The front door creaked open gently. Rachel stepped inside first, a baby wrapped in a pale yellow bnket nestled against her chest, eyes fluttering beneath shes far too long for a newborn. Emma was peaceful, already drifting in and out of sleep, her small hand clutching a piece of Rachel’s cardigan.

  Daniel followed right behind, his arms carefully cradling the second twin in a pastel blue swaddle. Ava was wide awake, fussing and kicking as if the very air had offended her existence. Her brows were slightly furrowed in a look that somehow screamed attitude, even with her tiny face.

  Ethan unched off the couch the second he heard the door, skidding across the hardwood floor in his socks. “Mom! Are they here?! Are they here?!"

  “They’re here,” Rachel said softly, smiling despite the deep fatigue in her bones.

  Ethan’s eyes went impossibly wide as he approached slowly, peeking at the baby in Daniel’s arms. “They’re so... small.”

  “Yeah,” Daniel chuckled. “They didn’t come out fully grown, you know.”

  Ava let out a high-pitched squeak and kicked, startling him.

  “She doesn’t like being called small,” Rachel teased gently, shifting Emma a little to let Ethan peek at her too.

  From the kitchen, an older woman stepped out with a warm smile. Nana June, Rachel's grandmother, had stayed with Ethan during the delivery. Her silver hair was tied back in a bun, and she wiped her hands on a towel as she came closer. “Well, well,” she said, her voice light. “Let me see the little miracles.”

  She stepped close, eyeing both babies with that wise, old person look. “Oh, I can already tell that one’s trouble,” she said, nodding toward Ava, who filed in Daniel’s arms.

  “That’s Ava,” Rachel said with a tired ugh.

  “And this sleepy one’s Emma,” Daniel added, his voice softening as he looked at her.

  “Ava and Emma,” Nana repeated, the names rolling off her tongue. "I love it."

  Then she gestured toward the living room. “Now get yourselves off those feet. I’ve got dinner warming, and you both look ready to fall over.”

  Rachel gave a grateful sigh, her legs aching as she moved toward the couch. “You’re a lifesaver.”

  Daniel carefully passed Ava to Nana, who held the baby as if she had done it a thousand times before. “You and me, little one," she murmured with a smile, rocking Ava gently as the tiny girl blinked up at her.

  ‘I like her,’ she said to Emma.

  ‘She smells like oatmeal and vender,’ Emma noted, quite happy in Rachel’s arms. ‘Very nice. I approve.’

  Ava wriggled her fingers, still annoyed at the bright lights.

  Some months passed in the blink of an eye, as time often does in a house filled with three kids under their teens. Nights were long, naps were gold, and the living room had become a minefield of pacifiers and stuffed animals. Emma was an absolute angel who enjoyed everything a typical baby would. Ava, on the other hand, was the devil. She'd do everything in her power to make your life difficult for no reason at all.

  In the quiet afternoon sun, a shared cradle sat near the window, where sunlight filtered through soft curtains and painted dappled patterns on the floor. Inside, Ava and Emma y side by side, now just old enough to roll over and crawl in wobbly bursts.

  Emma was the first to stir, her little fingers curling against the bnket beneath her. Her eyes opened slowly, clear, thoughtful, and far too intellectual for a baby. Something had changed recently, not in the house, but in the atmosphere. Emma had previously scanned the world and found nothing out of the ordinary, assuming this world was going to be some boring Rom-com. She blinked and focused, letting her innate spatial comprehension slide outward like ripples in a pond.

  Scan.

  The world opened up to her. She could feel the warmth of her mother humming softly in the kitchen, the solid footsteps of her father upstairs, and the erratic thumps of Ethan running around outside, pretending to be a superhero again.

  Normal.

  But above, something fluttered. It was not close, yet not very far either. A strange buzzing in the mana felt like someone tapping their fingers against the sky itself. She squinted internally, focusing harder.

  ...Atmospheric distortion? Mana waves? Her mind struggled to wrap around the signature.

  Ava groaned beside her, flipping over with all the grace of a sleepy turtle and spping her in the face with a floppy arm.

  ‘You’re doing that scan thing again, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yeah. Just checking.’

  ‘Anything interesting?’

  ‘Nothing crazy. Just something weird up top. Mana fluctuations or something. Might be weather magic. Or birds. Hard to tell.'

  Ava buried her face in the bnket. ‘If it doesn’t have teeth or cws, I don’t care.’

  Emma gave the baby equivalent of a shrug, letting her scan fade. Whatever it was, it wasn’t close enough to be a problem. Probably just some natural anomaly. Her eyes drifted shut again.

  And far above, concealed from even Emma's infant perception, something stirred in the atmosphere.

  Some more months slipped by, filled with baby babble, teething cries, and the soft thuds of two curious girls crawling at surprising speeds toward anything they weren’t supposed to touch.

  Then came that morning.

  The television was on bst, far louder than usual. Usually, mornings in the Morgan household were a calm shuffle of cereal bowls. However, today, the living room was filled with a sense of urgency.

  The television buzzed with overpping voices, shaky cam footage, and a bold red banner at the bottom of the screen:

  BREAKING: “GATES” APPEARING WORLDWIDE | GLOBAL RESPONSE ESCALATES

  Rachel sat forward on the couch, her knuckles white around her mug. Daniel stood behind her, arms crossed tight, eyes glued to the screen.

  “These distinct blue portals, now being referred to as Gates, have appeared in a variety of locations: highways, shopping malls, abandoned buildings, and even schools. Experts remain baffled by the pattern, or ck thereof.”

  The footage transitioned to a clip from a helicopter. A swirling blue vortex hovered twenty feet above a congested highway. Traffic had come to a standstill, and some drivers abandoned their cars in panic.

  “Each Gate is said to contain what officials are calling a Dungeon. Inside, hostile entities, now officially dubbed Magical Beasts, are being encountered. Gates will remain open until the so-called Dungeon Boss is defeated. If left unchecked, these Gates can rupture… resulting in what’s now termed a Dungeon Break, allowing these creatures to spill into the world.”Rachel’s hand flew to her mouth. “That’s… insane. It's a movie plot.”

  Daniel didn’t speak.

  In the nursery, the twins were now fully awake, pressed up against the side of their crib and peering through the cracked-open door with bright eyes.

  Ava let out a low whistle, more like the spitty exhale of a toddler. 'They’re describing it exactly. Blue portals, dungeon bosses, and breaks. This is 100% Solo Leveling.'

  Emma just nodded in agreement while Ava practically vibrated with excitement, her baby legs kicking.

  Two Years Later

  The living room was eerily silent except for the sound of the news anchor’s voice crackling through the television speakers.

  “We’re bringing you live coverage of the first confirmed S-Rank Gate in the world. What you’re seeing now is real-time footage from our aerial team, flying over the west coast area where this catastrophic portal has opened…”On screen, the sky was dark with smoke. A colossal blue vortex swirled behind a massive dragon, tearing through a burning city. Kamish.

  He towered over buildings, his scales reflecting the sun's rays. Five twisted, gray horns spiraled back from his head, and his eyes glowed with a godly yellow light as he let out a roar that released an immense aura, shaking the camera and causing everyone nearby to break out in a sweat.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]“That is Kamish, the Dungeon Boss of this S-Rank Gate-"The feed jittered as shockwaves from the dragon’s movements rocked the helicopter. Kamish spread his wings, each one casting a shadow over entire blocks, and whipped his tail through a skyscraper like it was cardboard.

  "-We’ve received confirmation that over a hundred S-Rank Hunters have gathered to engage, but so far, the creature has not slowed down-"Ava and Emma stood frozen in front of the TV, now three years old and dressed in matching pajamas, their eyes as big as dinner ptes.

  Ava’s tiny voice cracked. “He’s... so much bigger than the manhwa panels made him look.”

  “This is it. The Kamish fight," Emma whispered, amazed.

  Then Emma turned her head. “You wanna see it for real?”

  Ava blinked. "Is that even a question?"

  Emma raised her hand, and the air around them twisted. Then, they vanished from the living room with a soft pop.

  A few seconds ter, they reappeared on an invisible floating barrier right above Kamish. Emma had blocked them from perception, so no one was the wiser to the two children floating above the deadliest monster ever to touch Earth.

  “His mana’s thick enough to taste,” Emma said, smacking her lips.

  Kamish reared back, unleashing a torrent of red fme that consumed an entire freeway. Down below, some of the world's strongest hunters scrambled just to survive.

  Ava clutched Emma’s hand tightly, eyes sparkling with tears. “We’re actually here."

  “Yup,” Emma said, unable to stop the grin stretching across her face.

  Together, they watched history unfold, and from above, the world seemed to be coming to an end.

  The wind screamed past Ava and Emma, carrying heat that should’ve been impossible at this altitude. Kamish’s wings beat once, and only once, sending shockwaves across the battlefield. Below, craters the size of sports stadiums dotted the ndscape where his cws had raked the earth, and broken buildings smoldered, their steel frames sagging from the heat.

  Dozens of Hunters charged in from different angles with their weapons drawn. Magical auras burst around them- blue, green, orange, and violet- colliding in the air and twisting like festival lights.

  But the moment Kamish saw them, everything stopped.

  The dragon let out a guttural rumble, like the Earth itself was growling. His chest swelled, and a red glow lit up from deep within his throat.

  “No, no, no-” one Hunter shouted from below, voice picked up by the news crew’s long-range mics.

  Too te.

  Kamish opened his jaws.

  A beam of liquid fire erupted outward in a sweeping arc. The moment it touched the ground, the asphalt evaporated. Cars disintegrated. Shield skills popped like soap bubbles. Hunters caught in the direct path didn’t even have a chance to scream. They were erased. No smoke, no ash. Just glowing footprints in cooling sg where their mana fred one st time and vanished.

  From the side, one female Hunter tried to erect a triple-yered shield, pushing every ounce of her mana into it. The breath hit. Her barrier held for a full half-second before shattering like gss. Then she, too, was gone.

  “Thirty-two,” Emma muttered. “That bst just took out thirty-two S-Ranks. Gone.”

  Kamish closed his jaws. The sound of the fmes dying off was like a sigh from a volcano.

  Then-

  Urp.

  With a zy, almost bored blink, Kamish burped.

  A glob of molten va the size of a minivan bubbled up from his throat and fell like a meteor. One unfortunate Hunter, a man with a battleaxe and expensive-looking gold armor, raised his hand as if to stop it.

  It nded on him with a wet sound, and he colpsed instantly. Screams came from everywhere as his teammates rushed toward him, only to recoil as the va seared through flesh and bone.

  “He’s done for,” Ava whispered. “Even his aura’s flickering...”

  And sure enough, the man’s outline faded from view on Emma’s mana sense. "Thirty-three."

  Then Kamish moved.

  His tail shed horizontally, crashing into a building and sending the top three floors spinning through the air like frisbees. A range type Hunter who had perched there was unched along with the debris, his body smming into a crane before crumpling lifelessly.

  The skies were filled with helicopters attempting to capture the battle, but many had backed off once the heat started messing with their rotors. Only one remained close enough to record the frontlines.

  “This is fucking insane!” the reporter yelled, panic tightening his throat. “The combined might of over a hundred S-Rank Hunters isn’t stopping this monster!"

  A huge chunk of the ground exploded as a team of mages unleashed binding spells that ensnared Kamish’s legs with glowing chains and even some thorns. For a brief moment, the dragon stopped moving.

  He looked down.

  And then he roared.

  A tidal wave of mana burst outward, a raw, pulsing red force that shattered the nearby buildings and snapped the chains like paper. The mages tried to regroup, but a single swipe of his cw bisected the earth, carving a trench that swallowed their whole formation.

  Of the over one hundred elite S-Rank Hunters who had assembled, nearly all were gone, either reduced to nothing or torn apart by the sheer force of Kamish. Only five figures remained standing amid the massacre, battered and burned but still alive somehow.

  Then there was light.

  It wasn’t sunlight, and it wasn’t magic. It was something purer.

  Four pilrs of energy fell from the sky like judgment. Time itself seemed to stall as the beams struck each hunter in perfect synchronization. The air shimmered around them with pressure.

  Ava and Emma, still watching from above on their hidden ptform, just continued to look on.

  "So this is how they got chosen by the rulers~" Emma whispered.

  Below, the changes began.

  Thomas Andre grunted, veins bulging across his body as golden light threaded over his skin like molten rivers. His bck tattoos shifted, transforming into jagged lines. His eyes changed to a bright yellow, and an armor of spiritual stone, fused with beastly traits, enveloped his body.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  A long yellow mane exploded from his back, flowing like fire. His jaw cracked open with a ugh.

  “I don't know what's going on, but let’s give this bastard a real fight!”

  Liu Zhigang said nothing. His swords floated at his sides, humming with mana. His armor appeared as a scale-like pting that wrapped his body like a second skin, adorned with twisting designs shimmering in silver and deep jade. His ponytail floated upward, caught in the rising aura. His glowing yellow eyes narrowed as he eyed Kamish.

  Christopher Reed spat blood from the side of his mouth and straightened his back. His armor was the strangest: smooth, alien, symmetrical, and covered from head to toe in fmes that rivaled Kamish. His eyes were hidden beneath a visor-like piece of mana gss that glowed an electric blue. His gauntlets hissed with steam as mana surged through his arms. He rolled his shoulders, a grin forming on his lips.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]“I think it's ‘bout time we made history."

  Siddharth Bachchan stepped forward next. An elegant man with bronze skin and short bck hair, his sharp features were complemented by a well-trimmed beard and burning amber eyes. His spiritual armor was royal, like an ancient king from a legend- complete with golden trimmings and flowing, energy-imbued robes that fluttered without wind. Floating orbs of colored light spun around him like pnets in orbit.

  “May your soul rest, beast,” he voiced in his native Indian tongue, lifting one hand. “But your body will be broken first.”

  And finally, the fifth figure, Noah Levinson, the healer.

  He stood at the back of the formation, his armor a practical, lightly enchanted robe reinforced with ptes over his chest and shoulders. No heavenly light enveloped him. No transformation. No spiritual armor. No nothing.

  "I suppose he got left out, huh. Poor guy," Ava said, feeling slightly sour for him.

  "I guess that's why he never even got named in the story," Emma reckoned.

  Kamish’s wings stretched wide, blocking out the sun entirely. He opened his jaws, and the world ignited.

  But before the fme could fall, the four transformed Hunters unched forward.

  Thomas struck first, crashing into Kamish’s chest with both fists. The force cracked the air and sent a ripple through the dragon’s massive body. Scales the size of shields dented under his blow, some cracking. Kamish reeled, but his eyes narrowed, more irritated than hurt. How dare a puny little human put even a scratch on him?

  Zhigang appeared behind him in a fsh, his twin swords sshing in an X that sparkled with light. Sparks bsted off as the bdes scraped against Kamish’s hide, barely cutting yet drawing blood all the same. The dragon’s tail shed out at him, but Zhigang vaulted off it midair like a gymnast, nding lightly atop Kamish’s wing before moving away again.

  Chris shot in next, both gauntlets crackling with unstable, fire-like mana. He drove one straight into Kamish’s knee and the other into his side. The dragon roared in pain this time, stumbling for the first time since the fight began. A chunk of bckened scale fell to the ground like a sb of concrete.

  Siddharth raised both hands and murmured something in Sanskrit. His floating chakras spun rapidly before beams of light erupted from them, locking Kamish’s wings in midair. The dragon thrashed, roaring in anger, but Siddharth stood firm, no longer breaking a sweat.

  At the edge of the field, Noah Levinson watched with a clenched jaw, sweat trickling down his temple. His staff glowed faintly as he whispered a mantra, sending healing spells to the others mid-battle. Any injury they had underneath that armour of theirs was gone in a second.

  None of the Hunters turned to thank him.

  And none of them needed to.

  He was just doing his job.

  “...Poor guy,” Emma murmured again. “He’s putting in work, and no one even knows his name.”

  “He knew what this was,” Ava replied quietly. “Not everyone’s meant to be remembered.”

  A shockwave divided the battlefield as Kamish erupted with mana. The ground beneath him turned molten, and three city blocks colpsed into a ke of va. He reared up, blood dripping from his snout, then let out a scream that sent tremors through the atmosphere. However, this time, the hunters didn't flinch.

  They continued to attack Kamish until he resembled a torn piece of dragon-shaped meat.

  Smoke curled into the sky as the sounds of crumbling stone and boiling va faded. Kamish’s shredded body y slumped over a ruined district, charred, broken, and leaking molten blood onto cracked pavement. The monster's heart no longer beat.

  “…Well, that was insane,” Ava muttered. “Did you see Siddharth? Wish I coulda' read more about him."

  Emma nodded. "I'd have to agree, but I think it's about time we went back now."

  Ava couldn't protest because they were already back in their bedroom, as if they had never left.