Rain painted the glass windows of Silver Vow Guild Headquarters in wavering gray lines. Outside, Arcvale City thrummed with ambient energy: floating market barges passed through clouded rails; augmented sirens wailed from a distance; digital mana banners flickered in the air, warning citizens to avoid the Eastern Expanse.
A dungeon was breaking.
Not a simulation. Not a mock raid.
A real dungeon.
And it wasn't supposed to be there.
Kaela stood in front of the main ops terminal, her brows tight in concern as holo-glyphs cycled above her outstretched palm. Next to her, Rei and Mira scanned reports from incoming explorer teams and dimensional field readers.
She didn't speak.
The data told the story clearly enough.
[Unregistered Rift Detected]
Classification: Unstabilized Spontaneous Breach
Location: East Arcvale, Sector 19 — Warehouse District
Color Class: Deep Violet (Provisional)
Status: Active Break / Core Unlinked
Threat Level: Unrated
Entities Emerging: Unknown Hostile Forms
Confirmation: 17 Civilian Fatalities (Confirmed), 41 Injured
Explorer Command Response ETA: 37 minutes
Gate Permit: N/A (Illicit Manifestation)
Dungeon Type: UNKNOWN
"What the hell is a Violet-class doing appearing unregistered?" Mira muttered. "This wasn't forecasted. No mana surge reports, no gate instability, nothing."
Kaela's voice was quiet. "It wasn't summoned… it grew."
Rei tapped a command sigil. "Someone's going to lose their license for this."
"Assuming they lived."
Across the room, the main steel doors slammed open, and Alya Valen stormed in — wearing her full combat gear: shadow-armored plates, flame-wyrm cloak, and twin soul-blades attached at her hip. She moved like a storm wrapped in silk.
Her gaze swept across the ops team.
"All of you," she barked, "suit up."
Kaela turned. "The Command hasn't authorized intervention—"
"I don't need Command," Alya cut in. "This dungeon broke inside our city. We're Silver Vow. This is our territory. I will not watch my streets bleed because bureaucrats need permission slips."
Within moments, the team assembled — four elites, one storm-blooded commander, and two teenage anomalies born of dragon flame and divine spark.
Kai stepped into the armory last.
He wore reinforced exploration leathers over a battleframe shirt lined with mana-absorption nodes. His hair was half-wet from the storm, eyes glowing faintly.
His voice was calm. "We're really doing this?"
Alya tossed him a sealed license node — forged moments ago under guild emergency authority.
"We are," she said. "No training wheels. No resets. This one's real."
Kai grinned.
"Good."
Sector 19 — The Broken District
The district had once been home to warehouses, distribution gates, and a few beastfolk-run repair shops. Now it was a mess of broken stone, collapsed buildings, and flickering mana lines that sparked like bleeding veins through cracked pavement.
In the center stood the dungeon.
A floating, obsidian wound, shaped like a sideways eye — pulsing with unnatural color.
Deep violet, tinged with black.
[Unstable Dungeon Core: Manifest Class | Element Unconfirmed]
Estimated Collapse Timer: 1:06:48
Not Registered in Dimensional Codex
"They're calling it a Ghost Dungeon," Mira murmured. "A new subclass."
Kaela stared at the rift.
It stared back.
First Contact
The moment they crossed the spatial threshold, the world changed.
Gone were the ruins.
They now stood on black water — shallow, silent, endless. Above them, stars shone through an artificial sky tinged purple-blue. Trees of bone jutted from the lakebed. The air felt cold, but there was no wind.
Kaela's interface pulsed.
[Biome: Death-Touched Dreamfield]
Atmospheric Mana: Necrotic / Shadow Hybrid | 89% Instability
Psychic Pressure: High | Emotional Feedback Possible
Kai blinked slowly. "I feel… angry."
Rei exhaled. "Everyone does."
Kaela closed her eyes — suppressing the pressure with a chant of clarity. Her light affinity resisted the necrotic aura more effectively than the others. She spoke calmly, eyes still shut.
"There's something… buried beneath this dungeon."
They moved forward. Slowly. Weapons drawn.
Then they heard it.
Not footsteps. Not roars.
A whisper.
"…I see you, children of the flame."
And then the world cracked.
Ambush: Shadowborn Chimerae
The water erupted.
Figures surged upward — twisted monsters shaped like wolves and dragons stitched together, oozing ink and spitting mana steam. Their eyes burned white. Their jaws bent sideways.
[Hostiles Identified: Shadowborn Chimerae | Class C+ to B]
Weakness: Light / Divine Aether
Special Traits: Psychic Drain, Bleed, Core Inversion (Risk)
Rei struck first — slicing through the first beast with a horizontal flame arc. Mira's wind chakrams whistled as they took out two more.
Kaela raised both hands.
A sigil bloomed in the air — complex, beautiful, brutal.
"Radiant Sanctum."
Light exploded in a pulse — blinding and pure.
The remaining beasts screeched — their bodies liquefying under divine-grade pressure.
Kai didn't move.
He was staring into the horizon, where something… darker waited.
Threshold
Kaela turned.
"Kai?"
He didn't respond.
[Alert: Transformation Threshold 99%]
Do you wish to activate: Draconic Sovereign Form?
Yes No
He felt the fire in his spine. The pressure in his skull.
His father's blood was singing.
Not just for war — but for dominance.
"Kai!" Kaela grabbed his arm, and the glow in his skin dimmed slightly.
She pressed her forehead to his.
"Not yet," she whispered. "Not here. Not like this."
He shuddered. Nodded.
"Okay."
Core Room: Broken Cathedral
They reached the center of the dungeon.
A black stone cathedral rose from the water — vines of bone clinging to its spires. The stained glass windows wept ash. A shattered statue of a god — unrecognizable, ancient — loomed above a corrupted core.
In front of it stood a single figure.
A woman in white robes, her face veiled, her body glowing faintly.
And from her chest… pulsed a core.
[Core-Bound Entity: Aether Wraith — Seralyth]
Status: Soul Residue | Deceased | Fragmentally Anchored
Risk: Variable | Class Unknown
Kaela gasped.
Her legs trembled.
Because she recognized the name.
Her mother.
The White Dragon.
The Echo
The woman opened her eyes.
And her voice filled the room — layered, both mechanical and divine.
"You are not ready," she said. "But you are here."
"Mother?" Kaela's voice cracked.
The ghost of Seralyth smiled.
"You are both flame and sky. Your hearts will decide which burns first."
Then her form began to collapse — mana scattering into wild arcs.
[Emergency Trigger: Dungeon Collapse Accelerated]
Countdown: 02:00
Exit Gate Forming…
Kai took Kaela's hand.
She was frozen.
"She's gone," he said softly.
Kaela nodded.
Tears fell.
But her light flared again.
"I'm not."
Return to Reality
They exited the dungeon in a flash of blue light.
Seconds later, the rift exploded behind them, its corrupted mana dispersing into the clouds.
Kaela collapsed into Kai's arms.
Alya stood silently, watching the smoke rise. Behind her, Explorer Command vessels descended — late, as always.
Mira whispered, "What the hell was that?"
No one answered.
Kaela opened her hand — revealing a sliver of crystal.
A memory.
Her mother's last words echoed still.
You are both flame and sky…
End of Chapter 3