The black-flame tear swallowed them whole. For a heartbeat, there was nothing but heat and pressure and a roaring that came from everywhere and nowhere. Then Kai felt his boots hit solid ground. He stumbled forward into a world lit by crimson lightning. The air was thick and metallic. Black stone stretched in every direction, veined with red light like glowing cracks. It was a cavern and not a cavern, a space that twisted back on itself and distorted distances. Shadows slithered along the ground like living things. Kai glanced back. The portal behind them was now a disc of fire hanging in midair, a doorway suspended over nothing. There was no up or down in the usual sense. Luna's staff glowed bright, casting a sphere of golden light around their small team. Darius signaled silently, and they moved into formation.
Their first opponent came in a whisper of movement. A shape detached from a pillar of darkness and flowed toward them, coalescing into a hunched creature with too many arms and a face that looked like a smear of tar. Kai drew the Blood Fang Sword. It hummed, eager for the fight. The creature lunged. He met it head-on, blade singing as it bit through unnatural flesh. The monster dissolved into ash with a sound like wet leaves, leaving behind a shard of black crystal that pulsed faintly. A panel of blue text flickered in his vision: Item acquired: Abyssal Shard. Effect: ??? Curse: Seeping Despair. Kai shoved it into his pouch. It was not the time to examine new curses. More shadows pulled themselves free of the cavern walls, shrieking as they rushed.
The battle blurred into sound and heat and motion. The Blood Fang Sword cut through creatures that seemed made of smoke and bone. The Iron Wolves fought like a well-oiled machine—Darius and Marcus at the front absorbing hits with their heavier weapons, Luna darting between them to heal or cast shields, two archers raining arrows from the rear. Kai moved through their formation like a needle, stitching gaps shut with his cursed blade. Each kill dropped some kind of dark gem or twisted talisman. Each item whispered at him as it fell, promises of power, murmurs of misery. He forced himself not to listen. The floor beneath them trembled intermittently, a distant, rhythmic thud. It took Kai a moment to realize it was footsteps. Something enormous was moving somewhere deeper in the dungeon.
"Stay focused!" Darius barked, deflecting a clawed appendage with his ax. "We grab what we can and get out. We're not here to clear this place." He said it, but Kai could hear the strain in his voice. The energy in the air was thinner than normal. Every swing took more out of them. Luna's face had gone pale, sweat beading at her hairline. Kai felt the weight of each cursed item building in his pack and at his belt, a physical drag.
The scream came without warning.
Kai had his blade buried in the chest of a shadow beast when a sound like tearing metal and human agony ripped through the cavern. He whirled, heart slamming. A dozen paces away, one of the younger hunters—a wiry man named Jiro who had joined their team two days ago—was thrashing in midair, impaled through the stomach by a spear of black crystal that had erupted from the ground. His eyes were wide with pain and disbelief. Blood bubbled at his lips. Before anyone could reach him, the crystal twisted and tore upward, slicing him in two. Both halves fell to the ground in slow, almost graceful arcs, trailing red in the crimson lightning. His scream echoed once, then cut off.
"Jiro!" Marcus shouted. He lunged toward the body, but the ground beneath them cracked and sprouted more spikes. Kai grabbed Marcus's shoulder and yanked him back just in time. A spike grazed Marcus's thigh, tearing cloth and flesh. Luna flung out her hand, a glowing barrier snapping up to deflect the next spike. The Blood Fang Sword hummed in Kai's grip, a note of anticipation. He felt the demon within leaning forward, tasting the death in the air.
For a frozen second, Kai couldn't move. He had watched people die before. He had killed. But Jiro's death was so sudden, so visceral, that it punctured through his hardening shell. He thought of Min, of the scavenger in the alley, of the man he had failed to save when the world first broke. Rage flared, but it wasn't the sword's rage this time; it was his own. He channeled it. He sprinted toward the base of the spike that had killed Jiro. Shadows surged up to stop him. He cut them down. The spike retracted as quickly as it had appeared, sliding back into the stone like a serpent. In its place was a gaping hole that pulsed with dark energy. Something inside shifted, then retreated, as if the dungeon itself were alive and watching.
A glimmer lay among the gore: a pendant shaped like a teardrop, made of a dark metal that seemed to absorb the crimson light. Kai snatched it up even as another panel flashed before his eyes: Item acquired: Lament Pendant. Effect: Converts received damage into strength. Curse: Echoes of Pain. The cursed text seemed to mock him. He shoved the pendant into his pouch and spun back toward his team.
"Move!" Darius shouted. "This place is learning!" As if to punctuate his words, more spikes erupted, forcing them to weave and dodge. They retreated toward the portal in a stumbling, frantic sprint. The ground shook harder now. From deep within the dungeon came a new sound—a low, guttural rumble that made the air vibrate. The unseen, enormous thing was coming closer.
Kai was almost at the portal when the ground directly beneath the doorway cracked wide open. For a heartbeat he saw nothing but black. Then two massive hands clawed up from the chasm, each hand the size of a small car, fingers ending in talons of obsidian. A horned head followed, eyes burning like coals. The creature hauled itself halfway out of the pit, and Kai realized with a sick lurch that it was trying to escape into their world.
He threw himself through the portal as Darius and Marcus shoved the others ahead of them. Heat and pressure slammed into Kai again as he emerged back into the night air. He collapsed onto pavement, gasping. Screams erupted from the bystanders as black talons thrust through the fiery disc behind him. Luna stumbled through next, then Marcus. Darius came last, swinging his ax at a claw that reached for his leg. The moment Darius cleared the threshold, the liaison triggered a device and the portal convulsed. Runes flared on the containment pillars, channeling energy into a focused blast. With a sound like a giant lung collapsing, the tear snapped shut, severing the taloned fingers that had nearly made it through. Black ichor splattered across the street.
For a moment, there was silence. Then the severed fingers began to twitch.
Kai stared at them, chest heaving. Jiro's scream still rang in his ears. The Blood Fang Sword pulsed at his side, eager and satisfied. The Lament Pendant felt like ice against his palm. Luna sank to her knees, eyes wide, hands shaking. Darius looked at the twitching talons and then at Kai. "This isn't over," he said hoarsely. "That was just an arm."
Kai swallowed hard. The rage inside the blade curled up like a sleeping animal, content for now. His own anger simmered just beneath his skin. He realized the monster's severed fingers were still moving, inching toward them like spiders. He took a step back. There was no time to mourn. Another scream tore through the night.