Arthur continued walking straight after eliminating the mage, his footsteps echoing faintly against the black stone corridor.
Time passed slowly. At first it felt like minutes, then much longer, yet the surroundings never changed. The walls remained the same dull black, the ground smooth and cold beneath his feet, and the air carried an unnatural stillness. No enemies appeared, no traps activated, and no pressure assaulted him.
That absence itself unsettled him.
A dungeon that had already tested him with coordination, precision, and danger would not suddenly become empty without reason. Silence in such a place was not comfort. It was a warning.
Arthur slowed his pace and eventually stopped altogether. He focused, letting his instincts guide him.
Something was wrong.
Until now, he had relied on his eyes, reflexes, and combat awareness, but he remembered how demons like Rias perceived the world. They did not rely only on sight. They extended their power outward in subtle threads, sensing everything within their territory.
Arthur decided to try the same.
He closed his eyes and shifted his awareness inward, toward the second heartbeat inside his chest. The dragon heart responded immediately.
At first, Anti-Magic erupted outward violently, flooding the corridor and making his body ache from the backlash. Arthur clenched his teeth and forced himself to restrain it. Slowly and carefully, he reduced the output, compressing the energy and thinning it until it became almost imperceptible.
A faint mist of Anti-Magic spread outward.
Information poured into his mind all at once. At first it was overwhelming. Shapes, distortions, and meaningless impressions crashed together, causing sharp pain to pulse through his skull. His thoughts became sluggish, and his temples throbbed violently.
Arthur endured.
Second by second, his mind adapted. The chaos began to organize itself. Distances became clear, density gained structure, and motion gained direction. What had once been noise transformed into perception.
The dungeon revealed itself to him.
He sensed the corridor stretching far ahead, its structure uniform and empty. He felt no enemies, no traps, and no disturbances. Everything appeared normal, almost too normal.
Ding.
[You have obtained Mana Sense]
Arthur opened his eyes in surprise as the system announcement echoed in his mind.
[Congratulations, the host has independently obtained a skill listed in the prize pool]
[You have been rewarded with Random Skill Card]
A smile briefly appeared on his face. With the system's assistance, Mana Sense became far easier to use. The sensation stabilized, no longer overwhelming his brain.
Feeling confident, Arthur began moving forward at high speed, maintaining his perception over a wide area.
Then it happened.
A wave of danger crashed into his consciousness without warning. His instincts screamed, but before his body could react, his vision blurred violently.
His limbs suddenly felt impossibly heavy. His muscles refused to obey. A burning sensation surged through his veins, and something hot trickled from his nose, ears, mouth, and eyes.
He collapsed to his knees as a violent spasm seized his body. Blood spilled from his mouth as he vomited, his chest convulsing painfully. His muscles tore from the inside, and his entire body felt as if it were being cooked alive.
Arthur tried to scream, but his throat filled with blood.
Clinging desperately to consciousness, he forced his energy source to switch from Anti-Magic to mana. He circulated it violently through his body, attempting to dilute and expel whatever was invading him.
Only then did he understand.
Poison.
It had been in the air all along, diffused so perfectly that it was undetectable until it reached a lethal concentration. It was not meant to kill instantly. It was meant to test endurance.
Arthur closed the pores of his skin and held his breath, sealing himself off as much as possible. Using his inhuman control, he pushed his mana circulation further, suppressing the toxin just enough to move.
He dragged himself forward.
His senses began to fail one by one. His vision vanished completely. Touch became distant and unreliable. Taste and sound disappeared. He was no longer sure if he could even smell.
Only Mana Sense remained.
Arthur crawled forward, guided solely by that faint perception. Time lost meaning. Nausea and disorientation twisted his sense of reality, and each movement felt heavier than the last.
His chest burned fiercely.
His human heart had already stopped. Only the dragon heart remained, pounding violently as it fought to keep him alive. Every drop of mana he possessed was poured into survival.
He considered giving up more than once. He thought about the command to leave the dungeon, but his destroyed vocal cords made it impossible. Even if he could speak, something deep inside him refused to surrender.
Pride. Will. Obsession.
After coming this far, he would not retreat from a trial that was clearly meant to be endured.
Ding.
[You have obtained Poison Tolerance]
Arthur did not react.
Ding.
[You have obtained Perseverance]
Again, he ignored it.
Ding.
[You have obtained Random Skill Card x2]
The system messages blurred together as his consciousness wavered.
Then, at the edge of his Mana Sense, he felt it.
Something different.
An object. A presence. A focal point.
Arthur gathered everything he had left and forced himself forward. He did not know whether he was crawling or stumbling, but he could feel the distance closing.
Meter by meter, he approached.
With the last remnants of his strength, he threw himself forward, intending to destroy whatever lay ahead using his own body.
The next moment, he was back in the rest area.
His senses returned all at once. Sight, sound, touch, and breath crashed back into him violently. Relief barely registered before darkness consumed him completely.
Arthur collapsed unconscious, his body finally giving in after pushing far beyond its limits.
With Arthur unconscious, a soft glow spilled from his left hand, dim at first, then steadily intensifying. The air itself seemed to bend, as though reality were yielding to something far greater than itself.
In the next moment, she appeared.
She emerged soundlessly, as if she had always been there and the world had simply failed to notice. The woman settled behind Arthur with effortless grace, her movements slow and deliberate, every motion filled with a quiet confidence that demanded attention. She reached out and gently brushed her fingers through his hair, her touch careful, almost reverent.
Her beauty was overwhelming.
Her hair flowed like liquid night, a shade of black so deep it seemed to swallow the light around it. It cascaded down her back in silken waves, framing skin that was pale and flawless, like polished marble kissed by moonlight. She wore a short black dress adorned with intricate lace, elegant rather than revealing, yet impossible to ignore. The fabric clung to her figure as if it had been crafted for her alone.
Her presence radiated temptation without effort.
Her curves were generous and commanding, balanced by a slender waist and long, powerful legs encased in sheer black stockings. Every line of her body spoke of vitality, confidence, and an almost dangerous femininity. She did not need to pose or entice. Simply existing was enough.
When she looked down at Arthur, her expression softened.
Her face was a contradiction that stole the breath. She possessed gentle, maternal features that inspired comfort and trust, yet there was something profoundly intoxicating beneath that kindness. Her lips were full and richly colored, curved in a faint smile that hinted at both affection and authority. Her eyes were deep red, calm yet endlessly intense, as if they could see through body, soul, and fate alike. A small beauty mark rested beneath her right eye, subtle but captivating.
She looked like a saint carved from temptation.
Only upon closer inspection did her true nature reveal itself.
Her ears tapered into elegant points, barely visible beneath her dark hair. A slender tail swayed behind her, ending in a delicate triangular tip that moved lazily from side to side. Small curled horns emerged from her temples, unobtrusive yet unmistakable, as if she neither hid nor flaunted them.
She was not human.
"That test was too much," she said quietly.
Her voice was smooth and soothing, yet carried an edge of steel beneath its warmth. The tenderness she showed Arthur vanished as she addressed the unseen presence around them.
"I do not want to hear that from someone who could have interfered but chose not to," she continued, her tone growing colder by the second. "He proved himself long before the trial ended."
Her fingers paused in Arthur's hair as her expression hardened. She clenched her fists, and the air trembled.
"Do not interfere again," she said flatly. "My purpose is him. He is the reason I exist."
A surge of dark energy spilled from her body, thick and oppressive. It was identical to Arthur's Anti-Magic, but purer, older, and far more suffocating. Killing intent saturated the room, sharp enough to make reality recoil.
"If you ever prevent me from acting again," she finished calmly, "there will be consequences."
The pressure vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
She exhaled softly, clearly unimpressed by whatever response she received. With a quiet snort, she leaned forward, slipped her arms beneath Arthur, and lifted him effortlessly, as though he weighed nothing at all.
Cradling him close, she carried him to the bed and laid him down with surprising gentleness.
Her fingers brushed his cheek one last time, her gaze lingering on his face with an expression that blended devotion, possessiveness, and something far deeper.
Then she straightened, her silhouette framed by darkness, the most dangerous and beautiful presence the world had yet to realize existed.