Silence.
The Frost Giant King's body crashed to the frozen floor.
For a long moment...
Nothing happened.
Jax slowly lowered Peacemaker.
The remaining Frost Giants lay motionless throughout the chamber.
The Shadow Army began reforming where they had fallen.
Crystal Knights stood.
Spears were recovered.
Shields reformed.
The battle...
Was over.
Or so it seemed.
Jax frowned.
"...No System notification."
The cave answered him.
THOOM.
The entire chamber lurched.
Not an earthquake.
A heartbeat.
Far below them.
THOOM.
Another.
The frozen throne behind the King cracked cleanly down the middle.
Ancient runes carved into the ice flickered violently.
One after another.
They began going dark.
Warden slowly looked toward the throne.
Jax followed his gaze.
"I see it."
The runes weren't decorative.
They were failing.
THOOM.
A crack spread through the floor.
Then another.
The chamber suddenly felt...
Empty.
As though something unimaginably large had just inhaled.
Then—
Laughter.
Deep.
Slow.
Ancient.
It echoed upward from somewhere beneath the mountain.
"Hahahaha..."
The Vixens froze.
Nobody had spoken.
"Hahahahaha!"
The laughter grew louder.
Then a voice shook the entire dungeon.
"AT LAST..."
A pause.
One filled with centuries of hatred.
"...I AM FREE."
Every System warning Jax possessed exploded across his vision.
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
DUNGEON BREAK IN PROGRESS
UNKNOWN ENTITY RELEASED
EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY
The floor split apart.
Darkness stretched downward farther than any of them could see.
Something moved.
Not quickly.
Not slowly.
Just...
Massively.
An eye opened.
Larger than a house.
Golden.
Hungry.
It looked upward.
Straight at them.
Jax instinctively used Appraisal.
APPRAISAL FAILED
ENTITY UNKNOWN
THREAT ASSESSMENT...
ERROR
ERROR
ERROR
The eye blinked once.
Then smiled.
A smile far too large for anything that should exist.
Nyxian whispered,
"...That's not a mountain."
"No," Jax answered quietly.
"It isn't."
The creature laughed again.
"I HAVE WAITED..."
Its voice rolled through the earth like distant thunder.
"...SO LONG..."
Stone exploded upward.
Entire cliffs broke away.
The chamber was collapsing.
Then Llandra spoke.
Quietly.
Almost to herself.
"No..."
Everyone looked at her.
She stared at the bodies of the Frost Giants.
Then at the broken runes.
Then at the abyss below.
"They weren't guarding the dungeon."
Jax's eyes narrowed.
Llandra's expression slowly fell.
"They were guarding..."
She looked into the darkness.
"...that."
Nobody spoke.
She kept thinking aloud.
"The reports..."
"The survivors..."
"They all said the Frost Giants could have killed them."
"They didn't."
She looked at Jax.
"They drove them away."
"They wounded them."
"They forced them to retreat."
"They never chased them."
Her breathing quickened.
"My love..."
Her voice became almost a whisper.
"I don't think the Frost Giants wanted anyone clearing this dungeon."
Another heartbeat shook the mountain.
THOOM.
Llandra slowly looked toward the Frost Giant King's body.
"...They weren't trying to stop adventurers."
She swallowed.
"They were trying to stop us."
The creature below laughed louder than ever.
"YES."
The entire mountain began shaking.
"I HUNGER."
Its voice dripped with anticipation.
"EVERY DEATH..."
The Shadow Army instinctively formed around the Vixens.
Warden raised his shield.
"...FEEDS ME."
Jax's expression changed.
For the first time since entering Frostveil...
He looked genuinely concerned.
The creature continued.
"YOUR BATTLE..."
It laughed.
"...HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL MEAL."
Silence.
Then realization struck everyone at once.
Every monster they had killed.
Every Frost Giant.
Every floor.
Every death.
They hadn't weakened the dungeon.
They had fed it.
The creature's laughter echoed one final time.
"NOW..."
The mountain split apart.
"...BRING ME..."
A massive claw erupted from the abyss.
"...THE REST OF THE WORLD."