Emerging from the tunnel and into the cavern, Rebecca stared dumbfounded at how incredible the changes were. Before, everything had been moss and vine covered, with a thick putrid humidity that burned the nose, and was what she could only describe as a mushroom rainforest. Now, it was completely different. The cavern above was illuminated with thousands of twinkling small crystals, reminding her of the night sky, and a large crystal out on an island in the middle of the cavern glowed bright, illuminating everything as clear as the noonday sun.

“Never,” Matthew said, shaking his head slowly from side to side, “never have I ever heard of a dungeon core being as powerful as this one. This place shouldn’t be here at all.” Staring out across the fertile fields, vibrant rivers, and ripe orchards, Matthew was at a complete and utter lost himself. “What the hell is this place. What the hell did those gibberlings do to this thing? What the hell did it do to you?” He asked a little more quietly. Frowning, he wrapped an arm around Rebecca’s waist and pulled her close against him.

Feeling uneasy from the serious tone in his voice, Rebecca snuggled up to his side and stared out with him. “The pyramid’s gone at least,” she said, half-laughing, trying to break the oppressive mood.

“What’d you see inside that damn thing?” Matthew asked, gazing out, lost in his own troubled thoughts. “That wasn’t right and this isn’t right. Something is wrong with this whole place, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Not much,” Rebecca whispered, feeling unsettled. “I was falling and didn’t have long to look around. Tunnels lined the pyramid – that’s where the gibberlings were coming from. The crystal was down at the bottom, huge and pulsing, like it is now out on the island.” She nodded her head slightly towards the glowing mass which was acting as the sun currently and lighting everything brightly. “Though it was a dim pulse, not bright like now,” she clarified. “And down at the bottom of the pyramid, laid in scattered heaps around it, were bodies of teachers and students from the school. I don’t know how many there were,” Rebecca whispered, shivering slightly as she remembered the glimpses of stacked up and discarded human remains, “but I think there was a bunch of them.” Voice trailing off at the end, she snuggled and shivered against Matthew’s side as she tried to forget the flashes of memory that were haunting the back of her mind.

“It can’t be…” Matthew’s words trailed off as he stared intently out at the blazing crystal core at the center of the cavern. Shaking his head slowly, as if to deny his own thoughts, the dark glow of Hel’s Sight drifted over his vision. Eyes blazing an eerie black glow, Matthew stared for a few moments. For a moment, he wobbled in shock, then his knees gave out and he toppled over, pulling Rebecca down with him.

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered, tears rolling freely down his face. “It’s horrible.”

“What is?” Rebecca stared out hard to try and see what had affected Matthew so, but she couldn’t see anything she’d call horrible. The place had an unmistakable beauty to it, and it seemed as if there were some buildings being constructed on the other side of the lake, but she couldn’t really make them out from the distance and the glare from the crystal reflecting off the surface of the lake.

“The dead,” Matthew barely whispered, obviously in shock and awe at whatever it was only he could see. “All the souls of the dead are inside the crystal, feeding it and powering it. The gibberlings were sacrificing the teachers and students to it, making it grow.”

“Why isn’t my soul in it?” Rebecca asked, biting her lip in sudden worry. “It’s not, is it?”

“It’s not,” Matthew assured her, forcing himself to pull his gaze away from the crystal to look at her. “I don’t think they could’ve sacrificed you to the crystal. You’re a player in the great game. Your blood would’ve claimed the crystal. I think only NPCs can be sacrificed to feed the heart.

“I think this crystal has been attuned to human NPCs now.” Like a moth drawn to a flame, Matthew couldn’t resist staring out at the crystal pulsing so brightly in the center of the cavern. “I think any normal human who dies here now, will find their soul drawn into the crystal to feed and power it.”

“This place is a paradise for those living within it,” Matthew told Rebecca, forcing himself to look away and back at her again. Slowly, the dark glow of Hel’s gift faded from his eyes. Letting the tears travel freely down his cheeks, Matthew leaned up and hugged Rebecca tightly. “For those dead inside the crystal, they’re experiencing a torment that no living mind could ever comprehend, having their spirit stripped away layer by layer to feed and power the crystal.”

“It’s Heaven for the living, utter Hell for those that die here.”