Anna watched as the spider ascended with Timothy. She shouted up to him, "Be brave, warrior!" The irony is she was practically standing right next to him and probably could have at least tried pulling him away from the spider. Anna turned around and looked at Celestial blankly. "Well hurry up now, we don't have all day!" A smile returned to her face, "I guess you're my new champion, Castro!" Anna hurried Celestial along next to her as the group of three advanced into the maze, hopefully.

Matthew stared, silent. Z-Dude was not likely to take advice from him, so he decided that this decision fell to the zombie alone. Still, he clenched his fists, hoping Nocturn would make the right choice.

"Well...any idea where to now?" Lilith asked, watching people running around in chaos. Seeing the magicians scurrying about with their equipment she sighed slightly. "Mmm... They ought to have a lab around here somewhere..." There was a note of longing in her voice as the woman played with the Dragon's scale in her pocket.

Meanwhile, disguised figure of Walter appeared behind Lilith, looking at people running in front and behind him with his arms crossed and slightly crooked head. As one ran by him, he suddenly grabbed a guard by a piece of armor near his collar and slammed him against the wall with force enough to cause shock, but no serious injury. "A blue dwarf, musician, walking metal corpse and a black mage. Taken as foreign servants and escorted somewhere by the guards. Where to?"

"For a second there I thought it was a 'three walk into a bar' joke " Lilith turned around and smiled, her gaze switching from the guard to Walter and back.

Celestial let out a scream of fear as the giant armored spider dropped from the ceiling, almost dropping Castro. He squeezed his eyes shut until he was 100% sure the spider was gone. There wasn't many things in this world that Celestial was afraid of, however, spiders was one of them. His heart was racing and it took him a moment to register that Timothy had been captured. "Fucking hell," he muttered under his breath, adjusting Castro. Anna shoved him forward, since he was holding the "new champion". "I should've known there'd be spiders. Why the hell wouldn't there be?"

He walked forward, now extremely paranoid at every little sound, thinking it might possibly be the spider.

"Oh thank you Anna." Castro muttered sarcastically. "You're too kind." He sighed, "And Celestial that wasn't just any spider, that was the monster. It has the ability to mimic whatever creature it needs to give itself the upper hand. Of course to gain the ability to mimic it, it has to eat it first. See it as its own version of learning and adapting."

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"I, I don't know!" The guard struggled, bewildered, "But if they were your servants they're probably in the dungeons." The soldier pointed over to the avoided door. "Down there, deep down there. But I think you shouldn't waste your time trying to free them. They probably already gotten eaten. The walls and our army won't hold them off for long. We all got to get out of here!"

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The monster began backing away, giving Nocturn his privacy with the offering. How kind of it. I say we take its offering. Then hunt after it, but first a free meal is a free meal. The mask stated and the din got louder in Nocturn's head, telling him to eat. It was like the beat of a war drum, becoming louder and stronger. Eat. Eat. Eat.

Nocturn closed his eyes and while the throbbing did not cease, it was not a new feeling. It was more prominent than the virus' own needs, the drummer was exceptionally louder but it did not matter. He was accustomed to being forced into things and his own powerful will forged through resistance to deal with the Mask's.

I say we focus on the hunt, Nocturn replied. It is like an animal. Giving us an offering so we leave it alone. We aren't leaving it alone. We eat him and that's it.

The zombie from Lantern's Cross twirled the hook and set his eyes on the retreating creature. The sound of the metal chain echoed in his head, defeating the drums for the moments he sighted Darwin. In the next moment, he threw the inhumane weapon at the creature, hoping to snag it by the body and drag it back screaming for mercy...

...which would never come.

Dino flanked Walter as the interrogation was happening. He scanned the man's body language, looking for a sign of deceiving. He found none.

"How big are those dungeons? How many entrances to it?"

The hook clashed off the monster's heavy plating, sparks spraying in the air, briefly illuminating the beast. The brief window was enough to see that the carparace was now more like a beetle's. Suddenly something punched the zombie on the chest and Nocturn could smell something rancid. The liquid was hot and it sizzled upon contact but it pelted the zombie like rain, the background noise sounding like that of a powerful hose unleashing this torrent of formic acid upon Nocturn. His skin bubbled and burned as the concentrated acid ate at him but the body regenerated at a pace that made the acid's attacks nothing damning. However the act of regenerating ate away at his reserves and the drum beats became louder. Timothy, meanwhile, only luxury was that the acid had to eat through the web and his clothing before it got to his skin but soon the acid seared his skin and he began screaming.

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"I don't know! I don't have a death wish, I would never go in there. As far as I know, the only entrance is that hallway, and no one has ever come out alive except for the king."

"...And why's that? What's in there?" Walter pushed harder on the man, metal of his armor screeching against the wall. His voice was inpatient.

"...You ask like you've never been in a dungeon before Walt... Let's just go, if it's really that 'dangerous' they might need our help in there..." Lilith spoke impassively, turned around and headed towards the empty hallway. If the term 'dungeon' meant anything similar to what she'd be used to back home, she kind of knew what to expect already. Slight shiver went down her spine at the thought.

Walter looked to the side at Lilith departing then back at the guard, before finally letting him go with a groan. "Of course I've been in one...But unlike you I've spent more time on This side of prison bars while I was at it..." The skeleton murmured to himself, before he turned into a cloud of dust, following the Necromancer.

Anna smiled politely at Castros kind words as she followed him and celestial into the maze. "That thing was a monster? It just looked like an itsy bitsy spider to me. I'm sure Celestial can overcome his fear and defeat it then!"

Quote from Aquila

The hook clashed off the monster's heavy plating, sparks spraying in the air, briefly illuminating the beast. The brief window was enough to see that the carparace was now more like a beetle's. Suddenly something punched the zombie on the chest and Nocturn could smell something rancid. The liquid was hot and it sizzled upon contact but it pelted the zombie like rain, the background noise sounding like that of a powerful hose unleashing this torrent of formic acid upon Nocturn. His skin bubbled and burned as the concentrated acid ate at him but the body regenerated at a pace that made the acid's attacks nothing damning. However the act of regenerating ate away at his reserves and the drum beats became louder. Timothy, meanwhile, only luxury was that the acid had to eat through the web and his clothing before it got to his skin but soon the acid seared his skin and he began screaming.

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"I don't know! I don't have a death wish, I would never go in there. As far as I know, the only entrance is that hallway, and no one has ever come out alive except for the king."

Witholding his scream for a moment, he broke through the webs and backed away from the spider.
He began to scream some more, before controlling himself again.
"There's gotta be something I can do to help... anything around me?"
He searched the area for any object that would be useful, particularly something that could be thrown or used as a club.

Celestial scoffed at Anna's comment. "Yeah, sure. I'd rather lose my other eye then fight that spider."

You hungry? Nocturn jabbed at the beast's thoughts. Its time we work for a meal.

The zombie lunged forward with hook in tow towards the beast. He twirled the hook and threw it towards the creature, attempting to bring it down. If that didnt work, well, he was a fisherman after all. Catching the fish was most of the task. He could feel the hunger. It boiled within him, soon Timothy would be the only choice but right now he had one other and that was enough.

"Matthew," Nocturn screeched. "Bind it you can!"

Dino watched as Lilith and Walter headed for the supposed entrance of the dungeons. The soldier, on the other side, scoured away and fled. He pondered the situation, considering different ways to possibly rejoin the crew. Suddenly the Irish man spun on his toes and headed back towards the throne room. He soon met Abra, whom was still watching his multiple screens, munching on popcorn.

"Ok, big man. I need eyes on the dungeons. And by eyes I mean your fancy powers." he said as he stepped in front of Abra, blocking his view of the screens.

"The rest of the crew is lost in the dungeons of this place. Now I know you love chaos, and I promise you that if you help me, I'll make sure this place goes out with a bang. But I've gotta gather the entire crew. Sounds like a bargain, savvy?" he stated with authority, appealing to Abra's destructive nature. Both knew that Mr. O'Hara was more than capable of holding his end of the deal. But all hinged on whether or not Abra would actually play nice for once.

Abra attempted to peer over the gunman's shoulder but the Irish man wasn't meek to move into the magician's way and constantly block his view. "And here I thought pumping your gut full of lead would have curbed that tongue of yours. Glad to see that it hasn't." Abra tapped the ground and it disappeared, letting the two fall through. Dino landed with a splash and found himself covered in cold mud while Abra floated gently down as if he was attached to a pulley system. The gunman looked up to see nothing but darkness as it seemed like the floor had come back into existence. Abra looked around at the dimly lit hallways. "Well they should be here somewhere. So Mr. O'Hara, go fetch." And with that the man pulled out his tub of popcorn and began munching away, simply staring at the man to see what he did next. In the relative silence, Dino could hear the sound of struggling and roars, and they were very close.

Everyone saw the ceiling disappear, blinded momentarily by the sudden rush of bright light, no one was punished more than the monster. Falling from the ceiling, it screamed in pain at the sudden invasion and bashed aimlessly against the walls as it tried to find a way away. Thankfully it had fallen behind a couple of walls so it had created distance from Nocturn who growled in disdain as the hook flopped back to the floor, having missed its target due to the sudden interruption by who he assumed Abra. Now he was alone with Timothy and Matthew and soon came the padding of two others and the trio saw Celestial come out, carrying a person bound in metal bands and behind him a woman. "You have a lot of explaining to do." Castro chided Celestial. "Cause none of that was normal in any way, shape, or form." He looked over and stared at the transformed zombie. "What the hell is that?" Not waiting for an answer, the magician force some magic through his restraints and shot a spear of death at Nocturn.

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Now by herself, with only Walter as her company, Lilith couldn't help but try to reminisce about the times before she had become a puppet for the mad man. Glancing around, her attention was caught by the amount of people bustling in and out of a certain room and always the same way. They entered empty handed, and came out with their arms full of possessions.