The air crowded in, suffocating in its stillness. Asher's senses were in overdrive, every nerve in his body screaming.
This Watcher of the Dungeon, whatever it was, loomed in the darkness, its form flickering in and out of existence like a ghost straddling dimensions. Its eyes, shimmering with a strange, ghostly glow, drilled into him as though it could see right into his very soul.
For a moment, there was just the sound of Asher's own breathing and the creature's eerie quiet.
The Watcher continued, its tone a peculiar blend of whispers and echoes—faraway, yet somehow directly in his head.
"You are not supposed to be here."
Asher felt his pulse race, but he didn't move from his spot, making his body force itself to steady. He had encountered much worse in his past life but something seemed different about this creature.
It wasn't just a monster — it was a creature of pure awareness.
"You keep saying that," Asher said, his voice flat. "But here I am."
The Watcher tilted its head as though the movement were odd, almost liquid. It moved oddly, as if it weren't subject to the same laws of reality he knew.
"You don't belong in this world," it said, voice coiling like the wisps of smoke. "The Rift was never meant for you to open. You were not meant to cross over.'"
Asher's mind raced. This wasn't a standard dungeon boss. This thing was aware of him, and the more he thought about it, the more he understood — it knew who he was.
That had to mean something.
"What do you want?" Asher demanded. The hand that had reached instinctually for the dagger at his side. His body felt foreign — strength he was unused to.
The Watcher lifted its hand, a dark energy wreathed around its fingers, it twirled around the Watcher in a wicked pattern. It didn't need to say anything more, the intentions within the clump of shadows sharpening around them.
"I want you to return."
The words cut through the air, almost ordering him.
Asher's heart thumped in his chest. The creature couldn't have control over him. He was not unfamiliar with manipulation, and to him, this seemed a move to bend his will, to return him to wherever he had come from.
He refused to go back.
His jaw tightened. "I'm not going anywhere. "If you want me out, you're going to have to get me out."
Glowing eyes above those soft, devilish features narrowed, the Watcher's presence enveloping and thick, like a tangible pressure. For a second, Asher wondered if it would strike, but instead, the thing's voice rang again, now tinged with annoyance.
"You are stubborn. That is not wise."
Then, shadows around them sprang to life, twisting and bending as the very dungeons itself seemed to awake.
And then the ground beneath Asher's feet shifted, and he was dropped into darkness, the world around him shattering into glimmering shards like glass.
The Trial of Shadows
When the earth solidified once again, Asher was pitied, standing in empty space. He felt no ground beneath him, no walls to contain the space. It was as if he were floating in an infinite void of emptiness.
The Watcher was gone. In their place was something else:dully changing forms — dark, formless things that lurkedjust beyond what his mind could touch. They whispered, a thousand voices, a wash against his mind, an attempt to penetrate his will.
"Return… you do not belong…"
"You are a residue of a different earth.
"You will cease to exist…"
But Asher stood tall. They couldn't break him. He had not fought worse horrors in his previous life—fought the gods, fought the beasts that crawled and sought to raze whole planes. This was no different.
"Enough!" he cried out, his voice bouncing through the wailess void. His hands fell into fists as he drew inward, feeling the well of power roiling in his gut. The unrefined energy that had stirred within him.
Strength flooded his body, and for an instant, the air around him appeared to bend to his will. The whispers faded. The shadows retreated.
"I'm not going anywhere," Asher said again, with a little more conviction this time. "And I'm going to see what's on the other side of all this."
The void trembled. The Watcher materialized once again, only this time, it was much more tangible, much more real. Its shape was more apparent now — its body a twisting cloud of darkness, its face a void of nothingness where only those glowing eyes stared back at him.
"You have no idea what you're doing," it said, its voice now a low growl, more a warning than anything else. "You don't face what you seek. You can't go against the laws of this universe."
Asher felt his body that the power. The energy that had surged in him moments before was now in his hands, directing the actions of body and quickening the thoughts of mind. He could sense it—whatever this power was—it was his to shape. And this thing, this Watcher, would not have him.
"I will determine what I can and can't do."
The Watcher's shape warped, its body expanding and contorting into an amorphous blob, its glowing eyes flaring everbrighter with fury.
" Then you shall fall like all the rest," it hissed, rearing its hand to smite. The writhing shadows around it lashed violently, and the ground beneath Asher's feet split open, exuding waves of darkness that threatened to consume him.
"I will destroy you."
Asher's muscles tensed. The power within him surged once more, but he willed it into focus. He felt the palpable wildness of the Rift, the alien energy spilling into this space. He had to hold it in, to wield it against the Watcher.
"No."
Then, with one last, concentrated thrust, he released the energy inside of him out the Watcher. The darkness cracked, a veil ripped asunder by lightning, and the creature's true form lay before Me.
The Watcher shrieked, its body evaporating into a mass of writhing shade.
Asher rose, panting but triumphant. The zone around him started to clear as the devouring presence of the dungeon core was finally put to rest.
The Watcher's voice rang through his mind, its words sending a shiver down his spine despite the success.
"You have barely begun to comprehend. But you listen here, Sorcerer… you are not the only one interested in the answers."
Asher clenched his fists.
Whatever this world was, whatever this power was — he was no longer just an observer.
He had arrived to take his position.
And if people got in his way…
He would make them see him.