It was beautiful in the way that natural disasters are beautiful.
The creature had four wings—leathery, bat-like, each one easily ten meters across. Its body was covered in obsidian scales that reflected the red glow of the symbols. A long tail lashed behind it, tipped with a barb that dripped with something dark. Its head was reptilian, with horns that curled back like a ram's, and its eyes—two of them, burning like molten gold—fixed on us with an intelligence that made my blood run cold.
A-rank, I realized. That's an A-rank monster.
"Wyvern," Dorian breathed. "A-rank wyvern. Everyone, defensive formation. Now!"
The wyvern landed in the center of the chamber, shaking the ground. Its tail swept across the floor, sending rubble flying.
"Bianca, draw aggro! Kai, left flank! Assassin, right! Vex, heavy artillery! Jun, stay behind me!"
"What about the supporter?!" Jun shouted.
"He stays back!"
Bianca charged.
"Iron Will!" she shouted, her body glowing with a faint blue aura. Her longsword slashed across the wyvern's leg, scraping against scales but not penetrating. The wyvern roared and swung its tail. Bianca dove under it, rolled, and came up swinging. "Titan Strike!"
Her sword connected with the wyvern's chest. A shockwave rippled through the air. The wyvern stumbled back a step.
"Kai, now!"
Kai was already in the air—fully transformed into a massive winged wolf, his fur silver and his eyes blazing gold. "Lunar Fang!" he howled, diving toward the wyvern's neck. His claws raked across its throat, drawing black blood.
The wyvern screamed. Its tail whipped around and caught Kai in the side. He crashed into the wall with a sickening crunch and didn't get up.
"Kai!" Jun ran toward him, but Dorian grabbed his arm.
"Stay in formation! He's a Beast Transformer—he'll heal."
"But—"
"Stay!"
The assassin flickered behind the wyvern, his daggers glowing purple. "Shadow Rend!" He slashed at the base of the wyvern's wing, tearing through the membrane. The wyvern roared and spun, its claws swiping through the air. The assassin vanished, reappeared on its back, and stabbed downward. "Venom Strike!"
The wyvern bucked, throwing him off. He landed hard, rolled, and disappeared into the shadows.
"Vex, now!" Dorian shouted.
Vex raised her staff. The red glow at its tip blazed into a miniature sun.
"Solar Flare!"
A beam of concentrated light shot from her staff, striking the wyvern in the face. The creature reeled back, its scales smoking, one of its eyes bursting in a spray of black fluid. It screamed—a horrible, deafening sound—and thrashed wildly.
"It's blinded!" Vex shouted. "Hit it now!"
Bianca charged again. "Final Strike!" Her longsword glowed with golden light as she leaped toward the wyvern's exposed throat.
The wyvern moved faster than anything that size should.
Its tail whipped around, catching Bianca in mid-air. The barb pierced her shoulder. She screamed, dropped her sword, and crashed to the ground.
"Bianca!" Jun broke formation and ran toward her.
"Jun, no!" Dorian shouted.
The wyvern's remaining eye fixed on Jun.
"Get back!" I shouted, but my voice was lost in the chaos.
The wyvern opened its mouth. A dark purple energy gathered in its throat.
"Everyone, behind me!" Dorian raised his shield. "Fortress of Aegis!"
A translucent barrier erupted from his shield, expanding to cover the group. The wyvern's breath weapon—a stream of purple fire—slammed into the barrier. Dorian screamed, his arms shaking, the barrier cracking.
"I can't hold it for long!"
"Vex, kill it!" the assassin shouted.
Vex raised her staff again. Her face was pale, sweat dripping down her temples. "I'm almost out of mana…"
"One more shot!"
She nodded. The red glow at her staff's tip flickered, then blazed brighter than ever.
"Sunlight Burst – MAX OUTPUT!"
A sphere of pure white light erupted from her staff, expanding outward in all directions. The wyvern's breath weapon was consumed by the light. The creature itself was caught in the blast—its scales cracking, its wings burning, its remaining eye melting.
When the light faded, the wyvern was still standing.
Barely. Its body was covered in burns. One wing was shredded. Its tail hung limply. But it was still standing.
And it was angry.
"It's still alive?!" Vex collapsed to her knees, her staff clattering on the ground. "I have nothing left…"
A larger purple energy gathered in its throat this time ,it was deeper, darker, pulsing like a second heart. The air around it crackled. The temperature dropped.
"Fortress of Aegis!" Dorian shouted
For a moment, they were equal.
Then the wyvern pushed harder.
The purple fire overwhelmed the translucentbarrier . It smashed into Dorian's barrier, shattering it like glass. Dorian flew backward, his shield clattering across the floor. Vex collapsed, her staff rolling out of her hand. Jun dove behind a rock, his healing magic flickering uselessly.
And the wyvern stood in the center of the chamber, barely scratched.
"We can't win," the assassin said. He wasn't asking.
"We can't run either," Bianca said, clutching her side. "It's too fast."
Dorian pushed himself to his knees. His face was pale, his lip split. He looked around at his party—Bianca bleeding, Kai barely conscious, Vex drained, Jun terrified, the assassin already calculating escape routes.
I'm going to die here, I thought. I'm going to die, and nobody will even remember my name.
Dorian stood up. He walked toward me. His face was unreadable.
"Supporter."
I looked up at him. "P-please—"
"We need you to do something."
I blinked. "What?"
"Draw its attention."
The words didn't make sense at first. "What?"
"Draw its attention," Dorian repeated. "Keep it busy. Just for a few minutes. We'll go back to the entrance and get reinforcements. Then we'll come back for you."
I stared at him. "You want me to—I'm classless. I can't fight. I can't even—"
"You don't have to fight." His voice was calm, almost gentle. "Just run. Make noise. Get it to chase you. We'll be back before you know it."
"But—"
"Do you want to live?"
I hesitated. "Yes."
"Then do this. It's the only way."
He put a hand on my shoulder. For a moment, I almost believed him. Almost.
"Run," he said. "We'll be right behind you."
I took a step forward. Then another. My legs were shaking. My whole body was shaking.
"That's it," Bianca said. Her voice was strange—tight, guilty. "Just keep moving."
"We'll come back," Jun said. But he wouldn't look at me.
I walked toward the center of the chamber. The wyvern turned its golden eyes on me. Its tail twitched.
"H-Hey," I called out. My voice cracked. "Over here."
The wyvern took a step toward me.
I looked back over my shoulder.
Dorian was already running toward the tunnel. Bianca was helping Kai. Vex was limping after them. The assassin was gone. Jun was the last one—he glanced back at me, his face pale, then disappeared into the darkness.
They weren't going for help.
They were leaving me.
"Wait—" I turned. "Wait! You said you'd come back!"
The wyvern roared.
I ran. As the wyvern started chasing me
---
The wyvern's claws tearing up the floor behind me. I dodge a swipe by inches, feeling the wind of its talons on my neck. I remember tripping over a rock and scrambling back to my feet, my palms bleeding.
I screamed for help.
Nobody came.
The wyvern's tail caught me in the back. I flew forward, slammed into a pillar, and collapsed. Pain exploded through my ribs. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move.
I rolled onto my back.
The wyvern loomed over me. Its golden eyes stared down at my broken body. Its mouth opened. Purple energy began to gather in its throat.
This is it.
I thought of the orphanage. Sister Maria's kind eyes. Hana's laugh. The leaky roof. The children who called me "big brother" because I was the oldest.
I'm sorry, I thought. I tried. I really tried.
The purple fire grew brighter.
I don't want to die.
Something inside me cracked. Not a bone. Something deeper. Something I didn't know existed.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
"Please…" he murmured, voice trembling. "Someone… anyone…"
The fire roared.
A searing blast tore through the tunnel, engulfing everything in light and pain.
---
Darkness.
For a moment, he thought it was the afterlife.
But then he realized — he was still breathing. Barely.
He lay among the ruins, the air thick with smoke. The monster was gone for now, its massive body retreating deeper, satisfied that he was dead.
His consciousness flickered.
And then—
[SYSTEM ACTIVATING...]
A blue screen appeared in front of my eyes. Floating. Glowing. Impossible.
[CRITICAL CONDITION: HOST DYING]
[MATCHING WITH DEFEATED GOD'S SYSTEM...]
[CLASS: SUMMONER]
[BINDING...]
[BINDING COMPLETE]
What… the hell…?" he gasped, staring in disbelief.
The screen shifted. Lines of text cascaded downward like falling light.
> [Welcome, Candidate.]
[Skill unlocked: Summon Hero – Rank ???]
[Do you wish to summon a Hero?]
[Y/N]
Arlen blinked. "Summon… a hero…?"
The words shimmered across the air, their glow faint against the darkness of the Abyss.
Arlen's fingers twitched weakly toward the screen. His body was wrecked, broken, but his soul refused to surrender.
> "If… if this can save me…" he murmured, "then… please… grant me strength…"
The moment his trembling fingertip brushed the glowing word "Yes", the world screamed.
---
The air quivered.
A soundless explosion of mana burst outward, collapsing the very air. The ground split like glass, dark energy spiraling upward from the fissures.
An unseen pressure crushed the cavern, flattening rocks, sending dust spiraling into the air. The monsters lurking in the shadows hissed—and then fled, their instincts screaming run.
A vast summoning circle unfolded beneath Arlen's bleeding form—black and crimson interlocking sigils pulsed, each line glowing like molten steel.
The magic was not of this world.
> [Dimension Gate opening …]
[Searching for compatible soul.]
[Found … The Black Flame Knight.]
The world fell silent.
Then the gate tore open.
A voice—not from the system, but from somewhere beyond existence—whispered through the collapsing space.
> At last… someone calls.
First came a pair of armored boots, each step echoing like the toll of an ancient bell. Then a flowing cape of shadow and crimson flame, trailing behind as if the darkness itself bowed before him. His armor was sleek, jet-black, trimmed with blood-red patterns that pulsed like veins.His face was hidden behind a helmet shaped like a snarling dragon, but his eyes—his eyes burned through the darkness like dying stars.
Arlen froze. He couldn't move — couldn't even breathe.
The aura pouring from the knight felt heavier than the wyvern heat, like the pressure of an entire world.
Still, the system's text hovered before him.
The knight gaze turned toward him — a broken, bloodied human lying amid shattered rock.
For a heartbeat,the knight said nothing. Then, with slow, deliberate steps, he approached and knelt.
The knight's head tilted slightly, studying him. For a long moment, there was only silence—then a low, warm chuckle resonated through the dungeon. It was neither mocking nor cruel. It was pleased.
> "How fascinating…"
"For so long, I have waited—endlessly bored in that eternal dark—wondering if any mortal soul would ever be worthy of my call."
"And now, you stand before me, broken, dying… yet your will shines brighter than any flame I have seen."
He lowered his blade and strode forward, the black fire around him dimming to a faint glow as he approached. When he stopped before Arlen, he went down on one knee.
The dungeon seemed to bow with him.
He raised his head, his eyes meeting Arlen's dimming ones.
And in them, Arlen saw not pity, but reverence.
> "I am Kael," he said softly, his voice like silk over steel.
"The Black Flame that devours the night. The Knight who burned empires to ash in the name of forgotten kings."
"And now…" — he removed his gauntlet and pressed a hand to his chest — "I swear myself to you, my master. My blade, my flame, my eternal loyalty—all are yours to command."
I stared at him.
Blood dripped from my forehead into my eyes, but I didn't blink. The weight of his words pressed down on me—not like the wyvern's heat, but like a crown being placed on a head that wasn't ready.
My master.
My blade.
My flame.
I was a classless orphan. A pack mule. A boy who had been left to die.
And now a knight from beyond the edge of reality was kneeling in front of me.
"I…" My voice cracked. "I don't even know what I'm doing."
Kael's eyes softened. Just a fraction.
"You don't need to know," he said. "You just need to survive. The rest will come."
Behind him, the wyvern had stopped its retreat. It had turned. Its remaining eye—the one that hadn't been melted by Vex's Solar Flare—was fixed on Kael. But it wasn't aggressive anymore.
It was afraid.
I could see it in the way its wings trembled. The way its tail curled beneath its body. The way it took a slow, hesitant step backward.
It knows, I realized. It knows what he is.
Kael stood. He didn't rush. He didn't draw a weapon. He didn't need to.
He simply turned his head slightly toward the wyvern, and spoke two words.
"Still here?"
The wyvern screamed. Not a roar of challenge—a scream of terror. It tried to launch itself into the air, to flee through the hole in the ceiling.
Kael raised his right hand.
Black flames danced across his palm. Not the roaring inferno he had used to annihilate the crystal—just a small, concentrated flicker. A single ember of absolute darkness.
"Burn," he whispered.
The black flame shot forward. It didn't travel in a straight line—it blinked, crossing the distance between Kael and the wyvern in less than a heartbeat. It touched the creature's chest.
The wyvern didn't scream.
It didn't have time.
The black flame spread—not like fire, but like a disease. Scales turned to ash. Flesh turned to smoke. Bones turned to dust. The creature's body collapsed inward, consumed from the inside out, until nothing remained but a fine grey powder that drifted to the floor.
One strike. One ember.
The A-rank wyvern was gone.
Kael lowered his hand. The black flames faded.
"As I said," he murmured, "nothing."
He turned back to me. His expression—what I could see of it beneath his helmet—was calm. Almost bored.
"You need medical attention," he said. "Your wounds are severe. I can sustain you with my aura for a few hours, but you will need a proper healer."
I pushed myself up on my elbows. Pain shot through my ribs, but I ignored it. My hands were shaking.
"That… that thing almost killed all of them," I said. "Six B-rank hunters. And you… you killed it with a flick."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Kael tilted his head. "Because you summoned me. Because you called for help when you had nothing. Because your will, even now, burns brighter than that creature's entire existence." He paused. "And because they left you. That… was a mistake."
I looked down at my hands. Blood. Dirt. Scratches.
The hands of a classless nobody.
Not anymore.
"They left me to die," I said. My voice was low. Flat. There was no emotion in it—not because I didn't feel anything, but because the emotion was too big for my voice to carry.
"I know."
"They told me to draw its attention. Said they'd come back."
"I know."
"They lied."
"I know."
I looked up. My eyes met Kael's burning gaze.
"I will have my revenge."
The words came out soft. Almost a whisper. But there was something in them that made the air grow cold. Something that made the shadows in the corners of the chamber draw back.
Kael was silent for a long moment.
Then he smiled. It was not a kind smile.
"Say it again," he said.
I pushed myself to my feet. My body screamed in protest. My ribs ground together. My legs threatened to collapse.
I stood anyway.
"I will hunt them down," I said. My voice didn't shake. "One by one. Not quickly. Not mercifully. They will know it was me. They will know why. And when I'm done…"
I looked at the grey powder that had been a wyvern.
"When I'm done, no one will ever call me replaceable again."
Kael laughed. It was a low, rumbling sound—like distant thunder rolling across a dead plain.
"Good," he said. "Then let us begin, my summoner. Your revenge will be… legendary."
He extended his hand. Black flames flickered around his fingers—not threatening, but warm. Protective.
"But first," he said, "you need to heal. And you need to grow strong. Revenge served cold is best served with power."
I reached for his hand.
My fingers brushed his gauntlet.
And then—
---
The world tilted.
The pain I had been ignoring—the broken ribs, the torn muscles, the deep gashes across my chest from the wyvern's claws—came crashing back all at once. It was like a wave of darkness swallowing the light.
My vision blurred. My knees buckled.
"Summoner—"
Kael's voice sounded distant, echoing, like he was calling from the bottom of a well.
I tried to speak. Nothing came out.
The last thing I saw was Kael's arms catching me before I hit the floor. His black flames wrapped around me like a blanket—not burning, but warm. Safe.
Then everything went dark.
---
I don't know how long I was unconscious.
Minutes. Hours. Maybe longer.
When I finally drifted back toward awareness, I was no longer in the dungeon. The air was different—colder, fresher, carrying the distant sound of traffic and the faint smell of rain.
I was lying on something soft. A bed. A real bed.
My body felt like it had been put through a meat grinder. Every breath sent a spike of pain through my ribs. My chest was wrapped in bandages—clean ones, professionally done.
I forced my eyes open.
A ceiling stared back at me. White. Plain. A single light fixture flickering weakly.
Not my apartment. Not the dungeon.
A hospital room. A cheap one, based on the peeling wallpaper and the outdated equipment.
Kael stood by the window, his back to me. His shadow-cloak was gone, replaced by a simple black coat. His helmet was gone too—I could see his face for the first time.
He was handsome. Not in a soft way. Sharp jaw, high cheekbones, pale skin, and those burning eyes that seemed to hold centuries of memory. His hair was black, streaked with silver at the temples.
He turned when he heard me stir.
"You're awake," he said. His voice was softer now. Almost gentle. "You've been unconscious for two days."
Two days.
I tried to sit up. Pain lanced through my chest, and I fell back against the pillow.
"Don't move," Kael said. "Your body is still healing. I brought you to a small clinic on the outskirts of the city. The healer here asked no questions. I paid with gold from my own treasury."
"You have… a treasury?"
"I have many things, summoner." He walked to the bedside and looked down at me. "You almost died. If I had been summoned a second later, you would have."
I stared at the ceiling.
"They left me," I said.
"Yes."
"They think I'm dead."
"Almost certainly."
I closed my eyes.
"Good."
When I opened them again, there was no kindness in my gaze. No warmth. Just a cold, steady flame that had been lit in the depths of that dungeon.
"Then they won't see me coming."
Kael smiled.
"No," he agreed. "They won't."