The deeper veins of the earth breathed with a heavy and rhythmic pulse. Lifeless moved through the absolute blackness of the lower strata like a phantom forged from iron and grief. The cavern system was surprisingly large. It was a subterranean continent of jagged peaks and crystalline valleys that stretched further than the imagination could reach.
Lifeless ignored the majesty of the stone. He did not care for the beauty of the glowing moss or the architectural perfection of the stalactites. His world had narrowed to the simple and brutal physics of survival.
His sword was gone.
The steel had failed him. His right arm was a memory. The stump of his shoulder was a puckered and scarred landscape of burned tissue where the caustic fungi had done its grisly work. He moved with a predatory grace that defied his injuries. He had learned to see in the dark again. This was a primitive and necessary regression.
He had lost the ability to perceive the world without light once he transcended to the fulminated state. Now the darkness was his only companion. He felt the vibrations of the air. He smelled the ozone of the deeper monsters. He saw the heat signatures of the living things that thrived in the cold.
His clothes were nothing more than shredded remnants of leather and wool. He stripped the ruined fabric from his torso and legs. He cut the salvageable parts into long and narrow strips. He wrapped the cloth around his knuckles and his remaining hand. It was a laborious and frustrating task.
It was harder to wrap a bandage with his mouth and one hand than it was to fight a monster. He pulled the knots tight with his teeth. He felt the corded muscle of his forearm ripple under the pressure. He was a creature of scars and density.
He encountered a pack of skittering horrors in a narrow gorge. They were lean and hungry. Lifeless did not hesitate. He met the monsters with a roar that echoed through the hollows of the mountain. He slashed them with his bare hands. His fingers were like talons. His grip was a vice that could shatter the femur of a beast.
He tore through their hides. He crushed their windpipes. He moved with a efficiency that was terrifying to behold. He found strange and glowing plants in the crevices of the rock. He smelled the sweetness of their nectar. He did not risk eating them. He knew the mountain offered only poison to the unwary. He found stones that glittered with a false promise of value. They were useless to him. Only the hunt mattered.
As he walked deeper into the silent heart of the world, a figure emerged from a patch of impenetrable shadow. It was a human being. The sight was so jarring that the heart of Lifeless skipped a beat. His eyes widened in the dim phosphorescence. The figure was tall and draped in tattered robes.
"Who are you?" Lifeless asked. His voice was a rasping growl that he barely recognized.
The man looked up. His face was symmetrical and calm. It was a face that did not belong in a place of death. "I am Regent," the man responded.
Lifeless felt a spike of instinctual terror and rage. He did not ask for a history. He did not seek a conversation. He lunged forward with a speed that surpassed human reaction. He caught the man by the throat.
He slammed him into the stone floor with such force that the granite beneath them shattered into a web of cracks. He choked the man. He felt the windpipe collapse. He felt the life force flicker and fade. He did not let go until the body was cold.
The corpse began to shift. The human skin rippled and turned to a grey and gelatinous sludge. It was a shapeshifting monster. It was a mimic of the deep that fed on hope and confusion. Lifeless stood over the mess. He realized he needed protection. He needed some sort of armor to guard his remaining vitals.
He found a glowing crystal embedded in the wall of a quartz chamber. It hummed with a low and steady frequency. Lifeless balled his hand into a fist.
He punched the edges of the crystal until the rock around it gave way. He pulled the shard out. It was heavy and sharp. He began to sculpt the material. He hit the crystal against a hard rock. He used his immense strength to chip away the imperfections. He was fashioning a plate to cover his chest.
One second he was sculpting the stone. The next second the world exploded.
A monster of divine proportions struck him from the side. This was not a beast of the swarm. It was something higher. It was shaped like a human but possessed a long and prehensile tail that flicked with the speed of a whip.
Its head was bald and smooth. Its teeth were rows of ivory needles. It possessed incredible muscle that appeared unachievable for a human being. It was lean and corded. It was an apex of biological engineering.
The monster attacked with a single punch. It possessed a level of intelligence that far exceeded a normal person. The blow connected with the ribs of Lifeless. He felt the air leave his lungs in a violent rush. He flew through the air like a discarded doll.
He slammed into a wall of rock sixty feet away.
The impact was catastrophic. Bones in his body snapped like dry twigs. His vision went white. Lifeless sat on the rock. He was slumped and broken. He felt the cold touch of the end.
The monster came closer. It stood there with an air of effortless superiority. It looked down at the mangled hunter. "Look who is interrupting my cave," the monster said. The voice was surprisingly human. It was laced with a thick and dripping sarcasm.
The creature did not wait for a response. It raised two massive hands and punched Lifeless squarely in the face. The sound of the cheekbone shattering was like a gunshot. The nose of Lifeless flattened. Blood sprayed across the crystal floor.
"ENOUGH!" Lifeless bellowed.
The shout was a primal eruption of the soul. He ignored the agony of his broken frame. He lunged upward. He punched the monster with all his might. The blow caught the divine creature in the chest. The monster flinched. It stepped back a single pace. Its eyes showed a flicker of genuine surprise.
Lifeless stood up. He was a pillar of blood and defiance. The monster did not hesitate. It reached out and lifted Lifeless by the throat. It pinned him against the ceiling. It began to punch him over and over again.
Each strike was a hammer blow that threatened to liquefy his organs. Lifeless struggled. He felt the darkness closing in. He used his remaining arm to leverage himself against the arm of the monster.
He twisted his body with a desperate wrenching motion. He escaped the position. He tumbled to the floor and began to run.
On the other hand, far above the crushing weight of the earth, Norris was searching.
He moved through the woods near the cabin. He looked through the ravines and the thickets. He held a small and flickering bit of hope that Lifeless was still alive. He looked everywhere. He called out the name of his friend until his voice failed him.
He saw no sign of the boy. He saw only the silent trees and the uncaring sky. He knew in his heart that Lifeless was gone. He felt the weight of the failure in his chest.
Back in the depths, Lifeless sprinted through the dark. He moved with a frantic energy. He rounded a corner only to find the monster standing directly in front of him. It had moved with a speed that defied the laws of space.
"This is too slow," the monster said.
The creature raised its hand. It moved with a blur of motion that was too fast for the eye to follow. It was a horizontal arc of pure and lethal force. The edge of the hand was sharper than any razor. It caught Lifeless across the neck.
The strike decapitated him.
The head of Lifeless spun into the darkness. His body slumped to its knees and then fell flat. It had come to an end. Lifeless died in the bowels of a mountain that nobody would ever explore.
Norris looked out over the horizon as though he was still injured and broken. He did not know that the light had gone out.
Lifeless saw his life flash in a second. He saw the face of his mother.
He saw the first time he picked up a sword. He saw the fires of the tyrants. The next second he was dead. He was far gone than dead. He was a memory in a place of stone.
The monster turned its back. It began to walk away. It was bored. It had snuffed out a minor nuisance.
Then the air began to hum.
Blue electricity began to arc from the neck of the corpse. Red sparks danced across the cooling skin.
Green bolts of energy surged from the marrow of the broken bones. The colors began to blend. They swirled together in a violent vortex. They made a blinding and perfect white.
The white light expanded. It was a mass explosion that was far than loud. It was a silent and powerful eruption of pure energy. It was not harmful to the structure of the mountain. It did not cause a collapse. But the energy was unimaginable.
It was more strong than any human discovery. The explosion was stronger than antimatter. It was the fundamental power of the universe asserting itself.
The divine monster did not even have time to scream. It disintegrated. Its muscles and its lean frame turned to ash and then to nothing. It was erased from existence.
But Lifeless remained. Lifeless did not disintegrate.
"WITH ALL MIGHT, A REGENERATION HAPPENED!"
The words did not come from a mouth. They spoke through the current. Every user of the current in the world felt the vibration in their souls. Their eyes widened. They stood shocked and speechless. Such an event had not occurred since the time of the Emperor. That was the only title the history books allowed.
Lifeless stood.
He was not the broken boy who had fallen. He possessed a new arm. It was thick and corded with fresh muscle. He had a new ribcage. The shattered bones were replaced by a structure that felt like iron. He was back to life.
The muzzle was still on his face. It was a reminder of the silence he had endured. His sword lay next to him. It was a piece of junk compared to what he had become. He was naked. He stood in the center of the silent cavern.
He had changed. He possessed over forty kilograms of new muscle. It was not huge or bulky. It was dense. It was beyond human imagination.
It was the density of a star. He stood with long and wet hair that he did not have before. He had grown a few hairs of a beard. He was taller than what he was. He was five feet eight inches before the mountain took him. Now he was six feet one inch.
The regeneration had maximized his genes. It had pushed his DNA to its true and final potential. He was the apex. He was the fulminated evolution.
He stood there in the dark. He did not need the glowing moss to see. He saw the path clearly. He knew he had to get out of this cave. He picked up the ruined hilt of his sword.
He looked toward the surface. The mountain had tried to eat him. Instead, he had consumed the mountain.
He began to walk. Every step shook the floor of the cavern. The King of the Deep was coming home.