The team stepped into the Teleportation Gate one after another, their bodies dissolving into streaks of white light as they vanished into the Misty Palace.
Unlike Party Dungeons, Team Dungeons operated on an entirely different scale. Their maps were even vaster, often spanning areas as large as a small town and in some cases, rivaling the size of full-fledged cities that could house millions.
Immediately after everyone entered the The Misty Palace, a chilling wind ambushed them, causing their entire bodies to shiver.
Inside the Misty Palace, a suffocating darkness clung to every corner. Gray-white moonlight hung unnaturally in the sky above, casting twisted shadows across shattered pillars and overturned furniture. Once-grand halls now resembled a forsaken ruin, with broken ornaments scattered like remnants of forgotten glory.
The air was thick with mist, its cold bite carrying whispers that slithered through the ears like curses. Low wails of anguish echoed endlessly, neither near nor far, filling the palace with a dread that clawed at the heart. Every step forward seemed to trespass deeper into despair, as though the palace itself resented their presence.
The palace swallowed sound as the team fanned out beneath its sagging archways, gray‑white moonlight hanging unnaturally in the vaulted gloom. A cold draft lifted the mist like breath from a sleeping beast. Kaito raised a hand, and ten shadows stilled as one.
"I'll divide up our responsibilities first," he said, voice low but iron‑steady. "Raven blade, Suzune go at the front. Scout the outer walkways. There's a patrol on a loop, lure them to us."
Both of them nodded and slipped off, daggers catching phantom glints as the fog folded around them.
Kaito turned to the casters. "Nina, directly use Frozen Domain when they come. Lock their path and slow them down" He glanced at Kaede. "Thunder attacks deal the most damage but don't go all out. Open with Lightning Chain to break their cohesion." His gaze slid to Lucien Dusk. "Fire still hurts them. Inferno Surge when I call."
He swept the rest with a look. "Remember: these are wraiths. Physical strikes don't do much damage to them. make sure that you use elemental skills."
Everyone answered with a small nod, Aika already gathering quiet radiance into her palms. Hiroto set his stance, Daichi rolled his shoulders; gold‑tinged ki simmered beneath his skin, ready to flare. Mei rin exhaled, the wind already answering her in thin ribbons curling around her bowstring.
From their left cloister came the wails of wraiths and the soft scrape of boots on ancient stone. Two shadows broke into a run Ravenblade and Suzune streaking back toward the marble courtyard where Kaito and team waited. Behind them, the mist shuddered and poured forward in a long gray wave.
The patrol emerged.
Panels flickered into view as the wraiths crossed the threshold of the courtyard's ruined balustrade:
Wraith Soldier (Elite)
Level: 15
Health: 3240 / 3240
Attack: 415–435
Two became ten; ten became twenty. They weren't running so much as gliding, halberds tilted at the same angle, eyes like burned‑out stars. Their steps made no sound, but the air shook with a chorus of low, steady keening that set teeth on edge.
Kaito remembered most of these wraith soldiers possessed skills like Phantasmal Body which gave them the Physical damage Reduction, Illusory Split and Soul Wail.
"Hold," Kaito said as he watched the squad of the patrol wraith soldier "Now!"
Nina swept her staff down.
A ring of hoarfrost rippled outward from her boots, every crack of ice a line of script writ across the floor. The first wraith's greaves hit the line and froze mid‑stride as a pale field bloomed to fill the courtyard.
[Frozen Domain]
A circular expanse of biting cold flared open. Frost raced up pillars and along the marbled seams, turning the floor to glass. The wraiths' keening deepened into a tremulous bass as the domain clamped down on their movement, hoarfrost threading their phantasmal limbs like shackles.
Kaede stepped into the edge of the field, lifted his staff, and twisted. Lightning licked along the carved channels, pooling at the iron head.
"Lightning Chain," he whispered, and the staff crackled.
The bolt tore loose bright, clean, and hungry. It struck the foremost wraith square through the breastplate, then leapt to another, and another, ricocheting like a beast uncaged. Sparks blew through the fog, and twenty helms lit like lanterns from within.
–412, –389, –405, –398, –417…
Lucien was already moving, the hem of his robe scattering ash from the cold floor. Heat built around his fingers until the air blurred. He clenched a fist and let it bloom into a compact sun.
"Inferno Surge!"
He hurled it low so it would roll and cling. Fire spilled like a wave along the Frozen Domain's surface, a devouring sheet that crawled up spectral legs and ignited the emptiness inside their armor. Wraiths flickered and guttered, their outlines snapping in the heat.
–922, –901, –948…
"Mei rin," Kaito called without looking back.
"I know," she said, voice wind‑soft.
Her bow sang. The first arrow twisted even as it left the string, spiraling in a tight helix that bent around a spur of broken balustrade and buried itself in a helm slit.
–418.
The second curled to hit the ghost‑eye of a wraith lifting a halberd.
–436.
The third dove for the helmet of a wraith soldier.
–451.
Merin's Elemental Arrow: Tempest rode the air, wind biting into the wraiths with cutting pressure. Each shaft rattled armor like tin struck by a storm.
"Blessings!" Kaito said to aika.
Aika moved like the center of a quiet prayer. She directly released Radiant Light at the leading soldier.
-2048!
Directly reducing it's HP to a critical point with one attack.
The wraiths then answered in kind.
The first rank pushed halberds into the frost and split each soldier's figure tore away from itself in a sheet of smoke, and three images stood where one had been. Illusory Splits stepped out of their shells and rushed from three angles, blades crossing in a net of cuts.
"Don't chase their blades!" Kaito barked. "Look for the flaw."
He meant the half‑beat where the true body drew back to lunge. Illusions moved perfectly but in reality there was a gap.
He then drew the Solstice Blade and the Dragon Fang Blade, and the mist's cold found the heat rising from their edges. The first halberd licked for his ribs; he turned into it, letting their weapon kiss the Dragon Fang's flat side, then rolled the blade to let flame crawl across the haft [Flame arc Slash] The halberd evaporated like hoarfrost in a kiln, the wraith behind it jerking as current bit through.
–621.
Hiroto crashed in beside him, shield a gray wall rimmed in Aika's light blessing. The wraiths' blades struck and slid, leaving lines of frost that steamed away beneath the glow. He pivoted, bringing the sword down in a clean arc that carried Aika's blessing.
–704. (Holy burn –88)
Daichi followed like a hammer behind a chisel. He drove a straight right into a wraith's breastplate Iron Fist Howl thundering and the holy light wreathed the impact. Something in the wraith's chest cavity caved, and the specter burst apart in a sleeve of ash and moth‑wing embers.
–812. (Sanctioned impact)
On the right flank, Ravenblade and Suzune slipped through the triad of splits. Phantom Steps made their bodies stutter, vanishing between frames of the wraiths' swings. Aika's radiance clung to their daggers in thin sheens; when they struck, the knives went through like rain through smoke, catching the true bodies with a whisper.
"Shadow Sever." Ravenblade's voice was smoke‑soft; his blade sank and withdrew.
–922. (Weakness applied)
"Backstab," Suzune breathed; her dagger found the same spine with surgical cruelty.
–604. –612.
Kaito counted breaths.
One step forward, split; second step, gather; third step, lunge there.
He cut, low and fast, lightning leaping the gap between his edge and an exposed helm.
–701.
Four wraiths shattered into drifting slag. Six faltered, their illusions thinned by Nina's frost and Kaede's chaining thunder.
The courtyard's echoes rose then silence imbued.