---
---
The wind outside had stopped.
Even the silence was afraid to speak now.
EXIN stood at the threshold of the Tower.
Not a tower—The Tower.
It wasn't built.
It grew.
Born from absence. Rooted in forgotten laws. Its surface was carved with runes that pulsed with unknowable logic, like the nervous system of something too ancient to name.
Each step toward it felt heavier.
Because the Tower didn't measure distance.
It measured truth.
---
Inside him, something shifted. A weight that hadn't been there before.
[ESSENCE DETECTED]
[Designation: NULL-ESSENCE – TYPE ∅]
[Current Stability: UNDEFINED]
[Tower Calibration: PENDING]
The system blinked, hesitated, then went quiet again.
Not out of error—but respect.
EXIN's power wasn't something the Tower could understand yet. Not fully.
It would try.
---
As he crossed the boundary, the sky split above.
A ripple.
A scream trapped in geometry.
Reality folded like a page turned backward.
And for a moment, the world remembered his name.
---
Inside the Tower, shadows moved in reverse. Gravity twisted sideways. Time breathed slowly, like a dying animal. Each step he took left echoes that hadn't yet happened.
On the black wall before him, a symbol appeared—
A spiral eating itself.
The mark of the Null-Bearer.
---
Then came the visions.
Not from the Tower—
But from himself.
His mother's voice, distant, humming a lullaby to keep the night from sinking into the cracks of their broken home.
His sister's laughter, echoing in the empty corners of the village that no longer existed.
They were memories—yes.
But more than that…
They were anchors.
Essence wasn't just power.
It was meaning.
The system whispered now, soft but clear.
> "Null-Essence thrives on what was lost… and what must never be forgotten."
---
The Tower responded.
From its center, a structure rose: a judge of power.
The Stair of Truths.
Each step would weigh him—not by strength, but by the essence of his existence.
And at the top?
A single pedestal.
One mark.
Seven empty circles beside it.
---
EXIN stepped forward.
The first stair vanished behind him.
No going back.
[INTEGRATION: 9%]
[POWER CLASSIFICATION: FORMLESS]
[RECOGNIZED TRAITS: ABSENCE | ANCHOR | RECALL]
> "The Spiral is not a weapon.
It is a wound that never scars.
The more you climb, the more it bleeds.
Do you still wish to rise?"
He didn't answer.
He only climbed.
---
Outside the Tower, far across the bleeding skies, something else stirred.
An ancient Order that once sealed the Truth.
They felt the Tower awaken.
Felt him awaken.
And among them, one voice whispered in awe—
> "The bearer of Null… walks again."
---
In a quiet place not bound by time, a mother wept without knowing why.
And a sister, dreaming of a brother she believed long dead, suddenly turned in her sleep—smiling.
Something had returned.
---
[NEXT TRIAL: HEART OF THE VOID]
[OBJECTIVE: UNVEIL YOUR FIRST ANCHOR]
[REWARD: NULL-SHIFT ABILITY LOCKED BEHIND MEMORY SEAL]
---
EXIN stood on the sixth step.
The Tower had begun to listen.
But it had not yet bowed.
And he…
He had only just begun to climb.
---