The Celestial Tower had never known true night.
Its floors were made from light, from law, from structure.
Even its shadows were orderly things—silent pockets meant to enhance tests, not threaten them.
But when Bones' agent dissolved into smoke on Floor 910, the tower felt something it had not felt in millennia:
Fear.
The last traces of the agent that Danny destroyed should have vanished.
Should have ended.
Should have collapsed into harmless motes of dust.
But nothing tied to Bones ever ended.
Not truly.
Not even pieces of him.
And as Danny climbed into the upper floors, cleansing the corruption he encountered, a deeper sliver of Bones' will slipped downward into the tower's unseen layers:
Not toward Danny.
Not toward the Wolf King.
Not toward the champions.
Toward the foundation power of the tower itself.
Toward the place no fighter had ever entered.
The Heart of Trials.
And there, in darkness older than ecosystems, older than planets, older than some galaxies—
a shadow stirred.
A whisper.
A plan.
The Forgotten Floor Beneath the Floors
The tower had no official "Floor -1."
But Bones' agent found one anyway.
Because destruction did not follow rules.
It devoured them.
The shadow slipped through cracks in the tower's code that shouldn't exist—fault lines left unattended by eons of use, tiny fractures ignored by the Overseers, blind spots not in the architecture, but in the intent that built the tower.
A whisper drifted down a shining corridor.
No footsteps.
No scraping.
Just a pulse of violet-black hunger sliding across runes that dimmed at its passing.
The shadow descended.
Through the ancient test floors abandoned by the creators long ago, where failed ideas and broken prototypes of guardians lay scattered in stasis.
Through the mechanical guts of the tower where gears moved without sound and power lines glowed gold-blue.
Through the silent archives of previous tournaments, where echoes of fallen fighters drifted like dust on old scrolls.
Until finally—
It reached a chamber no one living had ever seen.
A sphere of light suspended by chains of pure mana.
Dozens of channels spiraled outward—power lines that fed every floor.
The source of the tower's intelligence and adaptability.
The heart of the Celestial Tower.
Bones' agent formed again—
not fully humanoid, more a mass of shards vibrating in the dark.
Its violet eyes opened.
And the tower's heart flickered in response.
A voice, not human and not quite sentient, spoke inside the chamber.
"You do not belong."
The agent smiled—a jagged, broken thing.
"Neither do you."
The tower's heart pulsed and tried to repel him—arcane light flaring like a sunburst.
The agent sank deeper.
The light dimmed.
"You bleed order," the agent whispered. "You pulse with purpose. You think your champions climb you… but you elevate them. You strengthen them. You reward them. You trust the flame of creation."
It tilted its head as if listening to a distant echo.
"Bones does not trust creation."
A ripple passed down its obsidian form.
"He hates it."
The chamber's light hissed.
"Leave."
The agent drifted closer.
"You want Danny to reach the top. You want the Golden One to stand on your crown and shine. But you do not understand him. You do not understand what he will face. You do not understand what is coming."
It touched one of the chains.
The chain screamed.
Yes—screamed.
The sound was like rust slicing bone, like metal trying to cry.
The tower's heart pulsed harder.
"LEAVE."
Bones' agent leaned closer, pressing its forehead to the glowing sphere.
"Bones is older than this place. He remembers the first shatterings. He remembers when destruction and creation were brothers."
Its voice deepened, layered with echoes of something ancient.
"And he remembers when creation betrayed destruction."
A faint crack appeared in the orb.
A hairline fracture.
The agent trembled in satisfaction.
"Ah… there it is. Weakness."
The chamber darkened.
Shadows crept along the floor.
The power lines dimmed.
The chains groaned.
"You cannot stop Danny," the agent said softly. "But you can shake around him. Distract him. Force him to spread thin his flame."
The tower didn't reply.
The agent smiled wider.
"So I will infect your roots. Spread through your veins. Soften your bones—no, not bones—your foundations."
It pressed its fragmentary hand against the crack in the orb.
The crack widened.
A pulse of corruption sank into the heart.
Like poison entering a bloodstream.
The tower screamed.
All at once, the entire Celestial Tower shuddered—
from Floor 1 to Floor 999.
Guardians faltered.
Walls trembled.
Lights flickered.
Jake paused mid-fight, panting, sweat dripping down his brow.
Swift pivoted mid-step, silver eyes narrowing.
Jade Killington looked up as dust drifted from the ceiling.
The Wolf King snarled and stabbed his claws into the wall.
Danny—on Floor 904—stopped walking.
He closed his eyes.
He felt it.
A sickness spreading.
He whispered:
"Bones…"
The tower quivered beneath him.
Bones' Agent Reveals the Plan
Deep in the heart chamber, the agent addressed the orb again.
"I will not kill your golden chosen. Bones wants that pleasure later. But I can weaken him. I can burden him with guilt, with fear, with doubt. I can force him to burn creation energy faster than he can stabilize it."
It tilted its jagged head.
"You will become a labyrinth of chaos. You will betray your own design. You will turn on your champions—just enough to break them."
The orb pulsed in defiance.
The agent's voice sharpened like a blade drawn across stone.
"You cannot stop me. You cannot seal me. You cannot erase destruction."
The violet flame inside its body flared.
"And when your golden hero reaches the top—when he stands on your crown—he will find destruction waiting."
It whispered the last word with reverence.
"Bones."
The crack widened another inch.
The orb flickered weakly.
Power lines in the tower's core hiccuped.
Somewhere far above, guardians meant for Floor 910 roared unexpectedly, activating early. The floor reconfigured incorrectly, folding in on itself like a brain seizure.
Bones' agent laughed.
"Chaos begins now."
Danny Feels the Shift
On Floor 904, Danny's knee bent slightly as the entire tower lurched sideways.
Walls stretched.
Runes spasmed.
A platform dropped three feet suddenly.
The air grew thick like syrup.
The tower wasn't attacking him.
It was losing control.
Danny exhaled softly.
"So you found the heart."
He pressed his palms together.
Golden flame pooled between his hands—a warm, soft glow that hummed like a heartbeat.
He placed that light on the wall.
The entire floor steadied.
But the corruption pulsed back—
strong, deep, rooted.
Danny's eyes narrowed.
Bones' agent wasn't gone.
It was working deeper now.
He whispered quietly:
"You're not just interfering."
He lifted his hand from the wall.
"You're trying to break the tower itself."
The golden flame flared.
Danny stood tall.
"I won't let you."
He sprinted toward Floor 905, aura flashing so bright the corrupted runes recoiled in fear.
Somewhere below, Bones' fragment whispered in satisfaction:
"Yes.
Chase me."
Its form scattered into the tower's deepest shadows.
"Let's see how far you'll go, Golden One…
before you crack too."