The transition was instantaneous. One moment, Aiven was standing in a brightly lit arena watching Virelle turning a mythic-class lion into nothing; the next, the air turned cold and the light dimmed to a sickly, pale yellow.

  Aiven skidded across a floor of rough-hewn stone, his boots catching on uneven masonry. He spun around, and there was no one there.

  The hall he stood in was much smaller than the previous one.

  Thrum. Thrum. Thrum.

  The Aetheric Echo in his obsidian shoulder began to vibrate with a violent, rhythmic intensity. It was so strong that his vision blurred for a second.

  "Virelle?" he called out, his voice cracking. "Vane? Pelka?"

  Silence was his only answer. A cold realization settled in his gut. The Sunken Fane wasn't just a tomb; it was a sentient mechanism. It had sensed the absolute, overwhelming threat that Virelle posed to its core and responded by fracturing the space. It had isolated them—picking off the weaker parts of the group to be dealt with individually.

  A golden summoning circle erupted on the floor twenty meters ahead of him.

  From the shifting light rose a monstrosity. It was a giant gorilla, easily five meters tall, its massive frame draped in jagged, scorched iron armor that covered its shoulders and chest. Its eyes glowed with a feral, crimson light, and its fangs were like ivory daggers. It let out a low, guttural growl that vibrated in Aiven's very teeth.

  The Armvil Mark 4 stopped vibrating. The threat was no longer an echo; it was a reality.

  Aiven braced himself. He didn't know what class this beast was, but there were no doors in sight. He was trapped in a box with a mountain of muscle and iron.

  The gorilla didn't roar. It simply tucked its head into its chest and launched itself forward, turning into a massive, spinning ball of fur and armor. It rolled toward him like a boulder launched from a catapult.

  "Move!" Aiven hissed to himself.

  He dove to the left, the wind from the gorilla’s passage nearly knocking him over. He rolled across the stone, coming up in a crouch just as the beast hit the far wall with a deafening CRACK. The gorilla didn't slow down; it rebounded, standing to its full, terrifying height and slamming its armored fists against its chest like a war drum.

  The sound was a sonic blast. Aiven felt the ground shake, and the sheer volume of the rhythm forced him to drop his guard and cover his ears. His head swam, his balance wavering—and in that moment of weakness, the gorilla charged again, this time on all fours.

  Aiven's instincts, honed by weeks of running for his life, took over. As the beast loomed over him, he threw his left hand forward. He didn't have time to aim a blast; he simply channeled mana into the obsidian forearm and swung.

  The supercharged punch connected with the gorilla’s snout.

  CRUNCH.

  The impact sent a shockwave through Aiven’s shoulder, but the result was staggering. The five-meter beast was sent recoiling backward, its head snapping to the side as it skidded across the stone. It shook its head, letting out a confused snort. The armor was barely scratched, but the force of the blow had stopped it cold.

  Aiven stared at his obsidian hand. That... that actually worked?

  Being around Virelle had skewed his perspective. Beside a woman who could erase most monsters with a flick of her finger, he had felt like nothing more than a liability—a clerk playing at being a warrior. But standing here, alone, he realized he wasn't the same man who had been tasked with managing deliveries. The Armvil Mark 4 was a masterpiece of Marnie and Noirelle’s engineering, and it packed a punch that no normal human should be capable of landing.

  Confidence, cold and sharp, began to replace his panic.

  The gorilla stood up, preparing to beat its chest again, but Aiven didn't give it the chance. He flicked his wrist, activating one of the specific sub-routines Noirelle had etched into his mana-conduits.

  "Mana Net!"

  A web of glowing cyan light shot from his palm. It was too small to fully entangle a beast of that size, but it functioned exactly as intended—the sticky, magical lattice wrapped around the gorilla’s arms and neck, snapping its head forward and distracting it.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  While the beast clawed at the glowing web, Aiven was already moving. He felt the hum in his arm reaching its peak. Three... four... five.

  The gorilla tore through the net just as Aiven reached its feet. It looked down, its red eyes wide, but Aiven was already mid-swing.

  He fired a concentrated burst of energy directly into the gap between the gorilla’s shoulder plates and its neck. The explosion was localized and violent, sending the beast toppling sideways, its balance shattered.

  Aiven didn't stop. He jumped, the internal gears of his arm whining as he channeled every ounce of mana he could spare into a downward strike. He landed on the beast’s chest as it hit the ground, his obsidian fist smashing into the center of the iron armor. The metal dented with a screeching groan, the force of the blow pinning the gorilla to the floor.

  Standing atop the gasping monster, Aiven triggered the final upgrade.

  A blade of pure, humming violet mana extended from the top of his wrist—the Mana Sword. With a steady breath, Aiven drove the blade downward, plunging it directly into the center of the gorilla’s skull, right between its glowing red eyes.

  Blood, hot and thick, poured across the stone. Aiven didn't flinch. He gripped the hilt and slashed downward, the blade cutting through bone and gristle until it hit the iron armor beneath.

  Splashes of crimson hit Aiven’s face, staining his cheeks. He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, the silence of the hall returning.

  The burden of being a clerk—of being someone who was only meant to be saved—had been lifted. He had fought a monster on its own terms, and he had won.

  Aiven wiped the blood from his eyes with his right hand, his obsidian arm still humming with a soft, satisfied light.

  Moments later, the wall at the far front of the chamber shifted. The smooth stone groaned as it slid into the ceiling, revealing a path forward. Aiven waited for a pulse from the Aetheric Echo, but his arm remained still and silent. Taking a breath to steady his nerves, he stepped through the threshold.

  He arrived at a broad hallway, wide enough to fit five adults walking side by side. Several meters ahead, a familiar silhouette stood scanning the shadows.

  "Vane!" Aiven called out.

  The Lion beastfolk turned instantly, his posture shifting into a combat-ready crouch before he recognized the voice. He saw Aiven approaching—the soot-streaked clothes, the glowing obsidian arm, and most notably, the fresh monster blood coating Aiven's face. Vane walked briskly toward him, his brow furrowed with concern.

  "Sir Aiven," Vane said, his voice a low rumble. "What happened to you? You're covered in gore."

  Before Aiven could explain his battle with the armored gorilla, a shrill, female scream echoed through the corridor, bouncing off the bioluminescent walls. Simultaneously, the Aetheric Echo in Aiven’s shoulder began to vibrate with a frantic, high-frequency hum.

  "Pelka!" Aiven gasped.

  They didn't have to look far. Shortly after, Pelka came sprinting around a corner, her heavy bangs flying wild and her face pale with terror. Right on her heels was another armored gorilla, curled into a lethal, spinning ball of iron and fur, rolling down the hall like a runaway boulder.

  Vane moved with a speed that made Aiven’s eyes blur. He didn't just step forward; he surged. Reaching the panicked analyst, Vane caught Pelka by the waist and threw her behind him with a single, powerful heave. Pelka went sailing through the air and crashed into the side wall. The impact was loud—her curly sheep horns slammed into the masonry, shattering several bricks and leaving a deep crater in the wall.

  Aiven winced, but noted with surprise that Pelka’s horns hadn't even chipped. They were clearly pretty solid.

  Vane’s hands ignited with a golden mana. Two massive, ethereal claws hovered over his forearms, pulsing with predatory energy. As the rolling gorilla reached him, Vane didn't dodge. He delivered a brutal, sweeping stroke.

  CLANG.

  The strike hit the armored beast mid-roll, the sheer kinetic force sending the five-meter monster flying sideways. It smashed through the corridor wall, disappearing into a cloud of dust and debris. Aiven could hear the beast landing in an adjacent hall with a heavy thud, followed by the silence of unconsciousness.

  Aiven stood frozen for a second. Back at the Prancing Paw, he had seen Vane struggle against Virelle, but he had never truly measured the man’s raw potential. Seeing him swat a monster that Aiven had just fought by exhausting his arsenal... he realized Vane wasn't one of Vulpine's elites for nothing.

  "Come," Vane said, not missing a beat. "We need to find the elf.”

  The floor was littered with carcasses. A giant mantis lay decapitated; a gryphon's wings were shredded and burnt; the jagged remains of a stone golem were scattered like gravel. In the center of the carnage, a giant, hissing snake lunged forward.

  Virelle stood before it.

  She was no longer the pristine, porcelain mage. Her lavender bodice and translucent sleeves were splattered with a gruesome mixture of red and green blood. Her eyes were wide, burning with a cold, hysterical light.

  As the snake struck, Virelle simply swiped her arms through the air in a sharp, crossing motion.

  SCHWING.

  A pair of invisible mana blades lanced through the air. The snake didn't even have time to hiss before it was sliced perfectly in half, the two pieces of its massive body slamming into the stone with wet thuds.

  Virelle didn't even look at her kill. She hovered there, her prismatic orb spinning with a high-pitched, murderous whistle.

  "Master..." she whispered, her voice a jagged, terrifying thread that echoed in the silence of the slaughterhouse she had created. "Is that how you would like to do things, sentient dungeon? Fine then, if you do not return Master to me in the next heartbeat... I shall blow everything into cinders."