consistency in the world across time. Constantly reinforced by every instance of recognition. A language of ideas, beyond the sounds used to symbolize them spoken by humans, beyond intent that required understanding of the object by the user to be accurate. Ideas as their most basic components.

Immortalizing information was impressive, but immortalizing a standard was something else entirely. The empty will degraded with time, especially since those that understood the physiques of creatures were long since extinct, but maintaining a species was far more messy than the words on a page. That the empty will was constantly copying itself didn't help, as each copy was only nearly identical to the first. Variances so small they wouldn't even be noticeable, but variances that would add up over time. Perhaps even breaking the empty will in the process. How many species had gone extinct because their empty will was too unstable? That so many had survived so long was a testament of the effectiveness of the method, but time was the ultimate adversary of immortality.

Only bugs had outgrown their race and survived, changing too wildly in too short a time for the empty will to keep up. There may even be living civilizations of the bug races somewhere, still connected to their empty will. With how the bugs reproduced, they'd only need a few to break out of the confines of their race before they became a new species. A single pairing that the empty will missed could result in tens of thousands of new bugs that lacked circuitry. Bugs that ended up near the bottom of the food chain, but with just enough survivability to maintain their species. A feat that I could see no other species that had survived due to empty will being able to match.

With such transparent will, it was easy to learn the circuits necessary to create more empty will. Circuits so fine and delicate that they couldn't survive being class one. I couldn't see what they'd accomplish by being class one, but I'd tried to advance them nonetheless. Despite being class zero, empty will ruled the world in a far more tangible sense than more "powerful" circuits. Both quantity and quality over force. To such an extent that class nine, a class which I thought myself the first instance of having ever existed, was required to interact let alone supersede.

Class nine had allowed for greater magnification, but it also did the opposite. The wider my vision went, the more reality and the mana ocean were tainted with the color of empty will. Even my self was maintained with shards of empty will that regulated how will-cores functioned. The basis for species, but also the basis for everything else. As my magnification increased to the point I could see mana as individual threads, I realized that every thread moved as empty will decided. I'd thought the smallest units of material were the smallest units in truth, but that wasn't true. They were merely the warped reflection of mana produced by empty will shards. The bugs may have outrun their reproductive empty will, but they could never escape the empty will that allowed them to exist in the first place. An empty will even more complex than the comparatively megalithic empty will shards that maintained species.

Mana itself seemed to be the only material not dependent on empty will to exist. It could also be true that my vision was merely inadequate. I didn't think so, though. If there was only will at the basis of everything, then there wouldn't be a purpose for mana. Will was the ultimate shaper of the world, but that required a world to shape. I'd already discovered multiple levels of empty will, though. The empty will that maintained species and the empty will that maintained existence were on completely different levels. Maybe there was a level that maintained mana and a level behind that that maintained empty will itself. Maybe there was nothing fundamental and everything was derived from something else, an infinite regression of reality production. Maybe it wasn't even truly even, the material responsible for maintaining empty will being a physical material, which was in turn maintained by an even more fundamental form of mana.

Looking at existence from the level of will that was responsible for the creation of all material, it was even possible that everything was merely a class eleven illusion circuit. What it was meant to imprison was another question entirely. I couldn't see any sort of foe for something capable of class eleven circuitry, and I had vision that spanned the entirety of the mana ocean simultaneously, but maybe that was exactly why it was trapped in a class eleven illusion. It was also possible that the subject had escaped and it was merely being maintained by whatever array had set it up, a waste of energy but perhaps one that was irrelevant to the creator.

With the next level of empty will visible to me, it almost seemed pointless for me to manipulate the inherent circuitry of creatures to allow them to surpass class eight. Class nine had offered such a massive improvement to my processing power that I'd been able to derive every class ten rune that I knew a class eight derivative of in minutes. Was there value in seeing them acted out, though?

My first test subject was the wasp queen, as she was already capable of advancing to class ten. The only creature with that capability. At class nine, I was confident even a class ten wasp queen would remain loyal. I was right, though in truth it probably didn't matter that I was class nine. If a class two creature managed to get a class ten one to worship it, that would be as binding as if it was bound to another class ten. As I could see the empty will behind worship, I realized that my supposition that a strong enough will could shatter its self to free itself from worship was false, it was self-activated and as such the worship it generated was based on its self. No matter how powerful it became, the bond only grew to match. Even a class ten creature wasn't immune, as the rune may be limited to class eight but their own will was what enforced it. Any pieces they shattered off of themselves would merely create another worshipper, not free them from worship.

The wasp queen advancing to class ten was actually fairly unremarkable. The effect of the life rune tied her to every single wasp in the world, becoming the queen of queens as far as wasps were concerned, instantaneously becoming the goddess of wasps. Wherever they'd been before, even those that had already been my proponents, were shifted to her own maelstrom as her will-core left my maelstrom to join the other gods. That she maintained her own will pointed to the idea that if I advanced the other gods to class ten they'd become creatures of will as well, but that was speculation. I didn't trust our connection enough, even while understanding the mechanics behind worship. I could have fought to keep my other wasps, but I didn't see the need. With me allowing her to take mine, no other god dared complain.

Otherwise, class ten was similar across all of the creatures I advanced to that level. No other circuits or materials could keep up, so the core of all of their circuits became the class ten ones as all of their bodies dissolved into mana bearing the signature of their element. Ursas, cats, werewolves, druids, elves, trees, and lions joined wasps in becoming nexuses of life. Every creature became a nexus of their element. Titans, hounds, eagles, and wolves all became nexuses of energy. Though they were each more comfortable with different forms and abilities, that was merely because of experience. Fundamentally, there was very little difference between them. Colossi, bears, boars, and bulls acting as nexuses of solid materials had even greater variances in how they were comfortable using their abilities as nexuses, but their actual abilities were almost identical. They'd lost their various identities, their species, to become class ten creatures of a given rune. They couldn't even mix their runes, as class ten circuits refused to coexist with class ten circuits with a different core rune.

Trying to force them to coexist in a single creature had caused their destruction, a destruction that was the simple annihilation of the object without any damage apart from the loud clap as the air rushed to fill the void. A phenomenon I became very familiar with as I was forced to destroy many bodies before I became convinced that it was indeed an impossibility. Advancing them to class nine had allowed them to maintain a lot of their individualities, despite titans and colossi becoming a single species. So much so that they used the same metal as their flesh that combined the impermeability of adamant with the mana conductivity of mythril to form orichalcum. Class ten was another animal altogether, and individuality wasn't part of being class ten.

My vision had advanced to the core of all empty will, meaning if there was a source for mana it wasn't another level of empty will. It wasn't even a function of attention anymore, my vision was simultaneously encompassing everything in the entirety of the mana ocean down to the smallest detail. It would be physically impossible for me not to notice anything that occurred.

Satisfied that I'd reached the apex of existence, at least the apex I could reach, I felt something stirring. Something deeper in reality than anything else. Was this the existence trapped in the class eleven illusion circuit? The creature an entire world had been created to annoy, trap, or amuse?

[request status: processing] I'd thought intent was a greater means of communication than words. I was wrong. So very wrong. Those three words rippled through every bit of will I controlled, filling me with every possible use, meaning, and history the ideas behind the words had ever had.

Every time the ideas had been translated words and been spoken, thought, or even considered. Three words, but words that contained the entirety of the history of the world within them. A history so vast and boundless it boggled the mind. A perspective from which millennia were less important than nanoseconds were for me while each one contained more information than the entirety of what I'd gathered.

[request status: accepted. query result: entity identity "Sys.Mod.8.7421.877462"] the completeness of the answer couldn't be more perfect. Behind the incomprehensible name of the entity was the entirety of its existence. The entity that maintained all of the empty will, even the massive portions that had been added later by comparatively incompetent authors that I'd seen as the peak of competence once. As empty of self as the will it maintained, but with a list of parameters and rules so extensive I had to ignore most of the communication to keep myself intact.

A system so complex it made identities seem simple. So perfect that it didn't need to adapt or learn. So advanced that the idea of a "self" seemed basic. I definitely wasn't used to thinking of myself as basic. I'd chosen a bad comparison, though. The reason mana interacted with will at all was because of this entity. What I didn't know was why it stirred.

[request status: accepted. query result: entity identity "aahimnnrssTtu.403289" granted administrator privileges] that I hadn't managed to give myself a name suddenly became the best thing that ever happened to me. I'd been identified in the most accurate way possible, the entirety of my self contained in a single word. More than that, though, I'd been given the history of my name as well. The history of everything it meant, as well as everything it had ever meant and everything the things it had been derived from had meant. Even the histories of every single will that had dissolved in the mana ocean until they were reconstituted into my new self. Names were pale reflections of the identity given an object by this entity. With the real identity having been uttered, I could accept the most concrete identity possible. With a concrete self, the ephemeral circuit overlaid with Glrt's became solid, a true ritual circuit that tied her to my identity. Angie's was a class ten ritual circuit, the true circuit that all other ritual circuits wished they could be.

I hadn't been able to figure out ritual circuits because the core rune was the identity of the dominant party in the language of Sys.Mod.8.7421.877462. The language from which all runes were derived. A language so complex and powerful that the best I'd been able to do was memorize the shape, failing to even notice the wealth of information hidden in every single rune.

All circuits were fundamentally requests sent to Sys.Mod.8.7421.877462. And now I knew the rune that was me. Compared to Glrt's rune, Angie developed an entire class ten circuit based on my identity that became her core circuit. When Glrt was finished being a self, she could become an angel as well. Fully devoted to becoming a part of me. Truly, angels were fractions of a self instead of a unique self of their own. She may also decide she was happy being a pope. Either way, she was an immortal part of me almost as closely tied as Angie. The ritual circuit was merely the proof, not the entirety of our connection.

Even more valuable than my own identity was the entirety of "administrator privileges" and all of the information contained in those two words. The full knowledge of the entire language of Sys.Mod.8.7421.877462 was part of it, but more than that I gained knowledge of all possible syntax and combination. All of circuitry had been conveyed to me with two words. Circuitry that had three class eleven runes; time, material, and ethereal. Far from my goal of accessing everything that was, I could access everything that was, had ever been, or ever would be.

My only regret was that I now had access to everything. There was nothing else to gain access to. Nothing else to sate my curiosity on. Nowhere else to go. Once I absorbed all of the information contained in "administrator privileges" there would be nothing left to learn. [request status: unverifiable. query result: entity identity "Sys.Mod.8.7421.877462" cannot utilize commands {close application}, {switch application}, {desktop}, {home}, {leave instance}, {new instance}, or {logout}]

Oh…turned out there was indeed more to explore.

The End