The scythe slipped from my hands.Its black blade, once heavy and alive with power, now felt cold… lifeless. I fell to one knee, blood pooling under me on the stone floor, the 100th floor of the Tower stretching endlessly around me like a twisted cathedral of shadows.In front of me stood the Abyssal Sovereign.
A monster draped in darkness, tall as a god, its burning eyes staring down at me the way a man might look at an ant.
"You thought you could save them?" it asked. Not roared. Spoke. Calm. I hated that most of all—the lack of effort in its voice, as if my entire life had been… insignificant.
I wanted to move. I wanted to stand. I wanted to swing my weapon one last time.
But my body wouldn't listen. My arms trembled. My lungs burned.Behind me, the bodies of my party lay still. Friends I had fought beside for years. Some had betrayed me earlier in this climb, and yet… I still couldn't escape the guilt. If I had been stronger, maybe they'd still be alive.
The Sovereign stepped closer. "All your suffering… all your sacrifices… for this?"I closed my eyes. Maybe this was it. Maybe I could finally rest.Then pain—white-hot—ripped through my chest. Not the kind of pain that makes you scream. The kind that makes the world vanish.
My vision dimmed, my thoughts came slower… and slower… until they stopped.Darkness.No Tower. No monsters. No Sovereign. No sound. No… me?And then…"You lasted longer than I thought."The voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
Deep, cold, and yet almost… amused.Out of the dark stepped a figure. A tattered black cloak flowed behind it, and instead of a face, there was only a skull wreathed in faint, ghostly light. In its bony hands, it held a scythe that seemed to swallow the light around it.I swallowed.
"You're… Death.""Call me what you like, Zane Valthor. You've been interesting to watch.""My story's over," I muttered. "The Tower wins.""Only if you want it to."That made me look up. "What do you mean?""I am offering you something the living never get."It tilted its skull, and the air around me grew colder."A second chance."The words didn't make sense—not at first.
I had already played my hand. I had climbed, fought, bled, lost, and failed. A second shot at that nightmare? It was tempting to say no. But then I saw their faces in my mind. Liora's smile. My comrades' laughter. All gone because I was too weak."What's the catch?" I asked carefully.
The Reaper's empty eye sockets seemed to burn brighter."All power comes with a price. You'll discover it in time.""And if I refuse?""Then fade into nothing.
The world burns, the Tower stands, and your soul drifts… forgotten."My fists clenched. This was probably a game. A trick.
But it didn't matter. If I had the chance to undo it—to protect them—then I'd take it. Whatever the cost."I accept."The Reaper's grin widened—not that it had muscles to grin with.It reached out its bony hand.
I took it.The world shattered.Colors exploded behind my eyes. I gasped for breath—and air rushed into my lungs as if I'd been drowning for years.When the dizziness faded, I found myself standing—in the middle of a crowded street.Cars honked. People shouted. The smell of hot asphalt and food stalls filled my senses.
The sky… it wasn't red and broken like I remembered.I knew this day.
I knew it too well.It was the day the Tower first appeared.
Five years before my death.And in my hands… was the Ebon Scythe.It pulsed faintly, like it had been waiting.Somewhere deep inside me, I heard it whisper, like an old friend's voice through a locked door:"Let's climb again."And just like that, the Reaper's game began.
To be continued.....