The combat stream minimized into a corner of the projection and a second feed blood beside it. The polished studio fra of Global Awakened News with a tactical map flashing a red zone across the dungeon cluster the Claimant had been feeding through.
"...and we now have confird reports that a total of six dungeons have gone offline since the initial breakout event," the anchor was saying. "Joining us tonight from the Global Scientific Community is Dr. Elias Roht, whose departnt specializes in post-mana-apocalypse anomalies. Doctor, thank you for being with us."
A second window opened on the broadcast, and Dr. Elias Roht’s face appeared, wild-eyed and visibly sweating beneath studio lighting that looked like it had been cranked up specifically to make him uncomfortable.
Kaiden and the girls stared.
"THANK YOU, MARGARET," Dr. Roht declared, his voice pitched two volus too loud for the broadcast. "WE ARE WITNESSING HISTORY!"
The anchor flinched. "Doctor, if you could lower your-"
"THIS IS IT. THE NEXT STEP. I’ve always been saying that the mana apocalypse was not a single event! It was a PROCESS. And this-" he jabbed a finger at sothing off-cara "-this is the beginning of phase three. First the apocalypse itself, then the decade-long tutorial’s end and the global break, and now!"
"Doctor-"
"The scientific community has formally designated the phenonon you are witnessing as a Natural-Born Dungeon. The first of its kind. A dungeon that walks. A dungeon that feeds. A dungeon that is ALIVE, you promiscuous female."
"Excuse ?"
"What does your father say when he sees your cleavage is on display for all-"
Sowhere off-screen, a familiar voice attempted intervention. "Professor, please, the producers are signaling about your volu and are demanding you stop calling the lady such nas-"
"SILENCE, LENA!"
The anchor visibly tried to regain control of the segnt while adjusting her blouse to cover the goodies a bit better. "Doctor, with all due respect, what should the public take away from this situation?"
Dr. Roht leaned so close to the cara that his nose hair took over half the fra.
"Please lean back, this is disgusting-"
"You want a takeaway? I’ll give you one. NEVER. REST. EASY. The age of comfort is over. The age of complacency is over. What you are seeing on your screens is only the beginning, and the only way to ensure humanity’s survival is to INCREASE THE FUNDING BUDGET OF MY DEPARTNT. I humbly request, on behalf of all mankind, an imdiate allocation of-"
"We’re going to have to cut there, Doctor, thank you so much-"
"-NO FEWER THAN FORTY MILLION CHRONOS-"
"Thank you, Doctor Roht-"
"-AND THE RELEASE OF MY FROZEN ACCOUNTS-"
Kaiden clicked the news feed closed.
Luna lifted her head off the armrest with a slowly building grin.
"This guy is as unhinged as ever, huh?"
Kaiden sighed and his eyes were back on the combat stream in the corner of the projection, still running. The Claimant still drinking the dungeon. The ring still taking casualties. The kill count ticking upward without dent.
His gaze dropped to the system countdown.
[Ti Until Defense: 07:50:43]
"That," Kaiden said quietly, "is going to be a brutal fight."
Aria’s silver gaze had not left the combat feed for a single mont, even as she watched brave humans lose their lives before her very eyes. Her grip on Kaiden’s arm tightened and her voice ca certain.
"It doesn’t look like they’ll be able to stop it for us, Kai."
Kaiden nodded once. He had arrived at the sa conclusion quite a while ago.
Luna huffed from the armrest, arms crossed.
"At least the big bastard is keeping to his word, though. If he’d camped outside our dungeon and started swinging at anyone who ca within a mile, we’d be in a way worse spot." She jerked her chin at the feed. "Small rcies, I guess."
Bastet’s ears had angled toward the feed. They twitched once.
"It is not a rcy, Gremlin. He is powering himself up as a Dungeon Master. I can tell."
She leaned closer to the projection, gold bracelets chiming as she lifted one hand toward the image of the Claimant rippling in peristaltic waves against the broken dungeon mouth.
"His authority is increasing. His personal power, I’d say, is not."
Her eyes narrowed on the seams rippling along the Claimant’s flanks.
"When we faced him, monsters ca from only his mouth. Now, they are coming from his shoulders, his back, his ribs, his hocks. Every point of his body has beco a spawning vector. Its dominion as a Dungeon Master is expanding, and it’s materializing in this manner. It’s a brutish creature who can’t strategically invest DMP like we can. The phenonon must take place differently... It already has the monsters ready, so it is upgrading the dungeon itself..."
Bastet’s ears twitched.
"And look at the pace. The first dungeon he took required more than a full hour but he’s already standing astride the sixth. The column of light rising into him is thicker. His consumption is accelerating."
Luna stared at the feed, her crossed-arms posture gone. Her shoulders had gone tight.
"...Right. Yeah. That’s obvious now that you say it."
"There’s nothing wrong with being optimistic," Bastet smiled, supportive of the gar girl. She understood that she had an advantage when it ca to this topic, having been a fellow Dungeon Master herself, even if she never did such outrageous things as this thing.
"Fuck. Usually it’s you bimbos who make the dumb comnts that let shine brightly, but now I feel like the tables have turned. What the hell happened?"
Bastet’s smile turned dry, expression shifting towardgoing, ’why was I even trying to be kind to this bitch?’
Soon, Aria’s grip on Kaiden’s arm loosened a fraction as the mont settled. Luna’s posture eased. Bastet’s tail resud its slow sweep against the dais, and sowhere across the cathedral, Calypso’s voice picked back up, explaining another detail about the building’s carvings to Vespera with renewed enthusiasm.
Kaiden let the conversation drift past him for a beat, thumb tracing Aria’s knuckles as he watched the feed in the corner of his vision. The Claimant’s flanks rippled. Another monster pushed free. The kill counter ticked.
Then the dungeon whispered to him, a low tremor at the back of his awareness. This was the raw, direct bond between a Dungeon Master and his domain.
A presence had crossed the gate.
Kaiden’s brow furrowed.
Nobody should be crossing that gate. Vespera’s outer ring had explicit orders, the Association’s periter was holding, and Eclipse’s veterans knew the protocol. No one was ant to set foot past the threshold without signal.
He pulled the 3D map forward.
The projection shifted, the Claimant feed minimizing further into the corner. The full dungeon rendered above the dais, five square kiloters of abyssal stone and magma channel and temperate adow rotating slow in the air.
A dot.
A single point of light moving through the Safe Zone, inside his hundred-ter circle, heading past the threshold toward the first chokehold.
Kaiden’s heart skipped.
’No...’
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