The morning sun over Neo-Veridia was a pale, sickly thing, struggling to pierce the veil of dust and violet mana clouds that choked the atmosphere. But even if the sky had been clear, the city would still have been cast in twilight.
The Tower of Babel blocked out the sun.
It was a structure that defied architectural logic. A needle of obsidian and throbbing blue neon, it pierced the earth in the financial district, its base crushing four city blocks into pulverized dust. It stretched upward past the cloud layer, a dark finger pointing at a god that had seemingly abandoned the world.
Inside the Helios Tower apartment, Kael tightened the straps of his scavenged tactical gear. The knee pads and elbow guards felt restrictive over his hardened skin, but they offered a layer of friction he needed. He checked the laces of his boots—heavy-duty work boots he had found in the uncle's closet. They were a size too small, but his feet, callous and dense, forced the leather to expand.
"Ready?" Kael asked, his voice flat.
Elena stood by the door. She had braided her silver hair tight against her skull to prevent it from being grabbed. She wore a reinforced motorcycle jacket over a tactical vest, and her rapier hung at her hip, humming with a low, magical frequency.
"No," Elena admitted, her hand hovering over the door handle. "That thing out there... it feels wrong, Kael. It's like looking at a black hole. My mana senses are screaming at me to run the other way."
"Evolution isn't comfortable," Kael said. He hoisted The Black Iron Tyrant onto his shoulder. The weight settled familiarly now, a part of his new physiology. "Fear is just a biological warning system. Acknowledge it, then override it."
"You talk like a machine," she muttered, but she unlocked the bolts. "Let's go before I lose my nerve."
They descended the forty-two floors using the emergency stairs. The elevators were death traps, coffins waiting for a power outage. The stairwell was surprisingly empty, save for a few drying bloodstains and the occasional discard of panic—a shoe, a suitcase, a child's toy.
When they pushed open the heavy fire doors to the street, the sound hit them first.
It wasn't the silence of the previous night. It was a low, constant hum, like a high-voltage transformer, emanating from the Tower. And beneath that hum, the noise of the city: distant gunfire, shouting, and the roar of engines.
The streets were crowded.
Kael had expected people to be hiding. He had expected the fear of the Vectors to keep the rats in their holes. He was wrong.
The Global Announcement promising "Control of the Sector" to the conqueror of the First Floor had triggered something powerful in the human psyche: Greed.
Groups of survivors were moving toward the Tower. Some were armed with kitchen knives and trash can lids; others, luckier or more violent, carried guns and wore riot gear. They eyed each other with suspicion, keeping their distance, but they flowed in the same direction, a river of desperate ambition flowing toward the dark ocean.
"It's a gold rush," Elena whispered, staying close to Kael's massive shadow. "They think it's a game. They think there's a prize waiting for them."
"There is a prize," Kael corrected, scanning the rooftops for snipers. "But the entry fee is survival."
They moved down the center of the avenue. Kael didn't step aside for anyone. His sheer size, the grey tint of his skin, and the terrifying slab of black iron on his shoulder acted as a repellent. Groups of armed men would look at him, calculate the odds, and silently step out of his way.
"Hey! Big guy!"
Kael didn't stop.
A man ran up to them. He was wearing a suit that had been expensive yesterday, now ruined. He waved a gold watch.
"I need protection! I'm a Level 1 Merchant! I have... I have appraisal skills! Get me to the Tower safe, and I'll work for you!"
Kael didn't even look down. He kept walking, his pace rhythmic and unyielding.
"I said hey!" The man tried to grab Kael's arm.
Kael stopped. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't raise his sword. He simply turned his head and looked at the man with his violet, bioluminescent eyes. He let a fraction of his predatory aura—the biological pressure of a higher life form—wash over the merchant.
The man froze. His bladder released. He stumbled back, falling onto the asphalt, gasping for air as if he were drowning.
"Inefficient," Kael muttered, resuming his walk.
"You could have just said no," Elena said, stepping over the weeping man.
"Words take time. Fear is instant."
They reached the "Blast Zone" three kilometers later. This was the perimeter where the Tower's descent had physically impacted the city. The skyscrapers here hadn't just fallen; they had been sheared in half by the shockwave. The air was thick with concrete dust that tasted like chalk.
Here, the environment changed.
The mana density was so high that the air rippled like heat haze. Vegetation—ornamental trees planted by the city—was mutating rapidly. Vines with thorns the size of fingers were growing visibly, cracking the pavement.
"Wait," Kael signaled, halting.
"What is it? Vectors?" Elena drew her sword.
"No. Not Vectors."
From the ruins of a shattered bank lobby ahead of them, shadows detached themselves from the darkness.
They looked like dogs, but they were wrong. Their skin had split open to reveal raw, red muscle tissue that glowed with blue veins. Their jaws were unhinged, filled with rows of crystalline teeth. But the most disturbing part was their movement—they phased in and out of reality, flickering like a bad video signal.
[Target Identified: Phase Hound.]
[Level: 4-6.]
[Type: Mana-Mutated Fauna.]
[Note: These creatures are a byproduct of the Tower's radiation. They hunt by blinking through solid matter.]
There were six of them. A pack.
"Phase Hounds," Kael announced. "They teleport. Short range. Watch your back."
One of the hounds flickered and vanished.
"Behind you!" Kael shouted.
He didn't turn around. He simply swung The Black Iron Tyrant backward in a blind, sweeping arc, using his [Neural Synapse Enhancement] to predict the displacement of air.
SPLAT.
The hound materialized exactly where Kael's sword was passing. The heavy blade didn't cut the beast; it smashed it. The hound exploded into a shower of blue gore and bone fragments, its teleportation ability useless against raw kinetic timing.
"One," Kael counted.
Two more hounds lunged at Elena.
"[Flash Step]," Elena whispered.
She vanished, reappearing on the flank of the first hound. Her rapier, glowing with wind mana, pierced the creature's ear, scrambling its brain. The second hound tried to bite her leg, but she was already gone, dancing away.
"They're fast," Elena panted, keeping her guard up. "But fragile."
"Glass cannons," Kael agreed. "Don't let them touch you. Their bite probably carries mana corruption."
The remaining three hounds circled Kael. They sensed he was the tank, the anchor. They growled, a sound that vibrated in the teeth.
Two of them flickered out of existence simultaneously.
Kael closed his eyes. He didn't trust his sight against teleporters. He trusted his hearing, enhanced by the density of his auditory bones.
Left. High. Right. Low.
He pivoted on his heel. He didn't swing the sword—it was too slow for a double strike. instead, he released the handle with his left hand and punched the empty air to his left.
His fist connected with wet meat just as the hound materialized mid-jump.
CRACK.
With a strength of 8.5, the punch caved in the hound's skull, sending it spinning across the street like a ragdoll.
Simultaneously, he swung the Greatsword one-handed to his right. The sheer weight of the weapon pulled his arm, but his reinforced tendons held. The blade caught the third hound by the midsection, severing it in half against the asphalt.
The last hound, seeing its pack decimated in seconds, whimpered. It tried to phase away, to run.
Elena didn't let it. She threw a throwing knife—one she had looted from the sports store. It wasn't magical, but her aim was true. The knife struck the hound's leg, pinning it to the ground for a second.
She closed the distance and finished it with a clean thrust to the heart.
Combat time: Twenty seconds.
Kael walked over to the pulped remains of the first hound. He knelt, placing his hand on the blue gore.
[Harvesting...]
[Biomass Acquired: 8 units.]
[Mana Trace detected. Converting...]
[Agility slightly increased.]
"Blue blood," Kael noted, wiping his hand on his pants. "They give less physical mass, but more energy. The Tower is changing the ecosystem."
"We need to move," Elena said, retrieving her knife. "That noise will draw more."
They pushed forward, entering the final ring: Ground Zero.
The base of the Tower was a plaza the size of a football field, paved with black stone that hadn't been there yesterday. And it was a war zone.
Not a war against monsters, but a chaotic stalemate of humanity.
Hundreds of people were gathered at the edge of the black plaza. They were shouting, pushing. A makeshift perimeter had been set up by a large, organized group wearing matching blue armbands. They had overturned police cars to create a wall, blocking access to the massive archway that served as the Tower's entrance.
"Get back! The area is under the jurisdiction of the Blue Shield Coalition!" a man with a megaphone shouted from atop a barricade. "Entry is restricted to Level 3 and above! Pay the toll or turn back!"
"More gatekeepers," Kael sighed, the sound heavy with annoyance. "It seems humanity's first instinct in an apocalypse is to monetize the exit."
"They have guns," Elena pointed out. "And there are a lot of them. Fifty at least."
"And there are a thousand people waiting," Kael countered, looking at the angry mob. "They just need a spearhead."
Kael didn't stop at the edge of the crowd. He walked through it. People bumped into him and bounced off, cursing, until they saw who—or what—he was. A path opened up for him, like the Red Sea parting for a shark.
He walked right up to the barricade.
The man with the megaphone looked down. He was wearing SWAT armor and held an assault rifle loosely in one hand.
"Halt!" the man barked. "Didn't you hear me, giant? Level 3 entry only. And there is a tax. 50% of your loot when you come out."
Kael stopped five meters from the barricade. He rested the tip of The Black Iron Tyrant on the ground. The thud was felt through the soles of the shoes of everyone nearby.
"I am entering," Kael said. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried. "Move the car."
The guard laughed nervously. "Or what? You going to hit me with that slab? We have rifles."
Ten men on the barricade raised their weapons, aiming at Kael.
Kael didn't flinch. He didn't activate [Iron Skin]. He simply looked at the guard.
"You have rifles," Kael agreed. "But you are standing on a police cruiser filled with gasoline. And my partner..."
Kael pointed a finger slightly to the side.
Elena was gone.
"Where is she?" the guard panicked, looking around.
"She is behind you," Kael lied. She wasn't. She was hiding in the crowd, ready to strike, but the lie was more effective.
The guard spun around, distracted.
That was the mistake.
Kael moved. He didn't charge the barricade; he attacked the obstacle itself. He swung the Greatsword in an uppercut motion, striking the front bumper of the overturned police car.
[Heavy Weapon Mastery] + [Strength 8.5].
The impact was cataclysmic. The car didn't explode, but it was lifted. The 180kg sword transferred so much kinetic energy that the two-ton vehicle was flipped into the air, tumbling backward off the barricade and crashing down onto the guards behind it.
Screams erupted. The formation broke instantly.
"Breach!" someone shouted.
Kael walked through the gap where the car had been. He didn't attack the guards on the ground. He ignored them. He walked past groaning men with broken legs.
The mob behind him saw the opening.
"CHARGE!" someone yelled.
The dam broke. Hundreds of desperate survivors surged forward, trampling the barricade and the Blue Shield guards, rushing toward the Tower entrance.
Kael walked calmly in the center of the stampede. He was the eye of the storm.
"That was reckless," Elena's voice came from beside him. She had rematerialized from the chaos. "You started a riot."
"I created a distraction," Kael corrected. "Now the Blue Shield is busy fighting the mob, and we walk into the Tower unchallenged."
They reached the massive archway. It was fifty meters high, made of a metal that seemed to drink the light. Inside, there was no door. Only a swirling vortex of blue mist, opaque and silent.
A system prompt appeared for both of them.
[You stand before the Tower of Babel.]
[Entering Floor 1: The Jungle of Rust.]
[Recommended Level: 5+]
[Warning: Death inside the Tower is permanent. Your soul will be harvested by the Administrator.]
[Do you wish to enter?]
Kael looked at Elena.
"Recommended Level 5," Elena read. "I'm Level 6. You're..."
"Hungry," Kael finished.
He stepped into the mist.
The sensation was like walking through a waterfall of ice water. The world twisted. Gravity shifted. The sounds of the riots outside vanished instantly, replaced by the sound of dripping water and distant, metallic screeching.
Kael opened his eyes.
They were no longer in Neo-Veridia.
They were standing on a suspended metal walkway, rusted and groaning. Above them, a sky of jagged metal plates blocked out the sun. Below them, a drop into an abyss filled with green fog. And all around them, towering structures of scrap metal and overgrown bio-mechanical vines formed a dense, vertical jungle.
[Welcome to Floor 1.]
[Objective: Locate the Gatekeeper.]
Kael took a deep breath. The air tasted of copper and ozone. It was rich.
"Look," Elena pointed.
On a platform across the chasm, something was moving. It was a machine, but it moved like an animal. A tiger made of pistons and rusted blades, with oil dripping from its jaws.
It spotted them. Its eyes were camera lenses that glowed red.
Kael lifted The Black Iron Tyrant. The runes on the blade pulsed, responding to the high mana density of the Tower.
"Finally," Kael said, his voice echoing in the metallic canyon.