CH639

For the first time since Ben had been watching them, perhaps for the first time ever, every demon that had been coming and going through the gates stood still.

How could they not? A structure filled with the prizes and power of their god, a structure that had stood longer than any of them had lived, had vanished, spilling out its contents to the ground below. Even the ones that hadn’t reached their sapient stage were stunned

It was only for a moment, but in their second of shock that trumped their violent souls, Ben experienced eons. An eternity under the weight of what he’d done in the face of what had happened.

He’d freed the prisoners, he’d doomed the prisoners, both were true with it only being a matter of milliseconds until the monster surrounding them would act, leaving him to reach out to every single captive within his range and shouting with both his voice and thoughts as connections were made.

“RUN!”

It was a deep, primal scream that touched them to their core, at least the ones close enough to him, as he started to move himself while he was threaded through others, Tenth and another dozen prisoners each meshed into his mind as that primal instruction reached them, deeper than anything else when he’d ever stretched into the depths of a person and forced something to click.

<MENTAL SYMBIOSIS HAS COMBINED WITH PUPPETRY LV9 AND FINE MOTOR CONTROL LV9 TO AWAKEN TO HIVE MIND>

<ACQUIRED TITLE- DESTINED HOLDER OF MENTAL SYMBIOSIS>

Instantly he wasn’t just in a single place anymore. He wasn’t just one person anymore. It felt the same as every time he’d used one of his clones, having more bodies at his disposal with flesh acting under his will regardless of the minds that inhabited it, not that many of the original occupants could have fought him.

The centuries hadn’t been kind to any within his reach. Even Tenth who’d retained his thoughts was stunned enough by events that he couldn’t fight off all that Ben was, not when his power had deepened so suddenly and wormed its way inside of them, touching their cores and merging into each one. All of them were forced to run under his command, it feeling like his own limbs were smacking against the dirt below as all of his long-formed plans changed in that instant.

His shoes were immediately useless. Even though he’d caused the collapse that had freed them after so long, he wouldn’t be able to save everyone, but he wasn’t able to make himself abandon those in his reach either, meaning he couldn’t get far enough that the connection would break with those already brought into his fold.

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So instead he had to move them, feeling distant memories of how their bodies should have worked as each one was forced up to take its first steps despite whatever injuries they’d gained during the fall, with that being enough to snap the demons from their stupor, making the swarm move.