The fire had burned low, reduced to glowing embers that pulsed faintly in the dark. Lyra was curled beneath a blanket, her breathing slow and even. Adrian lay sprawled on his back, one arm flung over his face, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Only Zane remained awake.
He sat with his back against the crumbled stone arch, blades resting across his lap. The mist pressed close at the edges of the camp, rolling and shifting like it was alive, but it did not breach the ring of faint firelight. Not yet.
Zane's eyes never left it.
Every crackle in the distance tightened his jaw. Every shift of shadow made his hand twitch toward his sword. The dungeon might have gone still, but it wasn't peace, it was the silence of something biding its time. Watching.
He let out a slow breath, glancing at the others. Lyra's hand was curled loosely near her daggers, even in sleep. Adrian's fingers sparked faintly now and then, tiny arcs of lightning dancing across his knuckles before fading.
They could rest. He refused to.
With a thought, Zane called up his Status Window.
[Status Window]
Name: Zane Blessborne
Age: 17
Rank: E (Apprentice)(54%)
Soul Integrity: 71% --> 73%
Oath Capacity: Three Lesser Oaths or One Greater Oath
Active Oaths: Oath of the Soulforge
Passive Oaths: Equilibrium Eternal
Soul Forge Access: [Unlocked]
Affinity: Time, Space
Bloodline: Locked
Attributes
Strength: 154
Agility: 154
Endurance: 154
Perception: 154
Willpower: 154
Luck: unpredictable
—
Unique Skill:Oathsmith's Authority
Titles:
-Anomaly
-The Twin Blessed by Time
-Bearer of the Primordial pact.
Oaths
-Equilibrium Eternal
-Oath of the Soulforge
Sword Art
Twin Fangs Style (★★★★)
Current Mastery: 86%
Zane dismissed the glowing text with a sigh. Numbers, words, glowing runes, they all looked stable enough. Balanced. But that didn't change the knot in his chest.
This place wasn't random. He could feel it in the way the walls shifted like breathing lungs, in the way the monsters appeared like pieces torn from nightmares. It was too familiar. Too much like the Soul Forge.
The ground cracking. The air trembling like something inside it was failing to hold together. The whispers in the dark.
This dungeon is connected to me. The thought settled like ice in his veins. Maybe it's built the same way my soul was. Flawed. Breaking. Rebuilding itself over and over.
He stared into the mist, watching it coil at the edge of the firelight.
Zane thought about the words he saw, his titles, his grip tightening on his blade. Titles weren't just decoration. They meant something. Reflected something. And these…
Anomaly. That one he could almost understand. He wasn't supposed to be here. He wasn't supposed to be Zane Blessborne at all. An error in the system, maybe, or a crack that shouldn't exist.
The Twin Blessed by Time. That one sent a chill down his spine. Twin. Lyra. Whatever power tied the two of them together, the system recognized it, branded it into him. But "blessed by time"… was that why he could control his temporal affinity so easily? Or was it foreshadowing something darker, something neither of them had begun to touch yet?
And then there was the last one. The one that gnawed at him the most.
Bearer of the Primordial Pact.
The words had pulsed faintly in his vision, heavier than the others. He frowned, his thoughts spiraling.
Primordial. Pact.
It couldn't be a coincidence. His transmigration had started with a message Do you swear to accept the Eternal Oath, Zane Blessborne? A message he'd never chosen, but had been consumed by anyway. That wasn't just an accident. That was a deal. A contract older than him, older than this world.
But with whom? Or with what? Was someone controlling his destiny from the shadows? Or was it all some wild coincidence
Was this "Primordial Pact" the reason he had Oathsmith's Authority? Was it the root of his Soul Forge? Or worse… was it tied to that locked bloodline the system refused to let him touch?
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Oaths, contracts, vows, they were chains. And someone, something had shackled him with one before he ever had the chance to resist.
His gaze drifted to the mist again. The dungeon shifted, reshaped, like a reflection of the cracks in his soul. Maybe this wasn't just some trial of monsters and shifting stone. Maybe the dungeon itself was linked to that pact, mirroring him, testing him, waiting for him to break.
And if that was true…
Then the real enemy wasn't just the dungeon. It was whatever stood behind the pact.
---
The mist rippled again, thicker this time. It pressed against the edges of the firelight like a tide testing the shore. Zane's grip on his blade tightened until his knuckles ached, but he didn't raise it. He only watched. Waited.
Because beneath the shifting fog, he could feel it.
A rhythm. A heartbeat that wasn't his own. Slow. Patient. Ancient.
The same pulse that had dragged him into the Soul Forge. The same cold, deliberate cadence of the silver light.
The dungeon was breathing.
Or worse - it was listening.
His chest tightened. What if all of this wasn't some random trial, but an extension of the pact carved into his soul? What if every monster, every shifting wall, every crack in the stone was just another verse in a contract he had already signed without consent?
The thought made bile rise in his throat. He had always told himself he would bend the Oaths to his will, not the other way around. But what if he was only ever dancing along strings already pulled tight by that unseen hand?
His titles flickered again in his memory.
Anomaly.The Twin Blessed by Time.Bearer of the Primordial Pact.
Each one was more than just a label. They were declarations. Judgments. Chains.
"Primordial Pact…" Zane whispered under his breath, the words tasting heavier than they should.
He thought of Lyra, sleeping just a few feet away. If he was the twin who was "blessed by time," then was Lyra "blessed by space," then was she also caught in this as well. If so, then the pact didn't just bind him - it bound both of them. The system had stamped that truth into his very identity.
But what did Primordial mean?
Older than the system itself? Older than Oaths? Older than this world?
He swallowed hard. His locked bloodline, the mysterious skill that defied the limits of rank, the very dungeon reshaping itself around him, it all came back to that word. Maybe the pact wasn't just connected to him. Maybe he was nothing more than the vessel carrying it forward.
A chill traced down his spine, sharper than the dungeon's cold air.
And if that was true… then what price had already been paid?
What had been sacrificed the moment he was pulled into this body, into this world?
The silence pressed heavier. The mist shifted again, closer this time, just brushing against the light of the embers before receding. Almost like it was teasing him.
Zane drew a steady breath, forcing the dread back into the pit of his stomach. He couldn't afford to let it rule him. Not here. Not now.
If the pact had chosen him, then he would carve its meaning out with his own hands. He would not be a pawn shuffled across some ancient board.
He wasn't just the bearer of a pact.
He would be its breaker.
The fire cracked softly, scattering sparks into the mist. The dungeon stirred again, deeper this time, like the earth shifting in its sleep. The air carried a low hum, just on the edge of hearing, and for the first time, Zane wasn't sure if it was the dungeon's voice… or the pact's.
He didn't sleep that night.
And when the others woke, they would see only the steady gaze of their comrade, watching the mist like it might open its jaws at any moment. They wouldn't know that while they dreamed, Zane had stared into the dark and felt the weight of something vast and unseen staring back.
---
The first sound came at dawn.
A low groan, like stone grinding against stone, shivered through the sandy floor. Adrian stirred, muttering something incoherent as his arm slid off his face. Lyra's eyes snapped open at once, hand closing around the hilt of her dagger even before she fully sat up.
Zane was already on his feet. He hadn't moved all night, but the instant the tremor ran through the dungeon, his blades were drawn.
The mist at the camp's edge boiled. Not drifted, not rolled, boiled. It churned with sudden violence, coils twisting into shapes that reached and clawed before dissolving again. The embers guttered, their light smothered beneath a wave of creeping shadow.
"Up," Zane said, voice flat. "Now."
Lyra didn't argue. Neither did Adrian. They both rose, weapons in hand, eyes darting between the shifting fog and the cracks forming in the stone beneath their feet.
The dungeon was changing again.
The air carried that low hum Zane had heard during the night, but louder now, resonant enough to rattle their bones. It wasn't just sound, it was pressure, a force that pressed against their skin and lungs, threatening to squeeze the breath from them.
Adrian cursed, sparks crackling between his fingers. "I swear this place is alive."
"It is," Zane said without looking at him. His eyes never left the mist. "And it's hungry."
The fog finally broke. Figures peeled themselves free of the haze, first one, then three, then more, each shaped like men but wrong, their proportions stretched, their faces melted into smooth masks of pale mist. They carried no weapons, but their hands ended in claws that gleamed like glass.
Lyra shifted closer to her brother, blades ready. "What are they?"
"Doesn't matter," Zane muttered. "They bleed."
The first one lunged.
It moved like a blur, the mist trailing from its limbs in streaks, claws slashing straight for Zane's chest. His blades crossed in an instant, steel ringing as he turned the strike aside. The creature hissed a sound like wind tearing through broken glass and recoiled only to dart forward again.
Zane stepped in this time. One clean strike. His sword cut through the mist-body like it was real flesh, the figure collapsing into vapor with a strangled shriek.
But as it dissolved, the fog thickened. The air grew colder. And three more took its place.
Zane set his stance, jaw tight. "Stay close. Don't let them surround us."
The dungeon had finally answered.