I have no tongue, but I have a mouth, I eat and eat, but nothing comes out. My lungs filled with spiders, my bones filled with stone, I have many walls, but never a home. What am I?

  -The ((MANTRA)) of Labyrinth

  The Onyx King and what remained of his party cautiously entered the seemingly innocuous cavern. Floor eight’s size hadn’t changed, that would’ve been far too much work for what was already an expensive plan, but it felt larger. It felt impossibly large. Aside from the first floor, which was built into a natural cave, Catacomb had carved and reinforced the tunnels by nonexistent hand.

  The amount of ((MANA)) it took to carve even a small tunnel would kill a mortal mage, and Catacomb was more frugal than his siblings. The only reason floor eight was as large as it was, was because it was a boss room. But now {BOSS} Necrodragon 6 had been relocated to floor eighty with the others. A bit cramped, but that was of no matter.

  The first thing Catacomb did was summon a solid wall of bone, sealing the way to the surface. Pain exploded in his ((CORE)), and he groaned softly. The first seven floors disappeared from his domain, and his Entrance fizzled and lost its ((MANTRA)). Mentally, he soothed himself. If he remained in this state, there was no doubt that he would starve, or shatter from ((MANA)) build up. Which would not only kill the Onyx King, but also give Sanctuary full rein to expand over his pre-built floors. Really, not so terrible of a fate.

  The King didn’t realize at first, him, a pink feathered creature, a blue feathered creature and a female with green skin cautiously walked through the forest of identical trees. Catacomb summoned a Tier 3 Dragon skull directly above them.

  The smooth white curves and perfectly symmetrical horns were poetic, they were to be crushed by a piece of a creature they’d easily defeated hundreds of times. It was also the heaviest object that Catacomb could summon. He released his hold on the object, and it plummeted. Pink tackled the blue-feathers out of crash zone. Onyx looked up, and frowned slightly. The blue woman froze.

  The skull crashed down with a satisfying clatter. It shattered, because, of course it shattered. Leaving the feathers to huddle next to each other and star blankly at the rubble. Blood began to leach onto the white shards of bone. But Catacomb snarled. The blue woman had died, but he still could sense the King.

  Catacomb was proven correct a moment later, when Onyx stood up, golden ((MANA)) filling the air around him. Catacomb hissed. Cheater. He’d never used ((COMMAND)) aspected ((MANA)) before. The bone actively moved away from the ((AURA)), and he hissed again. It could never be easy, could it?

  Well, there was more than one way to drown a fish. Four walls rose around the King, fusing with the ground, then with each other as their edges met. Onyx’s eyes widened and he prepared to jump, but not before a final wall was placed horizontally atop the others. Catacomb smoothed the edges, fusing any cracks into the solid mass of bone. All he needed to do was keep him there.

  Outside the cube, the feathered ones overcame their shock. The blue one grabbed the shoulder of the pink one, whispering something in its ear. She shook her head rapidly.

  The Onyx King drew his sword, it flashed purple and he sunk it into the bone. Catacomb scoffed. Healing the scar, then he began to pour his ((MANA)) into the sword.

  Catacomb felt the strain on his ((CORE)) nearly double, but he ignored it, for now. The blade exploded a moment later.

  The Onyx King cursed loudly, one of the few words Catacomb knew in the mortal language.

  ((9/16)) summoned a viewport next to his ((GAZE)).

  YOU KNOW IF YOU KILL HIM YOU’LL STARVE RIGHT?

  “Doubtful, Lord Nine, the Mortal races hunger naught but for blood, preferably, it seems, mine.”

  WE DID CREATE THEM, YK

  “The Second betrayed the one, and thou doubt that these lesser creatures would not doest the same?”

  Oh, come on Comby.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Catacomb ignored him, and turned his attention back to the King. ((MANA)) was coalescing in his hands, twisting into explosive sigils. Onyx pressed his palms against the wall as Catacomb poured ((MANA)) into the bone. His ((CORE)) aching. The explosion went off. A soft thunk rattled against the bone, and it began to crack. The invasive ((MANA)) spreading through the structure of the cube ruthlessly.

  He instantly set to repairing the damage. New bone quickly expanded, sealing the cracks before they penetrated fully. Catacomb traced the King’s spell, following the pale green glow with his mind and focusing on the areas most recently targeted by the spell.

  Onyx gritted his teeth, and set off three weaker variants of the same spell in quick succession. Catacomb split his ((GAZE)), the action gifting him a sharp stab of pain in his ((CORE)).

  He pressed more ((MANA)) against the cracks, not bothering to reform the wall, if he had been born with the ((COMMAND)) aspect, perhaps he would have simply been able to force the oxygen to leave the chamber. Unfortunately, while ((POWER)) was… well, what its name suggested, it was more of a club than a rapier.

  Sweat began to bead down the King’s forehead. Green ((MANA)) lashed out from his palms. ((9/16)) widened his viewport. Catacomb felt as though molten metal had been poured over his ((CORE)). The dark amethyst ((MANA)) of Catacomb struggled to hold the fragments of the chamber together. The four walls now reduced to barely functioning rubble forced to maintain their place by enough pure energy to level a small town.

  The Onyx King’s ((MANA)) flickered. His obsidian skin had shifted into a dark violet and he gulped at the stale air. He dug his nails into the bone as if it were clay. Then the Onyx King screamed. He fell to his knees and screamed. Green, pure, ((DESTRUCTION)) aspected ((MANA)) exploded from his chest.

  Completely unprepared for the sudden redoubling of Onyx’s assault, Catacomb pushed more ((MANA)) into the ruin, it was little help. The ((MANA)) saturated rock exploded outward, crashing through the facsimile trees until they reached the walls of the room, where they burst through them and left Catacomb’s influence. The trees dripped from the sudden explosion of heat. The two feathered creatures were nowhere to be seen.

  The Onyx King stood in the center of the crater. He panted, taking in huge gulps of air before grinning wildly. He spun toward Catacomb’s ((GAZE)), and, despite knowing that the King couldn’t truly see him, Catacomb shivered.

  His ((CORE)) burned. His ((MANA_POOL)) dropped to zero. And Catacomb’s ((GAZE)) went out. Instantly, his perception warped back to his ((CORE)). He attempted to reach toward floor eight, but even the inherent understanding of his domain seemed to be dampened. Blind, and trapped within his own body, Catacomb waited for the death that certainly awaited him.

  A slow suffocation like the one that he had tried to afflict on the Onyx King.

  It was poetic.

  STATUS:

  Name: Catacomb

  Mantra: Death comes to those who enter here

  LV: 273

  EXP 88,329/980,000,000

  Gender: Male

  Affinities: Bone, Ice, Mana… EXPAND?

  Class: Scourge (Uncommon), Commander (Uncommon)

  Race: Undefined

  Nodes: Creeping Lilly LV 49, Basic Necromantic LV 90, Tusnaj Mushroom LV 21… EXPAND?

  Spawners: Feral Goblin LV 60, Basic Necromantic LV 84, Crypt Bat LV 152…EXPAND?

  Retainers: Necrodragon 1 (LV 100)

  Bosses: Necrodragon 2 (LV 87) Necrodragon 3 (LV 87) Necrodragon 4 (LV 87) … EXPAND?

  Tethers: N/A

  Traits: Desecrator, Ouroboros, Violent… EXPAND?

  Blessings: Blessing of Bastion, Fruitful and Multiply

  Curses: Murderer, Odysseus, Vampire

  Titles: Son of Bastion, Line Ender (LEX), Terror of Ridoum (XII)

  Notoriety: 800,932,033

  Fame: 32

  Infamy: 800,932,001

  Kills: 30,983,231

  INT: 117

  SOUL: 117

  WILL: 117

  MAG: 117

  STR: 117

  DEF: 117

  CONS: 117