The monster stared at him in silence. It raised its spear, and in the dark of the corridor Luke caught the silhouette of the Midnight Warden emerging from the shadows. The twin red lights in its visor flared brighter as they locked onto him. For a few seconds, the creature stood perfectly still.

[Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

Then, with a sudden, sharp motion, it tightened its grip and hurled the spear. The throw was frighteningly fast, and dead accurate. Luke had already activated his refined perception the moment he heard those metallic footsteps. The spear came in like a lightning bolt, straight for his face. At the last instant, he caught it mid-flight with one hand, stopping it cold inches from his head.

The Warden tilted its helmet, watching him. The spear vanished, recalled instantly to its inventory.

"And to think one of those skewered me once," Luke muttered.

Princess Charlie gripped her sword firmly, but the Warden didn't wait. A blade appeared in its hand. The creature let out a roar, activating its berserk state.

Luke braced himself with stamina and charged, alone. Charlie stayed in the corner, eyes sharp, unmoving.

The Warden's sword came in fast, cutting through the air with precision. Luke slipped to the side, driving a bare-fisted punch into the black steel breastplate. The blow sent the creature stumbling back, crashing to the floor, but it rose quickly. For a moment, it simply stared at him, almost in disbelief at his strength.

Their weapons clashed, steel on steel, the sound reverberating through the fortress. The Warden tried to overpower him, but Luke kept pressing, step by step, feeling the monster's arms straining to hold against the force.

In a blur, Luke drew both kukris, channeling mana into the blades. He watched the dent in the armor smooth itself out, the enchanted repair already working.

"Knew it," he said under his breath.

A punch like that should have shattered a statue. He advanced with both kukris, deflecting the Warden's swings before hurling one blade. It punched through the breastplate, the impact forcing the monster to slide back across the floor. Luke was already there, driving his fist into it again and slamming it against the wall.

Mana surged into the kukri. When the Warden raised an arm to block, Luke's strike severed it clean at the elbow. The other arm reached for him, he cut that one off too.

The creature staggered.

"I was just warming up," Luke said coldly.

His free hand smashed into the Warden's helmet, sending it sprawling to the floor. He stepped forward and, before it could rise, brought his boot down hard on its head, again and again, just as one of these monsters had once done to people in the Haven.

The helmet cracked, revealing fragments of a crushed skull. The thing was dying. Luke summoned his bow from the inventory, drew an arrow, and let it fly into the exposed bone.

[You have slain a Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

Exhaling, he looked down at the corpse. The armor was soulbound and vanished the moment the Warden died, leaving only the undead body behind. Charlie didn't lower her guard, but moved to stand beside him. She knew he'd wanted to handle this himself.

"One more vengeance for you, Angelica," Luke said, looking at the bow before sending it back into his inventory.

He'd sworn to use that weapon to avenge every enemy she'd ever had. In the past, this very Warden had killed Angelica's brother and her friends. Without another word, he turned toward the fortress's long central corridor and kept moving forward.

***

Another roar echoed through the fortress. A Midnight Warden came charging in. So there wasn't just one in here. This was the third he'd run into. The clang of armored footsteps rang out again, another one was coming. One swung its sword, the blade smashing into the floor. The other rushed forward with a spear. Charlie raised her Spectral Barrier, the impact rebounding hard enough to make the monster flinch. She stepped in with her sword, spinning into a slash.

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[Mark of Doom activated]

Steel clashed as she traded blows with the sword-wielder, each strike pushing them both harder. Meanwhile, the spear-bearer barreled straight for Luke.

The weapon slammed into the wall when he slipped aside at the last second. The Warden kicked at him while wrenching the spear free, then lunged again in a dead-straight thrust. Luke knocked the shaft wide with a boot, igniting his Demon Blade Dance, and the fight turned into a blur of steel.

Every strike drove the Warden backward, kukris cutting deep. The black armor screeched and buckled under the onslaught, ragged grooves tearing through to rotting flesh beneath. The sound of tortured metal filled the corridor as more pieces gave way.

Luke forced the creature against the wall, spun like a dancer, and swept his kukri through the visor in a clean horizontal cut. By the time he completed the turn, the Warden had dropped to its knees. The spear clattered to the ground. Its final act was to lift one gauntleted hand toward its ruined head, a palm pressing against a skull now missing a large, neat section.

[You have slain a Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

A heavy crash rang out moments later from Charlie's side of the hall.

[Princess Charlie has slain a Midnight Warden – Lvl 40]

*The [Death Knight] class of Princess Charlie has reached Level 34! (+3 Str, +3 End, +2 Agi, +2 Vit, +2 Int, +1 Per, +2 Free Points)* [An item has been added to your inventory]

"In the past, you and I nearly died more than once fighting these things," Luke said, glancing her way. "Now we can each take one down alone."

She nodded with pride, then drove her blade into the corpse again, methodically hacking it apart. In fact, Luke noticed she'd done that to every Warden they'd killed so far. He didn't comment. Charlie had been killed twice by these things. She had her own score to settle.

"I still remember the day you threw yourself off a cliff with Allison, running from one of them," Artemis said.

"Oh, right. I forget sometimes that you were around back then."

"I might have been silent, but in my head? I was screaming the whole time about what an idiot you were."

Before going deeper into the fortress, Luke pulled up his inventory to check the new loot. His eyes widened, and he let out a low whistle.

[Midnight Warden's Helm (Ultra-Rare)]

Description: A reinforced helm of black steel, once worn by one of the dreaded Midnight Wardens. Extremely heavy, but exceptionally durable.

Enchantments: [Mana Repair (Rare)]: If damaged, the helm can be restored by channeling mana into it, no need to remove or return it to the inventory. [Midnight Vision (Rare)]: The twin red lights that serve as its "eyes" allow the wearer to maintain full perception in complete darkness.

Bonus: +20 Strength Requirement: Level 20 in any Fighter class.]

"Two red eyes?" he read aloud.

This wasn't an item for him, it was for his partner. He sent it straight to her inventory. The helm appeared in Charlie's possession, and she immediately pulled up her system menu to equip it. Her old silver helm, the one she'd worn ever since they'd taken down that pugilist ages ago, vanished. In its place was an imposing helm of black steel. Combined with her chestplate, she looked almost like a Midnight Warden herself, minus the height and, of course, the fact that her build was distinctly feminine.

What caught him off guard was when two glowing red lights flared to life in the visor, like a pair of burning eyes.

"Charlie, that's… pretty damn cool," he said. The lights blinked out. "Can you control when they turn on?"

She nodded.

The glow pulsed in and out as she experimented, a rhythm of crimson sparks in the dark. At some point, she seemed to grow self-conscious under his gaze.

"In your world, makeup is the mask of a woman, or something like that," Artemis remarked. "Charlie's makeup is her helmet. You should compliment her."

"She really does look good in that thing," he said. "And I'm guessing it'll be great for scaring the hell out of anyone in the Wild Zone."

Artemis sighed. "That's not quite what I meant… but you know what? It worked. She looks so happy she even lit the fire."

Luke had noticed this before. For some reason, whenever he complimented her, the flame in her hand would ignite on its own.

"Let's get back to exploring," he said.

She nodded.

***

Luke moved through the fortress by trial and error. The place was so massive, its corridors so winding, it might as well have been a labyrinth. He'd been here long enough to start marking the walls with blood from the vial he kept in his pendant, just to track where he'd already been.

The one upside was that he hadn't run into another Midnight Warden. He'd actually cleared the place. For Angelica and the others who'd died here, he was finishing their mission. And, of course, for himself. It was a personal milestone. He could still remember, clear as yesterday, the day he'd first stood before the mission statue of the king and read those words that had rattled him back then.

"This corridor looks different from the ones we've been through," he murmured.

Charlie nodded. They advanced with caution. The silence in this place had grown heavy, oppressive. And the deeper they went, the more the walls seemed to press in, no windows here, not this deep in the fortress's heart.

When they turned a corner, something caught his eye. At the far end, another bend revealed a staircase leading upward. But it wasn't the stairs that grabbed his attention, it was what lay straight ahead.

They quickened their pace, still alert. As they drew closer, Luke felt a flicker of something warm inside him. A massive set of double doors loomed at the corridor's end. Etched into their surface was the image of a moon.

"The mechanism… I finally found it!" he said.

He stepped forward, emotions mixing and swirling in his chest. Reaching out, he pushed against the doors, and a system notification flashed before his eyes.

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