Chapter 30 – The Apex That Devours
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Chapter 30 – The Apex That Devours
By Dorian Blackthorn
Tagline: In a tower that breaks the soul, only monsters climb to the top.
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There was no floor.
No number.
No loading screen.
No transition message from the System.
Erevan simply was, and then he wasn't.
The sky inverted. The stars bled. Gravity twisted into a Möbius spiral.
And then—he landed.
Not gently.
Not cleanly.
He crashed, knees cracking stone older than thought. The impact cracked a thousand runes hidden beneath the surface—each one a forgotten floor, condensed into a single sliver of time.
This was it.
The Apex.
The true top of the Tower.
And it was nothing like he expected.
No throne room. No Administrator's chamber. No system core spinning with divine fire.
Only a void.
A perfectly still, pitch-black ocean stretching in every direction.
Above it: a bleeding moon, shaped like an open eye.
Below: his reflection—not of what he was, but what he could've been.
> [Remembrance: 52%]
[You are not alone.]
[Warning: A High-Level Entity has taken notice.]
A ripple broke the surface.
And something stepped out of the dark.
No feet.
No name.
Only presence.
It wore no form, but Erevan's mind insisted on giving it one—half-forgotten memories of failed gods, unfinished monsters, and broken avatars stitched into a shape that hurt to look at.
It did not speak with words.
It remembered into him.
"You've come far, little Echo."
He bared his teeth. "I'm not an Echo."
"You were."
"You were her Echo. Her sword. Her betrayal."
> [System Trait Activated: Code of Sacrifice]
[Your resistance to memory manipulation has increased.]
[Abyssal Immunity Achieved: Lesser God-Tier Mind Hacks blocked.]
Erevan surged forward.
His punch was a scream of collapsing timelines.
It connected.
But the creature didn't move.
Instead, it expanded, flooding the void with billions of dying stars—each one a choice Erevan didn't make. Each one a world he failed to save. Each one…
Her.
"You wanted to break the Tower?" it said, voice made of her last breath. "You are the Tower."
The words hit harder than any weapon.
Because he knew they were partly true.
Every kill, every evolution, every system override—it wasn't just rebellion.
It was absorption.
The deeper he climbed, the more he became it.
And now?
Now the Apex was offering him a throne.
All he had to do…
Was stop fighting.
Just once.
> [System Prompt: Accept Integration?]
[Yes / No]
His hands trembled.
Not from fear.
From choice.
He remembered her again. Not in the Core. Not in death. But before—when they still believed they could rewrite the world without breaking it.
He whispered, "If I take the throne…"
The being finished for him:
"…you'll become the new Heart."
Silence.
The void trembled.
> [Remembrance: 60% — Final Fragment Unlockable]
Then—
He smiled.
And said:
"Then I'll rewrite the script from inside."
He launched forward.
Not to kill.
Not to escape.
But to overwrite the Apex itself.
Reality screamed.
The Tower fought back.
But this time, Erevan wasn't a pawn.
He wasn't a glitch.
He was the new threat protocol had no answer for.
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To be continued in Chapter 31 – "Crown of the Damned."