The Hollow God

Turning around he found the little crab doing a strange dance around her pot of sand.

"Is this what makes that pot of sand special?" he wondered, watching her with a weird look.

Since she didn't respond he continued to watch until he realized she wasn't actually dancing but stepping on tiny things. There were a bunch of small bugs that were eating some of the sand that she had spilled onto the floor and the few had noticed the big skull and got greedy. Of course the little crab was having none of it and was stepping on them mercilessly

'How dare you eat my special sand! Why don't you have a taste of my foot instead?!'

The little things looked like a black black cockroach. As he watched her brutally murder the poor things he found that every time she squished one it would open its mouth as if it was releasing a scream, but strangely, no noise was coming out.

'Maybe we just cant hear it?' Suddenly getting a bad feeling he tried to calm down the little crab.

"....Hey little gold maybe you should stop killing them .. it was only a little bit of sand anyways so how about you climb back up onto my back? However it didn't seem like she heard him at all as she kept raising her killing spree.

She had only noticed the bugs after they had already eaten a small clump of sand. Don't they know how hard she worked on this pot of sand?

Seeing as she wasn't going to stop he decided to speed up his plans. Even though all the cores he ate had not been fully digested the growing sense of danger made him feel like he was running out of time.

Charging up his attack once again he started cutting through the walls

"Help me little gold!" It was only then that she finally stopped and after she climbing onto his back her sand quickly flew out to hold open the hole the manta had created

Time passed quickly and even though they had passed the halfway point, strangely nothing had happened yet.

'Was my instincts wrong?' With his lower face he looked around to see if there was truly nothing wrong but all he saw were only the black organ walls surrounding them.

'…. Wait a minute, why are the floors and walls black!'

It was all covered with the little bugs! They made no noise and were too small to see so he didn't even notice when they became fully surrounded!

A small bulge started to suddenly rise from the sea of black and quickly grew like a vine towards the duo. A second after the first, others started to quickly rise all around moving also slowly towards them!

"Little gold! use everything you can!" The black manta screamed as he threw most of his mana into the attack which started to quickly rip through the walls. Unfortunately the fatigue was growing just as quickly!

The small crab also did her best as the sand seemed to have gained immense strength as not only did it hold open the hole but it also started forcing it open.

The Mantas lower face was also trying its hardest by desperately blowing at the vines that were quickly getting closer. This desperate struggle that went on for a few seconds felt like hours!

"Finished!" The little crab grabbed onto the manta with her claws right as he used his boost to squeeze through the hole right before they were completely drowned in the bugs.

Though a couple of them were able to make it on but the little crab gladly helped get rid of them. They killed every single one before they started looking around making sure there was no danger in this new area. After seeing there was nothing strange anywhere they practically threw their tired bodies on the floor. Their mana was almost completely empty!

The little crab passed him half of the last cores she had left and they quickly swallowed it. they sat there digesting the cores not moving an inch for almost a whole day, it was then that they started to feel like they were getting back to their peak. Their mana reserves were almost full but being on the safe side they waited until it was completely filled before moving out.

The little crab seemed depressed as she looked into the hole of the sand pot where she used to keep her stash that was now completely empty.

"Don't worry little gold I have a good plan, not only will we be able to get out of here but we should also be able to get some good stuff hehehe" he said mysteriously.

"Hmm I trust you" A sweet voice responded leaving him completely stunned. They have been together for so long now but the amount of times she was this nice to him could be counted on one hand! Other than Feeling all warm and fuzzy he also felt boundless strength coursing through his body.

"Muahahaha! Then let's go! Little crab, Today! I will take you to eat whale! hahaha!"

The manta went up to a wall and put his ears on to it and listened intently for a few seconds before moving to a different place, he did this many times and sometimes came back to the same place before finally deciding in one specific spot.

"Ok, we are starting! Get ready!"

Attacking the wall one again but making sure to not waste too much mana he started to slowly cut through to the other side with the little crabs help.They had only used up a bit less than half of their mana this time.

Reaching the other side he looked around making sure there was no more danger before he started listening to the walls once again.

'We have enough for one more try! please let this be the last one!' The large manta silently prayed in his heart. He didn't want to die here! He wanted revenge!

As the laser cut through, both him and the little crab started hearing loud thumping sounds that came from the other side which got louder and louder the larger the cut became.

As the hole became just big enough they quickly squeezed through. They were now in a very large cavity. At the center there was a large organ hanging from the ceiling by large veins that thumped every few seconds. It had an extremely large purple stone embedded on its center that bathed the whole area in a purple light.

"It's the heart! We made it ! hahahahaha!" he said out loud excitedly as he danced around in the water. The little crab however was stunned in place as her eyes were stuck on to that large stone.

"Hehehe! Little gold, I once read on the internet about this thing that a strange group of humans called potheads did, They called it a Hotbox!" The manta said with a sly smile as it moved towards the large organ.

He inserted some of his last mana to enhance his tail and in one swift motion he stabbed it into the large purple beast core. When he pulled it back, streams of purple gas-like mana started quickly gushing out.

'Hehehe, you can regenerate your muscles and organs but i doubt you can regenerate your core!'

The whale seemed to understand what had happened but could do nothing except let out a mournful cry in sadness and unwillingness.

"WAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

The cavity quickly filled up with purple gas and the manta could feel not only his strength returning but it was also quickly growing every time he breathed in. Feeling extremely comfortable the duo started to slowly close their eyes unconsciously before falling into a deep sleep.