The sound of clattering and clanking metal filled a dark void, then the scrapping and grating of stone, and then the sound of sloshing and gurgling slowly began to fill the void. The sounds began to become louder and louder. The sounds began to swim together, melding and mixing to create a cacophony of nothingness.

Then a quiet cry cut through it all. A quiet whimper of desperation made the maelstrom of sound turn into a silent inferno. Adrith opened his eyes in that moment. He remembered he was about to be mind-controlled. He could not let that happen, yet he knew this momentary lapse would be gone in the moment. His body would not respond. He focused his energy into his hand, the one that was hopefully not infested, and manipulated his energy. Forcing the muscles to contract and contort how he wanted. It was not fluid, it was not pretty. He even broke his arm because of his use of this and his lack of refinement, yet that did not matter. He aimed his hand and used all of his energy to force the muscles to activate and plunge his hand into his chest.

The moment the hand smashed into his rib cage he could feel his heart beating. He could feel how it beat violently, as he hit it again.

Then again.

And Again.

It was at that moment that Adrith felt his hand get yanked and pulled away as his eyes came up to see the monster who was trying to stop him. The dark green monster is made of countless tentacles, tails, horns, and other appendages. It looked directly into Adrith’s eyes and he could feel his mind swimming again.

Yet it was too late. Adrith had done what he needed.

Adrith began to focus his energy directly into his heart. Adrith did not start with this because the energy someone uses for magic is connected to the Life Force and the Spirit of the person. This energy often could be used to enhance one's own body, yet it was a hard ability to master. Not because it was dangerous if used incorrectly, it was because if it was used wrong nothing would happen.

The only time it was dangerous to use such enhancements was when one was near death. When a major organ is filled with energy when damaged, oftentimes it can force the energy to expand the damaged areas enough to create even more damage. Even if it would extend the user's life, once the user stopped doing this, they would have guaranteed to kill themselves.

And Adrith aimed for this. Adrith’s mind went blank again, yet this time, all that could be heard was an increased heart rate, slowly fading into nothing.

Adrith awoke gasping for air as he began to look around. He began to snap his fingers as he lit the cold room with a small mote of blue. There he saw he was alone, nothing was in the room except for some things around the room. The first thing he saw was near him Evelyn’s wand. Adrith sighed as he took it and then began to chant.

“By my command, oh lords of dawn, guide me through the darkest nights, heed my command, light”.

3 small motes of light began to float above his head, Adrith sighed as he stood up and began to cast his hand and eyes about. Having the motes move to his command as he began to look around the area. He could see in the center of the room his blades, as he looked, he could see there was a bit of blood near him. He lightly pressed his finger into it to find it had dried yet there was no other blood, not even where his weapons were. ‘She must be under their control’.

Adrith took hold of his blades and began to head towards the exit. He hasn’t found any of his other gear, it must mean he survived longer than he thought he would. He shook his head as he began to leave in search of Evelyn and the monster who took control of her.

Adrith took a moment to look around for any signs of where he should go, yet he found nothing. He decided to begin by following the fog. He understood that the fog moved with any entity that moved through them. Within rooms, the fog would build and cover the entrances, as the more bodies or the bigger the body, the more obscured the entrances will become. He readied himself to begin to look around, as the first room he found had a thick fog. Adrith slightly passed his hand through it as he could feel it cling and he knew that this one wasn’t it. There had to be multiple creatures within or a very large creature. Adrith couldn’t fight something like that alone. Adrith continued through these countless areas, constantly looking for areas that could give him an idea of where to go, yet there was nothing.

Adrith had sent this time making note of things, the monsters that crawled through the fog were known as Parasytes. They would infest the hands of their prey, laying in wait for the moment the prey would perish or assisting in the death of the prey and then taking control of their body. Adrith took a moment and stomped them when he could feel them. He knew countless people who had died of these terrible creatures. It was one of the many reasons he hated the idea of sleeping down in the dungeon, yet he couldn’t do much about it.

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Adrith shook off the annoying thoughts entering his mind as he continued his search. After some time, he had looked through countless areas on this floor and found nothing, yet it was the moment he came across the staircase to the next floor he saw a monster core. He picked it up and inspected it for a moment before setting it back down. He didn’t know how far he would need to go to find Evelyn and didn’t know when she would be awoken again by their ability, so he left them for her, she might use them to help herself or otherwise.

Adrith continued up the staircase as he began to see multiple of his pieces of armor began to fall off. He began to grab them and put them on. One of his gauntlets was first, then his shoulder armor for that side, as he continued his way up he made it to the next floor where he saw no more pieces of armor fall, yet it was a perfect trail to try and find to follow.

Adrith began his search on this floor, his first goal was to try and find the staircase to the next floor and see if any more armor fell off. He snuck through the area, mostly dodging the Soulless and other monsters, it was every now an again, that much larger forms of the Parasytes would come and attack him. Yet he knew these were simple monsters to kill, they used stealth as their main tool for attack. Sadly for them, Adrith was good at finding hidden creatures.

He continued to look through the floor, yet found no armor until he reached the staircase to the next floor, where he found more and more of his armor. It was again much of his arm armor and gauntlet, yet now he was even able to find some leg armor, yet not his boots. Adrith knew that meant he must have been losing more and more of his energy yet he still didn’t die yet. He began to become confused, he performed his attack against himself in hopes of making his body unable to be controlled by the psychic creature. His heart and energy should have been too damaged to be controlled by the Parasyte. Adrith continued his way up to the next floor as that was when he understood what was happening.

Adrith came to the next floor and began to see countless thick and large gray tentacles around the area. He could see within them countless movements. He kneeled and inspected the tentacle more before he clicked his tongue.

He began to look around, ‘They have to be somewhere. Not where these are going.'

Adrith began to move now using the tentacles as a marker on where he should go. He didn’t wish to even think about fighting such a creature on his own. He just needed to find Evelyn. The fog had disappeared on this floor, sometimes it hung on the floor, but more often than not it disappeared when near the tentacles. Adrith took this to his advantage as he followed the fog more. Until he found a single room with fog covering the entrance. Adrith took a breath in, he had been encumbered by the things he was carrying up, so he set everything down outside as he took hold of a mana crystal and his wand as he began to chant.

“By my command, reach out and strike my foe clean and true for they commit great sin, heed my command, Bolt!”

The moment Adrith nearly finished his chant, he stepped into the fog, seeing in front of him the green psychic monster and the now pale and purple decrepit body of Evelyn. Adrith’s eyes were transfixed on the monster and in his hand, crushed the monster crystal as he took in all of its energy. Adrith’s energy spiked when he took the wand and lunged forward with it like a rapier. The beam that was fired by his bolt was an opaque blue thin beam of energy that streaked towards the monster. The moment the monster turned, the beam was already inches away from it, as purple energy pulsed from its eye, and the beam was stopped mid-flight, then dissipated.

Adrith took this moment during his lunge forward with his wand to keep himself going, now he aimed to get in close. The moment he got near, however, Evelyn stepped into the way. She leaped directly at Adrith with her lopsided head, yet her teeth were bared, and her hands had been destroyed only to show the bone trying to claw at him.

Adrith was not dissuaded as he focused the energy within his body, as he swung and punched directly at Evelyn’s head. His fist passed through her head as if it were water, and a red mist was created. Yet Adrith did not waver, he slammed into the corpse of Evelyn like a battering ram as he continued forward and twisted his body as he lunged again, now aiming to stab the monster in the eye. Yet he was stopped again, moments before as he began to feel his body become light. His mind was swimming once more as he could not think. Adrith took a breath in as the energy within him spiked once more, his legs swelled as he was launched forward and the wand pierced into the monster's eye. It began to scream in a high pitch nearly inaudible noise that began to disorientate Adrith, yet his mind became clear once it lost focus.

Adrith stepped into his attack the moment he regained his mind, he swung his hand back and punched it. His hand broke multiple horns and his gauntlet became immediately dented. He knocked the creature down as Adrith then began to mount the creature. He took up his hands and began to beat it. Tearing off horns, ripping tentacles, crushing the flesh, pulverizing bones, and even ripping entire chunks of flesh off to kill this creature as quickly as possible. He covered the ground, the ceiling, the walls, even himself in the blood and viscera. It was not until the fog finally fell and settled did Adrith stopped.

He let out heavy sighs as he began to rise. Adrith began to look around and he found Evelyn’s body already beginning to dissipate. He stood over her body as he waited for her body to disappear before he began to gather her clothing and boots before he left. He gathered his weapons and began to make his way back down the floors. Adrith didn’t worry about sneaking through this floor, the only thing he needed to worry about was traveling through this area without touching any of the tentacles.

Adrith made his way back down through the floors, the floor above where Evelyn would awaken was quiet, a little too quiet, yet it made sense why, most creatures were trying to get away from that floor. Once Adrith made it to the next set of stairs down to the floor Evelyn would awaken, he noticed a light was shining through and let out a sigh, it meant that it was about time. Adrith set down his things, only taking his swords, the wand, and the largest crystals as he made his way down to find Evelyn petrified to see someone coming down, but then relieved.

“Looks like you’ve made it up here fast”, Adrith said somewhat jokingly.