Ch 22

Evolution Complete

Overmind Lvl 3

Health – 300/300

Mana – 2500/2500

Abilities:

Physical:

Spawn Hive (200 Mana) – Grows a Zerg Lair at your current location (12 hours)

Burrow (0 Mana) – Go underground; unable to move; can only be detected by sensors

Burrow Move (0 Mana) – Ability to move underground when burrowed

Transfusion (50 Mana) – Instantly transfer 125 health to biological unit or structure

Shapeshift (0 Mana) – Take on the appearance of any target similar in size

Adamantium Armor (Passive) – All physical type damage is blocked 100%

Photosynthesis (Passive) – Ability to obtain partial sustance from light sources

Psionic:

PSI Assault (1 Mana) – Casts a focused PSI attack at one enemy

PSI Storm (50+ Mana) – Casts a localized storm of PSI energy

PSI Guantlet Lvl 2 (Passive) – Mana Above 0; Strength increased by factor of 20

PSI Armor Lvl 2 (Passive) – Mana Above 0; All attacks do 50% less damage

PSI Sensor (Passive) �� Mana Above 0; Able to detect cloaked, burrowed, and hallucinated units

Magic:

Exploding Fireball (5 Mana) – Explodes on contact, not affected by gravity, spreads flame, deflected by opposing opposite force

Fire Charge (2 Mana) – Shoots rapid balls of fire in three round bursts after each charge

Self Combustion (1 Mana per second) – Wrap yourself in flames spontaneously

Animation (10 Mana) - Give inananimate objects a limited form of life; enslaved

Reanimation (15 Mana) – Give limited life to the biological deceased; enslaved

Teleport Lvl 1 (0 Mana) – Able to teleport within range of vision; full horizontal/slight vertical

Flight: Flame Propulsion (1 Mana per second) – Fly using the thrust of conjured flame

Fire Immunity (Passive) – Mana above 0; 100% immune to heat, fire, lava, etc.

Celestial:

Creation Lvl 1 (500 Mana) - Able to build anything with your mind you already know how to build manually; size limited to ten times your own size

Adaptive Strength (Passive) – Base strength is set automatically to allow the ability to lift and throw any weight

Incorporeal (Passive) – Take on a non physical state automatically in reaction to any danger

True Sight (Passive) – Able to see through any limitation to vision (ie. Lack of light, solid matter)

Zerg Mana – 1,058,537,500/1,000,000,000,000

Zerg Supply – 1298/17,900,090

My eyes flew wide open as the information on the mana amount filtered into my head. Wow… we passed a billion. Holy cow we broke a billion mana! I still can't get over just how much mana is available to me. The rate at which it's growing is just plain astounding, and it's only going to get even bigger, what with having access to not only the Nether, but now the outer shell of the Nether as well as the Void itself. I am curious if the Aether will become part of that as well, but I honestly don't know. Heck, I don't even know if the Aether is an actual physical place or where exactly it could be. At least everything else has so far been an actual physically locatable place. For all I know I may find areas that are just plain impossible to map later on.

Speaking of the Aether, I feel it's time to go find Notch. This feeling isn't something I can readily identify, and I'm starting to suspect it's coming from Notch himself. Doing a routine sweep of the Swarm lends further credence to this as I spy a double rainbow among the clouds above the Creep. It seems it's time. I'd feel much better if I were immortal though, even if it's obvious why that wouldn't be a good thing. Technically, I already have a form of immortality though. No Zerg can die of old age. I'm unsure about sickness, but my Queens assure me that Zerg don't get sick anyways. I can only hope they're right in that regard. It would suck if a well placed biological weapon were to just wipe out the Zerg in one strike.

Shaking my head of such thoughts, I look over to my Queens, stretching in a manner that has me gulping and focusing on their eyes and nothing else. Clearing my throat, I say, "I think it's time to visit Notch. Will you be coming with?" My Queens nodded. Snow even snorted and said, "Like you're ever going anywhere without us." I chuckled at that, glad at the truth of that statement. If there's one thing you'll never be able to call my ladies, it's nonprotective and disloyal. I might call them mothering, but in my opinion they aren't overbearing enough to merit being called that.

Walking out of the Lair and turning my eyes skyward, I eyed the double rainbow in the sky. Falling backwards, with my Queens following suit, as soon as our bodies faced directly towards the two rainbows, we teleported towards the sight, then flew in between the rainbows. After flying through them, we hit a cloud bank, that once clear, revealed that the Overworld had disappeared. In it's place is a collection of interconnected islands floating in the sky with many layers, hills, caves, and even mountains. I can't even begin to calculate how big it must be, despite being above it, yet it still stretches out before us, far into the horizon.

The feeling I'm getting to meet up with Notch seems to be directing me towards a large mountain with a small plateau on top. Heading towards the plateau, a bunch of stone arches arranged much like stone henge comes into view. Landing down among the arches, I notice that each arch shows a different view of each of the worlds, all of them focused mainly on the Creep, though one is showing a view of this place, in particular it's showing a close view of myself and my Queens. Standing in front of this particular arch is Notch himself. He turns away from the arch to regard us.

Welcome Matthew, Overmind of the Zerg, to my home. I'm pleased you received my summons.

I nodded and replied, "Thank you for the invitation. Was there something you needed to see me about? The feeling I got was that it would have been too late to wait any longer."

Notch smiled sardonically.

True. I trust you caught the implication of Herobrine's immortality?

I nodded, "I suspected, but I wasn't certain till now. Why did you kill him, if it would only result in your death?"

My Queens gasped behind me at my question, though I didn't get any feelings of surprise. It seems they had suspected themselves.

Notch sighed. Long ago, my brother and I awoke in the formless void of space. We did not exist prior to then, but together we knew that we had a mission, a goal to accomplish. Together, we used the powers we had to create this world. We formed the Aether first as a home for ourselves, and the rest of the world followed. My brother both had our own views of what the world should be like though, so we ended up creating two worlds in one, the Overworld, and the Underworld; both equal in appearance and beauty. Like all stories worth telling, something changed. My brother had been tending to his world, but when he came back, he was changed. I tried to find out what happened to him, but he slowly grew poisoned towards me. At the time, I had thought he was jealous of my world, for something silly, but I should have known better. I tried to reason with him, but nothing worked. In the End, he finally attacked me, chasing me even that far as I tried to escape his poisonous actions. He'd turned the Nether into a veritable hell, and his own world had become an abomination, sickening to behold.

With his attack, I knew that I would have to take drastic measures. I stripped my brother of his powers and memories, casting him to the Overworld, hoping he would learn and become the brother I once knew. The Darkness in him, I left in the End, setting him goals of a sort to reach the place where he attacked me, in the hopes that he would be able to defeat the darkness and become himself again. In The End, he faced his Darkness, but it consumed him, and he regained his memories and powers, greater and more terrible than ever before. It was all I could do to banish him to the world that he'd created.

Yes, I can see the realization on your face. While Herobrine is his name, that was the name he fashioned himself after the darkness consumed him once again. Before then, my brother's name was Steve. I knew once he'd changed his name, I had forever lost my brother. But then hope came. Not long ago, a strange star streaked across the sky, but before it passed, a piece broke off from the whole and landed on my Overworld, creating a small hollowed out cave. In it, I found you, Matthew. I didn't know what purpose you had, but already I could tell there was something about you. A presence, that would change everything, and you have.

I have watched as you grew from the single boy you were to the mighty presence you are today, and I can't help but be astonished by the power you already wield and the seemingly limitless potential you have. I listened as you explained this world from your own perspective. I can honestly say I was astonished at how thorough your knowledge was, however skewed the source may be. I watched you face my brother, unsure of what might come of the battle, but as you held him off, I knew that the moment had come in which I had to make a choice. For better or for worse, I made my decision.

I'm dying Matthew. I don't have long left in this world. You pondered once why I stared at you so long after my brother died. I was not pondering the choice I'd made; I had already made the choice. Instead I was trying to understand. My brother and I could have gone on, stalemated as we were. But I saw in you something I'd thought lost a long time ago; hope. Hope for the future. If there's anyone I can trust this world to after we're gone, it would be you, and I know I've made a good choice. Make this world better than it was before Matthew, for both myself and my brother. I leave our legacy in your hands.

I stared at the spot that Notch once stood. While he'd been speaking, his body became translucent, and with his last words he disappeared altogether. With his end, the stone arches crumbled into dust in the wind, leaving the plateau bare. I don't know how long I stood there, running his words through my mind. None of my Queens had a dry eye available, and I soon found myself engulfed in a group hug. I can honestly say I didn't know what to think. The information Notch gave me before he passed on was almost too fantastic to believe. The fact that Herobrine and Steve are the same person had thrown me for a loop, but that information of how he'd found me really left me… stunned? Confused? I wasn't sure how to feel exactly. What did that bit mean? I had crash landed into this world from a shooting star? How does that even work? I had wondered if Notch had been the one to bring me here, but according to him, my being here was something else's doing entirely. Then there's the bit about Herobrine being enslaved by Darkness. That would mean something else is out there, something dangerous enough to enslave someone of Notch's level of power.

Even more than before, the resolve in me burned, to become even more powerful and protect my family from danger. More than that though, I need to find the portal to the End. I need to make sure that the darkness there or whatever I might find is gone. Before I do that though, I need to become more powerful. I have another evolution I need to go through before I can get to the End.

With new found determination, I turned to my Queens and said, "We need to become more powerful. We need to evolve once more. Before that though, I want you to spread the Creep."

My Queens nodded, and set about their task. They created 1,602,329 Drones and set them to create more Hives. It's too bad it's roughly mid afternoon, so tonight's Mana deposit isn't going to be affected by the influx of Hives. Not comfortable with being in an unknown place out in the open, despite how nice the Aether is, we made our way back to our home Hive. I just hope that we can still make our way back to the place, but hopefully with the new Teleport available, that shouldn't be a problem. I once again told my Queens to prepare to evolve. Once they told me they're ready, I activated the ZGA.

Welcome to the Zerg Genetic Archive

Input Command

:Evolve the Swarm. Apply Teleport Lvl 3, Invisibility Lvl 3, and Flight: Mind Over Matter to the entire Swarm. Apply Lightning Lvl 3 to all Zerg Units and Hives.

Processing Command… Warning! Applying Teleport Lvl 3 to the Swarm will remove the ability: Teleport Lvl 1.

Continue?

Yes

Command Accepted

Zerg Mana – 360

Wait, why did it cost a million for that!? Then I remembered that Flight: Mind Over Matter was a psionic technique so I'd actually requested two types of evolutions. Oops. Good thing I had enough. That was my last thought before the evolution forced me into unconsciousness again.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind mana – 2500/2500

Zerg Mana – 360/1,000,000,000,000

Zerg Supply – 1,298/17,900,090 (8,011,645 pending)

Units:

1 Overmind

1079 Overlords

101 Drones

11 Speedlings

6 Queens

100 Hydralisks

Structures:

3,580,018 Hives (1,602,329 pending)

1 Spawning Pool

2 Evolution Chambers

1 Hydralisk Den

1 Roach Warren

1 Baneling Nest

1 Nydus Network

1 Spire

1 Infestation Pit