Kael sat cross-legged within one of the deeper chambers of the Dungeon, a slate of blackened crystal before him glowing faintly as his quill scratched across it. Around him, skeletal servitors placed fragments of metal, stone, and enchanted cores in neat rows.
He was not idle. For days, the idea had gnawed at him—constructs. Not mere skeletons or summoned beasts, but crafted soldiers bound by his mana and the Dungeon's will. If perfected, they could be the silent backbone of his hidden empire.
"Tank models…" Kael muttered, sketching rough designs. "Layered plating of hardened stone, reinforced with Abyssal bone to absorb impacts. Fighter types—lighter, faster, wielding forged blades enchanted by dwarves. Mage-types with embedded runes to channel stored spells. And then…" His eyes narrowed, quill pressing hard. "Artillery units. Static placement. They don't move—just fire projectiles like the mortars I saw in the war texts of my past life."
The skeletal minions shifted the materials again, and Kael stood, placing a core into a half-finished construct. Its runes lit briefly, limbs shuddering to life—but it froze mid-motion, still too unstable.
"Not yet," Kael murmured. "They'll serve… once perfected."
He dusted his hands and turned to leave the workshop chamber, intending to refine the first prototype.
But then the Dungeon Core chamber shook.
A pulse. Raw, violent, undeniable.
Kael stopped. Slowly, he turned. His expression darkened as the familiar egg—the one pulsing since its discovery—shattered with a sound like a breaking glacier under fire.
The crack widened, molten light spilling from one side, a piercing frost from the other.
The little girl, who had been waiting quietly near Megalania's side, gasped, hands clutching her small dress as the egg split in two.
From it emerged not one… but two creatures.
Twin dragons, their scales still soft with new life, tumbled onto the stone floor. One's body shimmered with crimson heat, each breath sending waves of fire that licked across the chamber walls. The other gleamed with icy blue, frost wreathing its small wings, steam rising wherever its breath touched stone.
Two halves of one whole.
Their eyes opened together—golden slits glowing with ancient awareness. And the first thing those eyes locked onto was not Kael.
But the girl.
They tilted their heads in unison, heat and cold swirling around her. The fireling released a crackling hiss, the iceling exhaled a veil of frost, but the girl didn't flinch.
Kael's gaze sharpened. Normally, the clash of those elements would have scalded or frozen any ordinary body within moments. Yet she stood unaffected—her hair ruffled by heat, her cheeks kissed by frost, as if both elements already acknowledged her.
"Interesting," Kael whispered, arms folding.
The girl knelt down, smiling through her wide eyes. "They're… looking at me, big brother."
The twin hatchlings padded closer, their tiny claws scraping across the stone. They pressed their heads against her palms, heat and cold balancing perfectly against her skin.
From the Dungeon Core itself, a voice resonated in Kael's mind.
[System Notice]: A Titan-Class Summoner has been recognized by Twin Entities. Fire-Aspect and Ice-Aspect hatchlings have acknowledged bond candidate. Full synchronization possible.
Kael inhaled slowly, the corners of his mouth lifting in a shadow of a smile. So even fate bends for her.
He turned his gaze away briefly, murmuring to himself. "Then… these two will not be weapons alone. They'll be her guardians. Her symbols."
The hatchlings curled around the girl's small frame, fire and ice coiling together in harmony where normally destruction would reign.
Kael's steps echoed as he left the chamber, but his mind was burning.
Golems. Constructs. Armies. Titans. And now twin dragons born to the girl… My pieces on the board are multiplying faster than theirs ever will.
The foundations of empires trembled quietly in the dark.
Kael rubbed his temples as the parchment in front of him filled with messy diagrams. He had been sketching models for hours—ideas for golems specialized by class: a shield-bearing tank, a fighter with reinforced arms, a mage unit capable of storing spells in crystal nodes, and even a stationary bombardment model designed to fire mana projectiles like mortars.
"Stability is the problem…" Kael muttered, staring at the half-finished rune schematics. "Power is easy. Control is another matter."
Just as he set his quill aside, a tremor shook the dungeon.
His head snapped toward the core chamber. The egg.
He strode quickly, cloak brushing the dungeon floor as Pyraflame and the little girl already stood watching. The lizard crouched nearby, tail twitching, while the slimes hummed in chorus around the glowing shell.
Cracks began to spread, each one releasing bursts of elemental energy—flames hissed out of one fissure, frost bled from another. The chamber walls glowed with red heat before instantly frosting over.
"Two opposing elements in one vessel… No wonder the dungeon trembles," Kael whispered.
The shell shattered.
Two wyrmlings tumbled out—one wreathed in crimson fire, the other cloaked in glacial mist. They blinked their bright eyes, immediately locking onto the little girl. Instead of hostility, there was familiarity, as though they had known her all along.
She reached out timidly. Neither flame nor frost harmed her. They pressed their snouts into her palms.
But then—something shifted.
Their small bodies shimmered with unnatural light. Heat and frost collided, yet instead of clashing, the elements spiraled together. Their forms melted into one another like molten glass joining with ice crystal.
Before the stunned audience, their bodies reformed into something greater.
A two-headed dragon rose where two wyrmlings had been. Its left head glowed with molten eyes, breath steaming with fire. Its right head shimmered icy-blue, frost curling from its jaws. The body was divided down the center—half fire-forged scale, half frozen crystal.
Its roar tore through the dungeon, both heads bellowing in harmony—one belching a plume of flame, the other exhaling a storm of frost. The clash of elements shook the floor itself, forcing Kael to steady his footing.
[System Notice]: Twin Entities of the Twinfang Clan identified. Unique Skill Unlocked — [Convergence: Two-Headed Dragon].
Kael's lips curved behind his mask. "A beast with both ruin and stillness… this is beyond what I expected."
The dungeon core pulsed violently. Mana surged through every floor, spiraling upward until the chamber walls glowed.
[System Notice]: Mana threshold exceeded. Dungeon evolution sequence initiated. Rank advancing: E → C.
Kael exhaled slowly. "So the twins' birth is enough to force a leap in evolution…"
As the system processed the rank upgrade, he turned back to his research. A new idea struck him.
He summoned four C-rank magic crystals, fusing them together with compressed runes and sealing them inside a metal frame. It pulsed violently—far stronger than any single core.
"This will be the heart."
The prototype golem creaked to life, its frame humanoid yet crude. Kael struck the chest plate with his knuckle—stable. Energy distribution flowed evenly. A success.
He wasted no time, calling forth ten figures he had been preparing: three elves, four humans, and three dwarves. Each was sharper than their kin, chosen for intelligence rather than brute strength.
"You ten will lead the Research Division," Kael instructed. "The ninth floor is yours for theory. The tenth for testing. Fail as many times as you like. What matters is progress."
They bowed, reverent, as the prototype golem stood behind Kael like a silent sentinel.
And beneath it all, the dungeon rumbled deeper, alive with the power of its newborn monsters.