It meant becoming an exploiter and consumer on the spiritual level, rather than a mere decomposer that fed on decay. Even if its own physical body completely perished, it could use a mature fungal species to seize everything from a host and be reborn in the host's body.
Note: Hosts on the same transcendent path, or those cultivating identical or cognate forbidden knowledge, yield the best results.
At this point, the Swarm, though not yet comparable to a Chǐ God—which was equivalent to an entire ecosystem—was already exceptionally difficult to kill.
Byron finally understood why the Swarm was so confident in vying for the position of contemporary Grand Priest of the Bloodthirsty Cult.
