Sanctus stared at the creature before it.

Sepecise Wyrmlitch Classification lesser drake Habitat universal extremophile Stats Str 10 Dex 10 Con 10 Int 50 Wis 30 Luck 36

As Sanctus looked at the creature a plan forming in Sanctus’s mind. On the third floor of the dungeon the ground began to shudder and split open, dark granite rising out of it. Towers and walls of smooth black rock began to take shape. A path formed from the entrance of the third floor to the rising castle. Next to the path, wizened trees began pushing their way out of churning soil that had begun to spread across the floor. Small lanterns began to form along the path just bright enough to see twisted shadows. When Sanctus was finished, what remained was a dark castle at the far end of the floor overlooking two groves of twisted dead trees. Splitting the grove apart was a stone path leading all the way from the castle to the entrance.

Sanctus hesitated for a moment before finally calling out to Erebus. It could feel a tiny mental nod and sensed Erebus step onto the third floor. Before Sanctus could even begin pulling mana out of the demon Erebus opened his arms and allowed his mana to flow out of him. Sanctus cautiously touched the mana and found it responded instantly, allowing itself to be twisted and wheeved across the floor. The mana itself was strange. It was both unsettling and comforting. Like the combination of an all consuming predator and a warm embrace.

Once the mana had finished infusing the air Sanctus allowed its centerpiece to ener the floor. The cat sized skeletal lizard bounded through the entrance and made a beeline for the dark mass of demon. Taking a leaping bound the creature flung itself into the arms of the bewildered demon. The shadowy creature carefully held the creature. This prompted it to stretch out a pair of bony bat-like wings, curl up, and go to sleep. The demon seemed to stare at the creature before barely whispering, “I didn’t know undead could sleep.” Erebus gave a slight shake of his head and then began making his way to the castle.

Markus cautiously stepped into the third floor pausing for a moment as the dark miasma enveloped him. Markus began walking forward once more, making his way to the castle in the distance. When Markus made it to the entrance he gave a quick knock and the gate rose. Sanctus had told Markus about their resident litch, so he was not surprised when a rotting corpse was what was waiting for him on the other side. The undead led him into the castle until they entered a throne room. Sitting atop the throne was a glorified lizard getting scratches from a dark figure standing to its left.

Markus hesitated for a brief moment before he began to speak, “If I may ask. Why are you here?”

The demon before him looked up from the wyrmlitch and gave a soft chuckle. “This is my home, the third floor of the abyssal sanctum.”

“Why would someone with your reputation willingly bind yourself to a dungeon?” Markus responded carefully.

“Ahh yes my reputation. A gross exaggeration, don’t worry about it.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Plus dungeons contain monsters, what's one more?”

Markus reached up and adjusted his tie, “Well then may I ask why this particular monster chose to make its home in this dungeon?”

Erebus chuckled once more before responding, “I wanted to make some new friends. Can you blame me?”

Markus gave a slight scowl. “Since when are you one to make alliances?”

“We aren’t allies, we’re family. Don’t worry your big brother won’t hurt you, besides we both belong to Sanctus body and soul. You know as well as I, betrayal isn’t exactly an option.”

Markus looked at the demon one more time before turning around and leaving the dungeon. While it was true that once a demon bound themselves to a dungeon hurting it wasn’t exactly possible. A demon wouldn't be able to do anything it believed to be harmful to the dungeon. For that matter hurting the thing that protected your soul generally wouldn't increase your life expectancy. Markus thought it over for another minute before deciding he would speak to Cetrial about it later.

It had been two weeks since the party's last dive into the dungeon. And since there hadn’t been anything like the earthquake in that time, Lilly and the rest of the party had decided that they would attempt the dungeon once again.

By now the first floor had been completely mapped and the monsters had been properly cataloged so dives of the first floor usually took less than two days.

The group was doing relatively well for themselves having avoided the areas with the most dangerous monsters and having made it all the way to the champion room.

“Before we enter let’s make sure we have everything we need.” Tessa said to her party while she paced in front of them. The others nodded in unison while they quickly pulled vials containing various liquids out of their bags. Tessa bit her lip and continued, “Remember the plan. Lilly, being our strongest member, will take down the witch while me and Chase act as a wall between the normal cultists and Jace. Jace we are trusting you to act as both cover fire for Lilly and crowd control on the really closely packed groups of cultists.”

Lilly nodded and stepped forward. “Remember guys, once we go in the only ways out are the death trap called running to the next floor and killing all of the cultists.”

The party once again gave a few nods, before Jace broke the silence. “Well if everyone is ready there’s no point in doodling.”

Chase pumped his fist, “We got this!”

With those words the party stepped up to the entrance, looked at one another, and charged into the fog.

Lilly immediately split off to the left, dashing past the hoard of cultists to engage the witch. Meanwhile Chase and Tessa dashed into the closest two cultists, smashing them down with their shields and ending them with quick slices from their swords. Jace began hurling lightning at anything that was coming at the two warriors from the sides.

Lilly moved past most of the cultists with ease sliding past any in her way and lunged at the monster that led them. A huge fist intercepted her, launching her straight into a pillar. She felt bones in her back creek, a scream escaping her mouth as her lower spinal cord snapped. Gritting her teeth she unkorked a bottle of blood red liquid and downed it. She rolled to the right a second later, dodging a swing from the witch's fist. Lilly inhaled sharply as shrapnel from the now pulverized pillar bit into her cheek. Not giving her any further time to react the monster conjured a ball of fire in its smaller hand and hurled it at Lilly. The ground where Lilly had been just a moment earlier exploded in localized inferno.

Lilly could distinctly feel that her spine had not been perfectly mended, however it was in a much better state then it had been in a few seconds earlier. She finished her roll on her feet using her momentum to continue into a run. She dashed behind the witch and struck out at one of her eight arachnid legs, barely managing to put a small chip in it. The monster roared at this transgression and a fiery whip formed in its humanlike hand. Lilly dodged two wild swings from the whip before a third slid past her left thigh, melting the small metal pieces of the armor there. Lilly grit her teeth once again, fighting through the pain of molten beads of metal burning through her skin. She used the pass of the whip to allow herself to slip under the monster's guard and stab a knife into an important looking tendon in the monster’s bulbous arm. The creature shrieked and used its mantis-like claw to grab hold of the left side of Lilly’s waist.

Lilly let out an ear splitting scream as she tore out of the creature's grasp, quickly downing another two potions. She could feel the skin heal over, trapping the beads of metal that were quenched in her blood, on the inside. She quickly glanced at the other members of her party before activating her ace. The world around Lilly slowed and she began to move forward leaving semi corporeal illusions of herself that constantly flicked in and out of reality in her wake. The monster charged forward in slow motion banishing one of her illusions and lashing out at her with its whip. Lilly stepped out of a separate illusion and buried a blade into the creature's lower right armpit. Suddenly glowing runes appeared across its body and the world suddenly sped up again. The witch smiled as its claw snapped forward towards Lilly’s neck only for a bolt of lightning to smash into it, stopping it in its tracks. The moment of hesitation was all it took for Lilly to stab a second knife into the witch's throat. The gurgled and fell onto its spider-like thorax. Lilly backed away slowly as the monster coughed up globules of blood. The creature looked at Lilly staring directly into her eyes before smiling. It wasn’t a cruel or malevolent smile, but a shy smile you might give to a new friend. Lilly took a step back, unsettled. This made the witch smile even more, a gurgling chuckle leaving her throat. Then the monster did something truly unsettling, it shakily moved its one human arm and plunged it into its own chest. Lilly stairs in morbid fascination as the monster pulled out a dark curved dagger covered in sticky yellow ichor. Still starting at Lilly it held out the dagger hilt first toward her. Cautiously approaching the dying monster she carefully took the blade. And as the witch let go of the blade, it slumped, the last vestiges of life finally leaving its body.