Stage Ten — The End of the First Path
The air was still…
No sound but Aru's ragged breathing, and the thick drops of blood sliding down his hand.
Then the monotone voice of the system echoed through the emptiness:
> [Congratulations. You have cleared Stage Ten.]
[Rest briefly… before transferring to Stage Eleven.]
He lifted his head slowly, his brows tightening in confusion.
Stage Eleven?
He wasn't supposed to reach that until he ranked up to E.
How was the system bypassing the rules?
How could the Tower… defy its own laws?
He struggled to his feet, gripping the sword that was already crumbling between his fingers.
He muttered under his breath:
> "That… doesn't make sense."
And suddenly, the world around him dimmed.
The light vanished.
The ground was gone.
Even the air stopped moving.
Only darkness remained—absolute, conscious darkness.
Then, the void split open, as if the world itself exhaled for the first time.
A calm, deep voice flowed out, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once:
> "Doesn't make sense?
On the contrary… it makes perfect sense, Arian."
He froze in place.
That name—"Arian."
No one called him that here.
He swallowed hard.
> "Who's there? Who's talking?"
A quiet, prideful chuckle rippled through the void.
> "You've truly forgotten me? How curious. I thought a fragment of my soul would at least remember."
Aru stepped back as the darkness before him began to take shape—
a tall figure, white hair drifting like smoke, gray eyes without pupils, and a face that shifted every second.
A heartbeat pulsed within him—not from fear, but from something deeper… an echo answering the being before him.
> "I… I know you."
"Of course you do."
The figure smiled.
> "I'm the one who built this Tower.
I wrote its laws—and broke them.
I forged every trial within it, so that one day… you would appear."
Arian stared, voice hoarse:
> "So all of this… was a test? From the start?!"
> "From generations before you," the voice softened, though its weight pierced the soul.
"The Tower exists to test those who carry the spark of absolute will.
And now, that spark burns within you, my heir."
> "Heir? Me? I'm just—"
> "Just human?" he interrupted with a faint, arrogant smile.
"I was human once.
Then I ascended… then I was freed… and then I fell into eternal slumber."
He paused.
"Until you appeared. You woke what remained of me—without even knowing."
Arian whispered, eyes wide:
> "You mean… you've been asleep? All this time?"
> "Asleep, yes. But not idly.
I was waiting for someone who understood, not someone who feared.
I watched the world crumble—academies at war, souls bought and sold, humans mistaking chains for freedom.
And I knew that one day, someone would be born who carried my name… without knowing it."
He looked at Arian, gray light glinting in his eyes.
> "You are not here to climb a Tower, Arian… but to reclaim an inheritance."
The darkness around them melted into an endless space, filled with still stars frozen in time.
Arian lifted his gaze, and the Unknown Lord's voice continued:
> "In the trials ahead, I will teach you—
not how to fight, but how to understand the essence of spirit.
When you grasp it, you'll have no need for a blade.
When you touch its truth, darkness itself will lose its meaning."
Still stunned, Arian asked:
> "Why me? Why did you choose me?"
The figure smiled faintly, his words carrying a pride that made the air tremble:
> "I do not choose.
I am reborn through the one who proves worthy."