The air grew colder as Reiji and Kaede descended.
Each flight of stairs was narrower than the last, as if the building itself wanted to choke out any possibility of escape. The walls changed from concrete to ancient stone, then from stone to something else—something neither of them recognized. A material that absorbed light instead of reflecting it, swallowing every flicker of their steps.
Kaede paced beside him, hand trembling around her own smaller blade.
"Reiji… this place feels wrong."
"It is wrong."
The blade he carried—the Blade of Forgotten Vows—vibrated faintly, not enough to be seen but enough that he felt it through his bones. Like a heartbeat.
A heartbeat that wasn't his.
Kaede swallowed, trying to mask her fear.
"How deep does this even go?"
Reiji didn't answer.
Not because he didn't know.
But because he wished he didn't.
Far below the earth, buried under layers of forgotten architecture, lay the Director's true sanctuary:
The Tower Without Light.
A name that sounded contradictory.
But Reiji knew it was accurate.
A tower carved downward, not upward.
A prison masquerading as a throne.
A place built for one purpose: to shape the perfect weapon.
To shape him.
Kaede exhaled, slow and shaking. "What if this is a trap?"
Reiji gripped the blade harder.
"It is."
They kept walking.
---
The First Chamber — Echoes
The stairs finally ended in a vast circular room. No torches, no lamps—yet somehow, the room wasn't entirely dark. Dim, shifting shadows moved across the walls like reflections on water, even though there was no light source at all.
Kaede stepped closer to Reiji.
"I don't like this…"
A whisper brushed past them.
Not a voice.
A memory.
"Reiji…"
Kaede froze. "Did you—did you hear that?"
Reiji nodded.
"It's the chamber."
The shadows stretched, forming faint outlines—silhouettes of people, moments, scenes he had tried to forget. His first mission. His first kill. The moment he swore allegiance. The moment he broke it.
Kaede gasped as one of the shadows formed the outline of a much younger Reiji—blood on his hands, eyes hollow.
"Reiji… this is…"
Her voice cracked.
He didn't look at her.
He couldn't.
"These aren't visions," he said quietly.
"They're recordings."
Kaede looked at him sharply. "Recordings? Of your memories?"
"Of my failures."
Every step he took, another silhouette flickered into existence. A boy kneeling in training. A teenager being beaten by instructors. A young man carrying a body he didn't want to remember.
Kaede bit her lip, fighting emotion.
"You endured all of this… alone?"
No answer.
He didn't need to answer.
The room answered for him.
As they reached the other side of the chamber, the floor rumbled—stone grinding against stone, revealing a descending platform.
Reiji stepped onto it.
Kaede hesitated.
"We're going deeper?"
"We have to."
She joined him.
As the platform began to lower them into pure darkness, Kaede whispered—
"Reiji… if the Director shaped all of this, shaped you… what does he want now?"
Reiji closed his eyes.
"Control."
---
The Descent
The platform sank for nearly a full minute, the darkness so complete that even Reiji's sharpened instincts couldn't pierce it. The air became heavier, thicker—like breathing through cloth soaked in iron.
Kaede suddenly reached out and found his arm.
Not out of weakness.
But because even the strongest person fears the unknown.
"Reiji… is he human?"
Reiji shook his head slowly.
"Human enough to be dangerous," he murmured.
"But not enough to be predictable."
Kaede swallowed.
Then the darkness broke.
A faint glow rose beneath them—not warm, not welcoming, but cold and sickly. The light of old machinery and older rituals. Metal pipes coiled like veins across the floor. Dozens of glass pillars rose from the ground, filled with fluid that glowed faintly blue.
Inside each one—
figures.
Unmoving.
Silent.
Not quite alive.
Kaede's hand flew to her mouth.
"No…"
Reiji's expression didn't change.
He had seen this before.
Prototypes.
Failures.
Shadows of what the Director wanted to create.
Weapons without wills.
Soldiers without souls.
One of the figures floated sideways, revealing a face half-formed—skin pale and translucent, eyes empty.
Kaede whispered, "Reiji… you could've been one of them."
Reiji finally looked at her.
"I was."
---
The Vault of Silence
At the far end of the chamber stood a door—massive, circular, covered in symbols Reiji recognized from the old Vanguard texts. A seal that should have been impossible to open.
Should have.
But as he approached, the Blade of Forgotten Vows pulsed in his hand.
Kaede stepped back as the symbols on the door began to glow.
"What is it doing?"
"The blade is responding to the seal."
"Because the Director designed them to work together?"
"No," Reiji said quietly.
"Because this door was built long before the Director was."
Kaede stared at him, shocked.
"Then… who built it?"
Reiji's grip tightened.
"We're about to find out."
The seal broke with a sound like cracking ice. The circular door spun open with a deep, grinding roar.
Cold air spilled out—so cold Kaede shivered violently.
Reiji stepped forward.
---
The Heart of the Tower
The room beyond the door was enormous—far larger than any underground space should logically be. Black stone pillars rose hundreds of feet overhead, vanishing into darkness. The floor was engraved with runes that pulsed faintly, matching the rhythm of Reiji's blade.
At the center of the room stood a throne.
Simple.
Featureless.
Carved from the same strange stone as the walls.
Empty.
But not for long.
A voice echoed from the shadows, smooth and calm.
"You took longer than expected."
Kaede stiffened, hand tightening on her blade.
Reiji didn't move his gaze from the throne.
He knew the voice too well.
The Director stepped into view.
He looked exactly as Reiji remembered—immaculately composed, posture relaxed, eyes ancient and unreadable. His hair was silver not from age but from design, each strand precise.
Kaede whispered, barely breathing,
"That's him…"
Reiji stepped forward, blade at his side.
"Director."
The Director smiled faintly.
"Reiji. My finest creation."
Kaede tensed.
Reiji didn't flinch.
"Don't call me that."
"Why not?" the Director said softly.
"It is the truth."
He descended the steps from the throne with the unhurried grace of a man who had never once feared for his life.
"I forged you in fire and silence. I shaped your will. I carved away everything that made you weak. And now—"
he gestured to the blade in Reiji's hand—
"you carry the weapon meant only for the successor."
Reiji's jaw tightened.
"I didn't come here to take your throne."
"No," the Director said gently.
"You came to kill me."
Kaede stepped in front of Reiji.
"Don't come any closer!"
The Director regarded her with mild curiosity, like observing a butterfly.
"You're the girl he protected. Kaede, was it?"
He tilted his head. "You shouldn't be here."
Kaede didn't back down.
"I'm staying with him."
"How touching," the Director murmured.
"And how foolish."
Reiji stepped beside her.
"No more games."
The Director's eyes glinted.
"But Reiji… we haven't even begun."
---
The Ritual Awakens
The floor trembled.
Kaede stumbled.
Reiji caught her before she fell.
A pulse of energy radiated outward from the throne—slow at first, then building into a violent surge that shook the entire chamber.
Symbols flared to life across the pillars. Blue-white light raced along the runes, forming circuits that converged beneath the throne. The air crackled, thick with electricity and something older—something like hunger.
Kaede gasped as the chamber became suffocatingly bright.
"Reiji—what is he doing?!"
The Director spread his arms.
"Completing the oath that began the day you were born."
Reiji's blood ran cold.
He raised the Blade of Forgotten Vows.
And the blade responded—
pulsing so violently it felt like it might shatter.
Kaede grabbed his sleeve.
"Reiji—talk to me!"
He whispered—
"He's trying to force the successor ritual."
Kaede's eyes widened in horror.
"Then—then that means—"
Reiji nodded grimly.
"If he finishes it…"
His voice hardened.
"He'll have complete control over me."
Kaede's breath broke.
"We have to stop him!"
Reiji stepped forward.
"No."
Kaede turned to him, shocked.
"What do you mean—no?!"
Reiji lifted the blade—
its glow twisting into a deeper, more violent light.
"I'm not stopping him," he said.
"I'm ending him."