The howl was still inside my head.
It had faded, but it had not disappeared. It lingered somewhere beneath my thoughts, deep inside me, like an echo trapped in a place I could not reach. I remained crouched on the cold stone floor with one hand pressed against my chest, listening to the unfamiliar rhythm beneath my skin. My own heart beat steadily, but another beat seemed to answer it from somewhere deeper, slower and heavier, as though something that did not belong in a human body had decided to keep time with me.
I swallowed and slowly looked down at myself.
My clothes were torn and stained from everything that had happened since entering the dungeon. There was dust on my arms, dried blood near my side, and several cuts that still stung when I moved. Nothing else seemed different. No fur covered my skin. No claws had replaced my fingers. I even touched the top of my head to make sure I hadn’t somehow grown wolf ears.
Nothing.
"Good," I muttered. "At least I still look human."
The dungeon gave no response. The chamber remained quiet except for the faint crackling of the flames fixed along the walls. Their light was weak, barely reaching beyond the nearest stones, leaving most of the room covered in dim shadows. It was the same lighting we had been forced to rely on since entering the dungeon after I lost my lantern in the forest. At the time, those miserable little flames had felt barely sufficient to keep us from walking into a wall.
Now, however, something was different.
I could see farther.
I turned toward one of the darker corners of the chamber and narrowed my eyes. The darkness didn’t vanish, but the outlines inside it became clearer. I could make out the rough shape of an old pillar, the cracks running across its surface, and even a section of carved stone near the floor that I knew I wouldn’t have noticed before.
I stepped closer.
My body followed the movement almost naturally.
There was no heaviness in my legs. My balance felt better. Even my breathing seemed easier after each step, and when I shifted my weight, my body responded faster than I expected.
It wasn’t some ridiculous transformation.
I wasn’t suddenly strong enough to smash stone walls or crush monsters with my bare hands. But everything felt... smoother.
My body was listening to me better.
I moved one arm and then the other, flexing my fingers. The improvement was subtle enough that someone watching me might not notice anything at all. I noticed.
The mana inside me had changed too.
Before, moving mana through my body had always felt like trying to force water through a narrow crack. There had been resistance everywhere. Now the energy flowed more naturally, passing through me with less friction and fewer interruptions. I couldn’t suddenly control powerful spells, but I could feel my own mana more clearly than before.
Muse’s heart had changed me.
The thought made my stomach tighten.
I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or terrified.
Before I could think any further, I heard movement beside me.
Asura was staring at his own paws.
He had been unusually quiet.
Then a faint strand of darkness curled around one of his paws.
His eyes widened.
"My power."
I looked at him.
The shadow thickened.
It gathered in the air beside his body until it formed a dark, perfectly round sphere. Even the nearby flame seemed to dim as the sphere absorbed the light around it.
Asura stared at it as though he had just seen an old friend return from the dead.
Then he grinned.
"This body finally decided to stop insulting me."
"That thing can actually use your power?"
"You are looking at the power of the King of Shadows."
He launched the sphere before I could answer.
It struck the floor several meters away and burst apart. Darkness spread across the stone in a sudden wave before disappearing just as quickly, leaving the floor covered in nothing more than dust.
I stared.
Asura looked delighted.
He made another.
Then a third.
The fourth never came.
He stood completely still, his paw raised as though expecting something to happen.
Nothing did.
I watched him for a few seconds.
"So... that’s it?"
Asura lowered his paw.
"This body is weak."
"You mean you have a limit."
"I have a temporary restriction."
"How temporary?"
He hesitated.
"Long enough to become irritating."
I laughed quietly.
For someone who had once called himself an ancient king feared by gods, seeing him get offended because his new dog body had a cooldown was almost too satisfying.
Still, there was something reassuring about watching those shadows move around him again. For the first time since meeting him, Asura looked less like a helpless animal carrying the pride of an ancient monster and more like what he claimed to be.
Only slightly less ridiculous.
I was about to say something when the ground trembled.
A low vibration passed beneath my feet.
The flames along the walls shook inside their metal holders, throwing unsteady shadows over the chamber. Dust drifted from the ceiling, and somewhere far beyond the room came the deep sound of stone grinding against stone.
I stopped smiling.
"What is happening?"
Asura’s ears lifted.
He looked toward the chamber where Muse’s statue had stood.
"The dungeon is collapsing."
My eyes widened.
"Why?"
"The heart."
His voice became quieter.
"The dungeon was protecting it."
I stared at him.
"And now it’s gone."
"Exactly."
Another tremor passed through the floor, stronger than the first. A crack appeared along the wall beside us, crawling across the old stone like a thin black line.
Asura studied it for a moment.
"Whatever purpose this place served, it seems that purpose is no longer required."
"You don’t know what its purpose was."
"No."
"Then how do you know it no longer needs to exist?"
"Because it is currently trying to bury us alive."
I looked at the ceiling.
A small piece of stone fell between us.
I decided that was a convincing argument.
"Run."
We left the chamber immediately.
We had no idea where the exit was.
There was no map hidden somewhere in my head, no ancient voice telling me which corridor to take. We simply chose the passage that was still open and ran through it.
The weak flames along the walls flickered as the dungeon shook around us. Some had already gone out, leaving wider sections of corridor in darkness. I could see more clearly than before, but even with my improved vision, the dungeon remained a maze.
A tremendous crash sounded behind us.
I glanced back.
Part of the ceiling had fallen across the corridor.
"Keep moving!" Asura shouted.
We ran faster.
At the next intersection, the passage on the left collapsed before we could reach it. Stones slammed into the floor, filling the air with dust.
We turned right.
That corridor narrowed until the walls almost brushed my shoulders. I could hear something moving behind us.
Stone scraping stone.
I didn’t need to ask what it was.
The wolves had followed.
The smaller guardians came rushing through the dust, their bodies covered in cracks from our earlier encounters but still moving with horrifying purpose. Their stone claws struck the ground as they approached.
"They’re still chasing us!" I shouted.
Asura glanced back.
"The dungeon’s command is breaking down."
"What does that mean?"
"It means they aren’t guarding the heart anymore."
A stone wolf lunged.
I twisted aside.
Its claws passed close enough to tear my sleeve, but my body moved before panic could freeze me. I stumbled forward, caught my balance, and kept running.
"They’re reacting to the collapse," Asura continued. "Whatever order held them in place is gone."
"So they’re attacking us because everything is falling apart?"
"Probably."
"That’s not very reassuring."
"I was not attempting to reassure you."
The corridor ahead suddenly shook.
I saw the ceiling begin to split.
"Down!"
I dropped just as part of the stone crashed ahead of us.
Asura barely squeezed through the remaining gap.
We pushed forward again.
There was still no direction to follow. Every passage was a gamble. We took whatever remained standing, abandoned paths that collapsed, and turned whenever the sound of stone wolves became too close.
My new senses helped, but only in the ways that mattered.
I could hear the warning groan of weakening stone.
I could see the dust moving beneath cracks in the ceiling.
I could spot passages that had become too unstable before stepping into them.
But none of that told me where the outside world was.
We were still lost.
We were simply getting better at being lost without dying.
A stone wolf broke through a side wall ahead.
I froze.
Asura reacted instantly.
A final black sphere appeared beside him.
"I thought you were out."
"I was."
He hurled it.
The explosion swallowed the wolf in darkness and forced the creature backward, buying us several precious seconds.
Asura immediately looked exhausted.
"Now I’m out."
"Good timing."
"I planned it."
"I don’t believe you."
We ran.
Then, after another turn that neither of us had intended to take, the corridor suddenly widened.
A massive stone door stood ahead.
It was unlike the smaller doors we had passed throughout the dungeon. Its surface was dark and worn, covered in shallow patterns that had nearly disappeared beneath centuries of dust. I couldn’t tell whether it was part of the dungeon or some kind of exit.
Asura stared at it.
"Is that another dungeon gate?"
"I don’t know."
"Of course."
The floor shook violently.
Behind us, the wolves appeared through the dust.
I looked at the door again.
I had no idea what was beyond it.
But standing here would definitely get us killed.
"Whatever it is," I said, "we’re going through it."
We sprinted forward.
The massive door trembled.
A line of pale light appeared along its edge.
Was it opening?
Was it breaking?
I had no idea.
I didn’t have time to find out.
The ceiling behind us began collapsing.
"Kain!"
I grabbed Asura.
Then I jumped.
For a single second, we were in the air.
Stone crashed behind us.
The pale opening widened.
We landed hard on the other side and rolled down a gentle slope before finally crashing into something soft.
I opened my eyes.
Flowers.
Hundreds of them covered the hillside, their stems bending beneath us before slowly rising again. Wild grass stretched around them, moving gently in the morning wind.
Then sunlight touched my face.
I immediately covered my eyes.
"Ah... too bright."
After spending an entire night beneath the earth with nothing but weak wall flames for light, the morning sun felt almost violent.
Asura groaned beside me.
"Who made the sun this bright?"
"No one made it for you."
"Then it should apologize."
I rubbed my eyes until the burning faded.
When I finally looked back toward the mountain, I froze.
There was no doorway.
No entrance.
No corridor.
Nothing.
The dungeon had vanished completely.
Only the mountain remained, silent beneath the morning sky.
Asura looked over his shoulder.
"Whatever mechanism maintained the dungeon must have ended with its purpose."
I glanced at him.
"You mean it disappeared because Muse’s heart was gone."
"Something like that."
"What was the purpose?"
Asura stared at me.
Then his face twisted in irritation.
"How would I know?!"
I sighed.
"Right."
There was no point asking him.
I turned away from the mountain and looked down.
My breath caught.
We were standing on a mountain cliff.
Far below, beyond the steep slope covered with flowers and grass, stretched a valley. A road wound between the hills like a thin brown ribbon, disappearing among clusters of trees before emerging again farther ahead.
And there, nestled beneath the morning sunlight, was a town.
A real town.
I could see rooftops, narrow streets, small buildings packed close together, and faint trails of smoke rising into the sky. Even from this height, I could tell it was alive. After spending so long inside the estate, then wandering through the forest, losing my lantern, entering a dungeon, fighting stone wolves, discovering Muse, eating his heart, and nearly getting buried alive, seeing that town gave me a strange feeling in my chest.
This was the outside world.
Not a painting.
Not a memory from the original novel.
Not a place I had only heard about.
It was actually there.
I stared at it for several seconds before finally letting out the breath I was holding.
"Finally," I said quietly. "We reached the town."
Asura stood beside me and looked down.
For a moment, I thought he might say something meaningful.
He didn’t.
"Really? Can’t you see?"
I turned toward him.
"What?"
His eyes narrowed.
"The chocolate roll."
I blinked.
"What chocolate roll?"
"The one you mentioned."
I stared at him.
After surviving an ancient dungeon, Asura’s first thought upon seeing civilization was apparently food.
I rubbed my forehead.
"You remembered that?"
"Of course I remembered."
I sighed, but despite myself, a small smile escaped.
Maybe that was exactly what I needed.
After everything that had happened, something as stupid as a chocolate roll almost felt normal.
I looked back toward the town.
For the first time since leaving the estate, the road ahead no longer felt like an endless stretch of uncertainty.
It was still dangerous.
I was still weak.
I still had no idea what Muse’s heart had truly done to me.
But at least now, there was somewhere to go.
And apparently, somewhere to find a chocolate roll.