Chapter 117 – The Empty Throne
The staircase continued upward.
For once, nobody spoke.
The memory from the previous floor had changed something between them.
Seven ancient custodians.
Seven seats.
Seven beings who had deliberately separated Genesis and Oblivion.
And one final figure—
The Origin Custodian.
The one whose identity remained sealed.
Azrael walked beside Seraphina, his expression unusually quiet.
Seraphina glanced at him.
"You’ve been thinking about the memory."
"Yes."
"About the Origin Custodian?"
Azrael nodded.
"There was something familiar about it."
Seraphina studied him.
"Your memory?"
"I don’t know."
He touched his forehead.
"When I saw that title, I remembered the white tree."
"The lake?"
"Yes."
Seraphina’s expression softened.
"The place where you trained."
Azrael nodded.
"But I don’t remember why I saw it."
She reached over and briefly squeezed his hand.
"You don’t have to remember everything at once."
Azrael looked at her.
"I know."
A small smile appeared on his face.
"That’s why you’re here."
Seraphina smiled back.
"And that’s why you’re here."
The staircase ended.
A massive door stood before them.
Unlike the previous doors, this one had no symbols.
No inscriptions.
No locks.
Only a single circular depression in its center.
Azrael approached.
The moment he stepped forward—
The door opened.
There was no floor.
At least...
Not in the way they expected.
They entered a vast white space.
No walls.
No ceiling.
No visible ground.
Yet they were standing on something solid.
Seven enormous thrones floated in the distance.
Six were occupied.
One was empty.
Seraphina stopped.
"Those are the seats."
Azrael nodded.
The Tower System appeared.
[Tower System]
Floor: 36
Trial Type: Historical Continuation
Objective: Understand the Empty Seat
Restriction: The record cannot be altered.
Warning: Historical information may conflict with current knowledge.
Caelan looked at the seven thrones.
"Six people."
"One empty seat."
Lyanna frowned.
"Does that mean the seventh custodian left?"
Azrael shook his head.
"Not necessarily."
He looked at the empty throne.
"Maybe the seventh never sat there."
Seraphina walked closer.
The six occupied thrones suddenly became surrounded by light.
Memories appeared.
The first throne.
A figure wearing a crown.
Its voice echoed through the chamber.
"Existence requires order."
The second.
A warrior holding an enormous sword.
"Existence requires strength."
The third.
A being with twelve wings.
"Existence requires protection."
The fourth.
A dragon whose body stretched beyond the horizon.
"Existence requires instinct."
The fifth.
A shadow with no visible body.
"Existence requires secrecy."
The sixth.
A figure surrounded by flames.
"Existence requires transformation."
Then—
Silence.
The seventh throne remained empty.
Seraphina stared at it.
"What did the seventh represent?"
The Tower didn’t answer.
Instead, the memory continued.
The six custodians stood around a massive circular structure.
At its center floated two enormous forces.
One was golden.
The other was black.
Genesis.
Oblivion.
They were not fighting.
They were moving together.
Creation.
Growth.
Decay.
Ending.
Beginning again.
A perfect cycle.
Seraphina whispered,
"They were balanced."
Azrael nodded.
"Yes."
The memory changed.
The six custodians raised their hands.
Chains appeared.
Golden chains.
Black chains.
They wrapped around Genesis and Oblivion.
Seraphina’s expression hardened.
"They’re doing it again."
The custodians began separating the two forces.
Genesis was pulled toward one side.
Oblivion toward the other.
The cosmic cycle broke.
For the first time...
Genesis and Oblivion resisted each other.
The space between them became unstable.
Worlds began appearing and disappearing.
Entire civilizations were born too quickly.
Others ended before they could develop.
The six custodians struggled to maintain control.
Then—
A voice spoke.
Not from one of the six.
From somewhere beyond the memory.
"Stop."
The six froze.
A seventh presence had entered the chamber.
But the memory refused to show its form.
Only a silhouette appeared.
White.
Completely featureless.
The Origin Custodian.
Seraphina stepped closer.
"You opposed them."
The memory figure didn’t respond.
One of the six custodians turned toward it.
"You cannot stop this."
The silhouette answered.
"You have already made the mistake."
The custodian wearing the crown stepped forward.
"We prevented catastrophe."
"No."
The seventh figure’s voice remained calm.
"You prevented uncertainty."
The six became silent.
"You separated what you could not control."
The Origin Custodian continued.
"You called it preservation."
"But you destroyed the cycle that made existence possible."
Azrael’s eyes narrowed.
The words struck him deeply.
The Origin Custodian wasn’t defending Genesis.
It wasn’t defending Oblivion.
It was defending balance.
Seraphina understood it too.
"Genesis alone cannot sustain everything."
"Neither can Oblivion."
Azrael nodded.
"They need each other."
The memory suddenly changed.
The separation was already complete.
Genesis had disappeared into one direction.
Oblivion into another.
The six custodians stood before the empty space where the two forces had once existed.
The Origin Custodian remained behind them.
One of the custodians spoke.
"The vessels have been prepared."
Another answered.
"The records will be erased."
The third said,
"The new realms will never know what came before."
Then the Origin Custodian spoke.
"They will remember."
The crown-bearing custodian turned.
"No."
"They will."
"Not if we destroy the evidence."
The Origin Custodian looked toward the six.
"You can erase history."
"But you cannot erase consequence."
The memory flickered.
The Tower shook.
Seraphina grabbed Azrael’s arm.
"What is happening?"
Azrael looked around.
"The memory is breaking."
The six custodians suddenly vanished.
The empty throne remained.
The Origin Custodian’s silhouette stood before it.
Then—
It turned toward Azrael.
Not toward Seraphina.
Not toward the others.
Toward him.
Azrael froze.
The silhouette raised one hand.
A faint white light appeared.
For an instant—
Azrael saw the white tree.
The crystal-clear lake.
The old master.
And himself standing there.
But this time...
Someone else was beside him.
A person he couldn’t see.
A hand rested on his shoulder.
Then the vision disappeared.
Azrael staggered.
Seraphina caught him.
"Azrael!"
"I’m fine."
He looked at the empty throne.
His breathing was uneven.
"I saw it again."
"The white tree?"
He nodded.
"But this time..."
He looked down at his hand.
"...someone was standing beside me."
Seraphina’s expression became serious.
"Who?"
"I don’t know."
"Could you see them?"
"No."
"Did they speak?"
Azrael closed his eyes.
"I don’t remember."
The Tower System appeared.
[Memory Interference Detected.]
[Participant Memory Seal Confirmed.]
[External Memory Access: Restricted.]
[Origin Custodian Record: Incomplete.]
Everyone became silent.
Caelan looked at Azrael.
"Your memories were sealed?"
Azrael stared at the message.
"I knew some of my memories were missing."
"But not like this."
Seraphina looked at the Tower System.
"Can the Tower restore them?"
The response appeared immediately.
[Negative.]
[The Tower can reveal records.]
[The Tower cannot override an Origin-level seal.]
Azrael frowned.
"Origin-level..."
He looked toward the empty throne.
"Then whoever sealed my memories..."
"Was stronger than the Tower’s authority."
Seraphina shook her head.
"Or the seal follows a rule even the Tower cannot violate."
Azrael considered her words.
"Either way..."
He looked at the throne.
"...someone wanted me to forget."
The empty throne suddenly changed.
A crack appeared across its surface.
Then another.
Seraphina stepped back.
"Azrael."
"I see it."
The throne wasn’t breaking.
It was revealing something hidden inside.
The outer layer fell away.
Beneath it was a small crystal.
Unlike the memory crystal from Floor 33...
This one was black and white.
Genesis.
Oblivion.
Together.
Azrael reached for it.
The moment his fingers touched the crystal—
Everything disappeared.
He stood alone.
No Tower.
No companions.
No Seraphina.
Only darkness.
Then a voice spoke.
Not the Origin Custodian.
Not his mother.
Something else.
"You were never chosen because you were the strongest."
Azrael remained silent.
"You were chosen because you could understand what others could not."
The darkness shifted.
Two lights appeared.
One golden.
One black.
"They divided the cycle."
"They created vessels."
"They erased the records."
"But they made one mistake."
Azrael looked at the two lights.
"What mistake?"
The voice answered.
"They assumed the cycle could never reunite."
The vision shattered.
Azrael opened his eyes.
Seraphina was standing directly in front of him.
"Aza?"
He took a slow breath.
"I’m here."
"What did you see?"
Azrael looked at the crystal in his hand.
"I don’t know if it was a memory."
"Or a message."
He stared at the black-and-white crystal.
"But someone expected me to reach this place."
Seraphina looked at it.
"Then we’ll find out who."
Azrael nodded.
Together, they looked toward the empty throne.
For the first time, they understood something important.
The Tower wasn’t simply showing them what had happened.
It was showing them what had been deliberately hidden.
And somewhere within those missing records...
Was the reason the twins existed at all.
The Tower System appeared one final time.
[Historical Record Understood.]
[The Empty Seat represents the Origin Custodian.]
[Partial Record Restored.]
[Memory Artifact Acquired.]
[Floor 36 Complete.]
The white space slowly faded.
A staircase appeared ahead.
Seraphina looked at Azrael.
"Ready?"
Azrael closed his hand around the crystal.
"Always."
They began walking.
This time, neither of them wondered whether the next floor would contain a monster.
They already understood.
The deeper they climbed...
The closer they were getting to the history someone had tried to erase.