CHAPTER 22: THE TOWER BURNS BACK

—

The Glass Tower shimmered like a blade piercing the sky. Eighty floors of steel, secrets, and the Architect's surveillance.

Kaien cracked his knuckles and stared up from the sidewalk.

Riven stood behind him, nervous. "Tell me there's a plan."

"There's a plan," Kaien said, pulling up his hood. "Step one: break physics."

He took a step forward—

> [SKILL ACTIVATED: PARALLEL SOUL – "BULLETSTORM EDGE"]

Reaction speed x5.

Movement lag: Zero.

Cognitive limit: Removed.

Kaien vanished.

The world blurred.

The security drones didn't see him coming. His blade shredded them mid-air before their alerts could even finish pinging. A neon blur zipped through the lobby—crash, slam, rip—until only sparks and steel corpses remained.

The receptionist—a clone-bot—stood frozen. "You do not have an appointment."

Kaien smiled. "I do now."

He stabbed the elevator panel.

The doors opened to black mist.

> [Welcome, Kaien Vale.]

[Architect 2 has authorized your arrival.]

[Please enjoy the descent.]

"Descent?" Riven said, catching up. "Aren't we going up?"

Kaien stepped in. "Not in his world."

The doors shut.

And the floor dropped out.

—

They fell through digital oblivion.

Neon code spiraled around them. Kaien's eyes adjusted instantly—thanks to Loop-17's inherited reflexes.

Riven screamed the whole way.

Then—impact.

They landed in a mirror room. Floor 80.

Kaien saw hundreds of reflections. All of him.

But one was different.

A Kaien with gold eyes. Void in his expression. The suit of a god, the presence of a tyrant.

Architect 2.

"You've made it," he said, stepping from the mirror like it was water. "Took you long enough, Loop-18."

Kaien flexed his fingers. "You know what I came for."

"Yes. And I'm going to let you try."

—

> [BOSS BATTLE – ARCHITECT 2]

Tier: SSS-Class

Traits: Reality Shaper, Mirrorwalker, Loop-Bound

Battle Tip: Don't think linearly. He won't.

—

The room shattered.

No more floors. No more walls.

Just Kaien and the Architect suspended in a void of fractured timelines.

"Try not to die like the others," Architect 2 whispered—and launched forward.

Clash.

Their blades met, but Kaien's wasn't real steel. It was made of loop fragments—a thousand deaths forged into one.

He parried the Architect's blade, ducked the second, caught the third.

"Too slow."

Kaien blinked.

And appeared behind the Architect mid-slash.

Boom.

Blood. Sparks. Screams.

Kaien's blade dug into Architect's shoulder.

"You're not supposed to be this fast!" he hissed.

Kaien grinned. "I had help from my worst self."

—

The Architect raised both hands.

"Fine. Let's make this interesting."

He clapped.

> [LOOP REWIND – 10 SECONDS]

Kaien was standing in front of him again. Blade untouched. Wound gone.

"What the—"

"I control time here," the Architect said. "You're just another repeat."

But Kaien smiled.

"You rewound me. Not my soul."

And suddenly—his shadow split.

Twelve other Kaien Vale echoes stepped out, weapons drawn. Loop-5. Loop-9. Loop-13. Loop-17.

The Architect's eyes went wide.

"This isn't possible—!"

Kaien's voice echoed across timelines.

"No, it's inevitable."

> [FINAL SKILL – FRACTURE SWARM: EGO BLADE]

Soul fragments manifest as physical entities for 30 seconds.

Power scales with timeline compression.

Warning: May trigger loop instability.

The Architect screamed—

And the storm began.

Blades. Fists. Timelines shattering like glass.

Kaien moved through it all like a god of chaos. Every version of him struck as one—perfect, brutal harmony.

Then—

Silence.

The Architect was on his knees. Bleeding. Defeated.

"You don't understand," he gasped. "Defeating me… it just triggers him."

Kaien narrowed his eyes. "Who?"

The Architect coughed blood.

"The one above the loops…"

> [WARNING: CODELOCK ENTITY DETECTED]

[ERROR: AUTHORIZATION REVOKED]

[FATAL EXCEPTION: SYSTEM BREACH IMMINENT]

The ceiling split apart.

And a black hand reached through reality.

Kaien and Riven could only watch—

As the God Who Loops began to descend.

—