The withdrawal was not a scheduled rotation, according to two officials at the containment line. Two espers did not exit with the other teams: Lee Tae-gun, Korea's only active S-rank esper, and his partner Kim Hye-jin, an A-rank from Japan. Both are believed to be inside, and no replacement team has entered after them. Mexican agency officials have not commented.

Lee Tae-gun is the only active S-rank esper in Korea and one of a small number worldwide. An ice conjurer, he has been a fixture of esper coverage for years and clears with the Korean guild Quasar.

Kim Hye-jin is an A-rank fire esper and Lee's guiding partner. She joined him earlier this year, after previously partnering with the Japanese esper Fujita Hideyoshi. The two have worked several clearances together.

Ana Marta Rodriguez, known as Skybreaker, is one of Mexico's S-rank espers and was among the most senior personnel on tonight's operation. She was one of the espers who withdrew before the portal cleared.

There is still no word on the two espers inside Volcanic Range. The teams that withdrew have not spoken to reporters, and the Mexican authorities coordinating the operation have not responded to questions. More than 20 minutes have passed since the rest of the operation came out.

The first accounts from the teams that came out are grim. Volcanic Range appeared only today, and teams had been rotating through it in shifts, mapping it and fighting its monsters. Tonight, according to two people at the scene, the dungeon turned on the two espers without warning, far more aggressively than it had all day. One esper described seeing Lee in the air above the lava before he dropped into it, and said some of the team believe he was making a run at the dungeon's core. The teams pulled out when the heat became impossible to withstand.

Lee Tae-gun and Kim Hye-jin are dead, according to members of the team who were inside with them. The two went into the lava as the dungeon turned on them, those espers said, and no one who saw it believes they could have survived.

A smaller team of containment-focused espers has arrived onsite to watch the portal and prevent excursion from any monsters. Officials at the scene have confirmed that they have begun to organize a special team to determine the conditions inside. Volcanic Range is expected to remain active for multiple weeks, and these developments might require different tactics than the ones used in past deployments to the dungeon.

At the site, a large group of espers has started to gather to go back into the dungeon. Espers have been arriving over the past 10 minutes, several teleporting in, and support staff are organizing a return; about a dozen are now massed at the portal, with another dozen expected to arrive over the next few minutes.

The full team of twenty-five espers has finished gathering and are now waiting on the go-ahead to begin their operation. Support staff and local DRT teams are coordinating to go inside in the next few minutes.

Volcanic Range, also informally known as Hellscape, is one of the oldest dungeons on record, believed to have surfaced in the 70s. It is one of a few "named S-rank" dungeons, ones that have returned many times over the years which no one has been able to clear.

Unlike most dungeons, it does not kidnap people. Instead, it sends out monsters that burn victims while keeping them alive long past when they should have succumbed to those burns. Those monsters also detonate on destruction, causing large property damage on top of the direct damage to people while they were active.

There are no recordings of the inside of the dungeon as it interferes with the functioning of electronic devices, but some pictures have been taken over the years. It mimics an open air area filled with volcanoes, lava rivers, and burning forests. It is oppressively hot, and standing in one place for too long causes the ground to crack and spew more lava and monsters, making it impossible for a support crew to be stationed inside by the portal. Similar to many other S-rank dungeons, it also produces multiple decoy copies of its core, all of which explode on destruction like its monsters.

In the evening of October 22nd, 2023, it began acting anomalously, sending more powerful monsters than it was known to have to take down two espers that had been mapping it, Lee Tae-gun and Kim Hye-jin. The temperature also started to rise dangerously quickly, and the teams inside retreated as they did not have durable shielding rated for that level of heat. The current state of the inside of the dungeon is not known.

Only minutes before the operation was scheduled to begin, Volcanic Range's portal suddenly turned green, indicating that the dungeon's core has been destroyed and the dungeon has been cleared. No one has gone through the portal since all teams except for Lee Tae-gun and Kim Hye-jin left earlier. The team that had been waiting by the portal has stepped back to give space for support staff to react to espers exiting the dungeon.

At the ten-minute mark since the portal turned green, there has still been no sign of the espers believed to have destroyed the dungeon core. Our correspondent says that the dungeon could collapse at any moment now, but staff is still ready to react should Quasar's espers emerge from the portal.

Lee Tae-gun and Kim Hye-jin emerged from the dungeon alive. A few minutes after the portal cleared, the two walked out together, both showing signs of severe backlash. Neither was wearing gear or clothing but they did not seem injured, and support staff quickly moved in and took them out of view.

The portal to the Volcanic Range dungeon has closed after turning green. The team on-site confirms that this means the dungeon has been destroyed, and will not be returning. The monsters who were still around the city have all collapsed, turning into inert material that quickly evaporated, according to witnesses.

Lee and Kim were taken away by their guild for backlash treatment. Officials have said only that they are alive and not believed to be in medical danger. Quasar, Lee and Kim's guild from Korea, has also refused to comment.

• The Volcanic Range S-rank dungeon appeared near Mexico City on Oct. 22. An international operation had just begun managing it, work expected to run for weeks.
• That night, the dungeon turned unexpectedly deadly. Teams pulled out, and two espers, Lee Tae-gun and Kim Hye-jin, were left inside and reported dead by the espers who were with them.
• A containment team was assembled and posted at the portal to guard in case the behavior changes in the dungeon extended to more monster excursions.
• As 25 espers gathered to re-enter and investigate, the portal turned green on its own. The dungeon had been cleared, which is rarely possible for one of its class.
• Lee and Kim then walked out alive, in severe backlash, and were taken away for treatment.
• The portal collapsed and all monsters outside the dungeon died and disappeared.