I die.

My soul flies, hurtling as I cascade, barreling through the eternal darkness of limbo. My essence, having released from the bonds of my corporeal body with a loud snap that I didn’t so much hear as I did feel, hurtles with terrifying speed through the void, as the binds that so tightly held me in place are severed. As the seal, locking my body and soul together as one, is broken.

  It happens so fast that I don’t even feel the separation from my body, the tension that has been building up for so long, released all at once in a massive eruption of spiritual energy which sends me blasting through the empty cosmos that lies on the other side of the veil with such speed, that I don’t even notice the transition. It is simply dark, all at once. As if I had closed my eyes. The sun of my un-life having vanished entirely from the now dead and lightless sky.

  No stars shine in that ink all around myself, in that black-water. All I see is… emptiness. Endless, black, gooey, quiet emptiness, disrupted only by my spiraling through it. Water rushes and drones with a quiet roar all around myself as I hurtle through the void. I have no body, I have no limbs, I have no core, no shell, no self. I am simply a vague, shapeless mass, that nobody could ever lo-

  I spasm, a jolt of energy, of humming electricity, blasting through my core, pulsing into my chest. Creeping, crawling, reaching into the empty depths of my hollow breast where I feel something… kick; where I feel something lash and squirm and writhe. It beats.

  The seal. Do you know what the seal is, guy? Probably not, it’s more dungeon jargon. Not really relevant for anyone who is a one-shotter at life. The seal is the red thread that sews you together. It’s the glue that connects your physical body and your incorporeal soul, interlocking them as one whole. It’s that sticky little thing between the physical and the metaphysical essences of yourself. Every living entity has one, at least every one that respawns, you know? Lots of being taken apart and put back together if you live this wild life that we do down here.

I feel my leg kicking, the metal rattling as it jitters against the stones.

  I have one, but it’s broken. You have one too, guy, because you’re a part of me now. The dungeon, alive and emergent as it is, has one. But what happens when that differentiation fades away? What happens when your soul becomes loose and it doesn’t sit right anymore, because the glue doesn’t stick anymore? Because you use bodies as a replaceable container for your soul so often that you simply aren’t attachable anymore? If you take your soul out of one and pop it into another body, over and over and over forever? What happens when the pieces don’t hold together anymore and the meat of your decaying shell is nibbled away by creepy, crawly fat maggots? What happens when the meat begins to drip off of your bones?

  Things fall apart. It all goes to shit because the pieces of the puzzle of your being got all soggy and smushy and they don’t fit together right anymore. The boundaries become foggy. Nebulous. The clear-cut lines between the meat-realm and the ‘other side’ get all vague and janky. I guess that’s how you hitched a ride with me between bodies. The natural layers of protection that keep both your body and spirit from decaying are worn away. Once your defenses are down, once the flow of fresh blood slows, that’s when the rot begins to set in. That’s when the decomposers come. The maggots. The mold. The little, nibbly, wiggly bugs that eat your sagging meat and return it to the natural world as dust and grime. They’re gross, but they all have a purpose.

  I guess that’s the role which the thing that reaches fills. I guess that’s how you found me too, guy. Because you want to nibble me. Or at least you did at first. Good thing we got along so well, haha. Or we’d both be dead now because you ate me and then starved. Or at least the dungeon-magic that pulses through me. But that might as well be me. It’s the only thing keeping me going at this point, but I don’t know if even it is able to fix the mess that my body is now. Probably not. There isn’t much left to fix.

  I suppose I’m the most magical entity in the entire dungeon. I must be absolutely dripping with sweet, delicious, moist black-water at this point, like a big, fat, juicy bug. Not that I mind. I appreciate having someone around, especially someone with so much self-control like you, guy, even if you aren’t a real person. Though, I suppose that’s a vague statement. ‘A real person.’ Am I a real person?

Probably not to the hero.

Anyways, what was I… huh? What’s that? You want me to get up?

  There’s no getting up this time, guy. I think they basically turned me into sand. We’re going to have to respawn and take the long way but… Ah. I feel so… so light. It’s kind of nice to not have a body. I feel like I can really stretch myself out, like after being locked in a box for a long time.

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I feel pretty good actual-

Huh? What? Oh come on, guy, give me a break. Five minutes at least? I’m sure the dungeon-master will give us a new body any second now and then w-

We…

My head rattles. Shaking against the stone floors, cracking against the rocks over and over in a thousand tiny strikes, as if a swarm of skittering spiders were crawling beneath myself.

We… we… why is it so warm? What’s that sound? What’s that… what’s that feeling? It’s so hot. It’s hot. It’s hot!

I feel my body. I feel my body shaking. I feel metal. I hear metal jangling and shaking and crashing against the stones, as if the chains that tie my destroyed shell to the world that I have left behind are… are…

  We come to a halt, our wild hurtling through the void stopping immediately as a demon claw comes to wrap itself around the goo that is us. Its sharp, reaching fingers dig into our essences, grasping us tightly as it yanks back the other way. Each of its digits is so long and has so many joints that they wind around our souls like constricting snakes, as it drags me, drags us, back towards the sun. It’s so hot. It’s so hot! WHY IS IT SO HO-

Screams fill the air.

My body shakes. I hear a jangling, a jostling, a rattling and a tossing and turning of a thousand broken bones. I hear voices. I hear voices outside of me. I hear voices inside of me. Get out! GET OUT! GET OUT OF ME!

  My wordless scream mixes in with the rest, as my eyes shoot open, as my shaken, jittering body convulses, twitching from side to side as if the demon-hand were still clutching me tight, as if it is dragging me across the ground. Lashing out with me, snapping my bones a thousand times back into place.

It’s so bright. So hot. Why won’t you all just be quiet?! The sun. I see the sun. It’s right there, guy, guy! Look! LOOK!

  My broken fingers lift an inch off of the stones, my broken elbow lifts an inch off of the stones as I am jammed back together, as the soggy pieces of the puzzles are crushed down again and again with a hammer, flattening them to the point that it is irrelevant if they fit well or not. I lift my arm higher, reaching, reaching. I reach for the thing that floats above myself. The distant light.

Mama? Mama is that you? Why did you leave me here? I was good! I was good! So why did you leave me here with him? With Miller? I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to!

  My eyes gaze up at the angelic silhouette that I see floating above myself, encased in a holy white-magic aura that is far too bright to stem from any human alone, save the hero. Her face is obscured by the glowing light of the spell that washes over my body, of the healing magic that pulses through my rotten core, filling me with a warmth that I am undeserving of. It fills me with feelings that I am undeserving of. I hate it. I hate it. Stop it. Stop it!

  My legs tremble as I see the winding coils of air rising up along the walls, sneaking and creeping towards her. Dungeon-magic is flowing into the priestess of the hero-party, like the screams that flow into me much the same. There is movement all around myself as my body begins to rise, as unseen roots dig through my core, pulling the jagged scraps of metal and bone back together. The rot of my being, the white-magic of the healer and the hate of the dungeon for me, all coming together to fix me. To set me up onto my feet.

My hand shoots out and I grab something heading my way. Something soft. Something close.

Why are there screams? What’s everyone screaming about?

  My eyes look at the thing before me, the flailing human whose throat is in my hand, the man who I don’t recognize. Hi, friend! Did you want to sit on a rock with me? It’s a great way to pass the time on a sunny day! I try to unclench my fingers, but they don’t move. I watch, as the shimmering blue tendrils run down my rattling metal arm, I watch as they run down my fingers and dig into his meat. He spasms and kicks and the screams grow louder as a froth begins to form on his face. Not from his mouth, but from behind his eyes. He screams, thrashing, kicking, tearing, as his eyes deflate, melt, as they fall backwards into his own skull and then dribble out of the wet holes like a thick, sticky, white goo tinged with blood.

Animal screams. It’s all I hear.

Get out.

My body drops him to the ground and I duck in turn, doing a quick spin as some crying elf runs straight towards me, screaming like a feral animal. Oh! You’re the cool-earring lady! It’s nice to mee-

  There is a loud cracking, as my lance presses forward, breaking her ribs and skewering her chest. The blade digging right past her heart in the same second, as ‘I’ jam the base of the shaft into the stones, pressing my foot against it and hoisting her spasming, dripping body into the air like a grim banner.

As she kicks and screams, the blue rot, already on the blade, climbs up towards her and creeps into her body.

Get out.

  A full party runs towards me, coming towards us from all sides as I stand there, my cape billowing in the rain as blood and goo dribbles down over us. But I look up, ignoring them as I stare in fascination at the elf whose body swells. Her face swells, her muscles swell, her skin pulls taut as her flesh detaches from her bones as all the water in her meat seeps the outside. All the while she kicks and screams and vomits. No noise comes out of her mouth. Only bile. No light shines from eyes that liquefy as the rot consumes everything inside of them.

I hear footsteps next to me.

She explodes and I watch as a goopy slosh splashes down on all seven of us.

Get out.

They scream. I kick my lance, throwing off the husk that remains of her body. It isn’t much, tell you what.

I look at the screaming adventurers falling in a circle all around myself, clutching their throats, clutching their eyes and faces as the rot consumes them from the inside out.

Get out.

That’s not a very nice thing to do, guy. I know you want to leave as fast as you can and I understand that, believe me. But can’t we fight them a little more… I don’t know. Heroically? This seems excessive. You know? We could make a real scene out of it! Give them all something to watch.

Someone grabs my ankle and I look down at the gooey carcass holding on to me. You look like a slime-girl, friend! Though… uh… that’s probably really bad for a human, actually.

CRUNCH

My other leg lifts up, pulling itself free from the mushy skull. Aww! Come on, guy, that one was probably not even an adult yet! Can’t you be nicer? Don’t be a jerk!

  My body spasms, my bones cracking as they all pop back into place. Goo dribbles down my form. Rot dribbles down my spasming gestalt as I turn, walking over the screaming dead, as I march straight towards the line guarding the gate. The bright rays of magical sunlight stroking against my back, like the gentle push of a soft wind.

I’m starting to think you don’t share my pacifistic values, guy. Are you just using me to get out of the dungeon? You better not be. What? Yes? I totally would have killed them to keep us alive. Huh? How? Well, I would have done it pacifistically! Obviously.

Sheesh. Everyone's a critic.