Every breath the survivors took came back in whispers, echoing through the ruins like the Shroud itself was listening. What had once been streets were now veins of pulsing stone — faint red light running through them, synchronized with a steady, deafening heartbeat that shook the air.
Bright clenched his jaw as his Danger Sense flickered erratically. "It's getting louder."
Besia swallowed hard. "We're close."
Roegan didn't answer. His armor was scorched, his face streaked with ash and exhaustion. The Captain led from the front as always, though the tremor in his steps betrayed the truth — he was running on fumes. Around them, what was left of the company trudged forward — less than a dozen souls out of thirty-five.
Duncan walked at Bright's side, dragging his reinforced spear, the weapon fused with Bright's touch days ago. His Bone Guard ability flickered faintly along his skin — no longer bright, more like a dull hum, cracks visible on his arms where he'd pushed it too far.
Adam kept glancing at the scanner in his hand, its cracked screen blinking unstable readings. "Heartbeat's right under us… or all around us. It's not a creature. It's a system."
Roegan stopped and turned, his eyes sharp even through the fatigue. "Then we'll find its core and rip it out."
They descended through a shattered archway that opened into a cavern of crystalline walls. Light pulsed through them — sickly red and deep black, almost rhythmic, almost alive.
The air stank of decay and burnt iron.
And then the walls moved.
Bright froze as his Danger Sense screamed — not a flicker, not a whisper, but a blinding surge that made his knees buckle. "Captain!"
From the ceiling, something vast unfurled — a mass of tendrils and flesh, each vein pulsing with red light. Its shape was wrong, folding and twisting through space as though the world couldn't decide how big it was.
The Dungeon Boss.
The Heart of the Shroud.
"Positions!" Roegan roared, drawing his blade. "Stay in formation!"
The creature let out a sound like grinding stone — no voice, no face, just a single gaping cavity lined with shifting teeth. Smaller Night Crawlers poured from cracks in the ground, crawling toward them like puppets.
Duncan slammed his spear into the ground, activating Bone Guard. His armor hardened to ivory. "On me!"
Link dashed forward, twin daggers flashing, cutting down the first wave. He moved like a shadow — swift, reckless, brilliant.
"Adam!" Bright shouted. "Anything useful!?"
Adam ducked behind rubble, already tearing into his satchel. "Not unless you want to blow us all sky-high!"
"Then do it smartly!" Roegan barked, parrying a tendril that cracked the stone where he stood. The impact shattered part of his pauldron, sending metal shards flying.
Bright's eyes darted across the cavern. The walls — they pulsed when the creature attacked. The rhythm wasn't random. "It's using the cores to control the crawlers!" he yelled. "Every tendril connects to one!"
Adam's head shot up. "Then if we overload them—"
"It'll burn itself from the inside," Bright finished.
Roegan didn't hesitate. "Then do it! I'll buy you time!"
The creature shrieked — an ear-splitting wail that made the walls bleed light. Crawlers lunged from every angle. Duncan met them head-on, smashing skulls with brutal precision, but his armor began to splinter under the strain.
"Too many!" he growled. "Captain, it's—"
"Hold!" Roegan shouted. "Hold, damn it!"
Link vaulted over a fallen crawler, driving his blade into a tendril. It screeched and flailed — slamming him against the wall. Bright sprinted toward him, dragging him out just as the tendril impaled the ground where he'd been.
"Link!"
"I'm fine," he coughed blood, smirking. "You worry too much."
Adam hurled a vial that exploded in searing light. "That's one down!"
The blast rippled through the tendril, and for a heartbeat, the creature shrieked and faltered. The glow in the walls flickered.
Bright's pulse quickened. "It's working! Hit the pulse points!"
They moved — no longer as soldiers, but survivors fighting on instinct. Besia slashed open one of the crawler husks to expose the pulsing node beneath. Adam threw another volatile mixture, igniting it in a burst of blue flame.
Roegan's voice thundered through the chaos. "Focus fire! Don't let it recover!"
But the monster learned.
The ground cracked, and new limbs emerged, faster this time, sharper. One slammed Duncan aside, crushing his spear. He rolled, armor fracturing across his shoulder.
"Duncan!" Bright lunged, dragging him behind cover.
"I'm good— just— go!" he coughed.
Link limped toward them, blades trembling. "Captain! It's not dying fast enough!"
Roegan turned, panting, blood dripping down his side. "Then we make it die faster!"
He charged — reckless, roaring — and severed another tendril with a brutal swing. Black ichor sprayed across the floor.
Bright saw the pattern again. The glow… it was syncing with Roegan's movement.
No, not syncing — reacting.
"Captain, stop! It's adapting to you!"
But Roegan didn't stop. He was too far gone, too angry.
The Boss shifted, its body twisting until one of its colossal tendrils slammed into the ground. The impact shattered the floor and sent a shockwave through the cavern.
Link threw himself forward — shoving Bright aside.
The tendril impaled him clean through the chest.
"Link—!"
He coughed, blood pooling around his lips. His hand reached for Bright's shoulder, weak but firm. "End it… you hear me? End it."
Then he tore the dagger from his belt and plunged it into the glowing vein beside him.
The explosion tore through the chamber.
For a moment, everything went white.
When the dust settled, the Boss reeled — part of its form collapsing into molten flesh. But it wasn't dead. Its heart — massive and glowing — was still beating in the center of the chamber.
Roegan stumbled to his knees, gasping. "Bright— finish it."
Bright hesitated. "We can't— we're out of—"
Adam's voice was ragged. "One core left."
Roegan looked at it — the unstable, cracked crystal humming with volatile energy. He took it from Adam's hand.
"No— Captain, you'll—"
Roegan smiled faintly, a tired, bleeding grin. "You said we needed structure, Bright. Let this be mine."
He turned toward the pulsing heart and ran.
The Boss sensed him, screeching — a thousand voices in one. Tendrils shot toward him, but Roegan didn't stop. He leapt onto the shattered platform, drove his sword deep into the heart — and jammed the core beside it.
"FOR THE COMPANY!"
Light burst through the chamber. The shockwave flattened everything — stone, flesh, and flame. Bright was thrown backward, colliding with a wall hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.
Then — silence.
When the ringing faded, all he could hear was his own breathing.
He staggered up, vision blurry. The cavern had collapsed, the heart gone, the fog thinning. Duncan lay unconscious nearby, his armor cracked and burnt. Adam crawled out from behind rubble, clutching his arm.
Roegan was nowhere to be seen.
Besia stood, trembling, tears streaking her soot-stained face. "Is it… over?"
Bright didn't answer. His Danger Sense was quiet — too quiet.
He walked toward the center, where the heart once pulsed. The ground was scorched, the remains of the Captain's blade jutting from molten stone.
He knelt, bowing his head.
Adam approached slowly. "Command's yours now."
Bright laughed bitterly. "There's no command left."
He looked up at the faint shimmer of fog still hanging in the air. "Just survivors."
The heartbeat of the Shroud was gone.
But somewhere deep beneath the ruins, another pulse began to stir.
"The heart stopped beating," Bright murmured.
"But the Shroud never sleeps."