The Dungeon's wailing grew louder and louder, until it pierced even Charles's eardrums with pain.

Then, suddenly, the cries ceased.

And Charles sensed it—a powerful, malignant presence had arrived.

The Dungeon operated by its own internal mechanisms. Whenever its body was damaged, it halted monster production and prioritized self-repair.

Adventurers often took advantage of this, deliberately damaging parts of the floor during rest periods to temporarily stop monster spawns.

But when the damage passed a certain threshold, the Dungeon would stop repairing itself.

Instead, it would move to eliminate the harmful elements causing it pain—namely, adventurers.

The means of this purge was the manifestation of a special monster: Zagnat.

Adventurers had another name for it—Calamity.

The last recorded appearance of such a creature was on the lower floors, in the incident that led to the destruction of the Asteria Familia.

The Rudra Familia, spearheading the Evilus faction, had laid a trap for Asteria's girls. Explosions from large quantities of Ignis Stones inflicted massive structural damage on the Dungeon—and from that carnage, a Zagnat was born.

It was the Dungeon's own enforcer. A janitor whose job was to remove infections.

It possessed speed that defied comprehension, a shield that reflected all magic, and "Guaranteed Piercing" claws that bypassed armor and defense skills entirely.

With no intel, the entire high-level Asteria Familia was slaughtered.

Only their captain, Aries Rofiel, bought the lone survivor—Ryuu Lion—a chance to escape by sacrificing herself.

The Rudra Familia's Jara, one of the rare survivors, had spent years studying the Zagnat that haunted his nightmares.

According to his theory, the level of damage inflicted by Charles and Ottar during their fight was more than enough to trigger the Dungeon into birthing another Zagnat.

When the Freya Familia surrounded Charles, many adventurers had already heard the news. In fact, during the earlier encirclement of the Hephaestus Familia by Loki and Freya Familia, all of Orario had been paying attention.

Charles had seen many adventurers gathering when he arrived on the 20th floor.

Many were those who had chased Stella and Wiene alongside the Loki and Freya Familia. Some were merely curious thrill-seekers.

Of course, others, like the Hephaestus and Hestia Familia—those close to Charles—had come to help.

All of them now heard the wail of the Dungeon, but the strongest reaction came from a certain masked elf girl.

Her eyes were filled with hatred—and fear. Ryuu raised her head to the shattered stone wall above them. Her grip on her weapon began to tremble uncontrollably.

Then she saw it—purple fluid leaking from the cracked rock.

Her pupils contracted, and she screamed:

"Run!"

Among the adventurers on the 20th floor were plenty of "clever" ones who figured following the Hephaestus Familia would lead them to Stella. Several small Familia had tailed them for that reason.

Tsubaki, leading the way, hadn't paid them much mind—they weren't a real threat.

But it was unfortunate: the fissure in the stone was right above them.

A certain level 3 adventurer from one of those small Familia avoided the falling purple liquid and stared up in confusion—right before he vanished without a sound.

The others gasped.

A moment later, bright red blood flowed down the rock wall.

They looked up—and saw it.

A creature unlike anything they'd ever seen.

It resembled a skeletal dinosaur. No muscle. A bony frame covered in a shell that glowed bluish-purple.

Its limbs were long and thin—far too thin to support its size. But somehow, it clung to the wall like a spider, its razor-sharp claws sunk into stone.

From its waist extended a bone tail at least four meters long, the tip shaped like a blade—clearly built to kill.

Its head featured grotesque bony protrusions, twisted into a horrific visage. Its blood-red eyes oozed murderous intent.

The entire creature seemed engineered for slaughter—only a beast like this could serve as the Dungeon's executioner.

And in its mouth…

Was the missing adventurer—blood dripping from the mangled corpse.

CRUNCH.

With one violent snap, the Zagnat bit the still-groaning adventurer in half. Before the body even hit the ground, the monster disappeared.

The dead man's party leader opened his mouth to scream in anger and terror—but didn't even get a word out.

He was sliced clean through before he could speak.

The Zagnat reappeared beside the bisected corpse and let out a bone-chilling roar. Then, with one clean motion, it impaled another adventurer on its tail—and skewered a second with the same strike, stringing them together like candy on a skewer.

"Stop!" Ryuu cried, because she saw the adventurers pulling out magic swords.

The Zagnat tossed the corpses from its tail like trash and turned its bloodstained face toward the charging adventurers—but made no attempt to dodge.

Its mouth stretched into a grin—full of jagged fangs. A mocking expression.

It enraged the adventurers, who ignored Ryuu's warning and activated their magic swords.

Flames erupted—several fireballs flew toward the creature.

They struck its body dead-on.

A flash of bluish-purple light—and the fireballs vanished.

One second later, fire erupted from thin air and engulfed the adventurers who had launched the attack.

The Zagnat let out a bone-rattling rattle from its mouth—as if laughing at their deaths.

This was the Zagnat. Its abilities directly countered almost every tactic adventurers relied on. Without prior intel, it could wipe out entire parties in one surprise attack.

Ryuu clenched her jaw, her weapon raised—but her arms still shook.

Perhaps sensing her killing intent, the Zagnat slowly turned.

Those crimson eyes met hers.

And Ryuu was pulled back into a memory of unending horror.

She had seen those eyes before—watching her comrades die, one after another.

"What are you doing?!"

Tsubaki's voice snapped her out of it. She stepped forward, shield in hand, and threw herself between Ryuu and the monster.

The Zagnat appeared in front of them like a ghost. Its bladed tail stabbed straight at Ryuu's chest.

If Tsubaki hadn't reacted instantly, Ryuu would've been skewered.

Even though Ryuu wore a mask, Tsubaki recognized her—and knew she had come to help. There was no way she'd let her die here.

Ryuu snapped out of her fear and grabbed Tsubaki, dragging her away.

Tsubaki hadn't even grasped what happened when she looked back—and saw her massive shield had been sliced into several pieces.

The Zagnat was still poised mid-swipe.

That shield wasn't her own work, but it was made by the Hephaestus Familia—an upper-tier piece of equipment.

As a smith, Tsubaki knew its quality.

And yet, that terrifying monster had cut through it like tofu.

But it was about to get worse.

The Zagnat lunged, its deadly claws reaching for them.

Tsubaki knew she wasn't as tough as the shield—and now it was too late to dodge.

Ryuu's face contorted in fear. This was just like five years ago—helplessly watching her comrades get slaughtered.

She instinctively closed her eyes.

On the Zagnat's skeletal face, that mocking grin deepened.

Its claw fell toward its prey—

But the grin vanished.

And confusion replaced it.

Ryuu opened her eyes.

What she saw—was a back wreathed in flames.

Charles stood before them, holding the Zagnat's claw in one hand.

He said coldly, "I'm guessing you came looking for me, didn't you?"

CRACK. CRACK.

Bluish-purple light sparked from Charles's palm.

Then shattered into motes of light—leaving the bare bone exposed.

With a twist of his arm, Charles snapped the claw in half.

The broken fragments pierced the Zagnat's eye.

It reeled back, shrieking—a sound so loud it shook the entire 20th floor.

And as Ryuu stared at the scene before her—

Light returned to her eyes.

(End of Chapter)

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