CHAPTER 10-THE CHOICE OF MONSTERS

The silence in the Tower's 13th floor was suffocating.

No wind. No echo. No presence beyond his own.

Erevan stood in the center of a vast, obsidian chamber. Its walls pulsed faintly, almost like a heartbeat—a heartbeat made of stone, magic, and something older than either. The floor reflected his image back at him, distorted and cracked. Fitting.

Before him stood three doors.

Each was identical in size, yet utterly different in presence.

The first whispered promises. Gold, glory, praise. The air around it smelled of incense and silk. Behind that door lay the path of a hero—a name sung in songs, etched into history. The system called it Ascendance.

The second door pulsed with power. Cold, raw, pure. A throne waited beyond it. Not of peace, but of conquest. That path was Dominion.

And the third... it was silent. Cracked, rusted. Forgotten by design. Yet Erevan's eyes lingered on it longer than the others. There was no promise behind it—only truth. Painful, liberating truth. Abysswalk.

"Choose," the System's voice echoed, neutral as always. "Your fate. Your story."

Erevan didn't move.

He had once been a boy who dreamed of saving everyone.

He was no longer that boy.

Saving the world was a lie told to children by those who fed on hope. And hope, Erevan had learned, was just another leash.

Ascendance would make him beloved, yes—but only for as long as he served their needs.

Dominion would make him feared. But fear bred rebellion, betrayal. And he'd seen enough thrones crumble under the weight of expectation.

But the Abyss… the Abyss offered nothing. Demanded everything.

And in that emptiness, Erevan saw freedom.

He took a step.

A second.

His hand touched the cold rust of the third door.

"You will be alone," the System warned. "There will be no legends for those who vanish into shadow."

Erevan chuckled, quietly. "Legends are for the dead. I plan to survive."

The door didn't open.

It dissolved, like ash on the wind.

Behind it, darkness waited—not the absence of light, but a realm that devoured meaning itself. He stepped through, and the world snapped behind him.

For a moment, there was nothing.

Then everything screamed.

Pain. Memory. His body convulsed as the system reconfigured.

[System Update: Abyss Protocol Accepted.]

[Path: Abysswalker Initiated.]

[Warning: Emotional Dampening Engaged. Morality Decay at 14%.]

[Mutation Threshold Unlocked.]

And deeper still, buried in black script:

"Only monsters walk the abyss. Become one, or be consumed."

His skin cracked—not with wounds, but with light. Cosmic veins pulsed underneath. His emotions, once turbulent, grew calm. Cold. Calculating.

The Tower had wanted a monster?

It had one now.

Behind him, the chamber sealed. The other doors vanished as if they had never existed.

In front of him, a new staircase spiraled downward.

Not up.

The Abysswalker does not climb. He descends.