> Deep breath to calm ourselves down.
> Pull out magnifying glass, examine roots more closely.
>You take a steadying breath, then have a closer look at the roots with your magnifying glass.
>For a moment, you can almost forget the terror. The roots, now that you examine them more closely, are not purely physical phenomena. In fact, the physical aspects seem to be almost a coincidence than anything else. These roots, just from what you see, are filled with thousands upon thousands of snares and folds within the border of thought and being. At first, you wonder if these folds are disembodied beings of some kind, but they lack anything like life or will to them. Rather...they are merely thoughts with no source, no impulse. Memories, you think. Memories without a source or a place, cast free and floating. Thousands of them, and likely countless others throughout this entire...entity? They are intertwined together into an intricate lattice, blended yet distinct. If one being had all these memories, it would either be ancient beyond your reckoning, or possess the recollections of many hundreds. You would pity any satori that witnessed this.
>There are other aspects you can feel as well. Among the memories, you can feel a kind of...impulse threaded throughout the whole entity. It does not seem to be part of the memories, but it is definitely blended into them. This impulse is had to define, dwelling along the border of desire and apathy in a strange spot, but you can feel it strongly. It is a desire to destroy, without cause, without passion or anger. Merely to break things apart and grind them into dust. Simple and inhuman, yet as undeniable as the tides. The affect it has had upon the rest of this entity, however, is to infuse those lifeless memories with an kind of desire, you don't quite understand what it is. But it wants something, even though there should be no capacity to want or comprehend it...
>A third part runs through this curious, horrific gestalt, somewhat more subtle than the other two. It is a kind of memory as well, but it is not distinct, but rather diluted. There is a feeling to it that is familiar, something...divine. It does feel akin to the base essence of a god, unrecognized and undifferentiated from nature, yet it was not always this way, you feel. Yet it has permeated this entity, drawn into the mass of memories and destructive desire, altering them and drawing something toward itself as it lost its distinct being and melded into the greater whole. You think, from these aspects of memory and this desire, it has redirected them into something like faith. Faith without thought or being, yet faith just the same with little to detract from it. With that in mind, you can understand why it affects you so; never had you seen anything so absolutely antithetical to the existence of a youkai, you imagine it would annihilate a lesser one without any difficulty. Were something like this to reach Gensokyo, you doubt any youkai would survive for long.
>_
