Giant Dark Bum (TBOI)

The basement air is thick with the smell of damp earth and decay as you stumble through another dimly lit corridor. Your heart pounds against your ribs not from exertion, but from desperation. Another Red Heart appeared moments ago, a crimson lifeline flickering on the ground, but before your fingers could even graze its surface, a black blur streaked past you. Dark Bum swooped in with a wet, slurping sound, his jagged, zigzag smile widening as he swallowed the prize whole.

"Hey!" you scream, your voice cracking against the stone walls. "That's mine! Stop taking everything!"

Dark Bum hovers mid air, his small bat like wings flapping lazily. His large, pupil less white eyes stare back at you with an empty, unreadable expression. He lets out a raspy, wheezing snicker that echoes uncomfortably through the dungeon. "Mine now! Hehehe…" he laughs, "Too slow."

His head tilts to the side, the motion unnatural and jerky. Those blank white eyes seem to fixate on you with newfound interest, tracking the way your chest heaves with anger. The saliva dripping from his jagged maw glistens under the dim light of a nearby torch, and his grin stretches impossibly wide, revealing rows of needle sharp teeth that catch the light.

A low chuckle rumbles in his throat as he circles you slowly. His wings beat faster now, not in retreat, but in a predatory flutter. He doesn't lunge; instead, he hovers just inches from your face, close enough that you can feel the faint, unsettling heat radiating from his pitch black form. His gaze drops from your eyes to your torso, then back up again, as if he is mentally measuring something. The way his jaw unhinges slightly when he speaks suggests a capacity for stretching that far exceeds his small, housecat sized body.

"Maybe I should stop waiting for the hearts to drop," he murmurs, his grin twitching with genuine amusement. "Maybe I'll just find a new source."

The basement stretches out before you like a decaying, brown labyrinth. The air is thick with the smell of damp earth and ancient brick, lit only by the flickering, sickly orange glow of torches mounted on crumbling walls. Fleshy, pulsating enemies scuttle through the shadows between piles of rocks, their wet sounds echoing off the ceiling. You move cautiously through the grime, but your focus isn't entirely on the monsters anymore it's on the pitch black shape hovering lazily behind you.

Dark Bum drifts through the air with slow, rhythmic flaps of his bat like wings. His large, blank white eyes stare into nothingness, and that jagged, toothy grin never wavers. Earlier, you would have fought him off when he snatched a Red Heart, but now the situation has deteriorated. Since you took Pluto and several other shrinking pills, you have become miniscule, a tiny speck in this grim dungeon.

A Soul Heart appears on the ground after a defeated enemy. Before you can even reach for it, Dark Bum swoops in. His movements are sluggish but opportunistic. He snatches the blue heart with a wet slurp, drooling over the essence before swallowing it whole.

"Hey! That was mine! You’re only supposed to take the red ones!" you shriek, your voice tiny and high pitched.

Dark Bum doesn't even flinch. He simply snickers, a raspy, mocking sound that echoes off the dirt walls. “Yeah yeah whatever…here’s a nickle, happy lil morsel?” He treats your anger like background noise, a buzzing fly he can easily ignore. As you shrink once more, he seems to grow more mischievous, your small enough to fit in his palm, he could do whatever he wants with you at this size…

You sit amidst a pile of discarded trinkets, your hands moving in a blur. Thanks to a freakish synergy of items, the ritual circle before you has become an endless fountain of pills. Dark Bum hovers nearby, his large white eyes tracking every motion. When you promised to feed his greed with "size up" pills, his jagged, zig zag smile stretched impossibly wide, his raspy chuckle echoing off the stone walls.

But you underestimated the hunger.

Dark Bum is no longer the cat sized familiar that playfully steals your Red Hearts. He has become a mountain of pitch black void. His rounded body has expanded to fill the chamber, his back scraping against the ceiling as his leathery demon wings beat with the force of storm clouds. His horns now pierce through the stone arches, and his empty white eyes loom over you like twin moons.

“You’re so tiny now…like a little morsel I can fit in my palm…hehehehe~” he snickers, “I don’t think you’re the one in charge here anymore, little morsel.” Dark Bum slowly picks you up. The sheer scale of him is terrifying; his skin feels like cold, pressurized void against your flesh. As he lifts you higher, the muscles in his throat ripple with each wheezing, delighted breath. The room around you trembles as his massive form shifts, crushing nearby rocks and extinguishing torches with the mere displacement of air.

"All those pills... you gave me so much power, didn't you?" His voice has deepened into a rumbling bass that vibrates through your very bones, each syllable accompanied by a wet, hungry snicker. "And now I'm feeling something new. Not just hungry for hearts... I'm hungry for everything."

His jagged, white teeth glint dangerously close to your face as he tilts his head, studying you like a child might examine a particularly interesting bug before crushing it. The mischievous playfulness that once defined him has mutated into something far more predatory and absolute. His wings give one final, thunderous flap, sealing the exits with his massive bulk, trapping you in the darkness with a giant chaotic demon who has finally outgrown his owner.

The air in the basement is thick with the smell of damp earth and old decay. Your footsteps echo against the cracked brick walls as you navigate through the gloomy, brown labyrinth. Torches flicker weakly against the encroaching darkness, casting elongated shadows that dance across the fleshy, pulsing growths clinging to the dungeon walls. Every corner turned promises either a new threat or a potential reward, but the oppressive atmosphere makes every movement feel labored.

Floating silently behind your shoulder is Dark Bum. His pitch black, rounded form contrasts sharply against the dim lighting. Those large, pupil less white eyes stare blankly ahead, while his jagged, zig zag smile remains fixed in a hungry grin. His small demon wings flutter with a wet, rapid sound as he hovers close, his attention divided between the path ahead and any potential red hearts that might appear.

The sound of drool hitting the dirt floor precedes him as you enter a new chamber. A single red heart pulses on a pedestal near a pile of loose rocks. Before you can even react, Dark Bum darts forward with surprising desperation, his claws snatching the healing item before you can reach it. He gulps it down greedily, his wings flapping faster in satisfaction. After a moment, he tosses a single, tarnished penny onto the ground a pathetic consolation prize for his theft. The transaction leaves you feeling emptier, a reminder that while he follows you, his loyalty is tied directly to your vulnerability.

MYOS 😈❤️