Kael leaned against the cold wall, breathing heavily.
The shard he had just absorbed—the Shard of Insight—still buzzed inside his body, filling his mind with strange feelings. His vision blurred slightly, and everything seemed sharper at the same time. Every sound, every shadow — they felt alive, closer than before.
For a moment, he thought he might collapse.
But Kael clenched his fists. He couldn't afford to be weak. Not here. Not in the Tower.
Slowly, he forced himself upright. His body ached, but the pain kept him grounded. Reminded him he was still alive.
The empty corridor stretched ahead. The masked stranger was gone, and only silence remained. But somehow, Kael knew he had crossed an invisible line. Things would be different from now on. Harder. Deadlier.
"The Tower won't go easy on me," he thought.
The shard's knowledge whispered at the back of his mind. Flashes of things he hadn't seen before — strange creatures, unfamiliar floors, deadly traps. Warnings of what was coming.
Kael's fingers brushed the shard pouch tied to his belt. Five shards so far. Each one stronger than the last. Each one making him a little less human and a little more... something else.
He didn't know what he was becoming. But he couldn't stop now.
He wouldn't stop.
The next door appeared at the end of the hall, carved from dark, heavy wood, covered in strange markings that seemed to shift when Kael wasn't looking directly at them.
He approached carefully, muscles tense, ready for an ambush. The Tower loved ambushes.
He pressed his hand against the door.
It didn't budge.
Instead, a low rumble shook the air. From the carvings, mist began to leak — thick, white, and cold. It curled around Kael's legs like living snakes. His heart pounded faster.
"Another trial," he muttered under his breath.
The mist thickened until he could barely see his own hand. Then, a voice floated out of the fog. A whispery, broken thing that sounded both near and far.
"Prove your worth, or be forgotten..."
Kael tightened his grip on his shard. He knew what this meant: a fight. Probably worse than anything he had faced so far.
From the mist, shapes began to form — dark figures, their bodies twisted and hollow. They had no faces, only gaping mouths filled with black mist. Their arms stretched too long, their legs bent wrong. Nightmares made real.
One of them lunged at him.
Kael moved without thinking. The shard in his hand flared, giving him speed. He dodged left, slashing the creature across the chest. It screamed — a high, shrieking noise that made Kael's ears ache — but it didn't fall.
The others rushed forward.
Kael gritted his teeth.
There were too many to fight head-on.
He had to think. Fast.
"The mist," he realized. "It's making them stronger."
If he could clear it, maybe the monsters would weaken.
But how?
The shard of insight pulsed again, and suddenly, Kael knew. Not with logic — but with instinct, a piece of knowledge given to him when he absorbed the shard.
He had to burn it away.
Kael gripped another shard — the one he had taken from the fire beast two floors ago. He hadn't used it yet. Now was the time.
The shard's power flared in his palm, and a blast of searing heat rushed out. The mist recoiled, boiling away under the intense fire.
The creatures shrieked, stumbling backward, their forms wavering like smoke.
Kael didn't waste the opening. He charged, shards blazing around his fists, and struck hard and fast. One by one, the monsters fell, dissolving into ash.
When the last one vanished, the mist thinned until it was gone.
The door creaked open, revealing a stairway leading up.
Kael stood there, chest heaving, staring into the darkness beyond the door.
Victory.
But it didn't feel like a victory. Not really.
Every fight, every shard, every step forward — it changed him. He could feel it. Like a weight on his soul, slowly pulling him further away from who he had been before the Tower.
But Kael didn't turn back.
He couldn't.
He had made a choice.
And now, there was only one way left to go:
Up
Without another word, Kael stepped through the door and began to climb.