The first thing Arata noticed was the absolute, suffocating cold.
The second was that he could no longer feel his fingers.
He stood perfectly still for several seconds, staring into the impenetrable darkness ahead while his breath drifted from his mouth in thick, ragged white plumes.
Beside him, Ren was rubbing his heavy gloves together, his breath hissing through his teeth. "Okay," he muttered, his voice tight. "This is officially worse than Level Three."
Sera didn't answer. She was staring intently at the ground.
A creeping layer of frost covered everything. It had spread over the black basalt like a network of pale, diseased veins, filling every microscopic crack and depression. The surface looked deceptively smooth from a distance, but when Arata shifted his weight, the sole of his boot broke the crust with a sharp, fracturing crunch.
The sound echoed unnaturally far into the darkness, ringing like a gunshot. Nobody moved.
The transmitters clipped to their vests remained silent for several agonizing seconds before Dr. Hayama's voice finally cut through the static.
*"Report."*
Arata touched his communicator with a numb finger. "We're alive."
A heavy pause followed. *"That's not a report."*
Ren leaned toward the transmitter on his collar. "We're alive, freezing to death, and probably somewhere we definitely shouldn't be."
*"Better."*
Sera lifted her gaze toward the sprawling, frost-choked expanse ahead. "We've entered Level Four."
Hayama exhaled slowly over the line. *"Then do not move until you've established your immediate surroundings."*
Daichi's gruff voice followed immediately. *"Listen to him. You don't know what you're dealing with in that strata."*
Arata raised his dark sword. The red crimson aura along its fuller flickered weakly, struggling against the oppressive atmosphere. Even the ancient fire seemed to despise this place. They had expected the labyrinth to grow darker as they descended. They hadn't expected the temperature to plummet to lethal extremes.
Sera pulled her arms closer to her body, shivering despite her blazer. "Mochi?"
A tiny white head emerged cautiously from her field pouch. Mochi's long ears were flattened flush against his skull. He took one look at the frozen wasteland, gave a soft shudder, and immediately disappeared back into the canvas bag.
Ren let out a humorless laugh. "He's voting against exploration."
Sera reached down, gently touching the outside of the pouch. "Stay there." A tiny, muffled squeak answered her.
They moved forward. Slowly.
The narrow passage gradually widened, opening into a vast, subterranean chamber. Arata stopped dead. The faint red glow of his sword illuminated the nearest section of the floor, casting long, jagged shadows.
Something stood several meters ahead.
At first, Arata thought it was an ancient, perfectly carved statue. Then, the light caught the distinct, horrifying articulation of human fingers.
A skeleton stood frozen perfectly upright against the cavern wall. Its body was completely encased in a thick, translucent tomb of glacial ice. An old, rusted broadsword remained trapped in the frost beside its skeletal hand, eternally reaching for a threat that had long since passed.
Ren's faint smile vanished instantly. "That's a person."
Sera approached cautiously, her breath catching as the light reached further into the hall. Another frozen body was visible farther away. Then another. And another.
The chamber was a sprawling, silent graveyard.
It was filled with the frozen dead. Some were clearly human. Some were animals. Others were grotesque, twisted creatures that none of them could identify. A massive beast lay frozen on its side, its jaws permanently locked open in a silent scream. A pair of enormous, chitinous claws protruded from a jagged block of ice nearby. Near the center of the hall, the remains of another adventurer lay half-buried beneath a snowdrift, a shattered iron shield resting over his chest.
Arata lowered his sword, the reality of the deep strata settling over him like a shroud. "They came here before us."
Ren looked around the silent tomb. "How long ago?"
"No idea."
Sera crouched beside the nearest encased body. She studied the ice. There was no visible trauma. No shattered armor. Just a thick, unbroken layer of frost. "Maybe the cold killed them."
Arata shook his head, his eyes scanning the dark perimeter. "Could be something else."
The transmitter crackled softly. Hayama spoke, his voice hushed. *"Don't touch anything yet."*
"Understood," Arata whispered.
Then, something moved.
Sera's head snapped upward. "What was that?"
Nothing. Only absolute darkness.
Then came a low, vibrating growl. It was a sound felt in the marrow before it reached the ears.
Ren tightened his grip around the leather haft of his hammer. "That wasn't nothing."
A second growl answered from the opposite direction. Then a third.
Arata slowly turned in a circle. Two pale, luminous eyes appeared in the blackness. Then four. Then six. More followed, igniting in the shadows like cold stars.
Sera raised her left arm. The sapphire crystals on her silver bracelet began glowing with a fierce, brilliant blue light, illuminating the edge of the chamber.
The creatures stepped into the light.
They were wolves—but far larger, leaner, and more brutal than any natural wolf Arata had ever seen. Their bodies were covered in thick, matted gray-white fur. Jagged icicles clung to their high shoulders and slavering jaws, and their breath poured from their mouths in thick clouds of freezing vapor.
There were six of them. They spread apart, fanning out across the ice. It wasn't random.
Arata remembered Daichi's drills in the training hall. *Watch the enemy. Don't watch the enemy's weapon. Watch its movement.*
"Pack formation," Arata whispered, his stance widening.
Ren looked at him, his knuckles white on his hammer. "What?"
"They're surrounding us."
The lead wolf lowered its massive head, baring serrated, frost-bitten fangs.
Sera raised her left arm like a shield. "Get behind me."
The wolves attacked.
Five of them moved in absolute unison. One blurred straight for Ren. Two charged Arata. The remaining three rushed Sera from the flank.
Ren swung the massive iron hammer in a brutal, sweeping arc. The first wolf anticipated the strike, leaping effortlessly over the heavy iron head.
"Fast!" Ren grunted as the beast landed directly behind him. He spun, but a second wolf struck his blind side. He brought the hammer's thick oak shaft up just in time to block the snapping jaws, but the sheer kinetic impact drove his boots sliding backward across the slick ice.
Arata slashed furiously at the nearest wolf. The creature twisted its spine in mid-air, dodging the red-hot blade by inches. The second wolf attacked immediately, exploiting the opening. Its razor-sharp claws struck Arata's shoulder, tearing through his canvas vest.
Arata stumbled, crying out as the cold hit the fresh wound.
"Arata!" Sera yelled.
"I'm fine!" Arata shouted back, gritting his teeth against the searing pain. He wasn't fine. Blood had already begun spreading dark and hot beneath his clothing, freezing almost the moment it touched the air.
Sera threw her arm up just as the three wolves crashed into her perimeter. The first lunged; she deflected it with a sudden, violent burst of hydrostatic force. The second came fast from the side; she pivoted, redirecting its momentum. But the third used the distraction to leap from a high rock.
Sera barely raised her arm in time. The beast's sheer weight slammed into her, driving her hard to one knee on the frozen stone.
Mochi squealed in sheer terror from inside her pouch.
Sera gritted her teeth, her eyes blazing with adrenaline. "Not yet!"
The wolf's slavering jaws snapped mere inches from her face, its freezing breath washing over her skin. She shoved violently upward with her armlet, the blue aura flaring and throwing the creature off balance. But another stalked in from her blind spot. She turned a fraction of a second too late. Its claws tore brutally across her sleeve.
She cried out as the fabric shredded.
"Sera!"
Ren's hammer smashed into the wolf's ribcage like a meteor. The concussive impact of the blackened iron threw the massive creature several meters through the air, slamming it into a frozen pillar with a sickening crunch.
Ren planted his boots, breathing heavily in the freezing air. "You okay?"
Sera looked down at her torn sleeve. Three thin, bleeding cuts crossed her forearm, stinging fiercely in the cold. "I'm fine."
Arata spared her a quick glance, his sword raised. "You keep saying that."
"Because I am."
The lead wolf recovered, charging her again with lethal intent.
Sera's eyes narrowed to slits. She stepped backward. The creature lunged for her throat. But instead of throwing up a clumsy block, she dropped her center of gravity and sidestepped cleanly. The beast's jaws closed on empty air.
Sera thrust her open hand forward, channeling the raw panic into the sapphire stones.
Water exploded from the bracelet. It didn't form spheres this time; it instantly compressed into a solid, high-velocity lance of liquid pressure. She drove the hydro-spear straight through the wolf's chest.
The creature collapsed mid-stride, hitting the ice dead.
Sera stood frozen, staring at the fading stream of water dissolving into mist around her hand.
Ren grinned, wiping a streak of sweat from his freezing face. "Well. That was new."
Sera looked down at her glowing bracelet, her chest heaving. "I didn't know I could do that."
Arata smiled grimly, blood soaking his shoulder. "Now you do."
A horrific, dry scraping sound echoed from the dark periphery.
The remaining wolves didn't press the attack. Instead, they backed away, their ears pinned flat against their skulls. It wasn't because they were afraid of the teenagers. They were retreating because something else had arrived.
Bones shifted in the dark.
A skeletal figure stepped out from behind a frozen, petrified pillar. Then another. Then another.
Their armor was ancient, cracked, and completely encased in centuries of rime and frost. The first carried a rusted broadsword. The second carried a heavy, splintered shield. The third held a long, frozen spear.
Then, a fourth skeleton emerged from the shadows. It wore the tattered, frost-stiffened remains of a heavy robe. A twisted, gnarled staff rested in its bony grip. And burning deep inside its empty eye sockets was a sickening, unnatural purple light.
Ren stared, the grin wiping from his face. "Skeleton mage."
The mage raised its twisted staff.
"Move!" Arata shouted.
A volatile sphere of dark, necrotic energy erupted from the staff, hurtling across the chamber. The three heroes scattered instantly. The spell struck the ground where they had just stood, shattering the thick ice into a barrage of lethal shrapnel.
Sera rolled hard behind a frozen outcropping. Ren slammed shoulder-first into the cavern wall to avoid the blast radius, and Arata dropped to one knee, shielding his face from the debris.
The skeleton warriors charged through the smoke.
Ren lifted his massive hammer, groaning. "Here we go again."
The first skeleton swung its rusted sword. Ren caught the blow with the iron haft of his hammer. The kinetic impact was staggering, rattling his bones straight up to his shoulders. The second skeleton flanked him, thrusting its spear.
Arata intercepted it in a blur. His dark, flame-wreathed sword clashed violently against the rusted steel. Bright orange sparks rained down onto the ice. The skeleton's hollow, purple-lit eyes flashed as it pushed harder, bearing down with unnatural, mechanical strength. Arata's boots slid backward across the frost.
"These things are strong!" Arata gritted out, straining against the lock.
Sera rose from cover behind them. She raised her glowing hand.
A thick, solid wall of glacial ice erupted violently from the floor, rocketing upward to form a sheer barricade between her and the two boys fighting the vanguard.
Ren stared at the translucent wall of frost that had just separated them from their only ranged support. "What are you doing?!"
Sera's deadpan voice drifted cleanly through the ice. "I don't want you to see me."
Ren blinked, utterly confused. Arata risked a glance back at the wall. "Why?!"
"Because you're embarrassing."
Ren pointed an incredulous finger at himself. "Me?!"
"Both of you," Sera corrected dryly.
Ren looked at Arata. Arata simply shrugged, parrying another heavy blow from the skeleton. "I think we're being insulted."
Ren nodded solemnly, ducking a spear thrust. "Definitely."
From behind the safety of the ice wall, Mochi poked his tiny head around the corner. He looked at the charging skeletal vanguard. Then at the two boys fighting for their lives. Then back at Sera. He offered a short squeak that sounded suspiciously like agreement.
"Traitor," Ren muttered, bringing his hammer around in a devastating arc.
The ice wall fractured and shattered as Sera stepped cleanly through the breach. "Move."
Arata and Ren dove sideways. Sera thrust both hands forward, her armlet burning with intense sapphire light. A massive, concussive torrent of high-pressure water struck the skeleton mage dead center. The undead creature staggered wildly, its spellcasting broken.
Arata didn't hesitate. He launched himself off his back foot, bringing the flaming dark sword down in a brutal, two-handed execution strike. The ancient blade cleaved the twisted staff cleanly in two. The sickly purple glow in the mage's eye sockets instantly died, and the skeleton collapsed into a heap of frozen dust.
Beside him, Ren smashed his heavy hammer directly into the remaining warrior's ribcage. The ancient bones shattered like porcelain, and the creature crumpled into the frost.
Silence returned to the graveyard.
For several seconds, the only sound was the heavy, ragged breathing of the three teenagers.
Then, Mochi climbed cautiously out of Sera's pouch. He dropped to the ice and stared at one remaining, crippled skeleton struggling to crawl across the floor.
The undead creature dragged itself forward, its skull lifting to stare back at the tiny white animal.
Mochi puffed his chest out, making himself look as large as his six-inch frame allowed.
Ren whispered urgently. "Don't."
Mochi charged.
"MOCHI!" Sera gasped.
The tiny creature sprinted across the ice and slammed his head directly into the skeleton's shin with all his might.
*Bonk.*
The skeleton slowly looked down.
Mochi looked up.
Absolutely nothing happened.
The skeleton tilted its skull slightly, its hollow sockets seeming to project a profound sense of confusion.
Mochi froze. There was a long, deeply humiliating silence.
Then, Mochi slowly turned around. He walked calmly back across the ice, climbed quietly up Sera's leg, slipped back into her canvas pouch, and completely disappeared from view.
Ren clamped a hand over his mouth. Arata looked away, staring very hard at a frozen pillar. Sera bit the inside of her cheek, trying desperately not to laugh in the middle of a death-trap.
She failed.
"Mochi..." she whispered, her shoulders shaking.
A highly offended, muffled squeak came from deep inside the pouch.
Sera smiled, patting the canvas. "You tried."
Ren nodded solemnly, wiping tears from his eyes. "He gave everything."
Arata stepped forward and dispatched the crawling skeleton with a swift, merciful strike. But the danger lurking in Level Four had not ended.
Mochi suddenly emerged from the pouch again. His long ears stood straight up like antennae. He tugged frantically at the fabric of Sera's blazer.
"What is it?" she asked, her smile vanishing.
He pulled her firmly toward the left passage. Arata followed the animal's gaze. The air down the left corridor looked visibly different. The frost clinging to the walls was thinner, almost sickly.
Sera frowned, her analytical mind engaging. "The miasma."
Daichi's voice crackled immediately through the transmitter. *"What about it?"*
Sera pointed toward the corridor. "Mochi doesn't want to go that way."
Arata checked the digital display on his scanner. The readings were spiking violently. "Miasma concentration is significantly higher down that route."
Ren looked at the tiny white creature in awe. "You can actually sense it?"
Mochi gave a sharp squeak, then pointed a tiny paw toward an alternate passage. Arata checked the scanner; the toxic readings in that direction were drastically lower.
Hayama's voice murmured thoughtfully over the comms. *"Fascinating."*
Mochi suddenly froze again. His long ears twitched, swiveling backward.
Sera's expression hardened. "What?"
Mochi turned his head toward the pitch-black ceiling above them. A low, guttural growl echoed from somewhere directly overhead.
Sera immediately raised her arm, her shield flaring to life. "Something's coming!"
They waited in tense silence. Nothing happened.
Then, Mochi bit Sera's collar and violently yanked her backward.
A split second later, the ceiling directly above where she had been standing exploded. A massive shower of jagged ice and black stone crashed to the floor. The three teenagers dove apart as a gargantuan, frost-covered claw slammed into the bedrock, gouging deep trenches into the stone before instantly withdrawing back up into the impenetrable darkness.
Ren stared up at the massive hole in the ceiling, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Okay." He tightened his grip on his hammer. "That's useful."
They continued forward with extreme caution. Mochi became their lifeline, leading them carefully through the winding, frozen passages where the invisible miasma was weakest. Every time the toxicity in the air shifted, the little creature reacted. Every time something moved in the dark, his ears swiveled to track it long before human hearing could register the threat.
The tiny animal couldn't fight. But he could warn them. And in the lethal, freezing expanse of Level Four, that was the only thing keeping them alive.
Eventually, Mochi led them into a small, secluded antechamber.
This room felt entirely different. In the center of the frost-choked hall, several frozen bodies lay huddled together. Their armor was largely intact, and their weapons had been perfectly preserved beneath thick, translucent layers of glacial ice.
Arata slowly approached the frozen tomb. There were four adventurers. They hadn't died fighting; they had died huddled together against the cold, waiting for a rescue that never came.
A broadsword. A heavy, double-bladed axe. A reinforced kite shield. A wooden staff. And heavy, insulated pieces of armor.
Ren lowered his hammer to the floor, his voice unusually quiet. "They must've been a party."
Sera knelt gracefully beside the ice. "Maybe they fought something and retreated here."
Arata looked at their frozen faces through the ice. The expressions were perfectly preserved. Fear. Exhaustion. Determination. One of the men had his armored arm stretched out, his hand resting reassuringly on his companion's shoulder.
"They didn't make it," Arata whispered.
Ren remained silent for a long time. Then, he slowly pulled off his heavy handling gloves. He stepped forward and placed his bare hand flat against the freezing stone tomb. "We'll remember you."
Sera bowed her head respectfully. "Thank you."
Arata stepped up beside them, placing his hand next to Ren's. "Your journey ended here." He looked down at the perfectly preserved, heavy leather and fur-lined armor. "We'll carry it farther."
Working in respectful silence, they carefully chipped away the ice and removed what remained usable from the fallen party. They didn't take the gear as trophies. They took it as a promise.
The ancient armor was heavier than their standard-issue canvas vests, lined with dense, insulating fur and reinforced with hardened leather plating. It was incredibly warm. Protective. It was real, tested adventurer equipment. For the first time since they had descended into the freezing hell of Level Four, the biting cold receded, and they felt drastically less exposed.
Sera pulled on the heavy spellcaster's robe. It was long, deeply insulated, and embroidered with strange, protective geometric symbols around the sleeves and hem.
Ren fitted a set of heavy, iron-studded leather pauldrons across his broad shoulders, securing the thick chest straps.
Arata tightened a reinforced leather cuirass over his torso, the material worn but incredibly sturdy.
Ren rolled his shoulders, testing the range of motion in his new armor. He let out a satisfied breath. "Much better."
Arata nodded, checking his sword draw. "Now we actually look like adventurers."
Sera looked at them both, her face deadpan. "You still look ridiculous."
Ren grinned brightly. "And you look exactly like a wizard."
"I am not a wizard."
"You are literally wearing a wizard's robe."
"It is highly insulated protective clothing with arcane properties."
"It's a robe."
Sera raised a single finger. A perfectly smooth, frictionless sheet of black ice instantly formed on the floor directly beneath Ren's boots.
Ren's legs flew out from under him, and he crashed hard onto his back. "Hey!"
Arata burst out laughing, the sound echoing warmly against the cold stone. For a fleeting moment, standing in their inherited armor, the frozen labyrinth didn't feel quite as terrifying.
Then, the ground shook.
The laughter died instantly.
A deep, bone-rattling roar rolled through the chamber. The sheer acoustic force of the sound was enormous; it vibrated violently through the ice beneath their boots, rattling their teeth.
Mochi immediately dove headfirst into Sera's pouch, refusing to come out.
Ren vaulted to his feet, lifting his heavy hammer to his shoulder. Arata drew his dark sword, the red crystals igniting with a fierce, warning glow. Sera stepped forward, raising her armlet as the blue sapphire stones flared to life.
The roar came again. Louder. Closer.
Something colossal was moving just beyond the frozen, unmapped corridor. The sound of its massive, heavy footfalls shattered the frost with every step. Huge. Slow. Overwhelmingly powerful.
Ren looked at his friends, a fierce, adrenaline-fueled smile touching his lips. "We've got real armor."
Arata tightened his two-handed grip on the hilt, centering his balance. "We've learned how the level works."
Sera's bracelet burned like a blue star in the dark. "And we have Mochi."
A tiny, muffled squeak of protest echoed from her pouch.
Ren laughed softly. "Then we're ready."
Arata stared dead ahead into the impenetrable darkness. "Ready for what?"
Ren pointed the head of his iron hammer toward the archway, where enormous, monstrous footprints were violently cracking the frost as they approached. "The boss."
A final, earth-shattering roar shook the very foundation of the chamber.
The three stood shoulder to shoulder. For the first time since they had rappelled into the freezing nightmare of Level Four, they weren't simply trying to survive the dark. They were actively holding their ground. They were ready to fight.
Ren grinned, his violet crystals crackling with static. "Let's find out exactly what this frozen bear can do."
From somewhere deep within the pitch-black corridor came another tremendous roar, and the solid ice beneath their feet began to violently crack apart.