The Celestial Tower trembled—not from Danny's ascent, not from Bones' infection spreading through its veins, but from the weight of a war-worn heart cracking under loss.
Far above nearly all other climbers, standing on the fractured remains of Floor 975,
the Wolf King made his first mistake.
A fatal one.
The Wolf King's Fall on Floor 975
The floor was chaos—a shifting arena of floating platforms, spectral guardians, and gravity pulses firing at random intervals. A level built to test emotional focus at near-godlike combat speed.
The Wolf King should have torn through it.
Should have ripped guardians apart in midair.
Should have bounded from platform to platform with savage grace.
Should have pushed on toward the summit like a storm of muscle and fury.
Instead—
He stood still.
Breathing hard.
Claws shaking.
He had smelled her on the lower floors.
Her scent fading.
Her aura disappearing into recovery chambers below.
Her cry of pain echoing through the tower's memory.
His Queen—
the one fragile attachment he had allowed himself
in an existence built on rage and power—
was gone.
Eliminated.
Fallen.
Not dead, but taken from him.
And he had been too far away to stop it.
A gravity pulse hit him square in the ribs.
The Wolf King snarled in pain and surprise as the blast sent him crashing through a floating platform, splintering stone and leaving him gasping on the next.
Another guardian dove, spear aimed at his throat.
He didn't see it in time.
His instincts—usually perfect—lagged.
The spear grazed his neck, slicing fur and drawing a thin line of silver blood.
His blood.
The Wolf King stumbled, blinking through red haze.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears like war drums.
Not from exertion—
From grief.
"This… is weakness," he whispered, claws digging into stone until the platform cracked beneath him. "This is why I ran alone. Why I let none close."
He looked downward, toward the floors where she rested—
the only creature who had ever looked at him
without fear
or hatred
or worship.
For the first time in his life, he hesitated in combat.
The tower punished hesitation.
A gravity inversion field activated beneath him.
Platforms rotated.
Air pressure shifted.
A vortex of collapsing stone pulled him sideways into a spiral of destruction.
The Wolf King tried to correct himself—
but his timing was off by a fraction of a heartbeat.
It was enough.
A guardian's hammer slammed him full-force across the back, pinning him to the floor as the platform shattered under the blow.
The Wolf King plummeted, claws carving glowing lines into crumbling stone as he staggered onto the next platform with a roar that shook the walls.
Pain lanced across his shoulders.
Embarrassment burned deeper.
"I NEVER FALL!" he roared, fury drowning the sorrow just long enough for him to leap and tear the guardian in half with a swipe of both arms.
But the mistake had been made.
He had bled.
He had broken rhythm.
He had shown weakness to the tower.
Emotionally off-balance, the Wolf King smashed his claws into another guardian, panting through gritted teeth, chest heaving.
He stared at his blood on the floor.
A droplet fell.
And another.
His vision blurred.
For the first time in this climb…
the Wolf King seemed mortal.
He let out a long, uneven breath.
"Chosen…
I swear to you—
I will tear down this tower until we stand together again."
His grief hardened into a new kind of rage.
A dangerous one.
He pushed onward—
but slower now,
heavier,
the emotional wound cutting deeper than any physical blow.
And far below him—
Danny felt it.
Danny Reaches Floor 910
The gate to Floor 910 opened not like a door,
but like a wound.
Black smoke poured through the opening in trembling waves.
Violet lightning crawled along the walls.
The chamber beyond was cracked, flickering between forms—as if the tower couldn't decide what Floor 910 was supposed to be anymore.
Danny stepped forward.
His creation flame flared softly, golden threads weaving through the air, calming the immediate space around him.
But the corruption didn't recoil this time.
It pushed back.
Hard.
The moment Danny crossed the threshold, the entire floor convulsed.
Black spires shot up from the ground, slashing through the air like blades.
Shadows coiled around Danny's legs.
The temperature dropped so fast the air crystallized.
Danny widened his stance, aura brightening.
"I know you're here," he said.
The shadows rippled.
A voice—broken, layered, almost metallic—slithered across the room.
"You heal…
You mend…
You calm…
But not now.
Not here."
Danny's jaw tightened.
"You don't want to do this."
A laugh echoed—low and jagged, like bones grinding.
"I want nothing.
I am nothing.
But Bones wants… everything."
The shadows swirled together.
A shape formed—
taller than before,
sharper,
faster,
a swirling mass of obsidian shards orbiting a blazing violet core.
Bones' agent had reconstituted itself.
But this time—
It wasn't weak.
It wasn't wounded.
It wasn't afraid.
It was ready.
Two wings of razor-edged shards unfolded behind it.
A blade-appendage extended from each arm.
Its face was a mask of shifting fragments, a twisted mirror of a humanoid.
Danny stepped forward, golden aura brightening.
"I won't let you keep hurting this tower."
The agent's core pulsed like a heart.
"You will not let me?"
It tilted its head.
Then it screamed—
a sound like metal tearing through the void—
and the entire chamber exploded into motion.
Spears of shadow rained from above.
Pillars erupted from the ground.
Violet fire surged outward like a tidal wave of destruction.
Danny raised one arm.
Golden flame curved around him, deflecting the first wave like water breaking against rock.
But the attack didn't stop.
Bones' agent lunged—
moving with speed so unnatural the air itself ripped behind it.
Danny barely blocked the first strike, golden aura clashing against violet shards in a collision that echoed up and down a dozen floors.
The impact cratered the room.
The tower screamed in code.
Danny slid backward, boots carving trenches into the corrupted stone.
Bones' agent hovered before him like a specter of annihilation.
"Creation meets destruction," it hissed.
"Just as it did… long ago."
Danny steadied his breathing.
Golden light rose from his skin like dawn breaking.
"This isn't destruction. This is corruption. And I'm ending it."
The agent laughed.
"You will not end me."
It spun, shards orbiting like a galaxy of blades.
"You will feed me."
The walls cracked.
The floor trembled.
Violet flames rose around them.
Danny exhaled—and lifted both hands.
The golden flame ignited fully.
Floor 910 lit up in gold and violet as the two forces collided—
creation vs. destruction,
light vs. void,
Danny vs. Bones' agent.
Their shadows stretched across the chamber as the tower braced itself for an impact it wasn't built to survive.
And somewhere far above, on Floor 975, the Wolf King froze mid-breath—
because he could feel it.
Creation.
Rising.
Hunting.
And for the first time since losing his queen,
the Wolf King's sorrow paused—
replaced by a new kind of fear.
Danny had finally begun the true battle.