Bruce could only sigh once again.

That unsettling feeling in his chest refused to fade. Instead, it grew heavier with every passing moment, like an invisible pressure slowly tightening around his heart. He didn't know why. There was no immediate threat. No warning from the system. No sudden spike of danger.

And yet, the feeling grew stronger and stronger.

'Something bad is about to happen…'

The thought surfaced uninvited, persistent enough that he couldn't ignore it. Bruce frowned slightly, eyes narrowing as he tried to trace the source of the feeling. Logic told him it made no sense. Everything around them was under control.

The dungeon was being cleared methodically. Ash was stronger than ever. He himself had just stepped into Half SS-Rank.

'So why?'

'What could be so bad...' he wondered, 'that it makes me feel like this?'

Bruce shook his head once, forcefully pushing the thought aside. Worry without information was pointless. Hesitation without evidence was weakness.

He exhaled slowly, centered himself, then stepped forward and leapt onto Ash's back.

"Let's move."

Ash rumbled softly and spread its massive wings. With a powerful beat, the dragon lifted off, rising above the forest canopy as wind exploded downward in rippling waves. Bruce settled easily against Ash's scales, gaze sweeping across the endless green below.

From above, the forest looked deceptively peaceful.

But Bruce's senses told a different story.

Shadows moved unnaturally beneath the trees. Dark patches slid from trunk to trunk. Occasionally, a wolf would attempt to flee, only to be erased moments later. Ash dove when needed, Soul Flame raining down in silent arcs, while Bruce struck from above with precise, merciless efficiency.

Shadow wolves leapt from darkness,

and were torn apart mid-teleport.

Some tried to retreat deeper,

their souls shattered before they could escape.

They advanced steadily, carving a path through the dungeon like a reaper moving through tall grass. Blood stained leaves. Bodies littered clearings. The forest echoed with fading howls that never lasted long.

Too easy.

After the last cluster of beasts fell, souls extinguished without resistance, Bruce exhaled through his nose.

"This is starting to get boring," he said calmly, eyes scanning the terrain below. "I was hoping there'd be something in this dungeon that could at least give me a bit of excitement."

Ash growled softly, not in disagreement, but in anticipation. It felt it too, the lack of challenge, the absence of real resistance. The dragon circled once, flames flickering lazily between its fangs.

Then,

Bruce stiffened.

The mana shifted.

It wasn't violent. It wasn't explosive. It was subtle, too subtle for anyone without heightened perception to notice. The ambient mana density ahead of them began to change, growing heavier, thicker, layered with something unfamiliar.

Bruce's eyes sharpened instantly.

"That's not normal…"

He looked toward the distance, where the forest canopy darkened unnaturally, shadows clustering far too tightly together. The air there felt compressed, warped, as if something massive was breathing slowly beneath reality itself.

Bruce's frown deepened.

"Ash," Bruce said quietly, "increase speed."

Ash snarled in approval.

Its wings snapped outward with explosive force, the air detonating beneath them as the dragon surged forward like a living missile. Wind screamed past Bruce's ears, the forest below blurring into streaks of green and shadow as they closed in on the disturbance ahead, straight toward whatever lay deeper within the dungeon.

But then,

Bruce's eyes narrowed.

A barrier.

Another one.

He exhaled slowly, irritation flickering across his expression.

"Impossible…"

Without hesitation, he drew Red and slashed forward. A crescent arc of crimson mana tore through the air and struck the unseen wall. This barrier was stronger than the last, thicker, layered, but it still cracked, fractures spreading like shattered glass across the sky itself.

Ash didn't slow.

The dragon smashed through the barrier as it collapsed, shards of translucent mana scattering like falling stars.

And then,

The world changed.

The forest vanished beneath them, replaced by a vast, jagged mountain range stretching endlessly into the horizon. Towering black peaks rose like the spines of ancient titans, their edges sharp enough to cut the sky. The air felt thinner here, heavier with pressure, saturated with a foreign, oppressive mana that pressed down on the senses.

Above it all,

Two red moons hung in the sky.

Not one.

Two.

One was a crescent, razor-thin and bleeding crimson light across the clouds. The other was a full moon, enormous and looming, its surface glowing with a deep, ominous red. Their light bathed the mountains in an unnatural glow, casting elongated shadows that twisted and stretched unnervingly across the stone.

The sight was wrong.

Unsettling.

As Ash slowed slightly, Bruce's gaze locked onto the tallest peak in the distance.

The mountain's summit pierced the sky so high it seemed to brush against the moons themselves. And upon the surface of the full moon,

There was a shadow.

A massive silhouette etched into the crimson glow.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Upright.

A wolf's head crowned with pointed ears. Claws extended. A posture that radiated dominance and ancient savagery.

Bruce's breath stilled.

"…Lycans?" he murmured, frowning.

He had checked their information before. The bracelet's records were clear, these weren't ordinary werewolves. They were classified differently. Stronger. Smarter. Older.

Lycans.

He hadn't encountered a single one in the previous two sections of the dungeon. After clearing both the snow and forest zones, he had already concluded that this dungeon didn't contain them.

And yet,

Here they were.

Bruce's eyes hardened.

"So this isn't a dual dungeon…" he said quietly. "It's a tri-dungeon."

Ash growled low, wings tensing as it felt the pressure radiating from the mountains ahead.

Bruce wasn't about to underestimate them.

He didn't know how the dungeon scouters did their work, what methods they used, what limitations they had, but it was widely accepted that their assessments were reliable. That belief was the only reason he felt even a trace of surprise now.

Because this third region wasn't supposed to exist.

And yet it did.

Bruce stared at the blood-red moons, at the towering peaks, at the ominous silhouette watching from above.

Whatever waited here,

It wasn't going to be like the others.

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