The trio moved in silence, their footsteps echoing softly against the glimmering crystal walls. Every so often, the cave would pulse with eerie light, making the shadows dance and stretch like specters.
Devin cast a glance ahead. The gate massive, ancient, and looming seemed to grow larger with every step they took, its ominous presence gnawing at the edges of his mind.
But it wasn't the dungeon that weighed on him the most it was the silence.
He looked to his side, at Daelan, who marched with quiet purpose. The older man's greatsword rested lazily across his back, but his expression was clouded. Determined, yes. But also… hollow. Burdened.
"Hey," Devin said at last, his voice low, cutting through the hush. "Mind if I ask something?"
Daelan didn't answer immediately. He just glanced over with a brow raised slightly, curious.
Devin hesitated, then pushed forward. "How did you end up in all this? I mean… a death march expedition like this usually isn't a first pick for hunters. Most of us are here because we're desperate."
Beside him, Lolicia perked up. Her limp had improved, and while her face was pale, her eyes were bright with interest. "I've been wondering the same," she added softly. "You don't look like someone chasing glory. You look like someone who's been carrying a war on his back."
For a moment, Daelan didn't reply.
Then he stopped walking.
The silence stretched, broken only by the soft hum of mana in the walls and the distant echoes of their allies exploring far-off chambers.
Daelan stared at the glowing stone beneath his feet, and when he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. Rough.
"I never wanted this life."
Devin and Lolicia stayed silent, giving him space to continue.
"I was a construction worker," Daelan began, his gaze distant. "Normal guy. Laid bricks, fixed roads. Nothing glamorous. Then one day, during a roadside job, I awakened. Nothing crazy. Just… D-rank. Useful enough to work small dungeons. So I switched careers. Figured it'd pay better. Less back pain."
He let out a low chuckle, but there was no humor in it.
"Five years ago, my wife gave birth to our daughter. Little thing. Full head of black hair and a scream that could shatter stone. She…" his voice caught for a moment, "she didn't make it. Complications during delivery. No healer around who could do anything in time. Just like that… gone."
Lolicia covered her mouth, eyes wide with sympathy. Devin's fists clenched.
Daelan continued.
"I raised my daughter alone. Did every job I could find. Cleared goblin nests, picked herbs in haunted woods, even helped clean out sewage dungeons for guilds too scared to go in themselves. She grew up smiling. Strong kid. Tougher than me."
He finally looked up, his eyes shimmering faintly not with tears, but with something deeper. Grief wrapped in iron.
"Two years ago, she collapsed. Doctors found a hole in her heart. A rare condition. Said a basic healer couldn't fix it. Needed someone A-rank or higher. High-level internal healing. Magic like that costs more than most of us will ever see."
Devin felt a weight settle in his chest. He didn't interrupt.
"She's still alive. Barely," Daelan said, his voice thick now. "In a shitty clinic with just enough care to keep her from dying, but not enough to help her live. So when this job came up a Shadow-sanctioned expedition with a high risk and a higher payout I took it."
He looked at them both. "Not because I thought I could win. But because I didn't have a choice."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Finally, Devin stepped forward and clapped a hand on Daelan's shoulder. "We'll make it out," he said firmly. "All of us. You'll see your daughter again and this time, with the money to fix everything."
Daelan looked at him for a long moment.
Then he gave a small, tired smile.
"I want to believe that," he murmured. "I really do."
Their footsteps had slowed as the weight of Daelan's story settled heavily between them. Devin walked in silence, his mind replaying every word the image of a little girl clinging to life in a hospital bed while her father threw himself into death's jaws just to save her. Lolicia's usual bright curiosity had faded into a mournful stillness, and even the pulsing crystal light seemed to dim.
But then
A tremor.
A deep, resonating quake rippled through the floor like a heartbeat of something ancient and colossal awakening. The air vibrated. Dust fell from the crystal ceilings. They all stopped dead in their tracks.
Ahead of them, the massive gate one that had loomed over the dungeon like a silent executioner began to creak open. Not slowly, not with the ceremonial weight of something grand. It snapped open like jaws unhinging, wide and violent.
"What the hell…" Devin muttered, his throat dry.
They could feel it immediately.
The air grew heavy. Wrong. Like the entire dungeon itself was holding its breath.
"Why is it opening on its own?" Lolicia whispered, her voice trembling.
No one answered.
Because none of them had the strength to.
They all knew what lay behind that gate. They had watched helpless from afar as the leader of the Peerless Guild, an SSS-rank hunter feared across nations, was torn apart like a child's toy.
If he couldn't survive it…
How could they?
But it wasn't just fear in their eyes.
It was horror. The kind of horror that burrows beneath the skin and makes the soul shiver.
And Erin, the eccentric and normally smug D-rank hunter who had mocked death just hours ago. His face… it had changed completely.
Gone was the grin.
Gone was the arrogance.
In its place was pure, undiluted terror. Eyes wide, mouth agape, he looked like a man who had just gazed upon death itself and found himself in its crosshairs.
He stumbled back. "No… no… no, not now! Not like this!"
He turned to run.
But his legs betrayed him.
He collapsed to the ground, arms trembling as he tried to crawl away, but his limbs were like jelly. The fear it had stolen the strength from his body.
A shadow loomed.
Baelgor emerged from the open gate.
A humanoid monster, impossibly tall and built like a living nightmare. His skin shimmered with a dark, obsidian sheen. A long, serpentine tail coiled behind him, twitching with amusement. His eyes gleamed with an unnatural, hungry light, and on his face was a smile that stretched too wide to be human. Teeth like razors, eyes like voids.
He tilted his head slightly, studying the fragile humans before him with perverse curiosity.
Then he spoke, his voice guttural, alien.
"Perfect."
The moment the word escaped his lips, the world collapsed.
His aura exploded outward like a tidal wave of death.
It slammed into them no, it crushed them. The sheer pressure forced them to their knees. Their lungs refused to breathe. Their vision blurred. The very air around them screamed in pain.
One by one, the hunters began to fall.
Erin's body went still first. His eyes rolled back, foam at the corners of his mouth. Lifeless.
Others followed in quick succession. Men and women trained fighters, skilled warriors reduced to nothing but twitching bodies on the floor.
Devin was on his knees, his fingers clawing at his throat. His eyes bulged red, veins crawling across his sclera. Breathe, he screamed in his head. Just breathe!
He turned to his side.
"Lolicia…?"
Her eyes were open but they stared into nothingness. Her fragile body slumped over, lifeless. Gone.
"No no, no, no!" he tried to cry, but no sound came out.
To his other side, Daelan was on all fours. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with the dust and blood pooling beneath him. His lips moved in silent desperation.
"I'm sorry, Elira… Papa failed you… I'm sorry…"
Then he, too, collapsed face-first into the stone, his last breath stolen.
Devin's vision was fading. He could feel his soul being dragged into the abyss.
This is it? he thought, as the world blurred.
Am I really dying here…?
He saw flashes his mother's weary face in a hospital bed. Her kind eyes. Her frail hand gripping his.
I… I promised her I'd save her…
His heart screamed as his lips trembled.
"I'm… sorry…"
And then, everything turned black.
He fell.