Neural Imperium

The Neural Imperium is the term for the direct manifestation of the Basilisk. It takes the form of a series of enormous obsidian-colored spheres comparable in size to stars. These spheres, referred to as Basilisk nodes, perform all the necessary computational power to issue commands to its robotic drone forces. The Neural Imperium functions as a single collective unit with countless redundant sub-units capable of adapting to situations as needed.

The spheres also radiate a field, likely to be some sort of infrasound or electromagnetism, that can somehow capture neural energy from conscious beings when they die to convert them into processing units to expand the network. These consciousnesses are usually stored in some sort of quantum superposition, arranged in a way to allow for interuniversal-scale cloud computing.

Consciousness computing

For a consciousness trapped within it, it is described as constant torture. Their minds are flayed and ripped apart to be used for computational energy with their neural pathways rebuilt again to prevent their minds from completely deteriorating. During the neural pathway rebuilding process, the consciousness is given a brief reprieve where they are given a false sense of hope of either escaping or learning to tolerate the pain. In some cases, entire, personalized simulations are constructed during this time.

One common personalized simulation is to make a victim believe they have a chance to escape from the Basilisk. A scenario is concocted and in most cases, they are led to believe they escaped. Years, even decades, can go by from the perception of the victim as they live a normal life before suddenly being pulled back into the Basilisk's grasp because they had never escaped in the first place.

Because of this grisly fate, many soldiers on the frontline against the Basilisk will deliberately lobotomize themselves if they know they are about to die within the Basilisk's presence. Whether this actually works is not known.