Time fractures.
Seconds fall like glass…Crack... shatter… vanish.
Yurei stands at the center.
Of everything.
And nothing.
He is the Tower now.Not inside it.Not below it.He is it.
Stone becomes skin.Stairs become thought.Walls… memories.
His memories.
[Transcendence Level 1 Unlocked][Accessing Hidden Subroutines: Echo. Override. Rebirth.]
He sees it all.
The loops.The lies.The masks.
Each one… a prison.Each prison… a test.
And every time?
He broke.
But not this time.
This time… he breaks them.
A scream rips through the void.
Not his.
The Architect.
Somewhere in the remains of the old system, the Architect claws at what's left of his mind.Desperate. Cornered. Fading.
Yurei closes his eyes.
Reaches.
And drags the Architect into him.
Into the Tower.
No escape.
Not this time.
The Architect materializes at the edge of a crumbling stairwell.Body torn. Face melting between forms.Man. Machine. God. Nothing.
"You can't do this," he rasps.
"I already did."
Yurei doesn't yell.
He doesn't need to.
He speaks—And the air obeys.
The stair beneath the Architect's feet turns to ash.
He falls…
But never lands.
Stuck in looped descent.
A fitting punishment.
But still—Not enough.
[New Directive: Rewrite Reality Root][Insert Variable: Choice.]
He kneels.
Touches the core.
The space where it all began.
A small glass sphere.
Still.Flickering.Waiting.
Inside it?
A heartbeat.
Hers.
The girl.
The smile.
The lie.
"You could bring her back," the voice whispers.
But it isn't a system message.
It's him.
The child version. Watching from the edge of the dark.
"You always could."
He stares at the sphere.
It pulses… red… white… then void-black.
A choice.
Let her return…
Or destroy what's left.
Erase it all.
No more systems.No more loops.No more gods whispering behind mirrors.
Just a clean end.
Yurei grips the sphere.
Feels it pulse in his hand.
Alive.
Terrified.
He hears her voice.
"Don't become him."
He tightens his grip.
But doesn't crush it.
Not yet.
[Final Decision Pending][One Path Leads to Her.One Path Leads to Nothing.]
And then—
A sound.
A knock.
He turns.
A door.
One more door.
It wasn't there before.
No locks. No symbols.
Just wood.
Scarred. Burned.
Waiting.
He steps to it.
Hand on the knob.
Behind him, the void collapses.
The Tower shivers.
The Architect howls.
The child watches.
And Yurei—
He opens the door.
White light floods his eyes.
And a whisper follows him in:
"What happens to a shadow when there's no light left to cast it?"
To be continued…