🕰️ —Moments After the Gate Closed—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
It's quiet here.
Not silent — there's a hum, like the air is breathing around me. Living. Watching. The walls are neither stone nor spirit, and the floor glows faintly with threads of memory.
I take a step.
It echoes.
Not in sound — in time.
My footstep shudders backward and forward, creating a flicker of myself half a pace ahead and behind. The Dungeon is folding around me. Recognizing me.
Or perhaps… remembering.
"You were sealed here once."
The voice doesn't speak aloud. It curls into my mind like fog.
"You were one of us."
I don't answer.
Not yet.
I need to see what's waiting at the end of this corridor.
🕰️ —Dungeon Floor 17, Edge of the Rift—
[Bell — First Person]
She's gone.
I reach the wall again, where she vanished — solid stone. Just a normal part of the tunnel now. No trace of a gate. Not even a seam.
"Tsuki-san!" I shout.
No answer.
Welf grabs my arm. "Bell, don't — you'll get yourself killed."
"But she's in there!"
"And she's Tsukihana," Lili says firmly, eyes narrowed. "If anyone can survive, it's her."
That's not what I want to hear. I want a plan. I want a door I can break down.
But there's nothing.
Only a wall.
And the echo of a girl who smiled before walking into the unknown.
🕰️ —Unknown Depth: The Veiled Spiral—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
The corridor ends in a spiral stairway — suspended in void. No railings. Just steps made of translucent crystal, spiraling downward into… memory.
Each step I descend, I see something.
A version of myself.
—Draped in white, tail-bound, kneeling before an altar made of bones.
—Roaring in war, flames bursting from my hands.
—Cradling a child not born of this world.
—Alone. Always alone.
"Your fragments were scattered to protect the cycle."
I pause mid-step.
"You were never meant to awaken."
I speak, for the first time since entering this place.
"No one ever wakes up by accident."
🕰️ —Hestia Familia Home, Late Night—
[Third-Person, Close Bell POV]
Bell stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep.
He'd pretended to eat dinner. Smiled at Hestia. Nodded through Welf's jokes.
But every time he closed his eyes, he saw her walking into the gate.
She hadn't looked afraid.
That's what scared him the most.
He shifted in bed, hand clenched over the blanket.
"Please come back," he whispered into the darkness.
🕰️ —Freya's Mirror Hall, Same Hour—
[Freya — First Person]
The mirrors won't stop flickering.
Every scrying portal shows the same thing: a spiral. Endless. Reflecting her face in a thousand broken shards.
She's moving through something older than the Dungeon. Something beneath it.
"She's changing," Ottar says quietly behind me.
"No," I whisper.
"She's remembering."
Ottar doesn't respond.
He knows I'm right.
🕰️ —Unknown Depth: The Shrine of Tails—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
The stairs end at a platform.
A shrine waits at the center — carved from foxbone and glowing jade, nine statues arrayed in a circle. Each one different. Each one me.
One statue's head is shattered.
One bleeds.
One smiles with far too many teeth.
This is no temple.
It's a tomb.
I walk forward, and the air grows heavy.
My heart pounds.
I reach for the center, where a glowing sigil hovers — a crest I don't fully understand, but that aches to be touched.
"Once touched, you cannot return."
I pause.
Then I touch it.
🕰️ —Hestia Familia Rooftop, Dawn—
[Hestia — First Person]
I'm a goddess.
I've seen war, peace, love, and betrayal.
But I've never seen the sky turn pale at midnight.
That's what it did.
Just now.
For one second — the moon froze, then flickered like an eye closing.
Something old just stirred.
And I know Tsukihana is behind it.
🕰️ —Unknown Depth: Soul Memory Alignment—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
The shrine explodes in light.
But I don't fall.
I rise.
My tails — all nine — shimmer into existence, each one wrapped in a different memory. Fire. Ice. Wind. Stars. Rage. Grief. Laughter. Silence. And the final one — Truth.
They wrap around me like a throne.
I see everything now.
Who I was.
Why I was sealed.
Why the Dungeon called to me.
I was never meant to explore it.
I was meant to guard it.
"You are the key and the lock."
"You are the crown and the chain."
The light fades.
I breathe.
And step forward.
🕰️ —Babel Tower, Council Chamber—
[Ouranos — Third Person]
The old god opened his eyes, slowly.
"It's begun," he said.
Hermes leaned in. "What has?"
"Balance," Ouranos whispered.
Loki frowned. "Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all."
🕰️ —Final Scene: Dungeon Floor 17, Return—
[Third Person, Cinematic]
A seam opens in the wall.
No sound.
No warning.
Just… a door, appearing where none was.
Bell leaps to his feet.
"Tsuki-san?!"
She steps through.
Not glowing.
Not radiant.
Just… her.
Her tails are gone again. Her power folded neatly into the shape of a girl.
She smiles.
"I'm back."
The wall closes behind her.
Bell stares.
"…Welcome home," he whispers.
And beneath her skin, the Dungeon's heartbeat echoes.
📜 End of Chapter 12