The gate swallowed them whole.

  Light twisted. Sound collapsed. The world shifted.

  When their vision cleared, the six of them stood in what looked like a ruined imperial palace buried in endless gray mist.

  Cracked marble pathways stretched forward. Tall pillars leaned at broken angles. Black ivy crawled across shattered walls like veins spreading through a corpse.

  There was no sky.

  Only a ceiling of moving fog.

  Freya exhaled slowly. “Charming.”

  Daniel said nothing.

  The air was thick.

  Old.

  Watching.

  Then—

  A whisper slid into his mind.

  Human Face Spider’s Gate.

  His eyes narrowed slightly.

  So it really is connected…

  A faint pulse from the Demon God Heart echoed inside his chest, reacting to something deeper within the palace.

  He turned calmly.

  “This is a Human Face Spider gate,” Daniel said. “Stay in formation. No one separates.”

  One of the five frowned. “We just arrived. How can you be certain?”

  Another crossed his arms. “We haven’t even seen a single spider.”

  Daniel didn’t argue.

  He simply walked forward.

  They followed — reluctantly.

  First Encounter – Grave Wolves

  They hadn’t gone far when low growls echoed between the pillars.

  From behind fallen statues, shapes emerged.

  Large wolves.

  But wrong.

  Their fur was patchy and gray like ash. Their ribs protruded. Their eyes glowed faintly green.

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  “Grave Wolves,” one member muttered.

  The first wolf lunged.

  Daniel stepped forward first.

  Steel flashed.

  He twisted his blade sideways, redirecting its momentum instead of blocking directly. The wolf crashed into the marble floor.

  A second wolf came from the left.

  One of the members intercepted it, but underestimated its speed. The wolf bit into his gauntlet, crushing metal.

  Freya moved like a ghost.

  Her blade flickered.

  The wolf’s spine split cleanly.

  Three more wolves surrounded them.

  Daniel observed carefully.

  They weren’t coordinated.

  They were driving them inward.

  “Don’t chase,” Daniel ordered.

  But one member pursued a retreating wolf anyway.

  The wolf led him toward a collapsed hallway.

  Daniel watched the shadows above.

  Movement.

  He sliced upward suddenly—

  A black bat-like creature split in half mid-dive.

  “Sky Leeches,” Freya murmured.

  The fog above rippled.

  Dozens descended.

  Second Encounter – Sky Leeches

  They were grotesque.

  Winged bodies, stretched faces fused to their torsos, long needle-like tongues dangling beneath.

  They attacked in waves.

  Daniel stepped into the center.

  “Form a circle.”

  The five obeyed — this time faster.

  The leeches dove in sharp spirals.

  Daniel moved economically.

  Short steps.

  Minimal swings.

  Every strike removed a wing, severed a tongue, pierced a skull.

  One leech latched onto a member’s shoulder and began draining energy visibly.

  Freya vanished and reappeared behind it, carving it off.

  Venom from the wolves began reacting to the leeches’ parasitic saliva, turning the ground black.

  The battlefield was becoming unstable.

  Daniel noticed something.

  The creatures weren’t random.

  They were stalling.

  Testing.

  He exhaled slowly.

  “We move forward. Slowly.”

  The wolves retreated.

  The leeches thinned.

  Too quickly.

  One of the members frowned. “See? Nothing like a spider nest.”

  Another laughed nervously. “Young Master misjudged.”

  The formation loosened slightly.

  Daniel didn’t correct them.

  He wanted them to loosen.

  He needed them to.

  Third Encounter – Bone Crawlers

  As they passed into a grand corridor lined with shattered mirrors, something scraped beneath the marble.

  The floor burst upward.

  Long centipede-like creatures made of bone fragments and webbed sinew erupted from beneath.

  Bone Crawlers.

  They moved in synchronized patterns.

  Unlike the wolves, these were organized.

  They aimed for legs.

  Tendons.

  Joints.

  Daniel pivoted mid-attack, letting one crawler wrap around his sword arm before he channeled demonic energy into it.

  Crack.

  It shattered.

  But two more lunged at the others.

  One member slipped.

  A crawler pierced his thigh.

  Freya cut it apart before venom spread too far.

  The corridor became chaotic.

  Daniel observed carefully.

  Every species was driving them deeper.

  Inward.

  Toward the palace center.

  Toward the heart.

  The Demon God Heart pulsed again.

  Yes.

  This isn’t just a spider gate.

  Something else is buried here.

  He felt it faintly.

  Demonic residue.

  Ancient.

  Old enough to predate this House.

  Old enough to matter later.

  Perfect.

  This dungeon will become important again.

  He smiled faintly.

  They eventually reached a vast courtyard with a broken fountain in the center.

  Silence returned.

  Only distant scraping echoed somewhere beyond the pillars.

  One of the members sighed in relief.

  “Looks like we’ve cleared the worst of it.”

  Daniel’s gaze shifted to the marble cracks spreading outward from the fountain.

  He could sense the threads now.

  Webbing.

  Deep beneath.

  He turned calmly.

  “This is where the spiders begin.”

  They stiffened.

  From the shadows behind broken statues—

  Two spiders descended slowly.

  Human faces embedded in their thoraxes.

  Blank expressions.

  Six thin legs.

  Two small twitching human arms.

  The members froze.

  Freya whispered softly, “Now it starts.”

  Daniel’s lips curved faintly.

  Yes.

  Now it starts.