Chapter 46: Ice Dragon

  The chamber was an endless expanse of white. Towering ice pillars stretched into a sky that shouldn’t exist, their jagged surfaces reflecting the eerie glow of a frozen sun that loomed overhead. The air was thick with mist, every breath sharp and stinging as Marcus and Vira stepped forward.

  Marcus rolled his shoulders, already feeling the oppressive weight of the cold seeping into his bones. “Why do these bosses always come with dramatic weather effects?”

  Vira exhaled, her breath turning to frost. “Wouldn’t be a proper dungeon if it didn’t make us miserable first.”

  Then—the ground trembled.

  A deep, guttural rumble echoed through the chamber, reverberating through the ice. The mist thickened, swirling violently as if something massive exhaled.

  Then, from within the storm, two piercing blue eyes snapped open.

  The dragon emerged.

  It was titanic. A mountain of sleek, crystalline scales, each one reflecting the frozen world around them like fractured glass. Its wings unfurled—vast, jagged like frozen glaciers, the sheer movement of them sending shards of ice crashing to the ground. The beast’s long, sinuous body coiled with terrifying elegance, its claws scraping against the frost-bitten earth, sending shrieks of ice-on-ice through the chamber.

  Then—it roared.

  A blast of subzero wind erupted from its maw, sending a shockwave of pure ice outward. Marcus and Vira barely had time to react, both diving in opposite directions as the frostwave engulfed everything in its path. The pillars in its wake shattered instantly, reduced to dust.

  Marcus landed in a crouch, already moving. “That’s a bad start.”

  Vira gritted her teeth, standing quickly. “We need to ground it.”

  The dragon’s wings flared. It rose, effortless despite its massive size, ascending into the mist above, where only its glowing eyes remained visible.

  Then—movement.

  It dove.

  Marcus barely had time to roll to the side as the dragon’s claws tore through the ice where he had stood, gouging massive trenches in the battlefield. Before he could recover, its tail whipped around, a blur of crystalline death.

  He ducked—too slow. The tip of the tail clipped his shoulder, sending him skidding across the ice.

  Vira retaliated, her hands blazing with mana. “Not this time!”

  A bolt of searing lightning arced from her fingers, crackling through the air. It struck the dragon’s side, sending a shockwave of energy rippling across its body.

  The beast snarled—but instead of faltering, the point of impact froze over, the electricity encased in a layer of thick ice.

  Vira’s eyes widened. “It can freeze magic?! That’s cheating!”

  The dragon’s response was another guttural growl—this time, aimed directly at her.

  Marcus shot forward, his Ki igniting in his limbs. His fists glowed with raw power as he closed the distance. He had to move fast, before it turned its focus entirely onto Vira.

  He launched himself off the ground, twisting mid-air as he drove a full-force right hook into the dragon’s jaw.

  The impact cracked.

  A web of fractures spread across its scales from the point of contact, and for the first time, the dragon recoiled.

  Marcus didn’t let up. The moment he landed, he pivoted and drove an uppercut into its underbelly. This time, his Ki pulsed outward upon impact—sending a shockwave that blasted through the dragon’s core.

  It staggered, its wings twitching as it struggled to stay balanced.

  Vira took the opening.

  She raised both hands, and this time, instead of a direct blast, she shaped her mana—controlling, molding. The wind around her shifted, condensing into a spiraling vortex of heat and pressure.

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  Then, she released it.

  A compressed firestorm erupted from her palms—a spear of pure, concentrated heat.

  The air hissed as the attack tore through the battlefield, cutting directly toward the dragon’s exposed side.

  The beast reacted instantly.

  Its wings snapped outward, and in a single motion, it caught the firestorm with its claws— and froze it solid.

  Then, with a flick, it hurled the crystallized flames back at them.

  Marcus’ eyes widened. “Move!”

  They split apart as the massive, frozen spear shattered against the ground, the explosion sending a blizzard of razor-sharp ice shards flying in every direction.

  Marcus barely dodged, but Vira took a glancing hit—ice lacerating across her arm.

  She hissed in pain, stumbling. “It’s learning.”

  Marcus gritted his teeth. “So are we.”

  The dragon lunged.

  It was faster this time—less brute force, more precision. It knew they could hurt it, and it had started to adapt.

  Marcus ducked under its swipe, moving inside its guard. Instead of striking immediately, he let it react first.

  The dragon’s claws came down in an arc—predictable.

  Marcus sidestepped at the last second, letting the strike glance past him. Then, he launched a brutal counterstrike to the exact same spot he had cracked earlier.

  This time—the fracture spread.

  The dragon’s snarl turned into a full roar of pain.

  Vira saw the opening.

  She poured everything into one last spell—not fire, not lightning, not wind.

  This time, she reached deeper.

  She drew from the raw force of destruction itself—pure, unaligned mana.

  A single sphere formed in her palms, pulsating with unstable energy.

  She launched it forward.

  The dragon sensed the danger. It reacted—but too late.

  The moment the sphere made contact—it didn’t explode.

  It erased.

  A clean hole was cut straight through the dragon’s chest.

  The beast convulsed, its wings beating in frantic desperation—before finally, its body collapsed.

  Ice shattered in waves across the battlefield as the dragon’s massive form crumbled, its body dissolving into nothing but frost.

  Then—silence.

  The frozen sun dimmed. The chamber stilled.

  Marcus panted, fists still clenched. He turned to Vira, who was leaning on one knee, breathing heavily.

  She managed a grin. “That was ridiculous.”

  Marcus laughed breathlessly. “Yeah.”

  Then—the chime.

  Level Up Achieved!

  A golden glow enveloped them both as their bodies thrummed with newfound power. Marcus flexed his fingers, feeling the shift in his Ki, Psycha, and Mana. His breathing steadied, his muscles coiled with fresh energy, ready to be unleashed.

  Vira stretched her arms, rolling her shoulders with a relieved sigh. “Alright,” she huffed. “That was a tough one, but we did it. Now, let’s get to the last boss.”

  Marcus smirked, shaking out his hands. “Yeah. Let’s end this.”

  But then—

  Stem’s voice rang in his mind, but this time, there was something… off about it.

  “Marcus… this was the last boss.”

  Marcus froze. “What?”

  Vira turned to him. “What’s wrong?”

  Marcus blinked, trying to process Stem’s words. “Stem says… this was the final boss.”

  Vira frowned. “No, it wasn’t. We still have one more.”

  Marcus nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's what I thought too."

  Stem’s tone remained measured, but there was something beneath it—something Marcus wasn’t used to hearing from the system. Concern.

  “Marcus. Vira. You have defeated ten bosses. The dungeon is complete. The final chamber should not exist. You must leave.”

  Marcus shook his head. “No, that’s not right.”

  Vira’s hands curled into fists. “It doesn’t feel right. I know there’s one more.”

  A cold shiver crawled down Marcus’ spine. The dungeon had pushed them to the brink, each fight more grueling than the last. But now, as he stood in the aftermath, he realized something.

  He wasn’t tired.

  Vira wasn’t either.

  The exhaustion of battle was gone, replaced by an unrelenting drive. It wasn’t adrenaline. It wasn’t stubbornness. It was something deeper. Something unnatural.

  “We have to keep going,” Marcus muttered.

  Vira nodded. “Yeah. Just one more fight.”

  Stem’s voice grew urgent. “Marcus. Listen to me. You are being manipulated. This is not normal dungeon behavior.”

  Marcus clenched his teeth. "You're saying we're being controlled?"

  “Your thoughts are not entirely your own. The dungeon is influencing your perception, overriding logic with instinct. You have already won, yet you refuse to leave. This is intentional.”

  Marcus hesitated. That made sense, didn’t it? They had no reason to keep going. No reason to ascend further.

  But his body refused to stop. His mind rejected the thought of turning back.

  “We’re going,” he said firmly.

  Vira didn’t even hesitate. “Yeah. We have to finish this.”

  Then—

  The dungeon trembled.

  A presence—one that had remained hidden until now—revealed itself.

  “Ahh… so persistent. So eager.”

  A voice.

  It wasn’t a system prompt. It wasn’t Stem.

  It was something else.

  The very air pulsed with its presence, a soundless weight pressing against their bones. The chamber dimmed, as if the light itself recoiled from the entity’s attention.

  Stem’s voice crackled. “Marcus—this presence—it is—”

  “Silence, little construct.”

  A pulse of unseen force struck Marcus like a hammer to the skull.

  Pain.

  Raw, searing, invasive.

  Stem’s voice wavered, distorted. “Marcus—I—can’t—”

  Then, silence.

  The interface in Marcus’ vision flickered wildly. Error messages. Fragmented system alerts. The ever-present connection to Stem was severed.

  Marcus staggered, clutching his head. “Stem?”

  Nothing.

  Vira grabbed his arm. “Marcus?! What happened?”

  Marcus swallowed hard. “Stem… he’s gone. Something just—something silenced him.”

  Vira’s face paled. “That’s possible?”

  Marcus didn’t have an answer.

  The voice chuckled. A soundless, suffocating laugh that sent waves of dread through the air.

  “He was useful. But he does not belong here. You, however… you do.”

  The next door—the one that shouldn’t exist—groaned open.

  Beyond it, the staircase spiraled upward. The way forward was clear.

  Marcus’ mind screamed at him to stop. To turn back. To listen to Stem.

  But his body was already moving.

  Vira walked beside him, her expression unreadable. She didn’t look at him, didn’t question it. She simply walked.

  They ascended.

  Step after step.

  Higher.

  Further.

  Until the doors at the top swallowed them whole.

  Then, they slammed shut behind them.