Deep in the earth, forgotten by everyone, a lone headless corpse twitched and then slowly rose. Reaching down with one blackened hand, it slowly picked up its head and tucked it under its arm. Darkness shined in the eyes as it slowly blinked and looked around.

It’s chosen host had been taken from it at the last second, but not before the ritual had awoken The Darkness from its long slumber. For long moments, it howled its frustration, assuming that it was going to be trapped as nothing more than a weak shadow of its former self; but then it sensed what it needed.

Deep in the tunnels, lying there fresh upon the stone floor was the corpse of a young male wizard, just waiting to be made use of. It didn’t have the potential that the girl had, but that didn’t matter. After all, The Darkness could change and alter something as malleable as human flesh to make it become what it needed after all.

With a deep and eternal anger, it stretched the limits of the feeble body it was in and sensed the caverns that had been its prison for oh so long. It could sense the single male and the four females which huddled around him for protection. For a passing moment, The Darkness thought of squashing them like a bug in the dark, but then it decided to simply wait.

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Cackling darkly, Dino’s corpse sat and placed his head on the ground in front of him. Focusing, he willed all the dead to rest. Falling to the ground the bones throughout the graveyard collapsed and remained motionless. Let these foolish fleshies get away. They could tell everyone how they’d stopped the ritual and were heroes. Let them bask in the glory of the deeds they thought they’d accomplished.

The Darkness didn’t care. The ground had cracked. It was awake, and the seals were broken. Surely the fleshies would send someone to investigate the remains of the prison, but by then it would be too late. The Darkness would be free. Free to head to the deep places in the mountains that the fleshies didn’t go. Free to heal and mend this body until it suited its needs properly. Free to feed and grow.

Free to eventually come back and cast its shadow across the world once more!