Nobody spoke as we neared the dungeon’s heart chamber. Ramzi’s soft humming provided a magical light around our bodies, helping us avoid bumping into supports and collapsing the tunnel.

Where the hell were the grommets, anyway? If they were watching us, they were taking great pains to avoid being seen. But why?

I pushed the thought away, knowing I needed to stay focused. Ahead, the tunnel curved to the left, and faint, pulsing purple light lit the dirt and stones there.

I sensed everybody growing more tense. We were close. They didn’t need a map to know it. The feeling of dread and danger hung thick in the stale tunnel air.

I had loaded my Silver Scream quiver with a Healing Potion arrow, a Dragon’s Tail arrow, and a Bombroot arrow. I had waffled on the decision between the Healing Potion and Viperlilly but decided we were only dealing with one enemy. I was almost certainly going to want Bombroot in them. I doubted the fight would go long enough to try a second round of Silver Scream, either, meaning the utility of having a Viperlilly Arrow on hand would be minimal. I hoped.

My Alchemist’s Kit was still full of Bombroot, too, but I had hardly found an opportunity to use it since entering the dungeon. As my range of abilities grew, the number of reasons to throw the Alchemist’s Kit and take advantage of its regenerating ability had diminished rapidly. It made me wonder if I had earned powerful gear faster than I expected when choosing the weapon to keep as one of my two choices, or if the true purpose of the kit was to push my corestone evolution in the right direction.

Then again, I still hadn’t identified the kit. Maybe there was a functionality I hadn’t even discovered yet—another reason I had valued it so highly. However, Voidgaze seemed far more powerful at the moment, especially with its dungeon map.

My kit would also likely see a jump in utility when we were out of here and back in open space. If I could find herbs and ingredients, I could make my own potions, which would be a great income source or provide me with useful options.

I sighed. My thoughts were all over the place. I was likely trying to avoid thinking too hard about what we were walking into. I had watched this purple dot kill Irons on my map. Rake was one Iron; the six of us could have easily died trying to escape him. If this thing could kill Irons, it might be far more than we could handle.

Rake had been the only Iron to survive the fight with the Briarwraith, though, even when the other two were the same level as him. Maybe he was just a particularly dangerous Iron or had a higher rarity class corestone, like Circa?

Whatever the case, I would look for an opportunity. If this purple dot was somebody who had lost their mind to the dungeon, then I could hope for a loose thread to tug. The slight advantage might be enough to give us an edge.

If it wasn’t… well, I wouldn’t think about that.

We rounded the corner, and I finally saw the purple dot in the flesh for the first time in the center of a huge, circular chamber with high ceilings and odd, glowing purple foliage in every direction. Humid air washed over us from the chamber, immediately making my skin sticky with sweat.

When the room came into view, there was too much to take in at once: a great, white tree, the scene of a battle, a massive and highly unusual creature lying on its side, and a distant doorway that looked like the official entrance.

My focus fell to the creature on the ground in the center of the room. It was definitely dead, but I inspected it out of curiosity.

[Grok’Thal, the Gigas, Level 50 (Iron)] Grok’Thal was once a proud warrior who succumbed to the dark mana within this dungeon. Over time, he has taken on aspects of the creatures within, growing in power and size until he was deemed fit to serve as the guardian of the dungeon’s heart.

I scanned the corpse of Grok’Thal, hardly able to imagine it had once been human. If he was upright, it would have easily been four stories tall. He had no body, with the majority of his mass resembling a massive infant’s head, bloated and malformed. Its twisted features were almost human, but wrong in several disturbing ways. Its skin was rough and cracked like stone, and the deep fissures oozed a thick, yellow fluid. Most of it was caked and dry, but a still-warm stream oozed from one wide, unseeing eye in the center of its face.

The fluid dripped to the ground, steaming and hissing.

Beneath the head, the “neck” sprouted a cluster of spider-like legs, each jointed limb tangled and twisted in death.

Grok-Thal’s mouth hung open, showing rows of cracked and broken stone teeth, as if it had died mid-scream. I shivered as I imagined the monstrosity clattering around the chamber on those spider legs, mouth chomping as it tried to eat us whole.

My first impulse was to be glad as hell that it was dead. My second was to realize whatever had killed it must be worse.

Stomach cold with dread, I slowly moved my eyes around the room, searching for the purple dot.

Behind the boss, I saw a white tree made of what looked like bone—every branch dusted with purple crystals instead of leaves. The bone tree was tall enough to nearly touch the chamber’s ceiling, which had to be nearly two hundred feet high.

Is that tree the dungeon heart?

I scanned the rest of the room, noticing areas where white roots rose from the ground, forming a broken circle of seven roots evenly spaced around the chamber. Each bony root glowed with purple light. When I reached my senses toward one, it reminded me of a water pipe, full to bursting with dark mana.

I suspected the clues I needed were sprinkled around the room, but I didn’t know enough. Not yet. I just needed some time to put it together…

My thoughts were cut short when something moved into view from Grok’Thal the Gigas’ corpse.

It was a solitary figure no larger than an average man, but his body ended below the torso in a tangle of twisted black roots. Looking closer, I saw his entire form was encased in the dark roots, giving off an aura that made the air shimmer like desert heat. Immense, oppressive waves of power seemed to radiate from him, washing over me and the others in thick waves. Even the feeling of them made me want to fall to the ground and vomit.

Glancing to my side, I saw the others struggling against the same feeling. Zahra suppressed a gag and then covered her mouth with the back of her hand. Ramzi checked on her and said something quietly, and she nodded, eyes resolute.

The… thing at the center of the chamber drifted from side to side, long-fingered hands on its featureless head. The purple lights glowing from behind the roots where its eyes should be flickered. “No! You promised. You promised,” the voice was nothing but a rasp—barely a whisper.

The creature slashed an arm outward, spraying several magic spikes that exploded, carving a huge half-sphere out of the dirt wall.

For a moment, I thought I was wrong, and the fight was still ongoing. But it looked like the purple dot was firing spells at random.

What the hell is going on down there?

We all crouched low, sharing uncertain looks. I inspected the floating half-man of roots.

[Human, Level 50 (Iron) (Eclipsed)] “An Eclipsed has succumbed to the control of dark mana. Some semblance of who they were before may lurk within, but their mind will eventually be lost to the influence of dark mana. Given enough time, an Eclipsed will fuse with a dungeon heart, raising the threat level of future iterations of a dungeon. In some cases, the Eclipsed will take on the role of dungeon guardian. In others, they will fuse with the existing guardian, granting them increased power and capabilities.”

Well, shit. So if we didn’t kill this guy, Beastden would be a Silver dungeon next time it appeared? Or did it take multiple Eclipsed to reach higher threat levels?

The question could wait until later. If we didn’t find a way past him, it would be somebody else’s problem.

The others stood silently behind me. I could sense them hoping for some brilliant plan. Honestly, my intention was to improvise once the shit started flying, hoping I could spot an opportunity in the madness. So far, I saw two potential threads to explore. One was the hope that this thing was insane. It was undoubtedly more powerful than us, but if it was conflicted, we could use that.

The other had to do with those roots. Did we need to kill the tree somehow? Was it providing him extra power? Or would destroying the tree shut down the dark mana in the entire dungeon, somehow de-powering the Eclipsed?

The only way to find out was to go down there and start trying. If some part of the human that creature used to be was fighting back, our best chance to strike was now.

The grommet tunnel punched into the boss chamber from several feet up. We would have to slide down the chamber's sloping walls to get on even ground, and I doubted we could easily climb back up once we descended.

In other words, it was going to be a one-way trip.

The actual entrance to the dungeon heart chamber was on the opposite end, behind the Eclipsed.

I had full mana, my quiver was loaded, and the others were close enough to full mana to proceed. We would slide down, try to find a way past, and fight if we had to.

“Ready?” I asked.

“No,” Sylara said, voice dry.

I grinned. “I’d rather die fighting than be trapped in a grommet tunnel if the dungeon shifts. Wouldn’t you?”

I had always been good at faking confidence with others. When I was fighting solo, the confidence was real. Ever since I knew we were about to confront the Irons and now that we were about to face this Eclipsed, I was only doing my best to look calm.

Sometimes, I thought my body didn’t know the difference if my brain only pretended to feel something. It reminded me of a saying I had heard somewhere—that bravery was just the act of facing your fears. People thought being brave was having no fear, but it was the opposite. It was accepting your fear and rising above it—looking fear in the eyes, taking a big ass step forward, and saying fuck you, here I come.

So I welcomed the fear I felt as I stared down at the Eclipsed.

I had been yanked from a relatively boring life to this place. I had spent my whole life wishing I was the characters in fantasy movies and games—imagining how I would handle myself if I were in their shoes. Now I was here. If I was supposed to die here, I would do it fighting, not running.

I drew my Silver Scream Bow, nocked a Bombroot arrow, and nodded. Fuck you, Purple dot. Here we come. And if you don’t manage to kill us, then fuck you too, Rake. You’re next. And after you, it’s whoever the hell made me think I needed more power in the first place.

“Get ready,” I said.

#

Metal whispered against metal from behind me as the party drew their weapons. I felt the tension of mana being gripped and held at the ready. Ramzi hummed a deep note, washing our legs with cooling magic that granted strength and speed.

“Now,” I whispered.

I exited the tunnel and slid down to the dungeon heart chamber.

Before we even landed, the creature had turned to face us. Its “face” was a nearly featureless mask of black, tangled roots, with only two points of purple hinting at eyes. Behind it, the form of Grok’Thal looked even more huge now that I was at ground level. It loomed behind the Eclipsed like a profane mountain of flesh.

“No!” the Eclipsed shouted, voice distorted and booming as if it was projected from several points around the room. Or was it coming from the tree itself?

I held up my palms, jerking my head to the side to indicate everyone to follow. We began side-stepping along the back wall of the circular chamber. If he let us do this for… what, five minutes, we’d eventually reach the exit. What were the chances he’d let us awkwardly shimmy out of here without a fight?

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Slim, I guessed. But it was worth a try.

“We don’t want trouble,” I said. “Just passing through.”

“You want to take them from me!” it shouted.

I resisted the urge to drop my bow and cover my ears. Its voice was so loud it was painful. The creature stood at the center of the room, floating a few inches above the ground with a tangle of roots dangling where its legs should have been.

The Eclipsed drifted toward the room’s exit. Mad or not, it seemed to be aware enough to know we were trying to leave. If it was moving that way, it was planning to stop us.

New plan, then.

I spoke as quietly as I could, hoping it couldn’t hear me. “Spread out,” I whispered. “Everybody pick a root and get in position. I think we might need to break them. I can feel mana in them, and the mana is flowing into him. When I say, we strike them at the same time.”

As soon as we had entered the room, the feeling was obvious. Those roots were fueling him, somehow.

Silently, the group fanned out. Thorn, Sylara, and Lyria moved to my left. I headed to the right with Zahra.

Each root was positioned around the perimeter of the large, circular room. I counted seven of them, and the mana inside each felt slightly different, but I couldn’t say how or what that meant.

“You’re not monsters,” the Eclipsed whispered, but the whisper came from every direction, disorientingly loud.

I frowned. What? “No, you’re right,” I said, moving as quickly as I dared toward the root. I didn’t want to make it start attacking any sooner than we had to. If we all kept moving slowly, it seemed content to talk for the moment. “We’re not monsters. We just want to get out of here. Will you let us pass?”

“I… can’t. It won’t let you. You—” the Eclipsed clamped its long fingers over its head and let out a roar.

One of its arms lifted, almost as if it was outside the control of the rest of the body. I felt the energy within a root near Thorn flare up, feeding a massive mana surge toward the creature while my Mana Sense exploded with a warning.

“Thorn! Down!” I shouted as I tried to conjure a Mana Shield between him and the Eclipsed. But I couldn’t properly position or reinforce it from this distance. Ramzi and Lyria both tried to get barriers up in time, but none of us had time to strengthen them. Thorn, for his part, spun and fired a hook attack at the wall above where he stood.

The rest happened in a split second.

The Eclipsed threw a spike of mana that easily punched through my Mana Shield, shattered Ramzi’s bubble, and sliced through the Wind Wall Lyria was raising. Thorn’s hook bit into the dirt above where he stood, yanking him up and out of the way of the strike at the last possible moment.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the boom of dark, swirling purple mana rushed outward, cutting a half-circle into the stone where Thorn had just been standing.

Holy shit. That spell would have vaporized him.

Thorn released his hook and slid down the sloped wall, eyes locked on the Eclipsed.

But it seemed to be struggling against itself instead of following up with another attack, blackened hands clutching its head as it roared in frustration.

I nocked a Bombroot arrow, aimed, and loosed. It was a tough shot, as the Eclipsed was almost fifty feet away.

The arrow sailed straight, slamming into its torso. I had aimed for the head, but I’d take it. I stashed my bow and quiver, immediately following the attack with a Cloudfall full of Dragon’s Tail above the Eclipsed.

Fiery rain poured down, each drop bursting with small, fist-sized explosions like firecrackers.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

The small explosions rang out like gunfire but were silenced when the Eclipsed spread both arms, releasing a pulse of purple energy that dispelled my Cloudfall and made the Bombroot arrow in its torso dissolve into sparks.

Shit.

Like the other attack, the pulse of energy seemed to come from a different root. It was almost as if each root around the room held a unique power the Eclipsed could call on.

“Roots! Now!” I shouted.

We all began hacking at a different root. With the six of us, there would only be one root left once we were done. Unless…

I summoned an Elemental Spike of Viperlilly and immediately Echoed it, sending the Echo to the seventh root we didn’t have a person for.

Unfortunately, my Echo gleefully floated straight toward the Eclipsed.

No! Get the root!

The dagger either didn’t hear me or didn’t care. It floated up to the Eclipsed and started stabbing.

No time to worry about that, I thought, putting my attention on destroying the root in front of me. I cut into it, relieved to see I could damage it. Dark mana bubbled up from the gash like blood, flashed with light, and then instantly repaired the root. I sliced several more times, using my free hand to wrench the root apart, but nothing worked. It could heal itself faster than I could damage it.

“Not working!” I heard somebody shout.

“What do we do?” another voice called, clearly stricken with panic.

My Echo, unbothered by the commotion or the still struggling Eclipsed, kept stabbing away. Its strikes were having the same lack of impact on the Eclipsed that we had on the roots. One of the roots flooded him with mana, healing his wounds almost instantly.

“Watch out!” Ramzi shouted, voice deep and booming.

The root near me started gathering mana. I sensed the mana traveling toward the Eclipsed.

The Eclipsed was still locked in an internal battle, or I suspected we would all be dead already. It looked as though one arm was in the control of somebody who didn’t want us dead. The other arm was murderous.

The dangerous arm yanked free, exploding in a tangle of roots that raced forward, stretching toward Lyria with blinding speed.

I created a Mana Shield in its path. The expanding root-like spikes reached the shield and grew around it in less than a second, continuing forward.

Lyria’s eyes widened in horror as she tried to raise a Wind Wall.

“Thorn!” I shouted.

He summoned his chain shield and whipped it forward, yanking it so the chain wrapped around Lyria. A moment later, he tugged, jerking her entire body sideways before the roots punched into the wall.

Lyria got to her feet and scrambled away as small, hidden pores all along the roots began leaking purple mist like a gas cloud that filled the space she had just been standing.

“Aaaaggghhhhh,” the Eclipsed roared. It was leaning forward again, one arm wrestling with the other.

We needed a way to destroy these damn roots. But how?

“Buy time!” I shouted. It was shitty advice, considering the Eclipsed seemed capable of one-shotting any of us. If we didn’t figure this root shit out, though, we were all dead.

I saw the group move in to attack the Eclipsed as I racked my brain for ideas.

And then it hit me.

My bedroll.

I summoned it and threw it at the root. “Dinner time, Buddy. Come on!”

The bedroll didn’t waste any time. Its leather strap legs unfolded, pushed closer, and opened its mouth. It chomped through the root in three hard bites and made a slurping noise, apparently sucking mana from deeper in the root system.

At the same moment, the Eclipse shouted in pain, turning to face us.

Shit.

The bedroll took one last slurp, then backed away from the root. Both ends were crusted over with thick purple scabs that weren’t healing.

Good. We could do this, as long as that thing didn’t kill me before I could get the bedroll to eat more of these.

I scooped up the bedroll under one arm and ran for the next root.

Meanwhile, Zahra was spraying sticky black magic at the Eclipsed.

My Echo was stabbing happily.

Thorn bashed it from side to side with his chain shield, barely making it flinch with each thundering blow.

Lyria slashed at it, hacking away at roots that regrew faster than she could remove them.

Sylara sliced with obvious skill, frustration plain on her face as no amount of wounds seemed to have any effect.

Ramzi hung back, humming and covering the group in enhancing magic.

The Eclipsed was taking the abuse with its head bowed, twitching more from madness than any care for the flurry of attacks.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the Eclipsed suddenly look straight toward me. It raised one palm, and I felt a sudden mana surge in a different root.

I braced for something to fly out of its hand, but nothing came. I was running full speed when my Mana Sense warned me of something below the ground in the direction I was running.

I skidded to a stop, pushing myself backward just before a palm three times the size of my body punched up out of the ground and slapped down, shaking the ground.

When it realized it had missed me, it started pulling itself more out of the ground, revealing a huge, muscular arm made entirely of glowing purple roots. It scrambled around, slapping at the ground with an open palm like it was trying to crush a bug.

I ran wide around it but noticed it was pressing down, as if trying to wrench the rest of its body out from the ground. A massive head began to tear up the soil, lifting with slow, nightmarish speed.

Holy fuck. Was there an entire root creature under the ground there? It would be as tall as the cavern if it pulled itself completely free.

The Eclipsed was focused on the spell, palm still extended. Lyria, Thorn, Sylara, and Zahra all attacked it, but nothing they tried was working. They might as well have been fighting a waterfall at its base.

I needed to stop up the source of that power. The source was those roots. And if destroying the roots didn’t work, I’d have to find a way to get that damn tree.

The regeneration, giant creature pulling itself from the ground, and the earlier attack had all been fueled by different roots positioned around the room, and I had been carefully keeping track of which roots fueled which abilities.

I wanted to destroy the Eclipsed’s ability to regenerate, but that giant beast was a slightly more immediate problem. I cut a path across the room toward the source of the massive summoning spell’s power.

I sprinted at full speed past my fighting allies, who still hacked uselessly at the nearly motionless Eclipsed.

“What do we do?” Lyria shouted between overhand strikes with her sword.

“Keep it busy,” I panted. “The roots. I’ve got to break the roots!”

When I glanced back, I nearly tripped and fell on my face. The root giant was halfway out of the earth now, towering higher than a three or four-story building already.

I skidded to my knees before the root that was fueling the giant creation and threw my bedroll at it. “Come on, Buddy!"

The bedroll happily chomped down on the root, slurping up the mana.

I swung my head, looking toward the monstrosity behind me. It twitched, flashed with light, creaked, and groaned like a falling tree. The roots lost their dark purple color and turned gray, freezing in place as if it was turning to stone.

I scooped up the bedroll again. Okay. Each root gives him a different power. The obvious next choice was the regeneration root. If I took that out, my allies could cut him to pieces.

I hoped.

I was running for the root when a thought occurred to me. I was holding the bedroll like a club. Technically, I was using this thing as a weapon. Didn’t that mean I could Forge Echo it?

I released the Forge Echo of my Elemental Spike and formed a mental image of my creepy bedroll. It was harder than I expected because the bedroll had intelligence of its own, and it was also covered in living bugs. But I managed an approximation of it that appeared in front of the root that had fueled the projectile spike attack I had seen the Eclipse use on Thorn.

I watched it chomp down and bite a root, drawing another scream of pain from the Eclipsed.

I reached the regeneration root and skidded to a stop, throwing the real bedroll at it. While it chewed and the Eclipsed roared in pain, I quickly took mental inventory.

I had broken the root arm power, the root giant power, the regeneration power, and the spike attack. That left three roots and three powers I hadn’t seen yet. We could—

I turned and saw the Eclipsed facing me again, eyes blazing. The group was trying to hack at it. Even Ramzi was in melee range, throwing punches and kicks. Their cuts were drawing blood, but the wounds were still shallow and hardly appeared to bother the Eclipsed, even without his regeneration.

Shit.

He swatted one arm to the side, not even looking. The blow sent Lyria, Thorn, and Sylara flying dozens of feet and landing in a rolling mess.

I pushed my mind toward them, quickly using Devour Mana to heal the worst of their internal injuries while ignoring the superficial ones to preserve their mana reserves. From this distance, it was sloppy, imprecise work. I couldn’t even be certain I had an accurate gauge of the damage, but Ramzi was also bathing them in regenerative magic.

I summoned a Cloudfall of Healing Potion above the three, who were slowly dragging themselves up to their hands and knees.

I was distracted when Mana Sense exploded with a warning. I hadn’t noticed the subtle feeling of a power root activating, and the Eclipsed was already launching a new attack toward me.

The Eclipsed punched one arm up in the air and clenched its fist.

I tried to raise shields around myself, but it was no use. Finger-like spears of wood shot out of the ground, walls, and ceiling, punching into my body from every direction.

The sudden agony severed all my spells, leaving me completely defenseless.

I tried to scream, but every piece of wood was forcing impossible amounts of dark mana into my body, paralyzing me until my brain felt like it was in shock.

I blinked rapidly, twitched, and then felt a presence. It was as if the dark mana itself was forming into something within me, something intelligent and deadly.

Like a puppet on strings, I was lowered to the ground. My body was moving, but I could only watch from behind my eyes.

Lyria was running toward me, but she stopped suddenly, face a mask of fear and confusion. “Brynn?” she asked.

“Time to die,” my body shouted, palms raised as a torrent of dark mana rose inside me.