The city never slept, but some parts of it were meant to be forgotten.
Underneath the Industrial Sector—hidden behind rusted elevators and sealed mana-locked doors—was a facility long erased from the records. It had no name.
But the Tower remembered it.
So did Rael.
> [Mission Objective: Investigate Anomaly – Tower Pulse Detected]
[Coordinates: Level -13, Restricted Zone]
[Threat Level: Unknown]
Rael and Selene stood in front of a heavy steel door, faintly humming with corrupted mana.
Selene tapped the surface. "You sure it's here?"
Rael nodded. "The pulse started three days ago. It's weak—but it's Tower-coded."
Selene smirked, drawing her blade. "Then let's knock."
> [Skill Activated: Phantom Override – Barrier Disruption]
[Access Granted]
The door groaned open, revealing black corridors lined with broken runes and flickering lights. Inside, the air was cold, metallic—and wrong.
They stepped in.
---
Level -13 – Blacklight Facility Core
Dead silence.
Then whispers.
Not voices—memories.
Rael felt them crawling against his skin. Echoes of trials. Screams from experiments long buried. And deeper still… a heartbeat.
Selene pressed closer to him, her foxlike ears twitching.
"There's something alive here," she said. "But it's not human."
Rael looked at the wall. Blood smeared across it spelled a message in old Tower script:
"It woke up."
> [System Alert: Aberrant Lifeform Detected]
[Designation: Subject Zero – Failed Ascendant]
[Containment: Breached]
A tremor rolled through the floor.
Then… laughter.
Low. Guttural. Distorted.
A figure emerged from the shadows.
Eight feet tall. Bone armor fused with flesh. One eye glowing like a blood moon.
It had once been human. A Tower climber who failed ascension… and mutated.
Rael narrowed his eyes.
"Subject Zero."
The creature lunged.
---
The battle was brutal.
Subject Zero moved like a beast—claws slicing the air, shrieking in rage.
Selene danced between blows, her daggers glowing with curse-nullifying light. Rael struck from shadows, every move a surgical dismantling of its monstrous body.
But it wouldn't die.
> [Regeneration Detected – Tower Mutation Core Active]
[Solution: Core Extraction Required]
Rael's clone couldn't do it alone.
So he called it.
> [Skill Activated: True Body Sync – 15% Manifestation]
[Overload Risk: 8%]
Rael's real aura spilled through the clone like wildfire.
His blade turned black with Tower energy.
He moved once.
Just once.
The world shattered around him.
Subject Zero fell in silence, its core still pulsing in Rael's hand.
> [Core Acquired: Aberrant Type]
[System Update: Tower Activity – Global Instability Increasing]
[New Objective: Locate Other Failed Ascendants – 6 Remaining]
Selene caught her breath, eyes wide.
"You pulled from your real body."
Rael's expression was unreadable.
"I needed to know how far it's spread."
He turned the core over in his hand.
"If they're waking up... we're already running out of time."
---
Back at his apartment, Rael placed the core beside a map marked with ley lines and dungeon gates.
"The Tower," he whispered, "is bleeding into the world again."
He stared at the glowing marks—one near a volcano. Another in the ocean.
The third… right under the capital city.
"Time to make the traitors bleed before the world ends."