Adam was silent, his mind racing as he processed the information.
So the Sixth Floor's universe had been part of the Tower for over 20 million years?
And if this was just one of the countless floors... how ancient was the Tower of Yxthar itself?
The sheer scale of it was mind-numbing to Adam...
Each floor felt like a tombstone for a dead reality.
The most chilling part was that the original inhabitants seed to have known the Tower was coming.
They did not seem to flee mindlessly, and instead they scrubbed their own existence and left a warning so absolute it beca a fundantal law for their creations as though trying to let the universe think they were dead...
Could they have done it so that they did not need to enter the Tower of Yxthar?
Trying to trick the Tower of Yxthar into thinking they were dead so that their creations could enter in their stead...
However, when the Tower of Yxthar ca, it pulled them back and they engaged in a battle?
How could they have predicted it?
What did they know that he didn't?
It ant the Tower's arrival wasn't a random event.
It was perhaps a predictable, cyclical catastrophe, or a force that cast a shadow long before it.. manifested.
[My turn.]
The text pulled him from his spiraling thoughts.
[For how long, or until which floor, do you think you can last in the Tower of Yxthar?]
How long could he last?
It was an impossible question that he did not have a proper answer to...
But he wasn't the sa as before in his past life.
This ti, he had his strange viewers, their gifts, and his ability to copy skills...
These gave him fighting capabilities that most stream hunters could only dream of having.
He was no longer an ordinary stream hunter with basic capabilities, and was instead one that would stand out a lot!
"I don't know how many floors the Tower has."
Adam answered, his voice calm as he took a pause.
"But I am confident I will last for a very long ti and have plans on reaching the final floor..."
The screen was silent for a mont, as if processing Adam's answers and trying to guess if he was telling the truth or not.
[Status of answer… acceptable.]
[Proceeding to next segnt.]
[Your turn to ask a question.]
Adam decided to push further into the mystery.
"You said the Originators erased themselves from your mories, Was the command 'Do not explore outside' given as an act of warning you not to look for them, or was it given to make you stay in the planet?"
The computer's response was imdiate, the text stark.
[Temporal sequence analysis: The command was implented 7.4 standard cycles prior to final departure. It was not a farewell. It was a quarantine protocol.]
A quarantine protocol...
That confused Adam quite a bit.
Were they hiding or were they trying to contain sothing?
Adam suspected that they were trying to make their world seem uninteresting and barren...
They were painting a "Do Not Enter" sign on their own reality in a desperate, last-ditch effort to avoid the Tower of Yxthar... which had failed because the Tower still ca?
[My turn.]
[Define your primary objective. Conquest of the Tower is a vague ambition. What is the specific, terminal goal?]
This was a more personal question... one that Adam did not need to lie about.
Adam considered lying, but the machine seed to value factual statents.
His true goal was both simpler and more complex than conquest.
He did not need to tell the entire truth, he could conceal the part about how he had witnessed the destruction of his old life during the retaliation....
"My primary objective is to prevent the extinction of my species and my ho universe."
He stated plainly, not providing much details.
"Conquering the Tower, controlling it, or finding a way to sever it from our reality are all potential paths to that goal. The terminal goal is survival."
[Status of answer… acceptable.]
[Proceeding to next segnt.]
[Your turn to ask a question.]
Adam was starting to see the pattern now.
This wasn't just a test of what he knew from books...
It seems that the Overseer was trying to build a profile on him, to understand who he was and what he knew.
Not just testing rote knowledge anymore, he decided to ask about the one thing that might tie his world to this dead one.
"The war you witnessed in the sky..."
"The one where you think the Originators fought the Tower. What kind of powers did you see the Tower use against them? I'm talking about Authorities, strange technology, ancient magic... anything."
The screen instantly glitched.
Text scrambled and flashed in a chaotic ss before finally settling down.
[Data Corrupted. Partial Access Granted.]
[Engagent Log 7, Day 3: Detected localized reality restructuring. Causality override signatures detected. Entity designated 'Oracle' engaged Tower substructure. Entity neutralized.]
[Powers used against 'Oracle' bear 67.8% similarity to so-called "Reversal" Authority and "Corruption" Authority.]
[Highly suspected that the Tower of Yxthar had used 29 other Authorities during the battle.]
[Conclusion: High probability that the Tower of Yxthar utilized conceptual Authorities during the engagent.]
Adam's blood ran cold.
It was true.
The Tower of Yxthar seed to not just have a few powers... it had a near-endless arsenal of Authorities it had stolen from countless universes.
This wasn't a guess anymore, it was a confird fact from a 20-million-year-old log.
He rembered his past life vividly.
During the Tower's final retaliation, he had faced nightmarish beings that wielded powers which broke the rules of reality itself.
He had fought the Deathspeakers, fanatics who commanded the [Death Authority], able to unmake lives with a single word.
He had seen others who could twist space, rewrite mories, or control ti itself.
The Tower had used all of them.
And now he knew it had been doing so for eons...
[My turn.]
The Overseer's next question felt inevitable, its words heavy with the weight of its own failure.
[If you were given the title of Second Angel Candidate, would you accept it to prolong the survival of your universe?]
Adam's mind raced. It was the ultimate gamble. But his goal was absolute.
"Yes."
Adam stated, his voice firm.
"If it was the only option left to fulfill my primary objective, the only path to survival, then I would have no choice but to accept it."
A soft, clear voice spoke from beside him, a voice that had no right to be there.
"Are you sure?"
Adam froze.
His blood ran cold.
He slowly turned his head.
There, standing so close he could have reached out and touched him, was a child who looked no older than ten.
His clothes were simple, but above his head floated a crown... a perfect loop of a serpent devouring its own tail.
He... he didn't even notice when this child appeared!
For a single, fatal second, Adam's gaze lingered on the child's eyes.
They weren't a fixed color...
They were constantly shifting, swirling with colors that didn't have nas.
It was like looking into a kaleidoscope of dying stars.
Instinct scread at him.
The Death Mark on his body flared, a searing pain that was a pure, primal warning: LOOK AWAY.
He wrenched his gaze down, stumbling back.
A thin trickle of blood seeped from his nose.
Just a second of looking had nearly broken him.
'Who is that? Is that the Sixth Floor's boss' [True Body]? In my past life, there were no records of this! Have I triggered sothing that shouldn't exist?'
The child's playful voice cut through his panic.
"Don't worry, you've already passed the test. Fighting isn't allowed on this floor."
The casual tone was more terrifying than any threat.
This being was so far beyond him that it could ignore the most basic rules of caution.
Adam's mind scrambled through possibilities...
And one terrifying idea rose to the top.
"Are you this universe's consciousness of the Tower of Yxthar?"
Adam asked, his voice tight.
The child didn't confirm or deny.
He just giggled, a sound both hearty and completely out of place.
"Spot on! So you even know about the different types of consciousness the Tower has. Well then, guess what I'm here for?"
He seed delighted, like this was a fun ga.
Adam's heart hamred against his ribs.
'Has the Tower discovered I'm a ti traveler? Has it co to erase ?'
He forced himself to stay calm.
If it wanted him dead, he would already be gone...
"I cannot make a guess. State your purpose, Consciousness of the Tower."
The child's face instantly fell into an exaggerated pout.
"So serious... you're boring! Boring, boring, boring!"
He whined, stamping a small foot.
Then, just as quickly, he was giggling again, his mood shifting faster than a flickering light.
"Well, technically I've always been here with you. Ah, but you probably didn't realize it...."
"Here, let help you rember..."
He snapped his fingers.
A flood of mories, vivid and terrifying, crashed into Adam's mind.
He saw himself on the First Floor, covered in gri after his first fight— and the child was there, sitting on a broken wall, swinging his legs.
He saw the brutal war on the Second Floor— the child was walking through the crossfire, untouched, watching with curious eyes.
He saw the intense tournant on the Fifth Floor— the child was on the edge, eyeing everything he did with curiosity.
This child... had been his silent, unseen shadow from the very beginning.
No one had ever noticed, not even those around him...
And then, Adam rembered.
He rembered the vision Leila had given him.
He recalled Celestia's words...
"There's soone on the first floor..."
"A man whose soul is… different. His connection to Yxthar is stronger than anything I've ever seen."
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