The scent of blood was thick—metallic, pungent, and fresh.
Kael staggered through the suffocating darkness of the dungeon's tenth layer, each step heavier than the last. The torchlight barely pushed back the shadows, and his legs trembled under borrowed armor that didn't fit and a rusted blade that had never been sharpened.
His health bar blinked in his peripheral vision—20%. One more hit and he was done.
But the worst pain wasn't in his body. It was in the betrayal clawing through his chest.
"Keep up, Kael, or die where you stand," Gareth snapped from up ahead, not even turning around. The party's leader—high-level, smug, and once Kael's mentor—didn't even bother to mask the contempt anymore.
Kael's dry throat cracked as he tried to speak. "I'm trying… I just—"
"Try harder. Or don't. Makes no difference to us."
The others didn't say a word. Not even Lira, the healer who used to hand him water and smile like he mattered.
He didn't.
Not anymore.
He was the weakest in the guild—a Level 2 warrior in a world where strength meant everything. A mistake of recruitment. A burden. A joke.
A sacrificial pawn.
They all knew it. They just hadn't said it out loud. Until now.
Kael's boot caught on loose stone. He fell hard, scraping his palms, his sword clattering into the dark. "Wait… please…"
Gareth finally turned. "You don't get it, do you?" he said, voice low and cruel. "This was never about helping you. We needed someone to trigger the beacon."
Kael's blood ran cold.
"No…"
"You're bait, Kael. That's all you've ever been. And now, your job is done."
Gareth tossed a black crystal at Kael's feet. It shattered.
[Abyssal Beacon Activated.]
The ground shook.
Kael's eyes widened in horror as the floor beneath him cracked, a gaping abyss forming under his body.
"You… you planned this?"
Gareth's last words echoed in Kael's ears as he plummeted.
"Try not to die too fast."
Then the void swallowed him.
Impact.
His body slammed into rock with a sickening crunch. Ribs shattered. A sharp cry tore from his throat before darkness took him.
Time blurred—minutes, hours, maybe days.
When consciousness returned, it came with pain—raw, blinding, everywhere.
His HUD flickered in his vision:
Health: 4%
Broken Ribs: 3
Fractured Leg: 1
Potions: 0
He was alive.
Barely.
Kael gritted his teeth and began to crawl through the darkness, dragging his shattered leg behind him. His sword was gone. His bag torn.
Only his will remained.
And something deeper—something darker. A whisper in the back of his mind that wasn't his own.
Hate.
The betrayal burned hotter than his wounds. They had used him, mocked him, thrown him away like garbage.
And yet, even in this cursed place, he refused to die.
As he pulled himself through the dust and blood, a strange light flickered in the corner of his vision—soft, pulsing… alive.
Curiosity—or maybe fate—dragged him toward it.
Through a collapsed tunnel, past crushed bones and ancient runes, he entered a circular chamber, unlike anything mapped in the dungeon records.
There, beneath chains that floated mid-air and stone that breathed like a beast, stood a throne.
It was twisted and terrible. Black metal and bone, wrapped in chains that moved on their own. At its base lay a shattered weapon—just a shard of a blade—but it radiated raw, forbidden power.
As Kael neared, words scorched themselves across his vision:
[Cursed Relic Detected: Shard of Sovereignty]
Warning: Binding will result in Class Corruption. Soul Compatibility: 99.9%
Do you accept the Shard?
Kael's lips cracked into a grin.
"They cursed me first."
He reached out.
[System Awakening… Binding Successful.]
[Unique Class Obtained: Godbound Pariah]
[Title Unlocked: The Betrayed One]
[Skill Gained: Rulebreaker's Will]
[Skill Gained: Devour Curse]
[Skill Gained: Throne of Chains – Dormant]
[Corruption Immunity Granted.]
[Level Up: 2 → 27]
His body convulsed. Bones snapped and reformed. Power flooded his veins like wildfire. The shard in his hand bled shadow and reshaped itself into a jagged blade of darkness.
Kael screamed—but it wasn't pain anymore.
It was rebirth.
The dungeon shook.
Chains around the throne writhed.
And Kael rose—not as a boy begging for help, but as something new. Something monstrous.
His HUD blinked again:
[Dungeon Threat Level: Catastrophic. Entity Classification: Unregistered Pariah. All human factions now mark you as Kill on Sight.]
Kael laughed.
"I hope they try."
Deeper in the Abyss – Sublevel 13
The monster lunged without warning—an Abyss Reaver, all bone and tendrils, its maw opening like a screaming maw of knives.
Kael didn't flinch.
[Skill: Rulebreaker's Will Activated.]
The beast froze mid-leap, its very essence rebelling against reality.
Kael stepped forward, eyes glowing with violet fire. He slashed once—clean and brutal.
[Skill: Devour Curse Activated.]
The blade didn't just kill.
It consumed.
The Reaver's scream echoed as it crumbled into shadow, its soul ripped from existence and funneled into Kael's growing power.
[EXP Gained: 3,000]
[Level Up: 27 → 28]
He didn't celebrate.
He wanted more.
Three Days Later – Surface, Adventurer Guild Hall
Gareth leaned against the guild counter, boasting of their "successful mission."
"No casualties," he said with a smirk. "Just a little dead weight we had to let go."
The clerk nodded, stamping their reward.
Then a red alert flashed behind her.
[ALERT: Abyssal Dungeon Breach Detected – Subfloor 13]
Entity Unidentified – Estimated Threat: Cataclysmic]
Gareth frowned. "What the hell?"
The clerk looked pale. "That floor was sealed… No one should be alive down there…"
Back in the Abyss
Kael stood before the Throne of Chains once more.
The shadows bowed to him now.
The blade pulsed in his hand.
And above him, a new message burned itself across the air:
[Dungeon Authority Unlocked: You are now the Sovereign of Layer 13.]
[Abilities Gained: Command Abyssal Beasts | Forge Subfloors | Consume Invaders]
Kael sat upon the throne.
A thousand chains slithered toward him, wrapping around his arms like anointed armor.
They had cast him into the dark to die.
Instead, he had become its king.
...