The earth cracked like brittle bone beneath your feet.
You descended into the Lacuna through the carcass of a dead colossus—its ribs formed a crude stairwell, and its spine, warped with crystal rot, pulsed dimly in the dark. The deeper you went, the more the world shifted. Gravity lost meaning. Time blurred at the edges.
By the fifth level, your HUD flickered violently.
[WARNING: Dimensional Instability Detected]
Causality Drift: 3.2 seconds
Sanity Degradation: Accelerated
Threat Class: UNKNOWN
And still… you pressed on.
The Lacuna Depths were not a dungeon. They were a wound.
Something had torn reality here—ripped it open and fed on the viscera.
The stone wept. The air sang in dead languages. And occasionally, the shadows moved backwards.
You encountered the first Echo-Beast near a vein of crystallized flesh. It didn't see you—because it already had. You killed it anyway. Or tried.
[Combat Initiated: Temporal Echo – "Hounds of the Null Prophet"]
Weakness: Sanity-based attacks
Resistance: All physical forms
It bled memory, not blood. When your claws raked across its hide, your childhood flashed before your eyes. When it screamed, it wasn't a roar—it was your voice, screaming something you hadn't said yet.
You won. Barely.
Sanity: -14
Mutation Triggered: Memory Leech – You can convert Sanity into temporary power. Dangerous. Addictive.
The choice was yours.
And you chose power.
...
Two layers deeper, you found it. The Fractured Core. A pulsing obsidian sphere suspended in a pit of flesh and bone, surrounded by an ancient ritual circle of dismembered Ascendants.
This was the source.
This was the gate.
[Objective Updated: Consume the Core]
Risk Level: LETHAL
Reward: Greater Essence (2/3)
Warning: Consuming the Core will alter your form permanently.
You approached. The Core pulsed once.
And spoke.
Not in words—in geometry. Fractals. Impossibilities. It showed you a thousand forms you might become. Each more alien. Each more powerful.
Each further from what you once were.
You reached out.
And you devoured it.
...
Mutation Acquired: Void-Hearted – Your body is now partially unbound from time. Immune to Time-based effects. You no longer age. You no longer dream.
Greater Essence Absorbed (2/3)
Class Evolution Triggered: Choose Path
Choose Your Path:
1. Harbinger of Echoes
Wields time distortion, illusion, and memory manipulation
Gains [Chrono Rift] ability – Undo one action per combat
Drawback: Sanity decay increased passively
2. Flesh Ascendant
Full mastery of your physical form; absorb biomass to evolve rapidly
Gains [Morphic Arsenal] ability – Grow weapons, limbs, or armor at will
Drawback: You slowly lose the ability to speak or relate to humanity
3. The Nameless One
Embrace the Outer Dark. You are no longer entirely of this world
Gains [Whisper Form] – Become intangible, bypass armor, spread madness
Drawback: 50% chance for random mutations during each Essence gain
The Core waits.
The Path must be chosen.
And the Pillar still rises.