Chapter 25 – The Towerbreaker Protocol
By Dorian Blackthorn
"In a tower that breaks the soul, only monsters climb to the top."
---
The silence was sharp.
No enemies. No system notifications. Just the sound of Erevan's breath echoing in a space that no longer obeyed the Tower's laws.
The Architect's Domain had collapsed, but what replaced it was far stranger. A blank expanse—no walls, no ceiling. Just a shifting sky of code above and broken memories underfoot.
The air pulsed like a heartbeat.
Then it came:
> [System Notice: Unauthorized Access Detected]
Warning: Layer EX - Towerbreaker Protocol Awakening
User: Erevan [Classification: Threat-Level Omega - Irregular Origin]
A second heartbeat.
This time, not from the world.
From within him.
---
His body seized.
The Ashbrand shuddered, whispering in a voice that was not a voice. Chains uncoiled from the blade, weaving into the scars on his arms. Not harming—binding.
> System Override Initiated... Searching Memory Archives...
Compiling Truth...
A system window exploded into view, jagged and unstable.
It didn't show a map. It didn't show stats.
It showed a memory.
Not a flashback.
Not a dream.
A recorded betrayal.
---
Erevan stood before a young girl.
Small. Thin. Sickly. Wires ran from her spine into a terminal. Her eyes glowed with interface script. Not because she used the system—because she was part of it.
And Erevan—cold, furious—stabbed the console beside her. Not to free her. Not to kill her.
To lock the system.
To use her.
His voice in the memory was calm. Calculating.
> "You'll anchor the rebellion. They'll never see it coming if the core is still functional."
Her voice was hoarse. Terrified.
> "But I'm not a system! I'm still human—!"
He didn't flinch. "Not anymore."
---
The vision ended.
Present-day Erevan stood still, fists clenched.
Not because he felt guilt.
Because the system had remembered what he tried to forget.
---
> [You Have Unlocked: Hidden Stat – Remembrance (MAX)]
Passive: Memories reshape the world around you.
Active: Echo Break – Shatter current reality layer to force narrative override. Cooldown: 3 floors.
Another pulse ran through the Tower.
Far above, in levels no player had reached, alarms rang in binary screams.
> "He remembers too much."
"Terminate the anomaly."
"No... observe. This is data we've never seen before."
---
And then it appeared.
Not a creature.
Not a player.
Not a boss.
A System Avatar.
A glowing humanoid with shifting faces and a hollow voice.
> [Towerbreaker Protocol Defense Unit: Sentinel V0id]
Function: Contain. Erase. Reset.
Engaging Irregular: Erevan.
Erevan didn't blink.
"Let's see if you're worth remembering."
---
The clash shook the void.
The Sentinel moved like code—blinking, rewriting its position, its limbs turning into weapons of logic and light.
Erevan adapted—his skin forming lattice-like armor drawn from collapsed universe fragments, his eyes reading data lines like they were combat manuals.
He struck.
The Ashbrand screamed through the air, burning with Remembrance—each swing powered by pain, by regret, by truth.
One blow shattered the Sentinel's shoulder.
Another severed its arm—but the Tower repaired it in real-time.
> "Emotion is irrelevant," the Sentinel intoned.
Erevan smiled, cruel and cold. "Then die by it."
He activated the Echo Break.
Reality cracked.
The battle paused.
And from the crack, Kaelyn's voice whispered—not in the world, but in his mind.
> "This time… don't become what you fought."
---
He didn't hesitate.
He drove the Ashbrand into the crack itself.
Not the enemy.
The system.
---
The void exploded.
Fragments of forgotten floors, buried timelines, and deleted players rained down like cosmic hail.
The Sentinel vanished in static, unfinished.
And Erevan stood alone again, blood dripping from his hands, eyes glowing brighter than ever.
> You Have Unlocked: Narrative Override – Towerbreaker Ascension (Pending Activation)
Requirement: Enter the next Core Floor with 3 Active Echoes.
Current: 2/3 Echoes Active
The climb was no longer about survival.
It was war.
And Erevan was no longer just a player.
He was the anomaly that remembered.
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Next: Chapter 26 – Core Floor: The Heart Engine