They descended the spiral staircase, each step echoing beneath their weight. The air grew heavier, more oppressive with every level they passed.

  Alynia stepped through the doorway first, Veil close behind her.

  Instantly, with a deafening crash, the door slammed shut behind them.

  The sound thundered through the chamber, casting a funeral echo into the dark.

  Despite the fatigue dragging at her limbs, Alynia managed a wry smile.

  “So much for subtlety,” she said dryly.

  Veil didn’t answer, his eyes fixed ahead.

  The room that opened before them was drenched in a heavy darkness, disturbed only by the eerie glow of violet torches.

  But the torches... floated.

  No brackets. No supports. Just flames, suspended in midair—like wandering souls casting a dim light into the shadows.

  The walls, much like those of the cavern they had traversed earlier, dripped with moisture. The air was thick with the scent of damp stone and decay. Water seeped from the cracks in the rock, running in thin, transparent streams that caught the ghostly firelight and shimmered faintly.

  The ground beneath them was dark, packed earth—ashen in color, as if scorched. Pools had formed where the water collected, trembling with the flickering reflections of the torches.

  As for the ceiling… it wasn’t there.

  Above them yawned an endless abyss—pitch black, lightless, bottomless. A void that swallowed every beam of light, revealing nothing of its depths.

  The room stretched far into the shadows, vast and unknowable. Towering stone pillars rose high into the blackness, their tops vanishing into the ceilingless dark. Some were connected by massive, sculpted arches, forming a path through the gloom—a structure both majestic and morbid, standing like forgotten ruins in a place meant for the dead.

  Alynia stood alert, eyes scanning every corner, her ears twitching at the faintest noise. Her body was taut with instinctive caution.

  Veil followed behind, his gaze wandering through the strange and silent hall.

  “What’s going to come at us this time…?” he muttered, wary.

  He exhaled, trying to mask the unease in his voice.

  “I just hope it’s not another monster that refuses to die,” he added, drained.

  Alynia stopped, turning her head slightly toward him, her expression sharp.

  “Stay focused,” she said, her voice low but firm.

  Her eyes swept the darkness ahead.

  “The dim light, the running water, the silence… It’s all designed to hide something. An attack could come from anywhere,” she warned, calm and calculated.

  The shiver Veil felt then wasn’t from the cold.

  There was something about this place… something wrong.

  As Alynia shifted forward to continue moving, a gust of freezing wind swept through the room—stopping Veil in his tracks.

  A second blast followed, even stronger, slamming into him.

  The force knocked him off balance and threw him several meters back. He hit the ground hard, heart pounding, but before he could react—

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  Alynia, already on edge, sensed the presence instantly. Her claws burst forth in a reflexive motion, her eyes darting through the darkness in search of the threat.

  Her ears twitched rapidly, straining for the slightest sound that might betray an enemy. Her hands tensed, the pressure around her growing unbearable—like something invisible was crushing the air itself.

  She shivered. A soft breath grazed her skin. Then, a sound—barely audible—echoed through the silence.

  But Alynia heard it clearly.

  She pivoted to her right, ready to strike—but before she could move, a hand erupted from the ground.

  Black as midnight, laced with a faint violet sheen, it barely looked solid. A dark mist spilled from its surface, writhing like living smoke.

  Before she could dodge, the hand seized her by the back.

  The touch was freezing—an icy grip that sent a jolt of terror down her spine.

  Then the thing leapt.

  Alynia screamed as she was violently yanked upward, her body hurtling into the air at blinding speed.

  “LET GO OF ME! VEIL!!” she screamed, panic surging in her voice.

  Veil didn’t think—he drew his dagger and charged, slashing furiously at the black arm lifting her skyward.

  But the shadow could not be cut.

  His blade passed through it like smoke, meeting no resistance at all. He struck again—harder, faster—rage pouring into every swing, but it was useless. Every strike went through as if the creature were no more than a mirage.

  “LET HER GO!” Veil shouted, frantic.

  He swung wildly, desperate to reach her, to save her—but the thing kept rising, dragging her higher and higher into the void.

  Ten meters.

  The air lashed against her skin, her hair whipping around her face as she was pulled upward into the yawning darkness. Her arms flailed, searching for anything to hold onto—but there was nothing. Only the abyss above.

  “ALYNIA!!” Veil cried, powerless.

  It was eating him alive—his helplessness. He could do nothing. He could only watch as she rose, her figure shrinking into the suffocating black.

  Twenty meters.

  Alynia’s eyes filled with tears. She was still struggling, still fighting—but her strength was fading. And now… fear. Fear stronger than exhaustion clawed its way into her chest.

  “VEIL! DO SOMETHING!!” she screamed, desperation ripping through her voice.

  But what could he do?

  His cries vanished into the void.

  He screamed again, this time at the thing itself, daring it, challenging it.

  “COME DOWN AND FIGHT ME, YOU COWARD!!” Veil roared, enraged.

  But he knew.

  Monsters didn’t care for honor or fairness. They lived to crush, to tear, to consume everything in their path.

  Thirty meters.

  Suddenly, Alynia felt the grip around her freeze.

  Time seemed to halt.

  Veil stopped breathing for a moment, staring in horror.

  Up there, Alynia hung motionless—like a lifeless puppet suspended in the dark.

  Why had it stopped?

  What was it waiting for?

  Alynia, breathless, fought to calm her racing heart.

  She tried to move—but the black hand held her in a cold, unrelenting grip.

  The silence was terrifying.

  Only the floating violet torches lit the scene, casting a dim glow across the void.

  She tried to look down...

  But all she could see was the floor far below, the ghostly lights drifting through the air, and Veil—frozen, screaming up at her with no idea what to do.

  A single tear slipped down her cheek.

  For the first time in a long while… she felt completely powerless.

  The world seemed frozen in place.

  The water no longer flowed. The wind no longer stirred. Everything was suspended in a deathly silence.

  Alynia made one last attempt to move, to reach the hand that held her. If she could just grab it, maybe—

  But she never got the chance.

  Veil, down below, widened his eyes.

  What he saw chilled him to the core.

  The black hand vanished.

  In an instant, it dissolved into a drifting haze of shadow, fading into nothing.

  Alynia hung there for a brief moment, suspended by something unseen.

  And then… time resumed.

  Her body was pulled into the void.

  Gravity seized her with brutal finality.

  Her whole being was wrenched downward, like the earth itself was calling her home.

  “No... NO!!” Alynia screamed, panic overwhelming her.

  Air tore into her lungs as the speed ripped the breath from her chest.

  She plummeted, hair whipping around her face, her body falling in a merciless, spiraling descent.

  “ALYNIA!!” Veil shouted.

  He clutched his head, fingers digging into his scalp. What could he do?!

  The speed—he could never stop it without shattering her.

  He staggered back a step, helpless.

  Twenty meters.

  Alynia no longer screamed.

  She was falling, arms limp, vision fading.

  Veil’s eyes were glassy, unmoving. He watched, paralyzed.

  Time seemed to stretch again, suffocating under unbearable tension.

  As if the dungeon itself were savoring the scene.

  As if the creature fed off their terror.

  “Think of something, ALYNIA! PLEASE—DO SOMETHING!!” he begged, broken.

  But she didn’t hear him anymore.

  Ten meters.

  Her mind slipped into resignation.

  No escape. No ledge. No hope.

  There was nothing left.

  She closed her eyes, surrendering her body to the void.

  “I’m sorry…” Alynia whispered, barely audible.

  She was apologizing—for leaving Veil, for leaving her family. There was still so much she hadn’t done… so much she wanted to see…

  But it all ended here.

  Tears slipped from her eyes, carried away by the rushing wind—as if they too were trying to escape what was about to come.

  Then—

  The impact.

  A dull, brutal, bone-snapping thud.

  Veil collapsed to his knees.

  His heart… just stopped.

  Right in front of him, Alynia’s body lay motionless on the ground.

  She was there. Just meters away.

  Her head turned slightly toward him, as if peacefully asleep.

  Her eyes were closed. Her face calm.

  But her left arm… bent at an unnatural, grotesque angle.

  Veil’s breath caught in his throat.

  That sound he had heard—he knew what it meant.

  She wasn’t peacefully sleeping.

  But he didn’t want to believe it.

  “Alynia…” Veil whispered, pleading.

  His voice cracked.

  He trembled, refusing to accept what he saw.

  “Wake up… Alynia… please…” he whispered, gasping.

  Not after everything they’d survived. Not now. The dungeon wasn’t over.

  But he had no strength left to scream.

  All he wanted… was for her to open her eyes.

  Veil forced himself to move, gathering what little energy he had left.

  He had to go to her.

  This… it wasn’t real. It was an illusion. A nightmare.

  She was going to get up… she had to get up.

  One step.

  Then another.

  But as he reached her still body—

  A gust of icy wind swept through the chamber.

  The floor was suddenly covered in mist—faint at first, then thickening rapidly. Soon, it was no longer visible. The fog began to swirl, rising in smoky columns before falling silent again.

  This wasn’t a trap.

  It wasn’t another shadowy hand from below.

  This time…

  It was a figure.

  And the moment Veil saw it, his blood turned to ice.

  All doubt vanished.

  This dungeon… wasn’t just a maze.

  It was a tomb.