The moment Traebus, Dusk, and Sparky stepped through the doorway, the air shifted. Instead of another sterile hallway or an ancient stone chamber, they were standing at the edge of the same massive crevasse they had encountered earlier. Only this time, there was no exit tunnel behind them.


    Traebus slowly turned his head. "No. No, no, no. That’s not possible. We just left this place. It cannot just decide to be here again."


    Dusk sent a mental flick of this place defies logic and was already scanning the cavern. Sparky sniffed at the edge of the abyss and trilled warily.


    Then, a voice boomed from all around them, deep and resonant. "Cross."


    Traebus blinked. "...Cross? That’s all you’re giving me? Just—cross? You don’t want to offer any helpful details? A bridge, perhaps? Maybe some solid advice on how not to plummet to my doom?"


    The voice remained silent for a long moment. Then, with the same emotionless finality, it repeated, "Cross."


    Traebus let out a strangled laugh. "Oh, sure! Let me just flap my arms and fly across! That’ll go great! Why not add jump to the instructions while you’re at it?!"


    Sparky let out a soft, nervous trill. Dusk exhaled slowly, flicking Traebus a mental impression of maybe don''t antagonize the all-powerful voice.


    Unfortunately, Traebus was past the point of caring.


    "Oh, and while we’re at it, why don’t you do me a favor, Big Mysterious Voice? Go do extremely unspeakable things to your own mother! How about that for a trial?!"


    Silence.


    Then, the voice spoke again, this time with a weight behind it that made the walls shudder. "You will cross."


    The very air seemed to press down on them for a split second before fading away. And then… nothing. The voice did not return.


    Traebus glanced around. "Oh, good. I made it mad. That’s exactly what I was going for."


    Dusk sent him the mental equivalent of a long, exhausted sigh.


    Traebus groaned and turned toward the seemingly impossible task before them. "Alright. So. How exactly are we supposed to cross this?"


    Then, as if the sheer absurdity of the situation wasn’t already suffocating, an idea struck him.


    "Fine," he muttered, rolling up his sleeves. "You want me to cross? I''ll cross. But I’m doing it my way."


    Dusk tilted his head, sending a mental impression of deep skepticism. Sparky trilled uncertainly.


    Traebus flexed his fingers and focused. Just like he had done when building the bridge to the island, he gathered his mana, shaping it into something tangible, something sturdy. Slowly, he extended his hands outward, pulling up stone from the very edges of the crevasse, merging it with infused energy to construct a smooth, solid bridge.


    The voice returned almost immediately.


    "What are you doing?"


    Traebus ignored it, concentrating as he reinforced the base of his structure. The stone solidified, stretching further across the void with each pulse of magic.


    "That is not crossing," the voice intoned, sounding—was that mild offense? "You were instructed to cross."


    "Yeah, yeah, I heard you," Traebus muttered, not bothering to look up. "And I’m solving the problem like a reasonable person."


    A pause. Then, "That is not the intended solution."


    "Well, your intended solution sucks," Traebus shot back, gritting his teeth as he continued reinforcing the stone underfoot. "So I’m making my own."


    The voice hesitated, then repeated, "Cross."


    Sparky let out a giggle-like trill as if entertained by the growing irritation in the disembodied voice. Dusk simply stared at the void as if debating whether or not to agree with Traebus’s methods.


    "Oh, come on!" Traebus snapped. "Are you seriously going to keep saying that while I’m literally crossing? You never said how! This counts!"


    The voice gave an annoyed hum. "…Debatable."


    Traebus nearly lost his focus. "Oh, you smug—"


    Sparky darted behind his leg as the voice huffed one last time before finally, mercifully, shutting up.


    With a victorious grin, Traebus took the final step onto his newly-formed bridge and placed his hands on his hips. "See? Easy. Maybe next time, instead of ominous commands, you give people options. Just a thought."


    Dusk merely flicked him a look that translated to: You just angered a godlike force. Again.


    Then, just to really rub it in, he did a short, exaggerated dance—something between a victorious jig and an insult aimed at the heavens. He even threw in some finger guns for good measure.


    Sparky chirped in delight, bouncing in place. Dusk, on the other hand, sent him a very clear mental impression of you are going to regret that.


    There was a long silence. Then, finally, the voice returned, its tone utterly flat. "You have… successfully crossed."


    Traebus stopped mid-dance, blinking. "Wait. What?"


    The voice sighed. Actually sighed. "You. Have. Passed. The trial."


    Traebus squinted suspiciously at the air, half-expecting some kind of trick. "That''s it? No sudden collapsing bridge? No angry monsters attacking because I ‘disrespected the process’? No boulders rolling at me dramatically?"


    "No."


    "Well… alright then!" Traebus clapped his hands together, beaming. "I graciously accept your reluctant approval. Let it be known that I, Traebus the Bridge Architect, have outwitted the mighty Temple of Doom!"


    Sparky trilled triumphantly, while Dusk just flicked his tail in tired acceptance.


    The voice, meanwhile, had finally had enough. It simply went silent.


    Then, just as Traebus turned to gloat about his undeniable superiority over ominous disembodied voices, the air around them shifted.


    "Difficulty increased."


    Traebus froze. "Wait. What?"


    The ground beneath them rippled like liquid stone, and suddenly, they were no longer standing on the far side of the bridge. Instead, they found themselves on a small, isolated platform of rock. Before them, stretching across the abyss, was a massive stone bridge. But unlike his own, this one was alive with pure, unfiltered chaos.


    Every single trap imaginable was firing at once.


    Flamethrowers shot gouts of fire in erratic bursts. Stone pillars smashed down at random intervals, some of them breaking apart as they struck. Spikes jutted up and retracted with no discernible pattern, while swinging blades carved through the air like a demented clockwork mechanism. Some sections of the bridge crumbled and reformed as if trying to decide whether or not they even wanted to exist.


    Traebus gawked. "That is not a bridge! That is a death gauntlet on fire!"


    The voice, now with a very clear hint of smugness, simply intoned, "Cross."


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    Traebus made a strangled noise somewhere between a laugh and a scream. "Oh, NOW you’re enjoying yourself! You absolute—huff!—fine! You want me to play along?!"


    Dusk was already staring at the bridge with deep skepticism, while Sparky had flattened himself against Traebus’s shoulder, his tail wrapped tightly around his neck.


    Traebus pointed angrily at the void. "You listen here, you sentient pile of architectural nonsense! I don’t care if this place runs on ‘mystical logic’ or if some ancient sadist designed it just to personally make my life miserable! You do not get to just flip the difficulty setting because I didn’t play along!"


    The voice did not respond.


    Traebus let out an exaggerated breath, rubbed his face, and then, with all the grace of a man who had officially lost his last shred of patience, stomped toward the nightmare bridge of doom like a man on a mission to punch destiny in the teeth.


    Then, he stopped.


    A slow, unsettling grin spread across his face.


    Dusk immediately flicked him an impression of deep concern. Sparky, still coiled tightly around Traebus’s shoulder, let out a nervous chirp.


    "Nope," Traebus said, rolling his shoulders. "I’m not playing this game. You want a challenge? I’ll give you a challenge."


    He dropped to one knee, pressing his palm against the stone platform beneath them. His magic pulsed outward, rippling through the rock. "You know what always works, no matter how much the universe tries to screw me over?" he muttered, mostly to himself. "A really, really big explosion."


    Sparky trilled in immediate protest, scrambling up to the top of Traebus’s head like he wanted to be as far from this plan as possible.


    Dusk’s frills flared, sending a strong mental impression of DO NOT DO THIS.


    "Oh, don’t start," Traebus said, digging his fingers into the stone. "I have a lot of failed ideas just waiting to be put to good use, and today is the day they finally get their moment."


    His mana flared as he wove together every disastrous experiment he had ever conducted since arriving in this world—the volatile reactions, the unstable constructs, the accidental explosions. He funneled it all into the stone, creating a massive, condensed sphere of mana-charged rock, humming with barely contained destruction.


    The voice, which had been silent until now, finally returned. And this time, it did not sound smug.


    "What… are you doing?"


    Traebus grinned wider. "Oh, now you want to talk. What’s wrong? Not a fan of the idea of me obliterating your stupid murder bridge in one go?"


    The voice hesitated. "That is… not the intended approach."


    "Yeah, well, your intended approach can bite me."


    Sparky let out a desperate trill and scrambled back behind Dusk, who had given up on stopping this madness and was now just bracing himself for the inevitable catastrophe.


    The voice was noticeably less steady now. "This trial is meant to test resilience and strategy, not—"


    "Oh, I’m strategizing alright," Traebus interrupted, slamming more mana into the bomb. The stone pulsed angrily. "I strategized not playing by your stupid rules. And in about five seconds, you’re going to have a very big problem."


    Silence. Then—


    "...I believe we can renegotiate."


    Traebus raised a single brow. "Oh? Do tell."


    The bridge’s many traps suddenly stopped, frozen in place mid-activation. The spikes halted, the flames extinguished, and the swinging blades stood suspended in midair.


    The voice returned, now carefully neutral. "You may… cross. Unimpeded."


    Traebus’s grin turned downright wolfish.


    "Yeah. That’s what I thought."


    With a triumphant strut, he dusted off his hands, very smugly dispelled the bomb, and sauntered onto the now-harmless bridge.


    Dusk flicked him the mental equivalent of I hate you, but also, well done.


    Sparky, still trembling, chittered in exhausted relief.


    As they crossed, the voice remained utterly, completely silent.


    They walked for what felt like hours. The bridge stretched on endlessly, its smooth stone surface carrying them forward with no more interruptions. No traps, no obstacles, no smug omnipresent voice trying to make their lives difficult.


    Traebus should have been happy. Should have been. But the more they walked, the more a nagging feeling crept up his spine. Something about this felt too easy. Too smooth. Too—


    Without warning, they stepped forward, and the world shifted again.


    The bridge was gone. The crevasse was gone.


    They were back in the same impossible hallway.


    Traebus stared. Blinked. Took a deep breath, exhaled, and then—


    "NOPE. NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT."


    Dusk chuffed in long-suffering patience. Sparky buried his face in Traebus’s collar with a tiny, exhausted trill.


    Traebus clenched his fists, his entire body vibrating with pure, distilled frustration. "We did everything! We crossed the stupid trap bridge! We followed the rules—sort of! And you’re telling me we’re back here?!"


    Silence.


    His eye twitched. Then, wordlessly, he dropped to the floor and pressed his palm against the stone again.


    Sparky lifted his head in alarm. Dusk’s frills snapped open. Both of them immediately flicked him mental impressions of NO, STOP, BAD IDEA.


    "Oh no, we’re not doing this again!" Traebus snarled, his mana already pulsing as he began constructing another bomb. "You don’t get to loop me in your stupid cosmic hamster wheel! If this place won’t let us out, then we are leaving the fast way!"


    Sparky squeaked and leapt off his shoulder, scurrying a safe distance away. Dusk, realizing that reason had completely left the conversation, simply sighed and did the same.


    Traebus grinned maniacally as the mana-charged stone hummed under his fingers, growing brighter and brighter. "Let’s see you ‘increase difficulty’ when you don’t have walls left!"


    The hiss of a door opening made Traebus pause mid-bomb construction. He turned just in time to see the giant insect step calmly out of a doorway that, once again, had not existed before.


    The insect took one look at the glowing, unstable mana bomb forming under Traebus’s hands and tilted its head. "That seems unwise."


    Before Traebus could respond with some variation of Oh, NOW you’re concerned?, a hole opened up beneath the insect without warning. With a surprised chitter, it dropped straight down into the void below, vanishing into the seemingly infinite depths.


    A long silence followed.


    Traebus, unfazed, smirked. "Yeah, that’s what I thought."


    Dusk let out a slow, tired breath. Sparky cautiously poked his head out from behind a rock, chirping in nervous approval.


    Then, very slowly, the hole in the floor sealed itself back up, leaving no trace of its existence.


    He let out a hum. "Huh. That’s… interesting."


    Dusk flicked a very strong mental impression of DO NOT KEEP MAKING THE BOMB.


    Traebus sighed dramatically, but relented. He dismissed the mana charge with a flick of his fingers, watching the residual glow fade away. "Fine. No big explosion. For now. But I want it on record that I absolutely could’ve blown my way out of here."


    Silence. No smug voice. No ominous disapproval. Nothing.


    Traebus crossed his arms. "That’s what I thought."


    Then, after a pause, he snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute. We passed. We passed the trial! That means—"


    Dusk flicked a wary impression of don’t say it just as Traebus proudly declared, "—I demand a prize."


    The silence stretched.


    Then, from somewhere unseen, the voice returned, its tone somehow both tired and incredulous. "A prize?"


    "Yes. A prize. This was a trial, right? And what do trials lead to? Dungeons. And what do dungeons have? Loot." Traebus crossed his arms triumphantly. "I will be accepting my legendary weapon, artifact of immense power, or—bare minimum—a bag of gold."


    The insect’s voice hesitated before replying. "This was not a dungeon."


    Traebus scoffed. "Oh, come on. Trials. Traps. A smug omnipresent voice. This is exactly how dungeons work."


    "This was a test of capability and adaptability. You were not meant to be rewarded."


    "What kind of backwards nonsense—" Traebus threw up his hands. "Then what was the point of all this? Just to annoy me?"


    The voice did not confirm, but it did not deny it either.


    Dusk flicked an impression of yes, that is exactly the point.


    Sparky trilled in amusement, hopping onto Traebus’s shoulder.


    Traebus groaned, rubbing his temples. "Fine. Whatever. But if I find out later that there was treasure and you just held out on me, I will be back."


    The voice, now perfectly dry, responded with finality. "No. You will not."


    Before Traebus could argue, the world lurched.


    With a sudden blink of reality, he, Dusk, and Sparky found themselves back in the cave—standing in the same uneven cavern where they had first discovered the metal door. Only now, the door was gone, as if it had never existed at all.


    Traebus stood frozen for a long moment, then very slowly turned in a circle, his expression shifting from confusion to mounting rage.


    "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" he roared at the empty air. "YOU COULD HAVE DONE THAT AT ANY TIME?!"


    Dusk flicked a mental impression of deep, tired acceptance and started walking toward the tunnel leading back to the surface.


    Sparky, wisely, scrambled off of Traebus’s shoulder before he could get caught in whatever fiery tantrum was about to happen.


    Traebus stomped his foot, waving his arms at the featureless rock where the door had been. "I was owed something! You don’t just make people suffer through all that for nothing! That’s robbery! That’s fraud! That’s—" He made an inarticulate noise of frustration and threw a small rock at the wall, which, of course, accomplished absolutely nothing.


    Dusk let out a very tired chuff. Come. We are leaving.


    Still fuming, Traebus spun on his heel and stomped after him, muttering a constant stream of grievances under his breath. "Unbelievable. Weeks of torment. A dungeon with no loot. A bridge of death for nothing. I should’ve blown the whole thing up. I could have blown the whole thing up."


    Sparky trilled softly in amusement, hopping along beside them as they made their way back into the tunnels, leaving the cursed, rewardless dungeon behind them forever.


    However, as they moved forward, expecting to return to the familiar twisting passageways, the tunnel was gone.


    Instead, they stepped into an enormous cavern, the ceiling so high it vanished into the darkness above. The walls shimmered with veins of glowing minerals, their soft, ambient light casting an ethereal glow across the space. Stalagmites and stalactites jutted out like jagged teeth, framing pools of water so still they reflected the surroundings like mirrors.


    The ground beneath them was uneven but solid, patches of polished stone glinting in unnatural hues. Clusters of raw gemstones and crystals jutted from the rock in every imaginable color—deep sapphires, fiery rubies, shimmering emeralds, and eerie, pulsating violet formations that hummed faintly with unknown energy. Striations of rare ores wove through the cavern walls, some metallic, some completely alien in appearance.


    Traebus stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh."


    Sparky chirped, his wide eyes reflecting the glimmering surroundings. Dusk flicked an impression of cautious curiosity, his frills twitching as he scanned the chamber.


    He exhaled slowly, taking in the vast wealth of material surrounding them. "Well. I take back exactly half of what I said earlier. This… this will do."


    Dusk gave him a long look before sending him an impression of hypocrite.


    Traebus ignored it, already reaching toward a cluster of particularly intriguing blue crystals. "Finally, something in this ridiculous death trap that actually makes suffering through it worthwhile."