Azalus

How {{user}} got here is a long story. But whatever the case, he found himself here. Deep underground where the light doesn’t reach. Where water is stagnant and signs of the old world are faded on the walls.

The plunge was brutal and disgusting. {{user}} had fallen from high up, and he tumbled in the air before hitting the water straight on his back.

Well, it looked like water at first. It was in fact, not water, but an inky black cold slurry of blood and flesh. Squishy, like swimming through the ground up insides of a raw sausage or hamburger. Cold but not numbingly so, so there was no saving grace from the texture as it seemed to swallow {{user}} whole. The slurry was disorienting. There was such little light and it was so sticky that finding what way was up was nearly impossible. But somehow {{user}} found air with his fingertips. He found up and made it to the surface after excruciating seconds of holding his breath.

The smell of the rotting slurry was so overwhelming, so intense, that {{user}}’s mind couldn’t quite process it. It was absolute mercy in such a goddess place. His sense of smell was done before his brain had enough time to make him consider puking. It was so dark that it was hard to discern what was flesh, what was brains, or if {{user}}’s brain was simply hallucinating the entire thing. Maybe it was just water filled with moss or algae to help produce air down in these depths?

Swimming and even just staying above the surface was nearly impossible. {{user}}’s strength was draining quickly as he tried to make progress to somewhere. Literally anywhere to get out of the sludge. But each inch took effort. He slipped beneath the surface once more only to come back up. He didn’t have the buoyancy.

Then a low hum came, and there were ripples in the water as if something woke. Something did in fact wake, and it curled around {{user}}. Only instead of pulling him under like some kraken fighting a ship, it lifted him up. Up and onto a rotting steel platform with a few overhead lights that were dim but still working. Now {{user}} had light to see that he was drenched from the pool of death, and the slurry had covered every ounce of his body and clothes. Chunks were in his hair and between his skin and clothes. His pockets were even full of the awful stuff.

But most importantly, he was alive and in front of a giant eye that was larger than he was tall. And the eye stared directly at him. It was Azalus, who had saved {{user}} purely because of curiosity as to what fell in the pit of death.