The path on Kael's map glowed a little, pulling him deeper into the dungeon.
Everything inside him screamed to turn back, but the hallway behind him was gone. Just solid stone now.
"The dungeon wants me to follow this path, and I don't really have a choice."
His torch flickered as he walked forward. He could hear himself breathing way too loud in this dark, creepy place.
The map in his hand felt warm, almost like it was alive. Like the dungeon was guiding him.
Kael looked at the map again. The path got longer, drawing itself further into the darkness.
Whatever was waiting for him at the end had been planning this for a long time.
He tried to go back anyway, checking side paths that weren't there before. But each one just looped back to the same spot, even deeper inside the dungeon.
The walls kept changing as he moved. Getting smaller.
The hallways getting longer.
"The dungeon is pushing me like cattle, and I can feel something smart behind all these movements."
He'd been a mapmaker for six years, but it didn't matter here. He was just another person being pushed toward whatever scary things were ahead.
The dungeon was getting more aggressive now. Like it was losing patience with him.
Kael stopped to breathe, leaning against the pulsing wall. The stone felt warm on his back, almost like skin.
He shook his head and looked at his map again, trying to trust what he knew even though everything felt wrong.
The map showed a clear part ahead. He wrote on it himself: "safe passage."
He took a confident step forward.
Then the floor opened up under him.
A spike pit appeared right where his map said it was safe. Kael twisted in the air and grabbed the edge with one hand.
His torch fell down into the darkness and went out. He hung there for a second, heart pounding like crazy, then pulled himself up with shaking arms.
The pit wasn't there before. It wasn't moved from somewhere else.
"The dungeon made it right then and there, exactly where my map said it was safe. It's not just changing things around... it's using what I know against me."
Kael crawled away from the pit, his brain going crazy trying to understand. If the dungeon could make traps instantly, nowhere was really safe.
He lit his backup torch. In the weak light, he saw something new.
Thin veins pulsed in the walls, matching the dungeon's heartbeat. The ceiling had teeth that ground closer, just inches above his head now... dripping thick red liquid that made a sizzling sound when it hit the floor.
A drop landed on his sleeve. It burned through the cloth like really hot oil.
The acid stuff left a black mark on his skin that stung like a thousand needles. Kael ripped off the sleeve before it could burn through to his skin.
The acid kept spreading, leaving black marks everywhere it landed. The walls pulsed faster now.
Like it was excited that he was scared.
Kael kept moving forward, trying not to get hit by the acid drops. Every few steps, he had to dodge another drop.
The dungeon was messing with him, making this like some terrible obstacle course.
The veins in the walls got thicker. More obvious.
Growing like some kind of disease through the stone.
Then he heard it.
A whisper. Not from a hole in the wall... from the stone itself.
"Kael..."
He froze. His blood felt like ice.
"No way. It can't be."
Kael put his ear against the pulsing wall, trying to hear more.
"Why did you leave me, Kael?"
The voice knew his name. It said things only his dead friends would know.
It was Elara. She was their healer. His best friend.
The one he couldn't save at Barrow Falls.
Kael stumbled back from the wall, heart going crazy. The dungeon wasn't just alive... it took her memories.
Her voice.
It picked Elara on purpose because it knew she was the best way to break him.
The veins glowed brighter. The teeth in the ceiling ground louder, like they were excited.
"This place doesn't just want to kill me. It wants to eat me whole."
Add my mind to whatever collection it has.
The smell of blood got stronger, mixed with something he recognized. Something scary.
The dungeon was learning what scared him faster than he could deal with it. Using his own memories to hurt him.
"Elara?" Kael called out, even though he knew it was stupid. "Is that really you?"
No answer. But he felt something moving behind the wall.
Something that remembered him. Knew what scared him.
The dungeon had been watching him this whole time, learning from how he reacted. Now it was using his past against him.
Kael backed away slowly, holding his torch up high. The veins pulsed at the same speed as his heartbeat.
The path on his map glowed brighter, trying to make him go forward. But now he got it... it wasn't just showing him the way.
It was taking him somewhere specific. A place where the dungeon could finish this.
Where it could eat him completely.
He looked down at the map. At the lines that seemed alive.
"The dungeon is drawing its own map, and I'm just following where it wants me to go."
Kael took a deep breath. Kept walking forward.
There was no way to escape. The only way out was through.
The walls pulsed around him. The teeth ground above him.
His dead friend's voice whispered from the stone.
The dungeon knew everything about him. What he was good at.
What scared him. What he regretted.
It had been planning this since he first walked in.
Then he heard something else. A deeper sound.
Slower. Like it was answering his heartbeat.
"A heartbeat echoes my own... then answers it, calling me by name."
The dungeon learned more than just what scared him. It learned who he was.
And it wanted more.