Dawn broke gently over Draegor. Pale light filtered through gray clouds, brushing the rooftops like hesitant fingers. On the city's outskirts, where ruin met regeneration, the Dungeon Tower cast its long shadow across the Scar District like a monument to ambition and madness.
Inside, Kian stirred.
He wasn't asleep—he rarely slept in the Tower—but he rested when he could. Curled beside the ancient mana spring on the fourteenth floor, he listened to the gentle burbling of water and the slow hum of ambient energy refilling his core.
His limbs were sore. His left hand throbbed with yesterday's burn. The shadow trial still lingered in his thoughts.
But there was no time for doubt.
He stood, rolled his shoulders, and pressed a piece of dried jerky between his teeth. His undead summons—Fenn the lancer and Bramble the stitched brute—watched in silence. He nodded to them.
"Time to move."
They passed through the final arch of the fourteenth floor into the unknown.
Fifteenth Floor: The Garden of Echoes
The air was unnaturally still. Trees with silver bark and crystalline leaves lined a vast, open garden that shimmered beneath a phantom sky. The moment Kian stepped forward, the door behind him vanished.
He glanced at the system prompt.
Floor 15 Challenge: Face What You've Left Behind
He didn't understand at first.
Then he heard it—footsteps. Small. Light.
Dael's voice, laughing.
Nyla's humming.
Kian's eyes snapped to the side.
There, through the trees, were his siblings. But not just illusions—he could smell Nyla's favorite lilac-scented chalk. He could hear Dael's tools clinking.
His pulse quickened. Was this another trap?
He moved toward them.
The forest shifted. Roots curled around his feet. And suddenly—
Fire.
Screams.
Dael shouted, "Kian, help!"
Kian reacted without thinking. Shadow magic lashed out, cutting through the flaming branches. He sprinted toward the noise, but no matter how fast he ran, the children stayed just out of reach.
Then the world froze.
A figure stepped from the trees. Pale, slender, ageless. A Tower Warden.
"You protect what you love, but what will you sacrifice?"
Kian stared at the being. "What is this trial?"
The Warden didn't answer. It only raised a hand.
"You may save one. But to do so, you must lose something of yourself."
Kian clenched his fists. "They're not real."
"Yet you feel the fear. The failure. The guilt."
The scene played again—Dael dragged away by flame, Nyla trapped under rubble.
Kian closed his eyes.
"I've made peace with what I lost. I will not trade my soul for phantoms."
The illusion shattered.
A breeze swept through the garden.
Trial Passed. Floor Cleared.
Reward: Memory Shard – Sibling Bond (Grants 1-time defensive shield when protecting a family member)
Kian let out a slow breath.
"That one... hurt."
Elsewhere: Draegor
Nyla sat alone at lunch. She pushed her food around with a spoon, lost in thought.
Dael walked over, placing a small device beside her plate. "New ward crystal. Thought you'd like it."
She smiled faintly. "Thanks."
A teacher passed by, glancing at them with wary eyes. "You two doing alright?"
"We're waiting," Nyla said simply.
Dael nodded. "Our brother's coming back."
Back in the Tower: Floor 16 – The Wind Forge
This floor was a chaos of shifting platforms, swirling gales, and metal constructs powered by storm mana. Kian stepped out and was nearly thrown back by a burst of wind.
He gritted his teeth, anchoring himself with mana roots at his feet.
"Fenn, Bramble—flank left."
Fenn dashed forward, leaving a streak of spectral light. Bramble charged straight into the fray, grabbing a mechanical hawk mid-flight and smashing it into the ground.
Kian leapt between platforms, using brief bursts of shadow dash to navigate. Each construct was intelligent—dodging, adapting, learning his movements.
He needed something different.
He drew a dagger he'd looted from the 13th floor—a wind-infused relic. With a whispered chant, he slashed the air.
A gust obeyed, slicing through the nearest construct.
System Alert: Weapon Skill Learned – Gale Splitter
Now he had range.
He adapted. Each fight took a piece of him, but left behind a lesson. As the final sentinel collapsed, he dropped to his knees, panting.
The storm calmed.
Floor 16 Cleared
Reward: Wind Core Fragment – Can be fused with armor or weapon
Kian pocketed the fragment, barely registering the reward.
His thoughts were with his siblings. With how long he'd been gone. With what came next.
Day's End
He made camp in a shattered observatory at the edge of the 17th floor. The tower's internal cycle mimicked night—faint stars overhead, cold wind threading through broken stone arches.
He took out a worn photo.
The three of them. Smiling. Before everything.
"Just a few more," he murmured. "Then I'll come home stronger than ever."
He looked up at the stars.
And then closed his eyes.
End of Chapter 10