The Minotaur's massive body hit the ground with a thunderous crash. The sound echoed across the chamber, shaking the very stone beneath Keiz's feet.
The monster that should have killed him was gone. Its cleaver, still dripping with blood, clattered beside the corpse.
Keiz stood there, his chest heaving. His right hand was shaking violently, and his left arm—the arm that was no longer there—burned with phantom pain.
He didn't feel triumph.
There was no relief.
Only fear.
"…What… was that?" His voice cracked, barely a whisper. He looked down at himself, at the black substance that still clung faintly to his skin before retreating back into nothingness.
He knew it wasn't his own power. He hadn't dodged. He hadn't survived because of strength or willpower.
Something else had saved him.
Something he couldn't understand.
Keiz's knees gave out, and he collapsed to the cold stone floor. Blood still stained the ground around him, his own and the Minotaur's mixed together in a grotesque pool.
His breath came in short gasps. His vision swayed. The reality of what had just happened pressed down on him like a crushing weight.
"I should be dead… I should be… dead…"
The thought repeated endlessly.
But before he could even process it, the Minotaur's corpse began to dissolve. Its massive frame crumbled away into black smoke, rising like ash in the air.
Keiz's eyes widened. "What…?"
The smoke didn't fade. It lingered, swirling, forming shapes before scattering into the cracks of the chamber walls. In the center where the Minotaur had fallen, something remained: a glowing crystal, pulsing with an eerie light.
It cracked.
CRACK.
A sharp sound split the air. The crystal's glow flared violently, then shattered into countless shards of light.
The dungeon trembled.
At first, it was a small vibration beneath Keiz's palms as he tried to push himself up. Then it grew stronger, louder, until the whole chamber shook violently. Dust rained down from the ceiling. The floor split open with jagged lines, glowing faintly with unstable mana.
Keiz froze.
"…The dungeon… it's collapsing."
His words barely left his lips before an entire section of the ceiling crashed down, smashing into the ground where he had been sitting just moments ago.
The impact nearly deafened him. His heart pounded. His survival instincts screamed at him.
Run.
Keiz stumbled to his feet, clutching at his bleeding stump. His legs were weak, his body felt like it could fall apart at any moment, but he forced himself to move.
Every step echoed against the chaos of collapsing stone. The chamber was crumbling faster and faster.
He tried to head back the way he had come, toward the hidden passage, but as soon as he reached the corridor, the walls split apart, sealing the path completely.
"No—no, no, no—!"
He slammed his fist against the rubble, but it was useless. The way back was gone.
The dungeon was trapping him.
"Why…? Why won't it let me out?"
The ground shook again, forcing him to stagger back. Cracks spiderwebbed along the walls, glowing with blinding mana light, as if the dungeon itself was alive and raging.
Keiz ran. He didn't know where. He didn't care.
All he could do was push his legs forward, trying to escape the falling debris and shattering floor.
But every path he took, every turn he made, collapsed behind him. He was being pushed further and further down.
It was as if the dungeon itself had decided his fate.
He tripped on uneven stone, falling to his knees. A massive boulder crashed down where he had been seconds ago, spraying shards across his back. He winced, crying out from the sting.
"I… I can't…" His vision blurred, and his body felt too heavy. His breathing turned shallow. "I… can't keep running…"
He was about to collapse completely when something surged from behind him. The black substance. It erupted out like living shadows, wrapping around his waist and pulling him forward.
Keiz's eyes widened. "It's… moving me?"
He stumbled but found himself forced into motion. The black substance tugged him down a side passage, away from a collapsing wall.
Rubble thundered behind him, sealing the corridor he had just left.
If not for the black substance, he would already be buried alive.
"…Why… why are you helping me…?" He whispered, his voice raw. But there was no answer.
The dungeon groaned around him, like the roar of some ancient beast. The deeper he went, the louder it became.
Keiz realized with horror that he wasn't being guided toward the surface.
He was being dragged deeper.
The air grew hotter. The pressure heavier. The faint glow of mana cracks painted the walls in red, making everything look like it was burning.
Keiz stumbled forward, forced by his own desperation and the strange black force that refused to let him die.
Every corridor he took led downward. Every staircase was broken except the ones that descended further into the abyss.
It felt intentional.
"It's… like the dungeon itself doesn't want me to leave…"
His words echoed, drowned out by the sound of collapsing stone.
At last, the ground beneath him gave way entirely. He had no chance to react. The black substance flared, wrapping around his torso, but even it couldn't stop what came next.
The floor shattered, and Keiz plummeted into the depths.
The fall seemed endless. His scream tore from his throat, lost in the roar of rushing air and crashing stone. His body twisted, blood spraying from his wounds, until finally—
BAM!
He hit the ground hard, rolling across jagged stone. Pain exploded through his body. His vision flickered, but somehow, he was still alive.
The black substance receded slowly, as if exhausted from the effort of keeping him from breaking apart on impact.
Keiz groaned, forcing his eyes open.
It was dark. So dark he couldn't see the walls around him.
But then—
A faint glow.
Ahead of him, deeper in the darkness, something glimmered faintly.
Keiz dragged himself to his knees, his breath shallow. His heart pounded.
"…Where… am I?"
The dungeon had swallowed him whole.
And in the darkness, something was waiting.
Something that should not exist.