The system spoke into the silence.
Five members of the party have died.
Six remain.
Congratulations.
Dungeon cleared.
---
System warning.
This dungeon will officially shut down.
Reopening in two months in the same area.
Rejoice.
Take what you need from within.
Grow strong.
---
The words hung in the air.
Over the water.
Over what the water held now.
---
Far away in the dark room the screens showed everything.
The six still standing.
The red water.
The crystals still throwing their light.
The bodies of what had been fifteen.
---
The men in white shirts and black ties began to smile.
Slowly at first.
Then all at once.
Chairs pushed back.
Arms finding each other.
Voices rising.
Celebration filling a room that had been silent and professional and removed for all of it.
Numbers confirmed.
Investment justified.
---
Inside the dungeon nobody celebrated.
---
The six sat down where they were.
Some against the walls.
Some just on the floor.
In the water.
Not caring anymore about the water.
---
One with one arm.
The other sleeve empty.
Hanging.
---
One with one leg that worked.
The other dragging.
---
One with one eye.
The other side of their face turned away from the light.
---
And the rest.
Carrying what couldn't be seen.
What didn't show in the water's reflection.
---
Minjun went to his knees.
Both of them.
In the red water.
---
He looked at the drone hovering above him.
The camera in it looking back.
Recording.
Sending everything back to the room of white shirts and smiles.
---
He looked away from it.
---
At the dead.
Whatever the dungeon had left of them.
Whatever the creature had left.
His soldiers.
His people.
Who had followed because he had gone first.
Who had trusted the ground beneath his feet would hold.
---
He looked at the six.
The one with one arm.
The one with one leg.
The one with one eye.
Each of them breathing.
Each of them paying for it differently.
---
Then he looked down.
At the water beneath him.
At his own reflection in it.
---
His face swollen.
His arm bent wrong.
Slashed deep and still intact by something that hadn't decided to finish it.
The armor holding pieces of him together that didn't know yet they should come apart.
---
He looked at himself for a long time.
---
A single tear came from his eye.
Slow.
Moving down the swollen side of his face.
Finding his jaw.
Falling.
---
It hit the water below.
Made a small ring.
Perfect.
Moving outward from where it landed.
Quiet.
Reaching the blood.
Becoming part of it.
---
The crystals above kept throwing their light.
The same as before.
The same as always.
Blue and indifferent and beautiful.
And the dungeon breathed around what was left of them.