I Die to Rise: Resurrection System-Chapter 86: Vacation: B rank dungeon?

"So. Five black swan charges placed at geothermal stress points. Detonation timeline unknown, but probably soon." Kurt pointed at the red swirling energy around the entrance that began crackling. "There’s something sealed behind that door, dungeon, most likely."

He rubbed the back of his neck, then continued. "I got my neck snapped by the way." He took a drag. "And I’m pretty sure the one responsible was a Masquerade... you know, one of the Four Families."

Emma’s expression quickly took a dark turn. "Masquerade. Fuck."

Rook’s jaw tightened. "That complicates things."

Sam stepped closer to Kurt, worry clear on her face. "Are you okay? You got your neck snapped?"

"Yeah, but the joke’s on him." Kurt grinned. "Red haired bastard’s gotta do a whole lot worse than give me the chicken treatment."

Meanwhile, Lizzie had crouched to examine one of the black swan devices, poking it with Betty’s barrel. "So we just... turn these off?"

"Don’t touch that," Rook said sharply in a way that still sounded calm.

"I wasn’t gonna—" Lizzie pulled her hand back. "Okay, maybe I was."

Kurt pointed at the sealed door. "The real question is what’s behind there. And why a Masquerade wants it opened badly enough to blow up an entire island."

Rook studied the ancient symbols carved into the stone. "A dungeon that’s been sealed deliberately. That’s never good."

Emma checked her gun’s magazine. "So what’s the play? Should we return the credits and get the fuck outta dodge?"

"No. Raven’s Crow doesn’t back away from a contract or quest," Rook said.

Kurt sighed, staring at the black swans. "We can start with defusing these things. Then we can try to find out what’s locked in there before Masquerade does."

Rook nodded. "Agreed. Emma, Lizzie—work on the charges. Kurt, Sam—with me.Let’s check out this dungeon."

They split into teams immediately. Emma and Lizzie moved toward the black swan devices with professional focus, while Rook, Kurt, and Sam circled the sealed entrance, studying the massive door and the shimmering red barrier that covered it like a wound in reality.

Rook reached out first, palm extended toward the ethereal light. His hand stopped inches from the surface, unable to penetrate. The barrier crackled softly, but not from his touch.

The black swans were already working, filling with energy siphoned directly from the volcano’s core and the planet’s mantle below. Kurt could feel it, a low vibration building in his bones, and it felt as though it was affecting the seal also.

Behind them, Emma crouched beside the first black swan, tools from Lizzie’s fanny pack spread across the ground, sweat already beading on her forehead. But she was grinning, that feral, focused grin she got when she was enjoying something dangerous.

"These shits should never have been created," she muttered, carefully disconnecting a wire.

The volcano rumbled. Small stones skittered down from the tunnel ceiling.

Emma wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and kept working, fingers steady despite the tremor.

"Done!" Lizzie’s voice rang out suddenly.

Emma turned sideways. Lizzie was already standing, holding the second black swan, now disarmed and inert, looking like an oversized briefcase that clearly weighed more than it looked judging by the way Lizzie strained to pull it across the ground.

The pipes that had been drilling into the volcanic rock had retracted cleanly, clicking shut with mechanical precision, and the volcano rumbled again, deeper this time.

"How the fuck—" Emma started.

Lizzie walked toward the third device in chaotic, unpredictable strides... long steps, short steps, random skips, humming under her breath. She set the deactivated bomb down, leaned over the third one, and got to work immediately.

"It’s all in the hands," Lizzie said without looking up, her head bobbing playfully while her fingers moved with surgical precision.

Click.

The third black swan sealed itself, and the volcano shuddered. Lizzie lifted it, nearly stumbling under the weight, and stacked it precariously on top of the first two.

"Haven’t you ever heard?" Lizzie grinned, wiggling her fingers in the air. "Surgeons make good bombers. It’s all in the hands, Emma."

She skipped toward the fourth device like she was heading to a carnival instead of defusing illegal explosives.

Emma bent back over her own black swan, muttering under her breath, "I know a place I can shove my hands..."

"I HEARD THAT!" Lizzie yelled from across the tunnel.

By the time Lizzie was crouched over the fifth device, Emma had successfully disarmed the fourth. She straightened, kicked the deactivated bomb triumphantly, and the volcano rumbled again, almost like approval.

"Finally," Emma said, stretching her back.

Lizzie hummed a jaunty tune as she worked on the last one, fingers dancing across wires and circuitry with terrifying confidence for someone who looked half-insane. Then... click, the final black swan disarmed.

The tunnel went quiet. The pressure that had been building dissipated slowly, like a held breath finally released.

Lizzie lifted the last device, added it to her precarious stack, and dusted off her hands. "And that’s how it’s done!"

Meanwhile, Kurt tried a different approach on the barrier. He pressed his palm against the red light, activated Kinetic Overdrive, and channeled explosive energy directly into the surface.

The orange glow spread across his hand, crackling against the ethereal barrier, but nothing happened. It felt like pouring water into sand.

"Bollocks," Kurt muttered, pulling his hand back.

The volcano rumbled again, Lizzie’s final disarmament registering through the volcanic structure, and the barrier pulsed brighter for just a moment.

Sam, who’d been standing close to the entrance studying the ancient symbols carved into the stone. Sam took an instinctive step backward when the volcano rumbled, her foot slipping on loose stone.

She overcompensated, pitching forward with arms windmilling, directly toward the red barrier. Kurt of course expected her to hit it like solid ground, bounce off, maybe bruise her shoulder.

Instead, she went through.

The barrier parted like water, swallowed her whole, and she reached out for Kurt.

"Sam!" Kurt lunged forward without thinking, hand reaching for her. His fingers closed around her arm, but momentum carried him through the barrier.

Reality twisted, pulling them sideways through the entrance, vanishing through the rift with a soft *whoosh* of displaced air.

He felt weightless for exactly one second. Then gravity reasserted itself, and he hit solid ground hard, rolling across stone floor before slamming into a wall.

Kurt groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows. "That was unpleasant."

He blinked, vision adjusting, and froze. He wasn’t in the tunnel anymore. He was inside a dungeon.

The architecture looked ancient, carved stone pillars covered in the same symbols as the sealed entrance. The air was cooler here, dry, and it seemed awfully quiet, which was probably a good thing.

And ten feet away, Sam was sitting up, rubbing her head. "Ow. What just—" She looked around, eyes going wide. "Oh no."

Kurt scrambled to his feet, immediately checking the way they’d come. Behind them was nothing, just solid stone wall. No red barrier. No exit.

"Fantastic," Kurt muttered.

Sam stood shakily. "Kurt, I think we’re—"

A low pulsing sound echoed through the dungeon. Deep, resonant, vibrating through the stone floor and rattling Kurt’s teeth.

There was no way to place exactly what this was, but if Kurt could take a guess, it felt like a heartbeat.

***

Back in the tunnel, Rook’s expression didn’t change when Kurt and Sam vanished. He simply straightened, tested the barrier himself by stomping his boot against the red light. It held solid. No give.

He turned to Emma and Lizzie, who were staring at the spot where Kurt and Sam had disappeared.

"I think," Rook said calmly, "we may have a problem."

Emma’s jaw clenched as she stepped forward and slammed her palm against the barrier. It didn’t budge. "Can we get through?"

Rook shook his head. "Not without triggering whatever mechanism let them in. And we don’t know what that was." He paused, eyes narrowing as realization dawned. "But I have a guess."

Lizzie hopped and sat on the stacked black swans, her legs swinging idly. "You think it has anything to do with that Crowley heavenly resistance thingy?"

Rook nodded slowly, the pieces clicking into place. "Exactly. The Crowleys also possess an innate resistance to sealings, among other things. Combined with the destabilization caused by the Black Swans..." He gestured to the charges. "It’d explain how Kurt was pulled in too when he grabbed on to Sam."

Kurt took a drag from his last cigarette, rubbing the stubble on his jaw with the back of his thumb, and looked at Sam. "Right then. Welcome to the shit show, love. Stay close, don’t touch anything glowing."

***

Sam’s face had gone pale, her eyes wide as she took in the ancient architecture and the faint, ominous pulsing echoing from deeper in. "This... this is a B-rank dungeon, Kurt. We’re not ready for this."

Kurt’s lips curved into a crooked half-grin. "Ready? Love, when have I ever been ready for anything?" He flicked ash from his cigarette, offering her his arm. "Stick with me. We’ll make do."

Sam hesitated, then slipped her hand into his, squeezing tight.