"The Tower doesn't forgive. It evolves."
The crimson wound sealed with a sound like cracking thunder—and for a single heartbeat, there was quiet.
Then the Tower roared.
The void convulsed, the fragments of shattered bridges snapping together into a sprawling platform of molten obsidian. Runes ignited across its surface, spiraling into vast circles that pulsed with power.From those runes, the Tower began to birth its guardians.
One after another, colossal figures rose—half-machine, half-flesh, forged from metal and blood. Their faces were hollow masks of stone, their eyes blazing with unending hatred. Each carried weapons large enough to cleave mountains.
Kalen stumbled back, barely able to speak. "Zero… there's hundreds—!"
"Thousands," Zero corrected, raising his sword. "And they're not waiting."
The guardians moved as one—an avalanche of blades and flame. The sky filled with the hum of energy spears and burning sigils.Zero's aura flared. "Stay behind me."
Then he charged.
The first guardian swung—a hammer larger than a tower. Zero met it mid-swing, his sword cutting through the weapon as though through water. The shockwave ripped through the line behind it, tearing apart several more automatons in a single motion.But for every one that fell, five more emerged from the ground.
Kalen shouted something, but the sound was lost in the chaos. The air burned, the floor cracked, the world itself seemed to scream under the weight of their power.
Zero moved like lightning, weaving between the giants, each step leaving arcs of gray fire behind. Every slash carved through layers of armor and flesh; every deflection redirected titanic blows into their own ranks.A guardian swung a burning chain—Zero caught it midair, wrapped it around his arm, and ripped the creature off its feet, slamming it into another in a burst of molten shards.
But even he could feel it—the pull of exhaustion, the creeping weight of the Tower's endless energy pressing down. The environment itself was fighting him now. The air burned. The ground bled. His own aura flickered like a dying star.
"Overwhelmed already?"The voice came not from one of the guardians—but from everywhere.
The Tower was speaking directly this time, its consciousness stretching through the air like an endless storm.
"You defy your purpose. You refuse your cycle. You are an error."
Zero leapt over a guardian's blade, slicing its arm off mid-swing. "Then maybe it's time the Tower learned to break."
He slammed his sword into the ground.A pulse of gray light erupted outward, obliterating everything within a kilometer. The guardians disintegrated into clouds of molten fragments, their bodies erased down to atoms.Even the void cracked from the sheer force of it.
When the light faded, the battlefield was unrecognizable—a plain of molten dust and floating debris.Zero stood in the center, his armor cracked, his breath sharp, his aura unstable.
Kalen coughed, clutching his chest. "You… you're burning yourself out."
Zero looked over his shoulder. "Doesn't matter. The Tower adapts… so must I."
Above them, the air shimmered—and from that shimmer descended a monolith.It wasn't alive, not in the usual sense. It was the Tower's core projection—a massive, translucent construct shaped like a heart of crystal, pulsing with every word it spoke.
"You cannot destroy what sustains existence."
Zero raised his sword, its edge fractured and glowing. "Then I'll cut existence in half."
He leapt.
The explosion that followed could be seen from every fragment of the floor. The sky cracked open again. The Tower's projection countered, firing beams of concentrated energy that vaporized entire chunks of reality.Zero dodged one, blocked another, and redirected a third straight back into the construct, shattering one of its crystal veins. The sound was a thousand bells breaking at once.
Kalen shielded himself from the heat. "Zero! That thing's regenerating!"
"I see it."
Zero vanished—then reappeared inside the construct itself.
The core screamed. Energy flooded through him, burning every nerve, trying to dissolve him into data and memory. But Zero's eyes blazed brighter, his will unyielding.
"Not this time," he hissed.
He drove his sword directly into the heart of the construct.
For a heartbeat, everything stopped.
Then the Tower retaliated.
A pulse erupted outward—an annihilating wave of energy. The platform shattered again, the sky split apart, and Kalen was thrown miles backward into the void. Zero held on, his body disintegrating at the edges, bones glowing through torn flesh.He roared through the pain, forcing the sword deeper.
The Tower's voice turned from divine calm to something almost… afraid."You will unmake everything!"
Zero's voice was a whisper of steel and defiance. "Good."
He twisted the blade—and the core exploded.
The blast devoured the entire Blood-Touched Floor in one breath of light. Every guardian, every fragment, every drop of crimson soil was erased, replaced by a storm of gray fire that reached into infinity.
And within that maelstrom, Zero fell.
When awareness returned, there was no light—no sound—only drifting shadows.He floated in nothingness, his body barely held together by will alone.
A faint voice reached him—a whisper, soft and ancient."Zero… why do you fight the Tower?"
He opened his eyes. Before him stood the Guide—her silver cloak untouched by the storm, her gaze calm and knowing.
Zero's voice was hoarse. "Because it forgot what it was built for."
The Guide tilted her head. "And what is that?"
"To test strength," he said quietly, "not to devour it."
For a long moment, she said nothing. Then she smiled faintly, as if the answer amused her."Then rise, climber. The Third Floor awaits—the Floor of Forgotten Gods."
She reached out her hand.
Zero took it.
As she pulled him upward, the darkness broke apart, and a new light spilled across his vision—cold, divine, and endless.
The Tower was far from done.But neither was he.