One step.
Then another.
Then… another.
And the silence screams.
No wind. No weight. No world. Just stairs.Stretching into infinity.Cracked. Bleeding ink.Floating in void.
[Status: Entered True Tower][Rules Here Are… Undefined.]
He keeps climbing.
Each breath sharper than the last.Air doesn't exist. But he breathes anyway.His will writes the rules now.
Behind him…Nothing.
Below him…Gone.
Ahead…
A door.
Finally.
But the moment he sees it—it vanishes.
Replaced by a voice.
Not hers.Not the Architect's.Something colder.
Older.
"Do you even know what waits at the top?"
Yurei doesn't answer.
The voice sighs.
"You think this is about revenge. About escape. About breaking the system."
Another step.
Another heartbeat.
The stairs shift—curl sideways. Defy gravity. Wrap around themselves.
"You are a fracture," the voice whispers. "A mistake given shape."
He grits his teeth.
Keeps moving.
The next stair…
Bleeds.
Not red.
Not ink.
Memories.
His.
His mother's face.His first death.The moment she smiled at him through the coffin glass.
He stops.
Hands shaking.
The shadows rise from beneath his feet.Try to pull him down.Whispering—
"You're not ready.""You were never ready.""Let her take your place."
He shuts his eyes.
Focuses.
[Command: Silence.]
The shadows scream once.
Then die.
Step again.
He's getting close.
He can feel it.
The air thickens.Reality ripples.Words peel off his skin like burning paper.
And then—
He sees it.
The Final Door.
Huge. Black. Breathing.
Veins pulsing across its surface.A thousand locks.A thousand keys.
And in front of it…
Her.
Not the girl.
Not the ghost.
Her.
The first.
The source.
Dressed in shadow.Eyes like suns dying.
"You made it," she says, voice like thunder whispered underwater.
He nods.
She looks at the door.
"It leads to what was stolen from you. The name. The truth. The throne."
He steps forward.
But she raises a hand.
"One question," she says. "And one lie."
He stops.
"…What?"
She smiles softly.Not cruel.
Almost… sad.
"You can ask one question. And you must tell me one lie. That's the cost."
He thinks.
The shadows circle him again.
The Tower watches.
Then—
His voice cuts through the dark.
"My question…"
He meets her gaze.
"…What am I?"
Her smile fades.
"You are the answer the Architect feared most. You are memory given will. Rage given shape. A child born from the scream between dying and deletion."
"…You are the Shadow That Refused to Sleep."
Silence.
He breathes it in.
And now—
The lie.
She waits.
He steps close.
Leans in.
And whispers—
"…I forgive you."
Her eyes flicker.Shiver.Close.
And just like that…
The door opens.
Behind it?
Light.
Not warm.
Not holy.
But real.
He steps through—
And the Tower shatters.
The loop ends.
The world screams.
And somewhere…
The Architect wakes up screaming.
Because Yurei isn't just alive.
He's free.
To be continued…