"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of one of our finest. His work classifying taxonomic variations of various creatures is well known. But even greater still was his love of children's education. His tireless efforts to expand the frontier of knowledge will be forever engraved in our minds, as his generosity is engraved in our hearts. To him we mourn. Yet we take comfort in knowing that he died like he lived... with animals in his heart."

--Public Eulogy, Sir Irwin. Renowned [Biologist] & [Teacher]. AC 1006.

As we descend the staircase I ask for a brief on what to expect from level five. Luna says,

"We're heading into an open area like the reef. But instead of a reef it's filled with abandoned underwater structures... kind of like a ruin."

"And creatures?"

"Much like... well it's SUPPOSED to be much like before. There's supposed to be barracudas and squids and crabs and fish. Sea urchins would also start to show up on this level with the boss being any variation of those types."

Our conversation fades away and grows silent as we exit the stairwell. Just like Luna said, it's much like level three. A wide open area sprawls between us and the entrance to a small town. Stone wreckage marks the floor and I can see the remnants of walls; torn away to the sand below. The light from above seems dimmer than before, as if it is slowly weakening with each level we descend. As we pass into the empty town, I keep my stalks on a swivel... scanning for danger.

None of these buildings appear to have doors or roofs or windows intact, just hollow shells for walls. A quick [coast] over to one of the buildings yields a look inside. It seems the dungeon isn't going for a completely accurate portrayal as the interior of the house is empty. There's no chairs or accoutrements to indicate that anyone had ever used these buildings for their designed purpose.

Venturing back to the road, we continue our walk. We pass through the main square, defunct fountain lying broken and shattered. It's pocked and worn surface matches every other detail I can detect in this level. Luna indicates the path with her arm and we spend another hour filtering through side and back streets. We are forced to the alternate paths as the main route is blocked; clogged with rubble and debris.

After a while I don't need for her to indicate which way to go, as a familiar sight greets me. There, far in the distance, I start to make out a dark layer blocking the light. I grit my mandibles, already familiar with what we're likely to find. As we walk up to what looks to be a broken cathedral, I activate mana reinforcement for my shell. I want to be ready to move or flee as needed. This building seems to be the only structure in the area with it's roof still intact, and we'll need to enter it to find the stairwell to the next level.

I bend my lower body down to get a better view overhead. Above the church, I see the prior inhabitants of this level; floating corpses one and all. Pulling my sight from the macabre view, a dark portal looms before me. Shadows cover an expanse where massive doors used to lie. With a force of will, I take a deep breath and stride forward, passing through the veil to the other side.

As we enter, I notice that this building still has some furniture. Rows of pews cascade from the altar up ahead. I also notice that those same pews are covered in corpses. Rows and rows of bodies cascade from the end of the room, creatures mangled and broken and eaten. Surpressing a shiver, I walk forward, using [mana sense] and mana ping as much as possible to augment my detection abilities. I can see an indistinct shape on the altar ahead, yet the low light prevents me from readily identifying it. I keep my claws brandished, prepared for combat.

Luna and I creep ahead, and find a large sea urchin slumped and broken on the plain stone altar. It's spines are largely ripped from it's body and it is quite evidently dead.

Well... considering what I've seen so far I would say it is double dead.

There is no way enough of it's body is together enough to provide a base for physical processes. Even rotting undead need a minimum of flesh to animate. I turn to Luna and whisper, "So... do you think they all killed each other?"

She looks nervously around the room before turning back to me.

"I don't.... wait! There's someone over there!"

She jumps off my back and rushes after what she's seen. I follow her, keeping my eyes peeled for an ambush. She turns halfway around a pillar and I finally realize what she's referring to. The creature must have been making some movement or something which revealed it's presence to Luna. As I keep one eye on the encircling area I try to assess the creature.

And realize I've met him before.

Luna calls out, "Octo? Octo can you hear me? I'm right here, it's Luna, I'm here Octo."

The octopus is in bad shape, missing six of it's eight legs. They don't appear to be regrowing either, just a black sludge slowly draining out of torn sockets where it's limbs used to be. There are deep cuts along the surface of it's body and one of it's eyes is missing. Some claw or other appendage must have gouged it out. As Luna's words call out in the water, Octo regains a bit of awareness and with effort, the octopus manages to weakly speak.

"Lu... Luna? Boring star? It'sss... you? Oh... and the crunchy crabbieeeee....."

It's voice begins to fade on the last word, pulling out slowly as it loses consciousness. Gently reaching forward, Luna slaps him a few times saying,

"No, no, Octo! Stay with me now. You're not healing. We need to get you out of here. Get you fixed up."

As her tapping continues, her words ring out and provokes more of a response from the fading octopus.

"Get me... no... NO! You... you have to END me here. I... I can't do it myself. I... I can feel it spreading. I can feel it in my blood."

As he speaks I take a deeper look at him. He weakly moves his two remaining arms to the stumps of his legs and I can see black veins gently pulsing beneath his skin.

"End... end, no. No Octo, we'll, we'll get you some help. I'm sure, I'm sure someone can heal at the hollow. Just wait a moment and I'll get us out of here. Stay with me now!"

Her speech seems to aggravate Octo, his struggles to remain conscious grow more pronounced, his words clipping and short. I can tell when he looks to me and says, "Crabbies. It's in me just as it was in you. There's no time. Do what must be done. I... I don't want to end up like them." A weak gesture to the bodies surrounding us indicates his meaning.

My gaze is torn between the two. Octo, who has fallen prey to some undead infection and Luna, quietly despairing for her friend. I walk up beside Luna and manage to speak, "I... I don't know what he's talking about exactly. But... well if this thing is spreading... then... well... I think we should respect his wishes."

Luna is crying, projecting her pain into the water as her body slowly shakes. I take her by a shoulder and pull gently. I try to speak and emotions overwhelm me, the tragedy at the loss about to happen. I manage to say, "come... come over here. You don't need to see this. I'll... I'll take care of it. It'll be quick I promise."

I manage to drag her a little away before she flails in my grip, her tears turned to anger. She says, "No! No, Octo is my friend. If this needs to be done. Then.... then the last face he see's will be someone who knows him." She faces me and says, "make sure you keep guard. I don't know if my attack will draw anything over here."

I turn my back away from them and continue to scan the area, trying to give them some privacy. Despite my efforts, I still hear Luna's gentle words.

"Octo? Octo, I'm... I'm sorry this happened to you. It'll be quick okay? Uhm... I'm just going to place two of my limbs here. Just close your eyes, okay? Close your eyes."

I can tell when she backs up a little bit. The Octopus' words call out weakly. "Crunchie crabby, boring star.... thank... thank you."

Luna's voice breaks once more as she says,

[LEG BOMB]

Dual blasts ring into the area and I begin to move in a circle, keeping my senses pealed for anything moving to intercept us. I can detect nothing in my view. The only noise is Luna's quiet sobbing behind me. Finishing my patrolling circle, I move back to the pillar where the two of them are. Luna's sobs still haven't ceased, and she's draped over the octopus, as if to comfort his cooling corpse. I can see where the two explosions ended Octo's life. Luna must have placed her limbs to the left and right of the dome which served as his head.

I walk up to her to provide comfort and try to pull her away. We need to move away from here. Away from this sepulcher of death. As I lift her gently, she turns and says,

"What..."

Her words cut off as Octo's corpse lunges from the ground. As if in slow motion I can see it's beak opening up, dread ichor welling from inside it's rotting body. Black mucus sprays out of the inside and I struggle to pull Luna away from it's flailing mouth.

I'm still too slow.

It lunges directly into Luna's midriff and I can hear her yell as the beak takes a bite out of her center. My claw is already falling upon the undead octo as I activate [slice]. My arm falls and the attack kills him once more. Luna is shaking and crying even harder at the sudden turn of events and I drag her away from the redead octopus.

Minutes pass and Luna eventually gains some semblance of emotional stability. I'm torn in between horror and sadness at the sheer waste of it all. I didn't like Octo, and I'm pretty sure he wanted to eat me. But I still don't think he deserved to go out like that. I'm sure that nothing deserves to go out like that.

As we recover, I notice that a pedestal has risen next to the octopus' corpse. I ask Luna,

"So... was Octo the boss of this level? I thought that the [sapient] creatures weren't under the dungeon's control?"

She seems to hesitate and then respond, "yes... but, well... if the boss is dead and everything else is dead on the level and the dungeon can't change anything while we're here... then maybe upon octo's death, the dungeon assumed control? It twisted him into that.. that thing and he became the boss?"

Nodding to show my agreement, I say, "Well, let's get out of here then. The [safe zone] is right up next and we can regroup and decide what to do."

We collect the token and then make our way back to the altar and past it, finding the stairwell down. The entire situation has changed. The dungeon is full of [undead] now and even the [sapient] monsters can be affected. As I consider the events which just transpired, I remember the octopus' words. My walk slowly stops as the implications of what he said courses through me. I remember him saying, "It's in me, just as it was in you."

I look to Luna and say,

"Hey Luna? Can you... can you check your status for me and see if anything seems off?"

A moment of silence passes as she does what I ask. She then says, "That's weird... some of the numbers look funny."

I take a closer look at Luna's body. At the point of Octo's attack, a small ring of black surrounds a puncture wound. It doesn't appear to be healing at all.

With fear and trepidation and a thousand thoughts and emotions surging through me I tell her,

"Luna... I think this dungeon is [CORRUPTED]."