Seed of Darkness-S

"They're advancing way too slowly"

I've been observing them 24/7 since they arrived to the second floor and I must say that they are horribly slow. In the game one would spend about twenty minutes on the second floor, thirty if they got the larger layout. To be fair it seems like now that is real life this place is much bigger. In game the dungeon was about one square kilometer at most, however now it is way much bigger. The general layout seems to be the same though, just enlarged, meaning that most rooms and corridors they find are bland or empty.

Another different thing is the amount of guards. In the game you will find between five and nine guards roaming the dungeon, but they already fought about fourteen of them. This along with the quantity of items is strange.

Since the first floor didnt seem to change, i assumed that everything would be like in the game, but i guess i was wrong.

Luckily they haven't noticed the phantom feline even though I had many slips when controlling it. My control over it is really bad so there were many moments when I almost made its presence obvious by making some of its limbs accidentally poke out of the walls.

I would really like to help them, but I know that it will probably backfire in some way. So far the only help I've provided them is killing one of the guards that kidnapped Sophia with the feline, but I'm sure that they would have managed somehow either way.

"Now that I think about it, there is an almost certain death encounter once they get to the surface."

They will have to defeat a boss before going there but I have no plans for interfering. Killing normal enemies grants an upgrade in stats under the condition that the enemies in question are stronger than the party members and that the party kills enough of them. However, when it comes to bosses, things are different. Killing a boss will always grant a boost in stats far greater than normal, plus the items dropped by bosses are way stronger than most of the items found on the floor they reside on with the exception of certain artifacts. Sadly, I don't know what boss they will encounter since there are three possible ones on the second floor.

The boss shouldn't be that hard to deal with regardless of which one they encounter. They have killed more guards than they normally would have. After all, their strength doesn't belong on the second floor anymore. The real problem is the enemy they will face on the surface, a seed of darkness.

Seeds of darkness are common enemies in the later game, but there is one on the second floor. The purpose of it is to teach the players not to fight every enemy they encounter. Im sure they will try to avoid it if they find it but the problem is that the seed will chase the party if it sees them, and I cant take that risk.

"Luckily, I have some monsters here as well."

Other than the phantom feline that I'm using to follow the protagonists, there is a single Hound on the surface. Originally, I sent it there to prevent the lower gods from sending their minions down here in case they wanted to interfere, but they were easily overwhelmed by my monsters and didnt have any minions they could send even if they wanted to, theyre basically shortstaffed because of me.

A seed of darkness and a wretched hound should be around the same level, so it should suffice. Moreover, the seed is farther away from its god than the hound is from me.

I commanded the Hound to wander on the surface, until now it has just been waiting in a spot without doing anything. The seed should be fairly easy to spot since it is very large. The hound's steps were loud among the scorched land of the capital of Beorn where only black ashes and rubble remained. The sky was covered in dark clouds of smoke, completely blocking the sun and making it look like it was night.

Among that darkness, I quickly noticed a sound akin to that of the cries of a baby, but somewhat distorted and creepy. The sound was unnatural and uncanny, however it didn't have much of an effect on me since I am more than used to this kind of thing.

I have been enduring the cries of pain of the impious blasphemers and the beasts for months while rotting in a cage of flesh and blood. My mind is already too accustomed to this kind of unholy sound for this to shake me in any way.

It didn't take long before I encountered the origin of the cry, the seed of darkness. A floating giant lump of black mass with a shape barely reminising that of a fetus was the identity of the seed. There was an open mouth in the center of its body without any lips, leaving its teeth exposed. From its back a lot of weird looking tentacles were protruding like wings.

Surrounding the seed lay mountains of blackened corpses, completely covered in flesh-eating darkness. Upon closer inspection one could easily realize that the cries didn't actually come from the floating lump of dark mass, but from the corpses, still alive and suffering every moment of their torment.

Ah, how much I envy them. They may be suffering while dying slowly, but at least they will die. After decades the darkness would completely devour them and they would finally die in peace, for that i envy them, for i cant escape this torment through death. No, I'm forced to experience the body of an abomination that shouldn't exist and the pain that comes with it, feeling a pain like my veins were being burned to ashes every second and insects slowly eating at my flesh. Of course, none of that actually happens, but it feels like it does and it's unbearable. The more time I stay in this body the more the pain increases.

I know how these miserable lumps of darkened meat must feel, the pain they are experiencing at this very moment. I could easily free them from their torment with a simple order...but if I must suffer so should they, it is not like they will remain alive for many years either way. If they could help me escape from this hell i would happily help them in any way i could, but they cant, only those four can, and only to those four i shall lend my hand.

"Hound, devour that aberration."

At my command, the mouth of the beast deformed into a wicked smile as his claws dug into the ground before leaping towards the seed of darkness. The ground beneath him cracked from the sheer force of its leap. The hound's giant hand came crashing down against the seed of darkness. It looked like it would tear it apart with ease but before it could reach it the seed opened its mouth and let out a deafening screech. The head and arm of the hound distorted like it was being crushed against a wall before being sent flying away, pushed by an external force.

"Magic uh...I didn't think it could cast it that fast"

Most late game enemies can use magic and the seed of darkness is no exception. The seed can use two spells, [Voice of the Abyss] and [Black Rain]. The one it used right now is Voice of the abyss, it's a spell capable of turning intent into action, meaning that as long as there is a certain intent behind ones voice, it will turn it into an effect in reality. Well thats just in lore though, Voice of the abyss is used by various enemies with varying degrees of success, the seed should only be capable of using two intents, Repulse and Slow.

Repulse was used to push back my hound. It was fortunate that it used Repulse instead of slow at the start. The hound landed on its feet with ease, the damage already undone. Minor attacks can't kill a hound, it will just regenerate.

The beast rushed towards the abomination once more, this time what intercepted it wasn't a screch, but the wing like tentacles from its back. The seed itself wasn't precisely fast, not when compared to the hound, but its tentacles were extremely quick. The explosion-like sound they produce when they swing makes me think they are breaking the sound barrier. Naturally, my beast couldnt evade something like that, but it didnt need to, it could just take the hit.

The tentacles pierced its skin but couldn't break through its bones and muscle, the seed is incapable of using spells repeatedly so its basically defenseless, had it used slow to hinder the hound movement and then waited to use black rain from a safe distance it would have been my loss, but that wasn't the case.

The hound's claws penetrated the body of the seed with ease before embedding its first row of fangs too. The cries of the abomination were full of pain and despair. It makes sense, the seed is, after all, just a baby.

Had it not been a menace to the kids, I wouldn't have killed it, but it is, it is a menace that they have no way to overcome, so I had to get rid of it.

As the hound tears the seed apart its cries become silent, slowly and painfully dying as its flesh is ripped apart from its body. The hound was simply a bad match for the seed, the creature of darkness is suited to fight multiple lesser opponents at once, but is lacking when fighting a single strong opponent, even if that opponent is of the same level of strength, furthermore the hound is a tank that can bulldoze through more attacks and quickly get rid of its prey, the seed had ways to win, but ultimately it was at disadvantage.

"Now that I think about it...they may have a seed in their possession"

Seeds of darkness can be found as items in the game. In their first stage of life they adopt the shape of a black fruit. There is a chance that a seed spawns somewhere in the first ten floors of the tower...of course it is improbable, but after killing this monster I became aware that those kids may have already found it.

It is not precisely a bad thing since consuming can grant power, but there is also a big chance of dying if they do so...for now I will just hope that they don't have it, but I should inspect the remaining floors in search of it before they get it.

With the seed of darkness finally dead, I returned to the feline. It had fallen behind since I ordered it not to move, but I could hear the battle in the distance, and the sound of growling, so now I know what boss they're fighting.

"They really are unlucky aren't they?"