Chapter 1: Return of the Abysswalker
Chapter 1: Return of the Abysswalker
The sky wasn't dark because of night.
It was black because the city was burning.
Ash fell like snow over the crumbling ruins of Caelvaris. Towers leaned like wounded giants, their shadows stretching across streets that bled molten cracks. Screams had long since died—but the silence still carried their ghosts.
And in the center of it all stood a man. Barefoot. Shirtless. Untouched by the devastation.
Erevan.
His skin shimmered faintly, starlight flickering beneath the surface as if his blood remembered the cosmos. Not a single scar marred him, but the look in his eyes — galaxies fractured and spinning — was the kind you didn't come back from.
Not unless you'd already died.
A flicker in his mind.
[System Rebooting...][Adaptive Core Reestablished.][Scanning: No Threats Detected.][Current Location: Tower Periphery – Floor 0][Objective: Climb or Die.]
Erevan didn't smile.
What stretched before him was a monolith — a Tower of impossible height, its surface veined with light like a heartbeat waiting to end lives. Each floor was a crucible. Each survivor, a monster in the making.
He wasn't here to survive.He was here to end everything.
Three years ago, he'd climbed for glory. Reckless. Hopeful. Human.
That version of Erevan had died on Floor 17.
When Elira died.
Her laugh used to echo through his thoughts. Now it was buried behind steel walls he'd forged himself. No attachments. No emotions. The Tower had taught him that.
The Tower had taken her.
And now?
He'd take the Tower, one floor at a time.
[New Trait Unlocked: Emotion Suppression – Level 1][Adaptation Sync: 94%][Warning: Excessive detachment may affect 'Remembrance' stat.]
He blinked.
Remembrance?
That hadn't existed before.
He tried to access it. Locked. Greyed out. Like a memory half-buried and chained in the dark. Still, the word gnawed at him like something forgotten that wasn't meant to be.
He moved forward.
The Tower's gate loomed above, etched with the names of the dead. His wasn't there.
Not because he would fall.Because he would erase the rest.
Inside the lobby, there was no fanfare.
No guardians. No tutorial. Just silence.
[Tutorial Skipped – User classified as "Returning Entity"][Custom Protocol Initiated: "Abysswalker" Mode Activated]
His eyebrow twitched.
[New Ability Unlocked: Voidstep][Trait Mutation: Cosmic Adaptability → Abyssal Evolution]
So it remembered him.
Maybe even feared him.
Good.
From the dark, a figure materialized — a holographic girl with blue hair and a smile that should've felt warm.
But her eyes were too bright. Too empty.
"Welcome back, Erevan," the AI chimed. "The Tower missed you."
"I doubt that," he muttered, and without hesitation, slammed his fist through the illusion.
The AI fizzled out in a cascade of static, her warped giggle trailing like broken data.
[Aggression Detected. System Logging Emotional Patterns...]
Let it log.
Let it observe.
It would never understand what burned inside him now.
Not hope.
Not ambition.
Resolve.
He would climb.
He would adapt.
He would destroy.