Chapter 9
Tang Shi's boots pounded against the earth, each step echoing through the forest as his guild tore through the darkness. His lungs burned, his armor clattered, and his heart thundered so violently he thought it might burst through his chest. Behind him, the others followed in battered silence mud-streaked, bloodied, their eyes hollow.
Choji's unconscious body was slung across Tang Shi's back like dead weight, his head lolling limply with every stride. No one spoke. No one dared to look back at the gate.
The air behind them still shimmered faintly, as if the dungeon itself were breathing a maw that had nearly devoured them all.
Tang Shi's once-proud face was pale, drawn tight with fear. The arrogance that once colored his every word was gone, replaced with trembling exhaustion and dread.
"This…" he muttered between ragged breaths, "this isn't work for a mere S-rank. That thing… that mana…"
His voice cracked. "It's an existence beyond us. Only an SSS-rank could stand against it."
One of the A-rank hunters stumbled forward, clutching his bleeding arm.
"Then we call them," he rasped. "We tell the Bureau. That thing… it can't be allowed to remain."
Tang Shi didn't answer. His jaw was clenched so tightly his teeth hurt. The weight of failure pressed against his chest like a stone. He had led them into slaughter and then he had fled. He had abandoned a man, his comrade, his brother-in-arms.
But he told himself the same words again and again, as though they could cleanse him of guilt:
If one dies for the many… then it was necessary.
And yet, no matter how many times he repeated it, his hands would not stop shaking.
Hours later.
The moon hung pale and cold above the resting field outside the dungeon. The wind was silent except for the faint rustle of the trees.
Then...
Choji's eyes snapped open.
His body jolted upright with a gasp. Sweat drenched his face. His heart hammered as fragments of memory flooded back—the monsters, the blood, Renji's screams echoing through the dungeon.
"Renji…" he whispered.
His head turned, and when he saw Tang Shi and the others alive breathing, resting, whole his blood froze.
He rose shakily to his feet, voice breaking with disbelief.
"You… you left him! You left Renji in there!"
Tang Shi turned away. He couldn't bear to look Choji in the eyes.
"You don't understand," Tang Shi said coldly. "If we stayed, we'd all be dead. That thing was beyond us. We needed to return and bring reinforcements."
His tone faltered. "Renji… was the price."
Choji's fists clenched so tight his nails cut his palms. His whole body trembled.
"No," he breathed. "Don't you dare say that. He's my friend… my brother!"
His shout cracked through the camp like lightning. The other hunters flinched but said nothing. The silence that followed was heavier than guilt.
Deep within the dungeon
The marble floor gleamed faintly under the crimson glow of the crystals. Blood smeared every inch of it.
Renji's body was dragged across the cold stone, claws tearing through his flesh. The dungeon boss towered above him a grotesque figure of ancient might, draped in darkness that rippled like living smoke.
The monster's skill, Replenish, ensured Renji's torment never ended. Every wound closed only to be torn open again. Every scream echoed until his voice was gone.
Limbs were ripped away. Bones shattered. Skin flayed. Again and again.
Renji's mind was a haze of agony. But even as his body was broken a hundred times over, he still tried to rise crawling through the blood, gasping through the pain. He refused to kneel.
The boss lifted him by the throat, crimson eyes blazing with hatred.
"Do you remember me?" it hissed, voice layered with a thousand whispers. "Do you remember my name… Januza?"
Renji's eyes widened, pain momentarily forgotten.
"Ja…nuza…?" he croaked.
The name struck through his mind like lightning unfamiliar, yet echoing deep inside him, as though it had always been there.
The boss grinned, jagged teeth glinting.
"Yes. You. You were the thorn that scarred me. A thousand years have passed, but your stench—your defiance—I would never forget."
Growing bored, the creature flung Renji's body through a shattered archway. He crashed into the next chamber, bones splintering, vision spinning into chaos. He tried to move failed. Tried to breathe choked.
But his mind didn't cling to the pain. It clung to her.
Lily.
He saw her face her soft smile, her tiny hands clutching his sleeve. He heard her voice in the dark:
"Onii-chan, don't give up. Promise me you'll never give up."
Tears welled in his eyes. His voice was a broken whisper.
"She'll… she'll be alone. She can't lose me too…"
The boss loomed over him, its shadow swallowing the light. With one sharp motion, its claws plunged into his chest. The sound was sickening—a wet, tearing crack.
It ripped out his heart.
Blood gushed across the marble. The monster held the still-twitching organ high, its grin wild with triumph.
Renji's lips trembled.
"I'm sorry… Lily…"
And thennothing.
His body collapsed, lifeless. The world went silent.
When Renji opened his eyes, he was standing.
There was no dungeon. No body. No air. Only endless, suffocating darkness.
The ground beneath him was unseen, yet each step echoed infinitely, fading into nothing.
He whispered, trembling,
"…Eh? I… I'm in hell."
The word lingered—and then, from the abyss, a voice answered.
"HELL."
It wasn't a voice—it was pressure. It crashed into him like a collapsing mountain. The air vibrated with ancient mana, dense and suffocating.
Renji's breath caught.
"Th-this mana… it's even greater than that monster's…!"
And then, from the dark, a figure emerged.
A silhouette formed a man cloaked in shadows. Same height. Same scars. Same eyes.
Renji froze.
"That's… me?"
The figure's eyes flared crimson. Its lips curved into a cold smile.
"You are me."
Renji stumbled backward, shaking his head violently.
"No… no, no, no… Lily! I can't—No! I'm dead
who are you?! What is this place?!"
The figure's voice rumbled through the void, deeper than thunder, older than time.
"I AM YOU… AND YOU ARE ME."
The darkness pulsed, a crimson sigil igniting beneath their feet.
"I AM JANUZA."
Back in the dungeon
The monstrous boss stood over Renji's corpse, his claws dripping blood, the human heart still pulsing in his grip.
"At last," he hissed. "The torment is repaid. Januza, scourge of my existence you are no more."
Then
STOMP.
A sound echoed behind him.
Once.
Twice.
The boss froze. Slowly, he turned.
Renji's lifeless body twitched.
The gaping wound in his chest began to close—veins writhing, flesh knitting together, a new heart forming in a surge of light and shadow. Mana erupted from his body, thick and violent, sweeping through the dungeon like a storm.
The air trembled. Crystals shattered. Walls cracked.
The boss staggered back, disbelief twisting his features.
"No… Impossible. You… you were dead!"
Renji rose slowly, his hair whipping under the violent current of power. His eyes glowed an unholy crimson, bright as twin suns in the dark.
A twisted smile crept across his lips.
The dungeon itself seemed to hold its breath.
"Hello…"
His voice reverberated, layered with something ancient and cruel.
"…Helga."
And the dungeon fell silent
Right before the storm unleashed.