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RUIN RESOLUTION

You finally get underneath Mother. Its sheer size and shadow drop the temperature several degrees. You realize it was never really aware of you. Whatever happened, whatever you just went through, was nothing more than a muscle spasm, a reaction to a small insect.

Underneath it now, the static is numbing. You can sense it. Its strange thinking patterns are almost as tangible as the wind. The mental interference lets you into its thoughts.

It still feels the pull from the depths of the land. Its rage when awakened by scientists. Its need when reaching for other creatures to connect to. You sense the labs. Twins screaming. Connected by one mental thread. You feel Mother hearing their pleas. You feel the destruction. You feel their altar to Mother. Their offerings of corruption. You understand their connection through strangeness and displacement. You see the twins' faces. You feel Mother's hatred of corruption. This plague is weaving itself everywhere, cutting Mother's connection to the rest of its brood and preventing its return to the depths.

You have seen its brood before. They just call it an Epidural Bypass in the colonies. Nothing but a device, and now you've met its source. Away from Mother's grasp, each is only a severed fragment of inert consciousness. A tool.

Mother now remains recoiled, weakened by the infection. The monolith is a fire keeping it warm while the corruption attempts to take over. You realize why the brood killed all your travelling companions and brought this relic here. To keep the fire going for Mother.

And at the monolith’s foot, under carcasses of creatures you have never seen before, lies the relic, encased in quartz. Solidified echoes of consciousness bound to the artifact. They managed to keep it intact all the way here, but you will have to touch it. And you know what happens when someone attuned to The Hum touches one.