The air was heavy enough to break bones.When Lumiel opened his eyes, the sky above him shimmered between gold and black — a half-dead light trapped under endless dusk.The Tower of Aeons rose in the distance like a god's spine piercing the heavens.
He tried to stand. His knees buckled.Every breath was a punishment.
"Gravity… ninefold," Cartethyia whispered weakly from his amulet."Feels like ninety," Lumiel rasped.
Luminous was on her knees beside him, hands trembling. Frost bloomed and cracked on the ground every time she exhaled.Daniel sat against a broken pillar, coughing blood that glowed faintly gold.Changli, ever composed, was shaking too — not from fear, but from the absurdity of it.
"So this is where gods train," she said quietly. "Even breathing is blasphemy here."
The F-Class Registration
The Fallen Guard escorted them to a hall lined with broken statues — angels missing wings, demons missing hearts.A clerk with metallic eyes and fractured halo stamped their crests with a burning sigil.
"Welcome to Fallenhiem Guild. You are now registered as F-Class Hunters," the clerk droned."Congratulations," Lumiel muttered. "We've ascended to the bottom."
The clerk ignored him and tossed them thin, black tokens etched with their names.
"Your license allows access to the Tower's first floor. Survive, and you may one day climb."
The Meditation Wells
They found a hollow chamber beneath the Tower — a cavern filled with faint blue light from thousands of floating monster cores, pulsing like hearts underwater.F-Class Hunters sat cross-legged in rows, each trembling as they tried to draw power without bursting their veins.
Lumiel stared at the glowing spheres. Each one pulsed with instinct, not thought — primal memories of creatures that once lived to devour.
"So this is what strength feels like here," he whispered. "Borrowed hunger."
He sat, crossed his legs, and began to breathe.
Red Code Breathing
The gravity pressed down until his ribs creaked.He focused inward — tracing the Red Code lines in his veins.They flickered faintly, struggling to ignite.
"Focus on rhythm," Cartethyia murmured. "Inhale memory. Exhale identity.""That's poetic," Lumiel grunted. "Also painful."
He pulled a fragment of energy from a core. It fought him — wild, hot, alive.Images slammed into his mind: claws, teeth, a creature that only knew the joy of killing.
Lumiel's hands shook, but he smiled.
"So that's your truth? Good. Let's rewrite it."
Red lines blazed across his skin — the first visible script of his Nihility Codex.He didn't absorb the core.He edited it.
The light shifted, calming, reshaping into a symbol that burned softly in his chest.The monster's rage became focus.
Failure and Fire
Across the chamber, Daniel tried his own method — creating a blood contract with a core.The orb flared too bright. His veins turned gold, then cracked.He screamed.
Luminous ran to him, frost spreading from her fingertips to contain the burning light.
"You'll tear yourself apart!" she cried."Contracts need balance," Changli said coldly. "You gave more than you took."
Lumiel staggered to them, still glowing faint red.He knelt beside his brother, his hand trembling but steady.
"Take mine," he said."You'll lose your progress—""Then I'll climb twice."
He pressed his palm to Daniel's chest. Red Code met golden blood.The chamber filled with crackling light.
Cartethyia's voice broke the silence:
[Energy stabilized. Core synchronization achieved. Rank progression: F → E.]
Lumiel collapsed, breathing hard.Daniel caught him before he hit the ground.
"You idiot," Daniel whispered. "You gave me your breath.""Keep it. You'll owe me interest."
They laughed, weakly.Even Luminous smiled through tears.
The Afterglow
When the others returned to their meditation, Lumiel sat beside Cartethyia's faint light.His skin still glowed faint red, faint gold.
"You rewrote a monster," she said quietly. "And shared your code.""That's what brothers do."[That's what gods used to do, before they learned to hoard power.]"Then maybe it's time they remember."
He looked up at the Tower. Its surface shimmered like a thousand eyes watching him.Each floor promised pain. Each floor promised truth.
Lumiel smiled.
"Let's climb."
For the first time since the fall, Lumiel felt something heavier than gravity — certainty.