If only the elves just advanced forward without needing to illuminate their surroundings, they could've avoided eighty percent of their current aggressors. After all, us 'void-dwellers' were very sensitive to light. It could be compared to the human term of being thrown right into the sun; searing hot pain!
Then again, I remembered that the human couldn't really see in the dark, maybe it was the same with elves?
Uuuuu, it's no use then. Guess I shouldn't rely on the probability of the humans and their subspecies to appear within my territory.
I should expand my roots even more—enough for a greater possibility of humans to step into my territory immediately when they arrive.
And thus, I started to endlessly conquer and expand every native that crossed their weapons with my roots.
Bits of me took their essence, abilities, battle prowess, and mind processing capabilities. With every void-dweller I consumed, the stronger my stench to them was, and the more powerful the guests I attracted became.
The amount of strength I possessed began to influence countless regions within the Void. Apparently, they began to avoid me as if I'm some kind of unstoppable, natural phenomenon.
As much as I wanted to celebrate this milestone, I could barely feel any kind of emotion…
Not even the fruit of conquest nor the glee of knowledge could satisfy me…
Another thousands of years passed uneventfully.
Just as I was about to erase my own existence, a fortunate occasion appeared in front of my door.
Lo and behold!
A human visit! Twenty of them! And they entered the void just right above my roots!
All of them possessed a weirdly eastern attire, or so what the human memory in me calls them. Fluttering silk yet brave and firm armor, emblazing the very churning fire that their heart harbor.
AHAHAHAH! After all these years! I have finally been given the chance to acquire yet another human's essences!!
But just as I thought it would be an easy encounter for me, one of the humans brandished something out of their soul.
That 'something' ended up vaporizing two thousand years worth of my roots' growth.
Desperate to acquire their memories and essence no matter what, I took the matter more seriously than ever before.
Using all of the abilities and battle prowess acquired in my 'Time' here, I began to attack this group of humans from every direction imaginable.
A falling thunderous whirlpool millions of times larger than humanity's mountain Everest.
A tsunami of my countless thorny spikes enchanted with one-hundred-eighteen elements, reinforced by layered sheets of fortified space from all four sides.
An all-devouring wound of space and time from below—creeping, ensnaring, and enrapturing every material and existence before it.
And from the very center of their formation, a four dimensional weapon that I forged using the knowledge of millions of void-blacksmiths I consumed.
The moment it entered the gap of their perceivable space, the weapon would erupt and expand into six random directions, obliterating anything it touched.
As I've sent out my magnum opus cordis into those twenty brave humans, they committed to their very best attempt to survive.
They scoured and utilized every tool and magical aspect they possessed to no avail, which only feeds upon the fear and despair embroidered on their pale faces––
They couldn't escape through mending of space, as I've reinforced them with my roots outside of this dimension.
They couldn't turn back the time, as I've stolen its hands to prevent it from moving anywhere.
They also couldn't move an inch, as I've anchored their souls to the fate that awaits them.
And just before the world of erasure hit them, I granted those humans the strongest level of physical immortality within my possible privilege as a higher being.
All wounds and erased matter would instantly regenerate the moment it happens. But at the same time, the cause of those would still be present, leaving only the stimuli and sensation.
To ensure that I shall acquire the degree of their obedience without any voidly interference, a raw and visceral physical stimulus is all I need to inflict.
As such, I let them in that perpetual cycle for a hundred years.
I did plan the session to be a thousand years at best, but I deemed such a time span to be excessive. So I removed one zero from it!
Hmmhmm~ I feel really benevolent already.
With the non-existent new wind of the Void, a hundred years had passed.
Uhm.
I think I broke them?
Their minds barely held an inkling of their own existence. Their bodies were limp and unmotivated, much like a lifeless matter encompassing the tiny material floating through the Void every now and then.
I'm too busy handling my territory, that I barely check the state of the humans I imprisoned. Urgh.
While it was true that my goal was to absorb their memories and essence by the end of it all, I wanted to know what it felt like to converse with a human without them trying to kill me or flee away.
Well, just as they say, the rice had turned into porridge— Hmm~... I wonder if I can taste it somewhere in the future…?
Regardless, I ended up extracting all of the twelve humans. Each of them, showcased the one hundred years torture to be their most prominent moment in their lives.
Their cries and anguish, relentless restlessness and madness. They all seeped through the fiber of my roots.
Apparently to humans, one hundred years is a very long time…
As for their essences and memory, it's…
Wonderful!! All these churning emotions and despair!! Unlike those of the void-dwellers', humans' psyche were much more rich and complex!
Well, aside from the one hundred years of pain that I inflicted upon them, I began to dive deeper into their memory and life experience, relinquishing the moment of the past like reading a picture book on my lap.
But before fully committing to it—an attempt to not spoil myself—I tried to see if I could create this so-called 'computer' from the memory of the first human I extracted.
I built them using my very own material, as well as developing the processing power to be capable of simulating the world that these twelve humans' lived before.
It took time, like about another thousand years. But in the end, the fruit was satisfying.
I could directly touch, perceive, and even feel the souls of the existence recreated from those memories.
It might be quite baffling at first, especially considering that these new twelve individuals lived in an entirely different world than the first human I extracted.
Instead of computers and science, they have magic and scrolls. Instead of planes and intercontinental ballistic missiles, they have dragons and meteor summoning spells.
Because of this, it was as if I lived in a fantasy world from the perspective of my earliest human's memory.
Despite the difference, the fundamental aspects that make up humanity were still the same.
They lived in a very social community, while at the same time, barely uniting their aspirations.
Their cruelty, their ambition, their loves, their hates, their dreams—each individual possesses different degrees of those aspects from one to another.
Not to mention, they are extremely fragile. Yet, they were more resilient than any towering beasts.
At some point, they even challenged the gods.
Just as I thought that they couldn't pique my interest even further, they did! And from that point, it was an endless cycle of euphoric discovery.
So––
For the next 1,098,627,836,973,837,883 years, I indulged my existence within the simulated bubble of these twelve human's worlds, reliving every kind of possibility that humanity faced and embraced.
I experienced plowing the field in the hope that the harvest would come ajar.
I experienced emulated anger and pain, where my close ones were hung in front of my eyes.
I experienced fighting for humanity, alongside humanity, against humanity.
I experienced guiding the visionless who guided the blind.
I have experienced them all, even to the point of repetition.
Yet, despite the mundane content that was repeated in front of me again and again, it might still be the happiest moments of my life.
Before I knew it, I realized my greatest, hidden, and deepest desire.
I want to be human.
Not for fun and games, but a true human with flaws.
Not a fake human within a simulated bubble, not an artificial vessel I controlled from the Void, and not a human with the stench and soul of an eldritch horror.
But a real, genuine human.
At the same time, my roots had been subconsciously expanding, absorbing anything as usual while I remained dormant within my simulated playbox world.
They had fully expanded far and wide into the entirety of the Boötes region, which could be considered to be impossibly massive in human standard.
Though I have stopped caring about those things. I didn't care for those mindless conquests. I didn't need those useless territories, I didn't need those worthless essences either.
I only want nothing and nothing more, but to become a human in its entirety.
And so, without thinking twice, I began my process of 'Descending' my transient existence and concept.
I began consuming my own essence to devolve my privilege of reality, shaping myself into a bud, and used my own roots as a fuel to this degrading, and degenerating journey.
To enact my 'Apocolocyntosis'.