The northern wind still clung to us as we crossed the cracked valley road. Five days had passed since we left the REF city, and the air here smelled of ash and iron. Zephyr, walking in his favored teenage form, whistled a tune that barely fought the silence. Brown strode beside me, cloak fluttering, eyes bright with the faint glow of the undead flame that always lived within him. Pallas glided above the dust in her human form, silver hair shining faintly under a dim sun.
We had meant only to travel, to see the hidden places of the world—but the land had other plans. On the fourth morning a tremor split the hills and the valley opened like a wound. From its depths came the pulse of mana so heavy it shook the bones. The system window flickered before my eyes:
"Unstable Dungeon Detected – Designation: The Black Hole."
Pallas frowned. "If this breaks, the nearby towns will be swallowed."
Brown looked at me. "We clear it now, or thousands die later."
Zephyr's grin was quick and reckless. "Then we clear it."
I felt the same pull—the duty that had never left since the academy days. The Black Hole gaped before us, a spiral of stone and void light. Every instinct warned me to run, yet my divine core burned with curiosity.
---
The first floor greeted us with shrieking goblins cloaked in shadow. Their eyes glowed crimson; their claws dripped black slime. I raised my hand, summoning chains of light. The moment they met the darkness, sparks hissed like fire on water. Pallas carved through the mob with her dragon-forged blade, every swing leaving streaks of silver flame. Zephyr blurred from one goblin to another, his movement almost joyful. Brown stayed near me, summoning skeletal knights that formed a wall between us and the swarm.
By the fifth floor the enemies had changed—oozing slimes of molten iron that burned even the air. The temperature rose until our breath steamed. Brown shouted through the heat, "Remember—pressure shapes power! Diamonds are just coal that refused to quit burning."
His words cut through exhaustion like cool rain. We fought harder.
On the twentieth floor ice replaced fire. Elven specters drifted through frozen halls, their voices singing lamentations for lost worlds. Pallas hesitated for a moment—those spirits reminded her of her dragon kin—but Brown's voice steadied her again. "Mercy is strength when you wield it with control." She nodded, striking only to release the souls rather than destroy them.
---
Each floor brought a new nightmare. Stone giants. Venomous drakes. Echo beasts that copied our attacks. The dungeon tested every lesson we had ever learned. My mana threads grew steadier; the divine core inside me hummed like a sun. Sometimes we rested only minutes before another gate opened.
On the fiftieth floor we found a lake of liquid shadow. The boss rose from it—a colossal wolf whose fur shimmered with constellations. It lunged, and Zephyr met it head-on in his beast form, a white blur against endless dark. Their clash shook the cavern. I poured aura into my blade, slashed across its throat, and Brown's undead seized its legs, dragging it under. When the wolf sank back into the lake, the water turned clear for a heartbeat before freezing solid.
We laughed—not out of joy but disbelief that we still lived. Brown looked at us, eyes bright with amusement. "You see? Endurance is the truest magic. Anyone can shine for a moment; the wise keep shining after the moment passes."
---
The climb from floor sixty to ninety blurred into one long day of hunger and battle. Time felt stretched; the dungeon had no sunrise. My divine sense told me five days had passed outside. My companions moved like shadows through an endless war. We spoke little. We no longer needed to.
On the ninety-ninth floor, before the final gate, we rested by a pool of dim blue water. Pallas leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Zephyr sat cross-legged, feeding small stones to a flame sprite he had befriended somewhere along the way. Brown crouched near me, his skeletal hand tracing symbols in the dust—ancient runes of command for the undead factions that waited in his "tamer park."
He said quietly, "Kael, you ever notice how darkness teaches discipline? Light forgives mistakes instantly, but the dark remembers everything until you correct it."
I smiled tiredly. "Then this place must be the strictest teacher alive."
He chuckled. "Exactly why we'll pass its class."
---
The hundredth floor opened into a void cathedral. Towers of obsidian spiraled upward, vanishing into nothing. At its center floated the Dungeon Core—a black sun radiating waves of gravity. Around it hovered the final guardian, a humanoid creature armored in shards of midnight glass.
It spoke in a voice that was all echoes. "You have reached the heart. To claim it, surrender what you fear to lose."
I felt the weight of its words press against my mind. Images flickered—my friends, Lyra's smile, my parents in the North, the academy days. Fear tried to root me to the floor, but Brown's voice broke through again, strong and calm:
"Courage isn't the absence of fear; it's proof that your purpose matters more than fear."
I moved first. The battle was a storm of black and white light. Every strike from the guardian bent space; every counter from us tore it open. Pallas unleashed her dragon aura; Zephyr called the wind itself. I reached deep into my divine core until light poured from my hands like molten gold. When our combined force hit the core, the void shattered.
---
Silence. Then a voice from the system:
"Dungeon Cleared – The Black Hole Core Stabilized."
The oppressive air lifted. The dungeon walls began to dissolve into motes of silver dust, and through the ceiling we saw real sunlight for the first time in five days. Zephyr stretched his arms and laughed, while Pallas leaned on her sword, smiling faintly.
Brown stood beside me, staring up at the fading darkness. "Five days," he murmured, "and a hundred lessons. Remember this, Kael—fast victories fade, but battles like this carve eternity into your bones."
I looked around at my companions, at the place that had tried to consume us and failed. The wind from the surface touched my face. For the first time in years, I felt not the burden of power, but gratitude for endurance.
We climbed toward the light.