That's all that existed for what felt like eternity.
But then… warmth.
Something soft was wrapped around his fingers. A gentle squeeze. A light pressure on his chest, like someone had leaned on him, as if unwilling to let go. Then came the sound—soft breathing, light sobs muffled into his hospital gown.
Ryu's eyes slowly cracked open, heavy with fatigue, with the taste of iron still thick on his tongue.
The white ceiling above him wasn't the damp stone of a dungeon nor the fiery sky of the hellish trial he had endured.
It was clean. Still. Real.
He shifted slightly and saw her.
His mother.
Sitting in a chair, head resting on the bed beside him, eyes closed from exhaustion. Her hand still gripped his.
His throat tightened. The dungeon had nearly erased everything—his humanity, his memories, even his reason to fight. But this—this anchor to the world above—was why he had clawed his way out of hell.
"Mom," he whispered hoarsely.
Her eyes blinked open. At first, they were cloudy with sleep—but the moment they met his, her expression shattered into pure emotion.
"Ryu," she breathed, her voice trembling with disbelief.
He couldn't hold back. Tears spilt over his cheeks, hot and shameful, mixing with the salt of old wounds.
"You're awake…" she said, gripping his hand like it would vanish.
"I made it back," he whispered. "I told you I would."
She nodded, already sobbing, brushing his hair back. "You were out for two days, Ryu. They brought you here half-dead. Your heart stopped twice."
"I'm used to dying," he muttered, trying to smile, but it came out bitter. "I've done it… too many times now."
She touched his cheek. "You're not allowed to anymore. Not like that."
He lay there in silence, letting her hold him like the boy he no longer was. The dungeon had stripped away his innocence, but for a moment, just in this room, he could let himself forget.
Then—
[System Notification: You have Awakened a Sealed OS-level skill.]
[Soul Attraction (Primordial Variant) – Awakened]
[Skill Function: Your soul emits an ancient resonance that draws remnants of fallen beings. May copy traits, memories, or skills of the dead. Success rate depends on emotional imprint and spiritual dominance.]
[Current Copy Slot Activated: "Miyuki's Last Light" – Active.]
His breath hitched. Miyuki.
He could feel her essence—faint, like a whisper in his mind. A memory that wasn't his… her final thoughts, her desperate wish to protect him. It echoed through him, a warmth in the cold iron of his soul.
He blinked fast to stop the tears.
She wasn't completely gone.
The system had granted him the impossible. Soul Attraction—an ancient skill lost to time. A power even the gods feared.
[Skill Link Detected: You may permanently retain copied skills by forging emotional bonds or re-living core memories.]
"Miyuki…" he whispered. "I'll carry out your will. I swear it."
His mother looked at him, confused. "Who's Miyuki?"
He looked away. "A friend. One I couldn't save."
That night, while the hospital buzzed softly around him, Ryu stared at the ceiling and reviewed the rest of his system.
His body was still regenerating, slowly knitting itself back into stability, but he felt different. Alive, but not entirely human. Something inside him had been rewritten during his collapse.
And there it was:
[Title Bonus: Godkiller of Chains]
You have slain a divine-bound entity with a mortal weapon. Your presence now disrupts divine bindings and slavery-related enchantments. You are marked as a threat to celestial order.
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Chainbreaker's Authority]
You may release others from soul contracts, enslavement, or cursed bindings at will. May provoke divine retribution.
He exhaled slowly. It all made sense now—the agony, the rage, the transformation. He had changed something fundamental during that final moment.
He wasn't just a survivor anymore.
He was a force.
The next morning, nurses came in, shocked to see him sitting up, legs hanging over the bed. One tried to protest, but his glare—burning with awakened energy—silenced her.
He needed to move.
The world outside his hospital room was not as he left it. There were murmurs in the halls, whispers of dungeon flareups and strange surges of spiritual energy. Survivors from the same dungeon were being brought in, some missing limbs, others catatonic. Many never woke up.
Ryu walked past it all with the weight of his sins dragging behind him.
Then he heard it—someone calling.
"Help! Somebody! Please!"
He turned sharply toward the voice.
A young woman, bruised and limping, was supporting a man who was bleeding from the chest, his shirt soaked. The man had a faint blue glow around his body, as if something spiritual was tethered to him.
"Ryu!" One of the staff shouted. "Get back to your room!"
But he was already moving.
"Let me see him," Ryu said as he reached the woman.
"Please—he just came back from a portal—there were chains in the air and something bit into his soul—he's dying!"
Ryu knelt and looked closer.
The man's body was failing, but not from blood loss. A foreign enchantment was wrapped around his soul—tight, cruel, draining his life.
Divine binding magic.
Ryu's eyes narrowed.
Gods again. Always the gods.
He placed his palm on the man's chest.
[Chainbreaker's Authority – Activate]
The bell screamed.
Ryu heard it in his bones—the shriek of divine threads snapping. The enchantment resisted, digging in, trying to anchor itself in Ryu's hand.
Then something snapped.
The chains shattered in a blaze of crimson light, leaving behind only silence and the sound of the man gasping, breath returning.
Ryu stood up, eyes glowing faintly red.
"You're free," he muttered.
Everyone stared at him.
Whispers began to spread.
"That's him. The one who came back from the Twisted Hell."
"He has a title. A real one. They're calling him the Godkiller."
"No one else made it out alive…"
"Is he human?"
Ryu didn't answer. He just walked back toward his room.
Later that night, a knock came at the hospital window. Not the door. The window is on the fifth floor.
Ryu turned, and standing on the ledge outside was a figure cloaked in shadow.
He opened the window calmly.
The figure stepped in, silent as the wind.
"Ryu of the Broken Dungeon," the man said. His voice was laced with magic. "You've awakened something old. The gods are stirring."
"Let them."
"You've gained Soul Attraction," the man continued. "Do you know what that means?"
"I can carry the dead," Ryu said.
"You become them if you're not careful. That skill is a curse to those who grieve too much."
Ryu looked the man in the eyes.
"Then I'll carry their pain, too."
The stranger smiled faintly. "I have a proposition. The gods have begun enslaving people again. Dungeon-borns like you. We're forming a resistance. Not all of us survive."
"I don't want to join your war," Ryu said.
"This isn't a war," the man replied. "It's a cleansing. And you've already lit the first fire, Godkiller."
He vanished in a swirl of ash, leaving behind a single item.
A black token with a white chain engraved.
Ryu picked it up. It felt warm, like destiny.
That night, in the quiet after the storm, Ryu stood on the hospital rooftop, looking out over the city.
It looked the same.
But everything had changed.
Inside him burnt the memory of Miyuki. The agony of his guild's last screams. The hunger for answers. The hatred for the father who abandoned him to that dungeon. And now… the gods who thought mortals were toys.
He clenched his fists.
His regeneration was complete. His arsenal was forged in blood. His soul now echoed with every life he couldn't save.
He would never be caged again.
Never be used.
And he would tear down heaven itself if it meant making this world his.
The wind howled softly as he whispered into the night:
"I'm coming for all of you."
And the chains in the sky trembled.
[Next Objective: Locate the Black Cathedral—Origin of Divine Contracts]
[OS-level Skill Soul Attraction Evolving—Pending Synchronization with "Miyuki's Last Light"]
[Warning: Spiritual Overload Detected.]. Recommended: Emotional Stabilization or Soul Partition.]
Ryu smiled darkly.
Let it burn. He had no more need for stability.
Just revenge.
And maybe… redemption.