Tower 1 — Floor Twelve, The Hall of Repeating Souls
The twilight staircase ended abruptly.
No transition.
No warm-up.
No soft glow like the sanctum before.
Instead—
They stepped into a long, circular chamber of floating mirrors, each suspended in a slow orbit like moons around a dead planet.
The air was cold.
Still.
Heavy with the weight of memory.
Ragnor shivered.
"…why does every floor feel like it wants to ruin our mental health?"
Aetherion didn't answer immediately.
His cosmic aura pulsed irregularly—like something inside the chamber was tugging at it.
"This place… is dangerous. Not physically—mentally. Spiritually."
Lyra scanned the mirrors.
Each one reflected not their current selves…
but variations of who they might've been.
Older.
Younger.
Stronger.
Broken.
Her Constellar Mark glowed faintly beneath her collarbone—
three star-nodes shimmering in reaction to the cosmic distortion.
Aetherion noticed.
"Lyra… your mark—"
"It's reacting," she whispered, voice steady despite the fear trembling in her fingers.
"It feels like… the stars are watching us."
Iris pressed close to Lyra, trembling.
"I-I don't like this… it feels like someone is staring through me…"
Ragnor cracked his neck.
"Same… but someone's always staring at us lately."
Aetherion's eyes narrowed.
"Not someone. Something."
DRM stood at the center of the ring of floating mirrors.
Silent.
Still.
Mask glowing faintly with each pulse of the chamber.
And the mirrors all rotated—
Facing him.
The Chamber Reacts to DRM
A deep hum rang through the chamber.
Not sound—
memory.
The mirrors shook violently—
—then shattered.
All at once.
Glass exploded into swirling dust—
forming shapes.
Bodies.
Figures.
And from the dust…
came visions.
Echoes.
Reflections of futures that never should happen.
Aetherion gasped.
"This is impossible—these are…
possible timelines."
Ragnor stepped back.
"I'm seeing myself—fighting myself—WHAT THE—"
Lyra's breath hitched.
"…I see me… dead."
Iris sobbed instantly.
"No—no—nononono—"
Aetherion swallowed.
"I'm seeing a version of myself… collapsed under starlight…"
Each mirror-dust vision whispered:
"You cannot reach the top."
"You will break before you ascend."
"You will lose everything."
Lyra clutched her chest as her Constellar Mark burned faintly.
"It's showing us failures.
Deaths.
Broken futures."
Aetherion nodded.
"That's the trial.
The Chamber of Echoed Fates forces climbers to confront the outcomes they fear most."
Ragnor roared:
"THEN I'LL JUST BREAK THE DAMN FLOOR—"
Aetherion grabbed him.
"NO! These are echoes. If you touch them—"
A vision of Ragnor snapped toward him—
eyes black, ribs exposed, fist glowing with destructive aura.
Ragnor's voice cracked.
"…that's me… if I lose control…"
Lyra stepped back, arrow ready, breath shaking.
Her echo stepped toward her—
a star-mark fully awakened, but with a hollow black eye socket where the final star had consumed her soul.
Lyra gasped.
"No… no… that's not me…"
Aetherion faced his own echo—
a cosmic husk, body swirling with collapsing galaxies, void eating at his skin.
Iris faced herself—
a shadowed version, time-magic overflowing until her body froze in mid-scream.
She broke into tears.
"Please—please make them go away—!!"
Aetherion reached for her—
But a pulse hit the chamber.
Every echo stopped.
Frozen mid-step.
Mid-breath.
Mid-scream.
All eyes—
of every echo—
turned toward DRM.
Ragnor whispered:
"…not AGAIN…"
The echoes began whispering—
voices overlapping.
"He…"
"…breaks our timelines…"
"…cannot be predicted…"
"…the Tower fears him…"
DRM tilted his head.
The visions recoiled.
Lyra stared at him in awe.
"He's… disturbing the future echoes."
Aetherion whispered, voice shaking:
"He's not part of any timeline these echoes understand."
The visions slowly merged—
forming a single towering shape.
A massive humanoid silhouette, made entirely of swirling echo-fragments.
Dozens of faces.
Dozens of voices.
Dozens of futures.
The chamber groaned.
A system message appeared:
[FLOOR TWELVE: ECHOED FATES]
[BOSS: THE TIMELINE ABERRANT]
[WARNING: DO NOT LET IT TOUCH YOU]
Ragnor roared:
"FINE! WE DO THIS THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY—WE KILL IT!"
He charged.
Lyra followed, firing starlight arrows.
Aetherion unleashed cosmic bursts.
Iris attempted to cast a time-lock—
Her magic snapped instantly.
"N-no—!! I can't—!! It's absorbing my skill—!!"
Aetherion shouted:
"DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU—IT WILL EITHER AGE YOU OR ERASE YOU—!!"
The boss reached out—
and almost touched Ragnor—
Before a small hand caught the aberrant's wrist.
DRM.
Holding the boss's massive, swirling limb with one tiny hand.
Ragnor froze.
"…kid?"
The aberrant screamed—
not in rage—
in pain.
Lyra whispered:
"He's burning it…"
The aberrant's body distorted violently.
The future fragments panicked.
"ERROR…"
"TIMELINE BREACH…"
"CANNOT PROCESS…"
"THE MASKED ONE IS OUTSIDE FATE…"
DRM's aura flickered.
Just slightly.
Stage 3.0 — "Fatebreaker Pulse (Light Resonance)"
The aberrant dissolved—
like a sandcastle collapsing under a wave.
Silence swallowed the chamber.
The fragments fell like snow, fading into nothing.
The staircase to Floor Thirteen emerged.
Lyra collapsed to her knees.
Her Constellar Mark glowed intensely—
another node nearly awakening.
Aetherion stared at DRM with wide, horrified eyes.
"He didn't even fight it.
He simply…
erased its connection to fate."
Ragnor gulped.
"I'm starting to think…
he's not climbing the Tower—
the Tower is surviving HIM."
Iris trembled as she stood.
"…DRM… scares even the future…"
Behind them, a faint shadow flickered.
A childish laugh.
[Shadow Presence Detected]
[Name — ████]
[Comment: "Heh… that was fun."]
The shadow vanished.
DRM walked up the staircase silently.
And the team followed.
CHAPTER 24 — STATUS REPORT
Ragnor
Level: 18
EXP: +670
Physical: Stable
Mental: Shocked
Notes: Saw a future where he becomes a monster; slightly traumatized
Lyra
Level: 16
EXP: +620
Constellar Mark: Brightening, Node II nearly awakened
Mental: Disturbed but strengthening
Notes: Echo of her final star terrified her
Iris
Level: 12
EXP: +410
Mental: Extremely fragile; cried through the trial
Notes: Echo showed her worst self; time magic remains unstable
Aetherion
Level: 18
EXP: +550
Mental: Awestruck, shaken
Notes: Confirmed DRM is outside all timelines
Boss — Timeline Aberrant
Status: Deleted
Notes: Could not process DRM's existence
DRM
Level: ERROR
Mask Sync: 95%
Aura: Stage 3.0 — "Fatebreaker Pulse"
Emotional State: Calm
Notes: DRM's presence overwrote a boss's timeline logic