Darkness.
But not empty.
Waiting.
The tower doesn't breathe anymore.
It listens.
Because Rael…he sits now.
Not as ruler. Not as prisoner.
But as the thing in between.
A memory shaped like a man, holding the throne with fingers that bleed both light and shadow.
[Core Stabilized.][New Directive: Undefined.][Awaiting Input…]
He doesn't give one.
Not yet.
Because gods who answer too quickly become machines.
He learned that from her.
From Elira.
The girl who refused to be rewritten.
The girl who walked into flame and called it freedom.
And now… she's gone.
No—
Not gone.
Free.
Somewhere beyond this construct… living without chains. Without loops.
Maybe even smiling.
But Rael?
He stays.
Because someone has to.
Someone has to sit in the chair where choices rot.Someone has to watch the timelines twitch.Someone has to keep the system from rewriting her again.
He looks at the screens.
Flickering. Shifting.
Millions of them.
Each one a story.
Each one a person.
Each one a possibility—
—A boy reaching for a hand before it vanishes—A mother making a deal to save her child—A villain begging not to become a god
And all of them…
Waiting.
He could rewrite them.Reshape their worlds.Play savior. Play tyrant.
But he doesn't.
He just watches.
Because that's the only way to keep the tower honest.
Victor's voice echoes again—soft this time. Faint.
"You could leave."
Rael doesn't turn.
"You could rest."
Still silent.
Victor walks into view. His body glitching now. Fractured. Nearing end.
He kneels beside the throne. Places something on the floor.
A name.
Burned into metal.
Elira.
No rank. No ID. No number.
Just… her.
"I kept it from the backups," Victor says. "Figured you'd want to remember her right."
Rael nods.
Takes the nameplate.
Presses it to his chest.
The tower pulses.
Once.
Then calms.
And in the space where systems once dictated gods…
Now sits a boy who broke time to save one person.
And chose to forget his own name so no one would ever take hers again.
The tower shifts.
Rooms vanish.
Doors seal.
Programs delete themselves.
Until only one line remains:
[The Tower Sleeps.]
Not ended.
Not broken.
Just…
Asleep.
Waiting for the next shadow to whisper a name it should've never remembered.
End of Volume Two.