The countdown was merciless now.
The glowing red numbers on the television screen pulsed like a heartbeat as they steadily approached zero.
00:59:59.
One hour.
One final hour.
Lin Feng sat on the couch, staring at the screen. His family was silent around him, as they had been for the past few days. There was nothing left to say. They had passed beyond words, beyond comfort, beyond hope. Now, there was only waiting.
But as Lin Feng watched the timer tick downward, something shifted inside him. A feeling he could not quite name. It wasn't courage. It wasn't panic. It was more like a cold realization.
"If I stay here, I'll die anyway."
The Tower had made no move. It had not attacked. It had not spoken. But its promise of consequences loomed closer with every second.
"If something's going to happen… maybe I still have one chance."
His thoughts spiraled faster.
"The Tree. The Estra Roots. It spoke to me. Why? What if… What if there's still a way?"
The thought planted itself deeply in his mind.
The Tree had communicated with him before. Maybe it could again. Maybe it held some answer, some way to stop what was coming. If there was any hope left, it would be there.
Slowly, Lin Feng stood up.
His parents looked at him but said nothing. His sister glanced up with wide, fearful eyes. They didn't ask where he was going. Maybe they already knew. Maybe they couldn't bear to stop him.
Without a word, Lin Feng walked to the door, slipped on his shoes, and stepped out into the night.
The air outside was cold and heavy.
The streets were mostly empty now. Those who had once protested, gathered, or prayed had retreated inside to face the final hour in private.
In the distance, looming over the city like a silent god, the Tower stood. Its surface reflected the faint lights of the abandoned streets. The floating screens still rotated above it, as they always had, calm and indifferent.
The closer Lin Feng walked, the more enormous the Tower seemed. Its base was surrounded by military barricades, checkpoints, searchlights, and heavily armed soldiers. Tanks were positioned at every entrance point. Armored vehicles lined the perimeter. Drones hovered in slow orbits above.
The entire site was locked down tighter than any fortress.
And yet, Lin Feng kept walking.
He stayed in the shadows, moving carefully between alleys and abandoned cars. The soldiers were tense but distracted. They were scanning for external threats, expecting something to emerge from the Tower, not someone trying to enter.
"I can't go through the main gates," Lin Feng thought. "But maybe… around the east side…"
He ducked behind a row of delivery trucks, inching closer.
His heart pounded so loudly he feared the soldiers might hear it. Every breath was controlled, every step deliberate. The tension was unbearable, but the closer he got, the more focused he became.
Near one of the maintenance gates, Lin Feng spotted a service tunnel used by the engineering crews in the early days of Tower investigation. It had long been abandoned after initial teams were lost. The entrance was barely guarded now.
One soldier stood near it, but his attention was fixed on his radio.
Lin Feng crouched behind a concrete barrier, watching the guard's every move. Timing would be everything.
The soldier turned, walking a few steps away while speaking into his headset.
Lin Feng moved.
He sprinted silently across the open gap, slipped into the tunnel's shadows, and pressed his back against the cold wall. The soldier didn't notice.
Inside the tunnel, it was darker, quieter. The noise of generators hummed distantly behind him, but ahead lay only silence.
He crept deeper, following the narrow passage until it merged with one of the Tower's internal maintenance shafts. The corridor was built by human hands, but ahead was something different — the transition point where mankind's constructions ended and the Tower's alien interior began.
A strange shimmer filled the air ahead.
The same liquid-like surface he had seen the first time he entered.
The mirror.
It rippled faintly, waiting for him.
Lin Feng swallowed hard, his throat dry. His legs trembled, but he forced them forward.
Without hesitation, he stepped through.
At once, the world shifted.
Darkness.
Thick. Total. Smothering.
For a brief moment, there was no up or down, no sense of gravity or direction. Then his feet landed softly on stone.
Dim lights flared ahead — the same sequence as before.
The corridor came alive, torches igniting one after another, revealing the familiar medieval-like hallway of perfect stone bricks, as smooth and precise as if cut by machines.
The oppressive air pressed on his chest again.
"This is the same place," Lin Feng thought.
The silence was heavy, but not unfamiliar.
He took his first step forward.
The soft echo of his footsteps bounced along the narrow walls. The air smelled faintly of stone and something older, something ancient.
His breathing slowed, his heart hammering as he advanced.
Torch after torch flared ahead as he moved deeper into the Tower's belly.
The corridor was narrow, just wide enough for three people shoulder-to-shoulder. The same corridor where the soldiers had fallen. The same corridor that had led others to their deaths.
But now, Lin Feng was alone.
Step by step, he advanced.
He walked for what felt like hours, though in truth it had only been minutes. The air seemed thicker here, almost alive. Every noise, every heartbeat echoed unnaturally loud.
And then, ahead — the faint shape of something massive emerged.
The Minotaur.
The creature stood exactly as the captain had described in his broadcast. Immense. Powerful. Perfectly still.
Its massive body towered over the corridor, blocking nearly the entire passage ahead. The Minotaur's head remained bowed, its broad forehead resting against the enormous pommel of its sword, which was deeply embedded into the stone floor.
The sword itself looked ancient, its blade wide and thick, almost as tall as Lin Feng himself. The metal surface reflected the flickering flames of the torches, casting long, broken shadows across the creature's hulking form.
Its breathing was slow, rhythmic, deep — like distant thunder echoing through a canyon.
Each exhale created a brief, subtle vibration in the ground beneath Lin Feng's feet.
He froze.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to turn and run. His legs trembled. His hands were slick with sweat. His throat tightened as fear tried to rise and choke him.
But still, he forced himself to breathe.
"This is why I came."
The Tree. The unanswered questions. The approaching end.
"If I don't try, we're all dead anyway."
He gathered himself and took another step forward.
The echo of his footstep was louder now, reverberating off the stone walls.
The Minotaur did not move.
He took another step. Then another.
Each movement was deliberate, slow, cautious. He carefully placed his feet to avoid making unnecessary noise.
His heart hammered against his ribs. The veins in his neck pulsed.
The torches illuminated more of the creature's form as he approached. The thick muscles rippled beneath its dark skin. Its arms, as wide as tree trunks, remained motionless beside its body.
Even from several meters away, Lin Feng could feel the heat radiating from the beast, as though it emitted its own unnatural warmth.
"Ten meters," he thought.
Then — the moment he had both feared and expected.
The Minotaur moved.
Its head lifted slowly, with an almost mechanical grace.
For a brief second, Lin Feng's breath caught in his chest. His vision narrowed as the Minotaur's face rose fully into the torchlight.
Two enormous red eyes opened, glowing like molten embers, piercing the darkness.
They locked directly onto Lin Feng.
He couldn't move.
The creature stared at him, its eyes glowing unnaturally bright, burning like two crimson suns.
The weight of that gaze pressed down on him, suffocating, like gravity had doubled.
Lin Feng felt smaller than he ever had in his life. As though standing before a god of death.
And yet — the Minotaur didn't attack.
It simply watched.
Its breathing remained steady.
The air was thick with unspoken tension, as if the entire corridor itself was waiting to see what would happen next.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, the Minotaur lowered its head once more, gently resting it back onto the sword's pommel.
Lin Feng exhaled sharply, his breath shaky.
"Why?"
Why had it moved but not attacked? Why was he still alive?
He didn't understand.
But he wasn't about to stop now.
He took another cautious step forward.
And another.
Every cell in his body screamed at him to freeze, to turn back, to retreat. But something deeper inside him pushed him onward.
"If I stop, I die. If I go forward, maybe... maybe there's something else."
His legs were weak, but steady.
He continued walking slowly, his shoes brushing softly against the ancient stone floor.
As he came closer, he could now see small details in the creature's skin: the scars that crisscrossed its chest, the rough texture of its hide, the veins pulsing beneath the surface.
The Minotaur's breathing remained constant, its massive chest rising and falling like the tides of an invisible ocean.
Five meters.
Three meters.
Two.
Lin Feng's breath was sharp and shallow. Every heartbeat sounded deafening in his ears.
He was now close enough that he could hear the faint whisper of wind moving around the creature's form.
The sword, planted firmly in the stone, emitted a low hum — like a silent energy coursing through its blade.
Lin Feng's eyes locked on the edge of the weapon, where tiny glowing runes were etched into the metal's surface. He couldn't read them, but their presence unnerved him further.
And still, the Minotaur did nothing.
Lin Feng finally reached the side of the massive beast.
Carefully, step by step, he edged past it.
The creature's enormous frame loomed beside him, every muscle coiled and heavy, yet still motionless. Its head remained bowed. Its crimson eyes remained shut now, as if allowing him to pass.
"Why?" Lin Feng whispered inside his mind again.
But he didn't stop to question. Not here. Not now.
His feet carried him forward.
The narrow corridor began to widen.
The torches continued to ignite ahead, revealing a large arched opening.
Lin Feng's chest tightened again as he stepped through into the next chamber.
The chamber beyond was enormous.
The air shifted as Lin Feng entered, becoming cooler, lighter, as though the suffocating pressure of the corridor had finally been lifted. The heavy weight pressing on his chest loosened slightly, allowing him to breathe more deeply.
The ceiling arched high above, vanishing into the darkness. Columns of ancient stone lined the circular walls, rising like giant pillars to support the unseen dome above.
At the center of the room stood the Tree.
The Estra Roots.
It was exactly as he remembered.
Its trunk was wide and thick, twisted in impossible spirals, as though grown not through time but through intention. The bark shimmered faintly under the light of unseen sources, glowing softly with a faint blue aura. Thin veins of light pulsed slowly through the wood like blood moving beneath skin.
Its roots extended outward, spreading across the smooth stone floor like a giant web. Some disappeared into cracks in the walls, as if the Tree was feeding from the Tower itself.
High above, its branches spread far and wide, reaching toward the unseen ceiling, disappearing into the void. Leaves like thin sheets of crystal glimmered softly, reflecting the faint light like tiny stars suspended in the air.
The chamber was silent, save for a faint humming that seemed to resonate from the Tree itself — not a sound exactly, but a vibration that Lin Feng could feel within his bones.
He stopped a few meters away, staring up at the enormous structure.
His legs trembled. His breath was unsteady.
Yet, compared to the terror he had faced in the corridor, here there was a strange calm.
Not peace.
Not safety.
But calm.
The Tree had been waiting.
Just as it had the first time.
Lin Feng licked his dry lips and finally spoke, his voice shaking slightly.
"...I've come back."
The words echoed softly in the chamber.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the humming grew slightly stronger. The pulsing light within the Tree's trunk brightened, its veins glowing more intensely.
And then — the voice.
Soft. Ancient. Beyond human understanding.
"So… you have returned."
The words didn't sound like normal speech. They filled his mind directly, as though the Tree was speaking inside his thoughts rather than into his ears.
The same calm, heavy presence filled the air around him.
Lin Feng swallowed, feeling his heart pound faster now, not with fear — but with anticipation.
He had made it.
He was here.
And now… perhaps… he would finally get answers.