The ground shook beneath Aira's boots as she stood at the entrance of the Crimson Spiral Vault, one of the few remaining Extreme-Tier Dungeons near the borderlands of the Ashfall Dominion.
Rumors said it had been sealed for over a century, its traps too deadly, its guardians too ancient. Others claimed a living flame slumbered deep within it, a conscious entity bound in eternal madness.
Aira didn't care about the stories.
She was here to conquer it.
Her Soulfire Chains coiled lightly around her shoulders like a glowing scarf. Her Blazebound Mark shimmered on her chest, faint but constant. With her level now at 25 and her party resting behind, she'd chosen to clear this vault solo.
---
The Descent Begins
The vault wasn't a traditional dungeon.
It spiraled downward like a drill into the earth, each floor shaped like a maze of obsidian and steel, glowing with erratic red runes. The air was dense with volatile mana.
Aira stepped inside.
Immediately, the temperature rose, and the first layer's guardians emerged—Spiral Watchers, humanoid constructs made of blade-rings and burning eyes.
One lunged.
Aira ducked low and threw two chains, piercing the Watcher's eye-core. The construct froze as the chains latched to its soul-thread.
"Soulburn."
The chains pulsed—and the construct exploded from within.
More came. Ten. Twenty.
Aira's chains danced like serpents, coiling, striking, snapping around limbs and throats. With each kill, she absorbed fragments of their flame cores, replenishing her mana and stamina.
After an hour of nonstop combat, the floor pulsed.
A giant flame rune ignited on the wall. A voice whispered in ancient tongues.
[Layer 1 Cleared. Access to Lower Spiral Granted.]
---
Layer Two: The Forge Labyrinth
The second floor was hotter—filled with shifting walls and massive hammers that swung on runes of fire. Golems marched through channels of molten steel, each carrying rune-infused weapons.
Aira narrowed her eyes. "Puzzle and battle."
Using her chains like grappling hooks, she slung herself past traps, freezing forge sequences mid-motion by binding their mana channels. She even used her chains to pull apart gears and disrupt enemy formations.
At one point, she faced a Flamebound Juggernaut, five meters tall, covered in rotating blade-armor. It took everything—Flame Clone, Infernal Dash, and three chains to bring it down.
When she finally reached the central vault, she was singed and panting—but not broken.
Inside the chamber stood a Sentinel of Spiral Flame, a humanoid being made of embersteel and ancient fire runes. It spoke in a dead language, then raised both arms as the walls ignited.
The fight began.
Boss Battle: Sentinel of Spiral Flame
Aira had fought many bosses.
But none fought like the Sentinel. It didn't use brute strength—it rewrote the room. The floor melted into a moving gearwheel. Fire runes reversed gravity. Blades of flame flickered into being.
Aira used Soulfire Chains to anchor herself to the center pillar, pulling herself back whenever gravity flipped. She moved like fire itself—impossible to pin, her movements a blur of speed and precision.
She baited the Sentinel into launching a full beam attack, then redirected it using her chains to reflect the energy into a conduit rune on the wall.
The Sentinel roared—but now its rune-core glowed brighter.
That's when she struck.
Six Soulfire Chains at once—piercing every weak spot, anchoring the Sentinel mid-air.
"Soulburn: Spiral Bind."
The chains coiled and compressed, burning through steel, runes, an
d will.
The Sentinel exploded in a burst of spiraling flame and mechanical ash.