Book Two

Chapter Two

A Living Core

Wraith was carried through a maze of lava tubes, caves and caverns by the dwarves who stared forward vacantly there feet never faltering as they marched along guided by their masters. The mind-flayers stopped at a wall covered in slime and one of the mind-flayers placed its hand against the wall and leaned forward caressing it with its tentacles. The wall peeled back the thick viscus goo opening enough to let the group through into another cavern filled with sack that glowed a faint blue and had large and small things floating in them. Wraith was carried forward to massive pond filled with a silvery water in which floated a massive brain.

The brain was enormous the size of a horse it had black tentacles sprouting from it and leaving the pool running up the walls like vines. The black tentacles ended in little mouthed that formed a thin membrane that contained the glowing blue liquid. Wraith now saw that humanoids of all shapes and sizes floated in the sacks of an embryonic fluid type that seemed to be keeping the humanoids alive in hibernation. Wraith was set on the ground and a black tentacle reached out slowly and grasped him.

Wraith felt a alien mind touch against him and pervade his thoughts. Wraith recoiled and struck back against the foreign presence with his will as he would if we were extracting information from a soul. The elder brain recoiled and struck back and Wraith reeled from the psychic power of the attack, but he held onto his thoughts. The creature rested control of his mind but Wraith hid his memories and information from the elder brain letting the alien force only access his present thoughts.

Wraith could feel his own mind being subverted and used to augment the elder brains own psychic force as if he were some broadcaster that the creature was using. The tentacled lifted him up and set him down into the pool directly onto the soft brain matter that enfolded and grew around him. Wraith felt his own senses expand and grow as his mind began touching on the mind of every other mind around him. It was like being a proper dungeon again but this time he was not in control. Wraith felt like a common spark but unlike even those he had no control over any actions that he was ordered to do. He wasn’t even a puppet just an extra length of string used by the puppeteer. There was no way to gain control of the elder brain, he was only a single entity against the collective mind of the elder brain who was linked to hundreds of mind-flayers in the cavern.

Wraith fell into despair again he was trapped not only in his dungeon but his own core…his own core. Rage like Wraith had never felt before filled him and he felt the alarm of the elder brain and it began to suppress his emotion and calm him. Wraith relaxed his mind and concentrated on hiding his thoughts leaving a blank set of emotions for the elder brain to examine if it focused on him.

Wraith examined the cavern and saw mind-flayers sitting on squishy tentacles their hands clasped as they communed with the elder brain. Other mind-flayers looked into pools of silver mucus bent so low that their tentacles brushed against them. Curious as to what they were doing Wraith examined the mind-flayers more closely and found they were using a type of psychic technology that allowed them to examine creatures on a microscopic level and record information and transmit it to the elder-brain.

There were roughly two thousand slaves in the cavern. The majority of the slaves were in hibernation while the others marched around performing tasks and chores for their masters. A few thralls waded into the pool and messaged tentacles of the elder brain their faces plastered with smiles as the elder brain filled them with false happiness. There were pens with beasts in them and Wraith noticed that many of the creatures were strange. Taking a closer look, he noticed that every single creature apart from the humanoids were changed in drastic ways.

The rats that scurried in the corners had their brains exposed to the air. There were floating creatures with tentacles and eye-stocks that ended in pearly white eyes with a large pearly white eye in the center of the creature’s body. There were small brains that moved about on small legs and ran about like dogs. A stalagmite blinked its eye in the glistening body shaped to look like a natural looking stalagmite; sixty-foot-long tentacles extended from its body and were coiled on the ground of its cell. Thralls walked down the corridor dumping buckets filled with a mixture of chopped meat and mixed animal brains.

This wasn’t enough for one of the creatures and it yanked the slave against the bars and wrapped the placid slave’s head with its tentacles. Not even fighting back the slave’s skull was cracked and the brain scooped out. Wraith pulled the soul into his core, even if he couldn’t use them yet he would continue to gather soul sparks in preparation for the day he returned to power.

Wraith used his mana to open up a hidden chamber under the cavern and planted tiny herb sprouts. He marveled at the vast knowledge of the elder brain and their life cycle. Next he delved into the elder brain’s own mind. Since the elder brain had linked itself to Wraith’s core the connection went two ways and ember had access to all of the elder brain’s unguarded memories. The elder brain was in a since a dungeon core made of flesh. In order to survive it too had to kill humanoids. It was humanoids that allowed it to produce more minions by inserting tadpoles from the pool below him into a humanoids brain. Despite their similarities Wraith hated the colony of mind-flayers.

They were not individuals like a Dungeon but were one being made of separate bodies instead of a dungeon where each soul spark had its own personality. Wraith sparked upon an epiphany. Each mind-flayer was like a soul spark and the elder brain was like a dungeon core. So, what if he just projected his thoughts directly into the soul spark? Wraith ejected a soul spark from his core and guided it with his mana into the hidden room. He looked around and made sure that no mind-flayers were looking as he moved the glowing spark through the open cavern.

Wraith focused his mind on the spark trying to get it to move without guiding it with mana. Try as he might Wraith couldn’t get the spark to move. Frustrated Wraith began trying to shove the spark. He pushed and prodded tried to invade it with his mind but to no avail. Finally, in a fit of rage he created a blade of pure mana and sliced the spark into. The spark dissolved into tiny shards of glowing energy that fell to the floor glowing faintly. Wraith immediately felt guilty for having wasted the valuable resource and looked around and tried to bind the energy to an object the only one on hand being a clay pot he made to hold an herb plant. The glowing soul dust bonded to the pot and infused it with magic just as a soul spark would to a body it moved into.

This gave Wraith pause. If he could make a frame of inanimate objects could he do the same thing? Curious, Wraith moved a dozen more soul sparks down to the hidden chamber and began to bind them to a skeleton he formed. The soul sparks bound to each bone and Wraith tried to possess the skeleton but bounced off the blank slate that was the minds of the soul sparks. Frustrated Wraith began to think deeper about the problem. He abandoned the soul spark idea for the moment and made cords of mana that acted as sinew that when pulled would move the skeleton like a puppet. Trying this after hours of failure Wraith was able to move the skeleton in awkward jerking movements around the room.

While not ideal it did give Wraith some ideas and he began programing spells to operate the strands of mana. This sped up the movement, but it was still awkward. If there was a way for me to directly possess, this body I could do everything I need to do. Wraith turned his attention back to the elder brain floating in the brine pool. He looked at the pool and the thousands of tiny tadpoles that swam around in it. The tadpoles, they were spit offs of the elder brain that would eventually create mind-flayers living extensions of itself. Could I do the same? Wraith considered. If he split of a chunk of his core and kept up a mana connection to it he could theoretically maintain a body outside his core. The risk was immense the elder brain would definitely notice if he carved off a piece of his own body. He would need to have a body ready on hand to accept the shard of his core and he would need to be able to maintain both his core and his body at the same time.

Wraith considered what he needed for his body. His strongest monster was the draco-litch but that was to large and unwieldy for his needs and he didn’t have the mana for it. Wraith considered his patterns and chose the Stryker pattern as his base for his own body. There would be no modifying this body, so he would need to make it strong and versatile. He took every soul spark he had and cut them in half using the soul dust to bond each piece of mithril dust into the frame he needed. He added a portal spell into the mouth so that he could make things in his dungeon and pull them out of his body wherever he was. He added spells of speed to the dust that made up the muscle of the body allowing him to move at twice the speed of a human. He added magical shielding around the skull protecting it from psychic attacks.

It took days to make the body. Wraith had a lot of mana at the start, but he kept running out of mana and would have to wait until someone died in mind-flayer cavern or he could draw more from his garden. The mind-flayers killed and ate humanoids on a regular basis providing Wraith with a steady stream of both mana and soul sparks. He continued to add spells to the body and shaped it to look his body from last dungeon conclave. He turned the red eyes to a pitch black with no iris or whites. The fear effect would have little effect on the mind-flayers and Wraith was forced to consider how he would kill the mind-flayers and elder brain.

He had hidden the hell-blade Blackened had given him at last dungeon conclave as well as several valuable books and other irreplaceable items. Those things however were in blocks of lead in his old dungeon. Wraith would have to create a set of armor and a temporary weapon. He needed a weapon that would do a lot of weapon that could one-shot kill a mind-flayer. Looking through his weapon designs Wraith chose a revolver and altered his longbow enchantments to augment the revolver. The mithril revolver was coated in electrum and carved with runes. It took the mana of five men dying to create the weapon and now it came to armor. Wraith preferred plate armor but he didn’t have a party he needed to tank for and stealth would be his greatest advantage so instead he chose leather armor.

His best pattern for leather armor was the imperial leather armor and coat of the gunslinger sheriffs. Enchanting the armor up the wall Wraith dyed the dragonhide black and embroidered silver death runes around the edges. A set of set of dragonhide boots completed his outfit and Wraith added a couple daggers to complete the outfit. Wraith looked at the items and the body and considered something and deconstructed all his equipment to dust and reassembled it as a set of ghostly armor that a blade could pass through and his own incorporeal body.

Wraith prepared to carve off a piece of his body and began to wait for when some of the mind-flayers left the cavern or were distracted. The time came but it was not what Wraith had anticipated. Seven figures appeared in the cavern, they all resembled giant frogs but stood on two legs and had long viscous legs. Wraith vaguely remembered hearing about a race of toad demons from Limbo a part of the Astral Sea where chaos reigned. They were slaads and lived to kill and reproduce through humans much like the mind-flayers. The leader of the pack had grey skin and he leapt up into the air and landed down on a mind-flayer splattering the creatures’ brains on the ground. Four others slaads charged forward two of them were red and the other two blue. The mind-flayers floated up into the air and began blasting the slaads with psionic magic, but the spells merely bent or bounced off the slaads rubbery skin.

Realizing he might never have a better chance Wraith purposely fractured his core focusing on containing his mana. The pain was mind breaking and every ounce of focus was required to maintain concentration on the process. Wraith let the shard drop into the pool below him and opened up a small hole that began to drain the pool and carried his shard down into his secret chamber. The shard rose up and entered the body lying on a table in the room below. Wraith hissed as his vision began to blur and he quickly began activating the enchantments and spells that would give him duplicity in his mind and enable him to be in two places at once.

Wraith’s core began to vibrate, and he panicked as both he and his shard began to flash in and out of the World Below and Wraith caught dozens of glimpses of the Ethereal Plane. The elder brain noticed what was happening and tried to insert its control over Wraith, but his consciousness was to slippery with constantly flashing from the ethereal plane to the World Below. Wraith suddenly felt his existence in two places. He opened his eyes looking out from his body and from his core. He stood up waved his hand at the ceiling and the stone disintegrated and the brine from the pool washed down into his secret chamber and the elder brain plopped to the ground.

The elder brain called on its mind-flayers in desperation and thrust the force of its consciousness at Wraith’s avatar, but the psychic blow bounced off Wraith’s protected mind. Wraith pulled his revolver free and began firing one handed into the elder brain as his other hand moved independently in a series of gestures as fire mana began to form a spell. A blast of fire enveloped the elder brain and Wraith absorbed the ocean of mana that washed over him and the pattern for the elder brain. He cocked his head and turned as every mind-flayer in sight fell to their knees clutching their skulls. The slaads took advantage of the confusion casting spells of their own or just using their brute strength to overwhelm the mind-flayers.

Wraith took no side of the fight firing on both the slaads and the mind-flayers. Now that he wasn’t under the control of the elder-brain he used his power over the dungeon to open all the cells of the mind-flayers and used the subtle techniques of the mind-flayers psionic powers to turn their own creatures against them. The tentacled beasts rushed out of their cells in a mindless pursuit of prey descending on the first thing they came across and ripping each other to pieces.

Wraith moved through the throng of enemies like an arrow. His revolver thundered while his other hand cast spells or threw a dagger. Enemy claws and tentacles past through his body causing no harm. He leapt into the air and levitated in place holstering his firearm and moving both hands in series of complicated movements as he chanted. A lightening storm spiraled out from his body enveloping mind-flayers and the few slaads slamming them back against the walls.

Wraith howled out his own psychic blast and the mind-flayers quivered in place and collapsed unconscious. The four remaining slaads glanced at Wraith and charged and Wraith met them in combat ducking and bending out of the way and casting dark mana through his hands that rotted the flesh on impact. His fist plunged into the skull of one the grey slaad and his hand found something small and hard and he yanked it out and used his other hand to pulverize the chest of the red slaad and then incinerated its body with a spell. The other slaads looked at each other and vanished as they teleported out of the World Below.

Wraith flicked his arms absorbing the blood off of it cleaning himself in a handful of seconds. Next he looked about the cavern and absorbed the corpse of every creature in the room learning their patterns and taking their mana. He went to every sack of membrane and stabbed the entrapped slave inside taking their mana and soul spark and adding them to his core. He then levitated up to the ceiling and carefully pulled his core free from and laid it on the ground. Wrapping it in cloth he strapped it to his back and walked out of the mind-flayer’s destroyed cavern and back to his own dungeon.