I am an Eldritch Entity

The black smoke which had filled the vast hall of the Mind Palace began moving about.

The glowing smoke headed to where they had arrived from. The fifth door.

At this point when the black smoke was glowing brightly, one could make out that the fifth door had never opened at all.

It was still shut tight, looking the same as always whenever Eryndor visited the Mind Palace.

The smoke had somehow still leaked from behind the door though.

The first batch of glowing black smoke which reached the door compressed onto themselves..

It compressed, compressed, and continued collapsing upon itself until it was just a single glowing black line which felt extremely solid. One wouldn't be able to guess that it was made of smoke.

The black line floated in the air briefly before it began making its way towards the fifth door and pasted itself on it.

When the second batch reached in front of the fifth door, the process repeated itself.

All the smoke converged into a single line before closing in on the fifth door.

It embedded itself on a different spot, not overlapping over the one which had embedded itself before it.

The third time, it wasn't a line, but an arc.

The fourth time, it was a small line.

The fifth time, it was a dot.

The sixth time, it was a large line.

The seventh time, it was an arc again, but one with a higher angle.

The process continued, with the shapes repeating every once in a while.

If one had been present to see the process though, they would've noticed that what was in the making was a design.

Yes, a design.

A rune.

An extremely complex rune.

It was countless times more complex than the ones on the Sovereign's Cloak.

The process might look like it was taking long, but in the outside world, only a few seconds had passed.

Eryndor knew it would be extremely difficult to reign in his Hunger now that he had lost hold over it once.

He could already feel his rationality slipping away. He might only have a minute at most at the rate he was going.

But he still asked a question which had been on his mind.

He looked straight to Daoist, who was already conjuring another flame ball in his hands. Eryndor's expression was a mix of anguish and concentration.

"Don't you feel the Hunger?"

The question had been on his mind ever since their conversation had begun.

Daoisto had been relaxed all along, not at all looking like someone who was holding back their intense Hunger.

Eryndor had thought that the person might be incredibly experienced at such a matter.

But Daoisto had doubled over laughing, and also showed a variety of emotions without any stress or an iota of focus on his expression. Could someone really be so at ease?

Eryndor knew the nature of his Hunger.

It was definitely not his. It was something which came from within.

He had two guesses.

One, it was the emotion of his eldritch subconscious.

And second, it was the hunger which every eldritch experienced.

There was a difference.

The first one meant that the Hunger belonged to his other persona, the one which belonged to his eldritch form before he was sealed, and the second meant that Hunger was inherent in all eldritch beings when they sense another of their kind.

All along, Eryndor had thought that it was the second option. But looking at Daoisto's actions, he had a small doubt that it might be the first option instead.

Eryndor wouldn't make the mistake of using Cognitive Scrying on Daoisto to get the answer though.

It would be a very foolish mistake.

Daoisto was a clone of an extremely powerful entity. What if their minds were connected?

It would be suicide if Eryndor barged into his mindspace to scry through his memories.

Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do anything at all if the connection between us during Cognitive Scrying led to something worse. Because then I'll be directly in contact with the real eldritch entity. There'll be no way out.

But then, this brought another question in his mind.

Why hadn't Daoisto tried to use Cognitive Scrying on me? Didn't all eldritch entities were known to possess Telekinesis and Cognitive Scrying?

He had never once used Telekinesis either, and also resorted to questioning me rather than using Cognitive Scrying.

Was he not an eldritch entity? Or was the fact that all eldritch entities possessed those two abilities false?

When the clone heard Eryndor's question.

His first reaction was to scan his facial expression, which varied a lot from the indifferent expression which the student had been displaying all along.

Daoisto couldn't come up with any guess why he would make such an expression, it was only then that his question registered in his mind.

He tilted his head, and answered with a frown.

"Hunger? What hunger?"

Eryndor could only hear those two words as his rationality completely slipped away.

At the same time, deep within his Mind Palace, the last batch of black smoke had finished condensing into a line as it embedded itself on the fifth door, finally completing the huge complex rune.

Once it was completed, the rune began shining brightly.

As if its previous glow wasn't enough, this time, the brightness somehow bypassed the Mind Palace, directly radiating in the outside world through Eryndor's body.

The rune hadn't been activated yet though.

Eryndor, now dominated by Hunger, had instinctively switched to his second form.

He had already been meaning to do it, because with no one around, he could always argue that the presence they sensed was of Daoisto, and not him.

So one could say that his Hunger dominated mind just followed through with what he long since had in mind.

At this point, Daoisto was finally able to sense the eldritch presence from Eryndor.

The first emotion which manifested in his eyes?

It was fear.