Rise From The Grave; Who Woke Me Up...?

It scoffed at his remark, suddenly becoming upset with him after calling it 'weak.' Still being a dragon, it was pretty prideful by default, and the moment that was attacked, it retorted with swiftness and cunning. Once it saw that he hadn't chased after its tail, it knew that he wasn't going to be so easy anymore, and things would have to be played cool from now on.

*Oh yeah...?* its voice whispered from the north, *... I'll show you...* it rang from the east, before, once again, slipping up behind him and whirling around his arms as fast as possible, suffocating the flames and leaving him in the dark, yet again. It was going to prove that it was much smarter and faster than he could even comprehend, and leave him in a tizzy before he even had time to realize what happened.

At the man continued onward, taking the necessary steps in order to get to the next level of the dungeon, he would find that as he stepped on the wall, his foot would sink into it ever so slightly, triggering some sort of booby trap. Out of nowhere, a powerful wave burst from under him, causing a chain reaction of explosions to go off throughout the Pit. These were disruptive waves that would cause him great confusion and disturbances in his thoughts. They would go off one after another, rapidly and without relent. The more they went off, the more powerful the distortions would become, trying to stop his progression by confusing him. Around him, many distorted illusions would shape in the darkness. They were high concentrations of this disruptive force that seemed to have sentience, and were all leaping at him from the shadows. The more that struck him, the more powerful the confusion would become, until he could no longer think, or even move, and would most likely fall to the ground. The distortions would disable his powers as long as he remained confused.

After effectively dispelling the Distortion traps set to keep him confounded and from reaching the next level, eventually, the man would find the stairway from the lowest level of the Sepulchrum to the next floor, which happened to be a long way up. As he reached the stairs and walked up, however, he would trigger another booby trap as he stepped on a specific stair; that which would unleash from the walls a slew of deadly creatures that would attempt to stop him; Zombies, Ghosts, Snakes, Demons and all sorts of malevolent creatures that were lying in wait for any intruder to reach the narrow passes. They flooded the stairwell in no time flat, both before him and behind him, in order to keep him from continuing on any farther.

The first wave of creatures that were the nearest to him were destroyed in the brutal manner that was described, the mass of physical entities flooding from behind easily knocked down the narrow pass from being hit by the body of the destroyed monster that was the first to go. This cleared some space out for Khrona as he continued up, and though he was almost to the top, there were still all sorts of monsters waiting for him on the stairwell.

After seeing that a frontal assault wasn't going to get him, the ghosts and incorporeal demons slipped into the walls and past him. Some went down to the fallen vessels and possessed them, granting them some of their powers and causing them to rise from the ground, letting the decaying corpses to be reinforced with their demonic and spiritual power so that they were more sturdy and had the power to levitate. They would immediately rise from the bottom of the staircase and shoot straight back up toward where Khrona was, whilst the remaining physical entities would continue to flood him from the front; some of the Zombies harbored armor and swords, as though they were once living warriors that had been confined into the prison of the walls. Some of the venomous snakes near the top were larger and more hostile. The Zombies came down first, swinging their swords and brandishing their shields so that they would not be so easily destroyed, like the ones that did not have weapons or armor whilst the possessed ones flying up the stairs lashed out viciously attempting to feast upon his flesh, bones and soul from behind.

As anticipated, the fiery 'Degeneration Cannon' took out all of the creatures that threatened Khrona without much effort, their cells, molecules and basic genetic makeup being completely destroyed by the flames embedded with the power of Anatomia's 'Degeneration.'

However, at the very TOP of the staircase, where the flames had only reached a part of the way, a grotesque, malformed gargantuan snake falling apart at the scales and with a partially melted face lashed about wildly, both in pain and in rage, for its body was disfigured and its cellular structure seemed to still be holding due to the indirect exposure. Its eye slipped out of its skull and on parts of its body, scales would drop to the edge of the stairs, blood pouring out from its slowly decomposing body. Once Khrona reached the top and it saw him, in its bestial rage and incredible pain, it would lash out at him with mouth agape, easily able to swallow him whole. The length of its body was enough to cover half the elongated staircase when uncoiled, but it seemed to be in pain when it moved. Its venom also seemed to be secreting from its teeth and its mouth uncontrollably, the glands and ducts that kept it secure no longer functioning after part of its cells and brain that controlled such were degenerated.

The venom spattered in every direction, completely poisonous and caustic to even the touch, hitting the walls and coating the stairs as it lunged at the target of all its pain and fury. If he were to be touched, the venom would seep into his skin and begin to erode his body with its caustic property.

The creature had no control over its pain nor its anger, and would, after missing its target, begin to flail about wildly, trying to retain some sort of composure. Its body would spasm from the rising pain and sudden rising heat that began to engulf it physically, mentally and spiritually, flames pouring through its already open wounds and deepening them. They sprayed from its mouth like the uncontrollable venom that oozes from its scaly lips and all about the bottom of the stairs. Even its blood boiled as its soul burned, and its body continued to flail about viciously at the incineration of its mind. Eventually, its entire existence would come to a fiery halt, for it was far too infuriated and primal to relinquish its 'Beast Rage' for what it believed to be both its target and adversary, as well as its own pain. There would be nothing left of the creature.

Likewise, Khrona would reach the top of the stairwell and the next floor, where he would find even more coffins and tombstones littered about a misty room. There was light here, though very dim; very faint, and most of it was masked by the deep, stale haze that lingered in the room, apparently for many, many decades.

Scuffling and shuffling could be heard in the mist, farther than what Khrona was able to see at the moment. It sounded pretty far off, but the noise echoed throughout the large expansive room, like claws scraping against the surface of stone and other solid material. Before long, the sound of something sliding open and the sound of scratching and rattling could be heard as well, followed by loud cracks that sounded like the snapping and gnashing of bone together. It wasn't clear what was going on, but all of it could be heard rather clearly, even if faintly.

Clattering of bones, gnashing of teeth, snaps, crackles and pops of all variety continued on for a while, as well as even more shuffling and scraping. It wouldn't be until Khrona arced around the room and sneaked up from behind that he would be able to see the image of a large rat; man-sized, standing on its hind legs and scouring one of the open coffins. In its hand was a bone with rotting flesh and marrow in it, of which it was partaking of rather joyously, whilst also snatching up whatever else that was shiny inside of the coffin for itself. Its teeth and jaws were powerful enough to snap the entire thick bones like they were chicken wings, sucking out the remaining marrow. Granted, some of the bones were already brittle, however this did not make its jaws any less powerful to snap through it. Whatever bone it bit through would it also consume, grinding it up in no time flat and taking a satisfied gulp. It was clear that there was very little food left here. Many of the coffins were already open and completely empty; not a single corpse left inside. Perhaps, what sustained the creature all this time, for however long it had been since it'd been trapped inside of this room. It continued its merry feast, having not heard nor sen Khrona in the slightest, and finished digging through the coffin, trying to find some juicy entrails. Those were the most filling.

As the boy got closer to the creature happily feasting on its scraps that kept it alive, it would, once he got within a certain distance, begin to sniff. It smelt the odor of something that was still living; rather, that still had flesh on it. Where it smelled the reanimated body that was Khrona, it turned its head swiftly, its glowing eyes beaming in the thick mist with a bloodthirsty savagery like that of a hungry, deranged animal. It harbored in its hand the skull of the corpse it had been scavenging, as though it had been interrupted mid-munch, and was nowhere near happy.


It hissed at him, donning on its body many glittering rings and bands that it had scraped off of the dead kings and royalty that were unlucky enough to be buried under here with it, and in its other hand, a large bone that looked to be a tibia, of which it wielded like a club. It stepped forth slightly, looking as though it were ready to strike at him, kill him, and strip him of his flesh and bone... To the giant rat, this man looked like the best meal he'd seen in quite a long time... flesh so tender and relatively fresh. Saliva dripped from its jagged teeth as it hissed again, letting some of it curdle over and onto the ground. Its mouth curled into a beastly grin, as if it anticipated quite the hearty meal...

"The fuck? YOU shtay back!" it hissed at him in sharp retort, even if it was counterproductive to his end goal, "The fuck izza livin guy like youse doin here, eh? Lookin' like a mighty fine SNACK, if I do say so mehself, buddy!"

It was clear from its speech that this creature had intelligence enough to talk and sanity enough to understand, despite how it clearly looked savage and hungry. "Youse gota problem, boy? You got a problem, we can throw down right here, right NAH!!!" The grip on the bone tightened before he raised the skull in his other hand up to Khrona's face, shaking it at him threateningly, "You see dis?! Dis is gunna be YOU in TWO SECONDS if you don't start talkin', chump! Whatchoo doin hyere?"

His accent sounded almost like that of a New Yorker... You know what they say about how big THOSE rats get 'round them parts. However, despite the coherency, the threatening tone was still in his voice. Like he was ready to turn feral at any given time. He still was hungry and he still was a rat, after all.

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When the giant rat took his step forward, he would accidentally, in his threatening rage, trigger one of the many booby traps that he had been so careful all of the years to evade. When that was done, spikes would jut from the ceiling and, in the area where the both of them were, come crashing down with the force of a pounding mallet, ready to skewer and crush them.

After the initial blow, it would rise back up and another part of the expansive ceiling would come crashing down in the same way, before lifting back up as the first section did, and the process would be repeated randomly throughout the entire room. In just that one moment, it would go from silent to trying to pound them flat as though tenderizing meat. One false move and either one of them could be crushed in any part of the room, each part being pounded flat at random.

It came as a complete shock to the giant rat as well what happened once he tripped the switch, and before he could react, Khrona had already saved him from being smashed to bits. He didn't say anything, but quickly dropped his bones and evaded the next one, now completely frightened for his life and no longer putting up the front of being bold. "Ain't got no idea. Fresh out!" he said rather matter of factly before scurrying off into the mist an arbitrary direction, though strangely enough out of harms way of any of the falling pillars of death. "You didn't see or hear nyuttin'! I dunno nyuttin'!" Before long, he would be so deep into the mist, he wouldn't be able to be seen anymore. The ceilings continued to pound down, however, trying to crush them both. They would grind up a large portion of the coffins and tombstones rather quickly, yet some would remain completely untouched.

Khrona was right on the money in following the large rat everywhere it went, for where it went, the pillars either did not crash down or lagged behind more than the ones that prominently smashed down. It was clear that he knew the way very well and was searching for something inside of the mist.

When he realized that Khrona was on his tail, however, he realized that he was going to get him off his ass, or else he was gonna get caught. However, he wasn't stupid nor bold enough to go right back into the place where HE could get smashed to pieces with a single false move. Nah, he'd rather preserve his own safety than worry about who was following him at all. Self-preservation was key to this type of creature, as was with most bottom feeders. "Naaaah, you ain't worth my time, ya bastard!!" he squeaked, making a sharp turn and darting off into the mist, where he wouldn't be seen anymore. No matter how hard Khrona looked, he wouldn't be able to find the Rat out in the open or on the surface anymore. The mist masked his sharp movement and the commotion kept him from being heard. Where he went after that, who knows? He was just gone from the surface and out of plain sight, completely and utterly, just like that. With that, he should have effectively gotten the guy off his ass...

As expected, when the mist was cleared by the wind spirit, the rat's hole would be exposed. It wasn't a hole that was straight down, but was actually shifted stone and tunneled at a diagonal angle, so that one would not see nor feel it when they walked, and if they tripped over it, one could simply believe that it was nothing but stones getting in the way. It was just large enough for the rat to be able to squeeze through, but small enough where it could be hidden with stone and made inconspicuous for one who wasn't perceptive. In addition to that, despite how large the rat was, due to rodents being able to squeeze themselves into crevices smaller than their bodies, it was smaller than what a human man could fit through, even if the rat itself was larger than the man. It got wider and opened up more down the line in order to give him some room to run when he got deep inside the hole, and he would be able to run through it as though it were normal terrain.

"Hyeheheh! Lost em!" he said triumphantly, scurrying through the intricate system of tunnels that connected under the surface of the pounding 'Needle Ceiling' pillars. Though, the giant rat would find himself a rude awakening when the Whispering Wind trailed right behind him, leaving a way for Khrona to follow him later on. He didn't notice it, since the Whispering Wind was silent, but when he got to the heart of his hideout, it was already too late. The rat didn't even notice the wind, but would sigh in relief as he made it out of that hairy situation unscathed. In his dwelling there were many treasures that he'd snatched up over the years from inside the coffins, usually when he went to feast, of which he would lean back on and bask in. "Hyahahaha! Made out like a bandit, son!!!"