The silence in the throne chamber was deafening. Smoke curled from fractured columns. The stench of blood, acid, and burning metal hung thick in the air. Chunks of marble and stone blanketed the collapsed area like a shallow grave. For a heartbeat, the survivors of the dungeon exploration task force dared to breathe—dared to hope.
Lieutenant Sato remained crouched behind a jagged slab of broken masonry, blood running down from a gash across his forehead. His ears rang from the detonation, his vision flickering in and out of focus. Across the chamber, Genghis Asura leaned on one knee, panting like a beast, his skin still steaming from the overexertion of his mutant form. Around him, what remained of his weaponized infected lay scattered—some dead, others barely breathing, twitching in their own agony.
The thing was buried. They had done it.
Or so they thought.
It began with a tremble. A subtle vibration through the floor, barely perceptible at first. Then, the faint sound of cracking stone. A low, deep groan—like the earth itself exhaling something foul.
"No…" Sato whispered, his bloodied fingers tightening around his rifle. "It can't be…"
Suddenly, the mound of debris exploded upward in a geyser of shattered stone and force. Dust and rubble hurled through the air like shrapnel, blinding everyone in a storm of chaos. The hybrid monster erupted from its would-be grave with a savage screech that rattled the very bones of the chamber.
Its armor was scorched and cracked, deep fissures etched across its monstrous frame—but it was alive. And furious.
The arachnid limbs slammed onto the floor with thunderous force, cracking the remaining foundation. Its massive scorpion tail arced up like a serpent, still glistening with acid. One of its mandibles had been torn loose, revealing pulsing sinew and raw muscle, but that only seemed to enrage it further. The monster's many red eyes flicked rapidly from one survivor to another, glowing with frenzied hunger.
"No… NO!" one of the remaining task force soldiers screamed as he opened fire in sheer panic, his bullets pinging harmlessly off the beast's reinforced chitin.
---
Back at the military command center above ground—hundreds of kilometers away—the silence that had settled over the control room was shattered in an instant. A dozen massive screens flickered and zoomed in on the monstrous emergence. The high-resolution live feed, broadcasting from the camera drones in the throne room, showed the beast's resurrection in gruesome detail.
Gasps erupted among the military and government officials. Men and women who had once barked orders with confidence now stared, pale and rigid, as the horror unfolded on screen.
A female government liaison dropped her notepad. "That… that thing's still alive?"
"How is it still moving? That amount of firepower—there's no way—"
"God help us…"
The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Sweat formed on foreheads. Fear tightened every chest.
General Yoshi Matsuda had seen his share of battles, had watched entire squads fall to dungeon horrors—but even he clenched the rail of the command table so tightly his knuckles whitened. The veins in his temple throbbed, his jaw locked in barely controlled fury. The bloodshed, the slaughter—it wasn't over. Not yet.
"Lieutenant Sato," he barked into the mic, his voice booming across the throne room speakers like the voice of a god.
Down in the dungeon, Sato flinched as the general's voice echoed from the emergency comms system built into his helmet.
"Lieutenant Sato! This is an order—retreat! I repeat—immediate retreat from the dungeon! Get your remaining men out of there. NOW!"
Sato ducked as a chunk of debris flew over his head. Around him, the hybrid monster was already surging forward again, smashing through the remnants of the throne like they were paper. It grabbed one of the wounded mutants who had been crawling away, impaling them through the chest and tossing their limp body aside.
He turned toward the others—what few still remained. "Fall back!" he shouted hoarsely. "You heard the general! Get the hell out of here!"
Genghis Asura snarled, wiping blood from his mouth. His red eyes flickered toward the beast, then toward Sato. "Retreat?" he spat. "You run. I'm not done with that abomination."
Sato growled back, "You'll be dead in seconds if you stay here. I'm not dragging your corpse back to the surface."
Genghis flexed his claws, half his armor-like hide peeled away. "This monster… it insulted me."
"Shut up and move!" Sato snapped, yanking a wounded soldier to his feet. "We have orders!"
Asura snarled again, but even he knew they were outmatched. The last of his team—maybe four of them—had already begun limping away toward the cracked southern corridor. The monster wasn't pursuing yet, perhaps savoring its victory… or waiting.
Back at the base, General Matsuda leaned toward the screen, his face a storm of fury and calculation. He pointed at one of the techs. "Patch me through to the emergency override channel. I want the blast doors sealed behind them the moment they breach the upper layer."
"But sir," the comms officer said hesitantly, "what if some are still inside—?"
Matsuda's stare could cut steel. "Then they'll die down there. But that creature is not escaping that dungeon. Not under my watch."
The officer hesitated, then nodded grimly and keyed in the override command.
Inside the dungeon, the escape was chaos.
The hybrid shrieked again and began charging. Rubble was thrown aside like gravel. Its stinger lashed out, slamming into the ground mere feet from Sato as he dove with two of his remaining men. One of Genghis's mutants threw a firebomb at the beast, which burst into roaring flames—only to be swatted aside as the monster plowed through it.
"GO!" Sato roared again.
They stumbled through the cracked archway of the throne room, half-limping, half-carrying the wounded. Behind them, the hybrid scraped and clawed, its howls echoing with maddening fury.
The survivors didn't stop.
Through crumbling corridors, past corpses and dried blood, they pushed forward—choking on dust and smoke, desperate to reach the upper tunnels.
And behind them… the monster gave chase.
But even it could not pass through the reinforced escape gate as it slammed shut with a boom, reinforced steel and sigil-stamped plating sealing the passage.
On the other side, the survivors collapsed into the lift room—panting, coughing, shaking.
Lieutenant Sato sank to his knees, his rifle clattering to the floor. Around him, the last remnants of the elite dungeon task force looked less like soldiers and more like ghosts—haunted, broken, bloodied.
They had escaped with their lives… but not their souls.