Chapter 15: The Truth About Survival

I couldn’t hold the question back any longer.

“Why did they all die?” My voice came out raw, barely above a whisper. “Kain, Lira, Marcus… the entire team. Why did the dungeon kill them but leave me standing?”

Soren was still kneeling in front of me, his hand no longer on my shoulder. He stayed quiet for a long moment, storm-cloud eyes studying my face like he was deciding how much truth I could take.

“Because the Abyss Gate was never a normal dungeon,” he said finally. “It was a containment vault. Built to imprison something ancient. Something that should never have been allowed to wake up.”

I stared at him, my hands still trembling in my lap. “A vault? Then why did we go inside? Why send an elite team if it was just supposed to stay locked?”

Soren exhaled slowly. “Because we didn’t know. Not fully. The official records called it a Rank-S forbidden gate. The kind that kills everyone who enters. But classified documents told a different story. It was designed as a prison. For centuries…maybe longer…it held back a Primordial Core. An entity older than any recorded dungeon.”

I leaned forward, heart pounding. “Then why did it open for us? Why did it kill everyone except me?”

“Because the vault didn’t fail because it was weak,” Soren said, voice low. “It failed because it recognized you, Elias. The moment you stepped inside, the seal identified its intended host. The Core had been waiting for a compatible vessel. Someone desperate enough. Empty enough. You.”

My stomach twisted. “So they died… because of me? Because the dungeon decided I was the right cage?”

Soren didn’t look away. “Yes. The Core needed a singular host to complete the integration. The others were obstacles. It studied their abilities, countered them perfectly, and removed them one by one. Methodically. Efficiently. It protected you the entire time.”

I felt sick. “Kain laughed at me outside the gate. He told me not to slow them down. And then the dungeon used his own power to crush him. Because of me.”

Soren reached for the tablet he had set aside earlier and tapped the screen a few times. “There’s more. I’m going to show you something classified. Very few people have seen this report.”

He turned the tablet toward me. A red-stamped document filled the screen.

\[ABYSS GATE EXPEDITION - CLASSIFIED\]

I scanned the lines quickly, my eyes catching on grim phrases.

“Planned casualty rate… acceptable losses… Seal candidate identification…”

My voice shook. “What is this?”

“Read the bottom,” Soren said quietly.

I scrolled down. The final section was labeled \[SURVIVAL PROBABILITY.\]

\[Team Survival Probability: ZERO\]

\[Primary Objective: Successful integration of Primordial Core into compatible host.\]

\[Compatible Host Identified: Elias Verne\]

\[Survival Probability for Host: 100% (Conditional)\]

My hands started shaking so badly I almost dropped the tablet.

“They knew,” I whispered. “You all knew the team was going to die. The whole expedition… it was never about clearing the gate. It was about delivering me to it.”

Soren nodded slowly. “The operation was never meant to succeed as a standard dungeon clear. The IHA had been monitoring potential Seal candidates for years. You pinged the system eight years ago. We… guided circumstances to keep you in the right state of mind. Desperate. Invisible. Ready.”

I looked up at him, eyes burning. “You planned this? You sent those people to die just so I could become this… this thing?”

“I didn’t send them,” Soren said, voice steady but quieter now. “But I approved the mission parameters. We needed the Core to choose its host willingly. Forcing it would have caused catastrophic failure. The team was told it was a high-risk clear. Only a handful of us knew the real objective.”

I felt tears sliding down my face again. “Kain asked me why I volunteered. I told him dying trying to do something impossible felt better than living as nothing. And you used that. You used all of us.”

Soren didn’t deny it. “Yes. Your desperation made the integration smoother. The Core responded to your willingness to matter, even at the cost of your own life. That’s why you survived when no one else did.”

I set the tablet down hard on the bed, voice breaking. “So I’m not a survivor. I’m the reason they’re all dead. The dungeon didn’t save me. It used me. And you… you helped it.”

“I helped create the conditions,” Soren admitted. “But the Core chose you long before we entered that gate. Your name was already on the seal. The expedition simply delivered the vessel it had been waiting for.”

I pressed my hands over my face, shoulders shaking. “I keep seeing their faces. Kain’s laugh. Lira trying to protect me at the end. They thought they were going in to win glory. And instead they were sacrificed so I could become this cage.”

Soren stayed kneeling in front of me, close enough that I could feel the warmth of his presence. “That guilt is real, Elias. You should feel it. But you also need to understand something important. The Core didn’t pick you randomly. It picked you because you were the only one compatible. The only one whose emptiness matched its need.”

I lowered my hands and looked at him through blurred vision. “So what am I supposed to do with that? Thank you for turning me into a weapon?”

“You are not a weapon,” Soren said softly, repeating what he had told me earlier. “You are a disaster waiting for permission. And right now, the only person who can decide whether that disaster happens… is you.”

The blue screen flickered faintly in my vision, the timer still counting down in silence.

847 days.

I looked at the cracked floor, the shattered glass, and the man kneeling in front of me who had helped engineer all of this.

“Then tell me the truth,” I whispered. “Is there any way to stop it? Or am I just counting down to the day I stop being me?”

Soren’s eyes held mine for a long moment.

“That,” he said quietly, “is what we’re going to find out together.”