[Withdrawn] July Entry: Spire of Bone

[Immolate]

Deep in the trackless recesses of the earth, far beneath the stench of the charnel houses; beyond the wanderings of man or his most wretched nightmares, lies in darkness a vast cavern. Fangs of stone thrust forth, top and bottom, as if the maw of some titantic God lay poised to snap shut upon any who dare intrude.

The still silence of the vastness is punctuated by the distant dripping of water against a stony surface. It has the quality of a pause after a sudden intake of breath... expectant. And yet nothing moves. Nothing lives here. There are no creatures in this deep and no plants to sustain them. It is a dead place where even death is unknown.

But there, near the center of the Stygian vault... a pale tower climbs past the extent of the neighboring columns of stone. Layer upon layer of chalky white ribs ascend, and from within this unlikely structure, a pale light seeps out. The light rises with the tower, and continues beyond, a sickly shaft of wan illumination, extending to the top of the cavern and beyond, slowly pulsating to the beat of some irregular clock.

Into this milieu, an unlikely visitor approaches. Layers of dust coat his rugged clothing and unkempt beard. He tilts back his head to take in the glowing spire of bone, and where any other might quake in fear, he smiles. As sounds of furtive skittering begin to echo from various places around him, echoes of movement in this place where nothing lives and nothing moves, his smile only broadens. For too long he has delved into the hide of the earth alone. He is filled with... anticipation.