Chapter 16: The Tower’s Judgment
The crack of the throne echoed through the vast chamber, vibrating through the stone walls as the last of the golden runes shattered into dust. The air trembled with unseen pressure, as if the Tower itself had taken notice, as if it had been watching all along.
Asher stood in the center of the throne room, his shadow stretching unnaturally beneath him, shifting in ways that ignored the flickering light. His breath was slow, controlled, his fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of his sword.
He could feel it.
Something was coming.
The lead Faceless One remained standing across from him, its smooth white mask still and unreadable, but there was something different now—something Asher had never seen from these creatures before.
Hesitation.
The entity's golden eye flickered, its robe-like form shifting as if struggling against something unseen. It took another slow step backward, distancing itself from the shattered throne.
A notification flared into Asher's vision.
[You have broken the Seal of the Nameless One.]
[The Tower has issued judgment.]
[Prepare for Erasure.]
The chamber shook violently.
The entire structure collapsed inward, folding into an abyss of swirling black and gold. Walls twisted, the floor fractured, and the air itself seemed to fracture like glass, revealing something beyond it—a realm of pure, consuming void.
The Tower was not waiting for him to climb.
It was trying to erase him.
A sharp chime rang through his skull.
[Tower Intervention has begun.]
Asher moved.
A wave of golden energy descended from above, crashing into the throne room like a meteor. It did not explode. It did not burn.
It simply devoured.
Everything it touched vanished.
Not destroyed.
Not broken.
Erased.
The throne was the first to go, consumed by the light and swallowed into nothingness. The walls of the Forgotten City followed, folding into themselves like paper, their history and existence simply removed from reality.
Asher launched himself backward, his body twisting mid-air as another surge of energy crashed down in front of him. The Faceless Ones were not spared.
One of them let out a distorted wail as the golden light engulfed it.
It did not die.
It did not fight.
It simply ceased to exist.
The lead entity turned to run.
It was too late.
The Tower's judgment fell upon it like an executioner's blade. The golden eye flickered violently for a single moment, as if realizing the truth.
Then it was gone.
Nothing remained.
Asher gritted his teeth.
This was not just a punishment.
This was a reset.
The Tower was erasing every trace of what happened here.
It had seen him devour the Faceless Ones. It had watched him take something that was not meant to be taken.
And now, it was trying to undo it.
A voice pierced his mind.
"You should not exist."
It was not the gods.
Not the demons.
This was the Tower itself.
It was speaking to him.
The air cracked apart, another wave of golden energy descending toward him, aiming to consume him the way it had consumed the rest.
This was not something he could dodge.
This was erasure.
And there was only one way to fight it.
He embraced the abyss.
Asher's shadow surged.
It did not stretch outward.
It did not block.
It devoured.
The moment the golden energy touched the edges of his darkness, it did not erase him.
It collapsed inward.
The Tower's power was absolute, an unbreakable force designed to rewrite existence itself. But Asher was not resisting it. He was consuming it.
The golden wave cracked.
Then it shattered.
The Tower had expected him to break.
Instead, he had stolen from it.
Asher's vision blurred, his blood burning with something unknown.
For a single moment, he was not standing in the throne room.
He was somewhere else.
A place beyond the Tower, beyond the gods, beyond the demons.
A void of twisting, shifting memories.
He saw glimpses of faces that did not exist.
A war that had never happened.
A man sitting on a throne that belonged to no one.
Then it was gone.
The chamber snapped back into reality.
The golden light vanished.
The Tower had stopped.
For the first time in its existence, it had failed to erase something.
Asher stood alone, his breath slow, his body trembling slightly.
He had just survived a Tower Intervention.
No one had ever done that before.
A final notification appeared before him, pulsing red.
[You have defied the Tower.]
[You are no longer bound by its judgment.]
[You have become an anomaly beyond the system.]
Asher closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he smiled.
The Tower had tried to erase him.
Instead, he had stolen from it.
A final chime echoed in the air.
The ruins of the Forgotten City vanished.
And he was standing at the base of the next trial.
A vast, endless staircase stretching into the sky, leading to the next floor.
The Tower wanted him gone.
But it had failed.
And now, he would climb.
Not because the Tower willed it.
Not because the gods demanded it.
But because he had chosen to.
And the next time they tried to erase him—
He would erase them first.