Cass spun on the noise. Across the room, a pair of doors thudded shut. Before them stood a gangly, humanoid figure.

It was wreathed in a cloak of purple light. It hung from its body like a heavy fabric yet was translucent and iridescent. Its head was crowned in a spiked halo of the stuff. It radiated danger.

Its head was square, its eyes beady and glowing that same color. Its face had more in common with a bear trap than a human head, all jaws and teeth.

It reminded Cass of the grotto spiders. It looked like someone had taken their legs and used them to make this thing’s limbs and fingers. They were the same bony grey. The same sickening twitchy movement.

The sight of it sent a chill down Cass’s spine. It settled over her heart, pulsing in her chest. There was an intense wrongness about it.

An intense wrongness it evoked in her.

It was a threat. One she needed to kill. Overcoming it would make her stronger. She would devour it for her growth.

Kill it, Salos’s voice whispered. It came low and grating, like stones rolling down a mountain, rough sides scraping over open rock and crunching over loose gravel. Devour its essence.

She could see it already: her standing above its crumpled corpse, drinking up the experience of its death. Drinking the soul within. Her power growing leaps and bounds.

Vibrating with excitement, spurred on by Salos’s commands, Cass raced down the rows of tanks. She drew back her staff, summoning Wind Blade to the end and sending it down the row after her prey ahead of her. And another. And another. She brought forth a hurricane of blades.

They slashed through its robes of light, buffeting the ghastly figure, though hardly cutting.

Cass followed her storm a step later, slamming her Wind-Bladed glaive into the thing’s chest. Her blade struck with all her Strength and bit into its flesh with all the might of her considerable Will.

The thing didn’t flinch. It simply looked down at her. It was over a head taller than she was. Its purple eyes, beady and empty, consumed her. Confused? Disappointed? Disinterested?

And then it screamed.

It threw its head back, its jaw unhinging impossibly far, and released an unearthly wail.

Cass clasped her hands over her ears, but the sound echoed through her bones, grating against her soul. It hurt to think. It hurt to stand.

Her knees shook under her, like a leaf in a gale. She clenched her jaw so hard her teeth felt like they might explode.

It cut through the certainty she’d held only moments before, turning her image of victory into one of certain doom. It was not her standing triumphant over its corpse, but it devouring her defeated form like a beast over carrion.

She needed to run. She had never believed something so fervently before. She needed to disappear. She should not be here. She could not be here.

Her breaths were coming faster. Her heart pounded in her chest. Why had she been so sure she could kill it? Why had she been so sure she should? When had she ever run head-first into battle?

What was that thing? Why did it evoke this reaction in her?

Depths Caretaker

[Few training regions are naturally occurring, and even among those that are, some force is required to maintain those that survive for generations. The Caretaker is one such force.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

As a construct left in charge of maintaining the Temple of the Depths, it is an avatar for its creators to use to address irregularities and issues.]

She could barely read Identify’s answer. And for what? It didn’t help. What good was knowing the thing’s name? It hadn’t even given her a level to gauge how screwed she was.

Maybe the level was incomprehensibly high. Maybe there was no chance at all.

Yet, despite the doubt and the fear that rolled over her, there was a voice at her core insisting she still needed to fight. To kill it. To devour it whole.

No, not at her core exactly. Her chest? Just above that?

Her necklace. Salos’s necklace.

What are you doing to me? Cass demanded.

Kill it. Make me stronger. Make us stronger, was Salos’s only answer.

Cass scowled. Are you crazy? Look how little I hurt it just now!

Let me do it, he whispered. Let me fight. Let me kill it.

Cass grit her teeth as his words rolled over her. Again the image of her fighting the thing filled her vision. The urge to attack again screamed as loudly and insistently as the Caretaker’s scream. The compulsion was so strong that if she hadn’t been immobilized she might have fallen into it again.

Let me do it! Salos screamed again.

The image shifted, it was no longer her tearing through the Caretaker with her wind-bladed glaive, but a man with purple-black skin and gold eyes. He tore into the Caretaker with his bare hands, they pulled out reams of guts dripping in iridescent purple blood with every strike.

Cass felt her attention fading, her grip on consciousness slipping. She felt hands clawing at her soul, dragging at her. Pulling her away from this moment.

Kill it!

Caretaker’s Call Overridden.

Cass found herself swinging her staff at the thing again. Staff Mastery guided her movements even as Salos’s commands drove her action. She was a puppet directed with expertise she did not possess. Her staff slammed into the thing’s joints: knees, elbows, knuckles. Each strike pinpointed another potential weakness, each strike ringing with a resounding thwack of wood on bone.

There was a grin on her face. Wild and manic. Not her grin. Barely her face. They would kill the Caretaker, steal the fragment of soul pulsing within its grotesque body, and devour it.

They would be stronger.

More complete.

A wild laughter slipped from her lips. She dove after the still screaming Caretaker, adding Wind Blade to the end of her staff. No single cut was worth mentioning, but each successive slice was one closer to the inevitable.

The Caretaker didn’t simply stand and take her onslaught. It was unarmed, but its hands themselves were weapons. Its long fingers were each tipped in sharp nails like claws. They raked after Cass. Dodge kept her mostly out of the way, yet they still found purchase, rending deep gashes across Cass’s body.

Cass barely noticed in the manic flurry of her attacks. Cass’s world had shrunk to just two things: continuing her onslaught and the promise of devouring the thing before her.

Kill it! Salos roared again, throwing his weight behind the attack. She felt her Strength swelling and with it the force of her staff against its body. The Wind Blade cut deep into its flesh.

It screamed again. Louder. More piercing.

Desperate.

Something stirred in the air around them. Dodge suggested they back off.

Press the advantage! Salos yelled over it.

Cass struck again and again, her speed and control increasing beyond what her Dexterity would allow. There wasn’t time to wonder why or how. There wasn’t even space in her thoughts to think she should question it. There was only the search for the next opening. Only the glee as wind sliced through flesh.

Suddenly, the world around her exploded. She flew back from the forces, tumbling through the air.

Pain overtook her, consuming the world. There was no up or down, just mad spinning and pain. A slam into stone and a splash of water.

Salos was yelling but his words were lost amid the ringing in her ears. Her head spun. Everything hurt.

Water was everywhere around her. There was only pain and water and ringing.

She had been doing something important. What was it? Why?

Would it make the pain stop? That was all that mattered now. She should get out of the water and sleep. She’d feel better in bed. Maybe Robin would make her some warm tea with honey if she asked nicely.

A screen floated in front of her, though she barely had the presence of mind to read it.

Demonic Possession Broken.