---
The door swung open, and Ren stepped through.
Behind him, Maya screamed his name. Seraphina's voice cut through—sharp, urgent—but it was already fading, swallowed by the darkness that pulled him forward like a current.
He wasn't in the dungeon anymore.
He was in a hospital.
The smells hit him first—antiseptic, sickness, the particular stale sweetness of a room where someone had been dying for too long. White walls. Fluorescent lights that hummed with eternal indifference. A waiting room chair that had molded itself to his body over endless weeks.
Three years ago.
He knew this memory. Had lived it. Had replayed it a thousand times in his nightmares.
No. No, I don't want to—
But the dungeon didn't care what he wanted.
A door opened. A doctor emerged—not a real doctor, just a shape wearing a familiar face, its features blurred like a photograph left in rain.
"Mr. Vance. Your father is asking for you."
Ren's feet moved on their own, carrying him down the corridor he'd walked so many times. Room 317. The door half-open. The sound of a machine breathing for a man who could no longer breathe on his own.
And inside, the bed.
His father lay in it, wasted to almost nothing. Cancer had eaten him slowly, methodically, taking pieces day by day until what remained was just a sketch of the man who had taught Ren to ride a bike, to throw a punch, to never give up.
But his eyes were still his eyes. Still alive. Still him.
And they were looking at Ren.
"Son." The voice was a whisper, a ghost of itself. "Come here. Please."
Ren couldn't move. Couldn't speak. He knew this moment. Knew exactly what came next.
"I need you to do something for me." His father's hand—bones wrapped in paper-thin skin—reached out. "The machines. The... the pain. I can't—" A cough that shook the whole bed. "I can't do this anymore."
Ren's throat closed. "Dad—"
"Please." Tears leaked from the corners of his father's eyes. "I've fought. God, I've fought. But I'm so tired, Ren. I'm so tired. Just... let me go. Tell them to let me go."
Ren remembered. Remembered the weight of those words. Remembered standing in this room, eighteen years old, holding his father's hand while the man who raised him begged to die.
And he remembered what he said.
"I can't."
His father's face crumpled. "Ren—"
"I can't. You're all I have. Mom's gone. It's just you and Maya and me. I can't lose you too." The words poured out, desperate, selfish, human. "Fight. Please. Just fight a little longer. I'll find a way. I'll get more money, I'll find a specialist, I'll—"
"Ren." His father's voice was gentle now. Forgiving. "There's nothing to find. It's time."
"No."
"Son—"
"I SAID NO."
The machines beeped faster. His father's hand squeezed weakly.
"I won't let you go. I won't. You can't make me choose that. You can't."
His father looked at him for a long moment. Then, so quietly Ren almost didn't hear:
"I'm not asking you to choose. I'm asking you to love me enough to let go."
Ren woke screaming.
---
He was on the floor of the dungeon bedroom, gasping, tears streaming down his face. Maya knelt beside him, shaking his shoulders, her own face wet.
"Ren! Ren, it's me! It's Maya! You're back, you're okay, you're—"
He grabbed her. Pulled her close. Held on like she might disappear.
"I couldn't do it," he choked out. "I couldn't let him go. He asked me to let him go and I couldn't and he suffered for three more weeks because I was too selfish—"
"Stop." Maya's voice was fierce. "Stop it. You were eighteen. You were scared. He knew you loved him. He knew."
"But I—"
"He told me, Ren. Before he died. He told me you were the bravest person he'd ever known. Because you stayed. Because you held his hand every day even though it was killing you. Because you loved him when loving him meant watching him fade."
Ren stared at her.
"He said that?"
"He said that. And he said to tell you—" Maya's voice broke. "He said to tell you that letting go isn't failing. It's the last gift. And you gave him three more weeks of that gift. You gave him you."
「SYSTEM NOTIFICATION」
「DUNGEON: THE BASEMENT OF FORGOTTEN THINGS」
「FLOOR 1 TRIAL: REMEMBER - PARTIALLY COMPLETE」
「HOST REN VANCE: ACKNOWLEDGED GUILT WITHOUT DROWNING」
「REWARD: MEMORY FRAGMENT - FATHER'S VOICE」
「EFFECT: WHEN ACTIVATED, GRANTS +50% TO DEFENSIVE ACTIONS FOR 30 SECONDS」
「THIS FRAGMENT CAN BE UPGRADED THROUGH FURTHER CONFRONTATION」
The memory faded—the hospital, the machines, his father's face—leaving Ren kneeling on the dungeon floor, holding his sister, breathing.
Seraphina stood at the edge of the room, her expression unreadable. But her flames burned brighter than before.
"You faced it," she said quietly. "Most do not. They fall into the memory and never return."
"It wasn't a choice." Ren's voice was rough. "Maya pulled me out."
"No." Seraphina shook her head. "She called to you. But you chose to hear her. That is the difference between drowning and being saved." She paused. "Your father... he was proud of you. I could feel it. Even in the memory, his love was stronger than his pain."
Ren looked at her. For the first time, he saw something in her eyes that wasn't ancient or distant.
It was longing.
"You miss her," he realized. "Your daughter. You miss her the way I miss him."
Seraphina's flames flickered. "Every moment. Every breath. For ten thousand years."
Maya reached out and took Seraphina's hand.
The contact was electric. Seraphina gasped—actually gasped—as warmth flooded through her. Her flames roared bright, then settled into a steady glow she hadn't felt since Veridia fell.
「SYSTEM NOTIFICATION (PRIVATE)」
「CREDITOR: SERAPHINA (FORMER WARDEN)」
「EMOTIONAL CONTACT DETECTED WITH DEBTOR'S SIBLING」
「SOUL RESONANCE INCREASING」
「WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED BOND FORMATION IN PROGRESS」
「THIS MAY HAVE UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES」
Seraphina pulled her hand back as if burned. But her eyes—her ancient, empty eyes—were wet.
"No one," she whispered, "has touched me with kindness in ten thousand years."
Maya didn't look away. "Then it's about time someone did."
---
The bedroom door creaked open again. Not the door to the memory—the real door, leading deeper into the dungeon.
Beyond it, the corridor stretched into darkness, lined with more doors. Each one pulsed faintly, waiting.
"How many floors did the System say?" Ren asked, helping Maya up.
"Ten." Seraphina's voice was steadier now, though her flames still danced with unusual energy. "Each floor will test you differently. The first was memory. The second might be fear. The third, loss. The dungeon tailors itself to the deepest parts of your soul."
"Great. So we get to relive our greatest hits." Ren gripped his pipe. "Maya. You okay?"
She nodded, but her face was pale. "What if mine is... what if it's about being sick? About being weak? About holding you back?"
Ren turned to face her fully. "Listen to me. You have never held me back. You are the reason I keep going. Without you, I'm just some guy trying to survive. With you, I'm someone worth surviving for. You understand?"
Maya's eyes welled up, but she nodded.
"Good. Now let's go traumatize ourselves some more."
He led the way into the corridor.
---
The second door opened onto darkness.
Not the absence of light—the presence of something else. A pressure, a weight, a sense of being watched by things that should not exist.
Ren stepped through, and the world changed.
He was in a forest. Ancient trees towered overhead, their branches weaving together to block the sky. Mist clung to the ground, thick and cold. Somewhere in the distance, something howled.
But that wasn't what made his blood freeze.
It was the eyes.
Everywhere—in the trees, in the mist, in the shadows between—eyes watched him. Thousands of them. Hungry. Patient. Knowing.
「DUNGEON: THE BASEMENT OF FORGOTTEN THINGS」
「FLOOR 2 / 10」
「OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE」
「WARNING: THIS FLOOR MANIFESTS YOUR DEEPEST FEAR. IT IS NOT REAL. IT WILL KILL YOU ANYWAY.」
Ren's Hunter's Instinct went haywire—red dots everywhere, closing fast, too many to count.
"Ren!" Maya's voice came from somewhere to his left. He couldn't see her through the mist.
"Maya! Stay close!"
"I'm trying! I can't—something's wrong, I can't move my—"
Her voice cut off.
Ren ran toward where she'd been, pipe raised, heart pounding. The eyes followed. The mist parted.
Maya stood frozen, her body rigid, her face locked in an expression of pure terror.
Behind her, a figure emerged from the mist.
It was Maya. Another Maya. But wrong—her skin was gray, her eyes were black, her mouth stretched too wide.
"Look," the thing whispered in Maya's voice. "Look what you did to me. All those years of carrying me. All those years of sacrifice. I was your burden. Your chains. You could have been free. You could have lived your own life. But you chose me. You chose to be weighed down."
"That's not real," Ren snarled. "You're not her."
"Am I not?" The thing smiled. "Then why does she believe it? Look at her face. She knows I'm telling the truth."
Ren looked at Maya. Her eyes were huge, streaming tears, but she couldn't move, couldn't speak.
"Let her go," he said.
"Make me."
The eyes in the forest surged forward.
Ren moved.
Later, he wouldn't remember the fight clearly. Just fragments—swinging the pipe, feeling it connect with something solid, hearing the screams of things that should not exist. Maya's frozen face. The other Maya's laughter.
And then, cutting through everything, a voice he didn't recognize.
His own voice. But deeper. Stronger.
"You are not her fear. You are her BROTHER."
Something exploded inside him. Light—golden, brilliant—burst from his chest, throwing back the mist, banishing the eyes, shattering the false Maya into fragments of shadow.
「SOUL LUMINANCE SPIKE DETECTED」
「HOST REN VANCE HAS UNLOCKED: SOUL SHOUT (PROTOTYPE)」
「EFFECT: BRIEFLY BANISHES LESSER FEAR-BASED MANIFESTATIONS」
「THIS ABILITY DRAWS FROM EMOTIONAL BONDS」
「WARNING: REPEATED USE MAY CAUSE SOUL FATIGUE」
Ren collapsed to his knees, gasping. The light faded. The mist retreated.
Maya stumbled forward, free now, and fell into his arms.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I'm not a burden, I know you don't think that, but sometimes I feel it and I can't—"
"Hey." He held her tight. "Hey. Listen. That thing wasn't you. It was fear wearing your face. And fear lies. You know what's true?"
She shook against his chest.
"What's true is that I wake up every morning because you exist. What's true is that when the world ended, the only thing I cared about was finding you. What's true is that you are not my burden. You are my reason. Got it?"
"Got it." Her voice was muffled.
"Good. Now let's find a way out of this nightmare forest before something else tries to kill us."
---
They walked for what felt like hours. The mist shifted but never cleared. The eyes watched but didn't attack. The forest stretched on, endless and empty.
Seraphina reappeared beside them, materializing from the gloom. Her flames were steady now, but her expression was troubled.
"This floor is not behaving normally," she said quietly. "Dungeons are structured. Predictable. This one is... responding to you. Adapting."
"Adapting how?"
"I do not know. But I sense something else here. Something that does not belong." She looked around, her ancient eyes scanning the mist. "A presence. Watching. Learning."
Ren thought of the Horde Lord outside. The way it had looked at their house. The intelligence in its eyes.
"You think it followed us in?"
"Impossible. Dungeons are sealed to outside entities. Only those who enter through the designated entrance can—" She stopped. Her flames flared. "Unless."
"Unless what?"
"Unless it forced its way in. Sacrificed part of its horde to overload the dungeon's threshold." Her voice was barely a whisper. "If it did that... it is not just intelligent. It is strategic. It has begun to think like a hunter rather than a predator."
A hunter. Not just killing—planning.
Ren's grip tightened on his pipe. "So we might have company in here."
"If the dungeon does not kill it first. But dungeons are not designed to kill evolved infected. They are designed to test the unevolved." She met his eyes. "If it survives the dungeon's trials, it will emerge stronger. And it will remember you."
"Great. So we either die in here or die out there."
"Not necessarily." Seraphina's eyes glowed. "If you clear the dungeon first, you will receive rewards. Power. Skills. Evolution. You may emerge strong enough to face it."
Maya spoke for the first time since the forest. "Then we clear it fast."
Ren looked at her. The fear was still in her eyes, but beneath it—something new. Determination.
"That's my sister."
They walked on.
---
The forest ended abruptly, giving way to a clearing. In the center stood a single door, floating in midair, surrounded by nothing.
「FLOOR 2 COMPLETE」
「SURVIVORS: REN VANCE + MAYA VANCE」
「REWARD CALCULATING...」
「EMOTIONAL BOND STRENGTHENED: SIBLING BOND UPGRADED TO UNCOMMON」
「EFFECT: +10% TO ALL COMBAT ABILITIES WHEN WITHIN 100 METERS」
「EFFECT: SHARED PAIN MITIGATION - 15% OF DAMAGE TRANSFERRED TO OTHER BONDED PARTY」
「EFFECT: EMOTIONAL RESONANCE - CAN SENSE EACH OTHER'S BASIC EMOTIONAL STATE AT ALL TIMES」
「ADDITIONAL REWARD: SKILL UPGRADE」
「HUNTER'S INSTINCT (COMMON) → HUNTER'S AWARENESS (UNCOMMON)」
「EFFECT: PASSIVE DETECTION OF ALL LIVING BEINGS WITHIN 75 METERS」
「EFFECT: ABILITY TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN HOSTILE, NEUTRAL, AND FRIENDLY ENTITIES」
Ren felt the knowledge settle into his bones—not learned, but remembered. Like his body had always known how to sense danger, and the System had just reminded him.
"Can you feel it?" he asked Maya. "The bond upgrade?"
She nodded slowly. "I can... I can feel that you're worried. But also determined. And—" She blushed slightly. "And that you love me. It's weird. Like a warm feeling that's yours but also mine."
"That is the emotional resonance," Seraphina said. "Rare. Very rare. Siblings who survive trauma together sometimes develop it. But to have it so early..." She shook her head. "You two are anomalies."
"We're just people trying not to die."
"No. You are people who refuse to die. There is a difference." She gestured to the floating door. "Eight floors remain. The dungeon will grow harder. But you grow faster. That is the nature of evolution."
Ren looked at Maya. "Ready?"
She took a breath. Nodded.
He pushed open the door.
---
They fell into the third floor without transition—one moment standing in the clearing, the next tumbling through darkness to land hard on cold stone.
Ren groaned, pushing himself up. They were in a cavern. Vast, dimly lit by glowing crystals embedded in the walls. The air was cold and still.
And they weren't alone.
Across the cavern, something stirred.
It was human-shaped. Sort of. But its skin was stone, its eyes were crystals, and its movements were slow, grinding, like mountains learning to walk.
「DUNGEON: THE BASEMENT OF FORGOTTEN THINGS」
「FLOOR 3 / 10」
「OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT THE GUARDIAN」
「GUARDIAN: CRYSTAL COLOSSUS (F-RANK)」
「WARNING: THIS BEING HAS EVOLVED ONCE. IT IS STRONGER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE FACED.」
The Colossus turned. Its crystal eyes fixed on them.
The ground shook as it took a step forward.
Ren raised his pipe.
"Okay," he said. "New plan."
Maya gripped her hammer. "What plan?"
"We hit it until it stops moving."
"That's a terrible plan."
"Got a better one?"
The Colossus roared—a sound like an avalanche—and charged.
Ren ran toward it.
Behind him, Maya screamed his name.
Above them both, Seraphina watched, her flames burning bright, her ancient heart pounding with something she had not felt in ten thousand years.
Fear.
Not for herself.
For him.
---
End of Chapter 4
---
Chapter 5 Preview:
The Crystal Colossus is only the beginning. Floor after floor, the dungeon tests Ren and Maya's bond, their courage, their will to survive. But something is following them through the trials—something that wants Ren's soul for itself.
And on Floor 7, they will face a choice that changes everything:
One of them must stay behind.
But the Horde Lord is waiting. And it will not wait forever.
Chapter 5: "The Heart of the Dungeon" — Coming Next
---