Chapter 8: The Tower's Hunger
The sixth floor began with silence.
Not the kind born from emptiness, but one that felt constructed, layered over the natural sounds of space. Kian stepped into a cathedral of bone-white stone, where ghostlight danced on the ceiling. The air held tension, as though the tower itself watched him now.
Kian stood tall, injuries mended through the tower's passive restoration field. His cloak was stained with ash, and his Codex sigil shimmered faintly above his hand like a tether to something deeper.
The gate behind him sealed with a resonant boom.
He was alone again, except for the eyes.
Dozens of them. Carved into the walls, sculpted into statues, hovering faintly in magical glyphs. They didn't blink. They didn't glow. But Kian felt them all the same.
A voice spoke, old and jagged like rust scraping steel.
"Trial of Identity: Show the tower who you are, or be erased."
Then came the illusions.
The room flickered. He was no longer Kian of the Hollow Banner. He was ten years old, watching his parents dragged away by corrupted enforcers. The air smelled of blood and charred metal. He reached out—and saw blood on his hands.
"Not mine," he whispered.
The illusion snapped.
Then another—him, wearing Guild robes, older, seated at the head of a council table.
Another—him, slain by Dael, his own brother, tears in his eyes.
Another—him, crowned and adored, but utterly alone.
The scenes cycled faster.
He screamed, falling to his knees. The Codex sigil pulsed erratically.
And then—a quiet voice.
"You are not what they say. You are what you do."
It wasn't the tower.
It was his memory of Nyla, her tiny hand gripping his.
Kian stood.
"I am the shield. I am the storm. I am their brother."
The illusions shattered.
The room fell away, light swallowing the false world.
Reward: Title Unlocked—Willbearer
Trait Gained: Illusion Immunity (Tower-Class)
Floor Seven: Trial of Time
The next floor was alien.
A desert plain, stretching far in all directions, under a sky frozen in mid-dusk. Sand swirled, catching on his boots. Ahead—twelve obelisks stood in a perfect circle. At the center, a glowing hourglass, suspended in air.
"Trial of Time: You have sixty minutes. Reach the hourglass before it empties."
At first, it seemed easy.
Kian dashed forward—but the sand shifted beneath him. Every step forward stretched distance. One step became three. Then ten. Then fifty.
He summoned a skeletal scout, but it dissolved instantly.
Not real space. Temporal displacement.
He shut his eyes and focused.
Codex Command: Collapse Perception—Invert Logic
He reversed his thinking. Instead of moving forward, he walked backward.
The world twisted—but the hourglass grew closer.
Thirty minutes. Twenty. Fifteen.
Storms rose—phantoms of his past selves chasing him. Each one stronger than the last.
He fought them not with blades, but with memory. His triumphs. His failures. He wielded experience like a weapon, and they dissolved.
With ten seconds left, he touched the hourglass.
Time stopped.
Reward: Spell—Chrono Lock (Freeze Object or Spell 3s)
Floor Eight: Trial of Kin
This time, there was no grand chamber.
Just a garden.
Soft moss underfoot. Twilight trees bearing glowing fruit. A wooden bench at the center.
And sitting on it—Nyla and Dael.
Kian froze.
They looked older. Dael was dressed in Guild armor, expression cold. Nyla wore mage robes, her eyes blank.
They looked at him like strangers.
"Nyla?" he whispered.
She tilted her head. "Why did you leave us, Kian?"
"I didn't."
"You always do," Dael said.
Suddenly, the bench vanished. Blades formed in their hands.
Kian didn't draw his weapon.
"You're not them."
But they charged him anyway.
He took every strike, refusing to retaliate. Each wound hurt more than magic ever had.
"I protect you," he muttered through gritted teeth. "Even if you hate me. Even if you never understand."
Then—they vanished.
And the garden bloomed.
A whisper echoed:
"You understand. Love is pain."
Reward: Trait—Emotional Fortitude
Codex Updated: Sibling Bond Strengthened
Meanwhile…
Back in Draegor, whispers spread through underground channels.
Kian's Hollow Banner had vanished from known activity.
The city's dark guilds stirred. The Crimson Pact dispatched spies. Arc Blades scanned mana zones for anomalies.
And in a quiet alley, a girl with glowing blue eyes looked to the Tower.
"Nyla?" asked her school friend.
She blinked. "Sorry. Just felt something… strange."
Floor Nine: Trial of Choice
Three doors.
Again.
But this time, there was no combat.
Instead, the room was filled with people.
A hundred faces. Some familiar, some not. All illusions. All kneeling, begging for help.
"Only one can be saved. Choose."
Kian's hands trembled.
Nyla. Dael. His old teacher. A Hollow Banner recruit. A starving child. A wounded mother.
He closed his eyes.
Then he opened them, stepped forward, and chose:
None.
"I will find another way."
The room shook violently.
"You defy the rules?"
"I defy injustice."
The tower paused.
Then laughed.
For the first time, it laughed.
Reward: Hidden Path Unlocked
Title Gained: Defier of Fate
Floor Ten: The Midway Throne
At last, Kian arrived at the heart of the Dungeon Tower's first domain.
A massive throne room carved from obsidian crystal, floating in void. The floor shimmered with constellations. Runes spun in the air. And atop a twisted throne of broken swords sat a shadow.
The Tower's Warden.
A humanoid figure made of mist, bones, and echoing whispers.
"You've climbed far," it said. "Too far."
"I'll go farther."
"You carry burdens."
"I carry purpose."
"You seek power."
"I seek protection."
The Warden rose.
"Then prove it."
They clashed.
Kian unleashed every skill—Chrono Lock, Necrobind Flame, Phantom Merge.
The Warden countered with shadow tendrils, memory disruption, soul fractures.
Every hit tore at Kian's spirit. But he endured.
In a moment of stillness, he used Mirrorbreaker to reflect the Warden's strongest spell—shattering part of its essence.
Then, with one final strike, he drove his dagger into the Warden's chest and whispered:
"For them."
The Warden shattered into starlight.
Trial Complete: Domain One Conquered
Codex Evolution Triggered
New Class Path Available: Sovereign of Shadows
Hidden Achievement: Towerborn
A final message glowed:
You may rest. Or climb. The next domain waits.
Outside the Tower
The sky above Draegor darkened briefly.
Every Guild master felt it.
In the high chambers of the Abyss Choir, Celia Mohr narrowed her eyes.
"Someone touched the inner tower."
In the crimson halls of the Pact, Varein cracked his knuckles.
"Who is this fool?"
And in the streets, unnoticed, the Hollow Banner sigil appeared—just for a moment—on a wall.
Then faded.
Back Home
Dael looked up from his notebook. "Something just moved in the tower's mana grid."
Nyla stared at the horizon.
"He's alive," she whispered.
"But not the same."
End of Chapter 8