Three days passed, and there was no news of Nebula.
"Joining a guild to gather information on dragon sightings wasn't a bad idea… but for now, it's completely useless. My patience is running out," Aurora thought to himself.
Suddenly, a red screen appeared before his eyes:
"Tier 2 Dungeon Appeared. Evacuate all civilians around the Thal'Nyr Sea."
"Interesting," Aurora muttered. The last Tier 2 dungeon had appeared 2,000 years ago, and nearly all twelve heroes had perished. At the time, that had worked in Aurora's favor… but now he was no longer the same. His goals were far different.
"Cleia!" Aurora called.
Immediately, Cleia appeared.
"You summoned me, my lord?"
"Let's go to Thaleryn."
"Now?"
"Yes. Now."
As soon as he spoke, Aurora opened a portal.
"Let's conquer this dungeon."
Upon arriving at Thaleryn, the city was abandoned. A massive portal dominated the sky, suspended over the Thal'Nyr Sea.
"Wow…" was all Aurora could say. The portal radiated a blood-red aura, warping the space around it.
"This isn't an ordinary portal…" he said aloud, drowned by the chaotic noise.
"Who knows what world this portal will lead us to!" he shouted, but Cleia, only inches away, couldn't hear him.
"Ah, speaking is useless… she won't hear me over all this noise," Aurora thought, gesturing for her to follow.
The two advanced toward the portal.
"No security? What if a civilian accidentally entered?" Cleia asked, using her telepathic skill.
"No normal human could survive such a distortion. They'd be shredded before realizing what's happening," Aurora replied.
"This portal… it reminds me too much of black holes in my old world," he thought.
"Let's go!" Aurora declared.
He leapt in. The moment he touched the portal's surface, gravity crushed him inward. Resistance was futile; once past a certain point, the pull was irresistible.
The world Aurora emerged into was breathtaking. The sky had never known blue—only an infinite pearly gray. Light did not come from a sun but from a massive pale Astral Crown, floating motionless behind the clouds, like the eye of a blind god.
The land was not stone or soil but spires of obsidian and fragments of reality, jutting upward like shards of a shattered mirror. No vegetation existed, only the dense, creeping smoke of the Vapors of Oblivion, shrouding the ruins of civilizations that had vanished before time itself was conceived.
Nearby, thousands of tiny bodies lay scattered—the civilians of Thaleryn who hadn't escaped in time.
"Well, let's see what object we need to destroy to complete this dungeon!" Aurora exclaimed, excitement blazing. "And unlike the last dungeon, this one's open space… I wonder how its collapse works here."
"Lord Aurora…" Cleia said, frozen.
"Uh?" Aurora turned. Before him stood an entity larger than mountains, blotting out the sky.
Its skeletal wings spread like twisted branches of an ancient tree, sharp enough to tear the veil between dimensions. Each movement whispered a sinister sound, like the futile cries of forgotten souls.
The body, elongated and slender, seemed sculpted from shadow itself. Its limbs, far too long to be human, moved with unnatural grace—a macabre dance orchestrated by unknown forces. Its skin, if it had any, was now rough and scaly, like cursed bark, etched with grooves of pain and desolation.
Its face, if one could call it that, was a nightmare of void and edges. Two bottomless eyes glowed coldly, piercing the soul of anyone who met its gaze. Its mouth, an irregular slit, whispered in a forgotten tongue, a lament carried by the wind.
Wherever it set its skeletal limbs, the ground withered, plants decayed, and the air turned razor-sharp. It didn't walk—it glided, as if its weight didn't belong in this world.
It was a being on the edge of reality and nightmare, a living memory of what happens when light dies. In that realm of darkness, it was the undisputed ruler.
"Nihilath…" Aurora murmured. "The Geometer…"
He could not move. If this was a Tier 2 dungeon, what horrors did Tier 1 hold?
"This isn't just an entity. Nihilath is a god incarnate, at least here… Its mere presence can destroy a world, and the fact that this one is still intact... I'm not sure I can defeat it…" Aurora said, a nervous smile on his lips, a bead of sweat on his temple. Excitement outweighed fear, and he lunged at the god with his sword, Rigai no Tsurugi.
Yet, upon seeing it, fear overtook him. "Damn! Its presence alone is driving me insane! Mind control? Corruption? And that aura…" Teeth chattering, Aurora brushed sweat-soaked hair from his eyes.
"I've never seen Aurora this terrified," Cleia thought. "Usually he's the one causing fear. But even terrified, he keeps a smile… maybe just stress?"
There was no time to ponder: the twelve heroes entered the world.
"Aurora!? Cleia!? What are you doing here!?" Bjorn shouted.
"Obviously!" Aurora said, his grin widening. "We're here to clear the dungeon!"
"And what do you say?" asked Zenthra, the strongest of the twelve.
"I haven't gotten close enough to analyze it properly," Aurora replied.
"You already know who it is. You can't beat it alone," Zenthra said.
"Neither can you," Aurora shot back.
"Then what do you propose?"
"I'll be direct: I want your cooperation to defeat that monster."
"We can't do it even together," Aurora said immediately.
"Why not?" Maelion, ranked fourth among the twelve heroes, asked.
"Watch," Aurora said, raising his hands and closing his eyes, focusing intensely.
"Is he about to cast magic on Nihilath?" thought Eilyndor, ninth among the twelve.
"Listen, you who uphold heaven and earth, omnipotent being! By the wind that devours boundaries and time, by the memory of the cosmos before light, I uproot this matter from its very existence!"
"What? A Supreme Magic of Nuclear Essence? Aurora, you're cra-" Zenthra couldn't finish—an explosion engulfed the world, its shockwave rippling through the entire solar system and beyond.
"My powers cannot kill me, yet I'm surprised you survived!" Aurora laughed.
"You've lost your mind—" Zenthra tried to speak, but Aurora silenced him.
"My subordinate protected you. I was teasing before: no damage came to you. Now look around!" Aurora's voice rose.
"See anything scratched?"
The twelve heroes looked around: the ground untouched, Nihilath unmoved.
"Nihilath has embedded this place with magic… no power we use can harm the planet. And the fact it emerged unscathed… bothers me," Aurora said.
"Indeed," Zenthra replied. "This cursed god is going to be a serious problem…"
"You can say that again," Eilyndor added.