The spiral staircase seemed endless. It was crafted from the same black stone as the rest of the Spire, floating in a void of dark violet fog. There were no walls, no railings—just a twisting ribbon of stone ascending into the darkness. One slip meant falling forever.
"My legs are burning," Mara muttered, though she kept pace. She checked her last steam canister. "And I'm down to fumes. If we run into another Titan, I'm throwing rocks."
"Save your breath," Kael said from the front. " The air is getting thinner."
He was right. As they climbed higher, breathing became a chore. The air tasted metallic, charged with so much raw Aether that the hair on their arms stood up.
Aarav walked behind Kael, holding Liora's hand tightly. The Blade Sigil in his palm wasn't just humming now; it was vibrating in sync with the tower.
"She's manipulating the space," Aarav said, looking up at the impossible geometry. "This tower isn't this tall from the outside. She's stretching the interior."
"Can you find a shortcut?" Liora asked, panting.
"I don't need to," Aarav said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the dark fog swirling around them. "Because she's coming to us."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the gravity shifted.
LURCH.
It wasn't a stumble. The entire direction of 'down' changed instantly. The staircase they were walking on suddenly became a vertical wall. They were falling sideways into the void.
"GRAB ON!" Aarav roared.
He stabbed his sword into a crack in the stone stairs, hanging on with one hand while grabbing Liora's waist with the other. Kael and Mara managed to grab onto the edge of the steps. They were dangling over an infinite drop, their bodies heavy as lead.
"Adaptability," Elara's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, amused and cruel. "Let's see how you fight when the world is turned on its side."
From the violet fog below (which was now "left"), shapes began to emerge. They were humanoid, but they moved like insects, crawling on the underside of the stairs. They wore slick, black leather armor and had blades fused to their forearms.
Shadow Stalkers.
"They're coming up the underside!" Kael yelled, swinging his body to get a foothold.
"I can't shoot while hanging on!" Mara cursed, struggling to pull herself up.
Aarav looked at the situation. It was a physics nightmare. But Kael's lesson echoed in his mind: The ground beneath your feet is your enemy.
"Don't fight the gravity!" Aarav shouted to the team. "Use it!"
He looked at an approaching Stalker. He released his grip on the sword embedded in the stone.
"Aarav!" Liora screamed.
He fell. But because the gravity was skewed, he didn't fall down; he "fell" horizontally, straight towards the Stalker crawling on the adjacent section of the stairs.
The Stalker screeched, raising its blades.
Aarav twisted his body in mid-air, using the momentum of the fall. He slammed into the Stalker feet-first, driving his boots into its chest. The impact crushed the creature against the stone.
CRUNCH.
Aarav rebounded off the corpse, grabbing the edge of the stair the Stalker had been on. He was now standing on the "underside" of the stairs.
"Change your perspective!" Aarav yelled. "The wall is the floor if you land on it!"
Kael understood instantly. A feral grin appeared on his face. He let go, "falling" sideways towards two Stalkers. As he flew past them, his swords flashed. Two heads were severed from their bodies, spinning away into the violet fog. Kael landed gracefully on a floating platform of debris.
Mara groaned. "I hate physics!" She kicked off the wall, launching herself through the air. She tackled a Stalker in mid-air, driving her combat knife into its neck repeatedly—stab, stab, stab—until it stopped moving. She rode the corpse down until she crashed onto a lower landing.
It was a chaotic, three-dimensional battle. There was no up or down, only targets and trajectory.
Aarav moved like a spider. He jumped from step to step, defying orientation. A Stalker lunged at him from the darkness. Aarav didn't parry; he used the Sigil to sense the Aether holding the stone step together.
He struck the stone, not the enemy.
CRACK!
The step shattered. The Stalker lost its footing and tumbled into the infinite void, screeching until its voice faded.
"Regroup!" Kael shouted. He was standing on a large, floating platform about fifty feet "above" (or sideways from) where they started.
Aarav helped Liora. "Jump. I'll catch you."
Liora looked at the dizzying drop. She looked at Aarav. She jumped.
Aarav caught her mid-air, swinging her onto the platform. Mara and Kael joined them moments later. They stood on a flat island of stone, floating in the middle of the violet void.
The gravity shifted again. SLAM.
They hit the floor hard. "Down" was normal again.
They were panting, bruised, and covered in black ichor from the Stalkers.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Mara wheezed, clutching her stomach.
"Hold it in," Kael said, pointing forward. "We're here."
The floating platform had docked. In front of them, at the very peak of the Spire, stood a massive, ornate door made of white gold and black iron. It hummed with power so intense it made their teeth vibrate.
There were no guards. No puzzles. Just the door.
Aarav walked up to it. He placed his hand on the metal. The Blade Sigil burned white-hot, reacting to the Master's presence on the other side.
"She's in there," Aarav said quietly.
"Do we knock?" Mara asked, reloading her gun with her very last clip.
"No," Aarav said. He drew his sword. The steel sang in the silence.
He looked at Liora, Mara, and Kael. They were battered, bleeding, and exhausted. But their eyes... their eyes were steel.
"We finish this," Aarav said. "For Grak. For the stag. For us."
He pushed the doors open.
A blinding white light flooded out, swallowing them whole.