​The oppressive atmosphere of the basement suddenly thickened, suffocating the air.

​"All of you, stop." Mirabella raised one hand, her voice a sharp, commanding whip that immediately halted the eight on their tracks.

​Her senses, honed through countless life-and-death struggles, flared with a blaring warning. "There is something else in here! It’s a lot stronger than a realm Boss! I will say, it’s stronger than ten Realm Bosses. I need all of you to retreat back. Carl, Grace and I will continue from here," she said seriously, her eyes narrowing at the darkness ahead.

​Behind the impassive mask of her face, Mirabella’s mind was rapidly calculating the survival odds. ’These guys can’t die here. If that happens, I will not only lose points, I will also lose valuable assets and Subordinates.’ She thought, her pragmatic ruthlessness blending with her duty as their Captain.

​Rose and the rest of the group looked at one another, a collective shudder passing through them. They nodded their heads in silent agreement. The impossibly durable webs were already a clear warning; whatever created it was exceptionally powerful, far beyond the scope of their current levels.

​"Ok, Be careful." Austin muttered, his usual bravado completely suppressed.

"We will be waiting, Upstairs." Rose added, gripping her staff tight.

​Rose, Austin, and the rest moved back, their footsteps echoing as they retreated up the stairs, leaving the basement to the three members.

___

​With them gone, Mirabella shifted her stance. "Carl, strongest Mode. Grace, stay right behind me. Cupcake and Adira, come out."

​The fabric of space beside them tore open with a sharp hum. Cupcake walked out, shedding her domestic facade. She was already in her apex predator form, standing four meters tall, her muscles rippling beneath pristine white fur. Resting securely on the Cupcake’s massive head was the fairy, Adira.

​"Okay."

​Carl nodded his head, his innocent demeanor vanishing. A blinding, pure golden energy rose from his body, casting divine shadows against the abyssal webs. From his legs upward, intricately carved golden armor appeared, locking into place until it enclosed all his body. With a final surge of energy, the space behind him distorted, and two huge golden wings burst out from his back, illuminating the dreary basement.

​"Wow." Grace was stunned, having never seen the true majesty of the Golden Angel lineage up close.

​"I gained a new skill, Big sister," Carl said, clenching his gauntleted fist as he tested the flow of his power.

​"What is it?" Mirabella asked, her eyes scanning the dark corners.

​"Boss control: I can draw all Boss monsters towards this location, and also control them in some minutes," he said, the sheer weight of the skill casually dropping from his lips.

​Mirabella’s eyes widened fractionally. ’Huh? From the start, Carl could draw Bosses and even World Bosses, was it because of this skill? It must be related to the Golden Angel family.’ She thought, connecting the dots of his unique pull on high-tier threats. She lightly shook her head, dismissing the anomaly for the immediate crisis.

​"Forget that for now, we don’t need any more monsters at the moment... Grace, just stay behind me. Cupcake will watch our Back, while Adira will keep track on the surrounding energy. I don’t want to take any chances." She said.

​With a thought, Mirabella summoned her twin blades. In stark contrast to Carl’s radiant light, a heavy, suffocating black armor appeared on her body, shadows clinging to the metal, finished with a terrifying skull helmet enclosing her expression in a visage of death.

​Mirabella turned to Grace and lightly tapped her shoulder. The next moment, a protective, legendary class armor appeared on the girl’s body, shielding her fragile form.

​"Now, let’s go." She said.

​Carl and Grace looked at one another, then at Mirabella’s imposing, armored back. A single, unified thought echoed in their minds:

​’What monster will make Mirabella so cautious?’

​Mirabella heard their thoughts but remained silent. ’A monster, whose web can’t be cut through by a god class artifact. It must be above King stage... How did such a monster appear on Earth? It’s not even ten years yet,’ she thought.

____

​With Grace pointing the direction from memory, and Carl taking the lead—his Supreme Class dagger effortlessly clearing the path by melting through the dark webs like a hot knife through butter—they finally reached the heavily fortified door of the Bunker.

​"It’s under that door," Grace whispered, her hand trembling slightly as she pointed at the heavy metal hatch set into the floor.

​Mirabella nodded. She walked towards the small metal door, her crimson eyes staring at the dried blood smeared across its surface. "Hmm..."

​She grabbed the heavy industrial handle. Channeling her monstrous strength, and with one brutal pull, she tore the reinforced bolts from the concrete, taking the whole door off its hinges and effortlessly throwing it to the side.

​"A underground bunker is located under a Basement. This is new," Carl said in surprise, peering down into the pitch-black space. "Even if the whole city got destroyed by a bomb, this bunker will still stand," he added, noting the absurd thickness of the lead-lined walls.

​Grace nodded, a lump forming in her throat. She looked over their shoulders, staring at the Basement stairways leading upstairs, and then back down at the yawning dark doorway.

​’Is Senior right? Did the monster follow them all the way here? If it did, where is it now?’ she thought, the claustrophobia of the situation creeping into her bones.

​"Wait for me."

​Mirabella said, and without a second of hesitation, she jumped down into the darkness.

____

​[Bunker.]

​TAP

​Mirabella landed lightly in the dark space, the shock absorbers of her black armor completely silencing her impact. She moved her gaze around the pitch-black environment. Her enhanced vision pierced the gloom, seeing a dead end on her left, then a path on her right, which clearly led deeper into the main hallway of the bunker... But...

​"You got to be kidding me," she exclaimed in absolute disbelief. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

​Her eyes traced the horrific architecture of the corridor. Staring at the people, who were placed in thick, suffocating spider cocoons made from the impenetrable black web. There were countless people, hanging motionless on both sides of the concrete walls, and strung up on the ceiling of the hallway like grotesque chandeliers.

​"....?!"

​Mirabella was stunned. Even with the memories of her past life and her current conquests, in her two lives, this was the first time she saw such an organized, nightmarish larder.

​A moment later, Carl and Grace followed suit, dropping gracefully into the bunker, only to freeze in sheer disbelief, staring at the macabre scene before them. Some of the people had their bodies entirely covered, leaving only their heads exposed—heads which were now nothing but bleached skulls with hollow, screaming eye sockets.

​"What." Grace covered her mouth, a stifled sob of horror escaping her as she recognized the tattered clothes of old estate staff among the suspended dead.

​"What sort of monster are we facing here?! Is it a spider or what?" Carl asked in deep confusion, his golden light casting eerie, shifting shadows across the cocooned graveyard.

​Above them, Cupcake shrunk in size to fit through the hatch and jumped inside the bunker, landing with a soft thud, with Adira fluttering nervously behind her.

​"Master," Adira said in a low, trembling voice, her tiny fairy body shaking violently as her sensory wings picked up the ambient frequencies. "The Energy here is so dense, and evil."

​Mirabella stood perfectly still in the horrific hallway. ’Should we continue through this, or go back?’ she thought, the oppressive weight of an unknown, King-stage or above terror pressing down on her as her grip on her twin swords tightened until her knuckles cracked.