Aesa's throat tightened as she tried to steady her breath, but the memory gripped her like a hand around her lungs. She wasn't done talking.

"There was… more," she whispered.

The frost around her boots spread thinly across the stone. Her eyes drifted somewhere far away, back to when that kingdom drowned in silence.

"When the Gravebringer took the city, it didn't take long. It was just days, maybe less I don't remember."

Her fingers trembled. "I watched my people and families I knew, children I taught, soldiers who swore their lives to protect the land, twisted into undead monsters."

She swallowed hard and her voice cracked.

"And my husband… he was one of the last to turn."

The chamber tensed. Even the roots seemed to still, as if they also listened.

"He and his troops fought it," she continued. "He held the gates, kept refugees behind him, bought time even when he knew he wouldn't survive. He told me to run and escape."

Her lips shook.

"But he didn't escape. I found him hours later. And he had changed. His eyes were gone. His soul was gone."

The air around her turned colder.

"He didn't recognize me anymore. He had become that creature Zerathul had created."

A single painful and heavy breath escaped her.

"I had no choice."

Her hand rose slightly, as if remembering the moment.

"Then my power awakened. I unleashed the full body of an Ice Dragonborn for the first time."

Frost crawled along the walls when she said it, as if even the memory carried remnants of that ancient eruption. Everyone realized the changes and they started to worry as well.

"I froze the entire kingdom. Thousands of people that had become undead twisted by his corruption. Including him."

Her voice nearly vanished.

"I killed them all."

Snow-like fragments drifted off her fingertips, fading before they reached the floor.

"And after that…" She paused, the silence swallowing her words for a moment. "I couldn't stay. Not in a world I had destroyed with my own hands."

Aesa's shoulders dropped, as if the weight she carried finally dug deep enough to break bone.

"So I left my world. I abandoned everything. I went into seclusion. I didn't want to see that kingdom again. I didn't want to feel that kind of pain again."

She inhaled, the cold easing but never leaving.

"And hearing that name… Zerathul, the Gravebringer… I knew it had started. The same cycle and the same horror."

She lifted her eyes toward them, glassy with the memory she survived but never escaped.

"I will not let it happen again."

The chamber stayed cold and silent.

Erend lowered his head slightly. Not in pity—he never offered pity for her—but in respect, and in an understanding carved from his own fears.

They all now knew what Aesa's reason for her seclusion was.

He clenched his fist harder. A much worse possibility just opened in his head.

Eccar exhaled slowly, the weight of her words sinking into his spine.

"Damn…" he muttered under his breath. It wasn't disbelief. It was the shock of realizing the Gravebringer had already destroyed a world before this one in such a terrifying manner.

Adrius pressed a hand to his mouth, eyes wide. He had read tragedies and wars but this was different.

This was a god-tier necromantic purge. And someone had lived through it and killed her own people with her power.

Lysander looked pale, his thoughts spinning. He couldn't imagine it.

Thar'Zul-Vekar closed their eyes, a shiver of fear and sadness running down their body. It was not just from the cold but from recognition of pain and seeing their people die in front of their eyes.

Aesa stood there, breathing slowly. The words she had spoken threatened to tear wider a wound that actually never healed.

A few moments later, Erend let out a sharp sigh, the breath leaving him like he was releasing tension he had kept pressed beneath his ribs.

"We can't change what has already happened," he said at last. "What matters now is what we do next."

Adrius lifted his head, startled out of the spiral Aesa's story had thrown him into. Lysander blinked at Erend as if pulled back from some dream.

Erend raised a hand before they could say anything.

"And no," he added, "it's not that I'm heartless after hearing her story."

Aesa's eyes flickered toward him, unreadable.

"But if we don't start moving," Erend continued, "if we don't prepare, then what happened to Aesa's kingdom could happen to us too."

The weight of realization ran through them.

Adrius dropped his gaze and exhaled through his nose. "You're right."

Lysander let out a shaky sigh beside him. "Yeah… you're right. Fear won't help us if we stay frozen."

Erend nodded. "Exactly."

He took a step forward, facing all of them.

"So I have a proposal. There is a place where you can grow stronger than anything this world can give you in a short amount of time."

Adrius frowned. Lysander exchanged a confused look with him. Even Aesa's expression tightened, as if she didn't quite understand what Erend meant.

"This is another dimension that used to be accessible only to me and other Dragonborn. But now I've received permission. All of my allies can enter," Erend said.

Silence followed. They stared at him, processing the idea.

Adrius blinked rapidly. "A… dimension?"

Lysander whispered, "How many strange realms do you Dragonborn have?"

Eccar stepped forward, folding his arms.

"Wait, Erend." His brow furrowed. "Are you talking about the Dungeon World?"

Adrius and Lysander stiffened at the term.

The Dungeon World?

Erend nodded. "Yes."

Eccar let out a low whistle. "I gained more strength there in days than I did in months of training here." His expression darkened with memory.

Adrius stared. "Dungeon World?"

"Think of it as a dimension built entirely for trials. It has endless monsters, environments that change, and rewards that scale with your survival."

Erend looked at them. They wouldn't have a choice but to come.

"Gather your things that are necessary for battles for days. When the time comes, I will take you all there," Erend said.

—