They descended without speaking.
The tower behind them unraveled in silence, its spire peeling into ash-light and dust-code, vanishing floor by floor. Only the platform remained, and then, not even that.
The path beneath their feet reshaped itself. Stone turned to soil. The air thickened with humidity and memory. Somewhere, far off, the Hollowed Timber exhaled.
[System Notice]
[Corruption Radius Cleared: Rootspire and Adjacent Wilds]
[Environmental State: Stabilized]
[Hollowed Timber Class B Threat Level: Expunged]
[Guild Contract Complete: Code 4511A, Regional Purification]
[Reckoner Guild Reputation Increased]
No one spoke.
The wind moved again, for the first time in hours. It rustled through the trees that had once bled rot and bone. Now, they looked tired. Real. Wounded, but breathing.
Joe ran a hand through his hair. His skin still shimmered faintly with static, but the storm inside him had quieted.
"So," Wren said, after a long stretch of walking. "Anyone want to talk about the giant identity-shredding horror we just unmade?"
Kaelen didn't answer. Riven exhaled.
"I didn't see what you saw," Joe said.
"I know," Riven replied. "It wore my brother's face."
Wren glanced sideways. "Mine looked like someone I used to run with. Someone I thought was long dead. Could have been a trick. Could have been the System. Or maybe just... me."
Kaelen stopped walking. They spoke softly, more to the trees than to anyone else.
"Etris. Not the version I buried. The version I failed."
No one responded.
A crow passed overhead, trailing a cry that sounded half-digital. The group pressed on, following a trail that had not been there before, as if the land itself wanted them to leave now.
The silence returned, but it was human this time. Reflective. Damaged.
Joe's legs carried him forward, but his thoughts moved in spirals.
The Null Crown had not simply tried to kill him. It had tried to overwrite him. Pull him apart and recode the pieces into something compliant. He still felt the scratch of it, like a name lodged beneath his ribs.
He nearly stumbled on a root, but Kaelen caught his shoulder.
"You are still here," they said.
"Barely," Joe murmured.
Wren walked ahead now, uncharacteristically quiet. Riven glanced behind them often, hand resting on his weapon.
They camped near a stream, its water now running clean through stone that had once wept blood. The dreams came that night.
Joe stood in a Rootspire made of skin and breath. Each step on its stair sang with voices. Some pleaded. Some cursed. The flame mage waited ahead, staring not at him, but at Kaelen. Behind them all, the Null Crown whispered in code, spelling out Joe's name wrong on purpose.
He woke sweating.
Wren was already up, eyes hollow.
"You too?" Wren asked.
Joe nodded.
Kaelen said nothing. Riven didn't sleep at all.
By midday, the trees thinned. Moss replaced black bark. The light no longer pulsed red.
They passed a bent figure sitting near a broken shrine. The man was filthy, his coat torn, but his eyes were clear. He stared up at them.
"You came from the tower," he said.
Joe paused. "We did."
"You broke it."
"Something like that."
The man nodded slowly. "It's quiet now. Inside. I remember what it was like, being forgotten. But I think I'm back."
He smiled. "Thank you."
They left him behind, but not unremembered.
By nightfall, Ascalith rose on the horizon, its iron bones catching the twilight. Smoke drifted from chimneys, and the towers still stood, leaning slightly as if listening to the approaching silence.
The outer gate was open. A Reckoner in dull armor spotted them from the wall and gave a small salute. No words. Just recognition.
Inside, the city was as Joe remembered it. Weary, gray, but alive.
The Guild of Reckoners stood at the heart of Ascalith, its stone facade marked with clawed symbols. Inside, the lamps burned low. A woman in a leather coat leaned over a desk, eyes flicking toward the group as they entered.
"Back already?" she asked.
Riven set down a wrapped cloth, still damp with rootsap.
"Contract 4511A. Cleared."
The woman checked the ledger. The quill in her hand didn't scratch paper. It bled light.
[Guild Verification in Progress]
[Confirmed: Rootspire Purified]
[Confirmed: Aberrant Apex Eliminated]
[Confirmed: Hollowed Timber Reclaimed]
[Reckoner Contract Resolved: Code 4511A]
[Rewards Pending: Internal Allocation Phase]
The woman looked up again, eyes sharper now.
"You broke a tower," she said. "And the forest."
Joe nodded.
"You didn't just clear the contract. You changed the map."
The group didn't answer. The woman watched them for a long time before nodding once and turning away.
"Report upstairs tomorrow," she said. "We'll have more for you."
They stepped back into the night.
Ascalith breathed. The wind tasted of iron, but it was clean.
Joe stared up at the sky. The stars were dim, but visible. For the first time since arriving in Torn, they weren't bleeding.
The storm had passed.
But storms always return.