The face of this powerful and prideful human, Nirina, wilted away by the corrupting energy coursing through the wires and lines of light. Her beauty was fleeting, barely held on by her will, as the pulsing power relentlessly tried to tear it away.

Charlie wanted so badly, desired from the bottom of his being, to be selfish. He wanted company, he needed another person in his life - to laugh, cry and to share their burdens.

When Charlie looked at her, he couldn't help but remember the moment when he took his own life... If it weren't for that, Charlie wasn't certain he'd have come to this world as himself, or some sort of beast that would have fit this body better.

Charlie steeled himself.

I guess I'm still human, in the end.

A fire deep inside Charlie, ignited. A hunger so primal, so ancient, awakened with a mighty fury. The power rushed through Charlie's veins and filled him with ravenous hunger, filled him with alien desires and cravings of power.

Charlie opened his maw and let out a guttural hiss, deep and filled with dark intentions. Dark green flame sparked out from the corners of his mouth, casting out in plumes of ominous smoke and fire.

"Thank you, Charlie. I wish... We could have met under better... I" she spoke, her voice barely holding back the pain.

"I would have loved to hear about... Your life."

The green flames of hunger flashed out of Charlie's maw, and enveloping all in its path. Even the True Dark failed to stifle the mysterious light completely, retreating just a touch in its presence. It was just for a moment, but the Devouring flame turned a dull gold, before retracting back into Charlie's maw and surfing with his being - filling him with unbridled power. It was unlike anything Charlie had ever felt, where the nourishing energies that soothed his body were no longer present - replaced by uncontainable raw power, destroying everything in its path, only to then rebuild everything in the same stroke.

Streaks of luminous energy arced off of Charlie's scales, turning to golden green lightning violently spreading out in all directions. The metal cage acted like a lightning rod, collecting the unbound power and turning it harmless.

Raspy, hiss-like screams escaped Charlie's still golden-lit maw - the pain of having his body destroyed and regrown was too much to bear in silence.

The radiant light filling Charlie's mouth turned to plums of golden smoke, thick and viscous, and poured out on to the floor. Black and green streaks of fire pierced the radiant gold, devouring it.

The smoke quickly lost it's luster, turning into plums of the darkest black, as devouring the light itself. It spread all around Charlie, obscuring most of his body in the process.

The True Dark that had been kept at bay by the radiant light, was suddenly freed of its mystical bindings - it crept forward. Inch by inch, the True Dark reclaimed the stolen space by the light, until it merged with the blackness pouring out of Charlie's body.

Scents, images, sounds, thoughts, tastes, textures and foreign sensations flooded Charlie's mind in an instant, overwhelming him in less than a moment. Unable to hold back, Charlie's stomach churned and emptied nothing but bile.

In the next fraction of a Second, Charlie felt the burning, searing sensation of white-hot needles piercing his brain. The center of his mind was on fire, itching like there were insects crawling inside of his brain.

It was agonising, it was maddening beyond belief, to not be able to scratch the infernal itch. Charlie wished he could claw his own brain out, to rid himself of both his life and the tremendous torture that wriggled in his brain.

Charlie couldn't see, or think and barely held on to the quickly fraying hems of his sanity. Slithering forward, Charlie felt his mind give way for a split second before everything went black.

Charlie's body collapsed, unable to continue forward. His mind overwhelmed by the nigh infinite senses that assaulted him every moment of consciousness, yet it still had enough time to try and create as much distance as possible between himself and the cage.

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And there, in the True Darkness, Charlie lay unconscious.

Charlie's dreaming mind swam from pleasant dreams to torturous nightmares, from nightmare to dream, in an endless cycle for what felt like eons.

Yet, if Charlie had the mental capacity to worry, he'd be comforted in that, no matter what, his stomach would wake him.

Charlie woke with a startled gasp, still blanketed by the True Darkness from all directions, and vomited a clear liquid immediately. The sudden movement made his stomach churn, and as Charlie regained his focus, he felt his head swim even more.

Nausea was awful; it stopped him from thinking, stopped him from moving and demanded all of his attention. So, he waited for it to pass.

Eventually, it did, giving him some breathing room to finally assess his surroundings and attempt to process what had happened.

Looking around, Charlie realised that the darkness had swallowed up everything, even the glowing pedestal - and even the radiant creatures cage.

Her name is Nirina. She was no creature...

Charlie chided himself, unwilling to continue calling her a simple creature. She deserved more respect than that. Whoever could keep a sane mind through that torture was no simple being.

In fact, Charlie was certain there was more to her than he could have imagined. In their short exchange, Charlie had learned a bit more about the world and wondered what else she could have told him.

The Cult of Worms, huh?

Charlie wasn't sure what to make of them yet, but after seeing what they had done to Nirina, Charlie didn't want to see what else they would be capable of. Anyone that could inflict that level of torture onto another living being, could be capable of fates Charlie could not imagine.

Right now there was no time to process the swathes of information that came from the encounter, but one thing was certain, the humans would spell his death, or worse, and he needed to escape as soon as possible.

Charlie followed the strange craters on the floor back to the source, and found himself before the cage once more. Though, upon inspection, Charlie found it to be empty. Not even a drop of blood remained, only disconnected wires and thin lines of multicoloured light still lay there.

His chest tensed, but Charlie didn't allow himself to delay any longer. Her memory would be with him, even if she no longer existed.

As he made his way through the darkness, Charlie couldn't help but think that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong, and only now did he come to realise the strangeness in the situation.

Where were the Cult of Worms?

Charlie had killed Nirina, yet the darkness remained and the humans have yet to appear. Charlie had even passed out for an unknown time, and yet he woke up as if nothing had happened.

There was next to no chance that they wouldn't have been able to find him, yet that seemed to have been the case. Charlie was rarely lucky, so believing that he was somehow missed by the Cult didn't sit right with him.

There must have been more to it, something he himself had missed, there had to be an explanation. Charlie crept forward as he racked his mind, trying to find some sort of link between his survival and the Cult of Worms.

A sudden change in the scent washed over Charlie - dozens of new warm odours sent shivers down his spine.

They were everywhere.

But how?

Ever since coming to this world, Charlie had remained vigilant in using his tongue to eke out any and all information from his vastly enhanced new sense. It had become as natural as breathing, completely taken care of by his subconscious mind - so when a new scent suddenly appeared, Charlie couldn't help but feel jump-scared.

His mind must have been still recovering from Devouring Nirina - somehow forgetting that the unnatural darkness stifled even the natural scents of the living.

Quickly calming down, Charlie locked in all of his attention and focused on the moving scents. It wasn't the clearest, but Charlie could just about track their movements.

A group of twelve people were walking as a unit through the heavy darkness, roughly ten meters to his left. They didn't seem to be walking directly to him, just his general direction.

Charlie slinked away quietly, doing his best to create distance between them and remain calm. He wasn't sure if the Cult of Worms could sense him, or if they were just as blind as him, but he had to take any precaution he could if he wanted to survive. If they could sense him, then he was already dead, but since he continued to breathe, Charlie refused to make it easy.

Sensing the group of people walking through the dark room affirmed that they were searching for him. There had initially been only three people holed up down here, and now, there was a dozen people wading through the darkness? It was almost certain that they knew of Nirina's death.

Charlie just hoped they wouldn't suspect a creature like him of accomplishing the task, and instead focus on the possibility of a human intruder. Though, on this world, Charlie's logic may not work, he couldn't tell how common sense differed on a world with such mysteries. Maybe they already suspected him and just could not find him in the impenetrable darkness.

Well, that only mattered if they could find him, of course - And for now, it seemed they were more blind than he was.

Charlie could use this to his advantage, he could use the unaware humans to lead him directly to the exit.

If this group wouldn't, then the next will suffice, or the even the ones after that. No matter how long he would have to wander through the thick darkness, Charlie refused to give in to the inkling sense of despair that grew with every new scent carried in by the shadowy currents.

No matter their numbers, Charlie would evade them all, and carry the memory of Nirina to the surface.

He owed her that much, at least.