Adjusting to my new body had taken a long time. Not that my circumstances had truly changed overly much. I was still trapped. The only difference was that instead of being confined in a rusty iron cage, surrounded by the remnants of other prisoners. Now I was restrained by magical runes that orbited around me endlessly.

The isolation weighed heavily on me.

My sole companion in this horrid place, a human female by the name of Julianna had succumbed to the poor conditions and inevitable starvation. Having obtained a new captive, Julianna was ignored by our capturers. It was a few days later that I had been dragged from my cage and into another room. I could only barely remember the ritual that had killed me.

When I finally regained consciousness in my new body, Julianna's lifeless form had already decayed into a skeleton, trapped within the rusty prison bars. I grieved for her passing, knowing that without her, I would have been completely lost in this situation. She had given me insight into why we were being held captive, and for that, I was grateful. The anguish and torture I endured would have been unbearable without some understanding of its purpose.

Despite my ironclad determination, I could feel my composure crumbling as I surveyed my desolate surroundings. The sole torch in the room flickered weakly, casting fractured rainbows through the intricate lattice of my newly formed crystalline body. The damp stone floor glistened with a thin layer of moisture, reflecting the meager light, while the ceiling loomed above me, shrouded in deep shadows and dripping with eerie silence. My eyes strained to see beyond the entrance of this underground prison - constructed from decaying bricks coated in a thick layer of moss - but it was for naught. The musty air hung heavy with decay, a pungent reminder of the horrors that had taken place within these walls not long ago. And the dried blood splattered across the grimy walls like twisted constellations only added to the macabre history of this forsaken place.

With my new eyes, I couldn't close them even if I wanted to. Instead, I gazed into the distance, trying to find solace in memories of better days. I remembered my daughter as a young child, teetering around and bursting into laughter as her father watched protectively nearby. Then, my mind drifted to my own father, showing me how to use a bow to hold a bow, notch an arrow, and take aim with precision.

But those memories, once a source of comfort, now felt like shards of glass cutting into my soul. They reminded me of everything I had lost, everything that had been taken from me. And as I sat there, imprisoned in my crystalline form, I couldn't help but feel the weight of despair settling upon my shoulders.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Time seemed to blend together in this forsaken place, where the only company I had was the haunting silence and the echoes of my own thoughts. The runes that encircled me continued their ethereal dance, their presence sustain and restricting me in equal measure.

The dull monotony was interrupted by the inevitable return of my captors. The heavy creak of an iron door far away echoed through the chamber, jolting me out of my reverie. I braced myself for what would come next, anxiety gnawing at my crystalline core.

Shrouded in tattered robes, they emerged from the darkness at the entrance. Each step was light but audible, as the sound of bone against stone echoed through the space. I flinched, recalling the pain that had once been inflicted upon me. But the two skeletal figures paid no attention to my reaction as they approached the platform where I languished, significantly smaller than before. This led to both nightmarish figures looming over me, analyzing me with eye sockets filled with blue flame.

I shuddered at the proximity of the two Lich as they gestured animatedly, their teeth clattering in a mockery of language that was indistinguishable to me. It had been a long time since the two abominations had last visited me, and I worried they had returned with a solution to their problem.

According to Julianna, who had spoken with the other prisoners when they'd still been alive, the Lich were seeking to enslave a Dungeon. This was not a novel concept, and even one I had dedicated significant resources toward in the past. It was the dream of all to truly control the immeasurable power that Dungeon's could provide.

However, none had ever succeeded in known history, and so secondary, less efficient methods to coral and control Dungeons had been long since established. The Lich wanted more, for whatever reason, and were trying a different approach. Slave magic, a well known if despised school of the magical arts, was ineffective on Dungeons. This was generally believed to be due to the lack of sentience, although Dungeons were arguably sapient.

The Liches' plan was to transfer a sentient soul into the Dungeon, erasing whatever meek consciousness the creature possessed and then dominating the newly implanted soul. Julianna hadn't known how many times they had tried this experiment, but judging by the pile of discarded bones littering the room, it must have been numerous. One striking observation was that all of these remains belonged to humans.

I was an Elf. Or at least, I had been.

The details of my capture were hazy and difficult to remember. All I could recall was passing through a human town near the border of the Thorenhold kingdom and Saches, the elven kingdom.

I recalled stopping to sell my surplus pelts and a couple of recently caught rabbits. I didn't require much money, as I could mostly provide for myself, but there were certain items I couldn't make on my own. After that, my memory becomes foggy. The next thing I knew, I was here: locked up in another dirty cage, devoid of clothing and surrounded by the stench of decay. The Lich, their faces hidden behind hoods as they worked with various magical tools on rusty tables, were busy with something.

The Lich didn't waste any time, dragging me out of the room. I couldn't erase the image of Julianna's dead body from my mind, a small smile frozen on her lips as she leaned against the bars of her cage. My last moments were filled with agony, and I foolishly believed it would be the end. However, when I opened my eyes, I was horrified to find myself trapped inside a crystal sphere. The Liches had used their magic to cast spells on me without delay, but somehow my mind remained under my control.

As I struggled to accept my new form, I was immediately restrained by powerful magical runes. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they broke me completely, but I refused to make it easy for them. Even though it seemed futile, I held onto the hope that my resistance would make a difference.

Now, the Liches had returned to make another attempt at enslaving me. I braced myself as one of them reached out to touch the runes surrounding me, knowing the excruciating pain that was about to follow. It didn't take long for the rune to be activated and for agony to rip through my being, burning every inch of my soul and leaving me helpless. Despite the overwhelming torture, I refused to let it break me. I fought back against the Lich's control with all my might, determined not to succumb to its torture. When the spell finally ended, I sobbed in silent relief, my soul trembling as I tried to regain control over myself. The sound of rattling bones filled the chamber, but all I could hear was my own internal suffering.

The brief respite was excruciatingly fleeting, and before I knew it the Lich's skeletal fingers were reaching out for me once again. The same cycle of attempted mind control repeated twice more, with no apparent progress made. A part of me wondered if it would be easier to simply give in, to let go.

But I refused to surrender. I held fast to my promise, determined not to die here. I am Queen Eleanor of Saches, The Huntress. I cannot be broken, tamed, or enslaved.

As the Liches continued to manipulate the runes, I struggled to regain control of my willpower and brace myself for another wave of excruciating pain. In the midst of this unbearable pause, a sudden stillness filled the air. The skeletal necromancer paused in its movements and abruptly turned its bony frame. Its companion mirrored its actions, both sets of flaming blue eyes now fixated on the entrance.

With trembling exhaustion, I followed their gaze but could discern nothing new. The cavernous space remained as desolate and silent as ever, only interrupted by the flickering embers of the torch. Every crevice and corner was shrouded in darkness, leaving an unsettling chill in the air.

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Out of nowhere, the two skeletons dashed out of the room, seemingly gliding across the uneven and damp ground before they vanished from sight. I watched them go, but quickly squashed any hope that this sudden deviation from the normal routine could be a good sign for me. It had happened before, after all.

In a desperate attempt to regain composure, I summoned fond memories of my life before being thrust into this desolate place. I basked in the warm rays filtering through the lush canopy of Arvandor Forest, my birthplace. Its towering trees were forever etched into my heart, reaching towards the heavens in eternal splendor. Here, my father had guided, molded, and raised me into the woman I am today. He instilled within me an unbreakable will and an unwavering determination to settle for nothing less than excellence.

Suddenly, I was ripped from my thoughts by a faint sound that sent shivers through my soul. My heart raced as I braced myself for the return of the Liches, their cruel torture still fresh in my mind. But when the two skeletal figures glided into the room, neither of them even glanced in my direction. Instead, they raised their bony hands towards the entrance to the hall, conjuring dark magic that swirled and crackled around their fingers. Without pause, both unleashed their magic into the shadows.

An irrepressible surge of hope rose within me, but it was quickly snuffed out as a Lich rushed toward my podium with all the speed of a predator. I barely registered the trembling walls and collapsing ceiling as excruciating pain surged through my body and soul once again. Fighting to keep my mind coherent, I strained to make sense of the rising cacophony - stone crumbling, teeth clattering, and steel crashing against bone.

It could only mean one thing: someone was fighting the Lich.

Desperate to understand, I fight through the agony to focus on the entrance. I was astonished to see figures emerging from the darkness - a group of human warriors charged forward, cutting through the animated skeletons of past prisoners, all while dodging or deflecting the powerful spells of the Liches. One of the leading men looked in my direction over the din, and shouted.

"There it is!" At the same time, the warrior handily swung his sword in an arc that deflected a rusty iron sword clasped in a skeleton's hand that was threatening his teammate. Continuing his swing, he spun and used his sword like a bat to shatter the undead directly in front of him.

An arrow whizzed past his head from the entrance, hitting another approaching skeleton covered in detritus before it could threaten the warrior. All the while, the Liches continued to unleash various dark magic. The room became increasingly chaotic as more undead came to the Lich's aid, and I was distraught at the sight of Julianna's skeleton rising into undeath and hurling itself at one of the warriors carrying a rapier. Thankfully, the steadily advancing warriors had caused the Lich manipulating the runes to break away, relieving me from my torture.

Now free to observe the battle playing out unhindered, my metaphorical eyes roamed across the human's hungrily. I cheered as a human woman in robes I hadn't noticed at first muttered something and unleashed a surge of water from her palm. The spell blocked an incoming cloud of noxious fumes from one of the Liches, and neutralized it. Her gaze flickered to me, "Don't let them take the Heart!"

Her warning alerted me to the Lich once more reaching out toward me, this time with clear intent to remove me from my podium and the runes restraining me. A well-timed arrow knocked the Lich's hand off course, and the loathsome creature was further distanced by a small fireball that crashed into its ribcage.

"Look out, Branson!" Someone, a human female it sounded like, shouted in alarm. At the same time, I saw the cause for the warning loom up in the entranceway behind the man poised with a bow. A wraith, a more powerful undead creature, lunged forward and drove sharp skeletal claws through the man's chest. One final arrow had broken free from the bow before the strike, and flew toward me with incredible precision.

I began to panic. Dungeon Hearts were exceedingly fragile, and I feared a direct hit would shatter me. I wanted to live, but there was nothing I could do as the arrow approached. Blessedly, instead of striking my crystalline form, the arrow narrowly missed and hit the Lich approaching me from behind. The strike rocked the skeleton's skull back, causing it to screech in anger.

The wraith's bony claws tore into the archer's limp body, shredding flesh and spilling blood onto the cold stone floor. Repulsed by the gruesome scene unfolding before me, I watched as a robed figure in pristine white stepped forward to confront the undead creature. With a swift motion of his staff, he brought it down upon the wraith with all his might.

"By the power of the divine light, I banish you back to the depths of hell!" The priest's voice boomed through the cavern, drowning out the sounds of battle as a blinding beam of golden light burst forth from his staff and pierced through the ceiling. The wraith let out a final howl before dissipating into nothingness, leaving only a faint trace of its presence behind.

"Can you get him back up?" The mage woman called out over her shoulder as she blasted an approaching skeleton with a ball of water from her palm. At the same time, she unleashed a palpable surge of mana that barely managed to repel a bolt of black fire from the Lich behind me. Sweat was evident on her brow, and I worried she wouldn't be able to hold up against the two undead monstrosities for much longer.

"No, he's dead." The priest called back as he checked the man laying motionless on the floor in a steadily growing pool of his own blood.

"Damnit! Sierra, we need to finish this before the ceiling comes down on top of us." She ordered, and I realized she was right. These underground ruins, which the Lich had evidently commandeered for their experiments, could not withstand much more of this battle. As I watched, a large chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling, conveniently crushing an approaching skeleton.

At the frontline of the battle, two men with swords kept back the approaching undead. One wore rough leathers with plates of metal to defend the more vulnerable spots, while leaving him free to move. He carried a standard sword made of steel, along with a shield that he used judiciously to keep the skeletons back.

The other man barely wore any armor at all, seemingly more interested in his appearance. His clothes were of quality stuff, although dirtied by mud, dust, and splotches of blood. He wielded a rapier with great proficiency as he struck with precision to shatter skulls and destroy the magic animating the undead. "Philip!" He called out, and a mere moment later the priest threw a burst of white magic into his back.

An ethereal glow lit up around the man, and he darted forward, trying to break through the line of undead and reach the Lich that was steadily bringing them back to life. Enraged, the Lich raised its arm and black swirls of magic tinged with a noxious green began to build within its ribcage.

In a sudden turn of events, a woman emerged from the shadows behind the necromancer and struck him in the head with a bottle of water. The Lich, my oppressor for what feels like an eternity, crumbled into a heap of bones and tattered clothing. I could only watch in amazement at the unexpected turn of events. The humans didn't hesitate to turn their focus to the last remaining Lich as it once again made an attempt to retrieve me from the podium.

It was intercepted by the glowing man with the rapier, who handily cut the skeleton's hand off with a flourish of his blade. "Back away, vile fiend. This Dungeon Heart does not belong to you."

The skeleton's blue flaming eyes blazed with anger, and it clattered angrily at him as it hurled a ball of black fire in retaliation. The attack was taken on the heavily damaged shield of the other sword-wielder. Together, the two men kept the creature back as the mage and priest walked up next to me. "Sierra, Philip, do we have any more of that holy water?" The female mage asked in a huff, panting heavily.

"That was the last of it," Sierra, the woman in dark leathers replied. I didn't see where she came from, but she was suddenly also standing next to me. She eyed the runes floating around me curiously, but kept her attention mostly on the Lich as it fought desperately to vanquish the blessed swordsman and his teammate.

"I wasn't expecting to find a lich crypt down here," The priest, presumably Philip, replied tiredly. The lich in question screeched in anger as it was slammed into a pile of rusty iron cages, impaling it in a half dozen places. "Two of them were far beyond my greatest expectations."

"Can we kill it?" Sierra asked worriedly as the two swordsmen retreated back from an explosion of noxious gas that poured out of the Liches throat. "These bastards are notoriously difficult to kill without divine blessed equipment."

Philip waved his staff, dispelling the poisonous cloud, though the effort visibly tired him out. "We have to try. If we retreat it will take the Heart, and we'll never find it again. I suspect they were only this close to Sableford because they didn't realize anyone was looking for the Dungeon."

At his words I finally remembered the name of the town I had stopped at the night I was captured. Sableford was a more notable town along the human kingdom's borders. I had visited it before in my aimless wanderings, and had inquired about its uniquely dense population. It was renowned for its exceedingly high quality and quantity of Dungeon-made treasures, both enchanted and not.

"Can we take the Dungeon and fall back?" The woman in mage robes asked, "I'm running dangerously low on mana, and I don't think we can kill that thing."

Philip studied me for a moment as the swordsmen and Sierra worked to keep the Lich at bay, and away from me. "Not easily, these runes are quite beyond my understanding, but I am confident that I can dispel them given enough time. It would be faster to kill the Lich, however."

Resigned, the mage woman muttered, "I knew it. Branson is already gone. If we can't succeed, we retreat. The potential reward may be tempting, but not at the cost of our lives. Philip, work to free the Heart."

"Marianna, there isn't time..."

"Just do it!" Marianna yelled as she leapt into battle against the ferocious Lich. I prayed for their victory, knowing that it was my only hope of escape. In a fit of desperation, I struggled against the magical bindings, but they held me fast. The powerful spell didn't even acknowledge my feeble attempts. My attention bounced between the intense battle and Philip, who muttered under his breath while his hands hovered near the runes.

Precious little progress seemed to be made on either front, and nervousness welled up within me. I didn't know at what point Marianna would decide the battle was futile, and cut her teams losses.

Blessedly, the situation I feared never came to pass. I couldn't see what was happening with Philip standing in the way, but I did catch the rapier-wielding swordsmen willingly take a blast of dark magic to the chest, severely weakening the ethereal glow surrounding him, so as to get in close with the Lich.

What followed was a far more dramatic death than the way of the first undead abomination. The seemingly immortal torch by the entrance finally succumbed to darkness, its last flame snuffed out in a final act of defiance. The cavern descended into utter blackness, all sound silenced for a split second before chaos erupted.

The ground shook violently, as if the very foundations of the earth were crumbling. A deafening explosion shattered through the air, like the breaking of glass on a massive scale. And then, everything vanished, swallowed up by an endless void. In that moment, for the first time in ages, I succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep.