Chapter 16 — Cores
Dungeon. Floor 50. After the Schism Temple.
The air was heavier. It was as if the Dungeon wasn't just descending, but pressing down from above.
The Hulk walked in silence, absorbed in his thoughts. After encountering his own Shadow, he felt like something inside had changed.
"You're silent,— Ais said.
"I heard myself. It's... louder than any rage.
Finn stopped at a stone wall.
— Here begins a sector where no expedition has entered. Get ready.
Riveria cast a protection spell, and the light of her magic dispersed the darkness.
But what appeared ahead was not a monster.
It was a human face, half burnt out, half made of marble, with empty eyes.
It was crawling out of the wall.
Riveria retreated. —...feelings. Images. Their fears have materialized. The Dungeon merged them into one.
Cores.
Monsters born from the pain and memory of the fallen adventurers.
Creatures whose bodies were assembled from fragments of flesh, magic, and despair.
The first blow came from behind — a tentacle made of voices struck Ais. The Hulk reacted instantly: his rage flared.
— "Fury of the Depths" is activated.
— The power has been increased. Reaction speed: x2. Fear effects: Cancelled.
He crashed into the Core. But as soon as his fist touched the creature, he felt thoughts.
"...I didn't want to die...I just wanted to go back..."
The monster wasn't screaming with his mouth, but with his mind.
"Don't listen to them! Riveria shouted. — These are not souls, they are traps!
But the Hulk knew. These screams are echoes of what he could have become.
If he hadn't survived. If he had given up.
He gritted his teeth.
"I'm not yours." And you're not me.
With a furious roar, he grabbed the Core, pinned it to the ground, and activated anti-magic through his fists.
The chains on his wrists flared up and burned through someone else's will.
The monster screamed and crumbled, leaving behind not bones, but a heart—shaped stone.
Received an item: The Heart of the Lost.
⸻
- what is it? Finn asked, looking at the stone.
— The heart of someone who was not heard. It can either be released... or used. — the Hulk replied, surprised, feeling it instinctively.
"Do you hear Dange?" Ais asked softly.
The Hulk nodded.
"He's calling." Deeper. Below. And there... there will be something ancient. Something that remembers me, too.
Riveria looked at the map.
— Then the territory begins, which is not marked on any map. Only legends... speak of a place where the Dungeon does not just create, it gives birth.
—The Primordial Node,— the Hulk whispered, not understanding how he knew the name.
Finn strained his spear.
"So that's where we're going."