[Ding!]

[Preparing for Wave 3...]

As the system notification flashed in their minds, their idle chatter stopped immediately. They turned toward the glowing blue screens and straightened their backs. The next wave was about to begin, and they had no idea what kind of unpredictable, dangerous quest the dungeon might throw at them next.

[Ding!]

[Quest: Survive!]

[Time limit: 30 minutes]

[Wave 3: Start!]

"Huh...? What are we supposed to survive against?"

Zane blinked as he read the quest. The screen only said ’Survive’ without explaining the actual threat.

Serene also looked deeply worried. The psychological horror of the last wave had already taken a heavy toll on her mind; she wasn’t sure she could handle another mental attack like that again.

"I just hope the quest won’t be too dangerous..." she murmured.

Alen remained silent. He turned and scanned their surroundings. There was nothing unusual. No monsters poured from the tunnels, no traps triggered, and the cavern remained completely still. Everything seemed perfectly fine.

’What the hell is going on? Why are there no monsters or illusions? What exactly are we supposed to survive?’ Alen thought, his eyes narrowing.

As if to answer his internal questions, the atmosphere in the cavern suddenly became incredibly heavy. It felt as if an invisible, crushing force had just slammed down upon them from the ceiling.

[Ding!]

[Your Passive Ability ’????’ Triggered!]

[Ding! The Soul Attack directed at you has been completely negated.]

[Ding! You have been protected from Soul Splitting!]

Alen’s eyes widened slightly as he read the notifications. He had just survived a deadly, invisible attack that he hadn’t even been able to sense.

He quickly looked over at his two companions.

Surprisingly, both of them were standing completely upright. They seemed perfectly fine, though they looked as if they were straining against the unknown, heavy pressure weighing them down. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

’Why are they completely fine?’ Alen wondered, his gaze turning analytical. ’Do they also have some unknown skill that prevents soul damage? Or is there something hidden about them that I am unaware of... Who are they, really?’

Serene and Zane stood frozen. They felt the heavy pressure slam into their minds, but the soul attack was seemingly ineffective at instantly crushing them because they were not normal Awakeners. They were...

"Hey, Zane, how much longer do we have to wait?" Serene strained.

Zane looked at the timer, gritting his teeth in frustration. Even though his soul wasn’t torn apart by the attack, he was still deeply affected by the crushing, invisible pressure. The worst part was that he couldn’t sense where the attack was originating from. Usually, his sharp intuition as a Dark magic user would pinpoint the enemy’s location immediately, but this time, his senses completely failed him.

"There’s still half the time remaining..." Zane groaned.

He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he tried to endure the mental weight. But suddenly, the pressure vanished entirely. It was as if it had never been there. The heavy silence of the cavern faded away; he couldn’t even hear Serene’s breathing anymore.

He opened his eyes.

He was no longer standing in the dark dungeon. He was standing in the middle of a wide, endless, sunlit grassland.

There was nothing else around him—no trees, no animals, just an endless sea of green grass. Suddenly, he heard the rhythmic sound of crashing water.

He looked behind him and realized he was standing right on the edge of a massive cliff. He instantly stepped back to avoid accidentally falling. Far below the cliff, the sprawling, beautiful blue sea crashed violently against the rocks.

"Where am I? I was just standing beside Serene, but now I’m here. What could be the reason..." Zane muttered, completely disoriented.

"Zane..."

Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice behind him. He easily recognized it; without a doubt, it was Serene’s voice.

He turned around and saw her standing just a few feet away.

"Sera...?"

As Zane looked at her, his eyes widened in sheer horror. There was a massive, gaping hole in the center of her chest. Dark blood flowed freely from the wound, soaking her clothes as she looked at him with dull, fading silver eyes.

"Sera! Your wound! What happened to you?! Who did this?!"

He ran forward and caught her just as her knees buckled. He looked at her desperately, begging for an answer, but she was in no state to speak. Her life was rapidly slipping away.

Zane’s hands started to shake violently as he looked at her warm blood staining his palms.

"Sera, are you alright? Answer me! Sera, please be okay... Please..."

Tears spilled from Zane’s eyes. He hugged her frail body tightly, caressing her pale face.

"Zane... I’m sorry..." she whispered.

With those final words, her life slipped away. The vibrant light in her silver eyes vanished completely, and the hand she had rested against his cheek fell limply to her side.

Her entire body turned freezing cold.

Zane stared at her lifeless face. An overwhelming explosion of grief and agony erupted inside his chest.

"NOOOOO!!!!!!!"

As he screamed, a massive shockwave of dark mana violently exploded from his body. Pitch-black fire ignited the endless grassland, his uncontrollable, devastating emotions burning away everything in sight.

"No—no, it can’t be! No!!!!!!"

"Please return, Sera! Please, I can’t live without you... Please... please..."

He clutched her lifeless body as it slowly began to disintegrate into dark ash in his arms.

Tears blinded his vision. He cried uncontrollably for several minutes as her body finally vanished entirely from his desperate grasp.

"There is no meaning to my life without her... It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault..."

"My fault... My fault... My fault... My fault..."

As he muttered continuously, his obsidian eyes began to turn entirely pitch-black. He was being consumed by a pool of absolute darkness. Everything around him faded into the abyss. He was just a single step away from surrendering his mind and attaining absolute corruption.

"My fault... My fault... My fault..."

Suddenly, a gentle, glowing light enveloped him. A warm, comforting embrace slowly started to pull him back from the edge of the infinite darkness.

A soft whisper echoed inside him—not through his ears, but directly into his consciousness.

<It’s okay zane... It’s not your fault... Come back, I’m waiting for you...>

Hearing that voice, the light forcefully pulled him out of the darkness.

Zane gasped and snapped his eyes open. The very first thing he saw made his heart skip a beat.

Serene was sitting on the cavern floor, gently caressing his blonde hair. His head was resting softly on her lap.

He stared up at the blue-haired girl. Her beauty was no less than that of a real goddess; she looked like an ethereal fairy in the dim light of the dungeon.

As he stared at her without blinking, all of his worry, immense sadness, and suffocating darkness vanished completely. The only thing left in the world was the warmth of her embrace.

Serene noticed his gaze and looked down at his face with a gentle smile.

"Oh, you woke up! You know you’ve been sleeping here for almost an hour now. The final wave already finished," she said softly.

"Why did you suddenly fall asleep? Are you okay? Your face looks really pale. Did you have a nightmare?"

Zane quickly pulled away from her lap and sat up straight, clearing his throat as he forced a smile.

"It’s okay. I’m completely fine. It’s just that I was a little bit tired from the earlier wave and passed out from the constant pressure. It’s nothing else... What about you? Are you okay?"

Serene puffed out her chest, putting on a cute, incredibly smug expression.

"Hehe... Of course! What could even happen to me? I am a very strong lady. You should respect me more, you weak little boy. Hehe!"

Zane rolled his eyes at her smug face, but a genuine smile finally broke through on his lips. He couldn’t even pretend to act normal around her tremendously cute expressions.

’Sigh... She is going to make my heart burst. It’s beating at least ten times a second,’ Zane thought, his face flushing slightly.

Despite the warm moment, he still felt dazed about what had happened. It didn’t take much effort for him to realize what had actually occurred. As a Dark magic user, he was inherently and extremely vulnerable to Soul attacks. Even though the invinsible attack couldn’t physically split his soul apart, it had violently tried to corrupt it by trapping him in his worst nightmare.

He turned his eyes across the cavern. Alen was sitting on a boulder in the exact same position as before.

As Zane looked over, Alen met his gaze. A sweet, innocent smile appeared on the silver-haired boy’s lips. But Zane knew better. Behind that sweet smile, Alen always brought trouble.

Zane quickly looked away, having absolutely no desire to engage with that scumbag. Instead, he happily focused his attention back on the cute girl sitting beside him, letting her cheerful chatter wash the last of the darkness away.

***

Illustration of the Characters has been released, check it out in the character section of the novel!