Warning: Thread-Kael Presence Confirmed
Memory Synchronization: UNSTABLE
Ritual Binding Incomplete
Proceed With Caution
The staircase to Floor 40 was broken in places, spiraling through a sky that was neither day nor night. Kael's boots clicked on metal steps suspended in mist. Tirien followed behind, blades drawn, but silent.
The Tower hummed strangely here.
Every few seconds, Kael would see flickers—a younger version of himself running ahead, vanishing at the next turn. Sometimes it was him at age twelve. Sometimes seventeen. Sometimes... older.
But always alone.
They reached the landing. The archway bore no number. Only a single word carved in runic script Kael recognized from the cult's deepest rites:
"Reflection."
Tirien exhaled. "This is where he did it. Where the Alpha-Kael broke free of the loop."
Kael's voice was tight. "Then let's see what he left behind."
Inside, the floor resembled a temple—massive obsidian pillars and golden firebowls lit with violet flame. The chamber felt alive, pulsing with memory and malice. A mural lined the walls, showing a Tower much larger than this one—dozens of climbers... all wearing Kael's face.
"He built this?" Kael asked.
"No," Tirien said. "You did. Or… a piece of you did."
At the far end was a throne. And sitting in it, calmly watching them, was Kael.
Older. Still. Wrapped in a robe that looked stitched from pages—journal pages, torn from lives that no longer existed.
His eyes were lightless stars.
"So you've come," said the figure on the throne.
Kael stepped forward. "Who are you?"
"I am the you who survived truth," the seated Kael replied. "I climbed. I reached. I broke the end. And found nothing waiting but silence."
Tirien whispered, "This is Alpha-Kael. A memory echo. Not him fully—but enough."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "What do you want?"
Alpha-Kael stood. "To finish the loop. To pass the burden."
He raised a hand.
"Let me show you."
Kael's vision broke.
Suddenly, he stood outside the Tower, in a ruined world. Ash and salt covered dead oceans. Towers—hundreds of them—rose like teeth in the distance.
Billions had climbed.
All failed.
Alpha-Kael's voice whispered beside him:
"The Tower isn't a trial. It's containment. It seals what we once were. We climb not to rise—but to forget."
Kael gasped. "No…"
"Your cult?" Alpha said. "It was our doing. We tried to reach divinity before the Tower found us. We made it bleed. And so it imprisoned us in versions of ourselves."
Kael dropped to his knees.
The sky broke apart like glass, and he was back in the throne chamber.
"You can't escape it," Alpha said softly. "But you can choose how many others fall with you."
Tirien raised her blade. "We didn't come for riddles. We came to kill you."
Alpha looked almost sad. "Then strike. But know that by killing me, you will inherit my burden. You will become the next… seed."
Kael stood, silent.
Then:
"I'm not your echo. I'm not your heir. I'll climb to the top. And I'll break the Tower… on my terms."
Alpha smiled. "So did I."
The fight began.
Alpha-Kael moved like time itself—blinking, warping, reading every move. Tirien flanked from the right. Kael ignited his sword with fire and memory, drawing on everything he'd survived:
The cult's betrayals
The price of remembering
The dreams of escape
Kael screamed, blade flashing:
"I climb for freedom!"
The throne cracked.
Alpha staggered.
For one moment, Kael looked into his own eyes—older, sadder, wiser.
And then the throne exploded in white light.
System Update:
Echo Defeated — [Alpha-Kael, Fragmented Self]
Thread Influence Reduced
Tower Authority Partially Restored
+3 Stat Points
+1 Title Gained: "Defier of Echoes"
Kael stood, breathing hard. Tirien's arm was bleeding, but she grinned.
"You actually did it."
Kael shook his head. "No. That was just a memory fragment."
He looked to the cracked walls.
"The real one… is still out there."