The moment Aaron and I entered the dungeon, I knew something was wrong.
Not mildly wrong.
Not "the guild miscalculated the monster density" wrong.
Not even "the boss mutated into something annoying" wrong.
This was the kind of wrong that made instinct react before thought. The kind that made old battle memories rise from the back of my mind, the ones I preferred to keep buried under coffee, grocery lists, school schedules, and the daily disaster known as raising three daughters.
The gate closed behind us with a low distortion, and the world settled into place.
At first glance, the dungeon looked like what the report said it should be.
Arcane Structures.
A terrain type built from artificial ruin zones, ancient magic towers, suspended platforms, broken stone bridges, glowing rune paths, and mana-conducting architecture. These dungeons usually carried construct-type monsters: Rune Titans, War Constructs, floating sentry cores, defensive golems, and occasionally a Titan Guardian as the boss.
Difficult, but predictable.
Dangerous, but understandable.
A high-rank team could handle it if they knew the mechanics.
Ruruka's team knew the mechanics.
That was why this was supposed to be an A-rank clearing, not a death sentence.
The ground beneath us was made of pale stone tiles engraved with blue rune lines. Tall pillars rose around us, some broken, some still humming with old mana. Floating fragments of architecture drifted above the path like the dungeon had forgotten gravity was not optional. Farther ahead, several massive structures formed a broken skyline of arcane towers.
That part made sense.
But halfway across the horizon, the world changed.
The pale ruins did not end naturally.
They were cut.
Like someone had sliced one dungeon open and stitched another into it.
Beyond the middle distance, the sky darkened into a purple-black void. The clean arcane lines vanished under corrupted stone and jagged obsidian. Shadows moved where there should have been rune light. The air beyond that boundary carried abyssal pressure, thick and oily, leaking into the structured domain like poison spreading through water.
Abyssal Domain.
Inside an Arcane Structures dungeon.
My eyes widened.
For a second, I forgot to breathe.
"What the fuck is happening here?"
The words left my mouth before I could dress them in anything polite.
Aaron stood beside me, silent for once. His usual professional calm remained on his face, but I saw the tension in his jaw. He adjusted the gauntlet on his right hand, the metal plates clicking softly as mana lines lit across its surface.
"This is…" he started, then stopped.
"Wrong," I said.
"Yes."
"That's one word for it."
Aaron raised his hand and spread his fingers. Psychic resonance pulsed outward, invisible at first, then visible as faint silver ripples moving through the air. His clairvoyance skill activated in layers, scanning mana density, monster signatures, terrain structure, core direction, and living presences.
I waited, though every part of me wanted to move.
Ruruka was somewhere inside.
Hurt, maybe.
Bleeding, maybe.
Still fighting, definitely.
I forced myself to stand still because charging blind into a corrupted dungeon was how idiots died. I was many things. Lazy, unlucky, financially injured, emotionally overworked, apparently a paper husband now.
But not that kind of idiot.
Aaron's eyes narrowed as the resonance returned to him.
"It's worse than it looks."
"Great. Love that."
"There are two active monster ecosystems inside. Arcane-type constructs in the first domain. Abyss Knights and Abyssal Elementals in the second. They're not cooperating."
I looked toward the horizon.
"They're fighting each other?"
"Yes. Violently. The terrain boundary is unstable. It looks like both sides are treating the other as invaders."
"That doesn't make sense."
"No."
"Dungeons don't merge like this."
"No."
"They can mutate, elevate, distort terrain, strengthen cores, maybe even replace core behavior if something artificial interferes. But two separate terrain identities sharing the same internal space?"
Aaron lowered his hand.
"That should not happen."
I stared into the distance.
A Rune Titan appeared on a far bridge, its massive stone body covered in blue geometric lines. Before it could move farther, a black-armored shape leapt from the abyssal side and struck it with a curved blade. The impact sent a shockwave across the bridge. Two smaller War Constructs fired mana bolts at the Abyss Knight. From the dark terrain, an Abyssal Elemental rose like living smoke and swallowed the bolts.
They were fighting.
A dungeon civil war.
Fantastic.
Exactly what I wanted on Sunday.
I muttered, "This is fucked up."
Aaron looked at me.
"Our knowledge regarding dungeons is becoming increasingly unreliable."
"That's the professional version of what I just said."
"I assumed someone should say it professionally."
"Appreciated."
He sighed.
"But it is what it is. We figure out what is happening inside this dungeon and try to do something about it."
I turned my gaze deeper into the ruins.
"No."
Aaron paused.
"No?"
"We save Ruruka first. Then we figure out the dungeon."
Aaron's expression softened by a fraction.
"Of course."
My eyes shifted toward the abyssal horizon again.
Somewhere in there, my little sister had called for backup.
Somewhere in there, she had said the boss was wrong.
Somewhere in there, her team had gone down.
I clenched my hand once.
"Move."
We moved.
Fast.
Aaron was not a frontline attacker by title. Most people classified him as a support-type hunter because of his Clairvoyance and Psychic Resonance. That was one of the many ways people underestimated him. Support did not mean weak. Support did not mean harmless. Support did not mean standing in the back politely while stronger people did the hard work.
Aaron Shanks was a mid S-rank hunter.
He moved like it.
His body flickered across the arcane pathway with controlled bursts of psychic reinforcement, stepping between rune platforms before they fully stabilized. His gauntlet pulsed every few seconds, sending resonance ahead to detect traps. Floating sentry cores tried to lock onto us twice. Aaron pointed at the first one without slowing, and a compressed psychic strike punched through its center. The second turned toward me.
I lifted one finger.
Arcane Blast.
The sentry core vanished into blue fragments.
We kept moving.
A War Construct dropped from above, landing hard enough to crack three stone tiles. It raised both arms, rune cannons charging along its forearms.
Aaron's voice cut in.
"Left shoulder. Internal mana node."
"I see it."
I did not slow down.
My eyes shifted blue as arcane mana flooded my vision. The world sharpened into lines, currents, pressure, structure. The construct's body became a diagram of weaknesses.
Arcane Chains erupted from the ground, wrapping its legs and torso. The construct strained, cannons still charging.
I stepped past it and flicked my hand backward.
Mana Crush.
The left shoulder collapsed inward. The charging cannon exploded, taking half its upper body with it.
Aaron moved beside me.
"You're using visible arcane skills."
"I don't care."
He glanced at me.
That was probably the first time I had said it so plainly.
I did not care if someone discovered my skills today.
I did not care if Aaron saw more than he already knew.
I did not care if guild analysts reviewed residual mana and asked uncomfortable questions later.
I did not care if paperwork multiplied into a beast with fifty heads.
My sister was inside.
That simplified things.
Aaron's mouth tightened.
"Understood."
We crossed deeper into the arcane domain. The fighting worsened as we approached the middle boundary. Construct corpses littered the path, some sliced open by abyssal blades, others half-melted by shadow flames. Abyss Knights lay crushed under broken Titan limbs. Blue rune light mixed with black smoke. The air carried clashing mana signatures that scraped against each other like broken glass.
Then we found the wounded hunters.
A group of five staggered through a broken archway, two supporting a third between them while the others stumbled behind. Their armor was torn. One had a shattered shield strapped uselessly to his back. Another had burn marks along half his jacket, abyssal residue still clinging to the fabric. The woman being carried had blood running down her temple and one arm hanging at a wrong angle.
Aaron reached them first.
"Guild Master Shanks," one of them gasped.
Aaron steadied him.
"What happened?"
The man's eyes were unfocused.
"There's… there's something that shouldn't be there."
"Where is Ruruka Arclight?"
The man flinched at her name.
"She stayed. She held it back. We couldn't… We couldn't move. It was too much. There were two of them."
My blood went cold.
"Two?"
The man looked at me, shaking.
"Bosses. There are two bosses."
Aaron's gaze snapped toward me.
I already understood.
Titan Guardian.
And something from the Abyssal Domain.
Two terrain identities.
Two ecosystems.
Two bosses.
Because of course the dungeon decided one impossible scenario was not enough.
Aaron began giving quick orders to the wounded hunters, pointing them toward the extraction path and marking a temporary safe route through psychic resonance. I barely listened. Not because I did not care, but because Aaron was handling it. If I stopped here too long, Ruruka's chances got worse.
The wounded hunter grabbed my sleeve.
"Don't go," he whispered. "It's not a normal boss. It's not—"
"Figures," I said.
His grip loosened.
I looked ahead.
My eyes burned brighter blue.
Arcane mana rose around my body, no longer hidden, no longer softened, no longer disguised beneath the convenient limits of an A-rank hunter. The air trembled lightly. Rune fragments on the ground reacted to my mana and lit up in confused recognition, like the dungeon itself had noticed something it was not prepared for.
Aaron finished directing the survivors, then looked at me.
"You're going ahead."
"Yes."
"I'll keep up."
"Barely."
"Likely."
"This isn't a joke, Aaron."
"I know."
I turned toward him fully.
"Then listen carefully."
He met my eyes.
"I'm not holding back today. Not for secrecy. Not for guild procedure. Not for clean reports. If you get in my line of fire, I won't have time to pull the spell back."
Aaron's expression did not change.
"Understood."
"I mean it. Stay sharp or stay behind."
His gauntlet pulsed silver.
"With respect, Master, I did not become mid S-rank by standing behind people."
"That's not respect. That's stubbornness."
"I learned from excellent sources."
"Bad time for flattery."
"I agree."
I turned forward.
"Then move."
I jumped.
Not running this time.
Spatial Jump.
The world folded in short bursts around me. I crossed broken bridges, half-formed platforms, and combat zones in a chain of blue distortions. Each jump tore at my body more than it should have. I had been using too much power lately. The concealment on the girls. Astrea's seal. Chiba gate. Warping here. Now repeated spatial movement inside an unstable dungeon.
My body complained.
I ignored it.
Aaron followed through reinforcement and controlled resonance bursts, not matching each jump perfectly but keeping close enough to remain relevant. A pair of Abyssal Elementals rose from the cracks ahead, their bodies made of black flame and violet sparks.
"Move left," Aaron called.
I moved right instead.
He adjusted instantly.
Good.
The first elemental lunged, spreading into a shadow wave. I raised my hand.
Light Spear.
A spear of white-gold mana cut through its body, forcing it to solidify. Aaron's psychic strike hit the exposed core at the same moment.
The elemental burst.
The second tried to retreat into the ground.
Spatial Lock.
The space around it froze.
It thrashed, halfway submerged.
Arcane Crush folded inward.
The core cracked.
I did not watch it die.
We moved again.
The boundary between terrains grew closer.
The arcane side became increasingly damaged, pale stone infected by black veins. The abyssal side pulsed like a wound. At the center, where the two domains collided, a massive chamber had formed from incompatible architecture. Half of it was a circular arcane arena with floating pillars and rune arrays. The other half was an abyssal battlefield of black stone, broken chains, and jagged throne-like formations.
Between them stood Ruruka.
She was alive.
For a fraction of a second, relief hit so hard it almost weakened my knees.
Then I saw her condition.
Her sword was chipped, nearly broken. Her armor was cracked in several places. Blood darkened one sleeve. Her breathing was uneven. A slash across her side glowed faintly with abyssal residue, slowing natural recovery. One knee bent slightly as if she was forcing it not to give.
But she was standing.
Of course she was.
My idiot little sister.
In front of her stood two massive entities.
One was the Titan Guardian.
A towering construct of metallic stone and rune armor, easily over five meters tall, with four arms and a circular core embedded in its chest. Blue rune lines ran across its body in heavy patterns, but several of them had turned black where abyssal corruption crawled through the structure. Its eyes burned cold white-blue.
The other was an Abyss General.
Not a mere Abyss Knight.
A commander-class entity, tall and armored in black jagged plates, with a horned helm and a massive curved blade dripping shadow fire. Its cloak moved like smoke. Violet cracks glowed beneath the armor, and every step it took made the ground darken.
Two bosses.
Both high S-rank pressure in a dungeon that had begun as A-rank.
Neither was a Special Variant.
That was the only mercy.
A very small mercy.
The Titan Guardian raised one massive arm, runes charging.
The Abyss General moved at the same time, blade lowering toward Ruruka's exposed side.
Ruruka tried to lift her sword.
Too slow.
My body moved before thought.
"RURUKA!"
My voice tore across the chamber.
Ruruka's eyes widened.
"Nii-sama—"
Spatial Jump.
I appeared between her and the bosses.
The Titan Guardian's fist descended.
The Abyss General's blade swept in.
I raised both hands.
Arcane Construct.
A layered blue barrier formed in front of the fist.
Spatial Lock.
The Abyss General's blade froze half a meter from my shoulder.
The Titan Guardian's strike hit the construct barrier and shattered the first three layers instantly. The force drove cracks across the floor beneath my feet. Pain shot up my arms.
I gritted my teeth.
"Not."
Mana surged.
Another layer formed.
"Today."
I kicked backward, not at Ruruka but at the ground near her, pushing a spatial pulse under her feet and sliding her away from the immediate impact zone. The Abyss General broke the Spatial Lock with brute force, blade continuing through the air a second later, but I had already moved.
Aaron arrived on the left flank.
His gauntlet flashed.
"Psychic Resonance: Fault Pierce."
A silver lance of resonance struck the Abyss General's helm. Not enough to injure it deeply, but enough to disrupt its next movement. The blade missed me by a narrow margin and carved through the stone floor instead.
I twisted and grabbed Ruruka before she could fall.
She was lighter than I expected.
That scared me.
"Nii-sama," she said, voice rough. "I can still—"
"No."
"I can—"
"No."
Her eyes sharpened despite the pain.
"Don't treat me like a child."
"Then don't almost die like an idiot."
Her mouth closed.
Good.
I carried her away from the center with another short Spatial Jump, landing behind a broken pillar near the edge of the chamber. She hissed in pain when the movement tugged at her wounds.
"Sorry."
"You're not."
"Mostly not."
She tried to push herself up.
I pressed one hand gently but firmly against her shoulder.
"Stay."
"Nii-sama, those two—"
"Aaron's buying time."
A thunderous impact shook the chamber behind me.
Aaron was indeed buying time.
Violently.
Psychic resonance waves flashed silver across the arena, striking weak points on the Titan Guardian's joints while he kept moving away from the Abyss General's blade. For a support-type hunter, he was doing an excellent impression of someone with survival instincts and a death wish balanced perfectly.
I turned back to Ruruka.
Her breathing was shallow.
Abyssal residue crawled along the wound on her side.
I placed my palm over it.
"Light."
Healing magic was not my specialty in the pure sense. I could simulate elements and manipulate mana structure, but true healing required affinity and delicacy. Still, I could stabilize. Burn out contamination. Force bleeding to slow. Hold someone together until a real healer took over.
White-blue light spread from my palm.
Ruruka clenched her teeth but did not cry out.
"Pain?"
"Manageable."
"Liar."
"I learned from you."
"Terrible student."
"Terrible teacher."
For one second, despite everything, she smiled faintly.
Then another impact shook the chamber.
I raised three fingers and layered barriers around her.
Arcane Barrier.
Spatial Ward.
Light Veil.
A fourth layer followed, thinner but more precise, designed to reject abyssal residue trying to crawl in from the ground.
Ruruka watched me through half-lidded eyes.
"You're using too much."
"I am."
"Nii-sama—"
"Rest."
"I'm not done."
I looked at her.
Really looked.
Blood on her face. Sword hand trembling. Armor cracked. Still glaring at me like she could argue her way back into the fight.
Stupid.
Brave.
My sister.
"You did well," I said.
Her expression changed.
Just slightly.
"You held them off. You got your team out. You survived until backup came."
Her eyes shimmered once.
Maybe pain.
Maybe something else.
"So rest."
She swallowed.
"…The girls?"
"Scared."
Her face tightened.
"But Ria is with them."
That seemed to surprise her, even now.
"She stayed?"
"I told her to."
"And she listened?"
"For the kids."
Ruruka let out a weak breath that might have been a laugh.
"Good."
I stood.
Her hand caught my sleeve.
"Nii-sama."
I looked down.
"Come back too."
The words were quiet.
Too quiet.
I placed my hand over hers and squeezed once.
"Sure."
Her eyes narrowed weakly.
"I hate when you say that."
"I know."
Then I turned away.
The chamber exploded in sound as the Titan Guardian launched Aaron through a broken pillar.
Aaron hit the ground, rolled, and came up on one knee with blood at the corner of his mouth. The Abyss General advanced immediately, blade raised.
I stepped into the arena.
"Aaron."
He looked toward me.
"Still alive."
"Move left."
He did.
This time, I did not keep the spell small.
Arcane Chains erupted from every direction.
Not a few.
Dozens.
Blue chains wrapped around the Abyss General's blade, arms, legs, and torso. More chains shot upward and caught the Titan Guardian's four arms mid-motion. The chamber shook as both bosses strained against the restraints.
The Abyss General roared.
The sound carried abyssal pressure that scraped against the mind.
Aaron winced but stayed upright.
I walked forward.
My eyes burned blue.
The old part of me opened further.
Not all the way.
I only had about thirty percent of my available power in practical circulation right now. A miserable number compared to what I used to be. A number that made extended S-rank combat expensive. A number that meant I could not simply erase the chamber and call it done.
But thirty percent of me was still me.
And they had gone after my sister.
The Abyss General broke three chains.
I formed six more.
The Titan Guardian's core brightened.
Aaron called out, "Chest core charging. Wide-area arcane beam."
"I see it."
I raised my right hand.
Spatial Interference.
The space directly in front of the Titan Guardian's chest bent sideways. The beam fired, but instead of crossing the chamber, it warped upward and carved through the ceiling. Stone and black crystal rained down.
Aaron used the opening.
"Clairvoyance lock. Right knee, third rune cluster."
His gauntlet flashed.
A psychic bullet struck the Titan Guardian's knee joint at exactly the point where abyssal corrosion had weakened the rune flow.
I followed.
Origin Magic: Lightning Thread.
Blue-white lightning snapped from my fingers, threading through the damaged joint. The Titan Guardian staggered.
"Again," I said.
Aaron moved without answering.
The Abyss General lunged.
I met it head-on.
Arcane Construct formed a blade in my hand, blue and translucent, not as strong as a real weapon but perfectly shaped by mana control. The Abyss General's curved sword crashed against it. The impact sent a shockwave through my shoulders.
Heavy.
Very heavy.
It pushed.
I pushed back.
Our blades locked.
Its helm lowered toward me, violet cracks glowing like eyes.
I could feel death mana leaking from it, trying to crawl into my arm.
"Bad match," I muttered.
Light Spear formed point-blank beside my shoulder and fired directly into its chest.
The Abyss General reeled.
Aaron struck from the side, psychic resonance slamming into the exposed crack. The armor dented inward, but the monster did not fall. It swung its blade in a brutal horizontal arc.
I ducked.
The blade passed over me and cut through two arcane pillars behind me.
Aaron jumped back barely in time.
"I thought you said line of fire," he called.
"That was not mine."
"Noted."
The Titan Guardian recovered faster than expected and stomped forward. All four arms slammed down, creating a spreading rune shockwave across the floor.
I lifted my foot.
Spatial Lock spread in a circle under us, freezing the nearest section of ground before the shockwave reached Ruruka's barrier.
The lock cracked.
The shockwave pushed.
I clenched my teeth and fed more mana into it.
Not there.
Not toward her.
The shockwave split around the barrier zone, tearing through the chamber walls instead.
Aaron used the opening to strike another weak point, this time at the Guardian's shoulder. His Clairvoyance was working overtime, identifying stress points, corrupted flow gaps, resonance mismatch, every tiny flaw created by two incompatible dungeon energies clashing inside the boss.
For a support hunter, he was terrifyingly efficient.
Good.
I needed efficient.
The Abyss General raised its blade and gathered shadow fire.
I raised both hands.
"Ice Pillar."
Three massive ice pillars erupted from the ground, not to impale but to redirect footing. The Abyss General's stance shifted half a step.
Enough.
"Arcane Crush."
Space folded around its right arm.
Armor screamed.
The arm cracked.
The blade lowered.
Aaron struck the same crack with a resonance spike.
The arm shattered from shoulder to elbow.
The Abyss General roared, but the broken arm began pulling shadow from the ground to rebuild.
"Regeneration," Aaron said.
"Annoying."
"Core?"
"Not central. Distributed."
I could see it now. Unlike normal bosses, the Abyss General's power did not gather in one core. Fragments pulsed across its armor, each acting like a small anchor. The Titan Guardian had its normal chest core, but abyssal corruption had spread through its rune lines, creating secondary stabilizers.
Two bosses.
Two systems.
Both being forced to coexist.
"This dungeon is not merging naturally," I said.
Aaron ducked under a stone projectile.
"I assumed!"
"No, I mean the bosses are being stabilized. Something is preventing rejection."
"Anchors?"
"Maybe. Not seeing towers."
"Could be core-level."
"Then we break them first and ask later."
"Agreed."
The Titan Guardian charged.
Four arms forward.
I jumped above it with Levitate and Spatial Step combined, then dropped directly onto its shoulder. It tried to swat me away. Chains wrapped around its wrist and pulled the arm aside.
I placed my palm against its neck rune cluster.
"Mana Crush."
The cluster imploded.
The Guardian staggered.
Aaron fired a psychic resonance beam through its weakened knee.
The massive construct dropped to one knee.
The Abyss General moved to cover it.
I flicked my hand.
"Arcane Chains: Lattice."
Chains formed a grid across the Abyss General's path, binding not just limbs but space between its movements. It tore through them with brute strength, but each tear slowed it.
Enough for Aaron.
"Master, Guardian chest core exposed."
"Hit it."
"Already doing so."
A silver spiral of psychic energy gathered around Aaron's gauntlet.
He punched forward.
The resonance beam struck the Titan Guardian's chest core.
The core cracked.
I dropped from above, both hands gathering arcane mana.
"Origin Magic: Light Spear Cluster."
Sixteen spears formed around me.
All fired downward.
The Titan Guardian's chest exploded in blue-white light.
It fell backward, crushing half the arena behind it.
One boss down.
I landed badly.
Pain shot through my knee.
Ignored.
The Abyss General roared again, stronger this time. With the Titan Guardian destroyed, the abyssal pressure surged, as if one side of the dungeon conflict had gained dominance. Black cracks spread across the arcane floor. The boundary line between terrains pulsed violently.
Aaron stumbled.
"Pressure increasing."
"I noticed."
The Abyss General's broken arm reformed fully.
Of course.
The Titan Guardian, at least, had stayed dead.
Small blessings.
The Abyss General raised its blade with both hands. Abyssal fire gathered along the edge, condensing into a massive crescent. The attack aimed not at me.
At Ruruka's barrier.
My vision went cold.
"No."
I jumped.
Not away.
Toward it.
Aaron shouted something, but the sound blurred.
The blade came down.
I reached the attack path first.
Arcane Construct expanded into a shield.
Layer one shattered.
Layer two cracked.
Layer three held for half a second.
The abyssal crescent tore through.
I crossed my arms.
Spatial Lock.
The crescent stopped inches from my face.
Not fully.
It still pressed forward, screaming against the locked space. The pressure burned along my skin. Blood ran from my nose. My chest felt like someone had driven a spike through it.
I pushed.
The lock expanded.
The crescent bent.
I twisted my hands.
Spatial Interference redirected the attack upward and away from Ruruka, carving a massive scar through the ceiling.
I lowered my hands.
The Abyss General stepped back.
For the first time, it hesitated.
Good.
Even monsters understood when they had angered the wrong person.
I looked at Aaron.
"Stay out of my line."
His eyes widened slightly.
Then he moved.
Smart.
I let more mana out.
The chamber trembled.
Blue arcane lines spread from my feet across the floor, overriding both pale runes and black corruption. My body hurt. My head hurt. My mana circuits protested under the strain. Thirty percent was not enough to do this cleanly, but clean was not the goal.
Ending it was.
The Abyss General roared and charged.
I lifted my hand.
"Arcane Resonance."
The air thickened.
The dungeon's mana reacted violently.
"Origin Element."
Not the full chant.
Not the old battlefield version.
A controlled release.
Barely controlled.
Blue-white mana spiraled around me, threads of fire, water, lightning, wind, ice, light, and raw arcane force weaving into one unstable pattern. Origin Magic was not true elemental affinity. It was simulation through arcane principle, forcing mana to imitate what it was not.
At my old strength, it had been elegant.
At thirty percent, it was ugly.
But ugly still worked.
The Abyss General swung.
I stepped inside the arc.
Lightning Thread wrapped around its sword arm.
Ice Pillars pinned its legs.
Wind Lance pierced the cloak of shadow behind it.
Light Spears hammered into the armor fragments across its chest.
Arcane Chains bound every exposed core shard I could see.
Aaron, from the side, understood instantly.
He struck the ones I could not reach.
Psychic resonance punched into hidden weak points, guided by Clairvoyance, each hit perfectly placed. The Abyss General thrashed, armor breaking, reforming, breaking again.
"More on the left ribs!" Aaron shouted.
I did not answer.
I fired.
Three Light Spears pierced the left rib armor.
Aaron's resonance followed.
Crack.
"Right shoulder!"
Arcane Blast.
Crack.
"Helm!"
I jumped, formed an Arcane Construct blade, and drove it through the helm while releasing Mana Crush from inside.
The helm exploded.
The Abyss General staggered backward, body unraveling into shadow flame.
Still not dead.
Core fragment behind the sternum.
I saw it.
So did Aaron.
He raised his gauntlet, but his arm trembled. He had pushed too hard too.
I clicked my tongue.
"Fine."
I stepped forward.
The Abyss General tried to raise its blade one last time.
I caught the blade with one hand wrapped in arcane mana.
It cut into my palm.
I ignored the blood.
"Get out of my sister's dungeon."
I drove my other hand into its chest.
Arcane Crush.
Not around the armor.
Inside it.
The hidden core fragment collapsed.
The Abyss General froze.
Then shattered into black fire and violet dust.
Silence fell.
Not peaceful silence.
Aftermath silence.
The chamber groaned around us. The boundary between terrains flickered violently now that both bosses were dead. The abyssal side began receding in ugly pulses while the arcane side cracked under destabilization. Two cores appeared near the center of the arena.
Two.
One blue-white, geometric and structured.
One black-violet, jagged and pulsing.
Both active.
Both damaged.
I stared at them while panting hard.
Aaron walked up beside me, one hand pressed against his ribs.
He was breathing heavily too.
Blood ran down one side of his face.
"Two cores," he said.
"Yeah."
"That should not happen."
"You keep saying that."
"It keeps being true."
I lowered myself to the ground because standing had become optional and my body was voting no.
The dungeon cores hovered above the cracked floor, spinning slowly around each other like they were trying to decide which one owned the space.
I wiped blood from my palm and stared.
"I thought replacing a dungeon core was possible. I saw that before. Hidden core, strengthened core, false core, whatever. I even considered the possibility of two cores in one dungeon after what happened with Ruruka's previous case."
Aaron sat heavily beside me.
"But this is different."
"Yeah."
He looked toward the split terrain.
"This is not one dungeon with a second core hidden inside. This is two dungeon structures intersecting."
"Or being forced to intersect."
"By what?"
"If I knew, I'd be less annoyed."
Aaron let out a tired breath.
"I have never seen anything like this."
"Neither have I."
That bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
I had seen a lot.
More than I told people.
More than I wanted to remember.
Dungeons were strange, but they had rules. Even when they mutated, even when anomalies appeared, even when special variants broke expectations, there was usually a pattern underneath. Mana ecology. Core behavior. Terrain logic. Monster compatibility. Rank pressure.
This broke too many rules at once.
Arcane Structures and Abyssal Domain mixed halfway.
Constructs and abyss monsters fighting each other.
Two bosses at the border.
Two cores.
This was not a random elevation.
This was escalation.
Serious escalation.
Aaron looked at me.
"We investigate together."
I nodded.
"Yeah."
"No more waiting for incidents."
"No.We need all records. The C-rank missing-core case. The Chiba school gate. The Saitama D-rank elevation. Tokyo E-rank elevation. The sudden S-rank gate that appeared in Saitama mall with that special variant boss—the Abyss Throne Guardian that nearly killed me. And this one."
"And core fragments."
"I will secure both cores."
I looked at him.
"Destroy them first. Secure fragments after."
He nodded.
"Understood."
I stood slowly, which was embarrassing because my knees considered mutiny.
Aaron also stood.
We returned to Ruruka.
The barriers still held.
She was conscious, barely.
Her eyes opened when I approached.
"Nii-sama…"
"Still alive?"
"Unfortunately for your peace."
I let out a breath that hurt.
"Good."
She tried to look past me.
"The bosses?"
"Gone."
"Both?"
"Both."
Her eyes moved to Aaron.
"Guild Master…"
Aaron gave her a tired nod.
"You held long enough. Your team survived because of you."
Her face relaxed slightly.
That mattered to her.
Of course it did.
I crouched and carefully lifted her into my arms. She winced, but did not protest much. That alone told me how injured she was.
"I can walk," she muttered.
"No."
"Nii-sama."
"No."
"I am an A-rank swordswoman."
"You are an A-rank swordswoman being carried by her older brother because she looks like she lost an argument with two buildings."
Her lips twitched.
"That bad?"
"Worse."
"Girls?"
"Waiting."
Her eyes softened.
"Sorry."
"Tell them yourself."
Aaron looked toward the cores.
"I will take care of things here for now. We'll destroy both cores to close the gate and secure the remains."
"Good."
I shifted Ruruka carefully.
"I'm taking her to the hospital first."
"Of course."
"I already missed lunch. I can't miss dinner too. The kids and my wife might get worried."
Aaron nodded automatically.
"Yes, you're right—"
Then he stopped.
Slowly, he turned his head.
"Wait."
I looked at him.
He stared at me.
"Your wife?"
Ah.
Mistake.
My brain had filed Ria under household authority too naturally.
Dangerous.
I adjusted my grip on Ruruka and kept my face blank.
"Yeah."
Aaron's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The one you said was overseas?"
"She got back."
"When?"
"About a month ago."
Aaron stared.
I stared back.
Ruruka, barely conscious in my arms, somehow opened one eye.
Her expression said, Nii-sama, your lying is terrible.
I ignored her.
Aaron finally nodded.
"I see."
"You do?"
"No."
"Good."
"But I suppose I should extend my greetings to Mrs. Arclight as well."
I regretted every decision that led to this moment.
"Maybe soon."
Aaron's mouth curved faintly.
"I look forward to it."
"Don't."
"Master."
"I said don't."
He smiled more.
Awful man.
Ruruka whispered weakly, "Paperwork…"
I looked down at her.
"What?"
"Did I cause more paperwork?"
"Probably."
She closed her eye again.
"…Sorry."
"You're banned from apologizing until the hospital."
Aaron stepped back toward the cores.
"I'll send updates. Go."
I nodded.
Then I moved.
Carrying Ruruka through the damaged chamber, I activated healing magic again. Light spread over her wounds in steady pulses. Not enough to repair everything. Enough to slow bleeding. Enough to suppress abyssal residue. Enough to keep her stable until proper treatment.
She drifted in and out of consciousness as we crossed the dungeon.
Outside, the extraction teams reacted immediately when they saw us. Medics rushed forward, but I did not hand her over until I confirmed their equipment was clean and their healer had no abyssal contamination on his gloves. Maybe that was excessive.
I did not care.
Ruruka's hand twitched against my sleeve.
"Nii-sama…"
"I'm here."
"Boss… wrong…"
"I know."
"Two…"
"I know."
"Don't… let girls worry."
"Too late."
Her brows drew together faintly.
"Sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
She smiled faintly.
Small.
Tired.
The same smile she used to give me as a kid when she got hurt training and pretended it was nothing.
I hated seeing it on her now.
"I don't know what happened back there," I said quietly. "But you did well, sis."
Her expression softened.
"Rest for a while."
Ruruka's eyes closed.
This time, not from collapse.
From trust.
I held her carefully as the medics guided us toward transport.
Behind me, the gate pulsed violently once, then began to collapse as Aaron dealt with the cores inside.
Ahead of me, the hospital waited.
After that, home.
The girls.
Ria.
Dinner, if I could still stand by then.
I looked down at Ruruka, then toward the ambulance lights flashing against the darkening sky.
The dungeon had changed again.
The rules were breaking faster.
And whatever was behind it had just made the mistake of putting my family in the center of the pattern.
I was tired.
I was injured.
I was running on about thirty percent, bad coffee, and parental rage.
But one thing was very clear.
If this thing thought I would keep treating these anomalies like isolated incidents, it was even more confused than we were.
*****
End of Chapter 40
Retirement Status Report:
Name: Ren Arclight
Former Occupation: Retired Archmage / Former Demon King Slayer
Current Occupation: Dragon Dad
Primary Objective:
Rescue little sister.
Figure out why reality is breaking.
Resume retirement afterward (unlikely).
Today's Activities:
Entered corrupted A-Rank dungeon
Confirmed terrain anomaly
Witnessed Arcane Domain and Abyssal Domain coexist
Observed monsters fighting each other
Eliminated multiple high-rank monsters
Rescued wounded hunters
Located Ruruka
Fought two boss-class entities simultaneously
Destroyed Titan Guardian
Eliminated Abyss General
Rescued little sister successfully
Discovered existence of dual dungeon cores
Added another headache to future investigation
New Developments:
Two dungeon terrains occupying one dungeon
Two active dungeon bosses confirmed
Two functioning dungeon cores discovered
Dungeon evolution no longer follows known rules
Guild knowledge officially insufficient
Family now directly connected to multiple anomalies
Aaron now knows retirement is becoming impossible
Threat Level:
Unknown
Escalating
Academically Offensive
Ruruka Status:
Alive
Stabilized
Hospital Bound
Aaron Status:
Alive
Mentally Disturbed
Professionally Concerned
Retirement Stress Levels:
Confused
Physically Injured
Increasingly Offended
Retirement Progress:
??????? ERROR!!!(Reality Collapse Penalty Applied)
Current Retirement Status:
Officially Interrupted
Investigation Required
Not Allowed to Rest
Immediate Priorities:
Ensure Ruruka recovers safely
Investigate dual-core phenomenon
Review previous dungeon anomalies
Protect family from future incidents
Somehow explain "my wife" to Aaron
Operational Assessment:
Mission Type:
Emergency Rescue + Anomaly Investigation
Difficulty:
Impossible According to Existing Research
Emotional Status:
Protective
Irritated
Scientifically Confused
Future Outlook:
Dungeon anomalies expected to increase
Retirement expected to decrease
Aaron expected to ask more uncomfortable questions
Family expected to become even more involved
Personal Statement:
"I came here to rescue my sister... not rewrite dungeon theory."
Reality's Response:
"Congratulations. You successfully rescued your little sister...and accidentally discovered that the world no longer follows its own rules."