Catgirls And Dungeons (Yuri)
Chapter 214 - 214: Shadowfang

Lucian leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. His golden eyes found Ereskia's.

"It's your father," he said quietly. "We finally have some information."

The words seemed to stop time.

Ereskia's breath caught in her throat. For a heartbeat, she just stood there, frozen, and then the emotion hit all at once, like a dam bursting.

She moved forward suddenly, planting both hands on the desk hard enough to rattle the stack of papers.

"What do you mean?" she demanded, voice sharp. "What did you find? Tell me! Now!"

"Ereskia!" Larpard was already moving. He stepped in quickly and grabbed her arms, pulling her gently back. "Calm down. Please."

His voice stayed steady, but his eyes… they told another story. He looked shaken, like something long buried had just clawed its way to the surface.

Apparently, the boy had made his peace with it long ago, or at least, he told himself he had. He'd come to believe their father was gone, that he'd died, lost somewhere in that cursed dungeon all those years ago.

But now, hearing it from Lucian himself…

For a moment, the air felt too heavy to breathe.

Ereskia drew in a shaky breath, her hand rising to her forehead as if to push back the pounding behind her eyes. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

"…I'm sorry," she murmured. "I wasn't ready for that."

Lucian's voice softened. "No apology needed. If it were me… I'd probably react worse."

She gave a small nod, the tension in her limbs still visible, and stepped back to stand beside her brother.

"So… what happened?" she asked. Her voice was quieter now, though her heart still beat like a war drum in her chest.

Lucian looked up at them, his gaze steady. For a moment, he didn't speak.

Then he drew in a breath.

"I believe I've located the rift your father fell into," he said. "Or at least, the one that swallowed his expedition team."

Apparently, the S-rank dungeon that had swallowed the entire expedition squad all those years ago was now officially known as The Gates of the Night.

There were reasons for the name. Many, in fact.

First, and perhaps most obvious, was the darkness. Inside the dungeon, it was always night. A thick, oppressive blackness blanketed everything. There was no sun, no cycle of dawn or dusk. Only a faint, sickly light that trickled down from a fractured moon hanging far above. It hovered in the sky like a dying lantern, cracked and pale. That meager glow was the only light explorers had to rely on. And it was never enough. Most could barely see beyond a few steps in any direction.

Then there were the creatures.

They were born of shadow. Fast, vicious, and strangely intelligent. They moved without sound and struck without warning, using the darkness as both a shield and a weapon. Entire teams had disappeared within minutes, leaving behind no noise, no struggle, not even a dropped torch.

But perhaps the most terrifying part of all came later, when it was already too late for so many.

The invisible rifts.

They weren't like normal dungeon gates. There was no swirling vortex of color, no hum of mana, no shimmer in the air to betray their presence. These rifts were completely imperceptible, utterly invisible to the naked eye, and even to most magical senses. You could be walking through the terrain one moment… and be gone the next.

Stepping into one meant being swallowed by space itself.

Some few, very few, had managed to return, usually through the same rift. But for most... for some unknown reason, there was no coming back.

No bodies. No trails. No sign they had ever been there at all.

Only silence.

And the overwhelming sense that something had taken them.

Ereskia's father had been among the first to enter that place. Back then, no one knew the rifts even existed. He wouldn't have known what to look for. Wouldn't have had any reason to hesitate.

He must have walked straight into one.

And disappeared.

"But… how?" Larpard asked, his voice uncertain. "What makes you so sure it's the exact rift our father fell into?"

Lucian didn't answer right away.

Instead, he reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled something out from beneath the layers of fabric.

A pendant. It's simple, worn, but unmistakably special. It hung from a black lace cord, and at its center was a single large fang, thick like a wolf's, its surface glowing faintly with a bluish-purple hue.

He held it gently in his palm, almost reverently.

Then he looked at them, at the Cat Furren siblings, Ereskia and Larpard, his golden eyes soft with emotion.

"Do you two remember what I told you?" Lucian asked quietly. "About how this guild was first formed?"

"Yes," both siblings replied, nodding slowly.

Lucian smiled faintly.

"Alright… picture this again," he said, leaning forward, his voice rich with the weight of old memories. "It was just a ragtag bunch of us. Ten adventurers, give or take, barely enough to call ourselves a party. Your father, that stubborn, brilliant man, was our leader. And me? I was his right hand, always one step behind, ready to catch whatever he threw my way. We were nothing special back then, just a scrappy crew scraping by, tackling small-time dungeons, guarding each other's backs like our lives depended on it. Because, well, they did."

He paused, his thumb brushing gently over the glowing fang pendant in his hand.

"But we stuck together, you know? Through every close call, every near miss, we got tougher, stronger, with more members joined. We started taking on challenges that should've buried us, taking on battles we had no right winning.And before we knew it, that little group of misfits began to look like something more… like a real guild."

A wistful smile tugged at his lips.

"But we didn't even have a name yet. I remember one night, we were deep in some forgotten dungeon, camped out around a fire. Nothing to do until morning, so we started tossing names around. It turned into this ridiculous game, everyone trying to outdo each other with the most epic, badass name they could dream up. We were howling with laughter, your father loudest of all, his grin wide enough to light up the dark."

"But then… just before dawn, we were ambushed.

"Shadow wolves. A whole damn pack of them.

"And gods, I swear, I can still feel the chill down my spine!" Lucian exclaimed. "Those beasts came out of nowhere, fast as lightning, vicious as hell. Each one was bigger than a bear, with muscle that could crush stone to dust and claws that'd slice through iron like it was butter. Their eyes? Pure madness, glowing like cursed embers. And their jaws, dripping, snarling, like they'd tear the world apart just for fun.

"They were strong, stupidly strong.

"But together," he said, leaning back with a spark of fire in his golden eyes, "we were unstoppable."

"We fought like demons ourselves. But the most crazy person of all, your father, that reckless bastard? He was a force of nature, diving straight for the alpha like it was his destiny.

"And in the end, we won. A lot of blood was spilled, but hell yeah, we won, took down every last one of those monsters!

"Hey, tell me, ain't that badass?" he ended with a laugh booming, filling the room with warmth.

"Yes," Ereskia nodded and eyes glinted with pride. "Hell yeah, you are,"

And then, Lucian smiled and continued.

"After we brought them down, your father, he stood over the alpha's body, feet stepping on its bloody head and just… smiled. And then, somehow, he came up with this awesome idea."

"He took the fangs from that pack leader. Two, specifically. Cleaned them, polished them. And then, he strung them onto chains, and split them. One pendant was for him, and the other one was for me

"And also, ShadowFang

"He said the name came to him right then, because those wolves reminded him of us— always together, fighting in packs, live and die together."

"And that…" His voice was now shaking a little. "That's how the guild got its name. Not from some grand speech or flashy legend. Just… a moment. A fight. A memory."

Lucian let out a slow breath, as if releasing something heavy.

"And then, a few days ago, when I was investigating the Gates of the Night… my pendant started to glow. Just faintly, but it reacted to something inside."

Ereskia's eyes widened. "Wait… is that—?"

"Resonance?" Larpard finished for her, breath caught in his throat.

"Yes, I think so too," Lucian nodded. "Our two accessories are from the same monster, so they can resonate and point to each other's location."

"But…" Lucian trailed off, heavier now. "…even though I wanted nothing more than to jump into that rift and find him—find Reciaus—I knew it'd be too reckless. In the end, all I could do was mark the rift's location and let you two know right away."

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