Silence.
Not just any silence, but an absolute one where even the echo of water seemed to have been silenced out of respect.
Somewhere deep within the Water Palace, located in the bowels of the Dungueon, everything had come to a halt.
And there, in the center of a stone platform, under the faint light filtering through the place, were two figures.
Two fates intertwined by fury, blood, and a promise neither had wanted to make… but both knew they had to keep.
Kael… and Dix.
Kael was standing. Or at least, a shadow of what he once was.
His skin, once radiant with a whiteness that shone with vigor and power, was now ash.
His entire body seemed to have squeezed out every last drop of its strength. Gaunt. Emaciated. Consumed by a power that had taken everything from him… and now left him empty.
The cracks that ran through his body—those that once glowed with energy—were now dark. Black. Silent. They didn't bleed. Not because they weren't deep enough… but because there was no blood left to spill.
His most striking marks, the ones that had made Kael a creature of another world, faded like ash in the wind.
His horn no longer crowned his head.
His wing was gone.
His tail, once a symbol of his monstrous transformation, no longer existed.
There were no traces. As if they had never been a part of him. Like parts of a bad dream.
His hair, which had once been streaked with white, was completely black again.
His right eye, once transformed into something more majestic, had returned to its original state.
And yet… the echoes of what he had absorbed upon awakening in this world persisted.
His ears, once long and majestic, were slightly pointed again.
Rough, dull scales adorned parts of his neck and forearms, as before.
Those ranks that had disappeared upon his transformation, as if a blemish on something perfect, returned exactly where they had been before.
But none of that mattered as much… as the spear.
A black spear with a carmine edge like old blood pierced his chest from the left side. Direct, cruel, and merciless. Where his heart rested.
The tip protruded from his back. The wound didn't bleed, but that didn't make it any less chilling.
And yet… Kael didn't look at the spear.
His gaze wasn't on his wound, his chest, or his decaying body.
It was fixed on the man in front of him.
Dix.
Dix's body still maintained the posture with which he had attacked.
His spear had been the one to pierce Kael… but he, too, looked elsewhere.
From the elbow down, Kael's arm was buried in Dix's abdomen, piercing him completely.
And Dix… knew what that meant.
Blood began to flow. Slow at first, then abundantly. It stained his clothes, the floor, the air.
His eyes, red from pressure and exhaustion, were glazed. He coughed up a mouthful of blood that stained the floor and fell onto his chest.
Kael didn't say a word.
He couldn't.
His face was a statue of contained horror, an expression frozen between disbelief and shock.
The world no longer seemed real. Only that connection between them… the spear in his chest, and his hand in Dix's body.
A few moments passed. Maybe centuries.
Dix lowered his gaze, spat more blood, and let out a soft laugh. Barely a whisper between gasps.
Then he raised his eyes and looked directly into Kael's. With a broken voice, but with that arrogance that never left him, he said,
"...You'll never be better than this."
The words struck Kael like a bolt of lightning.
And then, Dix fell too.
His body collapsed to the side, his back hitting the wet floor of the platform, and his blood spread like a stain of shame around his body.
Kael felt how his arm was released, bathed in warm blood. His hand trembled, his fingers still elongated like claws.
Kael didn't say anything. He couldn't.
He just looked at Dix's lifeless body.
Then his hand.
Red.
Trembling.
Unfamiliar.
A whisper of guilt began to make its way into his chest. It didn't shout. It just felt… inevitable. Like a tide. Like a sentence that was closing in on him.
And for a second… for just an instant, he wished he had never awakened that power.
But he couldn't keep lamenting.
Because then, a pair of screens appeared in front of him.
Distorted. Flickering. Almost as if they were about to collapse.
[SKILL COMPLETELY DEACTIVATED]
[TIME UNTIL HIBERNATION BEGINS: 00:30]
"...30 seconds?..."
Then, the floor shook.
No. Not the floor.
The entire damn place.
Kael knew in an instant.
Knossos.
The great artificial labyrinth that defied logic and common sense. An impenetrable wall that had existed for hundreds of years… was weeping.
And its lament was pure fury.
The tremor was the roar of a bodiless god, of a hidden titan who had just lost the last of his sacred lineage.
Daidalos.
His blood no longer flowed in anyone's veins. And Knossos, like a fatherless child, responded with destruction.
The waters surrounding where Kael was, which until a moment ago were sacred, silent as a submerged temple, turned violent. Chaotic. Bestial. They began to dance without rhythm, as if they had a life of their own and rebelled against the sky.
The ceiling… the immense dome that rose like an aquatic cathedral…
It cracked.
First, a fissure.
Then, a thousand more.
And finally, the collapse.
The rocks.
Giant. Ancient. Some as large as houses. They fell like meteors, with the fury of centuries compressed into an instant.
One of them, as black as night, was heading straight for where Kael was.
Kael could barely take a step back.
The movement was clumsy, dragging. His foot scraped the wet stone of the platform, and his body leaned as if a breeze would be enough to knock him down. A sharp crack ran through his torso. It wasn't bones breaking, but his internal structure shattering, like a statue that doesn't know it's broken until it falls.
The spear was still there. Piercing his chest like a cruel reminder of its presence… and of what he had done.
He wanted to pull it out. He wanted to scream.
He wanted to breathe… and feel alive.
But he couldn't do anything.
Not now.
His body reacted. Not by will… but by instinct. By pure need to stay alive even if every breath was torture.
He jumped to the side.
The impact shook the entire place.
The spear moved inside his chest, and a jolt of pain ran down his spine.
But he survived. Barely.
Other rocks began to hit the platform, as if the artificial labyrinth wanted to erase all trace of what had happened there.
The stone beneath his feet cracked.
The waters, once calm, now attacked him like faceless beasts.
Kael, gasping, with trembling arms and blurred vision, tried to stand up. Every movement caused terrible pain. His nails scratched the wet floor. He wanted to try to reach a corner. Any place still standing.
But then…
He felt it.
A shadow.
A threat suspended in the air.
He looked up.
And saw it.
A colossal rock. Suspended right above him. Stopped only by the whim of time.
And then it fell.
He jumped. With the last of his strength. With a scream that didn't escape his throat.
He managed to dodge it. Yes.
But the shockwave… was too much.
The floor broke under his feet.
His body was launched into the void.
Without wings. Without a horn. Without magic.
Just him. And his punishment.
He fell.
The fall wasn't eternal.
But it seemed that way.
The waters received him without mercy. The impact was like hitting marble. His ribs protested. The spear drove in deeper.
And the world… turned blue.
Dark.
Cold.
Silent.
His body no longer responded to him.
His mind was a fog.
And then…
[00:10]
[00:09]
[00:08]
A new screen floated in front of his eyes. Small. Cruel. Like a sentence read aloud before the end.
Kael didn't know if he could drown.
He didn't know if his body could still die like a human after everything that had happened, after how he was still alive despite the spear that pierced his heart.
He didn't know how long this so-called "hibernation" would last.
But he knew something.
He knew it with painful certainty.
He was in the Dungueon.
And in the Dungueon, time does not forgive.
Nor do monsters wait.
Even if his body didn't need air to breathe.
He wouldn't be conscious to defend himself.
He wouldn't be awake to run.
He was alone.
Completely alone.
[00:05]
[00:04]
His vision was a whirlpool.
He could feel the blood that didn't flow.
The wounds that didn't hurt because there was nothing left to feel.
The weight of his decisions.
The blood on his hand.
The spear in his chest.
And Dix's voice, echoing like a spectral echo.
"...You'll never be better than this."
[00:03]
And in that instant, something inside Kael broke.
Not a bone.
Not an organ.
Something deeper.
[00:02]
The water enveloped him.
The darkness embraced him.
The echo of the waves, of the tremors, of Knossos's roar… faded away.
[00:01]
And in his mind, the only thought that managed to form…
A whisper.
A drowned thought.
'…Is this how it all ends, huh…?'
[00:00]
And then…
the world went dark.
Kael's consciousness faded like the final breath of a dying star, and in the abyss of unconsciousness, he saw nothing.
He felt nothing.
He couldn't see how the waters around him—waters that until then had been content to drag him deeper into the frozen depths—began to stir once more… not with fury, but with a kind of hesitation.
As if something—someone—was entering its domain.
A ripple. Almost imperceptible.
Then another.
The darkness surrounding Kael remained still.
Until it didn't.
Far above, beyond the veil of broken stones and debris falling toward Kael like a form of divine punishment, something moved. A shadow. Small, but fast—so fast it was only a blur beneath the water.
It slipped through the water in total silence, dodging colossal stones as if it knew exactly where they would fall. Nothing stopped it. Nothing touched it.
Kael was already near the bottom, adrift, motionless. The spear still embedded in his chest. A statue of failure.
And still, the shadow drew closer.
Without hesitation.
Without wasted movement.
Until…
Just for a brief moment, the waters calmed once again. The next rock, descending with deadly intent, struck nothing but the dungeon floor.
Because she had arrived first.
The shadow—now holding Kael in her arms.
Closer now. Clearer. She had form—humanoid, or something like it. But before her shape could be fully revealed—
She moved.
A thought, a sigh, an impossible motion—and as quickly as she had come, she was gone, Kael still in her arms, unconscious.
Kael didn't move.
He couldn't.
[HIBERNATION IN PROGRESS…][REMAINING TIME: UNKNOWN]
His skin was even paler now. The cracks in his body remained. His body was trying to preserve what little it had left.
But even in his unconscious state, his fingers twitched—just once—as if reaching for something.
Or remembering something.
The figure noticed the small movement, but without stopping, tilted her head slightly, like a creature contemplating a puzzle yet unsolved.
Then, with no further motion from Kael, the figure continued her silent journey until they reached their destination. a small cave hidden in a corner of the 25th floor, so well concealed that reaching it by normal means was nearly impossible.