The companions of the young god took in their surroundings bit by bit. After recovering from the suddenness of the deity unleashing an explosion of light in the formerly impossibly dark passageway, they were able to make out their now brightened surroundings. They walked as they took in their surroundings.
They were crammed into a tight passageway, one barely large enough to contain them all, due to Raverangos' height. The top of his head very nearly touched the ceiling of the passageway. The walls that surrounded them were black as if to better absorb any light that dared intrude on this place of darkness.
The floor at their feet wasn't black, but it was a shade of red so dark that it was very similar to the dark walls at their sides. Behind them, they could see far enough back to make out the stairs that led them to the higher level of the tomb, where Althos, Tristan, Salifinos, and the orbs had come from. Ahead of them, very far ahead of them, they made out the sight of the floating skull slowly approaching them.
The tomb was eerily silent. Aside from their breathing, and the sounds of their footfalls on the processed stone that made up the floor of the dungeon, there were no sounds that dared intrude upon the silence that surrounded them. The tomb smelled of old rocks and ancient metal.
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Althos was quiet. He was, at that very moment, being introspective. His introspection was inspired by many things, but mostly by the conversations he had with the handful of fungi he had met and by the memories, he had absorbed from the dark elves.
In quiet moments the god had reflected on the behaviors of the gods of the world beneath the world, at least as remembered by the dark elves. He remembered at all times that the dark elves thought them cruel monsters, but they were also mighty beyond belief and embodied whatever ruthless principles they believed in.
I am a god. That means I embody power. It means I must be wise. It means I must possess confidence. I must aim to inspire awe and fear in mortals and anyone else who comes across me. And in the right people, perhaps I can make them feel a certain kind of love. At all times I must walk ahead and above those who follow me.
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The party was silent, but only to observers without mind magic at their disposal. Althos and his companions were about to begin a lively back and forth, through their extensive spider's web of mental connections.
[Reminder: That thing coming at us is a floating skull, and before you ask that's what the system told me. It's a servant of the thing that is... trapped in here. Presumably, that's Agowraith.]
Althos started off the conversation by referring to the freaky floating skull that was approaching them like they were approaching it. At this point the skull was still a good distance away from them. Raverangos was the first to speak after Althos' reminder.
[Is it... an enemy?]
The mental tone of the demon indicated that it was genuinely unsure. Althos shook his head, but this time it was Tristan who responded. Her answer differed from what Althos would have said.
[Probably?... Scratch that, it's definitely an enemy. But it's an enemy we may need to make use of. Somehow that thing can spit out soul orbs. We've seen it do it. I... genuinely have no idea how that works, but the soul orbs that are with us now came from that creature's annoying mouth. If we attack it now we may have to wait before we can reach the end of this tomb.]
Her voice resounded loud and clear in everyone's mind. She sounded uncertain at first, but as she shared her thoughts with the party her mental voice grew increasingly confident.
Althos knew that she was sharing her genuine thoughts with the party, so he didn't bother to share his own once she finished her observations. Althos didn't view the thing as an enemy, just as an aide to a mysterious creature. But he recalled why Tristan felt the way she did.
Tristan had a secret connection to this place. Her father had perished somewhere in this dungeon, years ago. To her this place was more than a tomb or a piece of a dark prophecy related to the creature who was thought by people in her cult to be the savior of Infernius, this tomb and the dangers that lurked within it were obstacles she needed to overcome.
Althos was the only one who knew her secret. He decided to keep it, for now, but not without informing the young half-devil herself.
In the privacy of his own mind, Althos reflected on a variety of things.
Tristan is still... herself. Though that makes her charming, in her own way, I should keep her on a tight leash for now. She still doesn't know what I know. I suppose... now is the time to let her know what I know.
He decided to send her a message.
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In the wake of Tristan's declaration to the group, one of the few times the priestess had communicated with them so far, Tristan was feeling pretty pumped.
To be here... where somewhere, somehow, her father was killed, evoked odd feelings. But she knew that this was a part of her destiny. Something she must accomplish before she becomes who she was meant to be.
She was ready to pay whatever price she would have to pay to get revenge for her father and to become the cult leader she felt she was destined to become. She was about to learn a bit about the price she'd have to pay.
Whatever had been in her mind before, was suddenly pushed out when Althos invaded it, in a rare moment wherein the deity decided to send her a private message. Her own thoughts abruptly vanished as she felt the cold will of the creature the very same being she believed was going to prove himself to become the second dark saint, penetrate her mind.
[Priestess... I just want you to know that for now, I don't mind playing your game. I know what this place means to you... how the very floor we walk atop may have once been stained with the blood of your father. I feel your pain. I feel your desire for... revenge? Justice?]
Althos' will, when concentrated and used to penetrate someone's mind felt cold and invasive. It didn't feel like a gentle brush wherein someone sent a message that somehow translated universally, it felt more like a way to use violence to force someone to understand what is meant. The mental version of being subjected to the affectionate touches of a sadist.
Tristan quietly hissed in frustration, a sound her companions heard but pretended to be deaf too, since they assumed she was having a private conversation with Althos. The deity wasn't done.
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Althos grinned in satisfaction as he heard the priestess hiss. But he had to chide himself.
I suppose I may have been too cruel. It's okay though. I can make it better. I wouldn't want her to get too angry after all.
Althos was still new to all of this. The deity, in realizing his cruel wording may have been a minor mistake he took it in stride, and his second message may have been a bit more verbose, but it was also kinder.
[Make no mistake priestess. I am your... ally. Not your friend. Not even your master... yet. Just your ally. Though I suspect you will come to me, asking to serve me, sooner or later. I may seem... cruel, but it is all for your own good. I possess the power to grant you what your heart aches for. The revenge you crave. The restoration of Infernius to its former glory. I am... the dark sun that will end this longest of nights in Bastille and beyond. You know this already. And once we leave here, I believe that you will believe it.]
Althos felt satisfied with this message. He quietly continued his reflections, taking on a more introspective attitude as he led his crew through the tomb.
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Within minutes they were merely a hundred meters away from the floating skull. As it approached them, Althos began to look behind it. And behind it, he could see something new. Perhaps another three hundred meters behind the floating skull there was an opening, that led out of this dazzlingly long passageway.
Althos turned, momentarily just to see how far the group had walked. It took him a moment to process the distance behind him. When he realized that he and his allies, at least Salifinos, Tristan, and the soul-orbs, had walked perhaps seven hundred meters before he teleported to the mortal world, he felt awed. This passageway extended for over a thousand meters. It was just a long, straight shot.
As far as Althos could see, and as far as he knew there were no traps in this passageway aside from the single trap right at the bottom step of the stairwell.
If I didn't know better I'd say this long passageway's purpose would be to exhaust adventurers seeking to conquer this dungeon. But... that wouldn't work on devils, would it? It shouldn't, at least according to what Tristan knows about devils... Do they have limited stamina? And even if their stamina is limited, would this be enough to wear it down?
Let's say the purpose of this dungeon is to weaken invading forces... that would explain a lot. It wouldn't work on me but on them... This place is a trap meant to allow something to feed on invaders. A sanctuary where something can take its time and grow and fester in solitary darkness, feeding on conquerable groups after wearing them down.
At that moment, Althos sent his followers a message. He had correctly guessed the purpose of the dungeon. It was a tomb, but not Agowraith's.
[We are near the end of the dungeon. This place... it's a prison. For anyone who ventures into it. In a sense, it is actually a tomb, just not for who we thought it was. Something is being reborn here, feeding on the occasional invader.]
The instant after the last of Althos' followers reviewed the message their master sent them, the passageway they were in began to shake. A peal of deep, grim laughter began to reverberate throughout the tunnel around them.
After a few seconds of that haunting laughter, a deep, apathetic voice began to speak. They physically heard the voice, rather than feel it rattle around in their skulls.
"Congratulations godling... you figured it out. Welcome to the place many believe is my tomb. Just between us though, this place is more like... a womb of sorts."
Althos immediately received a useful notification that helped him make out the source of their troubles.
[New Species Knowledge Notification: Undying Titan
Undying titans are a rare breed of or occasionally an evolved form of giants that are able to separate their spiritual forms from their physical forms. This makes them similar to various forms of liches, but they can do this while their physical forms are alive, unlike liches who must die during the process by which they become liches.
Undying titans are impossible to permanently kill so long as their spiritual forms exist. These odd entities are fond of constructing areas where they can feed creatures to their physical forms, or otherwise ensure their physical forms can regenerate or be regrown, while their spiritual forms safely hide elsewhere.
Though this isn't always the case, sometimes their spiritual forms are the forms of theirs that retain their intelligence, while their physical forms act like mindless brutes that retain the brutal power that is common to all titans.
The spiritual forms of undying titans can be hurt by magic, and can't be hurt by most physical attacks. Their spiritual forms have access to powerful magic and make dangerous combatants, much like how it's difficult to outmatch a titans in terms of sheer physical power.
Undying titans can evolve into greater forms of undead beings such as night-knights, greater-liches, or into other, incredibly powerful lifeforms.
Known undying titans: Narcolept the Pretender]
Althos nodded his head in understanding at the creature's explanation. This was, of course, largely feigned. But the deity didn't want to admit that. Though he did know a bit more of what to expect thanks to the incredibly handy notification he just received.
He only had a basic knowledge of what was going on here, and that basic knowledge told him this was place was designed to be a death funnel. It was where adventurers went in, and only a limited number of them could pass through the exit ahead of him at a time. When they did, they were probably attacked immediately.
Althos peered ahead of him and tried to see what laid beyond the opening but it was vague. He could see the same sort of floor ahead of him, and he could see what appeared to be the opening to a pit. The pit continued for a bit but after that, the deity could make out more floor, and eventually the same sort of dark walls that surrounded them.
The deity realized whatever laid ahead of them was almost certainly the end of this dungeon. Althos could sense two creatures ahead of the party, beyond the floating skull. He knew that it was the two forms of "Narcolept the pretender", who judging from the name may have just made up the name of the tomb, or claimed it from another creature.
Eventually, as the party proceeded forward, the skull met them. It was silent and began to float alongside them. Every single step of theirs brought them closer and closer to this dungeon's dramatic guardian. Tristan reached out to Althos.
[We're getting closer and closer aren't we? I can see the end of this passageway ahead of us. Do you know if that's the end? Where we face... whatever it is that lies in here?]
Althos nodded and responded to her question.
[If I was a "betting man", I'd say yes. We're minutes from meeting an undying titan. It's two forms are ahead of us. It's named "Narcolept the Pretender". Ready yourself.]
As if in response to that message, the party felt a burst of energy fly towards them and then sail harmlessly past them. Althos' enhanced hearing also picked up a sound coming from the area ahead of them. A sound like someone grunting as they climbed something.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The party kept proceeding forward. It was only when they were less than fifty meters away from the exit out of this part of the tunnel that Althos began to prepare for whatever laid ahead of them. He stopped the party, extending his hand out to his side as a way to physically communicate that they needed to stop.
He looked out at what was visible to him beyond the exit out of the long passageway. Althos could make out another gigantic area, but this time it was shaped like a massive circle with the huge pit he had seen earlier taking up much of its space. Now that he was closer to the end of the passageway he was in, he could see more of what laid ahead.
He was pleased to see a glowing light radiating from a corner of the tunnel ahead of him. He guessed, correctly that that was the end of the dungeon. The glowing light came from another room, the room that contained the dungeon heart. A room just beyond the room with the pit in it, which was a room that according to Althos' radar contained two red dots. Two enemies.
At that moment it hit him that he was steps away from obtaining the power that would make it clear to everyone in Infernius that he was or was destined to become a new archdevil: the power to promote a devil and therefore transform it from one sort of devil, into another. This excited the deity more than perhaps anything else in his entire life had.
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Althos activated his assortment of divine powers at that moment. He cast blessings that enhanced physical strength and resistances and even used a small number of alteration spells on his followers so that they may more easily withstand whatever nonsense their mysterious enemy was about to use on them.
At that moment he also targeted all of his companions with a single cast of his vestigial resurrection ability. Before he cast the spell he sent his allies a mental message.
[This isn't the tomb of "Agowraith". Or if it is, then Agowraith really is dead. What's ahead of us is a creature named "Narcolept the Pretender". It is an undying titan. That means that we cannot and will not hold back. I am going to buff all of us right now.]
Althos' message suddenly stopped generated. Althos thought to himself, trying to clarify his own message before continuing.
[All of you, Tristan included, will gain all of your vestigial traits resurrected at once. For some of you, that will mean dramatic boosts to your powers and significant changes to your appearance. Be ready for that.]
He waited for his companions to nod at him. Once the last of them, Tristan herself, nodded, Althos willed for the spell to resurrect all of their vestigial traits, and cast it.
Behind him, numerous cacoon-like pillars of darkness swallowed his friends. Althos hadn't had a chance to check Tristan's traits and he wanted to get out of this dungeon so he hadn't before he cast the spell. He wondered what traits she'd get. He was also looking forward to the true power of imps that Salifinos was going to have a chance to demonstrate, even beyond the poison he helped the imp recover, a poison the creature still hadn't gotten to try out.
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Tristan felt odd within her pillar of darkness. She fell to her knees as she felt... something pounding in her skull.
The pain she felt was agonizing. It was like nothing she had ever experienced in her entire life. It was like someone was carving a hole in her forehead using a knife made of broken glass, and then pouring magma into the hole they were making. It took her all of her willpower not to pass-out. Which explained why she felt tears flowing freely down her face because otherwise, she'd have used her willpower to not cry.
Her curse-eye was an incredibly powerful ability, but given its rare nature as both a physical ability with an external manifestation and its magical nature, it was positively agonizing to resurrect. Her mothlike eye made up of hundreds of smaller eyes, sat square in the center of her forehead. Each of the smaller eyes was a tiny, ruby-colored thing that made it look like Tristan had a bouquet of rubies placed on her forehead.
That wasn't the only place she felt pain though. Something was happening in her back. It felt like her bones were moving, trying to either escape from her or from something within her. She actually wailed when she felt something tear violently out of her body and through skin, muscle, and bone out of her back. Her companions didn't hear her, aside from Althos, due to the nature of the pillar she was within.
Her scaled, moth-wings emerged beautifully from her back. The wings themselves were white and had a wing-span about 3 and a half meters long. Sadly, at the moment they were covered in blood, and torn skin so they were stained a color that fused blood red with her amber skin-tone.
The priestess' muscles had also been expanded proportionally to help her be able to walk. That process wasn't without pain, but in comparison to the other pain she felt it was but a drop in the ocean.
From outside of the pillar, Althos wordlessly cast a spell on her that helped numb the pain a bit. When she regained full consciousness and her mind wasn't a hellscape of pain and agony she'd be grateful to him for doing that. But at that moment, within the pillar of darkness, she was basically a big ball of pain and agony as she experienced a dramatic transformation.
The magic she was gaining was easy for her to gain. It's just unfortunate that until that point physical traits she inherited from her father never manifested. That said, the half-elf, half moth devil's transformation was genuinely astounding.
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While his party members found themselves ensconced in pillars of darkness, and in the aftermath of casting spells that lessened pain on those of them who needed it, the youthful deity ran ahead of the party. He was unaccompanied and didn't quite go all the way towards where the creature he hoped to make a foe out of stood but he walked to the area just beyond the hallway. He was curious and wanted a chance to converse with the being he suspected would prove to be an enemy if given the chance.
When he arrived there he saw the eerie and spiritual body of the undying titan. The strange, otherworldly mass of the creature was looking in his direction and the thing quickly noticed him. It didn't bother to approach the creature who in its eyes was nothing more than an overpowered boy.
"So you are the infant deity who is messing up my home?" The titan asked, its voice filled with bizarre spiritual power. Althos chuckled and he prepared a response.
"I suppose that's one way to describe me." He said a wry grin on his face. The titan too began to smile, a smile that stretched thin the spiritual energy that made up its almost alien form.
"Are you determined to clear this trial?" The titan asked, curiosity filling its voice. Althos considered the question for a second and as he did so he was strangely silent. There was a look of careful consideration on his face as he thought about different ways to answer it. It didn't take him long to settle on the truth.
"Yes, I am. There's a chance it's my destiny to become the lord of Infernius. And one part of that destiny involves me clearing this dungeon." He said simplistically. His conversational counterpart studied him, silently while it considered what to say to that reaction.
"If you proceed down this path, your destiny will end. You will become my dinner. Nothing more, nothing less. An ignoble fate for someone as high-minded as you." The titan said to Althos. There was no arrogance in its voice, just honesty, and self-assurance.
Althos mulled over this remark. He rubbed his chin as he did so, his hands moving idly to his face. When he next spoke it was to ask a simple question.
"Why do you think you can defeat me? Is it... old age that fuels your self-assurance?" He asked, genuine curiosity coloring his question. This caught the undying titan off-guard and caused the odd being to spend a moment considering a genuine answer to its question. The titan's response to the honest query asked by the young man talking to it was one of dangerous arrogance.
"Because I can. You are a child. But I am not. In my culture elders are strongly respected and we stand supreme. You will fall by my hand. And I will eat you. The fact that you are a god means nothing to me. You are what... a few days old? You are puny. Though... if you flee this place and come back in a few eons, who knows what may happen?" The titan remarked, sustained and egged on by an ego that may one day prove to be its downfall. Althos considered the titan's remarks for a second before commenting himself.
"Your arrogance is stupid. You know nothing about me, save for that I am a god. And that I am young. My youthfulness is not a reason to discard my strength. I predict that in a few minutes you will see things differently. If you see them at all. If you insist on opposing me, then I recommend careful consideration of your life's choices." Althos told the titan, his voice low and dark. He was being perfectly frank, and now that he had an understanding, albeit a superficial one, of the titan's state of mind he decided that he didn't like the thing.
The deity spun on his heels and went back to where his friends, allies, and servants were ensconced in pillars of darkness. He now felt more comfortable fighting the titan, and didn't suspect that the titan's mind would be turned against fighting them. I suppose the titan will indeed have to fall. He told himself, never really doubting that he'd have to fight and probably even kill the thing.
As he returned, the first creature he had ever awoken was in the middle of her own painful transformation.
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Silander, much like her distant sister-in-arms Tristan, fell to her knees within her own pillar of darkness. The young great-frog had lived a pretty lucky life and had never had to endure much pain. As she felt her bones move and shift within her body, that changed.
The experience of growing wings and having them burst into place was an incredibly agonizing one. She felt bone-crunching pain rattle her consciousness and wrack her sense of awareness as she did her best to endure the pain.
Her horns came in pretty easily relative to her wings. They weren't at all like Tristan's curse-eye. They merely grew spontaneously across her body. One emerging in the same place on her as Tristan's curse-eye, and others emerging on her knees, elbows, and ones jutting out from the backs of her hands.
Fortunately for her, the reality was that those were the only traits Althos had left unawakened. Or at least the only physical ones. The others easily awoke within her, as if they had been used minutes ago and had just now finished recharging, rather then them being spontaneous new features that Althos willed into existence from deep within her genetic code.
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Raverangos' experience with growing wings was deeply different compared to that of its companions. But that was because its wings were made of magic. It was a perk of being an extraplanar creature, as opposed to a mortal one. Its wings were also considerably tinier looking than those belonging to the creature's allies. Raverangos knew with but a glance at them that they still worked, even if they were tiny.
Horns exploded across its body, but its horns were much smaller. They were more like spines than horns, and Raverangos could retract or expand them at will. Raverangos' cruel mind could imagine a lot of uses for these spine-like horns and it grinned at that.
The demon's real transformation came not with the wings or its new horns and it wasn't physical. Deep within it, new powers brought with them a significant leap in intelligence.
Within the cacoon-like pillar of darkness, Raverangos's experienced spontaneous bursts of newfound intelligence and willpower. Determination surged through the beast, and it felt more capable than ever of achieving its goals. But the creature realized with a start that it didn't really have goals. It was compelled to try and change that, at the first opportunity to do so.
The creature could sense a variety of new abilities hidden within it. It could sense its flesh growing more malleable and protean than its skin had been before. It could feel chaos within its hands, just waiting to be willed into existence and weaponized. It could even sense the emotions of the creatures that surrounded it. And their emotions made it hungry.
A part of it wanted to take an unimaginably deep breath. It wasn't sure what would happen if it did, but it knew that it wanted to.
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From within its own pillar of darkness, Althos' other sentient extraplanar familiar, was being doused in magical energy. Salifinos felt its body burn underneath the incredible heat of magical radiation.
Over and over again the creature was exposed to a potent energy that touched, seared, and altered it.
The imp felt its brain and its mind gaining new properties and new abilities.
[New skill gained: Make Contract.]
[New skill gained: Call Inferior.]
[New skill gained: Tame Vermin.]
[New skill gained: Call Vermin.]
[New skill gained: Protean Form.]
It received an incredible variety of notifications, alerting it to new skills. Unlike the others, its notifications were almost entirely magical and often internal.
It wasn't a thoroughly unpleasant experience even if by the end of it the imp's brain hurt and its vision was filled with green text-boxes.
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Within a few minutes, the pillars of darkness began to fade away. The creatures that were revealed in a handful of cases looked very different to how they had before.
Raverangos looked less like a massive cross between bear and pig, and more like a wrecking ball with wings.
Silander had bright, meter-long yellow wings and parts of her body now had their own long horns jutting out of them. At the center of her forehead sat a long purple horn, a horn that occasionally dripped poison. Horns of different colors came out of her other body parts.
That said, both of their transformations paled in comparison to Tristan's. She came out of the darkened cacoon as a vastly different creature than she had been when she entered it.
Tristan's habit was torn and the back of it was covered in staining blood. But it was torn due to the huge wings fell on the floor beside the girl. Massive white wings, that freely shed tiny white scales with even the faintest movements. Her wings were covered in blood and in torn amber-colored skin.
That wasn't her only new feature though. Her main eyes were closed, but in the center of her forehead sat a massive new eye. An eye the radiant color of a polished and treasured ruby looked out at Althos and the rest of his followers. A careful examination of this eye would reveal that it was made up of hundreds of incredibly tiny, sensitive, eyes.
The priestess, even in her weakened state, radiated power. It was obvious that her vestigial traits were traits related to her heritage. Althos could tell that the external traits were tied to her father, a powerful moth-devil, and he curiously wondered what her internal traits were. He didn't have the time to do an examination of them at that moment, because before he could, a loud vibration rattled the passageway and drew Althos' attention back to the exit out of the passageway and towards the dungeon's heart.
A deep, pitiless voice spoke to them as Althos turned. It was the voice of the creature Althos had just ensured would act in a way that he wanted it too. The voice of Narcolept.
"You've kept me waiting for so long. I can sense that after our little chat you powered up your servants... but such a sudden, desperate transformation can do nothing against my might. Your party's newfound abilities won't be enough to overcome my power. Now come. Meet your destiny. Meet... me."
Narcolept spoke to the party. Althos looked into the strange area outside of the passageway and saw that something had emerged from the pit. A gigantic hand, larger than Raverangos in fact, and larger than the dire-bears Althos had encountered in the forest, was now straining on the ground right outside of the pit.
Althos faintly detected a quiet rumble as something moved beneath the dungeon. Althos nodded as his companions and they began to move again. Althos quickly healed Tristan and used magic that enabled her to quickly recover her strength, so that they may proceed at the same speed.
Upon reaching the narrow exit out of the passageway, Althos and his party heard the faint rumbling beneath them increase in intensity and volume and they worked to maintain their balance, so as to not fall. Seconds later, the elephantine head of the undying titan appeared, arising out of the huge pit.
Another, much smaller ethereal thing rose out of the ground next to the pit. It was actually not much taller than Raverangos, but the physical form of the titan was lifting part of itself out of the pit and with each passing second it seemed to grow in height, even if its face was... less than complete. It seemed that for some reason the strange titan's spiritual body had opted to retreat into the ground after it and Althos had spoken earlier.
Althos and his companions readied themselves for battle. They were face to face with the two forms of the undying titan known as Narcolept the Pretender. Nacrolept's ethereal, spiritual form spoke to them.
"Forgive my... unbecoming appearance young ones. But know this: with the power I can sense radiating off of you, this little one right here will gain the power needed for it... for me to be able to rampage across the surface once again. After all, Agowraith only had enough strength for me to be able to reform my physical body to a certain extent. But you... you possess real power. Especially you, god of infants." The Pretender told the party, taunting them all but singling Althos out.
And then the bizarre living obstacle turned to Tristan. Its eyes honed in on her, rather uncomfortably. It looked at her like it was eyeing a piece of meat, a rather delicious morsel. And when it spoke it sounded ravenous.
"I see now that your father was just a snack. You... you are the entree."
Tristan was the first to step into the area beyond the passageway. Provoked by the creature. She opened her mouth to speak, staring straight ahead at the half-formed titan-thing in front of her.
"I've waited for this for a long time."
After she said that, she turned so that she was facing Althos. She was shaking, trembling in fear and anticipation.
"Let's get this over with and go back to the Cathedral of the Dark Saint. I miss home."
Althos grinned at her and stepped over the threshold into the arena like chamber.
"I'm right here with you. This thing... doesn't stand a chance."
The deity began to radiate power. The half-formed Titan's featureless face shifted slightly. If the thing had a mouth Althos suspected it would have been grinning at them.
The ceiling of this part of the tomb rose at least thirty-five meters above them, and with each passing moment more of the weird titan lifted itself out of the pit and towards it. Even the head of the titan was larger than Raverangos by several meters. Althos readied himself for violence and heard his companions move into position behind him and Tristan.
With but a flick of its wrist, the ethereal titan caused the floating skull that only a few of the party members could see, to abruptly vanish. As it faded into nothingness the floating skull seemed to frown slightly, which was a disconcerting sight to the few party members who noticed its sudden disappearance.