Day 32 Post-Impact - Morning
The messenger arrived at dawn.
A young man, barely awakened, trembling as he approached the compound gates. He carried a sealed envelope and the stink of fear.
"Message for your leader," he managed. "From the Iron Wolves."
Chen Wei brought the envelope to Sarnav unopened. Inside was a single page, handwritten.
You killed two of my captains. Destroyed thirty of my soldiers. You think this makes you strong?
It makes you a target.
Surrender the Bangsar refugees. Surrender yourself for judgment. Do this within three days, and your people will be spared.
Refuse, and I will burn everything you've built to ash.
- Viktor Kane, Alpha of the Iron Wolves
Sarnav read it twice, then handed it to Jade.
"Analysis?"
"Viktor Kane. Former military, pre-impact. Discharged for excessive force." Her fingers flew across her tablet. "He's smart, brutal, and he doesn't make empty threats. If he says three days, he means three days."
"How many fighters can he mobilize?"
"After your attack? Maybe three hundred combat-capable, thirty-five awakened. He lost his two strongest C-ranks, so his peak power is now a single C-rank lieutenant."
"That's still significant numbers."
"It is. But he's not the real threat." Jade pulled up more data. "His message is buying time. My intercepts show he's reaching out to the other raider groups, trying to form a coalition against us. If he succeeds, we could be facing six hundred hostiles within a week."
The council room fell silent.
"Then we don't give him a week," Sarnav said.
"What are you proposing?"
"The dungeon. We confirmed it's real. We go now, before Kane can consolidate. The resources inside could push our awakened to the next level. Turn the numbers game in our favor."
"That's risky," Dr. Lim cautioned. "We don't know what's inside."
"We know what's outside. Three hundred enemies and a deadline." Sarnav looked around the room. "I'm not asking for volunteers. I'm going, with whoever wants to join me. The rest stay here and prepare defenses."
"I'm coming," Ishani said immediately.
"So am I," Minji added, her eyes bright with anticipation. "You can't explore a dungeon without your support mage."
"This isn't a game, Minji."
"Everything's a game, oppa. Some just have higher stakes." She grinned. "Besides, I've literally dreamed about this since I was twelve. Real life dungeon raid? I'm not missing it."
Jade stood. "I need direct access to analyze the dungeon's systems. I'm coming."
"I'll hold things here," Nisha said through the network. Her voice was steady, but he felt her fear beneath. "Someone needs to keep the faction together if... if things go wrong."
"Ananya?"
"I'll stay with Nisha. Help coordinate. My combat abilities aren't..." She trailed off, embarrassed.
"That's fine. You're more valuable here." He turned to Chen Wei. "Pick ten of our best. We leave in two hours."
Day 32 Post-Impact - Midday
The journey to KLIA took four hours.
Fourteen people moved through the ruined outskirts of KL, following routes that avoided known threats. Sarnav led, with Jade navigating and Minji's illusions providing cover.
The old airport was a graveyard.
Planes lay scattered across runways, some crashed, some simply abandoned. The terminal buildings had partially collapsed, their glass facades shattered, their interiors dark and ominous.
"The dungeon entrance is in Terminal 2," Jade reported. "Domestic departures area."
They approached carefully, senses alert for threats. But the airport was silent. Whatever creatures had inhabited it in the early days had moved on, leaving only corpses and decay.
The terminal entrance gaped like a wound.
"Energy readings are spiking," Jade said. "We're close."
Inside, the terminal was surprisingly intact. Emergency lighting still functioned in places, casting red pools of illumination across the abandoned check-in counters and departure gates.
And at Gate 23, reality ended.
The dungeon entrance was impossible to miss. A shimmering portal, three meters tall, pulsing with dimensional energy. It looked like someone had torn a hole in the world and forgotten to patch it.
"Fuck me," Minji breathed. "It's beautiful."
"It's dangerous," Jade corrected. "The energy output is higher than my models predicted. Significantly higher."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning the threats inside might be stronger than we anticipated." She studied her tablet. "I'm reading C-rank signatures at minimum. Possibly B-rank."
The team exchanged uneasy glances.
"We can turn back," Chen Wei said. "Hit the dungeon later, with more preparation."
"Kane isn't waiting. Neither can we." Sarnav stepped toward the portal. "I'll go first. If it's too dangerous, I'll signal retreat."
"And if you can't retreat?"
"Then you go back, warn the others, and don't come looking for me."
"That's not—"
"That's an order." He met Chen Wei's eyes. "Protect my people. All of them."
Before anyone could argue further, he stepped through the portal.
The transition was disorienting.
One moment he stood in an abandoned airport terminal. The next, he was somewhere else entirely.
The dungeon interior looked nothing like what he'd expected. No dark caves or monster-filled corridors. Instead, he stood in what appeared to be a massive arena, circular, easily a hundred meters across. The walls rose high on all sides, smooth and featureless, glowing with faint luminescence.
And in the center of the arena, something waited.
[DUNGEON DETECTED: ARENA OF TRIALS]
[CLASSIFICATION: FIXED-LEVEL CHALLENGE]
[WARNING: THIS DUNGEON DOES NOT SCALE TO CHALLENGER LEVEL]
[MINIMUM RECOMMENDED RANK: B]
[CURRENT CHALLENGE TIER: LOCKED UNTIL ALL CHALLENGERS ENTER]
[RETREAT OPTION: AVAILABLE FOR 60 SECONDS AFTER ENTRY]
[AFTER LOCKDOWN: NO EXIT UNTIL COMPLETION OR DEATH]
Fixed-level. Not scaling.
The system's warning hit him like ice water. Jade's readings had been right. This wasn't a dungeon that adjusted to the challenger. It was a fixed gauntlet, designed for B-rank at minimum.
He had sixty seconds to retreat.
The portal shimmered behind him, still open. He could step back through, gather his team, reassess. The smart move. The safe move.
But something in the arena called to him. A pillar of light at the center, pulsing with energy that felt familiar. Like the dimensional power he'd absorbed from the rift.
"Sarnav!" Minji's voice came through the portal. "What do you see?"
Forty-five seconds.
He made his decision.
"It's safe enough. Come through. But only awakened D-rank or higher. Everyone else stays outside."
One by one, they entered. Ishani first, then Minji, then Jade. Chen Wei followed, along with four others who met the requirement. The weaker members remained in the terminal, guarding the entrance.
Thirty seconds.
"What is this place?" Ishani looked around the arena with wary eyes.
"A trial. Fixed difficulty." Sarnav watched the countdown in his peripheral vision. "We have about twenty seconds before we're locked in."
"Locked in?"
"No retreat after that. We complete the dungeon or we die trying."
"Wonderful." Jade was already scanning with her tablet. "The energy signature at the center. It's concentrated essence. More than I've ever seen in one place."
"The reward?"
"The bait."
Ten seconds.
"Last chance to leave," Sarnav said.
No one moved.
Five seconds.
The portal flickered.
Three.
Two.
One.
The entrance sealed with a sound like a thunderclap. The walls of the arena pulsed, and a voice echoed from everywhere at once.
"CHALLENGERS ACCEPTED: NINE"
"TRIAL COMMENCING"
"SURVIVE"
The floor beneath them began to shift.
Earlier that morning - Before departure
Minji found him in the supply room.
He was checking equipment, making sure everything was in order for the expedition. She closed the door behind her, leaning against it with a look he'd come to recognize.
"We might die today," she said.
"We might."
"Then I want something to remember. In case we don't come back."
"Minji, we need to—"
"Focus? Prepare? Be professional?" She crossed to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Oppa. I'm a gamer. You know what we do before a big raid?"
"What?"
"Buff up." She kissed him, playful at first, then deeper. "Consider this my buff."
"This isn't a game."
"Everything's a game. Life, death, love. Games with different rules, but games all the same." She pulled back, grinning. "Besides, if we're going to raid a dungeon, I should at least get to live out one fantasy first."
"What fantasy?"
"The hero and the party member. Alone before the final boss." Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "I've written this scene a hundred times in my head. Want to see how it plays out?"
Despite the tension, despite the looming threat, he felt himself responding to her energy.
"We have an hour before departure."
"I only need thirty minutes." She pulled him toward a crate, pushing him to sit. "Unless you want to make it interesting?"
"Interesting how?"
"Speedrun challenge. Make me cum before the thirty minute mark, and I'll do that thing I mentioned. The one from the hentai I showed you."
"You're impossible."
"I'm motivated." She straddled his lap, grinding against him. "Clock's ticking, oppa. Better start playing."
He started playing.
She was demanding, directing, treating the encounter like a co-op mission with specific objectives. But beneath the gamer framing, he felt her genuine desire, her fear of what was coming, her need to connect before facing possible death.
"Faster, oppa. You're falling behind on the DPS check."
"The what?"
"Damage per second. Keep up." She bounced on his lap, having somehow gotten both of them undressed without him fully noticing. "Harder! I'm not feeling the crit damage!"
He grabbed her hips and gave her crit damage.
"Yes! That's it! Combo attack! Don't break the chain!"
She came with a shriek, her gaming commentary dissolving into wordless pleasure. He followed shortly after, and she collapsed against his chest, breathing hard.
"GG," she gasped. "Good game."
"You're ridiculous."
"You love it." She kissed him lazily. "Twenty-three minutes. New personal best. I'm definitely using that in my highlight reel."
"Your what?"
"Kidding. Mostly." She climbed off him, already reaching for her clothes. "Come on. We have a dungeon to conquer."
She was out the door before he'd finished dressing, leaving him shaking his head.
The network hummed with amusement from his other wives.
She's something else, Nisha observed.
She keeps things interesting, Ishani agreed.
I have no idea what half of that meant, Jade added. But the biometric data was fascinating.
Focus, Sarnav sent to all of them. Dungeon time.
Present - Inside the dungeon
The arena floor split into sections, rising and falling like a living puzzle. From the gaps, creatures emerged.
Not void-touched. Something else. Constructs of pure energy, humanoid shapes that moved with mechanical precision.
[TRIAL ONE: GUARDIAN CONSTRUCTS]
[ENEMIES: 20]
[RANK: D-CLASS]
[OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE ALL TARGETS]
"Spread formation!" Sarnav commanded. "Ishani, light them up! Minji, disrupt their coordination!"
The team moved as one. Ishani's radiance blazed, burning through constructs. Minji's illusions created chaos, making the enemies target phantoms. Chen Wei's blade sang through energy-forms. Jade hung back, analyzing, calling out weaknesses.
Sarnav tore through the front line, his B-rank power overwhelming the D-class threats. It was too easy. A warm-up round.
The constructs fell within minutes.
[TRIAL ONE: COMPLETE]
[TRIAL TWO: COMMENCING]
The arena shifted again. More constructs emerged. C-class this time. Fewer in number, but stronger. Faster.
Still manageable.
[TRIAL TWO: COMPLETE]
[TRIAL THREE: COMMENCING]
B-class constructs. Just five of them. But each one was nearly Sarnav's equal.
The fight lasted longer. Sweat and blood mixed as his team pushed their limits. Ishani took a hit that would have killed a lesser cultivator. Chen Wei's blade shattered, forcing him to fight barehanded. Minji's illusions flickered as her energy depleted.
But they won.
[TRIAL THREE: COMPLETE]
[FINAL TRIAL: COMMENCING]
[WARNING: BOSS ENCOUNTER]
The center of the arena erupted.
Something massive rose from the floor. A construct unlike the others. Ten meters tall, humanoid but wrong, its body a fusion of energy and metal and something that looked disturbingly like flesh.
[BOSS: ARENA CHAMPION]
[RANK: A-CLASS]
A-class.
One full tier above Sarnav's current power.
"Oh," Minji said weakly. "That's a raid boss."
"Can we beat it?" Ishani asked, her light already blazing.
"We have to." Sarnav drew on everything he had. Five wife abilities ready. Flight. Enhanced stats. The dimensional energy still lurking in his core. "Because the alternative is dying here."
The Arena Champion moved.
And Sarnav realized they might not survive this after all.
[ARENA CHAMPION: A-CLASS]
[TEAM STATUS: EXHAUSTED FROM PREVIOUS TRIALS]
[ODDS OF SURVIVAL: CALCULATING...]
[RESULT: UNCERTAIN]