[Quest] The Dark Tower

In a flash, Alicia would find herself suddenly transported to the next level, no part of her body soiled but her boots. A bit of the black substance had managed to get through them and now sucked disgustingly at her feet, having been teleported with her.

At the far end of the room was a lemonade stand. It had been collapsed, ostensibly by the termites from the room previously, but it had been tenderly repaired at points by bones with bits of flesh still attached. These bits of flesh were, of course, being feasted on by maggots and the like. This was visible even from the little bit of light that was coming down from the ceiling.

There was a figure there. Ostensibly the transformation in Torra that began two floors ago had become complete. Now a massive demon stood there. "You like... escaped my pet?" he growled in an amiable manner, as though genuinely surprised to see her standing there. On the counter, there was a pitcher of blood, a cage of small people, and sugar cane. Nonchalantly, the monster took a mortar and pestle, placed one of the clearly distressed people into the bowl portion, and ground him up. He screamed horribly. Torra simply poured the semi-coagulated blood from the pitcher into the bowl, mixing the paste until it became... well, it wasn't quite lemonade, but he drank it.

"Ah, that's like... totally good. Anyways, Inky was really disappointed. Ever since the first floor he'd been wanting to get to know you a little closer. I thought last floor would be the perfect time. He's so sweet on you. It's absolutely adorable. He's too shy to ask, though. I thought I'd just hook him up."

As though appearing on cue, a creature crawled up from behind the desk. It was a very twisted little thing. It crawled with the limbs and upper body of a spider, but trailing hideously behind it were purple tentacles that were black and liquid at the tips, like some sort of melting jellyfish (illustration). Responsively, the ooze on the knight's boots would start attempting to crawl up her leg and into her clothes as the abomination crept to the counter, briefly... licked? from the bowl of blood and gore and, clicking its massive spider-fangs together merrily, started crawling across the black floor towards Alicia. "Honestly, you have been like... a horrible houseguest. You interfere with me punishing all of these people who clearly deserve it... you break my statue... you hurt my pet's feelings... and you keep going deeper and deeper like this. What's wrong with the way things are? I don't want to go back to the world outside of this tower. There's scary demons and bandits and all kinds of stuff I can't fight off because I'm a woman. In here I'm like... free. I can do whatever I want to whoever I want, and nobody can stop me. I'm the queen of these people, and they get to live forever here with me. They don't have to fear death. Even those people who you saved from drowning... you know what? They would have just drowned until the next hero happened along to clear their lungs. It's not my fault that your cat friend didn't want to save them from freezing. This is perfect. You want to just end all that? You want to stop my fun? I thought we were friends..."

A glyph was apparent on the far end of the room, just past the long-winded monster. However, the floor was completely black in front of it, as the light from the ceiling disappeared unnaturally at a short distance in front of it.

The more the woman struggled, the more of the black goo shed from her form. Inky continued forwards. Strangely enough, the black goo, once abandoned by Alicia, was slurped up by the creature as it crawled amiably forward towards her. Reincorporating the black substance, strangely enough, seemed to make the dark thing grow bigger, and past its perpetually, cheerfully clicking fangs was a monstrous grin. It opened its mouth, and there were nothing but black tentacles in its abysmal maw. Alicia sidestepped and it amorously followed her motions, trailing the black slime all over the floor. The black slime itself seemed to be part and parcel of the creature, and it curled into tentacles that sometimes trailed and sometimes moved about the room like so many slugs and sometimes rose up and curled curiously, seeking to gently intercept the knight. Pieces of the floor were soon covered in the swarming pseudopods covered most of the floor.

Torra continued on casually, leaning on one elbow and casually stirring the pitcher of "lemonade" with one hand, a dreamy expression overtaking her monstrous features. "It's like... kind of interesting that you mentioned what I said on the first floor." Inky slurped responsively. A brief look in his multi-eyed face would reveal that they were smaller versions of the eyes that lined the wall on the floor previous. And they watched. Intently. The creature crawled insistently towards his goal, two tentacles poised to grab his prey at the slightest sign of inattention on the part of Alicia. "Paguma used to hold me to that, you know? All three of us used to be friends... it was just me, him, and Inky. He never did like Inky. Like... they got into big fights all the time and I'd always have to get between then. They were both going to leave me, so I like... destroyed all the exits."

She seemed to grow sadder at the thought. "Paguma like... said it was wrong to take away people's free will. Inky showed me it was fun, though. The stuff we did..." the female monster attempted to giggle, but the sound was more like an insane chortle from a blender full of gravel. "Ah, it was like... so much fun. I couldn't believe I'd missed out all this time. Things were so boring when I like... listened to Paguma. He was always about like... guarding the sword because we were like... supposed to. He was just like my dad." The abomination rolled her eyes. "So I try to be nice at first because that's what Paguma would want, but Inky is strongest on the next few floors."

The monster, by now, had become much larger... about the size of a small airplane. The room didn't leave many ways of escape except for the glyph at the far end. "You two should like... probably make friends. He's not much one for talking, though. Oh! I know!" Torra clapped briefly. "I guess I could translate. It's like... he's not evil, I promise. He's just a little... like... ummm... free."

The light in the room seemed to be dimming.

Alicia disappeared before Torra could really respond. It was just as well. The demon had become rather set in her ways, though in her heart of hearts, she could feel a shift of compassion towards the kind lady knight.

The next "room" appeared much larger than its fellows. That is, it wasn't a room at all, but an expansive ruin like the ones that were common outside. Rather, if Medius had a flood on a moonlit night, it might appear similar to the fallen stone jungle all around. A disrupted asphalt street was lined with tall, ominous, dark buildings that stood to either side of the road like dark sentries or caves. Inside of them, no light was visible, though if she paused to listen, she might hear a chittering not unlike the sound of Inky coming from the impenetrably dark abysses behind the ominous windows and doors. The labyrinthine city had no apparent end. Each road led to numberless branches. Each one was punctuated with ruined street lights and crooked green signs with seemingly meaningless white markings. Each set of markings on the signs were unique.

Useless machines lined the street and sidewalks at odd angles. They were dark inside, though all of the darkness in this place was because of the paucity of moonlight and not from any apparent malign influence. If she approached the vehicles, however, she might hear a familiar sucking noise.

The area was completely empty. The loneliness of it seemed to have a weight. Other than the sound of the soft breeze that occasionally picked up and pushed a few fliers and pieces of trash down the road and the odd noises from the darkness, there was nothing. The fliers, if picked up and closely observed, were some form of lewd advertisement written in the odd, ancient tongue common in the ruins (illustration).

If she looked up for long enough at one of the nearby buildings, she might notice a huge, draconic shape. It was exactly the same color as the buildings, and completely still. It might be a statue. It might be the way out. It might provide some clues. Or it might be an actual dragon. It was very high up and very, very large.

The sky was starless. There were softly glowing, grey clouds in the sky that provided the ambient light.

There were many dark puddles of what appeared to be polluted water or oil all around. Some of the puddles were as small as a golf hole. Some of them were a full three feet across. They lay at the bottom of the sections where the black road was broken. They moved sometimes. It was probably just the wind.

Above Alicia would be a stoplight. She was in the middle of an intersection. There were four roads in the cardinal directions. Visibility was limited because of the poor light. The piece of asphalt she originated on would slope down to a very large puddle that was perfectly avoidable. In fact, none of the puddles impeded her progress.

Absolutely nothing eventful happened until Alicia ventured to attempt to climb the stairs.

The first thing that would be apparent when the young knight stepped into the room where the stairs would be was the prevalent darkness. There were solutions to that, of course, but the door seemed to shut rather heavily behind her. After all, doors that shut with hostility had been a reoccurring theme in the journey. On the distant end of the room was a dilapidated old elevator that nevertheless remained lit by a flickering fluorescent light. This was perhaps a hundred or so yards off. Every once in awhile, the light was interrupted by a passing, dark shape. The shape was roughly canine, definitely bestial, and about six feet at the shoulder.

When the door slammed shut, the odd, clicking noise picked up perceptibly. There were howls not unlike moans that quickly joined the insectoid cacophony, though their source was still concealed by the surrounding black.

Two by two in the vast first room floor, red eyes lit up. They were not unlike the eyes that had wanted to watch Alicia drown earlier... that is, they had glowing, red scleras; black irises; and red, slitted pupils.

They quickly began to circle the woman hungrily, though the somewhat wistful expressions on their faces was concealed until their faces lit up with a red, hellish fire and they stood to their hind legs. Certain parts of their anatomy were ridiculously large. In fact, the way they moved implied some form of lycanthropy that imbued them with properties of nightmarish stallions. Their ribs glowed red and their mouths hung open, venting fire and smoke. There was no soul in their eyes. The chains around their necks rung lightly with their motions, and their long claws were yellow and black with filth and sickness.

The dozen or so of the tortured beasts were plainly quite happy to see Alicia. When the last of them awoke, the room was flooded with a sterile, red light that revealed everything. There were sixteen of the monsters that still slept in uncomfortable positions on the floor. A few spots on the floor weren't red. These were puddles similar to the ones outside, though they were considerably larger, forming pits in the tiled floor. The ceiling was far off and difficult to see. Rather, it seemed to be a sky and an atmosphere of black rather than a discernible roof, and the red light shone vividly from the thousands of watching, scarlet eyes that seemed to have suddenly punctuated the ceiling. There were bar stools scattered around, and a great number of the fliers from outside.

The beast immediately in front of the woman hissed, twisting his head as though the metal collar about his monstrous neck was burning him. "A... female?" he hissed. "Master... will be most pleased..."

The puddles quivered responsively and eventually formed waving tentacles about the room. The clicking and the sucking became even louder, throbbing at an excited pace.

The other beasts howled in agreement, agreeing with the first. "Most pleased." "Certainly yes." "We should please him." "He is never pleased." "He will be pleased now."

The lead creature took a step forward. "Tell me, female... you wear those... coverings. They madden."

The others rejoined like some infernal chorus, shrieking. "It hurts! It hurts!" "The madness!" "Why is she wearing that?" "It's making me hot just looking at it!" "A perversion of nature!"

The beast took another step forwards. "You are like us. Forced to wear these things and never be free."

"We will free you!" "Be free, female!" "Our master will be pleased!"

The lead monster is about ten feet away. The rest of the beasts circle her at about a dozen foot radius, though that circle begins to close slowly. "Come female. We must feed you to the darkness."

"It hungers!"

Behind Alicia is the door she came through originally. It slammed shut, possibly from the wind. Maybe it could be opened if she had the strength to push past one of the beasts. She might not have the strength. Ahead of her is the elevator still. Maybe she could seek safety in there, provided she could run past the lead beast. There was always the option of trying to fight off the dozen or reason with them. Either way, a quick decision would have to be made.

The monsters never moved their eyes from the woman. Even the arrow that flew past the first monster's face failed to distract him. They moved stiffly and with resolve, like zombies as they crawled forwards towards the knight.

"Why do you run?" "We love you." "We love you a lot, female." "Freedom." "Yes." "Pleased."

They continued to murmur in the background as they drew up behind her with surprising speed. They weren't that much faster than her, but they didn't seem to be trying to impede her progress any. They simply surrounded her on the sides and the behind, staring... staring... growling and licking their lips and whinnying as horses do, their ember-emitting nostrils flared.

"We will not hurt you."

Inside the elevator, there was a sword embedded in a small pile of rubble. The light shone down almost divinely upon the shining metal, contrasting strongly with the red light of the room.

"Do not touch the sword," the monsters warned from seeming inches behind her. "It will hurt you." "It hurts us." "It hurts." "Do not do it."

The beasts watched Alicia walk into the elevator and hissed angrily, pacing back and forth, helpless to do anything about it...
... until she punched out the ceiling, cleanly extinguishing the light.

"She lifted the curse!" they proclaimed in unison, referring to the light that had repelled them from the elevator previously, as they crept forward into the aperture, staring up at her form for as long as they could before she disappeared into the elevator shaft. "The female is such a wonderful creature." "She goes to our master." "He will be pleased." "Her behind is round." "I like her behind." "It's like an apple." "Yes, round." "I cannot see it." "Neither can I, but I assume that it is round." "I would like to touch it. To see if it's soft."

The most prominent thing in the shaft was the large, red eye that stared down, the one that matched Inky's and the horse-men's.

In fact, the holds Alicia could find on the elevator were noticeably wet. Black water dripped down the walls and the pulleys of the lift until they pooled at the bottom and formed familiar tentacles.

Of course, none of this would be observable unless the barrier that the knight had deployed earlier shed any light on the situation.

The odd substance would climb down her arm and up her shirt sleeve, wrapping itself around her body. More would get in her clothes if she didn't take her hand off of the wall.

Then again, if she did take her hand off of the wall, she'd fall immediately into more of the black substance, which had solidified itself at the bottom of the shaft and formed a large pool of gel. This would considerably worsen the situation. It was possible, though unlikely, that she could swim through the goo and get back down through the hole into the eager arms of the werestallions.

The walls were suddenly lined with red eyes underneath the translucent, black goo. Creatures made of the corrupt substance, each with a single, red eye, stopped their crawling on the shaft. They stared at her and smiled. Their teeth were very white (For Reference: link).

The entire shaft of the elevator turned red and throbbed like a heart. A purr filled the area.

Below the purr was a voice, though it was so very, very faint. It was a familiar voice.

"Mi'lady! Don't despair! Whatever you do!"