The snow howled across the desolate highlands as Commander Eirael trudged forward, his men, many covered with various wounds and injuries, staggering behind in a battle formation. Their white-and-blue banners lay burned somewhere in the ruined fortress they'd left behind, as well as the shattered honor buried under ash and blood. The war was lost. And now, survival was all that mattered.
The blizzard just kept getting harsher as the days went by. Fortunately, the snow and blizzard were their friends. They are snow elves, the children of the snow plains. With neither wind nor cold bothering them, the snow blizzard just served perfectly to remove their tracks and hinder their chasers. Though they were hungry…thirsty…and injured. They need rest.
A few days later, they found shelter in the craggy heart of a mountain, where ice did not bite as harshly and the wind dared not howl. A cavern opened its mouth like a sanctuary, offering cold reprieve. There, by chance or fate, they found a spirit spring, rich in magic energy—its gentle glow casting warmth to the surroundings.
Beside the spring, there was a stone hut, clearly manmade yet bearing no markings or signs of ownership stood beside it. Suspicion stirred among them, but exhaustion won.
Days passed.
They explored deeper. Commander Eirael himself led the scouts downward. The air grew warmer, spirit crystals became a frequent sighting, and they found it.
A spirit vein.
Low grade, but it became their lifeline.
"Begin constructing the teleportation array," Eirael ordered. "We will reconnect with the High Council and reclaim our position."
The camp above the spirit spring turned lively with hope. Survivors mended what armor and weapons they could. The mages worked day and night below. But the joy didn't last long.
A sudden chill.
Deeper, darker than the cavern's cold.
One morning, a scream tore through the hut. A young soldier—Tialen—was found pale, lifeless, his body stiff and blue. Marks littered his neck and chest: **bite wounds**, jagged and deep.
"It's not a cavern spider," Eirael muttered, examining the corpse. "Too messy. Too... deliberate."
Panic whispered in the corners of the camp. He gathered the survivors, armor barely strapped, eyes wide with terror.
"Double the watches. No one wanders alone. And finish that damn array fast. We leave as soon as it activates." Eirael ordered with umbrage.
The days passed, and no one from the array team returned from below.
The commander could wait no longer. He gathered all his soldiers and descended.
What they found—there was no words foul enough to describe it.
Bodies, snow elf corpses, their pale skin shredded. Limbs detached, piled. Chests caved in. Faces frozen in scream and agony. Intestines and blood soaked the stones red and black, painted with entrails.
Now… they need to go now.
"Get into battle formation, protect me while I'm fixing the array," Eirael commanded.
The circle was nearly done. Runes glowed faintly, incomplete but stable. The rest of the soldiers took formation, trembling but resolute.
Then 'it' came.
Grotesque, frozen remnant of the dead, now risen. Its eyes were glassy and its mouth opened wide with no teeth inside, and its limbs elongated in the most wrong way. While others were still in shock, it shrieked and leapt.
Steel clanged. Screams echoed. One by one, the guards fell. Heads torn. Bones shattered. Blood painted the cavern in a
Eirael's fingers bled as he carved the final runes.
One last scream. One last sob.
Then—the array flared.
He stepped in.
In a flash of light, the monstrosity vanished behind him.
Alone. Alive. But forever haunted by the dead.
—--
"Why is there no energy crystal lamp here…" Yuki grumbled. It had been half an hour since Yuki crept down through the damp and dark cave corridor like a particularly paranoid cat. Every sound, every flickering shadow, had her nerves on edge.
As for why she went deeper into the cave and did not go back up?
Yuki was scared, she didn't want to take the chances that the ghost tamer was still waiting outside the gate. The dungeon has a special restriction that only allows a certain number of 'living beings' to get through the gate.
Subsequently, the dungeon can only be exited through an escape scroll to instantly teleport outside the gate or manually walk through the entry gate of the dungeon.
As both methods were impossible for the current Yuki, she remembered about the teleportation array at the central chamber of the dungeon, historically used by the snow elves to escape from war.
The teleportation array made by the snow elves was always one of the best, so there was a high chance that it's still usable until now. Moreover, for distributing a large number of troops, the grade of the teleportation array should be high. Moreover, since the original destination can't possibly be reached, the array would automatically teleport the user to a random location within a 10km radius.
"I don't believe my luck is so bad that I would still meet that ghost tamer again."
While Yuki was monologing to relieve the tension, she finally reached her destination. A tall wooden door, carved with the snow elf's emblem.
"This is it. Hopefully, the teleportation array is still fine."
Yuki used all her strength to push the big wooden door open. It took only a few seconds, but she panted furiously after the ordeal.
What Yuki saw made her awestruck—on the other side of the wooden door laid a splendid sight. An underground sanctuary, vast and breath-stealing. Energy crystal ore lined the jagged walls like stars embedded in the night sky, their blue glow pulsing faintly with every second.
The air here was different—thicker, warmer. Spiritual energy pooled in every breath she took, concentrated and heavy enough to become mist. Her cultivation base trembled, not in resistance, but in yearning—for the thick spiritual energy emitted from the spirit vein.
Silver-blue veins webbed across the cavern floor and walls, glowing like liquid moonlight trapped in rock. They pulsed in time with the cave's unseen heartbeat, guiding her gaze to the center of the chamber.
There, carved into a raised stone platform, was a teleportation array—sophisticated and intricate, its design unlike any drawings she had ever seen on her previous life.
The spiritual energy here gathered the thickest around the array, like a tide drawn to the moon.
Yuki swallowed, throat dry despite the energy in the air. Her fingers curled slightly, heart racing. This place wasn't just beautiful, it was mesmerizing.
"Wow…just..wow." Yuki's mouth agape.
After becoming awestruck for a while, Yuki shook her head and remembered her goal for coming here. Yuki slowly walked towards the array node, checking whether there was any crack or rust.
The check was necessary because Yuki won't bet her life on something flawed. She even remembered a scene from another novel she had read in her previous life where a man's body was being squished and molded into a freakish amalgamation before he reached her destination as a bundle of flesh and blood.
Fortunately, there weren't any rust or cracks on the surface of the array, although Yuki can't really analyse the core points, rune, or array nodes without proper knowledge.
"I guess it's good enough…"
"This should be the array core. Since there are still energy crystals on the core, I should be able to use the array by using my spiritual energy."
Yuki finished inspecting the teleportation array, her fingers trailing lightly over the ancient runes now softly glowing under her touch. Her breath was steady, the spiritual energy in the chamber seeping into her with every inhale. For a moment, she felt… calm.
Yuki sighed, "It would be great to stay here for a while".
Just as soon as Yuki sat cross-legged, the air shifted. Her skin prickled. She felt the spiritual energy warp on the other end of the cavern, and her instincts screamed.
She turned her head and saw it.
A tall, twisted figure stepped out from the mouth of the side tunnel. Three meters tall with elongated limbs. Pale skin stretched taut over a bony, scrawny frame that shouldn't have been human. Its eyes were pits of red, no pupils, just bold red and filled with bloodlust. Its mouth hung open grotesquely—unmoving lips stretched too wide, blackened teeth on display.
And on the ground, long, hooked nails scraped the stone as it dragged its fingers against the floor, shrieking as if in agony.
Yuki froze.
Her mind screamed for her to move, but her body wouldn't obey. Fear and dread poured through her brain like a flood, paralyzing her for just a heartbeat too long.
The thing ran towards her like a predator catching its prey.
"Damn it—move!" Yuki bit her lip.
She snapped out of it and dove aside, just as the monster's claws slashed through where her head had been. Stone shattered. Dust exploded. Yuki hit the ground hard, rolling across crystal-studded rock.
Pain flared hot across her side. She gasped—blood soaked her shredded clothes. Its claws had grazed her ribs. Not deep—but bad enough.
"Shit—!"
The creature shrieked again, scuttling unnaturally across the wall like an insect. It was fast. Too fast.
Yuki staggered to her feet, eyes locked on the array.
She slammed her hand onto the center rune, releasing her spiritual energy.
The array lit up—its symbols burning gold-blue.
"Haha, Goodbye you f*cker !" Yuki pointed her middle finger at the monster.
[ Spiritual Input Detected. Activation Countdown ]
[15]
"Oh, come on ?!" Yuki inwardly cursed.
The thing howled behind her. She turned just in time to dodge another strike—barely. Its nails raked her shoulder, slicing through cloth and skin. Her vision blurred from the sting. She fell again, breath ragged.
[12]
She rolled, kicked herself upright, and pushed more spiritual energy into her body. Her limbs were shaking. The monster's presence was overwhelming, like a butcher knife cutting her soul.
In no more than a moment, the monster charged again.
This time, she ducked low and kicked off the platform, using her momentum to throw herself behind one of the crystal outcrops. The monster slammed into the array with a screech of rage—its claws scraping across the runes. But it didn't damage them. The array shimmered, protected.
[9]
Yuki gritted her teeth, hand pressed to her bleeding chest. She needed to keep it distracted.
"Just a few more seconds…"
The creature sniffed the air, head twitching. Its eyes were locked on her hiding spot. And then—it vanished.
Her heart dropped.
"Where—?!"
A soul-shocking shriek echoed above. Yuki spat a mouthful of blood from the soundwave.
"It had leapt onto the ceiling." Yuki's eyes filled with terror.
[5]
Yuki bolted. She sprinted for the array, ignoring the sharp burn on her chest. The monster dropped down behind her, claws barely missing her heel. She threw herself onto the platform, slammed her body onto the edge of the teleportation array.
[2]
The monster leapt. Its elongated hands scraped against one of Yuki's feet. Blood splattered as the monster caught her right leg with its elongated limb.
[1]
But before being pulled, light exploded around Yuki's figure, upward in a pillar of blinding brilliance.
The last thing she saw was its mouth, wide and gaping, about to close around her face.
And then—
Yuki hit the frozen ground like a sack of stones. She groaned, blood pooling under her ribs and lower body, the air biting every wound.
She stared at the foreign sky above her. Her face pale. Twin moons hung on the night sky.
She wheezed a breath of relief.
"That… was not in the plot."