Chapter 17: Survivor’s Guilt

The room felt heavier the moment Maya spoke again.

She stood there, arms still wrapped around herself, eyes fixed on the cracked floor between us. The silence stretched until it became painful.

“I was at the staging area when the recovery team brought them out,” she said, voice low and shaky. “What was left of them. Kain’s body… it looked like someone had folded him in half. His armor was crushed so badly they had to cut it off piece by piece. Lira had her rifle still clutched in her hand, even though her chest was caved in. Marcus… I couldn’t even recognize his face.”

I felt the words hit me like punches. My stomach twisted. “Maya… stop.”

She didn’t. Her voice trembled but kept going. “The whole base camp went silent. No one knew what to say. People were crying, others were shouting. Someone kept asking where you were. And then they brought you out on a stretcher. Unconscious. Not a single scratch on you. The only one who came back alive.”

I stared at my hands, shame burning hot in my throat. “I didn’t ask for that. I swear I didn’t.”

Maya took a shaky breath. “The official story is that the gate was too unstable. But everyone who was there knows something is wrong. They’re saying the dungeon targeted the team on purpose. And the only person it spared was the porter. You.”

I looked up at her, my chest tight. “So now the world thinks I’m the reason they died? Even though I did nothing?”

She nodded slowly, fear and pain mixing in her eyes. “Some people are calling you the wrong survivor. Others are saying you made a deal with the gate. That you traded their lives for yours. I’ve heard whispers in the corridors. They’re scared of you, Elias.”

I felt my breath catch. “I didn’t trade anything. I was just there. Carrying crates. Trying to feel like I mattered for once. And now… now everyone I knew is dead because of me.”

Maya stepped a little closer, her voice dropping. “That’s what I keep thinking about. Why you? You were the least powerful person on that expedition. No system. No skills. Just a normal guy. So why did the dungeon kill trained S-Rank hunters but spare you?”

The question hung in the air like a blade.

I felt my hands start to shake again. “I don’t know. Soren says the Core recognized me. That my name was already on the seal before we entered. That it needed a host and I was… compatible.”

Maya’s eyes searched my face, fear clear in every line of her expression. “Compatible how? What makes you so special that an ancient monster would choose you over Kain? Over all of them?”

“I don’t know!” My voice rose before I could stop it. The pressure in the room shifted slightly, but I forced myself to breathe. “That’s what scares me the most. I keep asking myself the same thing. Why me? Why did it spare me when everyone else died screaming?”

Maya took another small step forward, her voice trembling. “Tell me the truth, Elias. Did you feel anything when it happened? Did the dungeon… speak to you? Did it say why it wanted you?”

I swallowed hard, tears stinging my eyes. “It whispered something. When I was alone in the core chamber. It said ‘You came back.’ Like it knew me. Like we had done this before. And then it said integration accepted. That’s all I remember before the pain started.”

Maya’s face paled. “You came back? What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, voice breaking. “But it scares me. Because part of me wonders if the others died because the dungeon was clearing space for me. Because it needed me empty and desperate enough to accept whatever it wanted to put inside me.”

She stared at me for a long moment, the fear in her eyes deepening. “So you really are carrying something inside you. Something that killed an entire elite team just to get to you.”

I nodded slowly, unable to meet her eyes anymore. “Yeah. And the system keeps reminding me. Structural Integrity at 98%. Every time I get angry or scared, it drops. Soren says I have to never lose control. But how am I supposed to do that when I feel this guilty? When I keep seeing their faces every time I close my eyes?”

Maya’s voice came out as a trembling whisper. “Then answer the question no one else has dared to ask you yet.”

She leaned forward slightly, eyes locked on mine.

“Why did it spare you, Elias?”

The question hit me harder than anything else she had said.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Because deep down, I was starting to fear the same thing.

What if the dungeon didn’t spare me?

What if it chose me?

And what if the real reason everyone else died… was because I was exactly what it had been waiting for?

I couldn’t answer her.

The silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating.

Maya waited, fear and hope and dread all mixed in her eyes.

And I had no answer to give.