Chương 20: What happened here?

Even with the blatant proof of divinity – The System – heathens still refute the existence of gods. While true they have not been active in recent times, there is more proof that their existence is not just a mere story. The skills of us priests have given us a hint at the holy mother's mercy and grace. [Divine query] proof of her desires in this realm. And yet faith is declining in recent years. We must save the heathens and strike down any attempt at normalizing the dark arts.

They will not be allowed to join adventurers ranks, for they blaspheme. Most knowledge is sacred and must be kept true. But should any of our order come across information on say, how to gain the necromantic classes then all trace of them should be destroyed. Some things are better forgotten. Excerpt from the advice touted by bishop Albion. After hours of digging upwards, he finally broke into a smooth passage covered in jet black obsidian walls, a low sloped ceiling and a rough unaltered floor.

The ceiling was actually slightly taller than most of Innearth's – around 1 and a half meters tall. But its width was close to 2 meters. A sideways rectangle and thus he unconsciously thought of them as low. The two magma spiders slid into the halls gleefully as he expanded into them and opened a passage. Sadly, the older version was not able to stop itself in time and slid out of Innearth's influence.

A faint scrabbling motion as it writhed about – the magma inside of it melting out of its skin and the legs flying around in a circle. Each kick moving slower until the whole body went still. Wary after what happened to its sibling, the newer spider carefully kept itself away from the steadily expanding edge of Innearth's influence. Expansion was slow and he almost wished he was better at using Air mana to flow through the halls quicker.

Swapping from his Earth expansion to the original old attributeless version felt weird. Worse in many ways, the speed only increased in the air, but it was enough while he was exploring this new place. Like trying to ride a tricycle after getting used to a bike, attributeless expansion was technically easier... but awkward feeling in comparison. Getting a more and more ominous feeling as he spread further and further throughout the abandoned halls, each perfectly tunnelled and smooth.

Expanding around a sharp corner he came across weird stains and piles of ash, that faintly reminded him of the result of slimes dying. As he progressed more and more monster corpses were made known to him – for they were monster corpses – and the further in he travelled, the more pronounced the corpses became. Several bones were visible in the remains – deep blood red things that glowed in the darkness of the tunnels.

Most of the bones were solid units, a single large center rod, with 4 or 5 curving Crescents attached to the side. A few larger specimens were linked pieces, with each bone linked to the next with alternating loops in a chain pattern, reminiscent of the ones he had used for the golems. The most ominous thing about these bones was that most were missing portions of them. As if eaten away large chunks marred their symmetry – not broken off but unevenly cut.

Without properly getting time to explore – or coming to a conclusion about what happened here – the source of this massacre came into view. Hulking despite being slender, a long upright figure came into Innearths sight as his domain spread into where it was resting. Its body was question mark shaped, with no visible attachment between the large sphere resting on the ground and the slouched tube that made up its body.

At the end of the tube facing downwards, there was a hole filled to the brim with thousands upon thousands of serrated teeth. All facing inwards and disappearing around the bend that was its neck and body. To match the teeth, covering the creature from head to toe were thousands upon thousands of pulsating needles extending a few cm out of its side. Each moving independently and at different speeds, as if every single needle had a mind of its own.

The weirdest, or perhaps most terrifying thing to Innearth, was the fact that he couldn't feel an ounce of magic from the creature. Despite obviously operating on some magical principles with a free suspended body, there was nothing holding it up as far as Innearth could see. No magical support, no connection, no wisps of Kinetic mana. Nothing. What… what is that? I hope it doesn't notice me. Frantically trying to identify it.

He flashed through several theories before bits and pieces of the descriptions from info packets clicked together in his mind. This was a Demon. A real Demon in his dungeon. He was terrified. As if sensing him the Demon's hairs rustled faster and faster, before suddenly its head was turned. All those thousands of dripping teeth staring at where Innearth had been facing it from. It can see me?

As if the period between it being drooped over and it staring fixed in his direction was cut out, the single movement had been faster than Innearth could see. Unprompted the mouth of this slightly unsettling creature grew wider, ballooning out in size. A maw that grew to the full size of the tunnel before – with a scraping sound – its lips dug into the sides of the tunnel, leaving him with a view of nothing but row upon row of teeth.

With a violent lurch, suddenly he felt all of the nearby mana suck towards the maw. Being forcefully ripped out of the tunnel walls and pulled out of the air for meters and meters away from the Demon. A second lurch and less mana from further away was affected and a third, ripped mana from right near the boundary to his next floor from its perch. Ignoring all the physical materials, the maw continued to pause and suck as the mana levels plummeted leaving the rough structure untouched.

As if weakened, the magma spider skittered around the bend awkwardly and ran towards the demon, sensing its creator's panic. Seeming satisfied, the mouth quickly retracted from its purchase on the hall's walls, showing a jagged circle in an otherwise perfectly smooth surface. As it closed the mouth seemed to move extremely slowly – before darting forwards with lightning-quick speed and closing shut on the spider that was only now reaching its location.

Light flashed as it closed, however, the spider's magical magma body did not seem to damage the inside of its mouth. Something magical is happening there. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Twisting back into its hunched-over form – all of its hairs glowed with a strange shimmery rainbow hue – before the Demon started rolling down the hall towards the entrance he had broken into the tunnel with. Towards Innearth's dungeon. That... does not look good.

That really does not look like something I want to face. This was not a time to plan out an attack method or engage the Demon with only a few of his monsters. This was a time for defence. For repelling the invader. Trying to convey his panic he yelled at any of his monsters that could listen that they were under attack. Trying to group monsters together to prevent any single monster from facing the Demon alone, he tried to assess his own strength and that of the peril he now faced. So far it ate my magma spider.

It was weakened slightly and hasn't been pumped up to the strength of some of my other monsters but that's still concerning. Also, and here's the important bit, I don't like how it sucked the mana out of the surroundings. I didn't even know that was possible. For grouping, he pooled them into groups of 3 – all the monsters that would listen moving and joining those that wouldn't.

The only monsters that hadn't been accounted for were the pool snake who refused to leave its crystal pool and the water slime that was still miraculously alive and well in the pillar room. As the demon hit the entrance to his dungeon it writhed about and smashed through the hole he had made. Smashing up and down like a snake as wriggled through the hole, widening it by scraping off pieces with its mouth. Widening it and progressing onwards.

Digging down it entered the main halls of Innearth's dungeon successfully – where it had more room to move around – it re-entered its hunched-over form. The size of Innearth's dungeon actually helped him out here, the demon having difficulty properly moving through his hallways and getting slowed down unnecessarily, as it progressed down into his depths. Frequently having to widen corners and bends in his halls so it could progress.

Bursting into the first room, it came upon a haphazard group of monsters still trying to gather together. Moving into the room it squished a few liquid metal worms and slowly turned its head to survey the prey. Snapping forwards in an eerie fashion. Its head frozen in one position and then frozen in another the demon kept moving erratically as if it were a glitchy video. As if the time it moved in was separate from everyone else.

The Demon's jaws closed around one of the older crystal snakes, while its fur rustled and swayed about. As if the tip of every needle was an eye, scanning its surroundings. Taking several big gashes as 2 other snakes attacked its sides, deep grooves formed in its flesh that leaked a faintly rainbow blood.

Seeming unable to defend or protect itself, the demon sat there taking several blows before – as if someone had hit play on the remote controlling it – the demon snapped twice, taking both the snakes' heads off in seconds. Finishing off the last of this group of monsters, the beast once more expanded its mouth to fit the entire corridor and sucked all the mana out of the surroundings towards its maw. Innearth felt pained.

His regeneration actually dropped significantly from that action – and while it wasn't eating his influence he still felt weaker and damaged somehow just by its existence. Moving on to the second group, the demon acted just as erratically. His last golem fell with a crunch and seconds later, the biggest "greater crystal snake" stabbed straight through its side dealing the most damage of anything so far... before its head was bitten off. Teeth sheering through the crystal body as if it weren't there.

It snapped up the unique unstable crystal snake he had made with no less difficulty than the other monsters then fed on a pile of worms – mouth scraping through the ground, gobbling up stone, at the same time as it consumed the flesh of the monsters. The sand blob that Innearth had forgotten about crawled towards it and had a portion bitten off, before the Demon left its half-finished meal behind and continued down Innearth's hallway.

The beast seemed slower than before, it's crawl through his tunnels pained and laboured. Sending out the last and largest bunch of monsters Innearth had left that could still fight – having grouped them all together while the others had been fighting – Innearth prayed. He sent them towards their death. Towards his death. You can do this. I believe in you all. Please. … I don't want to die.

Striking forward faster than any of his other monsters Silver stabbed deep into its body – a flash of rainbow-coloured blood flying out and hitting the wall. Silver – an older monster but one he had grown fond of over the past few weeks – fought valiantly. The mini army met the invader in his plant room. Deciding this was where their last stand would be, they all rushed in behind Silver in an attempt to defend their home.

One of the oldest monsters in his dungeon now, she fought spike to fur, striking again and again as the Demon squirmed. Flashing forwards, he felt a faint severing accompanied by a strengthening of the bond between him and Silver. A faint cry sounded out as Silver glowed bright blinding white with mana, a transformation coming over her. Nothing drastic was changed when the light faded but simultaneously everything about her felt different. As if more alive and more solid Silver was changed subtly.

Her scales seemed to combine better – the obviously separate crystal shards and ectoplasmic skin keeping them together melding together more. This whole process took place in midair, impossibly fast manipulations taking place before settling, a half a second later. As the scales melted, they seemed to solidify slightly. Both looking rougher and more varied as each part of her body felt more... natural… less artificial.

She was still a snake with a spike for a head, without a mouth or eyes, but even so, she still felt less… synthetic to Innearth. Which was a weird concept to the Dungeon Core. He hadn't once felt like his monsters were fake until this point. They were lil critters. Sure, they were a part of him. But Silver's evolution seemed to do nothing but drive home the fact that they were "nothing but a part of him" while she was now her own creature. Birthed from him but now fully alive. She's... evolved?

I'm so proud of her – Silver can definitely fight back now. This means she's level 1 now, right? I can't wait to see how she'll continue to grow in the future. We just have to get through this fight first. As Silver sped forwards back towards the Demon and Innearth thought of the future, everything went wrong. The last jumper alive chose that moment to launch itself at the Demon – mindlessly attacking its prey without anything but anger... and being cut down with a smash of the Demon's jaws.

The sphere of fire mana inside the jumper was broken open in a crunch of sparks and fire. And the manaless, nearly pure oxygen in his halls ignited. The world ignited. A crack sounded out followed by a small explosion and a whoop sound, bursting forth from the Demons jaws. The shockwave blasting Silver across the room, through the hall and against a curve in the wall 10 meters away, with a sickening crunch.

The Demon was blown back as well, most of its face consumed in thick red-hot flames that burned fiercer and fiercer in his halls, catching the whole creature and the entire room of thick roots alight. The roots burned hotter and hotter as the Demon cooked and thrashed about. The few monsters that hadn't shattered when hit by the Shockwave caught on fire, their liquid crystal and liquid metal bodies evaporating in the intense – yet somehow unmagical – fire.

Rainbow blood, black with soot, ran rivets in the stone surrounded the dying demon. The liquid burning up in the heat the same as the rest of the creature. After a certain point, the ends of every single hair that was still intact bulged out and into a mess of balls, the end of each hair a flickering alien eye that blinked in pain, before bursting into flame as well. A few minutes after that, the thrashing finally stopped and even though it was dead, Innearth felt like he had lost. Nearly all of his monsters dead.

Silver dead. Black smoke filling all his corridors and a raging fire so hot, it nearly set the stone alight, burned in his plant room A Dungeon Core grieved alone. He had lost. He had killed the beast. But he had lost.