After two hours of rest in the safe room, Kael felt as ready as he'd ever be for Floor 4. He'd eaten the last of his rations, refilled his water from the fountain, and spent time meditating to center himself mentally. The physical preparation was easy compared to the mental strain of knowing each floor was harder than the last.
He stood before the red doorway that led deeper into the dungeon, took a deep breath, and stepped through.
The transition was jarring. Instead of heat or claustrophobia, Floor 4 greeted him with cold—bone-deep cold that made his breath fog in the air. But more disturbing than the temperature was the lighting. Or rather, the lack of it.
His Void torch barely penetrated the darkness here. The light seemed to get swallowed after just a few feet, creating a tiny bubble of visibility around him while everything else remained pitch black. Even his Void Sense felt muffled, like trying to hear underwater.
[ENTERING FLOOR 4: The Shadowlands][Environmental Hazard: Oppressive Darkness - Visibility reduced by 90%][New Enemy Type: Shadow Constructs - Incorporeal, highly resistant to physical damage][Warning: Trust nothing you see or hear on this floor]
That last warning made Kael's skin crawl. Dungeons that messed with perception were considered the most dangerous because you couldn't trust your own senses.
He moved forward cautiously, every step careful and measured. The floor beneath his feet was smooth stone, but it felt wrong somehow—too smooth, like ice but without the slipperiness. The air tasted stale and metallic.
The first attack came from nowhere.
One moment Kael was alone in his tiny bubble of light. The next, something grabbed his ankle from behind. He spun, creating a Void blade by reflex, but there was nothing there. Just darkness.
Then pain erupted in his shoulder. Something had struck him from the side—he felt the impact, felt his health drop, but saw nothing.
[Health: 540/570][Attacked by: Shadow Wraith - Cannot be visually tracked]
[Shadow Wraith][Level: 17][HP: 200/200][Incorporeal - Physical damage reduced by 80%][Weakness: Light magic, Void energy, Area attacks][Special: Invisible in darkness, strikes from any angle]
Kael couldn't see them. His Void torch was useless. Even his Void Sense could barely detect them—they were like ghosts, barely registering as present.
Another attack, this time from above. Kael rolled sideways, feeling something cold pass through the space he'd occupied. These things could attack from literally any direction.
He needed a new strategy. If he couldn't see them or sense them reliably, he needed to make it so they couldn't hide.
Kael activated Void Domain.
The twenty-meter sphere of absolute control expanded around him, and suddenly everything changed. Within his Domain, he didn't need eyes or even Void Sense. He could feel everything—every molecule of air, every disturbance in space, every presence whether physical or not.
And there they were. Five shadow wraiths circling him like sharks, waiting for openings.
Within his Domain, Kael was god. The wraiths found their incorporeal forms suddenly becoming more solid, more vulnerable. Their immunity to physical damage weakened dramatically.
Kael didn't waste time. He created a dozen Void daggers and launched them all at once, each one guided by his perfect awareness of enemy positions. The daggers found their targets unerringly.
[5 Shadow Wraiths defeated][+375 EXP]
But maintaining Void Domain in this oppressive darkness was even more expensive than normal. Kael felt his energy draining at an alarming rate.
[Void Energy: 260/360]
He released the Domain to conserve power. The darkness pressed in again immediately, smothering, oppressive.
This was going to be a nightmare of a floor.
Kael pushed forward, fighting blind most of the time. He learned to predict attacks by feeling air currents, by noticing when the cold got suddenly colder, by trusting his instincts more than his senses. Every ten meters or so he'd activate Void Domain for a few seconds, just long enough to clear the area of wraiths, then release it to save energy.
It was exhausting. More mentally draining than any of the previous floors because he had to stay hyperalert every single second. One moment of inattention could mean death from an angle he never saw coming.
After what felt like hours but was probably only thirty minutes, Kael reached a massive open space. He could tell it was large because the echoes of his footsteps took longer to return. The boss arena.
A voice spoke from the darkness, feminine and cold as winter ice: "Welcome, challenger. You've done well to reach me. But this is where your journey ends."
Light bloomed in the darkness—not warm light, but cold blue-white glow that somehow made the shadows deeper. And in those shadows, Kael saw her.
The floor boss was a woman, or had been once. Now she was something between ghost and demon, her form constantly shifting between solid and incorporeal. She wore tattered robes that floated around her like they were underwater. Her eyes glowed with that same cold blue light.
[Shade Queen Lyss - Floor Boss][Level: 20][HP: 2000/2000][Incorporeal - Takes minimal damage from most sources][Special Abilities: Shadow Step, Life Drain, Summon Shadows][Ultimate: Eternal Night - Plunges arena into absolute darkness]
Level 20. Two levels higher than Kael. And specifically designed to counter conventional attacks.
"You cannot hurt what you cannot touch," Lyss said, her voice echoing from multiple directions at once. "And you cannot touch what exists between reality and void. Surrender now, and I will make your death quick."
"I've heard that before," Kael replied, creating twin Void swords. "It didn't work out well for the last person who said it."
Lyss attacked.
She moved through space like water flowing downhill, impossible to predict, impossible to track. One moment she was fifty feet away, the next she was right beside Kael, her ghostly fingers reaching for his throat.
Kael activated Void Armor and swung his blade. It passed through her incorporeal form harmlessly.
She laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "See? Futile."
But Kael noticed something. When his Void blade passed through her, she flinched slightly. The Void energy didn't damage her, but she felt it. That meant she wasn't completely immune—she just had insane resistance.
He needed more power. More Void energy concentrated in each strike.
Lyss summoned dozens of shadow wraiths to swarm him. Kael activated Void Domain, clearing them all in one massive pulse of energy.
[Void Energy: 210/360]
While she was surprised by his ability to clear her summons so easily, Kael struck. Not with a blade, but with Void Siphon. He grabbed her arm—solid for just a moment—and activated the drain at maximum intensity.
Lyss shrieked. The drain worked on her, pulling away whatever energy animated her undead form. Kael felt power flowing into him, cold and alien but usable.
[Draining: 50 energy per second][Shade Queen's HP: 1900/2000]
She tore herself away, her form flickering. "Impossible! You shouldn't be able to touch me!"
"Void energy exists outside normal rules," Kael explained, advancing. "Between life and death, between real and unreal. Your incorporeal form? That's just another state of existence. And I control the space between states."
Understanding his nature now, Lyss changed tactics. She activated her ultimate ability.
[ETERNAL NIGHT ACTIVATED][All light sources extinguished][Visibility: ZERO]
Kael's Void torch went out. The cold blue light vanished. He was in absolute darkness so complete he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face.
But Lyss had made a critical error. She'd created a realm of pure darkness.
And darkness was Kael's domain.
He activated Void Sense to its maximum range and felt everything within a hundred meters. Every shadow wraith. Every shift in the air. And Lyss herself, thinking she was hidden but standing out like a beacon to Kael's enhanced perception.
"My turn," Kael said.
He used Void Step to appear directly beside her and grabbed her throat before she could fade away. His other hand drove a Void blade through where her heart would have been.
And he activated a new technique, born from his understanding of entropy and endings.
[New Ability Developed: Void Consumption][Absorb target directly into the Void, dealing massive damage over time]
Lyss screamed as Kael's Void energy wrapped around her like chains, pulling her essence apart piece by piece. She tried to fade, to escape, but the Void held her solid. Tried to summon more wraiths, but Kael's Domain suppressed her magic.
[Void Energy: 110/360]
For ten seconds, Kael maintained the technique. When he finally released it, Lyss collapsed to the ground, her form barely holding together.
"You... are not... human," she gasped.
"Not anymore," Kael agreed. "Maybe I never was."
He finished her with a simple Void blade through the skull.
[Shade Queen Lyss defeated][+800 EXP][Floor 4 Complete!][Loot: Spectral Cloak (Legendary), 1000 Gold, Wraith Essence x5]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 19]
The darkness lifted. Light returned to the arena. Kael stood over the dissipating form of the Shade Queen, breathing hard but victorious.
One floor left. One final boss.
And then he could leave this nightmare dungeon behind.