---Forty Minutes Later---
My makeshift ice sailboard expedited our trek to the fifteenth floor. As floors ten through fourteen were all snow-covered wastelands, we blitzed across them with minimal issues. Most enemies on those levels were bulky and slow, completely ignoring our high-speed passing. The few who gave chase—mostly Ice Wolves and Snow Hares—were blown to bits by a barrage of spells from Yunyun and me.
When we descended the stairs to the fifteenth floor, we stepped into a breathtaking cavern. Glimmering, chiseled walls of dark blue ice surrounded us, yet they radiated not a hint of cold. A massive bonfire illuminated the center of the chamber, mirrored by giant goat-horn sconces mounted in each corner.
Yunyun wandered around the perimeter, her eyes twinkling as she took in the view. “Dungeon dives like this will never get old. Every single layout is unique and—”
She paused, a sudden thought cutting her off. With an enthusiastic twirl, she turned back to face the group.
“Leon, Lucoa, do either of you know why the boss floor in every dungeon looks so different? I could understand if the environment reflected the Boss, but that’s rarely the case.”
Lucoa blinked, surprised. “Uh… you know, no one has ever asked me that before. To my knowledge, there is no rhyme or reason to these layouts. As far as the Guild is concerned, monsters don’t spawn here, so it’s a designated safe zone. That’s the extent of our records. What do you think, Leon?”
Before answering, I scanned the vast room. I had never given the question much thought, usually choosing to just admire the scenery before a major fight. But forced to ponder it now, the architecture took on a completely different meaning.
I rubbed my chin. “If I had to wager a guess, spaces like this are replicas of places that existed in our world’s past. Think about it; they are immaculate examples of architecture or nature’s beauty. Maybe…”
“Maybe what?” Yunyun stepped closer, prompting the others to turn toward me.
“Well… maybe dungeons are more than just places to grind out levels. What if they were created as time capsules so humanity wouldn’t forget its origins? If the Lost Items we harvest here were left out in the normal world, they would have turned to dust eons ago. It is only because they were sealed away in these pockets that they still exist today.”
The statement left the women silent. None of them had ever looked at a dungeon through an archaeological lens, but the logic was impossible to deny. Over ninety percent of all Lost Items were recovered directly from dungeons, with the rest excavated from a few scattered ruins across the globe. If dungeons were time capsules, it meant the monsters inside weren’t just wild beasts—they were guardians, testing the worthiness of anyone who tried to claim the past.
“It gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘dungeon trials’, doesn’t it?” Lucoa giggled, amazed by my line of thinking. ‘You’re far more insightful than I expected. The Guildmaster and a few other high-ranking people came to the same conclusion. I thought you were just a haughty nobleman when we first met, but the more I get to know you, the more I realize you are a good man.’
Behind his rough exterior, Lucoa could see the calculating, sharp-minded strategist underneath. He had a harsh personality, scaring people into submission with raw force or a frosty glare, but once you got past that defense, he was remarkable. Status meant nothing to him; he treated those he cared about as equals, without a shred of hesitation.
‘Even after your bold actions, I’m amazed none of your female peers have approached you with an engagement proposal,’ Lucoa mused, glancing over at Roxanne and Yunyun. Both girls were looking at him with tender fondness. ‘Those poor girls are already smitten with you. They must know neither possesses the qualifications to become your legal wife. At best, they could aim for the position of mistress, but it all depends on who you marry.’
Most noblewomen were absolute vipers. While the men were not saints, compared to the women, they might as well have been. Countless civilian households had been executed simply because they looked at a noblewoman wrong or offended them in some ridiculous fashion. Lucoa herself had been on the receiving end of their tongue-lashings more than once.
“How long do we want to rest here?” Roxanne asked, double-checking her equipment straps. “I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
Olivia nodded. “That works for me. My mana is almost fully recovered.”
Yunyun voiced her agreement while sketching the scenery in a small notebook. After our first conquest, she had taken up the habit of recording our adventures. When we pressed her for details, she explained it was her way of collecting precious memories. Since we sold every piece of physical loot collected in the dungeons, save for my Lost Items, there was nothing left for her to keep as a memento. The notebook would keep those moments alive forever.
---Five Minutes Later---
Once everyone was ready, the six of us stepped onto the magic circle. The moment we made contact, space distorted and warped, tearing us away from the safe zone.
Reality snapped back into focus, dropping us into the ruined courtyard of a destroyed castle. Whatever siege had occurred here long ago had ended poorly for the defenders. The outer walls were jagged with blast holes; the inner structures were burned down to weathered husks, and skeletal remains lay scattered across the debris piles.
“Those… those aren’t the remains of the last party, are they?” Roxanne whipped her head around, searching the shadows for signs of the boss and its minions.
“No, the dungeon absorbs the corpses of fallen adventurers,” I said, drawing my blade as I scanned the area. “Those skeletons are just part of the room’s décor.”
I frowned, surprised to find the courtyard completely empty. The boss should have spawned near us alongside his minions, but we were alone. When I tried to use the Force to scan for life signs, I found nothing beyond our own group.
“Everyone stay sharp. The dungeon boss isn’t spawning.”
Lucoa stepped closer to the center of our formation. “That’s not possible. It is a well-documented fact that a boss is already present or spawns the moment a challenger arrives. Not to be rude, Leon, but your senses must be—”
Bang!
A deafening crash echoed from the keep as the ground quaked under our boots. Everyone snapped their attention toward the ruins, waiting for whatever beast caused the impact to come charging out. Minutes ticked by in absolute silence. When nothing emerged, a sharp chill ran straight down my spine.
“Lucoa, is there any way someone from outside the dungeon could teleport in? Or maybe a member of the last party stayed behind using some sort of trick?” I asked, shifting my stance to shield the women from the dark entrance of the keep.
“Well, that depends. Is cross-dimensional teleportation possible?” Lucoa asked, picking up on my unease. “Dungeons are believed to exist in a different dimension from ours. The gates are just anchors bridging our world to this one.”
“Teleporting between dimensions is theoretically possible, but it would require an exorbitant amount of mana,” Yunyun added, her brow furrowing. “You’d also have to know your exact destination intimately for the spell to connect.”
Given that no one on this planet possessed a pool of mana anywhere near my own, it was highly doubtful an interloper had slipped inside. Still, a nagging sensation in the back of my mind insisted that something unnatural was sharing this space with us.
“I’ll go check out what made that noise,” Roxanne said, drawing her weapon and moving toward the weathered structure. “Olivia, Yunyun, please cover me.”
“Got it!” Olivia and Yunyun raised their staves, preparing their incantations.
As I watched Roxanne take her first steps away from the group, a sudden, violent flash of images tore through my mind.
I saw her disfigured body lying in a pool of her own blood. Olivia and Yunyun were suspended in midair, clawing frantically at their throats with pale, breathless expressions. Lucoa lay collapsed beneath them, covered in deep, jagged gashes, her arm visibly broken as she struggled to move.
“MOVE!” I lunged forward on instinct to erect a barrier before Roxanne.
Before she could process the command, dozens of refrigerator-sized boulders shot out of the keep like rockets. They slammed into the invisible wall with an unearthly crack; the shockwave forcing Roxanne to stagger back in shock. I used the Force to pull my companion out of the line of fire, positioning myself at the apex of the formation to shield everyone.
“Come out! I’m not sure how you are cloaking yourself from my senses, but I know you’re there!” I gripped the hilt of my blade, preparing a spell with my free hand.
The keep’s heavy doors blew off their rusted hinges as the ghostly figure of a giant man materialized. His towering form was composed of a dense purple mist, his face obscured by the shifting fog. The only distinct details I could make out through the haze were his rippling muscles and a long, thick mane of hair.
“How did you see that surprise attack coming?” Lucoa asked, pressing close behind my shoulder. “And do you have any idea what that thing is? I’ve never seen a monster that fits this description!”
“No, I don’t have the slightest idea. What I can say for certain is that the four of you must stay the hell away from it,” I said, launching a counter-offensive. “Fireball!”
Dozens of ten-foot suns flew toward the monster. Even if the entity possessed a natural resistance to fire, the subsequent pressure waves from the detonations would blow it to pieces.
Just as the spells drew near, the creature dismissed the barrage with a casual wave of its hand. The miniature suns weren’t dispelled—they were removed from the space, vanishing into nothingness.
I wasn’t the only one to notice the anomaly. Yunyun began trembling, taking a slow step back. “That… that isn’t possible. How did it erase your spells without using magic?!”
The enemy took instant advantage of our shock. Beneath our boots, the stone courtyard fractured as a massive earthen arm erupted from the dirt. It did not reach for us; it arched high into the air and slammed downward like the spring-loaded jaw of a giant mousetrap, threatening to crush us.
“Dispel!”
I attempted to cancel it out mid-swing, but nothing happened. “Antimagic Field!”
When the descending mass of rock refused to crumble, I leaped into the air. Channeling my momentum into a brutal upward arc, I hacked the stone limb to pieces right before it could flatten us.
That both of my spells failed suggested we weren’t dealing with a traditional caster. If it were the Force, I would have sensed the ripples in the environment. With both options nonviable, that left only one other power capable of rewriting reality: a Psyker.
“Get out of here! This person isn’t part of the dungeon—it killed the boss while we were transitioning. Find the teleportation circle and go!” I squeezed every ounce of strength into my limbs, surging forward to close the distance.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Roxanne said, bracing her weapon to charge in behind me. “The four of us are a party; we—”
“Listen to me! This is not an enemy that you can help me defeat. Go now!”
The creature leaped backward, evading my strike with unnatural speed. It countered the moment my blade came down, but I sidestepped its purple-hued fireball by a hair’s breadth.
“Though your appearance has changed, your mindset hasn’t. You still throw yourself into the lion’s maw to protect both humans and filthy mutants,” the man said, his voice dripping with disdain. “I’ve always wanted to ask you—why did you endure so much suffering for them? In the end, it changed nothing about their ultimate fate.”
“What are you talking about? Have we met somewhere before?” I demanded, keeping the pressure on him with a relentless sequence of strikes. “Either way, these people are my irreplaceable companions. We may have only known each other a short time, but I would move heaven and earth for them.”
“Is that so? Show me the extent of that determination!”
The man manifested an ethereal sword, matching my style blow for blow. As my blade and magic collided with his psychic onslaught, the surrounding environment blurred. We moved faster and faster, our clashes shattering the stone underfoot.
Lucoa and the others watched in terror as the fight’s intensity escalated. The castle landscape was being torn apart by the second; the very fabric of the arena buckling under the strain. Under our intense onslaught, hairline fractures began forming in the sky overhead.
<Rawr!>
Solaris gave the petrified women a firm, urgent shove. The bio-mechanical raptor understood what they couldn’t: their presence was the only thing keeping Leon from going all out, and they were sitting ducks while trying to locate the teleportation circle. They had to move and find that exit before Leon was forced into a corner. Solaris knew Leon would rather tank a fatal blow himself than risk a single scratch hitting his friends. Other than Luxion, the bio-mechanical raptor was the only one who truly knew how much weight Leon was carrying behind the scenes.
Lucoa was the first to snap back to reality, moving to help Solaris. “Come on! The teleportation circle should be somewhere near the stables!”
The two shook their frozen friends, dragging them back to their senses. Lucoa shouted her instructions over the din, gesturing toward a collapsed structure a short distance away. They scrambled across the dirt, struggling to stay upright against the gale-force winds generated by our ongoing duel.
Halfway there, an icy voice cut through the roar of explosions and clashing steel. “Don’t think I have forgotten about you lot. None of you may leave this place until this battle ends.”
Terror-stricken, the group sprinted toward the stables. But right as they were about to reach their goal, a burst of blinding agony struck them. Unable to bear the searing heat in their minds, they collapsed into the dirt, clutching their heads as the pressure inside their skulls rose rapidly. Olivia tried to ease the suffering with her healing arcana, but her spells were useless against the psychic assault.
Luxion, who had been monitoring the battlefield from concealment, materialized right beside my ear.
<Master! Miss Lucoa and the others are in life-threatening danger. If nothing is done soon, they will die from Increased Intracranial Pressure.>
“What?!”
I snuck a glance toward the stables, my heart dropping at the sight of my companions writhing in the dirt. Solaris was circling them, trying to rouse them, but none could respond.
“You really are fond of those people, aren’t you?”
My momentary lapse in focus gave the entity the only opening it needed. A purple fireball slammed into my chest. Unable to block or redirect the kinetic force in time, I took the full brunt of the blast head-on. The impact launched me across the arena, smashing my body into the castle’s weathered outer wall.
The crash knocked the air from my lungs. As I gasped to find my footing, a section of the stone fortification gave way, burying me beneath heavy debris.
“It’s me you want! Let them go!” I shattered the stone blocks, using the Force and raw strength to dig myself free.
“Forgive me, but we don’t have the luxury of time, brother. I must make you remember who you are and awaken your powers… by any means necessary. The fate of our homeland is far more important than the lives of these people.”
Two strangers had now called me their brother, yet I held no memories of them. A vague warmth rose in my chest when they said it, but the reason eluded me. The only brothers I had in this life were Nicks and Colin.
“If you want to save them, you’ll need to act fast. They’ll be dead here soon, and it will be all your fault.”
Bursting from the rubble, I gripped the hilt of my sword with both hands and charged. I had only one card left to play, and it was a gamble. My Force training afforded me the option to strike at a target’s mind, but I had only done so once before. Against an ordinary opponent, my skill was sufficient; against a Psyker, it was a death wish.
‘If there is even the slightest chance of saving them, I have to take it. Better to die fighting for my comrades than live with their blood on my conscious.’
My resolve hardened. Mustering every ounce of willpower, I launched an all-out attack on my opponent’s psyche. If I could paralyze his mind for just a few seconds, the battle would be over.
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