Dust.
That was the first thing Keiz noticed when his senses slowly returned. His throat felt dry, and every breath tasted like stone and ash. The world above him was nothing but rubble—broken stone, shattered walls, and fragments of what once held the dungeon together.
His eyes fluttered open, only to be met by the dim glow of faint mana crystals, their light flickering weakly among the ruins. The collapse had buried him deep underground, yet somehow… he was still alive.
"…I… survived?" Keiz muttered, his voice hoarse.
He didn't understand it. The dungeon had crumbled around him, the Minotaur boss had nearly ended him with its cleaver, and he had been nothing more than a half-naked failure with one arm missing. There should have been no chance for him to live. Yet here he was.
He tried to move, wincing as he pushed himself up with his right hand. His left arm—the one that had been bitten off by the mimic—was still gone. The pain he expected to feel, though, wasn't there. The bleeding had long stopped. The wound was sealed, but in a strange, unnatural way.
"…Why?" he whispered.
Keiz stared at the stump. It wasn't clean like a healer's work, nor messy like untreated flesh. Instead, it looked hardened, as if something black and charred had fused itself into his skin, stopping the blood entirely.
He shivered.
There was no way this was normal.
No healing potion, no priest's blessing, not even the most skilled mage could have saved him from bleeding out that fast. Yet he was alive, and the evidence was right there—something foreign was now part of him.
"Did… did someone save me?" Keiz looked around the collapsed chamber.
But there was no one. Only silence. No footsteps, no voices, no monsters. Just him. Alone.
Or so he thought.
…
As Keiz leaned back against the rubble, trying to catch his breath, a faint sound stirred behind him. Something like a low, wet ripple.
He froze.
Slowly, his eyes darted to the side, but he saw nothing. Only darkness pooled in the cracks of the stone. Yet, if one looked carefully, the shadows seemed too thick. Too alive.
Keiz didn't notice. He was too exhausted, too overwhelmed by what just happened.
His mind wandered back to the Minotaur. He remembered the massive cleaver swinging down, the hopelessness that had swallowed him whole. He remembered closing his eyes, waiting for death to come.
And yet… something had pushed him. Something had dragged his body away from the strike at the very last second.
His lips trembled. "…That shouldn't be possible."
Keiz wasn't fast. He wasn't strong. With only one arm and no equipment, he should've been nothing but minced flesh under the Minotaur's weapon. But the memory was clear—at the very last moment, his body had moved on its own, as if something had forced it to dodge.
That thought alone made him shiver more than the dungeon collapse.
"Something's wrong with me…" he muttered under his breath.
…
Time passed, though Keiz couldn't tell how long. Maybe hours. Maybe just minutes.
He tried to stand, his legs weak, his body screaming for food and water. Every step was heavy, but he refused to sit still. If the collapse didn't crush him, then the monsters would. He had to move.
The tunnels ahead were unstable, parts of the ceiling still dripping rubble every now and then. The path forward was uneven, broken, and half the corridors were blocked. Yet Keiz pressed on.
His stomach growled painfully. His throat burned. His vision blurred.
It was a miracle he hadn't collapsed yet, and he knew it.
"Is this… really how I die?" Keiz whispered, stumbling forward. "Not by a monster… but by hunger and thirst…"
His legs gave out, and he fell to his knees.
He clenched his teeth, slamming his fist into the ground. "…No. Not here. Not like this."
He had endured betrayal. He had endured losing his arm. He had endured being thrown into despair by people he trusted. To simply fade away now, without reason, without purpose—it was too cruel.
He forced himself to crawl, dragging his weak body through the dust. Every movement sent pain through his bones, but he didn't stop.
Somewhere in the distance, he saw it.
A faint glow.
Keiz's eyes widened.
It was faint, but unmistakable. A teleporter circle.
The thing he had been hoping for ever since he was abandoned. The one escape from this nightmare.
"…I… I can't believe it…" His voice cracked, tears forming in the corner of his eyes.
He pushed himself, dragging his battered body closer. The glow became clearer, a small circular formation etched into the stone floor, pulsing weakly with blue light.
Freedom.
He was so close.
"Just… a little more…" Keiz whispered as he reached out with his trembling hand.
But just as his fingers brushed against the glowing stone—
A sound.
A heavy thud.
Keiz froze. His heart skipped.
Something else was here.
He slowly turned his head, his vision still blurry, and there… standing in the broken ruins of the chamber, was a shadow.
Massive. Broad-shouldered.
A monster.
His breath caught.
"…Not again…"
He didn't know what it was. His eyes were too clouded, his body too weak. But he knew one thing—he couldn't fight. Not now. Not ever.
If the Minotaur hadn't killed him earlier, then this thing surely would.
Keiz laughed bitterly under his breath. "…So this is it. Even when I'm this close…"
He closed his eyes. There was no point struggling. No point crawling. No point begging.
He simply accepted it.
"…I'm sorry, Father… I couldn't prove myself after all…"
The sound of footsteps drew closer. Heavy. Unearthly.
The ground trembled with each step.
Keiz waited for the strike. Waited for the pain. Waited for his death.
And then—
Something moved.
Not the monster.
But him.
His body twisted violently, as if yanked by invisible strings. The monster's strike crashed into the stone beside him, missing entirely. Dust exploded into the air.
Keiz's eyes snapped open in shock. "…What… what was that!?"
It wasn't him. He hadn't moved. Something else had. Something inside him.
His heart pounded as he stared at his trembling right hand. His body had reacted on its own—no, not his body. Something else had forced it.
He looked around frantically, but there was nothing. No ally, no saving hand. Only the faint traces of movement in the shadows.
"…Don't tell me…" Keiz's voice cracked.
Behind him, the darkness shifted. Subtle. Silent. A black, viscous substance crawled like a ripple across the floor before retreating again, unseen by his weary eyes.
Keiz didn't notice.
He only knew one thing—he wasn't alone.
Something was inside him. Something he didn't understand.
And for the first time since this nightmare began, a terrifying thought crept into his mind.
"…Maybe… I didn't survive on my own at all."
The darkness behind him pulsed faintly, almost in response.