The ceiling of the room groaned ominously as massive stone chunks broke free and rained down. The four large pillars standing at the center split down their lengths, one by one collapsing in a thunderous chain reaction. As they fell, the walls followed suit, crumbling into jagged heaps and turning the once grand chamber into a chaotic maze of falling debris.
Enya’s absolute focus activated, sharpening her senses and staving off some of the disorientation from the dungeon quake, but no amount of heightened awareness could fully protect her from what was happening. Gravity itself seemed to rebel against her as the ground shifted beneath her feet, tilting and lifting at unnatural angles. Without warning, a force tugged at her sideways, threatening to knock her off balance as the world around her crumbled.
Staggering, she spread her arms wide, trying desperately to maintain her balance. The surface of the massive spell circuit etched across the arena began to break and slide, adding to the chaos that consumed her vision. She whipped her gaze back toward her minions who were holding the boss down.
Bonehead, towering as ever, wobbled precariously, his frame struggling against the quaking ground. Walnut, Dummy D., and Stupidface halted their attacks, each one shifting further apart as the floor beneath them buckled and tore. Yet, amidst it all, the boss remained trapped under Bonehead’s immense fist. Luckily, Bonehead was using that very fist to stabilize himself, keeping the boss pinned in place even as the earth moved violently around them.
Bonehead! You need to kill the boss right now! The dungeon is collapsing! Kill it, please! Enya’s mental command shot out, the raw, desperate panic laced through her thoughts. The urgency spread out through the link to all her minions, and not just Bonehead himself. She had no time to wait for a response.
Turning on her heel, Enya scrambled toward her backpack, only to stumble and fall to her knees as the ground tilted again beneath her. A fissure cracked open in front of her, slowly growing wider, separating her from the bag that held her remaining supplies. She was running out of time.
Enya winced, her body tense and trembling. Absolute Focus was the only thing keeping her senses sharp amid the chaos. She leaped from one fractured stone to another, before landing hard on her hands and knees on the stone where her backpack lay. Without wasting a second, she yanked the straps over her shoulders, gritting her teeth as the world around her continued to crumble.
She crouched low, glancing to her right—toward the exit. On the far side of the arena, opposite the grand gate she had entered through, stood a smaller set of double doors. They were human-sized but bore the same intricate, ornate designs as the larger gate.
The ground trembled even more beneath her feet. A crack appeared beneath the doors, creating a narrow passageway underneath them, just wide enough for her to slip through. If she went now, she could crawl under and escape to whatever lay beyond. Yet, she couldn’t extend her senses that far—her current situation demanded too much focus. Keeping her balance on the crumbling floor was already a struggle; reaching beyond herself was impossible.
Her gaze flicked back to her minions and the boss. They were all scattered, barely holding their ground as the ceiling continued to rain debris, massive cracks zigzagging across the stone floor. The boss was still pinned, but she couldn’t wait for them to finish the fight. The mana in the room had gone wild, surging erratically and filling the arena like a suffocating fog, making everything feel sluggish and heavy. She had no choice. She had to leave—now.
With or without her minions.
Enya took a deep breath and bolted forward. Her knees wobbled from her earlier fall, but she forced herself onward. Between frantic hops and desperate leaps, she crossed the unstable arena. Chunks of the ceiling crashed down around her, forcing her to dodge or pause briefly as the debris pelted the ground ahead. She couldn’t afford to stop for long—every second counted.
The tremors roared louder from her left, but Enya didn’t need to glance over—she knew it was her minions still locked in combat with the boss. They would only buy her time, but time was all she needed. If she could just reach the dungeon core, everything would be solved. That was all that mattered now.
She made steady progress, leaping from ledge to ledge, until the platform beneath her suddenly gave way. Her foot slipped, and she was sent stumbling forward. Instinct took over as her arms flew up to protect her face, but her knees buckled, and her elbows slammed hard into the tilting rock. A pained yelp escaped her, her vision blurring as tears welled up from the shock. The yellow hue in her eyes vanished in an instant, and then the world swirled around her, the loud cacophony and twisting motions of the dungeon quake bombarding her in uncontrolled chaos.
Her body trembled, dazed like a mindless zombie, but she forced herself to stand. She had no choice. There was no time to rest, no moment to collect her thoughts—the world was literally falling apart around her. Every tremor beneath her feet, every shard of debris that struck her, screamed one truth: Move or die.
With her limbs heavy and aching, she hopped across more fractured stones, dodging falling debris by mere instinct—but more so, by luck.
Her body screamed in protest, blood trickling down her arms and forehead where sharp stone had grazed her. Despite her blurred vision, she locked her gaze on the ornate double doors. They were so close, it was the only thing standing between her and survival.
Ignoring the pain, she dropped to the ground and crawled toward the narrow gap beneath the doors. Just as she pushed herself into the opening, a heavy thud echoed behind her. A crushing weight pressed down on her back, slamming her flat against the ground. The force came out of nowhere—a chunk of debris had fallen, hitting her backpack directly.
The sound of glass shattering rang in her ears. Her heart sank. The potions—her last reserve of mana and healing, both gone.
As the arena crumbled behind her and the ceiling began to collapse completely, Enya could hear the steady ping of notifications ringing in her mind. She didn’t need to read them. The severing of each mental connection with her minions told her all she needed to know. One by one, they were falling, returning to their eternal rest. There was nothing she could do for them now.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
With half her body already through the doorway, she shrugged off the rock, hearing it fall sideways. If it was any bigger, she may not have been able to move. Her back ached, but so did every other part of her body. Her vision became hazy, but she was so close—too close to fall unconscious now.
The room before her was both eerie and beautiful. Intricate lines were etched into the stone walls, patterns that danced in perfect symmetry, leading her gaze toward small altars that flickered faintly in the corners. A large circular carpet lay in the center, rich in color but bearing dark, deathly symbols. Along the walls, banners fluttered, each one embroidered with haunting images of bones, skulls, ghouls, and ghosts—a deathly display of a necromancer’s dominion.
But what held her attention—what made her heart race faster than the collapsing arena behind her, was the object atop a marble altar in the center of the room. The altar was crumbling, its intricate carvings splitting apart, but resting there, untouched by the chaos, was a massive, blue crystal. Almost translucent, but with a cloudy haze swirling within. It was larger than her entire upper body. If she tried to wrap her arms around it, her fingers would barely meet on the other side.
The ground rumbled again, shaking her from her trance. This wasn’t the time to marvel at her surroundings. She had come for one thing, and one thing only. And there it was. Within her grasp.
The dungeon core.
The cloth banners around the room fell in slow motion, fluttering down as Enya dashed forward across the carpet. Her foot struck what seemed like a solid patch of ground, only to sink into a hidden crevice beneath the rug. She had lost count of how many times she’d stumbled like this today. Her knee buckled once more, sending her pitching forward, landing hard on her left shoulder.
A pained groan escaped her lips, though the impact wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Not that it mattered. Her thoughts were too jumbled to focus on pain.
Enya scrambled back to her feet, her body trembling from exhaustion. She barely had time to regain her balance before she heard a loud crash behind her. Her head whipped around in time to see the doors, the massive, heavy double doors, collapse into the floor. The walls supporting them crumbled as well, filling the passage she had just crawled through with a sea of stone and debris.
The arena—everything she had just fought through—was gone. A pile of rubble and broken stone sealed the way back, the ground itself slowly collapsing and sinking, like a massive burial mound swallowing everything whole.
Enya’s legs moved on instinct. She had to keep moving. Her body screamed for rest, but there was no time to stop. She fell into a scurrying, desperate crawl, arms and legs working together as she scrambled over jagged chunks of ground. This was the only way to safely move forward, lest she risk snapping her leg in half by falling into a hole.
The uneven floor shifted beneath her, holes forming as rocks lifted and fell around her like the world was coming undone.
A crack sounded above her. Enya glanced upward, her eyes wide with panic. A chunk of the ceiling was about to give way, but her body was at its limit, exhausted and disoriented. She tried to speed up, pushing her muscles harder, but she was already dangerously close to collapse. Every breath felt like fire, but she couldn’t stop now. She wouldn’t.
A heavy stone slammed down onto Enya's back, driving her into the jagged rocks beneath her. The impact knocked the wind from her lungs, and she coughed violently, gasping for air as her body buckled under the weight. More system notification pings echoed through her mind, a cacophony of alerts and distractions that merged with the tremors, the dungeon's shifting axis, and the unrelenting pain flooding her senses. It was impossible to think clearly.
With a painful twist, she managed to roll onto her side, and the stone slid off her back once again, clattering to the ground. Her backpack had absorbed the brunt of the blow, and she could only assume that Pell's skull, nestled within, had been crushed to cushion the impact. But that didn’t matter. As long as his skull wasn’t vaporized, then everything would still be okay—she could fix him.
Enya struggled to her feet, rising into a staggered crouch. The dungeon core was right in front of her, atop the crumbling marble altar, but the ground beneath it was shifting. Despite the chaos around her, the core continued to shine with a murky, ethereal light, undisturbed by the sharp stones raining down from above.
With one more hop, she reached the core. Collapsing against the altar, Enya slammed her hands onto the ghostly sphere, her fingers trembling as they made contact with its smooth surface.
"Stop! Just stop!" she screamed, but her voice was lost in the roar of the collapsing dungeon. The sound of stone grinding against stone, the rumble of destruction—it all drowned her out.
Then, a faint ping echoed in her mind as her hand connected with the core. Without wasting a second, she forced her system menu to open, her mind racing against the chaos threatening to engulf her.
System Notification: Bonehead ha—
"No, no, no!" Enya muttered, panic rising as her vision filled with flashing notifications. She wiped them all from her list in a frenzy, except the one about the dungeon core.
Sanctum: Tower of Sable is unclaimed.
Would you like to claim ownership of this dungeon core?
“Yes! Do it, do whatever—” Her shout was cut off as the system interface shifted.
Sanctum: Tower of Sable requires a sample of blood or soul essence to complete the claiming procedure.
Enya’s hand jerked away from the core, and she instinctively touched her forehead. Blood, thick and heavy, coated her fingers. She smeared her palm back onto the dungeon core, pressing her blood into its surface, hoping that was enough.
The floor trembled beneath her, and the altar tilted dangerously to the left, as the stone beneath it crumbled away. Without thinking, she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the core, and lifted it from its pedestal. It was surprisingly light in her grasp, but the pit that had formed beneath the altar was expanding, swallowing more of the dungeon with every second.
Her legs trembled as she staggered backward, clutching the core. She barely registered the new system message that flashed in front of her.
Sanctum: Tower of Sable has been claimed.
Warning: Dungeon Core has been depleted of all mana reserves. Immediate replenishment is required.
Would you like to refill the dungeon core?
[Accept/Decline]
“Stop—no—yes!—take all of it! Wait—not all—" Enya screamed, her words spilling out in a frantic jumble. Her vision swirled as the system obeyed. Instantly, a wave of nausea hit her, and her entire body felt as if it had been drained. She collapsed backward, her arms releasing the core as her knees gave out. The core fell straight down and rolled from edge to edge of the crumbled floor, and soon her vision whipped straight up to the ceiling as she fell over, collapsing with a hard thud against the ground behind her.
System Notification: Your mana has reached 0 out of 30
System Notification: You are have been inflicted with Mana Burnout for attempting to use more mana than is available.