Chapter 112: Against Eternal Darkness

The Collector pondered exactly how to state what the purpose of these goblin specimen were. They desired one, and the Collector was in a position of authority to grant them one.

Or, rather, it was more accurate to state that the Collector could suggest them a purpose, and though they would undertake it due to the Collector's perceived authority, it was up to them whether they would truly believe the purpose suited for them.

To that end, the Collector was incentivized to create a purpose for them that would grant them sufficient satisfaction.

Perhaps, as the elder had stated, a promise to an "Old Age" which the Collector deduced based off conversational hints and terminology that it was an era within which the goblin species was both more numerous and influential.

However, this was not what the Collector desired these specimens to fight for. In the end, the Collector wished for these specimens to lay their lives down for the greater Collective's purpose.

The purpose to stand before all purposes. The Great Purpose.

Would the goblin specimens, however, be willing to champion such a cause when they were not bred with, born with it implanted in their every cell as was the case with the Collector? This question, the Collector could not immediately calculate an answer to.

Yet, the Collector did not lie, and it believed in the nobility of its purpose. Thus, it reiterated the purpose that it believed in.

"You are subordinates of mine, and thus, the purpose I have undertaken for myself is therefore yours as well," stated the Collector, its smooth, calm voice resonating elegantly throughout the goblin swarm.

"The purpose that has been invested unto me is one that precedes all others. The Great Purpose is what it is designated as, and in gathering strength against it, entropy, the inevitable heat death of all that is, may be reversed."

A sense of silence rose throughout the goblin swarm, and the Collector sensed this was one of confusion with continued silence occurring due to respect for the Collector preventing anyone from speaking up.

The Collector analyzed how it interacted with these specimens. Its wording in relation to their knowledge. Their attitudes toward the Collector. It considered their emotions, needs, and desires, and it weighed them against its own, or, if possible, whether they could be harmonious.

It realized that it could not compute an answer to them. It had to relate to them.

Perhaps for the first time since the Collector had landed upon this lone yet unique rock in the vast void of space, it considered the swarm before it as a collection of individuals, not as a swarm of units.

The Collector could not have done so before. It had not held any concept of many of the emotions and desires these specimens felt.

But now, it had sufficient data to perceive many of their emotions and, though it still could not truly empathize with them, to feel their emotions as strongly as they did, it could at the very least understand them.

This allowed the Collector to alter its wording.

"The Great Purpose is a purpose that precedes all others," stated the Collector, the fiery aura around it raging upwards in a particularly bright show to emphasize its words.

It re-worded the Great Purpose to make it understandable and desirable. "It is the ultimate representation of the primordial desire of life to stand against the unknown, to overcome it to survive.

It is the ultimate stand against an eternal darkness that will come to this world and all others like it.

By fighting with me, by gathering forces and strength for this form of mine, we will stand against the eternal dark to come: a threat that will overwhelm and swallow all life and warmth upon this entire world.

Should you simply content yourselves with simple lives, then you may enjoy the immediate future, but inevitably, the darkness will come, and when it descends, it will swallow all that you are and all that you know."

The Collector motioned two of its hands towards the goblin swarm of evolved champions.

"Look among yourselves now. Look at your forms. Look at how much strength they have garnered, how they have evolved far past the weakness that chained them just days prior. Look at how you no longer want for food. Look at how you have now claimed a dungeon to your tribe.

None of you must run and hide now, scurrying amid the snow, afraid of the shadows and beasts.

Soon, you shall all attain further heights of strength, and then, you need not even fear the adventurers longer.

I grant you this strength not so that you may scavenge in fear as you have always done. No, I grant you such strength so that you may, in time, stand with me against the greatest darkness of all."

"We fight...to save the world," said Thragg with a deep nod.

"Yes," said the Collector simply.

The Collector did not lie. But it knew now how to word itself better. To relate them better to these specimen. This, the Collector could perform through some assistance via the mental link it possessed with the carrier unit and the soon to be evolved elite.

The links were two-way, and just as the units could sense the Collector's intent, the Collector could parse theirs, and, if it so desired, widen the connection so that it could glimpse their emotions to sufficient enough degree to understand them.

Yet, the Collector did not truly feel those emotions. It essentially saw them in the same way a tinkerer would investigate a pathogen under a microscope and come to know its effects and structure, but not truly feel the ravages of the disease with its own body.

This was not like how it had been when the female daemon specimen had unleashed her emotions unto the Collector.

Those emotions. Sadness. Loneliness. Happiness.

Those, the Collector could not understand even now though it could begin to understand more muted versions of those emotions.

When the Collector faced a worthy opponent, it could achieve something close to a muted 'happiness'.

But sadness and loneliness, those emotions, especially at the intensity at which the female daemon specimen had felt them, only confused the Collector.

Thus, it continued to seal them.

Perhaps, in a further time, there would come a need for the Collector to better understand them.

Perhaps in relating to the specimen under it to a greater degree. Or perhaps in requiring those emotions to utilize a useful core.

But for now, there was no need to further muddle the Collector's processing system with them.

"Then no greater purpose for me," said Thragg. He beat his heart with his fist. "Always, I wanted to be next champion. Tired of running and hiding. Lead tribe and make them big and happy and strong. But always, too weak.

Now, strong. Strong from you, king, you are right. And if this darkness will come for us, then I fight with strength you give me. Save my people."

The Collector understood that this specimen, this 'Thragg' as he was denoted, as particularly unique among the other specimens, having possessed great amounts of ambition beyond the bare necessities of his physical needs.

The Collector had uttered its words almost solely to convince this unit, but it understood that such words would also galvanize the other, more simpler units and also grant a cohesive, collective purpose to which the entire swarm could devote itself to.

In a way, this was a microcosm of the Collective Hivemind itself.

Except with the Collector at its center.

The Collector did not know whether this was heresy or not. Whether it was merely taking an efficient path towards the purpose implanted within it or whether it was usurping it.

For now, the Collector did not desire to ponder such a dilemma. The fact that it could even conceptualize such a dichotomy was indicative of the changes from the many varied experiences it had accumulated upon this world.

"I sense then that this purpose is sufficient. Then we will move on further," said the Collector.

____________

The rest of the way to Vimur held no errant threats.

The intensity of Grainfall, however, significantly increased to the point where the raging fall of black particulates was such that they almost completely mired visibility, reducing it to within five meters even with the Collector's honed ocular systems.

However, it did not seem that the already exceedingly frigid temperature of Grain became any colder. Thus, the champions could handle the cold so long as the Collector maintained its aura of flame to warm them.

Approximately forty minutes before arrival to Vimur, the Collector stopped the units to grant them sustenance. It did so by remaining stationary and allowing Snowsprites to gather around it once more.

Just as it could dispel them with a clap of its hands, it too could bid them return with the same motion. The Snowsprites seemed to be able to move throughout the Grainfall with no detrimental effect, and they shone even brighter against the contrasting darkness.

As time gathered and more and more Snowsprites whirled around the Collector's warmth, their intended usage came into effect as bait.