WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom

The Magus roared, clutching his head, veins bulging as his scream echoed like a broken soul trapped between realms. "No! I'm… losing control!"

His body twisted, the appendage on his back cracking violently. His face distorted, stretching, warping, like something buried deep inside was clawing its way out.

Ben gaze narrowed, as his instinct screamed danger. Something than clicked on his mind, 'Aether… Daemon… That form…They… they implanted a piece of a Daemon inside themselves… to control Aether?'

The thought made his blood run cold, but only for a heartbeat.

Ben feel this make sense, but this realization only steeled his resolve. Since Daemon is creature he need to face in the end, If he cannot even beat small part of them, than there's no hope for his future. And more than that he want to gain more information.

The Magus screamed again, body spasming, but Ben didn't flinch. Instead, his shoulder muscles bulged, shifting with wet snaps as new mouths tore free from his back.

"One…"

The first mouth come, tearing into the twisted flesh.

"Two…"

Another followed, ripping deeper into the daemon, born mutation.

"Three…"

The third clamped down, grinding through warped sinew.

Ben's eyes burned like twin coals. "You won't lose control," he whispered. A cruel grin pulled across his lips.

"Because I'll kill you before it happens."

"CONSUME!!!" Ben's roar echoed like a war drum across the battlefield.

The monstrous demonic face on the Magus's spine let out a bone, rattling screech.

It thrashed wildly, trying to break free, but Ben's consuming mouths clamped tighter. Veins of dark aether surged through the monster's body, sparking with violet energy, resisting the pull.

The Magus's eyes rolled back, his body convulsing. Aether burst from his chest like a geyser, crackling into arcs of lightning, flame, and shadow, but Ben didn't let go.

One foot slammed down on the ground, anchoring him as he pulled, muscles straining, veins glowing.

"DIE!!" Ben roared, biomass converging. The maws fused together, forming one colossal mouth that come forward biting down on the core of the daemon-appendage.

CRACK—BOOM!

A shockwave burst outward, ripping through the chamber like a sonic quake. The ceiling cracked, rubble rained from above, and even the walls of Ben's fortress groaned under the pressure.

The daemon-fused Magus screamed as the monstrous face was torn from his back, half of it devoured in one titanic bite.

Aether ruptured from the wound, bleeding out in chaotic pulses, but Ben didn't stop. The colossal mouth swallowed the remains, and then slammed shut.

Gulp.

Everything went still.

[$%^@#^ Consumed.]

[Error…Er*}

'What the Fuck!?'

Suddenly a sharp sense of pain washed over Ben's body one that make him fall into his knee. It's feel like someone torn his soul apart.

CRACKLE!

The Magus's body snapped upright, eyes wide, then suddenly glowed. But it wasn't lightning. It was unstable, twisted, wrong the aftermath of daemon parts being forcibly severed.

Inside Ben's mind, the world twisted. His vision fractured splintering like shattered glass. He was no longer standing on solid ground but floating in a black void, thick with pressure so heavy it made his chest cave inward.

It wasn't air. It was like malice has taken form. And then it coalesced before him. First came the eyes: dozens of them, blinking into existence across the dark. Some vertical. Others slitted.

A few round and glowing like suns behind smoke. Then came the form.

It had no fixed shape, but it pretended to.

Towering. Serpentine. Wrapped in chains that pulsed with Aether.

Its mouth stretched too wide, filled with concentric rings of fangs. Tendrils trailed off its back like spines made of shadow and bone. Wings unfolded behind it, if wings could be called tearing holes in space.

Ben stared up at it, gritting his teeth. "What… the hell are you?"

It spoke, but the words shattered. Language malformed, syllables distorted like cracked glass echoing backward. A burst of sound hit Ben's ears, each syllable gouging into his skull.

He staggered, hands on his head, blood trickling from his nose.

"@%#&…vu'lrek…X'zael…"

The daemon surged forward.

Ben didn't wait. His pickaxe materialized even here, forged from his will. His Adaptive Muscles flared to life, his body surged with power.

The daemon's claws lashed forward, Ben ducked, spun, slammed his pickaxe into the black mass.

A shriek echoed through the void, warping space. The tendrils whipped at him, he blocked with his arm, the chitin armor cracking but holding.

He swung againstriking an eye. It burst like an overripe fruit, dark ichor spraying through the air.

The daemon roared. Its chains shattered.

In an instant, the creature expanded, towering like a mountain of smoke and flame. Its mouth opened, and within, Ben saw countless writhing figures. Faces screaming. Hands clawing. Souls.

He gritted his teeth. "You think fear works on me!? Then let's see if I can eat you!"

The colossal mouth appeared again. The daemon roared.

Ben surged forward, the jagged maw of his biomass attacked with him.

The daemon met it head-on, its form rippling like smoke forged from nightmares. Claws lashed, wings slammed, and tendrils like spears tore across the battlefield.

Ben blocked the first, dodged the second, but the third hit.

SLASH!

Blood sprayed in arcs as a tendril gouged through his ribs, hurling him back. He crashed through a floating shard of black crystal, tumbling through the void.

But he gritted his teeth, roared, and charged again.

His pickaxe cleaved through the daemon's lower jaw shattering one of its many mouths. He flipped over its form, landing on a twisting limb, and drove the pickaxe down But this time, the daemon didn't scream.

Instead, it smiled.

The sky ruptured. Chains of Aether coiled around Ben's limbs from behind. He realized too late, the daemon had baited him.

STAB!

A scythe, like claw drove through his back and out his chest.

Ben gasped. The pain in this place is multiplied hundred fold over, even with his mental capacity it's too much.

His grip weakened. The pickaxe slipped from his fingers.

The daemon loomed close now, head lowering, mouths opening wide. It didn't speak in words. It pressed meaning into his skull. "What a Nice Meal."

Ben screamed as his own biomass turned against him, boiling from his skin as the daemon's presence overwhelmed his system.

His knees hit the void-floor. His arms trembled. His vision dimmed. And then… the daemon opened its main maw.

Wider. Wider. Rows upon rows of sharp fangs. And Ben could do nothing. He was seconds away from being devoured whole.