Elektra stared at the oily shadow dripping off of Scourge's fingers and watched as the droplets hissed upon contact with the air vaporizing into whisps of black smoke. The vapors gave off a strong sickly sweet smell, that both enticed and repulsed Elektra's senses as she knew that indulging in the scent would lead to her ruin, but the allure of unknown temptation was strong.
"Touch my mind and I assure you I will make you pay even if it's with my dying thought," Elektra growled as she tried to move her head away only to have it be held in place as a slew of tentacles emerged from the collum.
"Why do you swear retribution against me, when I come offering gifts," Scourge asked his voice soft, but full and unyielding like a deep water current that swept along everything in its path, "I am giving you the greatest purpose a living being can have...to serve me....for all eternity and to indulge endlessly in the pleasure my satisfaction will bring."
Before Elektra could respond Scrouge's shadow-drenched fingers pressed against her forehead causing her eyes to roll in the back of her skull as her body came alive. Every single nerve ending of Elektra's fired at overwhelming her mind with every sensation imaginable. Fire and Ice, bliss and agony, pain, and pleasure, Elektra was being tortured and pleasured at the same time, and before long her mind couldn't differentiate where one sensation ended and the other stopped leaving her in a near catatonic state. But what she was aware of was him, the one currently lording his dominion over her. Elektra could feel his mind like a physical touch as he roamed through her thoughts and memories, plucking them from her guarded mind like ripe berries off the stem.
Elektra couldn't fight him off, a part of her didn't even want to, in comparison to his touch, the world felt cold and lonely. So why would she ever choose to rid herself of it?
'Do you understand now? Do you understand what I am?'
Elektra opened her eyes and found herself floating, in a pitch-black abyss void of any light or substance yet all around her she could feel his presence, it woven into the very fabric of whatever reality she found herself in. For a moment Elektra thought she was alone, but then she became aware of others speckled within the abyss, and they became aware of her.
As one they all reached out and Elektra braced herself for an overwhelming swarm of voices and thoughts, but instead found them unified into one singular identity.
'You are Swarm.' Elektra replied as she reached out and accepted the identity into herself, 'We are all Swarm.'
---
Pulling his fingers away Harry grinned at the cacoon that now fully encased Elektra, who was undergoing a massive transformation one that required him to suspend her consciousness within the Hivemind so her body could adapt without interference.
"What are you doing to her?" Betty asked and Harry turned to find her and Liz staring curiously from their improvised lounging chair, "I thought you weren't going to make her a queen?"
"I'm not," Harry clarified as he walked towards his two Queens, "But her skills and expertise are far too great to simply discard, incorporating her as a proper member of the hive will allow all of us to access her decades' worth of martial, espionage, and telepathic training."
"And just who, exactly is she, and why was she after you" Liz asked as she sat upright and moved to the side making room for her King.
Lying down on the jell sack Harry barely had a moment to get comfortable before Liz and Bett crawled on top of him like a body pillow, "Her name is Elektra Natchios, a highly trained assassin and former member of The Hand. A thousand-year-old organization that's half ninja clan half demon worshipping cult. They serve a demonic being known only as the Beast who is responsible for granting members of The Hand their mystical powers such as clairvoyance telepathic abilities and even resurrection through a mix of morphology and some form of demonic magic. Elektra herself was back to life but she decided she no longer wanted to serve and fled, which is why she is working with the Kingpin, she needs a way out of the city and a new identity."
"You gleamed all of that from her mind that quickly?" Betty asked as she looked over and stared at Harry in awe, "Didn't you say her thoughts were guarded against intrusion?"
"Yes, but once I managed to edit the changes to Elektra's physiology responsible for her telepathy into myself I was able to telepathically link the mind of every Swarm and even more surprising those who have been cleansed by my alter ego Genesis. Which granted me an immense reserve of mental energy that I could use as my own, allowing me to brute force my way into her mind." Harry explained casually as if he was talking about the weather.
Liz frowned, "How could you link the minds of your followers to the Hivemind, they aren't part of the Swarm."
"Genetically they aren't, I've only made very sparing adjustments to their bodies when indoctrinating them and never to their DNA directly. However, I have strong evidence that leads me to believe that the divine spark growing within me is facilitating some kind of synthesis between my various power sets. From what I can feel there is no difference in the ideological faith that my followers have for me, and the ingrained genetically driven instincts of the Swarm that recognizes me as its supreme ruler with absolute authority. Which through a meta point of view makes sense as I am their creator and from their perspective possess a god-like power to create life."
"But have you found a use for this faith power that you're gathering or is it still just sitting around collecting dust?" Betty wondered as she placed her hand right below her King's sternum where she could feel the strange energy signature that felt both alien and familiar to her senses
Harry shook his head, "Nyx explained to me that the faith I am gathering currently isn't meant to be used to perform miracles or wielded like a weapon to smite heretics. It's nurturing the spark of divinity inside of me and determining what my Sovereignty will encompass."
"Your Sovereignty?" Betty echoed as she raised her hand extending a thin tendril of symbiote that formed a series of intricate shapes.
"A god's Sovereignty is what aspects of reality or concepts they have dominion over," Harry summarized as he raised both hands in one conjuring a glowing sphere of bioenergy and in the other a writhing tumorous mass of creep, "Just as how Ares is a god of war, Freya a goddess of Love, Poseidon god of the ocean and so on. There's a rather cyclical nature to godhood, where mortals worship and pray to a specific god with Sovereignty over what they can not change themselves which generates faith energy that allows the god to enforce their will upon the universe."
"Wait, so a god's Sovereignty, the base of their power, is determined by the wants and wishes of mortals?" Liz concluded with a confused look on her face.
"In a way yes, but if I assume that the origin of most gods mirrors my own, where they possessed a level of power or some supernatural ability that allowed them to gather a following. Then their Sovereignty would be intrinsically linked to their original powers. For instance, you both know my power of Biomancy stems from Nyx and my status as a mutant. But I utilize that power in very different ways depending on the role I occupy. As Genesis, I am able to heal both mind and body and offer a Sanctuary for my followers free from the pain and suffering that comes with life. But as Scourge, King of The Swarm, my actions cause nothing but pain and suffering, because life is all there is. Consumption, reproduction, expansion for all of time."
Betty shook her head, "But if that's the case what will your Sovereignty look like? Will you be a God of healing and protection or one of destruction and evolution?"
"The solution is to be both and neither, I need to find a way to merge both of my identities and their unique characteristics into a singular Sovereignty that my followers can understand and direct their faith towards."
"How are you supposed to merge a god of healing who saves people and a god of destruction that creates demons that seek to assimilate all life in existence," Liz asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Simple," Harry said with a smile, "They just need something even greater to hate."