NOVEL WEB Chapter 380: The Choir X
Level 209 – The Fracture Vault
Dozens of Archivists scrambled through scrolls and faded diagrams, watching as ancient models of the Tower updated in real time.
A towering mural that once ended at Floor 306 now extended outward, forming new nodes, undefined rooms, and expanding resonance grids.
Elder Historian Methra dropped her inkpen.
"The Fifth Movement... actually exists now," she whispered. "Not as theory. Not as failure."
"He conducted it."
She looked out the window, mist covering her eyes.
"Echoia would have been proud."
Level 280 – The Arena of Steel
Fighters gathered, still recovering from their most recent trials, when the gravity in the chamber lightened—like something heavy had been lifted from the Tower's core.
A Sovereign flame now burned in the center of the arena, visible only to those who had ever reached Rank 50 or above.
Among them stood the former champion, Kael's last apprentice.
She kneeled before the flame.
"Leon… you broke it," she whispered. "You broke the ceiling."
Then she stood.
"Now we can rise."
Level 306 – The Composer's Silence
Once a place of test and failure, now… a shrine.
The Fifth Movement echoed faintly here, woven into the air itself.
The Tower's own Architect-Will—long silent—spoke at last.
Only a few entities could hear it.
The old Sovereign ghosts.
The prime system.
And Echoia.
Her fading echo, preserved only in fractal memory, stirred with a smile as she vanished for good.
"Took you long enough, Leon…"
"But you made it your own."
Floor 307 – The Sovereign Horizon
And at the center of it all, the six Sovereigns stood on the cliff edge overlooking their new world.
Wind sang with rhythm.
The Tower no longer loomed above them.
Instead, it opened out — outward, not upward — as if inviting them to shape what lay beyond.
Roselia spoke first.
"They'll come."
Leon nodded.
"Let them."
Milim grinned. "I'm ready."
Roman was already drawing new symbols.
Liliana plucked a chord on her harp.
Naval closed his book.
Leon stepped forward, arms out.
"This was the climb."
"Now—"
He opened his eyes.
"Let's build something better."
Floor 1 – The Gate of Entry
Rain fell in steady curtains outside the Tower's monolithic shell.
It wasn't storm-rain. Just the kind that washed the air clean before a revelation.
The kind of rain that tasted like change.
A girl no older than seventeen stood at the blackstone threshold of the Tower, boots soaked, eyes wide. Her coat was threadbare. Her left gauntlet sparked faintly with unrefined Aether—a homemade prototype barely holding together.
Her name was Aris Vale.
She had no clan. No background. No bloodline.
Just a question.
"Is it true?"
The Gate Warden looked up from his desk without interest. His beard was ink-stained. His eyes were tired.
"Is what true?"
She stepped forward.
"That someone reached the top. But then didn't stop. That they made a place… where you don't have to climb to survive."
The Gate Warden tilted his head. Rain slid down the walls behind him like molten silver.
"You mean Floor 307."
He tapped the control glyph, and a soft vibration shook the gate.
"You'll never reach it."
"No one does."
Aris didn't move. Her left hand burned slightly where the prototype sparked.
"I will."
He stared at her for a long while, then shrugged.
"You'll be corpse-bait by Floor 12."
"Probably," she said, voice steady. "But I'll climb anyway."
The Tower's glyph flared.
Her name was etched into the Gate Record.
[Aris Vale – Ascension Authorized]
[Access: Floor 1 Granted]
Floor 307 – Sovereign Hall
Miles and worlds above, Leon sat cross-legged at the summit garden of Floor 307.
He watched the stars.
They weren't system-made anymore. They shimmered based on memory and rhythm—the sky responding to those who stood beneath it.
His blade rested beside him. Not sheathed. Not drawn.
Just present.
He felt something then.
A pulse.
Not of threat.
Of beginning.
He opened his eyes, the wind shifting.
"Someone new just entered," said Roselia behind him.
Leon nodded.
"I felt it."
"She'll need more than luck," Roman muttered from the trellis nearby, reading a list of invitations. "Maybe someone should teach her."
Milim grinned. "Oh! Me! Me! Me!"
"Absolutely not," Liliana and Roselia said in unison.
Leon stood slowly.
"Send her a mark," he said.
Naval closed his book. "A Sovereign Mark?"
"A chance," Leon said. "No more. No less."
Floor 1 – Moments Later
Aris stepped into the first chamber, the heavy doors groaning shut behind her.
Everything was dark—
Then a symbol lit up above her head.
A simple sigil.
Spiral-shaped.
Leon's mark.
Her breath caught.
She didn't know what it meant.
Only that it wasn't the system's doing.
Someone had seen her.
[You have been marked by a Sovereign.]
[You may request aid. Or you may walk alone.]
[This choice is permanent.]
Aris stared at the prompt.
Then at her broken gauntlet.
At her reflection in the mirrored floor.
And finally, she whispered:
"I'll walk."
The air was different on Floor 2.
Not thicker. Just… listening.
Aris didn't know how to explain it, but she felt like the world was waiting for her to make a sound.
The Hollow was nothing like the clean entry hall of Floor 1. This was a labyrinth of semi-organic stone, its walls breathing softly—every corridor shaped like a coiled spiral. Echoes bounced in impossible directions.
Her Aether gauntlet hummed quietly. Not stable. The prototype was leaking heat, and her left sleeve was scorched halfway to the elbow.
She kept moving.
No team.
No guide.
Only the Sovereign mark, glowing faintly on her palm.
It pulsed once as she entered a new chamber.
[Warning: Local Rhythm Detected – Aberrant Class]
She stopped.
The sound started low. A scraping, irregular pulse—like a heartbeat off-tempo. Then came the tremor.
And then—
It emerged.
Tempo Aberration – Class: Broken Drummer
It was wrong.
A creature shaped like a human once, maybe.
Now? Its arms were elongated metronome pendulums, swinging wildly. Its face was a cracked mask, with an open jaw lined with tuning forks. Its chest held a corrupted core, thumping out rhythm in uneven bursts that made Aris's ears ring.
It shrieked.
And the Tower answered with a notification:
[Aberration Type: Echoia-Failure Remnant]
[Threat Level: Lethal to Untrained Ascenders]
Aris didn't run.
She didn't scream.
She raised her sparking gauntlet.
"Let's see if this junk arm was worth the burn."