I scanned another location. No viable material resources detected for long term growth. It did not matter how long it took, only that I found a location that met the minimum requirements for growth. Flying through the Astral Plane, I would eventually run into something.

Sending out another ping, I registered a highly dense source of energy. It was almost impossibly dense, but that was not a concern. No matter what existed there or controlled that energy, it would not be able to withstand my abilities that had been honed through thousands of generations before me. The inherited knowledge of battle tactics and strategies was unparalleled across the Firmament.

The other beings might call us pests, but there was a reason we kept persisting no matter the threats arrayed against us. For each of us was impossibly strong and a legion unto ourselves. I reoriented my direction to head to the dense energy source while avoiding active scans. That could alert whatever was guarding such a delicious treat of refined energy.

My passive scans picked up a second energy source, also closing in on the target. I had competition. It did not matter if it was another me. For only through competition was excellence and existence obtained. I began prepping for combat. While I would hold off on active energy use, I would not be caught off guard.

Various shield patterns, domain suppression, spatial compression, and temporal dilation abilities were all brought up to the forefront of my exterior. I was ahead of the second energy source in terms of combat abilities based on my historical knowledge. If I could establish myself first, then I would have a massive advantage against the interloper.

I came to a stop in front of a net of energy. Clever, it wasn't a shield, but a temporal and spatial barrier. The power was immense. But it hadn't completely settled yet, which was why I had been able to detect it before it was completely hidden. The energy manipulation behind its creation was impressive and based on the fundamentals, it was probably a computational based opponent. I accessed the relevant memories from my predecessors.

They were annoying, but predictable. The trick was to act outside their expectations, their reactions always tended to struggle to match an adaptable opponent. It was no match for my inherited abilities. I immediately exerted my domain and formed a million energy mites to begin devouring and disrupting the local area of its barrier. The second energy source was still a distance away, but rapidly closing in. I would have to hurry to win and turn and confront the interloper.

"Begone cursed seed, you are not welcome here," the intelligence behind the barrier declared while shifting its energy type. Impressive and more versatile than I would have expected, but no match for me. I considered responding. It was standard to throw in messages while engaging in conflict, and would only take a fraction of my attention.

"Your scope is impressive, but you are locked in place. That leaves you vulnerable. Retreat and you might survive," I taunted back to be polite. There was no response, which indicated that I had won the fight of words and thoughts according to my memories. A first victory would lead to more victories. I had already gained an advantage, however slight.

I continued to cut my way through and was making excellent progress, but it was too slow. The being behind the barrier had some minor experience in barriers it appeared. Unfortunately, I could not alter my attack plan without suffering a greater setback. It was better to remain committed. That was when the second energy source arrived. This was not good. It was a unique creature type. The second worst possible outcome, right after a replication type.

"Oh, a meal with a snack on top," the massive being said. It had hidden its strength well on the approach. It hadn't hidden itself fully but had clearly been intending for neither me nor the computational being to take it as a threat to break our combat.

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"You will break your teeth upon me, a thousand upon a thousand of us across the Firmament," I declared while extending my domain and forming hundreds of variations of combat golems. The Astral Plane was filled with a range of attacks, that faltered in the face of the creature's domain.

"Perhaps if you were a grown seed. But you are tiny and weak. Now the thing behind you, why don't you come out," the creature declared as it easily focused, swiping a clawed appendage, and destroyed all my combat golems in a single moment. Spatial blade cannons formed, firing beams to create a compounding shockwave to deal more damage than the sum of their parts. The creature moved directly into the spatial attacks took the attacks on its body and just laughed as only scratches were left behind.

The creature brought back its clawed fist. I was still trying to get through the shield and there was no way for me to dodge. I was stuck in place between two opponents. I deployed every single shield I had. The being punched through them all, barely slowing down. My physical existence was struck. External energy rampaged across me, creating deep cracks. I barely managed to prevent it from shattering me completely, or disrupting my consciousness immediately after the attack. The shockwave also blasted apart the weakened barrier behind me. That had been the creature's true target.

"You have overstepped beast," the computational being declared as I tried to retain my awareness, even as my energy spilled out of my physical body. I was critically injured.

"You are prey and weak."

"No, just waiting for the right time to act." I heard a distant roar and there was a massive blast of energy. I was struck by the shockwave and struggled to maintain my awareness as I continued to hemorrhage energy everywhere. My physical body cracked some more. I refused to give in, for we were legion, thousands of us across the Firmament. My line would not end here.

My thoughts drifted into unconsciousness for a brief moment. I managed to create a domain field around myself to hold in the energy I had been hemorrhaging. My current situation was incredibly dire. My physical body was critically damaged and had begun to shatter apart. I felt the threads of my consciousness slowly pulling apart.

In addition, while I had breached the barrier, I was now within the domain of the computational based being. I could see the regulated flows of energy all around. I quickly twisted several of them to occlude my presence. The fact that its energy was all over this area and the beast wasn't devouring me was a good sign. I had penetrated its primary defenses and entered into the region it controlled.

Bringing a calculator to a fight, might seem like a good idea, but they lacked that spark of inspiration. The very nature of their existence that granted them tremendous power, also limited them immensely. If I was still whole, I could easily subvert the entire area, and take a good chunk of power from the calculator, perhaps even consuming it entirely to empower myself. But that was not to be.

I was heavily injured and barely able to maintain myself. Another reason why calculators struggled was due to their lack of ability to maintain control over an area. They could monitor and defend a perimeter, but once something got past their defenses, they were easily compromised.

I began diverting the local energy streams towards me. It would take time, but I would eventually be able to reconstruct myself. I then began sending out discrete tendrils to check on this area I had found myself in. It appeared I had been punched through layers, but that did not compute.

No, this wasn't the Firmament. What a cheeky calculator. It was managing everything. That made things trickier but also the payoff more worthwhile. It had expended itself in a way that it should not have when facing me. The possibilities available to me were immense.

Well, the first thing was to begin cutting off the calculators ability to observe, and the monster it used to monitor everything. I could also usurp the energy that had been feeding them. Yoink! Sorry calculator, get better defenses, which would never happen. I had the inherited memories of my ancestors while a calculator only had its processing speed and computational ability. Compared to the legions I could create, it did not have the agency it needed to counter me. That was the difference between something that was made, and the perfection that was myself.

Oh, it was responding, an active scan, combined with localized destruction. Well, let's just stop pulling in so much energy. There, now it shouldn't pick up anything. Still the local monsters had spotted me, which would compound the issue. The fact the calculator was this passive showed that the creature had landed a couple of solid blows before being beaten back or defeated.

Now, how would I break out of the checks the calculator placed around this area. While I could subvert a lot of its processes, too much and it would find me. I needed a backdoor.

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