The light was violet again — always violet, when the system reset space.
SeTa blinked as the dust cleared. He was standing in an enormous marble chamber beneath a glass sky. Above him, pale stars shimmered in place, unmoving. A tower within the Tower.
> [Floor 20: Safe Zone Reached]
[Earth Return Token: 6 Hours Recharged – Available at Will]
[System Sync in Progress...]
Zuvanox stretched beside him, yawning. The bee princess Zuriel floated gently near his shoulder, wings flicking in silent pulses. Mordain stood watchfully behind, helmed head tilted slightly.
SeTa exhaled. The kind that carries more than breath.
They'd made it.
He didn't sit — not yet. He walked to the stone ledge overlooking a field of artificial starlight and whispered wind. A memory-space. A liminal realm between climb and reflection.
And then, he remembered.
---
Floor 15 – "Pain Is a Lie"
A berserker forged from raw agony, its body a mass of knots, twitching nerves, and broken bones. It fed on suffering — not just its own.
SeTa's strategy wasn't power, but inversion.
> "If pain is a concept… then I can lie to it."
Using Inception EX, he rewrote its sensory logic:
Pain became comfort.
Agony became pleasure.
Its rage burned out like a short-circuit.
It crumbled with a smile on its lips.
---
Floor 16 – Fog of Veyra
An interference floor. Static warped the system UI. Time pulses bent reality. SeTa had to trust his instincts over data. Kael's words echoed: "Not every enemy wears a shape."
He used shadow pulses to locate exits, slicing through illusory corridors. Zuvanox's treasure-sense guided them past flickering traps.
The floor collapsed behind them once they crossed.
---
Floor 17 – The Silent Negotiator
A test of diplomacy — or something like it.
A ghost-king made of documents, languages, and regret offered him a throne.
He declined.
Instead, SeTa proposed a bargain: "Your legacy lives through memory, not conquest."
With Zuriel's empathy thread and Mordain's vowbound silence, they earned passage. No bloodshed. Just words.
---
Floor 18 – The Swarm Requiem
A ruined hive. Drones turned feral. Royal blood poisoned.
Zuriel wept that day. Her kin — the broken ones — threw themselves at the group, only to be cleansed by her song-thread.
> [Unique Skill Gained: Mourning Pulse]
(Restores clarity to corrupted lesser minds once per floor)
---
Floor 19 – Collapse Engine
The tower tried to kill itself.
Or rather, this floor's trial was a paradox: Escape a collapsing maze whose geometry feeds on panic.
> "Fear alters the map. Calm solidifies it."
They walked in perfect silence, even when the floor cracked beneath them. Even when fire clawed at their heels.
Kael's strategy had worked. Shadow-marks on the walls. Calm breathing techniques. No panic. Just discipline.
---
Back on Floor 20, SeTa finally sat.
> [System Update Complete]
[You may now access… Interfaction Nexus | Earth Return | Skill Reforging | Minor World Seed Configuration]
His eyes narrowed at that last one.
> "World Seed…?"
Before he could ask, the system pulsed again.
> [Message from Kael: "I'm already waiting. Don't take too long — you'll like what Floor 21 holds."]
SeTa smiled faintly.
Beside him, Zuvanox sprawled out with a lazy growl. Zuriel curled into his lap, already asleep. Mordain stood with arms crossed, unmoving.
Two arcs complete. Nineteen floors behind.
Now came the real Tower.