CHAPTER 8: FIRST DUNGEON (4) – SUN IN THE ABYSS

The stone vibrated as my fingers pushed the door.

A vile screech, like a thousand nails clawing at the walls. The scarlet runes flared once, then vanished. And the black mass opened, slowly, revealing a gulf of shadow.

I stepped forward. Behind me, they followed without a word. Not a breath, not a taunt, not a tear. Their faces had hardened. Reina impassive, Miyu predatory but silent, Hikari pale yet determined, Ayame straight as a priestess walking toward the altar.

Each of them knew.

This room would decide whether we survived... or ended as nothing more than forgotten corpses in this fucking dungeon.

The bluish glow of the walls finally lit the interior. And there he was.

A colossus.

A goblin, but twisted, distorted, grotesquely oversized.

More than three meters tall, greenish skin stretched over muscles bulging with black veins. His yellow eyes glowed like two sick suns in his deformed skull. In his hands, a sword... no, not a weapon. A monster in itself. A slab of raw iron, as long as two men, chipped all over but so heavy that every swing made the tiles tremble. His breath reeked of rotting flesh. His mouth, warped into a too-wide grin, let strings of viscous drool spill down his bare chest.

At his feet, another. Smaller. Uglier.

A shaman.

Hunched, skin covered in burn scars, his skinny arms tattooed with grotesque runes. His bloodshot red eyes rolled in their sockets. He clutched a twisted staff, carved from yellowed bone, decorated with bird skulls and human teeth tied with filthy strings. His mouth was already muttering incantations, green smoke rising from his lips, foul and acidic, as if every word corrupted the air itself. His bent back looked fragile... but the black sparks crackling at the tip of his staff proved he was deadlier than any blade.

Silence lasted a second. Just one.

Then the giant roared. A monstrous, deep sound that rattled my ribs. The shaman cackled, yellow fangs snapping in a guttural chant.

I gripped Aurelia.

— "... Fuck."

The giant’s roar was still shaking the walls when I tightened my grip on my spear.

— "WATCH OUT!" My voice cracked the air, harsher than I intended. "The real danger... isn’t that pile of muscle. It’s the shaman. We don’t know his spells. Don’t take your eyes off him."

A tense silence. Four pairs of eyes locked on mine.

— "Understood," Reina snapped back.

Then, the battle erupted.

The giant goblin lunged. His iron sword smashed the floor with a thunderclap, sending shards of stone flying. I rolled aside, the shock tearing the air from my lungs. Reina raised a wall of ice to deflect the second blow. Miyu was already slicing at the colossus’s legs, her flames roaring in the dark.

But in the back, the shaman raised his staff. His lips spewed a guttural litany, and the runes on his skin glowed a sickly green.

Ayame screamed.

— "JUMP!"

I didn’t hesitate. My muscles screamed as I hurled myself off the ground with the girls. A black chain erupted where we had stood, roots of shadow bristling with spikes, snapping like snakes. The air quivered with their violence.

I landed hard, my boots skidding across the tiles.

— "He’s mine!" I growled.

Without thinking, I charged straight at the shaman. Aurelia pulsed in my hands, a golden shiver thrumming in my palm.

The shaman cackled, his red eyes locking on me with animal hate. He lifted his staff to catch me—too slow. My spear swung in an arc, divine gold shearing through the rotten wood. The scepter cracked with a dry snap.

The goblin’s eyes widened. Disbelief. Terror.

— "Too late."

I thrust Aurelia. The tip burst beneath his chin, and his head snapped off in a spray of black blood. His hunched body collapsed, convulsing.

Panting, a savage smile tugged at my lips.

— "One down."

But that’s when the real nightmare began.

The shaman’s corpse convulsed. His burned runes ignited, shifting from red to black. His flesh burst apart in strips, spraying viscous fluid across the tiles. His cadaver disintegrated in an instant, as if sucked away.

Not into the void. Into the giant.

The colossus roared, his massive jaws opening as though to swallow the air itself. The geyser of shadow surged into him, flooding his veins. His muscles swelled even further, his greenish skin cracking to reveal a red glow seeping from every fissure. His eyes became two demonic embers. The sword in his grip throbbed, veined with black lines pulsing like a monstrous heart.

And behind him... an abomination tore free of his back.

An entity. Neither flesh nor spirit. A twisted silhouette, half-goblin, half-demon, floating like a legless carcass. Its withered arms dragged in the void, its claws dripping black fire, and its face was a skull mask split by an endless grin.

The creature screamed. A spectral wail that shredded my eardrums.

— "FUCK...!" I breathed, Aurelia trembling in my grip.

The colossus struck.

His sword crashed down with inhuman speed. The blow shattered the floor, cracks splitting across the chamber. Miyu screamed and barely blocked, flames erupting around her.

The impact flung Ayame back, her body staggering under the shock. Three steps. Four. Her heels scraped stone before she managed to brace herself, gasping.

Her kimono split clean under the wave, tearing open with a sharp crack. The fabric slid from her shoulders, peeling back violently, exposing a broad streak of bloodied bare skin. Her lace bra, half torn away, spilled the heavy swell of a breast, its tip already hardened from cold and pain.

A red line trickled between her curves, snaking down to her belly. An obscene blend of wound and forbidden desire.

— "KAITO! We can’t hold much longer!" she screamed.

I bit my lip, the taste of iron filling my mouth. The monster advanced, relentless. Every swing of its blade split new scars in stone, every shriek of the specter rattled our bones.

I charged. Aurelia blazed, burning in my hands.

The colossus saw me, raised his blade. The shadow screamed in sync, hurling a claw of energy at me. I rolled, dodging most of it, but the edge of the blast tore my arm raw. An agonizing black burn gnawed into my flesh.

— "Kaito!!!" Hikari’s voice.

A golden wave surged through us. Our wounds sealed, skin knitting with wet sounds. I gasped, alive, still alive.

— "Thanks..." I gritted, leaping again.

I drove Aurelia in. The tip pierced the giant’s thigh, splashing my face with burning blood. The colossus roared, but the wound sealed instantly, mended by black flames pulsing inside him.

— "... He regenerates." I whispered, frozen.

The shadow laughed, grotesque fangs gleaming in the dark. It lifted its claws again. A black arc ripped the air, shattering Reina’s ice, tearing flesh from Miyu as she shrieked in pain. Hikari, sobbing, unleashed another Dawn Chant, her trembling voice sewing wounds shut, desperate.

The colossus kept advancing. Each step tolled like a death knell. Each blow seemed unavoidable.

I staggered back, trembling.

Invincible.

This fucking monster was invincible.

Reina was the first to act, despite it all. Her scepter throbbed in her hand and, with a curt word, she split the ground.

— "Freeze."

Ice spread instantly, locking the colossus’s monstrous legs. The giant roared, black veins bulging as he strained to shatter the frozen prison.

— "Snap out of it, Kaito!" Miyu shouted.

She raised her katana. A crimson torrent enveloped her blade, her wild hair whipping her face.

— "HAAAAAAA!!!"

She slashed with all her might. The impact blew apart the dark aura around the monster, forcing back the shadows for a brief instant.

Ayame, gasping, her breasts still bared by the torn cloth, tightened her grip on her scythe. Her eyes blazed, icy rage devouring her pain.

— "We finish this... TOGETHER!"

I leapt. Aurelia pulsed golden fury in my hands.

The giant raised his sword, muscles swollen with corruption. The specter shrieked, claws of darkness tearing the air.

Clash.

My spear struck the blade, Miyu’s flames carved into its hip, Reina’s ice climbed its torso, and Hikari’s light poured into our bodies, mending torn flesh, pushing our muscles beyond their limits.

A ballet. A fucking carnage.

I plunged Aurelia into its flank. The colossus howled, his sword grazing my temple. Miyu vaulted onto his back, her red blade burying into his shoulder. Reina, relentless, froze his arms in a coffin of frost, slowing each strike. Hikari screamed, her trembling voice flooding the air with golden radiance that knit our bones, stopped our lungs from bursting.

The monster wavered. But it wasn’t done.

The entity screamed, a beam of darkness spearing from its split skull. It struck Ayame full in the stomach.

— "AYA—ME!!!"

Her body was ripped off the ground, flung across the room like a rag doll. She slammed into a wall with a sickening crack. Breath tore from her chest, blood spraying from her lips. Her kimono tore wider, baring her scarred body, her battered curves, her breast nearly bare beneath the shredded cloth. She tried to rise, but collapsed, eyes half-shut, gasping.

— "MOM!!!"

Hikari screamed, broken. Tears streamed down her face as she stumbled toward her, tripping over bloodstained tiles. She dropped to her knees, trembling hands pressing over her mother’s gaping wound.

— "No, no, no... stay with me!"

Her scepter glowed, a golden wave bursting forth. Light poured over Ayame’s body, stitching flesh, sealing the black wound eating her. The blood slowed, but Ayame still coughed, spitting fresh red onto her daughter’s shoulder.

— "Idiot..." she whispered, a soft hand brushing Hikari’s tear-streaked cheek. "It’s going to be fine..."

Hikari shook her head, frantic.

— "Shut up! You’re not allowed to die! I forbid it, Mom!!!"

Light exploded around them, dawn in the middle of hell.

Meanwhile, me and the others fought on. The enraged giant shattered Reina’s ice, endured Miyu’s flames, and every swing of his sword could cut us in half.

For minutes, the deadly dance continued.

Miyu screamed with each strike, her flaming katana clashing against the giant’s black sword. Reina unleashed waves of frost, but every wall cracked and splintered under the monster’s brute force. I struck again and again, Aurelia piercing his flesh... but every wound closed instantly, devoured by shadow.

— "Shit... he won’t die!" I growled, wiping blood from my face.

The specter behind him cackled, claws tearing the air, hurling arcs of energy that split the walls. Hikari cried with all her soul, flooding the air with golden light, tears streaming endlessly as she healed Ayame, her hands drenched in blood.

— "Hold... on...!" she gasped, her broken voice like a prayer.

The giant laughed. His fetid breath engulfed us, his titanic blade sweeping the battlefield like a reaper’s scythe.

And me, fuck, I had no plan left. Every strike I landed, regeneration erased. Every time we trapped him, shadows shoved us back.

Then, a voice. Weak. Strangled.

— "... Kai... to..."

I turned my head.

Ayame. Slumped on the ground, lips bloody, brown eyes drowning in pain. Barely breathing, but forcing words out, every syllable torn from her lungs.

— "Generate... a pure... light..."

Her trembling hand reached into the air, as if trying to grasp something unseen.

— "... it... will drive... out the shadows..."

I froze, panting. Then my heart leapt.

The shadows. Fuck.

It all clicked at once. The source. Them. That black veil wrapping his skin, his wounds, his weapon. That energy wasn’t just power. It was his armor. His shield.

Without it... he’d be vulnerable.

— "Light..." I breathed, Aurelia pulsing in my hand as if she had realized before me.

I raised my eyes to my sisters, gasping, blood dripping from my lips.

— "I got it!" My voice thundered in the chamber. "The shadows are the source! If I tear them away with light... he’ll be exposed!"

A brutal silence. Even the monster hesitated for a fraction of a second.

Reina tightened her grip on her scepter, eyes wide. Miyu cackled through the blood streaming from her mouth. And me, I clenched my spear, Genesis burning in my veins.

We needed to create light. A light strong enough to rip through that fucking veil. Just for a second. One second. That’s all we’d need.

The colossus howled, black veins writhing like snakes under his skin, the specter behind him spewing claws of shadow with every breath.

I raised Aurelia. Heat scorched my arms, my body already screaming. But I had no choice.

— "GENESIS!!!"

The word tore my throat.

The spear exploded in light. A golden flare, so fierce the walls themselves seemed to falter. Radiance burst from my palm, pure, blinding, a sun in the dungeon’s heart. The shadows writhed, howling like wounded beasts. The specter recoiled, screaming as its claws melted in the glow. The black veil shrouding the giant cracked, shattered, vanished...

— "NOW!!!"

Reina moved first. Her scepter slammed against the floor. A blizzard surged, stronger than anything she’d ever summoned. The ground froze instantly, spikes of ice erupted, impaling the colossus’s legs, pinning the beast in a white sarcophagus. His skin split, his veins burst in geysers of black blood.

Miyu leapt.

Her katana screamed, swallowed in crimson flames that engulfed the chamber. Her eyes blazed with madness, lips curled in a furious grin.

— "DIE, BASTARD!!!"

Her blade carved down, an incandescent arc biting into the giant’s shoulder. The steel plunged deep, igniting his flesh from within. His chest burst in fire, chunks of charred flesh flying, the stench of burning meat filling the air.

I charged. Aurelia blazed, haloed in pure light. My legs screamed but I didn’t slow. The giant raised his sword to crush me. Too late. I drove my spear straight into his chest.

The impact rattled my whole body. Aurelia pierced his ribcage, bursting through his back in a geyser of scarlet. Divine light surged through his veins, and his demonic eyes went dark in an instant.

The specter shrieked, tearing apart in the radiance like burning cloth. Its cry echoed through the dungeon, then shattered into a thousand black fragments that evaporated into nothing.

The giant staggered.

His hands dropped his sword, his knees slammed the ground with a thunderous crash. His massive carcass trembled one last time... then collapsed, unleashing a storm of dust and blood.

The Voice of the World rang in my head. Cold. Absolute.

— [Level 10 reached.]

— [Unique skill: Genesis evolved to level 2.]

— [Unique skill: ...]

I turned away.

My eyes sought Ayame at once.

She was breathing. Her belly, still smeared with blood, was slowly closing under the golden light pouring from Hikari’s trembling hands. Her daughter still sobbed, but her repeated spells worked, stitching flesh, soothing pain.

— "Mom... Mom, hold on..." she cried, her voice trembling but hopeful.

Ayame lifted a weak hand, caressed her cheek, a faint smile on her lips.

— "It’s all right..." she whispered.

Around them, Reina sighed, her shoulders finally easing. Miyu let out a nervous laugh, the flames on her katana extinguishing with a puff. Even I felt my body slacken, the tension leaving my muscles like I’d carried a mountain too long.

I closed my eyes for a moment, a bitter smile on my lips.

Yeah... we’d won.

Then my legs gave out, from exhaustion and from lack of mana.