A week later…
Kael finally stepped out of the mystic bath.His footsteps boomed against the stone, and the floor cracked beneath his weight.Not because he was merely heavier, but because his whole body thrummed with a new density, as if matter itself tightened around him.
Every movement felt laden with an invisible gravity.His breath rose, hot and saturated with power.It seemed as though the simple act of walking threatened to fracture the resting chamber.
He straightened slowly, steam tearing away from his shoulders.His eyes burned brighter than ever.
— "At last," he breathed, his voice lower now, almost resonant."I thought that bath would never end."
He opened his mouth.His voice rang through the room.
But something was wrong.It wasn't him.
It was like hearing a stranger speak through his vocal cords.A deeper timbre, saturated with echoes, almost metallic.A voice that vibrated, as if several tones overlapped into one.
Kael frowned.He tried to form a simple word, but what came out were warped, unstable sounds.
— "Aaahhh… Aeee… Aei… Aeeeiiiooo… Uuuuuu…"
Like the clumsy vocalises of a child learning to speak.Raw syllables, without meaning.A stream of rough sounds striking the air like blows of matter.
He went still.They were his sounds… yet they felt as though they came from elsewhere.
Kael shook his head, as if to throw off the vertigo of his own voice.For a heartbeat, he remembered the Guide's words.The rest zone… he didn't know exactly when it would appear.What if it came too late?
He clenched his fists.No. Best to deal with it now.
— "While I'm at it… better to buy what I need now.No point waiting."
He inhaled, focused his Magia, and opened the Merit Shop interface.Translucent panes surged before him, listing the available artifacts.His eyes skimmed the array.
— "Let's see… where…Ah. There."
Universal Translation Rune.A dark-and-gold shard pulsed in the corner of the pane.
A thin smile touched his lips.— "This one… is a priority."
Kael confirmed the purchase.
A beat of silence.Then a dry pain detonated in his chest.
— "Tss…"
He gritted his teeth, swaying slightly.Not a mere mark on skin… deeper.The rune was setting into his very frame, like fire eating through flesh to lodge beneath the surface.
He felt the carving score his collarbone, each stroke biting like a white-hot blade.A muffled crack accompanied the inscription.His breath hitched.
When the pain ebbed, he looked down.A spectral sheen traced his skin, but he knew the true mark lay deeper, set into the bone itself.
Rune acquired: Universal Translation.
Kael exhaled, wiping the cold sweat beading his brow.— "Etched… to the bone. No wonder it's pricey."
He splayed his fingers.His breathing steadied.
A brief laugh escaped him.Dry. Almost bitter.
— "One more floor… and it's done."
The Guide had said it.After the fifth, the Tower would finally open the Conquest shop.
Not the rare favors of Merit.No.The real market.The Conqueror's market.
His golden eyes flickered for a moment.2,920 points.The total flashed in his mind.
Enough to matter.Enough to choose.Enough to arm himself.
He tightened his fist.Yes.He was eager.
A glint blossomed before his eyes.A notice he hadn't seen before.
System: Combat reward — validated⟡ New skill acquiredName: Shroud of DeathRank: CEffect: Allows the bearer to cross the Otherworld.
Kael didn't move.One beat.Then another.
Obvious.It was the price of the specters he had felled.Their fall had given him more than a mere fragment.
He pressed his lips together.A quick smile, almost nervous.The System kept shaping him, piece by piece.
But not now.
He dismissed the window.Thana's shadow waited there, by the door the Guide had generated seven days ago.
And he had lingered too long already.
Thana paced.Her steps clicked on bare stone—regular, taut.An impatience she could no longer hide.
Then… a breath.A current of Magia cut the air.Cold, yet vibrant.She stopped dead.
He was coming.She felt it.But what struck her senses… she had not expected.
In the next breath, he crossed out of the corridor's shadow.And she froze.
Spellbound.
It wasn't the same Kael.He had grown.By at least a head.His features had hardened, sharpened—hammered into shape by the Bath itself.
His hair no longer looked human.A deep black veined with bluish glints, like an inverted flame.With every movement, a dark gleam slid between the strands, a reminder of a fire that refused to die.
But it was the aura that pinned her in place.It seeped from his skin.Thick, vibrant, blue-black.Not a simple mist: a weighted halo, as if every fiber of his being now exhaled death.
The air around him grew heavy.The floor cracked beneath his steps.Even his breath, when he drew it in, seemed to resonate differently—lower, denser.Strange.
Thana felt the back of her neck go taut.Almost a vertigo.Between fascination and dread.
He stood before her.The same.And yet… everything had changed.
— "So, princess… done with your bath at last?"Her voice trembled, a little.Irony on the surface.But her misted eyes betrayed her.
She had waited.Too long.And now that he stood before her, the jab was only a mask.It was plain he had been missed.
He lifted his hand.His fingers settled on Thana's small head.A simple gesture.A brush of touch.
He stroked her gently, to reassure her.Or reward her.He didn't know himself.
Thana went rigid.Her pride screamed to revolt—to tear away that contact and remind him she was no child.
But beneath it… she was glad.A mute warmth coursed through her.A wordless admission she would never let reach her lips.
One thing was sure…a synergy had been reborn.
Not a mere truce.Not happenstance.A precise mechanism.An old gearing.
Kael and Thana.Two broken forces.Two battered shadows.Joined again.
Their Magia thrummed in unison.The floor rang beneath their paired steps.Even the air seemed to draw back, unwilling to oppose their return.
A certainty unfurled.It didn't matter who stood against them.Human.Monster.Conqueror.Boss.Even a god.
Any who barred their path would be crushed.Erased.Reduced to nothing.
They were no longer two separate beings.They were a single blade.A single shadow.A single cry.
And that cry held one word:Eradication.
Even if—let's be honest—that's only half the truth.
Humans.Monsters.Conquerors.Bosses.Gods.
Thrown at the world's face, half those names could already fall to their hands.But for the other half… they would need more.Much more.
And that is exactly what they would seek.
Kael clenched his fists.His breath thrummed with a cold resolve.
— "We'll finish this tutorial," he said softly."Every floor. Every trap. Every abomination.We'll take everything this Tower dares to give us.Stats. Skills. Relics.No matter the pain. No matter the price."
His golden eyes lit with a hard gleam.His words weren't a promise.They were a verdict.
— "And after that… I'll eradicate anyone who stands in our way."
His voice cracked like a blade.Not a threat.A truth already written.
At his side, Thana felt a cold shiver climb her neck.Not fear.Not doubt.Only the certainty that this will—nothing would snuff it out.
He stepped forward.The floor cracked beneath his weight.
His gaze did not waver.He had already chosen.
Accumulate.Ascend.Take everything.Then erase any who dared stand before him.
Humans.Monsters.Conquerors.Bosses.Gods.None of the names mattered.
A glacial hush settled over the room.Even the air seemed held in suspension.
And in that instant…he felt the call.
The call of the next Floor.A far-off, implacable, incandescent breath.The Furnace.
It was already demanding its due.