Chapter 114 – The Name That Was Erased
The staircase was unusually quiet.
Azrael walked beside Seraphina.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
The memory they had witnessed on the thirty-second floor remained fresh in their minds.
Genesis and Oblivion had once existed together.
Not as enemies.
Not as opposing forces.
But as two halves of a greater cycle.
And somewhere within that history...
The Tower had existed.
That fact bothered Azrael more than anything else.
If the Tower existed before the separation of Genesis and Oblivion, then it wasn’t merely an ancient dungeon.
It had witnessed the beginning of their story.
Perhaps it had even witnessed the moment everything went wrong.
Seraphina broke the silence.
"Do you think the Tower knows what happened?"
Azrael looked ahead.
"Yes."
"Then why doesn’t it tell us?"
"Because it doesn’t think we’re ready."
Seraphina sighed.
"I was afraid you’d say that."
Azrael smiled slightly.
"We’ll find the answers."
She nodded.
"Together."
The staircase ended.
They stepped onto the next floor.
There was no room.
No battlefield.
No landscape.
They stood beneath an endless night sky.
Countless stars filled the darkness.
But something was wrong.
Some stars were missing.
Not extinguished.
Erased.
Large sections of the sky contained empty spaces where something had clearly existed before.
Lyanna slowly turned in place.
"Where are we?"
Azrael looked around.
"I don’t know."
The Tower System appeared.
[Tower System]
Floor: 33
Trial Type: Historical Reconstruction
Objective: Identify What Was Lost
Restriction: The missing history cannot be restored through force.
Special Condition: Information may be incomplete.
Caelan stared at the sky.
"So we’re investigating history again?"
The System didn’t answer.
Instead—
A single star descended.
It stopped directly in front of Seraphina.
Inside the star was an image.
A vast civilization.
Golden towers.
Floating cities.
Millions of people.
Seraphina watched silently.
Then the image changed.
The civilization disappeared.
Not destroyed.
Simply...
Removed.
The star shattered.
Another descended.
This one showed an enormous army marching beneath a white banner.
Then—
Gone.
Another.
A woman standing before a massive throne.
Gone.
Another.
A world filled with strange creatures.
Gone.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Thousands of memories appeared.
And every one ended the same way.
Erasure.
Orin swallowed.
"Someone deleted all of this?"
Azrael shook his head.
"Not someone."
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed toward the empty spaces between the stars.
"Look carefully."
Seraphina narrowed her eyes.
The missing stars weren’t random.
They formed patterns.
A sequence.
Almost like letters.
Lyanna stepped closer.
"Those aren’t stars."
"No."
Azrael’s eyes sharpened.
"They’re records."
Seraphina raised her hand.
A soft golden glow spread across the sky.
Genesis energy flowed toward one of the empty spaces.
Nothing happened.
She tried another.
Still nothing.
Then she noticed something.
"Azrael."
He looked at her.
"Genesis can restore what was damaged."
She looked at the empty sky.
"But this isn’t damaged."
Her voice became quieter.
"It’s been removed completely."
Azrael understood.
"Oblivion."
He raised his hand.
Black energy appeared around his fingers.
He didn’t attack.
Instead, he allowed the energy to spread gently through the darkness.
The empty space reacted.
A faint outline appeared.
Not an image.
A name.
But most of it was missing.
Only three symbols remained.
A—TH—
Azrael frowned.
"Aether...?"
The moment he spoke—
BOOM.
The entire floor shook.
The System immediately appeared.
[Forbidden Historical Term Detected.]
[Recovery attempt rejected.]
[Origin Concealment activated.]
Azrael’s expression changed.
"Aether..."
The word vanished.
Even his own memory of what he had just said became strangely blurry.
Seraphina grabbed his arm.
"Azrael."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"You said something."
"I did?"
"You don’t remember?"
Azrael tried.
Nothing.
It was as if the word had been removed from his mind before he could hold onto it.
Seraphina looked disturbed.
"That’s different from the Origin Law."
Azrael nodded.
"The Tower didn’t conceal it from us."
"Something else did."
A sound echoed through the darkness.
Tick.
Everyone turned.
A figure stood among the stars.
A man wearing ancient white armor.
His body was translucent.
A memory.
Not alive.
He looked toward them.
But his face was missing.
Not hidden.
There was simply nothing there.
The figure spoke.
"The First Heaven fell."
Everyone froze.
Lyanna stepped forward.
"What?"
The figure continued.
"The Seven Realms survived."
"The gods inherited what remained."
"The records were rewritten."
Caelan’s eyes widened.
"Rewritten?"
The figure nodded.
"The truth could not be permitted to survive."
Seraphina stepped forward.
"Why?"
The figure looked directly at her.
For the first time, something appeared where his face should have been.
Two golden eyes.
"Because the truth would reveal..."
The memory flickered.
"...that Heaven was never the first."
Silence.
Seraphina’s heart skipped.
Azrael’s expression became cold.
"Then what was first?"
The figure raised his hand.
Behind him, the darkness parted.
A colossal structure appeared.
The same Tower.
But this time they saw its full form.
It wasn’t standing on a planet.
It wasn’t floating inside a realm.
It extended through countless layers of existence.
Its foundation disappeared beneath reality.
Its peak extended beyond the stars.
And around it were enormous worlds.
Heaven.
Hell.
Dragon Realm.
Sword Realm.
Shadow Realm.
But those realms weren’t surrounding the Tower as its rulers.
They looked like branches growing from it.
Seraphina whispered:
"The Tower..."
The figure spoke.
"The Tower existed before the realms."
Azrael’s eyes narrowed.
"Then who created it?"
The memory began destabilizing.
The figure looked at him.
"I cannot tell you."
Golden symbols appeared across his body.
The same type of symbols Astaroth had encountered.
Origin Law.
But there was something different.
These symbols were broken.
Cracked.
As though someone had tried to destroy them.
The figure forced himself to speak.
"Your mother..."
Azrael and Seraphina froze.
"...did not create the Tower."
The memory shattered.
[Historical Reconstruction Interrupted.]
[Data Integrity: 18%]
[Unauthorized Information Exposure Detected.]
[Further access denied.]
The stars disappeared.
The five returned to the empty platform.
Nobody spoke.
Then Seraphina looked at Azrael.
"Your mother."
Azrael nodded.
"I heard it."
"So did I."
Caelan looked between them.
"Your mother?"
Azrael didn’t answer immediately.
They had spent so long trying to understand their origins.
Now the Tower had confirmed something important.
Their mother wasn’t the creator of the Tower.
Which meant...
Whatever had existed before the current realms was older than even her.
Lyanna broke the silence.
"There’s something else."
Everyone looked at her.
"The figure said the records were rewritten."
Azrael nodded.
"Which means the history we know isn’t merely incomplete."
"It’s deliberately false."
Seraphina looked toward the empty sky.
"And if Heaven wasn’t the first..."
She paused.
"What was?"
Nobody had an answer.
Then—
A small golden flower appeared in the darkness.
Seraphina stared at it.
The flower slowly bloomed.
Inside its petals was a single image.
A white-haired woman.
Eighteen radiant wings.
Golden constellations moving across her white robes.
Seraphina’s breath caught.
"Mother..."
The image lasted only a second.
Then it disappeared.
Azrael stood completely still.
The Tower System appeared.
[Historical Echo Detected.]
[Connection: Participant Origins]
[Record Access: Insufficient Authority]
[Memory Fragment Preserved.]
A small crystal appeared in front of the twins.
Inside it was the image of their mother.
For once...
The Tower had given them something they hadn’t expected.
Not an answer.
Not a weapon.
Not a skill.
A memory.
Seraphina gently touched the crystal.
"She was here."
Azrael nodded.
"At some point."
"But why?"
He stared at the crystal.
"And how long ago?"
The Tower System appeared one final time.
[Floor 33 Complete.]
[Historical Fragment Acquired.]
[Memory Archive Updated.]
[New Requirement Established.]
To access the next sealed record: Increase Origin Understanding.]
The staircase appeared.
Azrael looked at Seraphina.
She was still holding the crystal.
"Should we go?"
She looked at the image of their mother one last time.
Then she smiled.
"Yes."
She handed the crystal to Azrael.
"But we’re keeping this."
Azrael carefully closed his fingers around it.
"We are."
The twins began climbing.
Behind them, the empty sky remained silent.
But for the first time, the Tower’s history was beginning to connect with their own.
And somewhere in the Memory Archive...
A name that had been erased was waiting to be remembered.