It took a moment for my senses to return, for me to realize where I was. Everland. We had defeated the dungeon boss. Everything was dissolving... The night sky... Maybe that image of the stars would have been my last memory of this world, if my phone hadn’t vibrated in my pocket.
Almost instinctively, I pulled it out and tapped the screen. Muscle memory. That’s when I first noticed the howling wind cutting through the air like a blade. An icy chill carrying an omen of something far worse.
My eyes blinked against the screen’s glare. A new push notification from the Dungeon Now app.
11:51 PM.
It was still my seventeenth. And I was lying in my own blood, riddled with stab wounds, in Everland Amusement Park.
Yeah. Real fun.
What a shit birthday.
My thumbprint unlocked the app. A quest update. What the hell now?
QUEST FAILED
Objectives:
- Find the missing Elysian Warden squad:
- Investigate the fate of the missing members (Completed)
- Collect their guild badges (5/5)
- Defeat Nihilith the Puppeteer (1/1)
- Stabilize the dimensional rift using the Gorex? Stabilizer 3000X (Failed)
Oh god, no. What happened? Why hadn’t Ryn Valen managed to stabilize the Abyss?
The phone slipped from my fingers and tumbled away, instantly snatched by the wind. I turned to the side, pushing myself up, weak, shaky. My hands fumbled over the ground until I found my glasses, scratched beyond repair, but I put them on anyway.
Hunched over, one hand pressed against my side. Blood seeped through my fingers, slow and thick. Every step sent pain lancing through my body.
The rose garden. The ornamental trees bent in the wind’s direction. An open-air stage.
And beyond that... the hostel. Just as I remembered it from my childhood. Elsinore Castle might have been an illusion, but the park visitors weren’t. They were real. And yet, I wished they weren’t.
They lay motionless. Slumped over or sprawled across the rows of folding chairs. Some chairs tumbled across the open space, carried by the wind, alongside scattered scarves, jackets, hats. A strange, gentle glow drifted from the bodies… small streams of light rising into the air, as if something was being pulled from them. Mana? Their souls? Fleeing their corpses, drawn toward the Abyss. My gaze followed the eerie tendrils of light. Yeah, they were leading straight to the dimensional rift.
A lone figure stood before it. The Paladin. He had a book open in one hand. His other arm raised high, gripping something... was it… the pendant he looted from Malgrave, no, I mean Valgarem?
What the hell was going on?
As I stumbled forward, the ground trembled beneath my feet. The rift was growing, devouring everything around it. Wind howled from its core, a vacuum, pulling at my hoodie, whipping my greasy hair into my face.
And the usual blue glow of an Abyss? Gone. A pure, empty blackness beyond the fabric of our world. From its depths glimmered the cold, dead light of distant stars. Roughly fifteen, maybe twenty meters from the edge of the Abyss, Ryn Valen stood, staring into the void. And as I followed his gaze, I saw it.
A shadow.
A colossal silhouette shifting within the infinite depths of the universe. That shape… it was demonic. Monstrous. Larger than... planets?
Through the roar of the storm, I heard Ryn Valen murmuring something. The words sounded familiar, but I couldn’t understand them.
And then I saw Sin-Joo.
The mark above his head burned bright.
He was drenched in blood, kneeling just meters from the Abyss, so close he could be pulled into that unknown dimension at any moment. Lightning crackled around him. Sticks, stones, trash from the parkgoers all caught in the storm, swirling violently.
I staggered. Forced myself to take another step forward.
One after another.
Until everything became painfully clear.
Ryn Valen had never intended to complete the Elysian Wardens' quest.
He had never planned to stabilize the rift.
That’s why the quest had failed.
In our battle against the final boss, the Paladin (our so-called holy protector) had never once been affected by Chains of Being. Right before Vital Rupture should have killed him, he had one-shotted Nihilith, knowing full well that the massive XP boost would level him up, instantly restoring his HP and MP while cleansing all debuffs.
He had watched the entire time as Nihilith tormented us, leaving us on the brink of death, trapped in his twisted spectacle. He had relished our suffering. He had fed on it.
How did I know?
I saw it. The moment he turned to face me in the storm, his glowing orange eyes burning like twin embers. The renegade Paladin. Drenched in the blood of the final boss. His armor, pitch black.
And in those eyes, I saw something demonic. A glimpse of hell. A madness barely contained.
Now, at last, he revealed his true face.
He turned away from me again to continue this… ritual.
That was why the mark above Sin-Joo hadn’t disappeared.
It was never about the dungeon.
It was about Ryn Valen.
Or rather, about the cursed amulet the Paladin had been searching for in Everland. His mentor, Velric Valgarem, had brought it here before him. But for what purpose?
Ryn Valen let the pendant sway in the storm, swinging like a pendulum in his outstretched hand. If this Abyss was the path to the source of evil, then what the hell was that amulet?
And then, realization hit me like a hammer.
In last year’s XP Times summer editions, starting in July, there had been non-stop coverage of the first successful G-Dungeon raid. The raid leader? Velric Valgarem. And from the depths of that hellish domain, the hardest dungeon ever cleared, he had brought back the first legendary item.
A necklace.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Of course.
The XP Times editors had spent weeks trying to figure out what it was. The only confirmed fact?
It was a legendary artifact of unimaginable power. Its stats had been listed in Issue No. 234, right along with its name, though I couldn’t recall it now.
But that didn’t matter.
But in this moment, only one thing mattered:
That legendary necklace was here.
In Ryn Valen’s hand.
And he was using it to summon... something.
Something vast.
A cosmic horror, lurking beyond the Abyss, searching for a way into our world.
Ryn Valen was calling forth the end of everything. And I was the only witness. Oh right, where the hell were Hye-Rin and Dae-Won?
A wave of nausea hit me.
Was it the dark, evil influence of the necklace? Or was it the Abyss itself, the true reason this so-called A-rank dungeon played by different rules? Where bosses evolved... Where everything grew stronger... Velric Valgarem had fallen to some unfathomable darkness. And now, that same power had taken hold of Ryn Valen.
A final exhaustion crushed down on me.
Don’t black out now. Stay on your feet.
One more step. Good. Another.
My vision blurred.
I staggered.
Forced myself upright again.
The Paladin… this twisted nightmare of a man. I had read about a cult once, in my magazines. In the December issue of Warden’s Codex. Back then, I dismissed it as the usual conspiracy bullshit. And fittingly, the article had been shoved right into the magazine’s tinfoil-hat section. A group of renegade Paladins, utterly insane, who sought to bring about the world’s end.
The Veilborn.
Their doctrine was simple... and deeply disturbing: Those who gaze beyond the veil will know the truth. And once you know the truth, there is no turning back.
My stomach twisted.
Valgarem must have been one of them. And now, his successor stood before me. Ryn Valen. A disciple of the Veilborn. Hiding beneath the mask of a righteous, god-fearing savior of the Elysian Wardens.
But the mask had fallen.
To this day, I don’t fully understand what happened to me in that moment.
But I felt nothing.
No pain. No fear.
Only hatred.
A raw, unrelenting fury that refused to let me die. A wrath so consuming that my heart would keep beating, even if the last drop of my blood spilled onto the ground.
I mistook it for magic. Dark magic. But it was probably seventeen years of pain, culminating, erupting inside me all at once. My whole life, I had been a punching bag, the trash can where everyone dumped their frustration. My whole life, I had taken hit after hit.
Because I was too afraid to fight back.
Too afraid I’d only make things worse if I did.
And I thought I could be a hero?
A respectable Monster Hunter?
What a joke.
I pulled out my old knife and screamed.
Screamed with every ounce of air in my lungs.
It wasn’t just the suffering that drove me now. It was the hatred—the burning, seething hatred for myself. A rage so consuming that it erased my tendency to overthink and left me blind with fury.
Eyes wide, throat raw, as I charged straight at Ryn Valen.
I hated him.
I hated myself.
I hated everything.
Ryn Valen had to die.
He wasn’t just a traitor. He was everyone who had ever hurt me. And he needed to die by my blade.
"DIE!" I roared, throwing myself at him, slashing down with my knife in midair, half a meter from his face, and then...
SHIIING!
A single, invisible slash cut through the air.
I froze.
My body collapsed. Dropped like a ragdoll.
It wasn’t until I felt the warm, gushing sensation at my side that I realized, I had been cut open.
I gasped. Choked. Clutched at the wound.
And Ryn Valen?
He barely even acknowledged me.
Just a bored glance from those demonic eyes.
"You..." I snarled, coughing up blood. My whole body screamed in agony, but I shoved myself back up. "Ryn, you goddamn motherfucker!"
I lunged at him again.
But with a flick of his hand, he unleashed a pulse of energy, so violent, so overwhelming that I was flung backward. Spiraling. Tumbling past Sin-Joo. Towards the Abyss. I barely managed to jam my knife into the ground, dragging it through the asphalt to slow my fall.
My vision blurred, my eyes bloodshot, my mind half-mad with exhaustion.
The Codex. The Artifact. The Sacrifice. The Abyss.
They were connected.
A bridge.
The world was splitting apart.
You’re going to stop this ritual.
You have to.
No matter what.
And then, my gaze locked onto Sin-Joo. The mark above his head flared, its glow intensifying. Something was happening to him. Lightning arced through the air. Behind me, theAbyss expanded, devouring more of reality.
I was out of time.
I couldn’t defeat Ryn Valen but I could stop Sin-Joo from becoming the anchor for that thing.
And in that moment, I charged straight at him.
That scrawny little traitor.
He was no friend.
Just another sacrifice.
A coward.
He had abandoned me in high school.
Been ashamed of me.
He had tried to kill me in the dungeon.
And now, I had to kill him—to break the ritual.
Nothing personal.
Just math.
His life in exchange for the world.
For once, do something, Takuya.
Act.
There are no passive heroes.
But the moment I raised my knife against Sin-Joo, something inside me died.
Was this really me?
Before I could process it, Ryn Valen extended his hand.
And in an instant...
CRAAACK!
An invisible force gripped my arm and snapped it like a twig.
I screamed.
The knife slipped from my hand.
Instinctively, I clutched my shattered limb...
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
More breaks. My fingers twisted into impossible angles.
A fresh, unbearable wave of pain.
Then, Ryn Valen twisted my other arm with just a thought.
My elbow bent backward.
I shrieked.
Darkness flooded my vision. My stomach churned.
I was bleeding from three wounds, houlder, stomach, and side. I couldn’t move my arms. They hung uselessly from my shoulders, like they didn’t even belong to me anymore.
I gasped for air.
Ryn Valen’s voice cut through the chaos.
"You won’t be able to harm him like this. It’s too late, anyway. The ritual is complete. You, little worm, will not stop me from bringing forth the inevitable. I have seen that dark god within the Abyss. We must know our place. There is nothing more insignificant than us, Takuya. Stand there, and you’ll see exactly what I mean."
My teeth gritted with rage.
That damn lunatic.
That damn lunatic was me.
Had I really been about to kill my only friend?
Oh god. What the hell was happening to me?
This was never just a summoning.
That horror beyond the Abyss wasn’t just some creature. It was... an essence? A concept too vast to simply step through a portal. It had to merge with this world. With something from it.
But not with Sin-Joo!
If the stab wounds didn’t kill me, my own emotions would. A crushing wave of regret crashed over me. A horrifying shame that burned deeper than any blade. But the rage... the rage was still there. Only this time, it was focused entirely on myself.
These were my final seconds before death.
Now was the moment that decided what I would die as.
A monster?
Or a sinner seeking redemption?
I turned around.
Before me yawned the Abyss, vast and hollow, dead and frigid as Ginnungagap. Lightning crackled around me. A deafening rumble shook the heavens. That cosmic entity... a manifestation of chaos, of destruction... I should have trembled before such power.
But what was left to fear?
I was as good as dead.
And maybe, just maybe, I could atone for something if, with my last breath, I could stop Sin-Joo from becoming its sacrifice.
The magical energy crackled in the air, static and searing. I could feel it tingling across my face, my chest—sharp, stinging jolts like tiny bolts of lightning. The thing's presence made my hair stand on end.
The storm of magic surged around me. I was bleeding out. Darkness crept at the edges of my vision. Somehow, I was still standing.
The pain.
My hand.
My arm.
No.
Not yet.
How do you want to be remembered?
The past doesn’t matter. Who you once were, who you dreamed of becoming... none of it matters. Only this moment does. How you are seen right now.
I would die fighting.
"I know what you're planning, Takuya. You will not touch that fucking Abyss!" the Paladin roared behind me.
"That’s exactly what I’m going to do," I shouted over the howling wind, over the deafening roar of the Abyss.
The pull was overwhelming.
And then I ran.
Full sprint.
Naruto-style running.
My two broken arms were flapping behind me like fucking windsocks.
"YOU WILL NOT!" the renegade Paladin bellowed.
He dropped the Codex. Drew his mighty Sword of Justice from behind his back.
Everything happened at once.
He hurled the sword like Odin throwing his spear, putting every ounce of his strength into it.
I leapt forward, and an earth-shattering BOOM! exploded behind me. The sword had broken the sound barrier?
Then, the impact.
A force like a freight train slammed into me, flinging me forward. The cosmic entity, the essence of destruction and chaos, was pushing through, into our world. And in that same moment, the sword pierced through me. It shattered my ribs and drove straight through my back.
The blade tore through my lung.
It split my heart.
As I spun through the air, the Abyss’s pull dragging me toward its depths, I caught a glimpse of the sword’s blade jutting from my chest.
Then, a massive claw reached for me from beyond the Abyss.
I felt it.
No heartbeat.
No life left in my body.
And that was the moment. The moment I touched the Abyss, and a blinding, white light consumed me. My entire existence dissolved in that overwhelming glow.
Time lost all meaning.
Pain faded into nothing.
Everything became one with the peaceful white.
The white was everything.
It was nothing.
And from that nothingness, a voice spoke.
Soft. Beautiful. Both distant and inside me at once.
A voice I would never forget.
[???] whispers: Welcome to the Void.
Doom Knight Dungeon, over 250 followers, a spot on Rising Stars, and more than 10,000 views. That’s insane.... I honestly didn’t expect this story to take off like this, and I can’t thank you guys enough for reading, commenting, and supporting me!!