The government armory hummed with suppressed energy, the air thick with the ozone scent of enchanted steel. Seun ran his fingers along the rack of confiscated weapons, stopping at the twin blades encased in a blackened stasis field. Even through the barrier, he could feel their hunger.
**"The Hellfang Twins,"** Agent Kwan said, adjusting his tie nervously. **"B-rank sentient armaments. Last wielder went mad after three uses."**
Seun didn't blink. **"Perfect."**
---
### **THE PACT**
The containment chamber's floor was etched with blood-red runes that pulsed like a heartbeat. As the stasis field deactivated, the twin blades—one black as void, the other crimson as fresh arterial spray—levitated toward Seun, their jagged edges vibrating.
**[System Alert: Sentient Weapon Detected]**
**[Compatibility Assessment Initiated]**
The moment Seun's fingers brushed the hilts:
**PAIN.**
Visions flooded his mind—the blades' previous wielders dying screaming, their life force fueling the weapons' power. The Hellfang Twins whispered in unison:
**"YOU ARE MEAT."**
**"WE WILL DEVOUR YOU."**
Seun's nose bled as he tightened his grip. **"Try."**
His shadow erupted from the floor, tendrils wrapping around the shrieking blades. For three agonizing minutes, the weapons resisted—until finally, with a sound like shattering glass, they stilled.
**[Weapon Bond Forged: "Hellfang Twins" (B-Rank)]**
**[Trait: Blood Pact - Damage scales with wielder's pain]**
**[Cost: 8% HP per minute in combat]**
Kwan paled. **"That... shouldn't have been possible."**
Seun sheathed the blades, tasting iron. **"Where's the dungeon?"**
---
### **THE SHATTERED GALLOWS**
The abandoned prison's gates hung crooked, their rusted hinges screaming in the wind. The System's analysis scrolled across Seun's vision:
**[Dungeon Type: Necrotic/Punishment]**
**[Dominant Energy: Torment (97% Saturation)]**
**[Recommended Strategy: Controlled Aggression]**
**[Warning: Corpse Preservation Possible]**
Seun cracked his neck and stepped inside.
---
#### **First Floor: The Lamentation Halls**
The moment he crossed the threshold, the air thickened with the stench of rotting flesh and despair. The walls wept black sludge, the ceiling sagging with the weight of unseen horrors.
Then the whispers began.
From every shadowed corner, gaunt figures emerged—D-rank **"Penitent Wraiths"**, their hollow eyes dripping spectral tears, their elongated fingers ending in rusted nail fragments.
**[Enemy Type: Tormented Souls]**
**[Weakness: Physical Disruption]**
**[Note: Corpses Recoverable if Intact]**
Seun moved.
The black Hellfang blade carved through the first wraith's torso, its edge drinking the necrotic energy. The red blade followed, severing the creature's screaming head.
**[Combo: "Mourning's End"]**
**[Efficiency: 1.2 Kills/Second]**
But the wraiths kept coming—dozens, hundreds, a ceaseless tide of the damned. Seun's arms burned as the blades' HP drain took effect, his blood sizzling where it dripped on the steel.
Then—a shift.
The sea of wraiths parted as something *larger* shambled forward. A mass of fused corpses, its bloated body studded with screaming faces.
**[Mini-Boss: "The Congregation"]**
**[Rank: C+]**
**[Abilities: Flesh Tide | Torment Echo]**
Seun grinned through bloody teeth. **"Finally."**
The creature *detonated*, its body bursting into a wave of grasping limbs and snapping teeth. Seun barely dodged, feeling rotten fingers graze his calf—the contact left his muscles locking up in phantom rigor mortis.
**[Status: "Necrotic Paralysis" - Left Leg Mobility Reduced 40%]**
The Hellfang Twins *shrieked* in delight.
**[Blood Pact: +25% Damage (Pain Threshold Exceeded)]**
Seun lunged, his blades becoming blurs. The black sword severed the central mass's anchoring tendons while the red one plunged into its largest screaming mouth—
**"FEED."**
—and *pulled*, splitting the monstrosity down the middle.
**[Critical Strike: "Sundering of the Faithless"]**
**[Mini-Boss Defeated]**
The remains collapsed, twitching. The System pulsed:
**[Corpse Status: 78% Integrity]**
**[Shadow Conversion Viable: Yes]**
Seun considered the pulsing mass. **"Not worth it."**
He crushed its skull underfoot.
---
#### **Second Floor: The Chain Warden's Domain**
The stairwell descended into darkness, the steps slick with congealed blood. At the bottom waited the dungeon's enforcer—a nine-foot-tall specter bound in barbed chains, its hollow chest cavity filled with spinning meat hooks.
**[Floor Boss: "The Iron Inquisitor"]**
**[Rank: B-]**
**[Abilities: Hook Barrage | Torment Transfusion]**
The Inquisitor *moved*, its chains lashing out faster than thought. Seun barely raised his blades in time—
**CLANG!**
The impact sent him skidding back, his boots carving grooves in the stone. His arms screamed in protest, the Hellfang Twins vibrating from the force.
The Inquisitor attacked without pause, its hooks carving the air into ribbons. Seun weaved through the storm, his blades deflecting what they couldn't dodge—but each parry cost him.
**[HP: 94/160]**
**[Blood Pact Active: 6% HP/Minute]**
Then—an opening.
As the Inquisitor reeled back for another strike, Seun *feinted* left, then pivoted into a spinning slash. The black blade severed three anchoring chains while the red one plunged into the specter's chest—
—only for the Inquisitor to *laugh*, its form absorbing the steel.
**[Warning: Torment Transfusion Active]**
**[Enemy Healing: +15% Per Hit]**
Seun's eyes narrowed. *Cheating bastard.*
He triggered **[Shadow Step]**, appearing behind the Inquisitor—but the creature anticipated him, a backhanded chain strike sending Seun crashing through a rotten pew.
**[HP: 63/160]**
**[Rib Fracture Detected]**
The Inquisitor loomed, its hooks whirring. **"YOU ARE WEAK."**
Seun spat blood. **"You talk too much."**
He reached into the dungeon's energy—the very *torment* saturating the air—and *pulled*.
**[Improvised Technique: "Necrotic Syphon"]**
Black veins erupted across Seun's skin as the dungeon's suffering flooded his veins. The Inquisitor staggered—its power source *drained*.
Seun attacked.
The Hellfang Twins became extensions of his rage, every strike precise, every wound *lingering*. When the final blow came, it wasn't elegant—just brutal.
**[Finisher: "Judgment's End"]**
The black blade severed the Inquisitor's spine while the red one carved through its core. The creature collapsed, its chains rattling like dying serpents.
**[Floor Boss Defeated]**
**[Corpse Status: 89% Integrity]**
**[Shadow Conversion Highly Viable]**
Seun knelt, pressing a shadow-wreathed hand to the still-twitching corpse.
**"Rise."**
The Inquisitor's remains *convulsed*, darkness knitting its wounds shut. When it stood again, its hooks were blackened, its chains now extensions of Seun's will.
**[New Shadow Soldier: "The Chained Enforcer"]**
**[Rank: B-]**
**[Abilities: Hook Barrage | Soul Anchor]**
Seun flexed his fingers. **"Follow."**
---
### **Final Floor: The Hanged King's Court**
The execution chamber stank of old blood and older power. At its center, suspended by nooses of braided shadow, floated the dungeon's heart—a pulsing core of condensed suffering.
And guarding it:
A figure clad in tattered royal robes, its neck stretched five feet long, its crown fused to exposed bone. Dozens of spectral nooses dangled from its sleeves, each holding a twitching prisoner.
**[Dungeon Boss: "The Hanged King"]**
**[Rank: B]**
**[Abilities: Suffocation Aura | Final Sentence]**
The King's jaw unhinged vertically. **"ANOTHER SINNER FOR MY GALLOWS."**
The nooses *struck* like vipers.
Seun and his new Enforcer moved in unison—the shadow soldier intercepting three nooses with its chains while Seun carved through two more. But the King wasn't done.
It *gestured*, and the very air turned against Seun.
**[Status: "Final Sentence" - Oxygen Deprivation]**
Seun's lungs burned as the atmosphere was *sucked* from his chest. The Hellfang Twins grew heavier, his vision darkening at the edges—
—until his Enforcer *slammed* its hooks into the King's elongated neck.
The distraction was enough. Seun *surged* forward, his blades crossing in an X.
**[Ultimate: "Twin Fang Guillotine"]**
The strike should have decapitated the King.
Instead, the creature *smiled*, its neck stretching *further* to avoid the blow.
**"Foolish child. I AM THE GALLOWS."**
Its robes exploded into a storm of nooses.
Seun barely managed to roll away, but one loop caught his ankle—*yanking* him upside down. The King floated closer, its breath stinking of open graves.
**"YOU WILL DANCE WITH THE DAMNED."**
Seun's vision swam. His Enforcer was entangled in chains of its own making. The Hellfang Twins' HP drain had him at 31% vitality.
*Think.*
The System's earlier message flashed: **[Torment Saturation: 97%]**
Seun stopped fighting.
Let the noose tighten.
Let the King believe it had won.
Until—
**"Devour."**
His shadow *detonated* outward, not to attack, but to *connect* with the dungeon itself. The gallows. The corpses. The centuries of suffering etched into these walls.
**[Shadowmancer Ability: "Torment Assimilation"]**
The King *screamed* as its own power turned against it, the nooses now strangling *it*. Seun dropped free, his blades finding their mark—
—not in the King's flesh, but in the *shadow* it cast.
**[Critical Hit: "Soul Sunder"]**
The Hanged King dissolved, its essence flooding into Seun's shadow army. The dungeon core cracked, then *imploded*.
Silence.
Then—
**[Dungeon Cleared]**
**[Time: 1 Hour 53 Minutes]**
**[Rewards: 1,200 DP | "Suffocation Immunity" (Permanent)]**
**[Shadow Army: +1 B-Rank Soldier | Capacity: 2/5]**
Seun collapsed to one knee, his body screaming. The System's final message pulsed like a warning:
**[Shadowmancer Integration: 24%]**
**[Warning: Excessive Torment Absorption May Alter Host Physiology]**
He didn't care.
As the prison collapsed around him, Seun sheathed his blades and strode toward the exit, his new Enforcer shuffling behind him.
The government wanted a weapon?
He'd give them a *nightmare*.