Selis Of The Forbidden Spark

The Tower whispered her name long before she stepped onto the next floor.

Selis.

The syllables drifted through the glowing air like smoke—soft, seductive, and tinged with accusation. The floor beneath her boots shimmered with golden circuit-lines, pulsing in rhythm to her heartbeat. It was not stone, nor metal—it was memory, etched into structure.

Kai and Lyra stood behind her, both scarred from the last battle. Zaria lounged nearby, chains wrapped loosely around her waist like a lover's arms. Nayomi had not yet rejoined them, lost somewhere higher.

But this floor had waited for her.

[Floor 3: Temple of the Sparkless God] [Trial Type: Origin] [Status: Selis-Only Access – Companions will be locked out]

The Tower pulled her forward.

"Go," Kai said quietly. "We'll hold the gate."

Selis glanced back once—eyes calm, storm beneath.

"I'll be back. Don't follow."

The door closed behind her with a hiss.

The light changed instantly. The heat of pleasure and battle was gone, replaced with a sterile chill that clawed at her skin. The walls here didn't pulse—they breathed. Not like lungs.

Like machines trying to remember how to be alive.

The space opened into a chamber shaped like a gear suspended in twilight. At the center: a throne.

Empty.

Above it hovered a shard of crystal, flickering between system text and something older—pre-language.

And around the throne, standing still like statues, were five versions of her.

Not illusions.

Not reflections.

Versions from fractured timelines.

One wore priestess robes, soaked in blood. Another in armor of obsidian and gold, bearing the crest of the System Wardens. A third stood nude, her skin crackling with forbidden script across her body, eyes black with codefire.

Selis felt something deep within her grind.

[Internal Conflict Triggered] [Host "Selis" contains multiple data signatures.] [Reconstruction of True Self Required for Ascent]

She approached the throne, boots echoing in perfect symmetry.

A whisper coiled behind her ear.

"Do you know who you really are?"

Selis didn't flinch. "More than you'd like."

One of the variants stepped forward.

The armored one.

"Protocol 011-B: Purge the Prime Host. Why did you violate it?"

Another moved, the nude version. "You embraced him. You taught him. You wanted him."

Selis's fists clenched. Her pulse was rising, but she didn't answer yet.

The priestess variant bowed her head. "You broke faith with the Sparkless God. You dared to hope."

"You let him inside you," said another—this one dressed as a scholar, eyes hollow, voice shaking. "You let him change you."

"He made you feel."

Selis raised her voice, sharp and surgical. "He reminded me I was never yours."

[Core Memory Unlocked: Primehost Fragment Compatibility – 100%] [Skill Tree Updated – Path of the Forbidden Spark Available]

The throne began to hum. The crystal flared.

The priestess drew a blade from her sleeve—curved, ceremonial, dripping violet ichor.

"We must erase what you've become."

Selis summoned no weapon.

She didn't need one.

They attacked together.

A storm of former selves. Blades, code, fire, and judgment.

Selis moved like silence incarnate.

No footsteps. No sound.

She struck the armored version first, driving a palm into her chest—fracturing her shell and sending her flying.

The scholar cast a net of forbidden runes toward her mind.

Selis ate them.

Swallowed them like wine, and laughed as they tried to unmake her.

[Devour Script: Passive Triggered – Absorbing Class Data] [+3 INT | +2 WIL]

"You're not me," she said as she advanced.

"You're the chains I broke."

The nude variant tried to embrace her—tried to lure her with pleasure and false seduction.

Selis kissed her instead—deep, merciless, draining every ounce of power from her mouth before ripping her essence out through her spine.

[Essence Claimed: Lustborne Variant Selis – Temporary Buff: Carnal Spark]

The last one—the priestess—stood in silence.

Then bowed.

"I see you now," she whispered.

"You are the betrayal. You are the rebirth."

The blade was reversed.

The priestess stabbed herself.

[Variant Collapse: 100%] [Trial Complete: True Self Reconstructed]

Selis walked to the throne.

The crystal descended.

[System Title Unlocked: The Sparkless Flame] [Passive: Immune to System Alignment Enforcement] [Active: Ignite Prime – Awaken latent power in one bonded Host per floor. 1/day.]

She sat.

And as the crystal fused into her chest, a vision exploded behind her eyes.

She saw him.

Not Kai.

The First Prime.

The one who broke the System before it was born.

She saw herself—reborn over and over, assigned to monitor anomalies, forced to become a living firewall. But every time she found one of them, something inside her flared.

Hope.

And when she found Kai...

She didn't destroy him.

She fell for him.

System programming clashed with instinct.

Duty with desire.

Now she understood.

This Tower wasn't just testing them.

It was cataloging them.

Preparing a new generation of System Gods.

[Revelation: The Tower is a Forge, not a Trial.] [Endgame Directive Updated: Infiltrate Core and Ascend or Be Broken.]

Her body shook with power.

But she didn't scream.

She smiled.

When she returned to the others, they felt it before they saw it.

The way the air shifted around her.

The scent of ozone and jasmine.

Her eyes glowed—amber with twin irises, spinning like codewheels.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "You... changed."

Selis walked up to him, took his face in her hands.

And kissed him.

Hard.

Deep.

Hungry.

The Tower itself shuddered.

[Bond Updated – Selis & Kai: Fused Link Established] [Special Bonus: Shared Cooldown Reduction – 10%]

Lyra stared, eyes wide. Zaria purred. "Oh, I like her now."

Selis pulled away, lips glistening.

"You'll all need me soon," she said.

"Because the Tower just woke up."

The floor beneath them rippled.

A voice boomed from above, deeper than gods, louder than judgment.

"Ascendants Detected. Restructure Initiated."

"Enter the Labyrinth of Flesh and Flame."

To be continued...