The sun hung low over the fortified outskirts of Skye City, its light dimmed by the looming presence of the Gate.
It hovered in the sky like a wound that refused to close.
A vertical tear in reality, its edges warped, its center pulsing with deep Violet energy. The air around it shimmered unnaturally distorting light and bending sound. Civilians weren't allowed within a five-kilometer radius and the entire area had been converted into a controlled Dungeon Access Zone.
Barricades, surveillance towers, armed personnel, and at the center of it all, hunters.
"Still no update?" A young analyst adjusted his glasses. Staring at the monitoring tablets in his hands, his voice was tight, straight. Beside him, another staff member shook her head.
"Signals been unstable since the collapse" she replied. "Mana reading spiked about two hours ago. After that... nothing consists." The analyst frowned.
"That's not normal for a D-rank dungeon..."
"No" she said quietly. "It's not." A small crowd that gathered beyond the barricades, not civilians, hunters.
Some low ranked, watching curiosity. Others, High-ranked.
Watching with interest. Because something had gone wrong.
The GuildValkyrie Creed, sent The Kerran Subjugation Team, A standard five-man group, assigned to clear the dungeon, had at lost contact mid-operation. That alone wasn't unusual. Dungeons were unpredictable.
Casualties happened.
But this, this felt... different.
"Gate fluctuation is increasing," another technician called out. "By how much?"
"Mana density up by thirty percent... no-forty.!"
"That's impossible."
A murmurs spread the control area. "Is it evolving?" someone whispered. No one answered. Because no one wanted to.
Then, the gate pulp. A ripple of energy spread outward. And something moved. "Contact!" a guard shouted. All eyes snapped toward the Gate.
A figure stumbled out.
Then another.
Then a third.
Three Hunters collapsed onto the ground outside the Gate , gasping for air, their armor cracked, their bodies covered in dust and blood.
"MEDIC!" someone yelled.
The response was immediate. Support teams rush forwar, lifting the survivors onto stretchers, checking vital, stabilizing injuries.
"Kerran?" the analyst blinked in surprised. The armored man coughed violently, spitting blood as he tried to sit up.
"Where... where the hell..."
"Stay still," the medic snapped. "You're out. You're safe." Kerran's eyes darted around.
Wild, disoriented. "The other..." the analyst stepped forward.
"Hunter Kerran. I am Yoshi, Analyst and Member of the Bureau of Gates, report. What happened inside the dungeon?"
Kerran froze. for a moment, just a moment.
Something flickered in his expression.
Hesitation.
Then-
"Collapse," he said hoarsely. "The dungeon... shifted." Yoshi frowned. "Shifted how?" He ask.
Kerran swallowed "Deeper layer."
A ripple of unease spread through the nearby staff. "That's impossible for a D-Rank" someone muttered.
Kerran laughed weakly. "Yeah"
His gaze dropped. "Tell that to the thing down there."
Silence.
Yoshi leaned forward. "What thing?"
Kerran's fingers tightened slightly against the stretching. "Something... watching" .His voice lowered. "Something with... too many eyes."
-
"Casualties?" Yoshi asked. Kerran's jaw clenched "Two dead." a pause.
"One missing." Yoshi glanced at the tablet. "Names?" Kerran didn't hesitate. "Riven, Dall, and..."
Just for a second, his voice faltered. "Wystan"
One of the other survivors groaned from the next stretcher. "We shouldn't have gone deeper..." Kerran shot him a shrap look. "Shut up."
The man flinched. "I'm just saying-something wasn't right..." "No kidding" Kerran snapped. "The whole damn place was wrong." The third survivor spoke, voice shaky "that kid..."
Kerran stiffened. "He fell"
Silent.
"Yeah..." Karen said coldly. "He fell."
"We didn't even try to-"
"I said, Shut up!"
The tension snapped. The medic glanced between them and said nothing. Because in this world. People didn't ask questions they didn't want answered.
"Sir," A technician called out urgently. Yoshi turned. "What is it?"
"You need to see this." He handed over the tablets. Yoshi's eyes narrowed. "What am I looking at?" The technician swallowed. "Mana spike readings"
"From when?"
"Right after the collapse."
Yoshi's gazed sharpened. "That's not a spike." His voice dropped. "That's a surge."
The numbers didn't match a D-rank dungeons, didn't match anything reported. "This level of fluctuation..." He looked up at the gate. "It's like something new formed inside."
"Should I call her?" Yoshi hesitated.
-
A ripple ruled through the gathered hunters.
"She's here." The word spread quickly. Heads turned whistles followed. "She actually came?"
"For A D-rank?"
"No way..."
The air shifted. And then she arrived.
Single figures step past the barricades. No armor, no heavy weapons, just a long, dark coat-and presence that silenced the entire area.
Rose Ivy Aria
An S-rank Hunter.
One of the youngest in the region. And along with the top 10 S rank Hunter in Skye City and the Capital.
Her reputation alone was enough to change the atmosphere.
Ability: Plant manipulation.
But that simple description didn't do it justice.
She didn't just control plants. She controlled life.
Vines that could pierce steel.
Roots that is could devour mana.
Fields that could bloom into death.
They called her-
The Queen of Thorns.
Rose walked forward calmly, her gaze fixed on the Gate. Her hair, deep green, almost black, shifted slightly in the wind.
Her eyes, sharp, observant, unreadable.
"Rose, reporting." Her voice was quiet. Yoshi straightened. "S-rank hunter Rose, Thank you for answering my call." Rose let a small smile.
"The dungeon instability detected. Survivors reports a layer shift."
"In a D-rank dungeon..." She tilted her heads slightly. "And it shifted." She continued.
Not a question, a statement. "Yes." Her gaze moved into survival.
Kerram flinched. Just slightly.
"You." She stepped closer. Kerran swallowed.
"What did you see?"
Silent.
"Monsters..." He said carefully.
"Ghouls. Stronger than expected." Rose didn't respond immediately. She studied him. Not his words, him.
"And?"
Kerran hesitated. "Something deeper."
"Describe it."
His throat tightened. "I didn't see it clearly."
A lie.
Rose's eyes narrowed "didn't see..." her voice softened "or didn't stay longer enough?"
Kerran Froze.
The air grew tense. "We had to retreat."
A pause.
"We lost people." Rose said nothing.
Then-
"Names"
Kerran listed them again.
When he reached
"Wystan Vega." Rose paused.
"F-rank."
Not a question.
"Yes"
"And he went missing." Kerran nodded.
"Presumed dead."
Silence.
Rose turned. Her gaze returned to the Gate
"Presumed..."
-
Something flickered in her expression.
Subtle, breif.
"Manna doesn't lie..." She raised her hands slightly. A thin vine emerged from the grounf near her feet. It moved, slowly.
Reaching towards the Gate. "There's still something alive inside." The vine trembled, then- it recoiled, burned. Rose's eyes sharpened.
"Fire?"
A pause.
"No."
Her voice lowered. "Something else?"
The Gate pulsed again.
Stronger this time.
The air warped, the ground tremble. "It's getting worse." Yoshi said.
Rose stepped forward. 'Prepare a suppression team,"
"Wait." Yoshi said quickly. "We don't know what's inside-"
"I do." Her voice cuts through the tensions. "Something changed."
A pause.
"And if we don't act now-" Her gaze darkened.
"It won't stay inside."
-
Far below-
Deep within the dungeon-
Wystan Vega stood in the darkness. Unaware of the world above, Of the Hunters gathering, of the name now quietly being spoken. His body pulsed with heat. His eyes sharper than ever. And before him-
Something massive shifted in the shadows, dozens of eyes. Opening.
Watching, Waiting.
Wystan smile.
"There you are."
Above-
Rose step toward the Gate.
Below-
Wystan stepped toward the unknown.
And between them-
something began to connect.