Chapter Twenty One: The City in the Dungeon

Zero awoke with a start.

His hand immediately reached for a sword that wasn’t there. Instead of the cracked stone of Okunoin, he found himself in a hospital bed, EKG machines beeping steadily beside him and an oxygen mask covering his face. Instinct took over. He tore the mask off and yanked the sensors free.

The sudden change in the readings triggered an alarm.

Nurses and doctors rushed into the room, freezing when they saw him sitting upright. Someone hit the emergency switch. A massive containment field of shimmering blue energy snapped into place around the bed, sealing Zero inside.

He looked around, still half-disoriented, then forced himself to calm down. The feral edge from the battle slowly drained from his expression.

The containment field deactivated a moment later as Commander Akane Azuma walked in.

“Ah. At last you’re finally awake,” she said, crossing her arms. “How do you feel, Zero?”

Zero gave a short, rough chuckle.

“Thought I was a goner.”

“You came close. Thankfully your teammates pulled you out in time.” Akane’s eyes narrowed slightly. “They said you killed a massive creature down there. What in the hell was it? Our scientists still can’t identify it properly.”

Zero swung his legs over the side of the bed and began pulling on the clothes left for him. The wounds that had nearly killed him were already sealed, the worst of the damage almost completely gone.

“It was called a Chorimere,” he said. “An amalgam creature forged from three different monsters — a twin-headed dragon, a demon, and a celestial angel. Not the same kind of Angels we faced at the shrine.”

Akane’s expression sharpened.

“And by what means are they created?”

“‘Created’ is a stretch,” Zero replied, fastening the last of his gear. “They’re smashed together into that form. It’s a Herald of Fate… one of the Architects of Fate’s little toys.”

Akane studied him carefully.

“What are the Architects of Fate?”

Zero paused.

For a moment the question hung in the air. He searched for the answer, reaching for memories that still refused to fully surface. In the end he could only shake his head.

“I don’t know. Not yet.”

Akane watched him for a few seconds longer, then exhaled.

“Rest for now. We’ll debrief properly once the medical staff clears you. Whatever you fought down there… it changed the readings across the entire dungeon. Okunoin has gone quiet for the first time in weeks.”

Zero finished dressing and looked toward the window, where the distant silhouette of the massive dungeon still loomed against the sky.

“Weeks?” Zero asked, frowning. “How long was I out?”

“Three weeks,” Akane replied. “The damage to your body was extensive. We identified six different poisons in your system. Of course we had no antidotes for them, so we extracted what we could and started research. Somehow your body adapted on its own… and you recovered.”

She paused, studying him more carefully.

“We also took some of your blood for analysis. It seems your blood has special qualities no other Prisoner has ever shown. Rapid recovery is only one of them. There are a couple of other traits our Codex has only registered once before.”

Akane’s expression tightened slightly.

“Every time we try to analyze those readings, it just comes up with ‘???? Error.’ After a while we gave up.”

Zero glanced down at his hands, flexing his fingers slowly. The wounds that should have crippled him were already gone, leaving only faint traces behind. Even the residual weakness from blood loss was fading faster than it had any right to.

“Error again,” he muttered. “Figures.”

Akane crossed her arms.

“Whatever you are, Zero… you’re not registering as a normal Class 5 anymore. The Magicyte wave you released in Okunoin was strong enough to force a full retreat, and the dungeon has remained unusually quiet ever since. That Chorimere you killed — or whatever it truly was — seems to have been a major source of the instability.”

Akane turned toward the door.

“Get yourself fully checked by medical, then report to the briefing room. The Tyrants want to see you… and so does Central. Your little stunt has raised more questions than answers.”

“That Chorimere wasn’t the source,” Zero said.

Akane paused mid-step and looked back at him.

“A Sidhe,” Zero continued. “It was a Sidhe.”

Her eyes sharpened.

“A Sidhe? So it caused the Chorimere? Did it summon it? Make it?”

Questions came quickly, one after another.

“He summoned it,” Zero replied. “Seems I’ve met that bastard before.”

Akane frowned.

“We never found a Sidhe down there.”

“Of course not.” Zero’s voice dropped, cold and heavy with something far darker than simple anger. “The Chorimere devoured him. I wanted to get my hands on him myself. Choke the life from his body. Watch him die.”

The hatred in his tone was raw and undisguised — pure venom, the kind that had nothing to do with duty or survival. It was personal.

Akane studied him in silence for a moment. Whatever she saw in his expression made her decide not to press further just yet.

“…I see,” she said at last. “Then we’ll add that to the report. A Sidhe capable of summoning a Herald-class amalgam… that’s a serious escalation.”

She stepped fully into the hallway and gestured for him to follow.

“Come on. Medical first. Then you can tell the full story to everyone who needs to hear it.”

Zero followed her out, the weight of unfinished revenge still sitting heavy in his chest.

Braelion was dead.

But the ones who had ordered him — and the ones who had taken Alira and Aeolia from him — were still out there. As they walked, Akane noticed the shift in Zero’s expression — a heavy mix of sadness and barely restrained anger that hadn’t been there before.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Zero didn’t look at her at first.

“That Sidhe… was named Braelion. He murdered my wife and daughter.”

They both stopped.

Akane stepped in front of him and turned, her usual sharpness softened by something quieter.

“You… had a family?”

It was a quiet question. Every Delver understood loss. The dungeons had taken something from nearly all of them — family, friends, entire units lost on the job. But this was different.

Zero’s voice was low and steady, yet each word carried the weight of something that had never healed.

“A queen… and my little princess. Their smiles brightened every room they walked into. Alira was so beautiful. Vibrant. Full of spirit. She was the pragmatic one. My little princess, Aeolia… she would have made a fine queen and diplomat.”

His hands curled into fists at his sides.

“Braelion slaughtered them. Ate their flesh. When I returned from a campaign in the north, I found my home… my castle… my guards… my throne… covered in blood.”

Without warning he drove his fist into the nearby wall. The reinforced panel buckled inward under the force, the impact loud enough to make Akane flinch.

“Whoever sent him,” Zero said, his voice dropping into something cold and absolute, “I will kill them.”

It wasn’t a threat spoken in anger.

It was an oath.

The kind a man would uphold even if it meant walking straight into the mouth of hell and tearing the devil apart with his bare hands.

Akane stared at him for a long moment, the usual professional distance between commander and asset cracking just slightly.

“…I understand,” she said quietly. “More than you might think.”

She turned and continued walking, but her pace was slower now.

“Come on. We’ll get the rest of this on record. And Zero—” she glanced back once, “—if the ones who ordered that Sidhe are still out there… Skull Unit won’t stand in your way.”

Zero followed her in silence, the memory of Alira and Aeolia burning behind his eyes like an open wound that had just been torn open again.

The briefing room was already occupied when they arrived.

The Tyrants were present — Raiden, Yumi, Kai, and Sora — each of them visibly relieved to see Zero walking under his own power. Raiden gave him a short, approving nod. Kai offered a casual two-fingered salute. Even Yumi’s usual cold expression softened slightly.

On the large holographic screen at the head of the room stood Commander Akira Hanzo, overall leader of the Dungeon Society.

“Ah, Zero. Good of you to wake,” Hanzo said. “You had us worried. Now, would you please explain what the hell happened in there?”

Zero remained silent.

Akane stepped forward and cleared her throat.

“Shogun, if I may. Zero indicated that there was an incursion. A Sidhe named Braelion was present. The creature we recovered is a Chorimere. The Sidhe didn’t make it — we’d probably find whatever remains of him in the stomach of the creature.”

Hanzo’s expression remained composed, though his eyes sharpened.

“Understood. Is Zero able to work?”

“Yes, Shogun. He is healed and ready to fight.”

Ready to avenge, she thought, but did not say. The words sat heavy on her tongue.

“Very good,” Hanzo continued. “We’ve had a report from Sendai Daikannon — the Dungeon City. Some disruptions have occurred. The denizens there have asked us to investigate.”

Akane’s eyes narrowed.

“Shogun, that seems highly… improbable. We’ve had no information pass through us.”

“Their Elder reached out to me personally,” Hanzo replied. “I know you’ve never been inside there, Akane. Neither has anyone else. I made it a Zero Delve Zone. The ZDZs are dungeons inhabited by peaceful peoples who have never instigated conflict or attempted to invade our world. We left them be. We exchange goods and information from time to time… but I have never permitted a Delver to enter.”

He paused, gaze shifting toward Zero.

“Until now.”

The room fell quiet.

A Zero Delve Zone being opened for the first time was no small matter. Whatever had disturbed the people of Sendai Daikannon was serious enough for their Elder to contact the Shogun directly — and serious enough for Hanzo to break his own long-standing policy.

Zero’s expression remained unreadable, but the cold fire behind his eyes had not faded.

Another mission.

Another step closer to the ones who had taken everything from him.