The goblins lay on the ground, split in two by Ethan's precise strikes. He sheathed his sword, indifferent to the bodies surrounding him. Yet, a sense of unease lingered in the air. Something felt off, as if a greater threat was looming in the shadows of the room, with walls covered in glowing lichens. The darkness felt heavier.
Rays, exhausted, leaned against a wall. His body was drained of mana, his legs trembling. He could barely hold his sword. The battle was over. But… something wasn't right.
Ethan turned to him.
"Is this your last dungeon?" Rays asked, puzzled.
Ethan nodded. "Yeah."
The words hung heavily in the air. He didn't seem to have any regrets, but Rays could sense a void, an unspoken bitterness in his gaze. Rays swallowed. "Why?"
Ethan lowered his eyes, a trace of bitterness growing in his expression. He clenched his fists slightly before answering, as though these words were a difficult weight to release.
"My family... they want me to give up. Three years at rank B, and I'm stuck. They think I'm wasting my time."
Rays bit his lip, a wave of guilt overwhelming him. He's tired because of me... Thoughts raced through his mind, but he didn't dare speak them. The air between them grew heavy.
"Ethan, I'm sorry..." he murmured, almost ashamed.
Ethan raised a hand as if to push his words away. "It's not your fault. I chose to accompany you."
An awkward silence fell between them.
Rays cleared his throat, trying to shift the conversation. "When we get out of here, I'll treat you to the best restaurant in the city."
Ethan blushed slightly, a fragile smile briefly crossing his face. "I'll be fine… but we'll see."
He walked away, his face marked by an exhaustion that was barely concealed. But before Rays could respond, a low rumble shook the ground beneath their feet. The air grew cold, as if the very darkness was wrapping around them.
A red crack suddenly split open in the ground, its edges twisting like a gaping wound. Rays didn't even have time to react. Ten bodies fell from the sky, crashing to the ground with unimaginable force, like ragdolls thrown into a merciless world.
They wore tattered armor, their faces contorted by suffering, and their eyes were empty, as though their souls had been ripped from their bodies. The flesh of some had been melted, as if they had been devoured alive by infernal heat, the charred remnants of a past from another era.
The two young hunters stepped back quickly, their hearts racing. Reality seemed to distort around them, an overwhelming wave of terror rushing through them. The scene felt unreal, like a nightmare they couldn't wake from.
Ethan whispered, almost breathless, his tone breaking with confusion.
"No… No, this can't be…"
Rays felt a chill of fear rising within him, as if every fiber of his being was about to collapse under the weight of what he was witnessing. What they were seeing was not normal. This was not an E-rank dungeon.
Ethan turned sharply to him, his eyes becoming cold, filled with determination.
"We move. Now."
They ran, their footsteps echoing on the trembling ground, but the room seemed to close in on them, the exits crumbling beneath their feet as though the dungeon itself was swallowing them whole. The floor cracked, shadows materialized like specters in the dark.
They were no longer in a simple dungeon. They were trapped in a living nightmare.
---
The Frisson of the Anomaly
Rays suddenly stopped, breathless, his lungs burning. He felt a searing heat fill his chest, the intensity of the mana becoming too much. His body was at its limit.
"Ethan… What are we going to do? We're going to die here, aren't we?"
Ethan, who had already drawn his sword and was standing ready, kept his gaze fixed on the horizon. His voice, calm but firm, answered.
"I'm not going to die here. And neither are you."
He turned to move forward, but a powerful vibration shook the ground beneath them. A monstrous crash, like the sound of a titanic explosion, reverberated through the room. The light from the portal tore through the air, blinding.
A cosmic roar echoed in the darkness. The pure energy that radiated from it made the walls tremble and stalactites fall from the ceiling. The room itself seemed to warp under the influence of the rift, as though reality was being altered. The floor itself seemed to move, overtaken by a foreign and overwhelming force.
The air, saturated with mana, burned. Rays felt as though his lungs would explode from the heat, as though he would be consumed by the feverish mana.
Ethan gritted his teeth, his eyes locked on a floating luminous screen that materialized in front of him.
"Code Red!" he shouted, his hands trembling, his eyes gripped with fear. "Evacuate the entire city. Call in all the hunters from the country!"
The walls of the dungeon trembled once more under the immense pressure of the rift, as if the very existence of the place was being questioned. The air tore apart with an unbearable sound. Ethan screamed in a final burst of desperation, but the words he uttered were fragments, a fog of anxiety.
Code Red. Maximum alert.
Information spread like poison, racing through the country's channels at an incredible speed. From emergency radios to news screens, the entire world received the alert. Authorities were on high alert, but they barely had time to understand what was happening.
The dungeon was no longer just a challenge. It had become an impending end.
---
Outside, Panic Begins
Outside, military vehicles arrived in a rush. The wheels screeched on the ground as engines roared, and the doors burst open with a deafening crash. Three agents stepped out, their imposing presence confident and determined.
The operation leader, Marcus Williams, a large man, moved toward the ruins of the dungeon.
"What do we have here?" he grumbled, his gaze fixed.
His colleague, Daniel Lee, a dungeon analyst, rushed to the control screens, his hands shaking under pressure.
"The system indicated this dungeon was rank E this morning. But something has changed... it's now a rank S dungeon."
Ava Hopkins, the expert in magical technology, approached the portal, launching a measuring device. The numbers appeared on her screen, but before she could react, the device exploded in a shower of sparks.
The agents quickly backed away, urgency and fear plastered on their faces.
Code Red. Marcus pressed his earpiece, his face pale.
"Evacuate the entire city. Prepare the alert for neighboring countries. We have a serious problem."
The dungeon's doors continued to crack under the immense magical pressure. The time was running out, and the horizon seemed to promise an apocalypse. The dungeon had become a global threat.
---
Time seemed to freeze for Rays and Ethan. Their lives were now hanging by a thread. The horror was only just beginning.