It’s been about a week since the destruction of the crab core, things are progressing both fast and slow around my dungeon, Kaiman, Gorger and crew have mostly stopped putting unholy tongue and bone abominations on the waters, my maze is finally having statues that are not minotaurs and Merlin is learning quite fast. Of course, Merlin is not the only skeleton changing and learning new things, a few of them have seen the statues and bonebeasts and became… inspired to create their own things.

I watch as a chameleon crosses the edge of my domain, this has been happening for a while now, since the destruction of the crab dungeon. There are still skirmishes here and there but the Lizards have mostly been trying to sneak in. This one in particular is covered in leaves from my trees and seems to have some minor talent in obscuring itself in and with shadow.

It walks in shade for a bit and stops, it sees the newest art from the border skeletons. When you are drawing a comic you want your panels to feel natural to the reader’s eyes, you want them to see one panel and slide off to the next naturally, leading their eyes to what you want them to see next. My skeleton have done that, with corpses. I see the chameleon stare for a moment at the lizard corpse impaled with it’s own spear to a tree trunk, next to it another lizard has been hung upside down, being suspended with its own tail, the chameleon’s eyes continue moving and it sees another corpse, this time a lizard sitting on the ground, it’s back against a tree. The lizard’s upper torso is hollow of flesh, only pale bone remains, and right in the middle sits a humanoid skull.

Most undead do not fear death, for a long time my skeletons did not understand that their enemies did not share this trait, and that although they could be compelled by their dungeons they are still very much afraid of death, and any reminder of it. Many of such corpses are actual undead, and will attack if they see an opportunity. I switch views and take a look at Gorger, who’s cooking right now, sadly I did not pursue the culinary arts so he’s mostly working on dishes on his own. I just quickly tell him to come up to the core room to help me with a little project as soon as he’s done.

Right, this is one of the bigger changes around. I watch one of my newest creations, a large fighting pit with dozens of skeletons watching the battle within. The skeletons are all cheering the heated battle between Merlin and Stinger.

Stinger punches one of the dark beams coming out of his eyes and for a brief moment I see them bending, just a tiny bit, before the beam hits her fist slightly weakening it. She dashes towards him and Merlin slaps the air in front of him, his crystal fist explodes in a shower of green flame and dark crystals that keeps Stinger at bay. This is how he won their last bout, not that literally anyone around seems to be keeping a score, he used his beams and his flames to weaken her bones, to the point her own strength was doing more damage to her body than to his.

Stinger advances once again, this time she jumps up and dodges the fire completely, she falls down with a dive kick, Merlin uses {Reave} and creates five sword claws and swipes at her, Stinger… slaps then away, breaking two in the process.

Merlin’s claws are scary, especially when you remember that a single touch is enough to rot through your bones, but they are also kind of unwieldy, and Merlin himself is not that good or experienced in close combat, both of which are extremely obvious against Stinger, still…

Stinger gras his arm and throws him against a wall and then proceeds to unleash her fearsome combo against him, in the first second of her combo she breaks his crystal skin, in the second her fists meet his face repeatedly and leave… no marks at all. It turns out that Merlin’s black bone, specially when his mana is full, is ridiculously tough to break, not even Gorger’s fearsome gut maw could break them, and because Merlin was a better wizard than Gorger he could also not easily eat his mana, on the other hand Merlin had a hard time hurting Gorger back, which led to a standstill or a draw, which led Gorger to have a tantrum and not return to the fighting pit.

It is very on brand that of all my undead, only Gorger cares about winning these fights, the rest are just fighting to hone their skills, speaking of Gorger, he just arrived. Merlin spews a few flames and makes Stinger back out, so I tell them to end their fight there and tell Merlin to go to the experiment, he will probably want to see it. As he leaves I see another skeleton taking his place.

Soon enough they both meet, Gorger gargles a few noises at Merlin, saying something about making a sauce that will weaken his bones, Merlin says he would like to see that, he said that honestly but Gorger seems to have taken it as sarcasm, which prompted a gurgling tirade about his cooking skills and how all the other zombies want his meals.

I activate the imp summoning circle and four imps are called, they look the same, small with little horns, claws and shining eyes and mouths, as if there is a light inside their skull. Gorger stops ‘talking’, and starts to grab them, he walks to the middle of the room, where a skeleton lays inside an indent on the ground, the indent is surrounded by inert engravings.

Gorger opens his mouths and the light coming from the imps diminishes, liquid flame comes out of their small mouths leaving their bodies and gather inside Gorger’s mouth. These are a mixture of demonic and fire mana, and also what powers the imps.

The imps stop moving completely, as if frozen then their bodies break into dark sand, falling inside the indent. Merlin activates an array and blood rich in mana starts falling from the ceiling and into the skeleton. More imps are summoned and again Gorger kills them the same way, soon the skeleton is covered completely in imp dust and blood, and Gorger is shining with demonic energy.

I think this is enough, start step 2.

Merlin kneels down and touches the laying skeleton’s head, Gorger also approaches and his mouths, five streams of the imp’s inner fire come out from Gorger four go to the limps and the fifth to the torso, the mana comes in contact with the skeleton and they absorb it. The demonic mana immediately starts to destroy him, it seeps deep into his body, creating a black crust around his body before hitting a wall of necrotic energy, Merlin, who is making sure the skeleton is not completely destroyed. The skeleton then starts to absorb the rich blood around it and the imp dust is absorbed with it.

What is happening is somewhat complex, first Gorger is regulating how much of the demonic energy he lets out, second Merlin is making sure the skeleton is not turned into dust, but also making sure that the energy is running through the skeleton, so that the demonic energy is attracted to them. And lastly, the skeleton in question is absorbing the blood and mixing it and the imp dust into their skeleton. This is our fourth attempt, and the best one, I even gave this skeleton the {Mark of Blood} skill. More imps are summoned and killed, more blood pours down and the process keeps going for a while more. Slowly the skeleton changes, they go from your average white skeleton to pinkish, then dark pink then an angry dark red.

Skeleton to Demon Skeleton

I ignored the skill changes and whatnot and took a good look at my skeleton, they didn’t change much, the color changed, they have slightly shaper teeth, fingers, toes and ribs, and I am pretty sure it has a more pronounced brow now. What really intrigues me is the energy, a mixture of necrotic and demonic mana, with some fire too, though I can tell it has become closer to heat than fire mana. The summoning circle is activated by Gorger, and I watch as the demon skeleton approaches, opens their mouth and then sucks in the imp’s inner demon fire, this time the imp breaks into dust before the fire is completely out, the powdery remains float along with the flame and fuse with the skeleton’s face making the frown on their face deeper. The demon skeleton turns to Gorger and stares at the imps in his hands, before a fight breaks out Merlin activates the circle again and I tell the Demon skeleton to eat as much as they want.

Gorger actually grabs a few more before running away, apparently he just got a new idea for some dish.