When the light finally died down, Zane opened his eyes... and he found himself in yet another unfamiliar place.
But this time, it wasn't a grand hall surrounded by robed "holy" figures.
No... it was a cave. A massive one.
The air was damp; heavy. It reeked of rot and sulfur.
Broken pillars and cracked stone arches lay scattered all around him, ruins of a supposedly ancient civilization, half-swallowed by moss and time...
Strange fungi clung to the walls, casting an eerie green glow. Far above, stalactites hung like jagged fangs...
And somewhere deeper in the dark... he heard something skitter...!
"...God... fucking damnit...!"
Zane cursed himself and his luck, both frustration and anger welling up inside him.
Never had he thought things would turn into this much of a mess, even though just half an hour ago he was just a normal human living a normal life...
But now here he was, being thrown away into a "garbage disposal" by some lunatic priests.
"Did I piss off some god entity...?"
He still couldn't understand why he ended up with a 'heretical' job class—and even then, he still couldn't believe he'd been summoned into another world at all.
"...This is just bad dream... right?"
He couldn't help but cope to himself, wishing that maybe, just maybe, this was all just some nightmare that he would wake up from—
*Skittering...*
"—!"
The same skittering echoed all around him!
His eyes quickly darted around the barely lit cave, trying to find the source of the 'thing'—
*Skittering...!!!*
"...Shit...!"
But not only could he not pinpoint them—he could feel the skittering getting closer!
"Where is it...? Where is it...?! Where—!"
The skittering finally stopped. However, Zane's eyes landed on the edge of the darkness... and he saw...
Eyes—hundreds of them...!
His own two eyes widened at the sight of so many glowing orbs, layered like clusters of stars in the blackness. He took a step back in horror...
And eventually... the many eyes crept closer—!
"...What the...?!"
From the sea of eyes, something finally emerged—
Giant insects.
They came crawling out from the dark like a nightmare made real...!
Their bodies were long and slick, armored in cracked black chitin...
Multiple legs clattered against the dirt and ruins as they skittered closer...!
But what made Zane freeze—what made his blood run cold...
Was the mouth.
A jagged, gaping maw filled with rows of saw-like pincers—chittering, grinding, hungry—!
"—Oh hell no...!"
Zane... turned and ran!
He bolted in the opposite direction—away from the swarm that began pouring in after him like a black tide!
He didn't know where he was going, nor did he care.
All that mattered was that he kept running—!
His sneakers slammed against the dirt and ruins as the air behind him filled with shrieks and skittering legs—!
'They're fast—!'
He weaved past collapsed stonework and broken pillars, nearly tripping more than once—!
"Shit, shit, shit—!"
He could feel it—they were closing in...!
Claws scraping. Jaws clattering.
The noise was unbearable...!
No matter how much he ran, they weren't stopping—!
And eventually... one of the insect monsters managed to reach him—!
The ebony critter lunged forward, its jagged mandibles snapping open—
SNAP—!
"—GAH!!!"
Suddenly, Zane felt his balance vanish—his body tipped forward—!
He hit the ground hard, face scraping against the dirt...! He groaned in pain... before realizing quickly that he was not yet safe—
"H-huh...?"
But... when he looked down to see why he had lost his balance...
"—!"
What he saw made his breath catch in his throat.
His left leg...
It was gone.
Cleanly severed from the knee down.
Blood poured freely, pooling beneath him like a spreading ink blot...! He saw his severed leg in the distance, already being swarmed by those cursed insects...!
He stared, wide-eyed, his brain refusing to register what had just happened.
"N-no... no no no no—"
Panic. Horror. Denial.
Nothing could have prepared him to face the true horror of this dungeon.
"—A-agh...!"
He clutched the bleeding stump where his leg had been, finally feeling the aching pain from the exposed nerves... but...
The pain didn't wake him up from his supposed 'nightmare'—
Because this was all... real.
And then, from the shadows... the rest of them came—
The insect swarm poured in, surrounding him on all sides...!
Dozens—no—hundreds of them...!
Zane could only stare.
Paralyzed. Terrified.
There was no escape...
This was... his death's door.
And soon—
They swarmed him—!!!
Chitinous claws dug into his flesh—
Their mandibles tore through his skin—his muscles—his bones—!
"—AAAAAGHHH!!!"
He screamed.
Screamed like never before.
Screamed until his voice turned raw
Screamed until it cracked—until it broke.
One by one—
They took more of his limbs—
Right leg.
Left arm.
Right arm.
Bit by bit... torn; ripped; gone.
He could feel everything.
Every nerve. Every shred of pain.
Until there was nothing left to scream with... nothing left to thrash.
What was left of him... was just a mangled torso... with what remained of his stumps...
And his head.
A sick clarity crept in.
"...Why... why am I still... alive...?"
His body was shattered.
His mind... fractured.
And yet the insects didn't finish him off.
They didn't bite his neck off, to finally end his suffering.
Instead...
They began to drag him.
He was limbless—broken.
But they carried him somewhere... deeper into the dark.
"N-no... no, please... please let me go..."
His plea fell on deaf ears, not that they understood his words to begin with.
But...
The chaos behind the darkness didn't end.
The ground trembled! A heavy rumble echoed across the cave...!
The swarm froze in place...!
Something heavy moved in the dark...
Stone crumbled. Air shifted.
And from beyond the darkness… something massive stirred—
Eyes.
Two massive, glowing yellow eyes gleamed in the dark.
Something was watching the swarm... and the limbless Zane.
And then... it came closer.
A colossal shape slithered out from the shadows—!
A wyrm.
Its serpentine body stretched from floor to ceiling, scales rough and dark like ancient stone, blending into the cave as though it had always been part of it...
The air shifted once more as it loomed over the puny creatures below it.
Then—
ROAAARRRRR—!!!!
It roared.
A deafening cry that shook the ruins, with dust and rubble raining from the ceiling—!
The swarm scattered in a panic—!
But it was too late.
The dragon-serpent lunged—! Its jaws opened wide—!
In one monstrous gulp... it devoured everything in its path.
The swarm of black insect monsters was swallowed whole... along with Zane's broken body.
And Zane's vision... was met with darkness.