The Elf Twins' gentle voices sounded distant to Bolken, as though they came from another world—the hall was located at the very heart of the entire flesh construct, with countless neural links extending here from every part of the massive alien body, transmitting an ocean of data into Bolken's mind. This included not only the flesh construct's own senses and its surveillance of the entire battlefield, but also the Dark Priests currently undergoing fusion in its depths. Though all the Dark Priests had spent some time adjusting themselves toward mental assimilation, compared to truly "becoming one," they still possessed distinct minds of their own. Integrating and sorting them into one was an arduous task for Bolken.
The attack from the Azure Well arrived. It was a counterattack launched by the ancient ghost hiding within the steel fortress. High-intensity energy beams focused on the top of the construct, seemingly intending to destroy the organs that released the Calamity Magic Bullets. Several organs meant to deploy shields activated their Energy Barriers in time. Though they swiftly burned out from overload, they successfully blocked the Azure Well's attack.
The damaged tissues then began self-repair. An astonishing amount of Biomass was transported from deep underground to the upper layers and converted into additional layers of carapace. Bolken carried out these operations with machine-like precision. This was power and capability beyond anything he could have imagined when he had still been human, yet now it was all at his disposal. In fleeting intervals between sleep and waking, he contemplated his current existence... He felt almost like a god.
A set of psychic-wave communications arrived at the construct from afar. Bolken read from them the signals of mass deaths among the Aberrants and bio-synthetic beasts, along with the intense impact unique to "heavenly fire falling to