The dungeon corridor stretched endlessly before him —
a narrow throat of black stone, cracked and bleeding mist.
The air grew colder with each step Adexander took.
Behind him, the corpse of the Titan Bloodbringer rotted in silence.
Ahead of him, something far worse waited.
He didn't care.
Adexander's crimson eyes gleamed, sharper than ever.
Each step he took left faint cracks on the ground, even though he barely moved.
The power newly awakened inside him was surging — burning his veins, whispering for war.
> "Ascend."
The system's cold voice faded in his mind, leaving only instinct.
Instinct to kill.
Instinct to conquer.
Instinct to reign.
---
BAM.
A shadow moved across the next chamber.
Something massive.
Something breathing.
Adexander didn't slow down.
He walked straight in.
A hulking creature — part serpent, part wolf — hissed from the darkness.
Its body was covered in iron-like scales. Its breath stank of rotting flesh.
Above its head floated the blood-red notification:
> [Dungeon Guardian: Bloodscale Ravager]
Level: 58
Status: Enraged. Hungry.]
It lunged without hesitation,
jaws snapping toward Adexander like a guillotine.
CRACK.
Adexander moved — a flicker of pure brutality.
He side-stepped faster than the eye could track,
slammed his cracked dagger into the side of the beast's neck —
and ripped it sideways.
Blood sprayed the air in a geyser.
The Ravager screamed, thrashing wildly.
Adexander landed silently on his feet.
Expressionless.
Unmoved.
---
> "Too slow."
The first words he had spoken in hours — cold, simple, deadly.
The Ravager charged again, blinded by rage.
Adexander narrowed his eyes.
This time, he didn't dodge.
This time, he advanced.
In a blink, he was under the beast's throat.
With a roarless, merciless motion, he drove his dagger up — straight through the jaw, into the skull.
The Ravager collapsed mid-scream, dead before it hit the floor.
---
[SYSTEM ALERT: Experience Gained.]
[Small Resonance Increase Achieved.]
Blood Resonance: 7% → 9%
---
Adexander wiped the blood from his dagger on the Ravager's corpse.
He looked forward again — deeper into the abyss.
Somewhere beyond these endless tunnels…
he could feel them.
The real enemies.
The betrayers.
The so-called "heroes" of this broken world.
And he swore under his breath:
> "I will tear down this world...
and rebuild it with blood and flame."
Without a second of hesitation,
Adexander walked deeper into the black corridors, his crimson eyes shining like a god reborn.
The Crimson King was no longer waking up.
He was rising.
To Be Continued...