{ The Sky That Cracked }
Year 2090, Blue Star
--
It began with silence.
No storm. No earthquake. No divine herald announcing the end of days.
At 11:47 AM, the sky simply... cracked.
Dr. Elena Vasquez was reviewing data at the Geneva Observatory when every instrument in the facility screamed at once. Gravitational readings that defied physics. Electromagnetic signatures that shouldn't exist. Through the observation window, she watched a hairline fracture appear in the blue expanse above—a crack that widened like a spider web across the heavens.
From that wound in reality, the Tower emerged.
It didn't fall or rise. It simply was—as if it had always existed and reality had finally caught up. A colossal obsidian monolith stretching beyond the clouds, its smooth walls shimmering with unknown symbols that pulsed with bioluminescent light.
The Tower hummed—not audibly, but in the bones, in the blood. A pressure that made the blue star itself feel suddenly fragile.
---
{When the World Burned}
Panic swept the planet like wildfire.
Governments scrambled. Military forces mobilized. Satellites tried to scan the Tower's upper reaches, but signals broke down as they climbed higher, as if the structure existed under different physical laws entirely.
> "Divine trial," declared religious leaders.
"Alien invasion," countered scientists.
All were wrong.
Seventy-two hours later, the rifts opened.
Captain Maria Santos was commanding a forward observation post when reality tore open fifty meters from her position. The air shimmered, twisted, and suddenly there was a gap in the world—a window into somewhere else entirely.
What emerged defied every natural law planet bluestar had ever known.
Shadow and sinew creatures twelve feet tall with limbs that bent in too many directions. Serpentine beasts with crystalline scales that hurt to look at directly. Flying things made of living lightning that screamed with voices like breaking glass.
"Open fire!" Santos commanded.
Bullets that could pierce tank armor bounced off their hides like raindrops. Explosive rounds detonated without leaving marks. The lead creature tilted its head with curious amusement, opened its mouth, and screamed.
Windows shattered three kilometers away. Concrete barriers cracked and crumbled. Two soldiers collapsed, bleeding from their ears.
Then the monsters charged.
Within hours, evacuation zones expanded from fifty kilometers to five hundred. For the first time in centuries, Blue Star burned with fires lit by an enemy it couldn't understand, couldn't predict, and couldn't defeat.
---
{The Desperate Volunteers}
Fortified borders sprang up around the impact zone like desperate scars. Every nation brought their best weapons, their most experimental technology, their prototype systems that had never been tested.
Nothing worked.
But humanity doesn't surrender easily.
Volunteers emerged from every corner of the globe—soldiers, scientists, explorers, and ordinary people who refused to let their world end without a fight. They called them the First Wave.
None returned.
The Second Wave was larger, better equipped, more determined.
None returned.
The Third Wave never made it past the Tower's threshold. Security footage showed them approaching the massive obsidian gates, reaching out to touch the surface—and then simply vanishing, as if they had never existed.
Hope died a little more each day.
---
{When Hope Walked Out}
Four months and seven days after the Tower's arrival, hope returned on two legs.
Seven figures walked out of the Tower's main gate, moving with purpose and power that made the air itself shimmer around them. When they stepped, the ground seemed more solid beneath their feet, as if reality had become more real in their presence.
Leading them was a man who seemed unremarkable at first glance—average height, silver hair, simple clothes. But there was something about his eyes, something about the way he carried himself, that made everyone who saw him understand they were looking at someone fundamentally changed.
The media debated what to call them.
The Seven Survivors. The First Returners. The Awakened.
History would remember them as the Seven Sovereigns.
And leading them was Ryu Han-Seok—the man who would redefine what it meant to be human.
---
{The Blade That Cut Reality}
Han-Seok was not a king. He commanded no armies. But when he walked, monsters fell.
The first demonstration came within hours of their emergence. A rift opened near a safe zone. Military forces maintained a perimeter fifty kilometers away, but even that was proving insufficient.
Han-Seok arrived alone.
Satellite feeds showed him walking calmly through abandoned streets toward the rift that pulsed like an infected wound in reality. Massive creatures converged on his position, drawn by predatory instinct.
Han-Seok drew his sword—simple steel with a plain grip, unremarkable in every way except for what happened next.
The air around the blade began to ripple. Space itself seemed to bend and flex as he raised it above his head.
Then he swung.
The cut traveled through dimensions humanity couldn't name. It severed the connection between the rift and whatever hellish realm lay beyond. Monsters caught in its path simply ceased—not killed, but edited out of reality itself.
The rift collapsed with a sound like thunder played backwards. The unnatural pressure that had radiated from the area for months suddenly lifted, leaving only blessed silence.
Han-Seok sheathed his sword and walked away, never looking back at the miracle he'd performed.
---
{The New World Order}
But Han-Seok didn't just close rifts—he carved a path for others to follow.
Working with the other Sovereigns, he established training methods that could help ordinary humans develop Tower-climbing abilities. He created safe zones around rifts, teaching people to fight the creatures that continued to emerge.
> "We are not here to be your saviors," Han-Seok announced at the first Global Crisis Summit, his words broadcast worldwide.
"We are here to show you how to save yourselves. The Tower is not our enemy—it is our salvation. But that salvation must be earned, one floor at a time."
His words sparked the greatest migration in human history. People came from every corner of the globe, drawn by the promise of power and purpose.
They called themselves Climbers.
---
{The Four Pillars}
As years passed, Blue Star transformed. The old world order crumbled, replaced by something built around the Tower itself. From the chaos, four major regions emerged:
The Eastern Alliance
Born from mist-veiled archipelagos and jade-hilled realms where tradition meets transcendence. Their capital, Kairo City, is a marvel of Tower-tech architecture—soaring spires connected by bridges of crystallized light, surrounded by cherry forests that bloom year-round.
Known for: Precision Climbers, martial academies blending ancient styles with Tower powers.
The Northern Dominion
Rising from the frozen north—Russia and northern Europe. Their fortress-capital, Novagrad, stands defiant amid beast arenas and mana waterfalls.
Known for: Berserkers, beast tamers, raw Tower energy users.
The Western Union
Born from iron-willed innovators and skyborne thinkers of the Cloudbreak Territories,Technologically inclined. New Geneva is a cluster of floating research islands and dome arenas that simulate Tower floors.
Known for: Tactical Climbers, system engineers, elite gear users.
The Southern Coalition
Born from fire-forged jungles and shattered deserts of the Emberwild Expanse. Port Solene sprawls over crystalline deserts and fire-forged jungles.
Diverse, adaptable survivors from the global south, Versatile Climbers, survival experts, mercenaries and assassin guilds.
---
The Sky Above All
Above them all floated humanity's greatest achievement—The Sky Federation.
Stratos Union, a neutral city-state, drifts in the atmosphere, powered by Tower energy. Portal bridges link it to each regional capital, making global travel instant.
It oversees:
Climber law
Portal management
Tower Records Archive — humanity's database of all Tower-related knowledge
---
The Age of Climb
Fifty years have passed since the sky cracked and changed everything.
The Tower still hums with its impossible frequency, still stretches beyond human instruments, still holds secrets that may take centuries to uncover. But it's no longer an object of terror—it has become what Han-Seok promised: humanity's salvation, earned one floor at a time.
Climbers from all four regions test themselves against its challenges daily.
Some seek power. Others, knowledge. Some climb for glory. Others, just to see how far they can go.
The monsters still come through the rifts—but now they're met by warriors who fight on equal terms.
The world is still dangerous.
But it's no longer helpless.
And in the Sky Federation's archives, filed with bureaucratic precision, is a simple note:
50 years since First Contact. The sky cracked, and we learned to fly."*
The Age of Climb continues.
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{An Original Series by Celestial Raven}
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