DungeonCultist

Chapter 151

I turn towards the thief-girl, who I see waving excitedly in the distance; her slender silhouette running towards me and I turn to walk towards her in turn. “Hey. Hey!” calls out her excited voice, as she approaches, her leather boots slapping against the pristine stone floors of the entirely featureless, flat room. Running up to me, she wraps her arms around my large body, locking me in a tight embrace. Her head pressed sideways against my metal breastplate, she laughs and holds me firml...

Chapter 150

I’m running blindly through the murk, the metal of my boots ringing out around me as the only noise that is audible, apart from the tapping of a thousand sharp legs in the darkness, that are then followed after by a thousand more, as the thing skitters around me. As it skitters after me. I don’t have a beating heart that can strike in my chest. I don’t have any skin that can turn cold, as a damp, clammy sweat leaks out over it. I don’t have any physical eyes that shift nervously aroun...

Chapter 149

I turn to face the voice, but am unable to see it in the darkness around me. Something lurches, I feel my body shift and for a moment I think that I have been grabbed. But instead, my palm meets something soft at my side. A leather bag, a gift from the dungeon-master. I haven’t been forsaken just yet, I suppose. Staring towards the darkness, I wait for the elf to approach me. To say something else, but nothing else happens. I only hear skittering. I only feel… uneasy. The metal gauntlet o...

Chapter 148

As I march up the staircase, my hollow armor clanking all around me in the small passage, I come to a sudden realization. I forgot my pole-axe up on top of the bridge. Turning my helmet back around, I look down the long stretch of staircase I’ve already gone up. Well, I suppose it’s too late for that now. That’s okay. I’ll just try to keep things peaceful this time around. Productivity is the name of the game today, apparently. The dungeon-master wants me to find the stairs, so I gues...

Chapter 147

Metal clanks around me, as we walk in formation down the long stone bridge. Our pole-axes clanking in unison, as we march together in a thin formation down the way, patrolling the path to keep watch for any outsiders. I shake my body. Puffs of hot, fallen ash fall out from the inside of my hollow core, as several cracks and crevices make themselves seen through my movement. We have to empty ourselves once in a while, it becomes troublesome to move when there is too much of the ash inside of u...

Chapter 146

It’s not great for my sense of self-confidence, if I’m going to be honest with you. Finishing their scribbling, they slam me shut and with one hand, fling me out and away, off of the table and across over the abyss below. Spiraling, my covers open wide and my pages flapping in the wind, I barely manage to stabilize myself and return to a steady floating in mid-air, before heading back straight towards the dungeon-master.

“So you’re mad?” I ask the small being glarin...

Chapter 145

It has become a somber existence, all the way down here. Since it has started to grow. The strange fuzz that I can feel over my body. The strange fuzz that has begun to grow over everyone else’s bodies, those that remain at least. Most of the others have simply given up the ghost, as it were. They are too tired to hunt. Too cold. Too drained and exhausted from the sapping, leaching effects of the parasite fungus mixed in together with the strange, cold aura that seems to be filling the spac...

Chapter 144

That wasn’t a good look. That expression he carried on his face in those final seconds, as I am shorn off from the face of this corporeal plane. Blinding, mystical energies rushing out from the edge of his blade envelop me with a furious power that I am not able to withstand for even a second, as the true strike of the hero comes and returns me to whence I came. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

I die.

And once more I am propelled upwards towards the heavens, t...

Chapter 143

Left, right. My body shifts and turns, the ash and the smoldering inferno that makes up my whole, shifting like the body of a viper, as I sway around the hero, catching each of his blows with my weapon before lunging out time after time again to launch a new, admittedly futile, strike. But it feels good. It feels great! Sparks launch through the air in all directions as the battle rages on around us, the unrelenting zombies and the always reconstructing armors all returning to their feet over...

Chapter 142

See, I suppose the thing about elementals is that they are bound to a passion. Piotr’s passionate hate of the hero-party is what brought him back to life as a zombie and it’s what brought him back to life as an elemental. Can I blame him? No. But those strong feelings that now carry the weights of our souls, they have an effect on us. They fill us with negativity, with spiritual bile and with black-water. Look. Look at the ash flying away, doesn’t it look so light? What happened to all ...

Chapter 141

How, out of all things is it here? Those snaking worms of harrowing light that slither through the air, as they seep forward, crawling like the tendrils of an extending rot. Like a fungus spreading out beneath the dirt. The strands of it glide just past me and I feel its familiar presence, like the feeling you get when you stand next to an old friend you haven’t spoken to in a while. That deep connection, that feeling that there is something to which you belong. But it simply whispers past ...

Chapter 140

Ah, what a strange predicament that I’m in now I think to myself, as I watch the hero-party begin to come down the staircase which is not that far down in the distance. I, the first me that is, doesn’t really want to fight the hero-party. We’ve kind of been over it, guy, so I guess I can spare you the details at this point. But this new me, Miika, he wants to fight them. My friend, no, his friend is counting on him. After all, we’re the only ones here. If I don’t fight with him, the...

Chapter 139

And so I claw my way up onto the bridge and throw myself over, the cloud of smoldering ash that makes up my body condensing and coming together once more to reform my entity as a whole. I stare to my left, Piotr stands there in the middle of the bridge and stares down the way. He stares down towards the staircase off in the distance, at the end of the straight bridge. The staircase leading upward that the hero-party will surely come down soon enough. I opt to turn my head instead to the right...

Chapter 138

As my friend and I walk together along towards the same direction, the paths of our lives coinciding yet again for another stretch of the journey, I begin to wonder; how? How is this possible? Our bodies had been turned undead, how can it be that they are here? That they have been burnt? Hasn’t Miika been erased from the dungeon, his eyes now some place wet and cold? How can I be him again? But as I watch my friend’s strange, smoldering body move and shift through the coals beneath us I t...

Chapter 137

Cinder and smoke fill the air all around me, creating a toxic miasma borne not of rot or of fungal infection but of ash. Of heat and the remnants of things that have been purged from this domain. Things that no longer walk, slither, crawl or see. Only some of us are transformed, only some of us are reincarnated into this new form. Like a phoenix from the ashes, like the sun of a new day to come. We burn so brightly, with a fire that burns with fresh purpose. What a rarity it is, isn’t it? P...

Chapter 136

Still falling, I soar through the strange, seemingly endless tunnel of meat surrounding me that winds left and right in gentle shifts and turns. But somehow always without touching my body or breaking my fall, save for the sparse grazing of dead fingers reaching for me as I pass by. Where am I going? I fall further still, this place reminds me of limbo. But rather than floating, suspended in the ether I simply descend further and further. It is pitch black now, it is impossible to see anythin...

Chapter 135

See? This is why I wanted to get off of this floor before the sub-boss fight got triggered. Because it’s gross. Sometimes, between all of the rainbow-glitter spouting unicorns and the happy-go-lucky pink and green slimes I forget what being down in a dungeon can really mean. There are things here, twisted, warped, disgusting things. I don’t even know sometimes if the dungeon-master made them or if they are simply things that just ‘are’. I suppose it’ll be the former, but I am having...

Chapter 134

The current grows stronger and more wild, as if the mouth of the river were spitting us out like a piece of bad meat. The whirlpool before us in the large open lake spins and swirls with a loud, raging roar that creates a deafening white noise, as if we were standing beneath a great waterfall. Rather than being drawn straight towards it, our little boat instead shifts and lurches with a jolt to the right as the spiral current takes hold of us. The priestess waves her arms, almost tumbling ove...

Chapter 133

The fight begins again now for the second time, as the next wave descends down upon us from the bayou. Though they are somewhat slower now, as the first bad things make quick work of all the rats that they can reach, of which there are many. Many-many. The swarm of rats, for whatever reason they were here, is easily decimated and then worse. Of the entire swarm, only a small fraction now remains a minute later. Those that had keen enough instincts. Those that knew that they had to go higher, ...

Chapter 132

Worming my way around inside of the fabric bag that is filled with all manner of glass oddities and baubles, I burrow through the pile of worn clothes. They smell like you would expect worn clothes from a dungeon-adventure to smell. I look for the little satchel that I know is in here. Though there is a tinge of some fragrant perfume to the mixture in here, the smell staining the parchment and paper scrolls around me. Where is it… where is it… I dig through the rucksack for the little pou...

Chapter 131

I’m a little further off and away from the river now, but I suppose the fight has started, judging by the tufts of forceful explosions and rays of concentrated white magic flying out just beyond the smoking tree-line. I wonder, as I lick my fingers, what should I be doing? I guess the ‘interesting’ thing would be to help fight the hero party, but…

Another explosion barrels out in the distance ahead of me, vaporizing the entire crown of a large tree in an instant.

Chapter 130

The trees all around begin to rustle as the strange, stagnant glow of the bayou wafts around them, as if carried by a fresh breeze. The creeping mist seeping through the trees, floating just above the surface of the swamp water like so much yellow-sap dripping down into the goo. It is a haunting aura, a shimmer that reminds me a little of the dead-light, actually. But this is different, it’s simply an ambient presence. The strike of the gong signaling the start of the waves.

Chapter 129

I watch as the hero-party embarks onto the small wooden boat that is tethered to the shore of the inlet. It’s bigger than a small rowboat, but not by much. In fact, it seems to be just big enough for the group of adventurers to sit together somewhat cramped as if they were one too many. The hero goes in first, as is tradition, and then the rest of the party follow him in. Adventuring parties don’t really follow much of a social hierarchy. Everyone is on even footing more or less, even if ...

Chapter 128

The swamp water isn’t deep, but it’s still too deep for me to be able to stand in with this body. If I fell in, I’d have to struggle and kick around and swim until I could grab something to get back out of it. Some low hanging branch or rock or anything, as long as it gets me out of the bad water. As long as I get back up before it can reach me. The thing. I leap again, reaching a high point on the tree. The density of the foliage grows sparser the higher up I go though, leaving only gn...

Chapter 127

Ooh! As I slide along the thin glass of the menu that is suspended in mid-air, the fingers of my other outstretched hand graze the smooth skin of the fruit. My calloused fingertips sliding along the soft, supple body of the thing, as I am just barely able to reach it. I climb out further, hovering dead over the water now. If the menu vanishes or breaks then this is it. I’m a goner. Ooh. But so far it seems to be holding well under my weight, I’m not that large or heavy. About the size of ...

Chapter 126

I’m not quite sure why we shut the door behind us, but I trust her on this. She seems to know what we’re doing, I guess it’s nice for a change to have a plan. Or at least for someone to have a plan. There’s a certain comfort to that, you know? To not having to just randomly search and run around blindly, testing and poking everything through trial and error to see what works. Either way, once the door has been shut, she pats my side climbs back onto me and points me towards the altar ...

Chapter 125

I look to the thief questioningly, she just nods and points down the path again. I sigh and turn around, wondering how I’m going to walk down this mess. My body isn’t exactly designed for these kinds of angles, seeing as I don’t really have ankles and even if I did it wouldn’t be much of a help. Walking down the way, I realize that I’ve been having to do a lot of backtracking lately. Actually, only since I’ve started hanging around with her. But I suppose it’s not her fault. Wel...

Chapter 124

I shudder, feeling a sudden chill come over me in the warmth of the strange cathedral. Looking over my shoulder, I see a large stream of blue light streaking through a giant, stained-glass window directly behind and above us. The frame of the window is arched and pointed upwards like a dull arrow, the depictions inside of the glass are vague and foggy. As if the craftsmen weren’t sure themselves what it is that they saw in their minds eye while working. It is a shapeless heap of fragments o...

Secondary Story Cover (2)

My cover guy dropped us because of personal reasons, so I had to start hunting for another artist. Thankfully I found one to commision, this is where your donations are going by the way in case you were curious. Cover art isn't cheap haha. So here is another sketch of Secondary Story's cover =)

It's a bit of a different style, but I like it a lot!

Chapter 123

The troubling groan of the horrible monstrosity, down below in the distance, fades out of my ears and my mind as we rise upward. Higher up the spiral staircase towards the top of the mill. She has climbed back up on my back, but is leaned forward over my front, rubbing the broken stump of my horn, all the while she’s talking in an annoyed tone. I bet she’s scolding me or something. Oh well, not my problem. I can’t speak worry-wart today.

I’m glad I didn’t have to se...