Kazami's eyes snapped from one spindly leg to the next, every strike thundering into the stone with bone-shaking force. He no longer saw a monster—just a rhythm. A beat of stabbing limbs he had to answer with sidesteps, dives, half-steps that shaved the air from his cheek. His lungs burned, each breath rasping like a blade dragged across iron.
The Dread Stalker pressed closer, legs slamming with such precision it felt almost human. One blow clipped his ribs and sent him staggering sideways, pain lancing through his torso like fire. He nearly collapsed. Only instinct forced his legs to keep moving, skidding across the grit.
"Over here, ugly!" His voice cracked more from desperation than bravado as he swung the dull blade like a torch to distract it.
The creature's answering lunge nearly broke him. His health bar plunged, but the sting of impact only sharpened his resolve. He gritted his teeth, forcing his legs to obey, though every step threatened to buckle.
Behind him, a charge of energy split the air. Tang-Ji's voice did not need to reach him—he felt it in the crackle at his back. Her jade shears hummed, and the space around her warped, black holes twisting into being like tiny suns inverted. She swung, and the world seemed to hinge on that motion.
Two of the beast's legs sheared away in a spray of ichor. Its shriek rattled the chamber walls. For the first time, Kazami saw it falter.
She didn't hesitate. Using her dashing ability, Tang-Ji launched forward, the shears dragging against stone, carving sparks into the dark. She soared past him, eyes locked, and in that silent nod midair, their plan crystallised.
Kazami drew in a ragged breath, forcing his battered body to obey. His damaged sword dissolved into shards of light, reforming in his hand as a slender rapier rimed with frost. Dropping low, he felt every tendon scream as he coiled himself like a spring.
Then he launched. His right leg detonated with power, hurling him forward in a blur of pale blue radiance. The stone beneath him hissed and froze with each stride, frost blooming in his wake. From so near to the ground, he could feel the scrape of cold stone against his virtual flesh, but momentum carried him faster—so fast it seemed space itself bent to let him pass.
The Dread Stalker loomed ahead, still paralysed from Tang-Ji's previous attack.
With a swift motion, Kazami activated one of the rapier's most potent skills, "level 3 deployment, Rush Technique: Snow Tomb!!" pointing the weapon's tip towards the beast.
At his command, the ground split with a deafening crack. Ice surged upward in jagged walls, clawing around the monster like a frozen cage. Above, a lid of snow and frost gathered mass, then plummeted down with the weight of an avalanche, sealing the monster in a glacial prison.
The labyrinth shuddered as ice and snow exploded outward, fragments pelting the stone like shrapnel. For a breath, silence reigned—broken only by the brittle crack of shifting ice. When the haze cleared, Kazami glimpsed the Arachne's health bar sinking low, its massive body straining helplessly against the frozen walls.
But the assault had only begun.
Above, Tang-Ji hovered, her jade shears alive with a violet gleam that set shadows crawling across the walls. She drew the weapon close, forcing its curved edges together until sparks of dark light bled between them. The air around her warped, folding inward as a sphere of black energy coalesced, dense as a collapsing star.
Her cry cut sharp through the chamber: "Level 2 deployment, Rush Technique: Imperial Comet!"
The orb ignited at her command, throbbing with violent rhythm, pulling loose stones upward, gravity itself bent to its will. She leveled her weapon, eyes unblinking, and released it.
The projectile screamed across the air, trailing a ribbon of shadow that shimmered like spilled ink under a broken moon. When it struck, the world seemed to pause—then rupture.
A bloom of arcane force detonated against the frozen prison, its roar rolling through the labyrinth until even the pillars groaned and fractured. Dust avalanched from the ceiling. Frost and shadow collided in a storm that seared vision and hearing alike.
Inside the cage, the Arachne writhed, its limbs thrashing against ice and darkness, every movement weaker than the last. The prison held firm, and the weight of the combination attack pressed it down like the judgment of the abyss.
The monster's health bar had reached 50%, but rather than advancing forward to unleash another round of attacks, Kazami paused. Remembering his time during the game's beta testing, he vividly recalled nearly dying during his first chamber raid.
Despite the armour clinging to his frame like polished steel, one blow had dragged his health bar straight into the red.
'Wait—'
The thought sparked too late.
He remembered now—an AOE strike.
The spider boss had a desperation move, a last attempt meant to take everyone down with it. But the words hadn't left his mouth yet.
The ground trembled.
The beast cracked through its icy binds, limbs twitching with violent promise. Its hulking mass coiled, shadow stretching beneath it.
Kazami's pulse thrashed in his throat.
Tang-Ji still hung in the air, blade raised, unaware.
"It's going to—!" he shouted, but the warning tangled in his breath.
Then, motion—
A blur at the edge of his vision, fast, sharp—
Someone moved.
Ukiyo leapt into action, she had already anticipated its next attack.
Sliding gracefully under Kazami's icy trail that was created earlier, her movements were fluid and precise.
Within seconds, she had positioned herself directly beneath its large body.
She threw herself against one of its colossal legs, using the full weight of her body, causing it to lose balance.
The arachnid wobbled as its eight legs were momentarily thrown into disarray.
The jumping attack was interrupted, preventing it from spreading its poisonous webs around the entirety of the room, giving the team a vital moment of respite.
The labyrinth echoed with the resounding thud of the monster's unsteady steps, its movements erratic as it struggled to regain its balance. It was a temporary advantage, but it provided the trio with a precious opportunity.
Kazami lunged forward at the Arachne with speed comparable to his earlier technique, using his momentum to drive the tip of his ice rapier deep into the its right flank.
The enemy's hit point gauge dropped closer to the red zone, with only a marginal amount remaining in the orange zone.
Sparks burst from the wound, followed by a shrill metallic sound.
The boss monster shook Kazami off from its side, flinging him more than two metres across the room. At the same time, Tang-Ji landed firmly on the ground, her heavy weapon following suit, creating a small nick in the already worn-out concrete.
She steadied the shears across her shoulders, breath shallow, weight shifting with each step. She readied herself for another strike—
—but the boss moved first.
Its grotesque frame arched back, limbs rooted, abdomen tilting skyward. The gesture was unnatural, almost theatrical.
Kazami's eyes locked onto the motion. He'd seen this before.
His voice ripped through the tension.
"Poison—move, now!"
Too late for doubt. Only instinct remained.
The Arachne's mouth gaped wide open, and from within its depths, a sickly red venom gathered.
In an instant, the monster forcefully expelled the poisonous substance in a concentrated stream, which hurtled towards Kazami, sizzling in the air.
His pupils dilated as he swerved to the side, barely escaping the venomous stream.
Yet, the attack was too swift for him to evade entirely.
A streak caught his arm.
The burn came instantly—sharp, all-consuming. His gear hissed as it warped, metal bubbling, cloth peeling like scorched paper.
He hit the ground hard, knees cracking stone.
"Ah—fuck!" he growled, clutching the limb, breath ragged.
Steam rose from the ruined plating. His fingers trembled against the exposed skin beneath.
Through clenched teeth, he managed, "Tang-Ji... don't let it touch you."
He curled closer to the wall, the venom was still eating into the last scraps of armour.
Tang-Ji's heart pounded in terror as the Dread Stalker let out another thundering shriek, signalling that it was ready to spit another deadly onslaught of venom. Its many eyes began to spaz out vilely before making its hideous gaze present to her
Her hands trembled, knuckles white around the shears.
Doubt coiled through her chest like smoke, thick and cloying. Every breath felt shallow, the chaos around her stretching into a blur—rotten wood groaning, acid hissing against stone, the boss's shadow looming larger.
Then—
A voice cut through.
Sharp. Clear. Familiar.
"Don't be scared!"
Tang-Ji's head jerked towards the broken staircase below.
Dust still drifted through the air where debris had collapsed, but from beneath the wreckage, that voice rose with startling clarity.
"You already have the strength to overcome this!"
A current stirred the blood-soaked fragments of shattered stone at her feet. Tang-Ji's breath caught. The poison bubbling in the distance hissed, creeping closer like a living curse.
Ukiyo's voice surged again, louder now. "Your Leere is defensive! When I borrowed it—I knew. You weren't meant to fight head-on."
The words struck her harder than the roar in the background. A quiet truth, long buried, surfacing.
"Let it move with you," Ukiyo cried. "Like it's part of your body. Like it's your soul."
Tang-Ji's heartbeat pounded in her ears. Not with fear—
—but with clarity.
She didn't want to keep hiding. Not anymore. Not from pain, from confrontation, from the fragile truth of herself. Her fear of being cast aside, of being misunderstood—burned off like haze in hard noon light.
She breathed in. Deep.
Held the shears tight.
Shifted her stance.
The blade quivered with energy—cool, protective, alive.
Another shriek from the boss. A spatter of venom surged towards her, luminous and lethal.
Tang-Ji stood firm. She wasn't running.
With her voice steady and full, she screamed into the chaos,
"Level 1 deployment—counter technique: Abyssal Haze!"
A barrier erupted before her. Black, pulsing, jagged at the edges—like obsidian forged in a storm.
The venom hit.
But it didn't break through.
It sank in.
Swallowed whole.
The barrier shimmered, hunger glowing in its cracks, feeding off the poison as if it had been waiting for it all along.
Energy crackled within the Abyssal Haze, swirling and building in intensity. As a cloud of black mist began enveloping Tang-Ji's entire body, the barrier unleashed the absorbed venom back at the boss, hurling the toxic mass back in retaliation.
It recoiled, its monstrous form writhing in agony as the venom coated and burned its body. The sudden release of energy sent shockwaves rippling through the domain and sprayed droplets of poisonous chemicals across the walls.
The beast's health bar above its head receded significantly down into the red zone.
Kazami howled, ignoring the poor state of his health bar, and sprinted forward along the wall. Positioning his ice rapier at a low angle next to his knee, his left foot kicked off the floor at full force.
"Now! Everyone—attack!" he roared, his voice cleaving through the air like a blade drawn from fire.
Ukiyo and Kazami surged forward, silhouettes slicing past Tang-Ji as she caught her breath, the aftershocks of her barrier still humming in her bones.
The ground cracked beneath them. Steel met carapace. Every swing sang—sharp, deliberate, echoing through the chamber like the beating of a war drum.
The spider boss reeled, its once-menacing form now flinching, buckling beneath the unrelenting rhythm of their onslaught.
Tang-Ji moved before she realised. Her feet left the ground. Her blade arced with the others, slipping into their rhythm as though she'd always known it.
Three figures. Three pulses. One momentum.
Each strike felt less like violence and more like breath, like belonging. A strange warmth unfurled in her chest, foreign but not unwelcome—as if she'd almost cracked open a door long bolted shut.
She glanced at them—Kazami's fierce precision, Ukiyo's feral grace—and wondered if this was what it felt like to fight with someone, not just beside them.
As the boss's health dwindled, its movements grew sluggish and desperate.
It prepared one final attack in an act of desperation; however, Kazami, who had been skilfully evading its assaults, intercepted it with his rapier, freezing its remaining limbs.
He then delivered a devastating attack, striking the monster with unparalleled precision and power.
The life gauge was left with just a sliver of health.
"Finish it, Tang-Ji!" Kazami screamed as she began charging up another massive burst of energy.
Her Leere pulsated with energy, the crackling energy yearning to be released. With her whole body and soul, she used all the remaining stamina to fire her ultimate skill.
She called upon the power of the "Level 8 deployment, Ultimate Technique: Eden's Pulsar!!" Unleashing the full force of her Leere with unwavering conviction.
The words split the air like a vow. Energy surged down the shears, dark matter crawling along their curve before condensing at the tip—a pinprick of black so dense it warped the space around it.
The moment hung suspended, breathless. Then the sphere ruptured.
A torrent of annihilation ripped free, a beam so heavy it dragged the light from the room. The labyrinth groaned as stone cracked and buckled under its passing. Frost on the walls shattered to powder.
The Dread Stalker shrieked, its legs thrashing uselessly as the darkness lanced through its core. The attack crushed and unmade it in the same breath, its grotesque form disintegrating into shards of ash that scattered like dying embers.
The beam did not stop. It slammed into the far wall, carving a yawning wound in the chamber, a tunnel of molten ruin where stone had once been. Dust rained down in sheets.
Then silence—vast, suffocating silence.
Where the monster had stood was nothing but drifting particles. Slowly, the dungeon door behind creaked open, the sound echoing like the final note of a requiem.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the blizzard storm began to subside and sunlight began seeping through the gaping hole that Tang-Ji had opened up, the three players knelt down, exhausted from what felt like an endless abyss of fighting.
"Hey, Kazami." She asked with a tired voice, "Is it really over?"
He paused, the question hanging in the air, unanswered as his eyes lingered on the shattered steps ahead.
Then he slowly got to his feet and muttered, "Yeah, it's all over now, and we won." His voice was barely audible from exhaustion.
Tang-Ji slowly rose to her feet, and she paced over to Kazami.
She was aware that she needed to apologise for the grief that she had given him, since it was her own narrow-mindedness that had hurt him.
Yet before she could utter a word of regret, he turned around and limped towards her, pulling her into his arms and embracing her warmly. Tang-Ji was taken aback by this show of appreciation, her cheeks turning a pale shade of red before reluctantly returning the hug.
"I'm sorry for saying those things earlier." He murmured gently.
In that tender moment, just as the two were coming to terms with their emotions, Kazami's demeanour changed abruptly.
Over Tang-Ji's shoulder, his gaze landed on Ukiyo.
She stood a short distance away, kneeling on the ground, her hands resting delicately on her lap. But something was… off.
Unlike the exhaustion written across their faces, Ukiyo looked untouched by the fight. Her expression was unreadable—too composed, too distant. Her eyes weren't filled with relief or even joy.
She was staring at them.
Not with admiration. Not with concern.
Just… watching.
A cold shiver ran down Kazami's spine. Something about the way she held herself—still, poised, like she had already known how this would end—felt wrong. Artificial, even.
His arms loosened around Tang-Ji as unease settled into his bones.
Then, he turned to face Ukiyo directly.
"Tell us who you are," He demanded, his voice steady despite the knot tightening in his chest. "I know for a fact that you're not just an NPC."
"You just called her Tang-Ji earlier during the battle. An NPC is programmed to call a player by their gamer tag, the name displayed just above our heads."
He continued, glaring intently at her as he moved in closer.
Tang-Ji stepped forward instinctively, placing herself between the two of them.
"Kazami, stop," she said firmly, her arms slightly outstretched.
"She saved our lives. Why are you interrogating her like this?"
Kazami's gaze didn't waver. "Because something isn't right."
"I've been paying careful attention to you during the whole trip, and I've noticed that something about your actions and the way you talk is unusual compared to the other NPCs I've encountered." He said, choosing his words carefully, certain that he was onto something.
Tang-Ji was confused, her loyalties torn between her friends. She wanted to stop him from pushing Ukiyo any further, but nagging curiosity tugged at her.
She had indeed never acted like a typical NPC. Her way of speaking and her emotions had been far too lifelike to be mere computer programmes.
'It was thanks to her that I'm alive and that I was able to protect Kazami and finally let go of my fears,' Tang-Ji thought to herself.
She could never see her as an enemy.
However, her hands trembled slightly as doubt began to creep in, unwelcome and cold.
'But her words, her expressions, the way she spoke about grief like she had felt it herself… It had all seemed too real.'
Tang-Ji swallowed hard.
Whatever resolve she had wavered.
She turned her head slightly, glancing back at Ukiyo, searching for answers in the girl's eerily composed face. "…Ukiyo?" she murmured, but this time, it wasn't a defence. It was a question.
"Are you going to tell us or not? Who are you, and how are you able to get a blue cursor?" Kazami asked, now losing his patience.
Pulling her right sleeve down, Ukiyo rose slowly from her place on the floor. Her eyes flickered with a hint of vulnerability before shifting back into a stern expression.
Before he could continue, she finally answered, "You're right. I am not a computer-generated programme." She admitted it; her voice was steady but tinged with sadness. "I didn't mean to deceive you, but I had my reasons to not speak up about my identity."
His anger gave way to confusion as he demanded, "Who are you? Tell me!"
Ukiyo took a slow breath, her fingers tightening around the fabric of her sleeve before she let it fall. Her gaze flickered between Kazami and Tang-Ji, uncertainty shadowing her expression.
"In the real world…" she started, her voice quieter now, the words themselves were a weight she had carried for too long. "People know me as Mai."
Kazami narrowed his eyes.
"Mai?" he echoed, the name unfamiliar to him.
Ukiyo hesitated, then met his gaze with quiet resolve. "I didn't come here as a player—I was sent here."
The words hung heavy in the air, cutting through the tense silence. Tang-Ji felt her stomach twist.
'Sent here? Not a player?'
Kazami's exhaustion seemed to dull for a moment, his mind racing to piece it together.
"Then… who sent you?"
Ukiyo exhaled, her hands curling into fists.
"I wasn't supposed to reveal my identity, but I can't keep deceiving you two anymore." Her voice wavered slightly before she steadied herself. "I am a Japanese idol. A Cubetuber."