The sun hung low over the Fifth Floor city, casting long golden rays across its stone towers and quiet courtyards. The soft hum of distant training, the drifting scent of spice from a nearby market, and the calm presence of cultivators walking through the paved streets—it all felt strangely peaceful. Too peaceful.
Leo stood with Mira and Aric near the edge of the climbers' district, where the Tower's gate for the Sixth Floor trial had begun to pulse faintly, signaling the time had come.
"Well," Mira said, hands on her hips as she stared at the shimmering archway. "Here we go again. Trial six."
Aric nodded, his arms crossed but relaxed. "Everything past five tends to go off-script. If there's a pattern, no one's figured it out. The Tower starts getting...creative."
Leo glanced at them both. "So no predictions at all?"
"Best prediction is that your prediction is wrong," Mira said with a snort. "Sometimes it's puzzles. Sometimes it's warzones. Sometimes it's just—"
"Survival," Aric finished. "And not always in the way you'd expect."
That sobered the mood.
Other climbers began to gather around them, summoned by the same signal, their faces a mix of grim anticipation and steady resolve. Leo turned back toward the city, letting his gaze sweep across everything he'd come to know over the past year.
The curved rooftops.
The quiet fountains.
The endless wall of names.
This city—this Fifth Floor—had been more than a waystation. It had been the last true breath before the storm. A place to reflect, to grow, to rest. A place that offered an out.
And he had chosen to keep climbing.
Now, he understood what that meant.
This was the last time he would see a place like this.
The rest of the Tower… would be war. Endless testing. Until he reached the end or fell along the way.
He took a deep breath, letting the warmth of the city settle into his chest like a memory he would carry forever.
Then, he turned toward the gate.
"Ready?" Aric asked.
Leo nodded. "Yeah. No more resting."
Mira grinned. "Then let's go finish this damn thing."
Together, the trio stepped forward—into the shimmering light of the next trial, leaving the last refuge of peace behind.
The world that greeted Leo after the teleport was… simple.
Deceptively so.
He stood on a pale marble platform, impossibly smooth and polished, at the base of a grand staircase that spiraled up into an empty sky. No clouds, no stars, no sun—just an endless stretch of pale blue overhead, as though the heavens themselves had been bleached.
The staircase had no supports, no walls—just step after step ascending into the void. Each one wide enough for five people to walk side by side. And yet, despite its vastness, it radiated a quiet pressure, like a mountain made of silence.
Around him, the other climbers began to arrive in flickers of light. Mira appeared to his left, Aric just ahead. A few of the other remaining trialists filled the air with quiet murmurs, unease rippling through the group.
Before anyone could speak, glowing script shimmered across the first step:
"Climb."
Leo stepped toward the first stair—hesitated—then placed his foot down.
And the world screamed.
It wasn't a sound. Not exactly. It was a tone—pure, low, and vibrating through the marrow of his bones. It bypassed his ears and thundered directly into his mind, rattling every thought, every nerve. His skin ignited with sharp pain. Muscles clenched. Blood pulsed like fire.
The agony wasn't physical.
It was total.
Leo stumbled back off the stair, gasping, sweat already forming on his brow. "What… was that?"
But no one answered.
Because they were already moving.
Mira was two steps up, face tight with pain, but steady. Aric moved slowly, his breaths measured. Others followed behind them, each person clearly straining—grimacing, fists clenched, legs trembling—but none turned back.
Leo's heart hammered.
They were pushing through it.
And he had stepped away.
Shame hit harder than the tone had.
He grit his teeth, forcing his foot forward again. The instant his boot touched the marble, the tone returned—washing over him like a tidal wave of pressure and lightning.
He screamed silently, the sound buried inside his skull.
But this time, he didn't step back.
One foot up. One step forward.
The pain didn't lessen.
But he endured it.
And took another.