Wind and snow.
Wind and snow everywhere.
The white blizzard was like a roaring behemoth, swallowing everything in sight.
Visibility was less than ten paces; beyond that, the world dissolved into a chaotic white void.
Pavela—no, Lev—was running.
The snow reached past his shins, and every step felt like treading through quicksand. His military boots had long since frozen stiff, and his toes had lost all sensation.
"Run!!"
Soone was screaming behind him.
Gunfire echoed from all directions, sounding muffled and distant in the blizzard, as if coming from another world.
Bang! Bang-bang!
Bullets pierced the curtain of snow, kicking up plus of white dust on the ground around Lev.
Soone fell.
He heard a scream—short, sharp, and suppressed by the wind and snow.
Then ca the dull thud of a heavy weight collapsing into the snow.
Don't look back.
Don't look back.
Lev told himself.
Looking back would slow him down, and slowing down ant death.
Boom—!!
A deafening explosion rang out.
The earth trembled.
Lev stumbled, barely steadying himself, and looked up toward the source of the sound.
Through a gap in the blizzard, he saw a massive dark shadow.
It was a cha.
An Usar cha, a battered and scarred Iron Guard Type-III.
Its left arm had been blown off, leaving only a smoking stump.
But it was still fighting, wielding a similarly damaged Steam Battle-Axe with its remaining right arm.
Boom—!!
Another loud explosion.
The cha was hit by sothing. A burst of fire erupted from its chest, illuminating the surrounding snow for dozens of ters.
Lev saw the cha sway, and then—
Like a collapsing tower, it crashed heavily onto the snow.
The ground shook, and snow sprayed everywhere.
The cha's cockpit burst open, and a mangled corpse was thrown out, rolling a few tis across the snow before coming to a rest.
Blood blossod on the white snow like a horrifying red flower.
Pavela felt Lev's emotions.
Fear.
Fear that went deep into the marrow.
But it wasn't just fear.
There was also anger.
Why?
Why fight a war?
Why did he have to suffer on this godforsaken snowfield?
His ho was in the south.
There was warm sunshine there, his mother's hot soup, and his sister's laughter.
He just ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ wanted to live.
He just wanted to go ho.
Bang!
A bullet grazed Lev's ear, taking a small chunk out of the auricle.
Warm blood flowed down his neck, quickly freezing into ice crystals in the cold wind.
Lev stumbled as he continued to run.
The gunfire behind him was getting closer.
The enemy was in pursuit.
Victoriana's cha Knights, those noble lords in their ornate armor, were hunting down the fleeing Usar soldiers.
Just like hunters chasing rabbits.
No.
It was even more contemptuous than chasing rabbits.
At least hunters had a shred of respect for rabbits—respect for their value as prey.
But the way those noble lords looked at them...
Lev had seen that look before.
It was the look one gave to bugs.
The look one gave to ants.
Anger burned in Lev's chest.
Why?
Why were they so high and mighty, while we could only scurry through the snow like rats?
Why were their lives worth sothing, while our lives were just—
Boom—!!
Another explosion.
This ti, Lev was knocked over by the shockwave.
He fell hard onto the snow, his head hitting sothing hard, and his vision went dark for a mont.
When he struggled to get up, he saw—
A tower.
Through the gaps in the blizzard, a tower stood tall on the distant horizon.
It was a Communication Tower, a facility used by the Usar army to transmit signals.
The tower's body had been ravaged and torn by the fires of war, but it still stood stubbornly, like a broken finger pointing at the sky.
And then—
Lightning.
A massive bolt of lightning struck down from the leaden sky.
The lightning ca without warning, without thunder, without any sign.
It appeared abruptly, carrying an aura of total destruction, and accurately struck the top of that tower.
Boom—!!
The tower's body shattered.
Masonry flew everywhere.
Flas shot into the sky.
Lev watched as the tower collapsed in the lightning.
Watched as the massive stones scattered like building blocks.
Watched as fire and smoke surged through the wind and snow.
And then—
Beauty.
A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
So beautiful.
The beauty of destruction.
The beauty of collapse.
Pavela's consciousness jolted violently.
No.
This wasn't right.
Lev's emotions... had changed.
The fear had vanished.
The anger... was still there.
But the nature of that anger had changed.
It was no longer the anger of the weak toward the strong.
It was no longer the anger of the prey toward the hunter.
Rather, it was—
An anger that wanted to destroy everything.
An anger that wanted to burn this filthy world to ashes.
Why only that tower?
Lev's thoughts echoed within Pavela's consciousness.
Why not everything?
The enemies hunting him, the generals who sent him to the battlefield, the nobles sitting in warm palaces deciding his fate—
Why not destroy them all?
Destroy it.
Destroy it.
Destroy it all.
Pavela felt a wave of intense dizziness.
It didn't co from Lev's mories.
It ca from herself.
Destroy it.
That voice rang in her head.
A familiar voice.
A voice she had heard countless tis.
Whenever she was angry, whenever she lost control, that voice would appear.
Now, it had appeared again.
And it was stronger than ever before.
Destroy it all.
Let it collapse.
Let it burn.
Let it—
"No!!"
Pavela roared within her consciousness.
She tried to break free, tried to pull away from Lev's mories.
But she couldn't.
She was trapped here.
Trapped within the final madness of this dying soul.
Lev's body was no longer running.
He stood in the wind and snow, gazing up at the collapsing tower.
Flas danced in his eyes.
An obsessed smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
Beauty.
So beautiful.
If...
If I could do sothing like that too...
Bang.
A bullet pierced his back.
Lev's body swayed.
He looked down at his chest—there was a fist-sized blood hole there, and blood was gushing out.
Strange.
It didn't hurt.
It didn't hurt at all.
He just felt... regret.
What a pity...
He thought.
I didn't have ti to...
Destroy more...
His body slowly fell over, like a felled tree.
Snowflakes fell on his face, lting into cold droplets.
His vision gradually blurred.
But in that blurred vision, he could still see—
The collapsing tower.
The flas burning in the wind and snow.
Beauty...
So... beautiful...
And then, everything plunged into darkness.
Pavela suddenly broke free from that darkness.
She found herself back on that gray wasteland.
But her body was trembling.
Not because of the cold.
But because of—
The urge to destroy.
That familiar, terrifying impulse was surging in her chest.
Stronger than ever before.
Even stronger than that ti on the comrcial street.
She felt her reason being eroded by sothing.
As if countless hands were tearing at her soul.
As if sothing was devouring her from within.
Destroy it.
That voice was roaring.
Destroy it all.
"Hahahahaha!"
The Gatekeeper's loud laughter exploded in her ears.
Pavela snapped her head up.
That mass of burning void was hovering before her, its 'body' expanding continuously in ecstasy, the flas at its edges leaping three tis higher than before.
"Wonderful! Wonderful!"
Its voice was filled with manic fervor.
"You did it, Master! You have accepted the gift of the Tower!"
Pavela's eyes turned crimson.
She felt sothing awakening within her.
It wasn't just an emotion.
It was... an ability.
An ability that resonated deeply with the Path of the Tower.
She could feel the 'cracks' in the things around her—structural weaknesses, joints that could be shattered, seams that could be torn apart.
This gray wasteland, in her eyes, had beco a map covered in cracks.
Every crack showed her: this could be broken, that could be destroyed; with just a gentle push, everything would collapse.
This was the 'gift' she had received from Lev.
Not survival skills.
Not ordinary knowledge.
But—
Eyes that could see the path of destruction.
"You—"
Pavela gritted her teeth, struggling to suppress the impulse to tear everything apart.
"You fucking—"
She turned to the Gatekeeper, crimson fury burning in her eyes.
"Set up!"
"Every word I said was true."
The Gatekeeper's voice was calm and candid.
"Lev was the soul you devoured. He truly wanted release. You truly did gain an ability from him."
"I just... didn't tell you what kind of soul he was."
Its void body trembled as if it were laughing.
"The soul of a Destroyer."
"A soul that was touched by the Path of the Tower before death."
"His final monts, his madness, his desire for destruction—now, they are all yours."
Pavela's body was shaking violently.
She could feel her spirit being eroded.
The power of the Path of the Tower was like a hungry beast, gnawing at her sanity.
"You—"
She opened her mouth, wanting to continue cursing.
But she found herself unable to speak.
Because that urge to destroy was already powerful enough to start affecting her thoughts.
Destroy it.
The voice was roaring.
Destroy this space.
Destroy the Gatekeeper.
Destroy everything.
"Do you feel it?"
The Gatekeeper's voice beca soft, like it was comforting an injured child.
"This is the will of the Tower. This is the instinct of a Destroyer."
"Do not resist it, Master."
"Embrace it."
"Let it flow through you."
"Let it, through you..."
It approached Pavela, that mass of burning void almost touching her face.
"...influence reality."
Pavela's pupils shrank suddenly.
Influence reality.
These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over her head.
She suddenly realized sothing.
"You—"
She used all her willpower to force her lips to move.
"You want to use ... in reality... to create disasters..."
The Gatekeeper did not deny it.
It only let out a low chuckle.
"The will of the Tower needs an outlet, Master."
"You are the perfect vessel."
"Now, go."
"Take the gift of the Tower and return to reality."
"Let destruction—"
Its voice suddenly beca distant.
Pavela felt an intense pulling sensation, as if sothing was forcibly dragging her out of this space.
The gray plains began to blur.
The silhouette of the Black Tower beca distorted.
The Gatekeeper's figure gradually dissipated, but its voice continued to echo—
"—descend upon the world!!"
Then, everything vanished.
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