The right wing of the castle felt colder even before they reached it. The massive entry corridor leading

  toward that side stretched long and quiet, dust pooling in the corners and thin remnants of broken tables

  and furniture scattered across the edges of the pathway. The entire structure vibrated faintly with the

  lingering energy of the earlier battle, a low hum that whispered along the stones as if the building itself

  remembered the violence.

  Vanra moved near the front with deliberate steps, staff in hand and the faint glow of her healing core

  rotating around her shoulders like a quiet lantern. Orran and Tyrish walked slightly ahead of her, acting

  as forward shields. Kayris stayed close, relaxed but vigilant, hands hovering near her blades. Rhoen,

  Korvex, and Bash followed behind them as they approached the final doorway leading into the right

  wing.

  Tyrish reached the right-wing entrance and slowed only enough to assess the layout.

  The doors were already down, shattered long ago, leaving the hall beyond completely exposed. The

  interior stretched wide, another open gathering chamber much like the left wing, with long tables

  collapsed inward and piles of broken furniture scattered across the floor.

  And, exactly as they expected, the spiders were there.

  Hundreds more.

  They crawled over the warped remains of tables, clung to cracked walls, clustered on the ceiling, and

  phased in and out of small spatial rifts with the same flickering, distorted rhythm the team had already

  grown used to.

  Kayris rolled her shoulders. “Looks like the same number as the left wing.”

  Orran lifted his shield. “Good and there’s no floor above either”

  Vanra nodded once. “We clear it fast. Same formation.”

  There was no surprise here. No shock. Just another room, another cluster, another necessary sweep.

  Tyrish breathed out slowly. “Three hundred. Maybe more.”

  Vanra lifted her hand. “Same as before. Stay sharp. We clear this room fast.”

  Bash felt Korvex tap him once on the shoulder. A burst of wind, water, and fire pulsed through his suit.

  Tyrish followed by brushing Bash’s other shoulder with energy and mineral. The familiar rush of

  activation swept through Bash’s gear.

  “Good,” Bash said quietly. “I am set.”

  Vanra looked around the team. “Ready.”

  They were.

  Tyrish stepped through the door first and the room reacted instantly.

  The spiders surged forward. Rifts cracked open like shards of glass suspended in the air. The distortions

  warped the space in front of the team, sliding the floor sideways and bending the light. Orran held

  steady nonetheless, planting his shield in front of him as Kayris and Tyrish charged ahead.

  Wind blasted forward from Korvex. Rhoen began firing immediately, each shot precise and deliberate.

  Bash followed with a flurry of bullet fire that lit the hall with echo bursts of fire, mineral, energy, water

  and wind. His attacks cut down spiders with each connected shot. The distortions blurred his vision, but

  he had fought these creatures enough times to recognize the subtle vibration they produced just before

  phasing.

  He timed his shots to the tremors.

  The room echoed with impacts, bursts of lighting, cracking stone, and screams of dying spiders. Tyrish

  carved a straight path into the mass while Kayris blazed her own route beside him. Orran held the

  middle, absorbing hits and smashing anything that phased close.

  Vanra called rotations every few seconds.

  “Tyrish out. Orran in. Kayris rotate.”

  Her voice never broke once. Her healing radiated across the melee fighters and allowed them to keep

  pushing. Rhoen provided broad support from behind her, healing pulses triggering with every round he

  fired. Korvex split her focus between helping the melee with wind and striking clusters of spiders with

  high speed elemental bursts.

  Bash felt the constant waves of T3G Space Essence slam into his chest. Not sharp spikes. The

  absorption had grown so steady that the pulses blended into a thick sensation of pressure that pressed

  against his ribs and lungs. It was bearable. He had absorbed thousands of T3C and T3G essences since

  entering the city. His core had strengthened beyond what he could have imagined before this mission.

  Even so, he called out for refreshes every twenty seconds.

  “Refresh.”

  Tyrish slapped his shoulder. Korvex tapped him with a quick burst. Sometimes Vanra flicked a pulse of

  mineral or water toward him. Orran even bumped him once with a burst of lightning to renew his timer.

  It kept his echoes active and his damage output high. Without it the tide would have moved faster. With

  it, he contributed to the spiders being torn apart in a constant wave of elemental and ballistic

  destruction.

  The battle did not last long.

  Again, Not even a full minute.

  The team pushed forward with practiced precision. Every motion was familiar. Every reaction was

  quick. Every rotation was perfect. They moved like a single machine.

  Then silence.

  SC spoke into his mind. “Two hundred ninety three T3G Space Essence absorbed.”

  Bash allowed himself a small breath as the pressure in his chest settled into a manageable ache.

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  The team spread out. Kayris kicked a warped spider corpse aside. Orran wiped ichor off his shield.

  Tyrish stretched his shoulders. Vanra scanned the room with focused eyes.

  “No relics, no armor, nothing” Korvex muttered. “Unlike the left wing.”

  The disappointment hung in the air. The left wing had offered an enormous treasure trove of armor and

  weapons. This wing had nothing but old tables and dust and broken stone.

  Vanra lifted a hand before anyone stepped farther. “Collect the beast fragments first. All of them. Then

  we regroup.”

  The team swept through the hall with practiced precision. Orran kicked broken chairs aside to uncover

  stray fragments. Kayris zipped across the room, cutting down the last few stragglers still twitching

  from delayed distortions. Korvex and Rhoen gathered the bulk of the spider remains while Bash

  discreetly stored a handful away whenever no one was looking.

  A few minutes later they returned to the center of the hall, fragments piled.

  Vanra gave a short nod. “Good. Let’s move.”

  The team headed back to the main entrance corridor. The stairs leading upward loomed ahead, wide

  and carved with ancient symbols barely visible under layers of dirt and age. Vanra motioned for a tight

  formation.

  “No splitting. No rushing,” she said. “Stay alert. We do not know what is above.”

  The staircase spiraled upward. Bash felt his suit hum quietly against his chest as the pressure from the

  absorbed essence slowly eased. His breathing steadied again.

  They reached the second floor.

  This level looked far more lived in than the others. Rows of bedrooms lined the hall, doors half open or

  fallen completely. Beds were broken or overturned. Rugs lay in rotted strips along the stone floor.

  Altar-like tables sat on some walls, holding cracked stone bowls or ancient lanterns that no longer held

  light.

  Tyrish checked the first bedroom. Empty.

  Orran opened another. Also empty.

  Kayris peeked into a third and found nothing but old shelves and a dressing stand covered in dust.

  The team continued down the hallway until they reached a grand doorway that stood slightly ajar.

  Korvex pushed it all the way open.

  Inside was a long room filled with glass cases. Many were shattered. Some stood intact. Jewels lay

  scattered across the floor. Rings. Bracelets. Brooches. Items that once belonged to nobility or wealthy

  merchants glimmered faintly beneath the dust.

  Rhoen whistled quietly. “Looks like the crown jewel room for whoever lived here.”

  Vanra shook her head slowly. “None of this has degraded. They all must be high tier jewelry.”

  Kayris knelt beside one of the intact cases and brushed away dust. “Tier four stones. High purity cuts.

  They even displayed weapons here.”

  She pointed to a narrow table in the corner where ceremonial blades rested on stands. The blades were

  plain but gleamed with the same durability as the armor they had found earlier.

  They moved on, sweeping the room carefully and gathering what they could for later retrieval.

  The next room held even more surprises.

  Dozens of wooden mannequins stood in organized rows. Each one wore a full matching suit of armor,

  exactly like the sets from the left wing. Shields and weapons lined racks along the walls. Spears.

  Polearms. Swords. Maces. All perfectly preserved. None of it showed wear or damage.

  Korvex ran her hand across one of the chestplates. “Makes you wonder how they all died. If this were a

  war, the equipment would not still be displayed like this.”

  The team fell silent.

  No one answered. No one offered theories.

  There was no evidence of a battle here. No indication of attack. Nothing damaged. No signs of scorch

  or gravity warps or time decay. All the equipment looked untouched.

  Vanra moved them onward without lingering.

  The second floor was cleared in full within ten minutes.

  They reached the final staircase.

  This one rose in a tight spiral that circled the inner wall of the castle tower. The stone steps were solid

  and unbroken. Dust swirled around their footsteps. No sounds came from above. No movement. Only

  silence.

  When they reached the top, they found only a single door.

  It was large, carved with symbols none of them recognized. The wood was darkened with age, but the

  metal bands across it were untouched by rust. The door was slightly open already.

  Just a crack.

  Vanra raised her hand. “Tyrish.”

  He nodded and stepped forward cautiously.

  He rested one hand on the doorframe, leaned forward, and looked inside through the narrow gap.

  He did not enter.

  He did not push the door further open.

  He just stared inside for several seconds.

  Then he stepped back slowly, closed the gap carefully, and walked back to the group.

  Vanra watched his expression tighten. “Report.”

  Tyrish met her eyes. “There is good news and bad news.”

  She exhaled sharply and folded her arms. “Tyrish, just get on with it.”

  He nodded once.

  “The good news is that it is another spider. Same type we have been fighting.”

  Vanra tilted her head slightly. “And the bad news.”

  Tyrish looked at each of them, one by one.

  Then he asked a single question.

  “Did you happen to wonder where all these spiders came from?”