The gate didn't shimmer this time.
It cracked.
As Leon and his team stepped forward, the air buzzed with a strange static, like old radio interference. The floor beneath their boots felt fragile—not from weakness, but from age. Older than steel, older than code, older even than the Tower itself.
Roselia glanced around. "This floor feels... wrong."
"Not wrong," Aris murmured, eyes narrowed. "Forgotten."
Ahead, the landscape took shape—an endless expanse of broken columns, rusted machines, and half-buried command pylons. Glowing glyphs blinked erratically across the sky like dying stars. No floor number was displayed. No system announcement greeted them.
Leon stepped onto a cracked dais etched with deep grooves.
[Accessing Floor 517 Root Layer...]
Warning: This floor is no longer under Sovereign governance.
Proceed at your own discretion.
Kael frowned. "That's new."