A Lich's Guide to Dungeon Mastery

Azrael stalked through the forest of flesh, her guardians following with the same silence that her own steps carried.

The Domain that she'd found before had created quite a horrific sight, having entirely consumed the area with fleshy bits. The sense it gave off was distinctly undead, and yet it was somehow tainted by life magic, which explained how it was growing in such a plant-like way. It was like the entirety of the forest had been consumed and replaced by a single, massive entity, yet Azrael knew it was merely a Domain Skill. She felt the familiar energies that were present in Ambrose’s dungeon, though while Ambrose’s Domain felt like the passive embrace of death and a chill in the bones, this one was far more hostile. It lusted for blood, destruction, and chaos, and it didn’t particularly care about how it reached those goals. Even for her, this was disturbing. The other undead likely felt the same, as they seemed to avoid the area as though it was full of holy water.

No creatures wandered through this place, with the exception of herself and the Antigos. If there had been any, she was sure that they'd already been devoured by the fleshy tendrils all over the ground. She avoided those as best she could, making sure not to touch anything. This creature might not be able to see everything in the area like Ambrose could, but she was certain that the tentacles had at least some sort of sensory organs.

Carefully, slowly, she approached, suppressing the energy fluctuations in her body with the Woolen Wolf Boon from her Dark Prowl Skill. The Boon’s effect was heightened by her Lethean magic, but even so, she couldn't do anything about the Antigos, and would just have to hope that they could take care of themselves. Luckily, it seemed that they were limber and cautious enough to mostly avoid the arms of this Domain. A few tentacles twitched at their presence, but they were mostly ignored.

After hours of walking further and further into the Domain, they were now almost completely surrounded by fleshy vines and trees. Reluctantly, Azrael left the Antigos behind and continued forward, activating the Ignorance Boon of her Lethean Manipulation Skills to force the creature to ignore her movements.

This technique wouldn't work if her impact on the creature were large enough or if its senses were exceptionally powerful, but she felt that it would be safe to do this much. She began gently pushing the bits of flesh out of her way, still avoiding direct contact whenever possible. Eventually, she saw it.

It was at least nine feet tall, and was mostly humanoid, except that it looked almost like a plant itself, with meaty roots growing out of its legs and ropes of shredded skin draped over it like vines. Blood perpetually leaked from its exposed yet bark-like muscles. Azrael immediately halted upon seeing it, worried that it might notice her. Luckily, though, it seemed that it lacked vision, as branches grew out of its eye sockets.

This is why life and death don't mix. Creatures that were both were also neither, becoming monstrosities that were repulsive to all organics. The dead were never meant to return to life, except as undead. This beast was clearly one of the cases of individuals who had stayed in the Dead Belt for far too long, but were too strong to simply die, and were instead changed. It was basically the same as becoming an undead, with a bit more intelligence and a lot more madness. However, these types are also more likely to obtain Vitasis affinities, resulting in horrors like the one before–well, around her.

She slowly crept closer to the creature. Perhaps she could land a killing blow if she moved in stealthily enough?

It twitched, and she halted, pushing even more of her Lethe into Ignorance. A moment passed, and the monster ahead of her relaxed. She slowly, cautiously backed away, and made her way back to the Antigos. The group began to swiftly move away from the eye of this Domain, and the tendrils of Influence around them shivered and trembled. Even with her Ignorance running at maximum capacity, Azrael wouldn’t be able to shield the group for much longer.

Quickly, she sliced one of the thicker tentacles off the larger mass of the creature, and a wail echoed throughout the consumed forest, and the call was taken up by the fleshy bits all around them, which grew vicious mouths and began lashing out at the surroundings. She quickly stowed the flesh in her bag, and started to run. Her Nyx Manipulation was activated, and Speed of Darkness pushed her forward. She could no longer bother to hide her presence from the monstrosity’s Domain, and instead focused everything on speed.

It took hours to reach the center of the forest, but mere minutes for Azrael to leave. Having to watch her step and move carefully on the way in had slowed her down significantly, but speed was one of her specialties, even if she was nowhere near as fast as that Windilope Ambrose had made. The tentacles had found and attacked her multiple times, but her Fade Away Skill had proved its usefulness, allowing her to avoid the incoming attacks by simply allowing them to pass through her.

She looked back at the forest once she was confident that none of the attacks would be able to reach her. It had grown quiet again, but there was no sign of the Antigos. Ambrose won’t be too mad that I got his creations killed, will he? She thought, then shook her head. Of course not. I even managed to get him that gift he asked for.

With that, Azrael started to make her way back home with a tentative smile on her face.