The door closed behind me with a heavy, muffled thud.
At first, I thought it would be dark inside. But after a few seconds, my eyes adjusted to the strange gray light.
It had no source.
It simply was.
A narrow stone corridor stretched out before me.
The walls were covered in cracks, and the ceiling was lost in the shadows. The air inside felt dry and still, as if it hadn't been disturbed here for centuries.
I took a few steps forward.
The echo of my footsteps sounded unexpectedly loud.
Outside, I could hear the monster.
Here-only myself.
I slowly walked on.
The corridor soon branched off.
Then again.
And again.
I stopped.
"Is this a maze…?" I asked myself.
There was, of course, no answer.
I felt no panic.
The Essence's instinct within me was still working.
The Ashen Wanderer.
He didn't speak in words.
But the direction was clear.
I just kept walking.
Sometimes to the left.
Sometimes to the right.
Sometimes down long corridors where fragments of stone lay scattered on the floor.
And gradually I began to notice something strange.
Statues.
First, just one.
A man in a long robe, carved from gray stone.
His face was calm.
His hands were folded across his chest.
I walked past him.
A few meters further on, a second one appeared.
Then a third.
And then there were many of them.
A whole hall.
I stopped at the entrance.
Dozens of stone figures stood before me.
Some were tall.
Some were almost human-sized.
Some looked strange-their bodies seemed to have been deformed by force.
Even more figures resembled beasts.
But they all had one thing in common.
They were different.
Very different.
One held a stone storm in his hands.
Another had wings of blades growing from his back.
The third's hands turned into smoke.
I frowned.
I slowly walked between them.
And suddenly I felt a strange sensation.
As if someone were watching me.
I stopped.
I turned around.
No one was there.
But when I turned back around…
it seemed to me that one of the statues had shifted the position of its head.
I froze.
I stared at it for a few seconds.
No movement.
It must have been my imagination.
I kept walking.
And then I heard a whisper.
Barely audible.
"Wanderer…"
I spun around.
Silence.
But when I looked at the statues…
I suddenly felt uneasy.
Some of them were now looking in my direction.
I quickened my pace.
The labyrinth went on.
Halls gave way to corridors.
Corridors gave way to new halls.
Sometimes it seemed to me that I could hear the whispering again.
Sometimes-that one of the statues was taking a step.
I tried not to look at them for too long.
I just kept walking.
Until I finally emerged into a huge circular hall.
I stopped.
In the center of the room stood a crystal.
Huge.
About five meters tall.
Transparent.
Grayish-blue.
It was set in a stone base that looked like a complex mechanism made of rings and slabs.
At first, I thought it was just an ancient artifact.
But when I took a step closer…
the crystal spoke.
The voice echoed right inside my head.
Quiet.
Tired.
"Finally… you've come again."
I stopped short.
"Who's there?"
"The one who remained."
The voice was strange.
It sounded as if someone very old were speaking.
Very… tired.
"You've come from a world that hasn't yet been consumed," the voice continued. "That means the Spire hasn't yet sated his hunger."
I frowned.
"What?"
There was silence for a few seconds.
And then the voice said:
"We called ourselves Eliar."
I slowly moved closer to the crystal.
"This world… was our home."
The voice grew even quieter.
"But Spire came."
I felt a chill.
"He devoured our world."
I felt goosebumps run down my spine.
"Completely."
"Our cities."
"Our skies."
"Our history."
"Even our souls. He devoured them. And corrupted them."
The voice sounded emotionless.
Too calm.
"We tried to resist."
"We built temples."
"Mechanisms."
"Vaults."
"But the end came anyway."
The voice paused, then continued.
"For many years, I blamed you… Ashen Wanderer."
"I considered you the cause of my world's death.
"But after many centuries of being imprisoned, I realized that I myself was to blame for my world's death."
I looked at the crystal.
"Wait. You blamed me?"
"And how do you even know all this?"
The voice was silent for a few seconds.
And then it asked:
"Are you sure you want to know?"
I frowned. Curiosity was gnawing at me from within.
"Yes, but before you answer, who are you, anyway?"
There was no reply.
Instead, the surface of the crystal began to change slowly.
At first, I thought they were just cracks.
But then I realized.
The outer layer… was erasing itself.
As if someone were peeling it away.
The crystal was becoming more transparent.
And then I saw it.
First, a silhouette.
Then-a shape.
Then…
a body.
I froze.
Inside the crystal was her.
A woman.
Or rather… what had once been a woman.
Her body was fused into the crystal.
Her arms stretched out along the walls.
Her skin was pale, almost transparent.
So thin that dark veins were visible beneath it.
Her eyes were open.
But her pupils had long since vanished.
In their place was a murky whiteness.
Her hair… didn't grow.
They were simply stuck to the crystal like dried threads.
The skin was torn in places.
And something dark was visible beneath it.
As if the body had begun to slowly decay…
but couldn't die.
Some of the fingers were no longer fingers.
More like thin bone hooks.
The mouth was slightly open.
And when the crystal was completely clear…
I saw that her lips had long since cracked.
But they were still moving.
"I…" whispered a voice.
I didn't understand at first.
The voice came from her.
"The last of the Eliar."
She blinked.
Slowly.
As if her eyelids had forgotten how to do it.
"Spire… didn't let me die."
Her lips twitched.
"I… preserve the memory of this world."
"And the fact that I blame myself most of all for the death of my world doesn't mean I've forgotten the grievances of the past. Ashen Wanderer."
At that moment, something exploded inside me.
Instinct.
He screamed, not with words, but with sheer terror.
RUN.
CLOSE YOUR EYES.
DON'T LOOK.
I didn't even think.
I just closed my eyes.
I turned around.
And ran.
Because I suddenly realized.
From that moment on…
it became dangerous to see anything around me.
I closed my eyes the very moment the essence's instinct screamed inside me. Not a thought-a command. The kind you don't question.
Don't look.
I ran almost by touch.
The stone beneath my feet was cold and uneven. Once I bumped my shoulder against a column or a wall-I couldn't tell-and nearly fell. The air inside the temple was heavy, dusty, and every breath scratched my throat.
Behind me… something was happening.
I could feel it.
As if the very space behind my back was changing. As if something wrong were unfolding there, something too big for this hall.
The Ashen Wanderer's instinct continued to weigh on my mind.
Don't open your eyes.
Under no circumstances.
I clenched my teeth and kept running.
A few steps.
A turn.
Another corridor.
I realized almost immediately that this was a mistake.
I had no idea where I was running.
A maze.
A damn maze.
I stopped.
My heart was pounding so loudly it felt like the whole temple could hear it.
"Great…" I muttered quietly, keeping my eyes closed.
Standing still was a bad idea, too.
I felt like I couldn't open my eyes. But if something attacked me, I wouldn't be able to fight blindly.
I reached out my hand.
My fingers touched cold stone.
A wall.
"All right…" I exhaled.
And I did the simplest thing that came to mind.
I turned so that the wall was on my right and walked along it.
I moved slowly. Sometimes my fingers slid along cracks in the rock, sometimes along a smooth surface.
Several times I bumped into ledges and corners.
A couple of times I almost fell.
Every second dragged on endlessly.
The scariest part wasn't the darkness.
It was the urge to open my eyes.
An instinct inside me screamed that I mustn't do it.
But my brain kept feeding me the same thought over and over.
What if it's all over already?
What if I'm walking here for nothing?
What if there's nothing there at all?
I clenched my teeth tighter.
"No." I said to myself.
If the Essence reacts like this, then there must be a reason.
I kept walking.
A minute.
Two.
Maybe more.
Time began to blur.
At some point, I heard a sound.
Far away.
Muffled.
As if something enormous were moving somewhere deep inside the temple.
I picked up speed.
My hand kept sliding along the wall.
Until suddenly…
it hit a void.
I stopped.
My hand darted to the side.
And found an edge.
A door.
I carefully ran my fingers along the surface.
Smooth.
Wooden.
Strange.
Very strange.
Everything else in the temple was made of stone.
I didn't think.
I just pushed it.
The door creaked and slowly opened.
I took a step inside.
And at that very moment, something clicked inside my head.
This time, not a warning.
Permission.
It's okay.
I cautiously opened my eyes.
And froze.
The room was… ordinary.
So ordinary that my brain initially refused to accept it.
A small room.
Rectangular.
The walls were smooth.
Not ancient stone.
More like plaster.
The floor was wooden.
The ceiling was low.
In the center of the room stood a table.
Not an altar.
Not a stone slab.
Just an ordinary wooden table.
To the left was a bookcase.
To the right was a chair.
I turned slowly.
The interior was simple.
But strange.
It didn't resemble anything I'd seen in the temple.
And it didn't resemble ancient ruins at all.
More like…
a study?
A workroom.
Belonging to a person.
A modern person.
As if someone had taken a room from the ground…
and simply placed it inside an ancient temple.
"What the…" I said quietly.
I took a few steps toward the table.
And I examined it.
There was a book lying on the table.
Medium-sized.
With a dark cover.
The edge of a piece of paper peeked out from beneath it.
I cautiously reached out my hand.
And shifted the book slightly.
Underneath was a map.
An old one.
Yellowed.
But the lines on it were clear.
I leaned in closer.
The green expanses of Eliar, the white wastelands of Askeil…
After reading that, I realized one thing.
It was a map of the Spire.
And judging by how many markings were on it…
Whoever made it knew far more about it than anyone else.
I stood by the table for a few more seconds, listening to the silence.
No footsteps.
No movement in the corridors.
It was as if that temple I'd just run through with my eyes closed had ceased to exist altogether.
My gaze returned to the book.
A dark cover. No title. No symbols. Nothing special.
But the very fact of where it was lying wouldn't let me rest.
I reached out and picked it up.
Nothing happened.
The book turned out to be a little heavier than I expected. Dusty, but well-preserved. I ran my finger along the cover, brushing off a thin layer of dust.
Silence.
"Is that all…?" I said quietly.
I turned the book over.
I opened it.
Blank pages.
I flipped through a few.
Blank again.
"Okay…"
And at that moment, the book burst into light.
A soft golden light ran across the cover, and before I could even blink, it crumbled into hundreds of sparks right in my hands.
"What the-"
An artifact of unknown class has been added to the Soul Arsenal.
I opened the Soul Arsenal.
A new item appeared among the familiar silhouettes of solitary swords.
A book.
Untitled.
Unranked.
With only a brief description.
I focused on it.
"Shed blood and see."
I snorted.
"How trivial…"
I frowned.
"Why does everything keep trying to suck my blood or take some part of my body?"
I summoned the book.
It appeared in my hands, as if it had never gone anywhere.
The same cover.
The same blank pages.
I summoned the sword.
I made a small cut on my palm. The blade slid across my skin, and blood appeared almost immediately.
I tilted my hand.
A drop fell onto the cover.
Nothing happened for a few seconds.
And then the book glowed.
The light spread gently across the surface, like a wave.
The pages opened on their own.
And right before my eyes, lines began to appear on them.
The ink seemed to emerge from the paper itself.
I frowned and began to read.
----------------------------------------------------------
If you're reading this, old friend, it means you've finally made it to my little hideaway.
To be honest, I was betting you'd turn off somewhere and find an easier adventure.
But since you're here, it must be serious.
I'll get straight to the point.
You can't "conquer" the Spire. At least not the way you're used to.
Don't fall for the newbies' talk of conquest or destruction. Those who thought that way usually ended up as part of the decor or turned into artifacts.
The Spire is a higher being.
And the only thing you can do is play by its rules.
Eight trials.
Sometimes fair.
Sometimes not.
Sometimes downright cruel.
But only by passing them all do you have a chance to understand how to defeat the Spire.
A good team won't hurt your chances of success-maybe we should get together like in the good old days?
Oh, what am I talking about?
And one more piece of advice.
Trust your instincts.
If you're reading this, it means they work better for you than for most people.
Now, down to business.
The first trial is located in a place the locals like to call the Hall of Wind Trials.
You'll recognize it right away.
When you get there, remember that old trick I showed you that night with the ladder and the broken beam.
Yes, exactly that one.
Don't ask why.
Just trust me.
It works.
That's all.
I hope this helps you avoid dying before your time.
Good luck, Ashen Wanderer.
The Great and Irreplaceable…
----------------------------------------------------------
The last word suddenly flared up.
The letters glowed with a white light.
I instinctively squinted, trying to read it.
But the word vanished before I could make it out.
And almost immediately, the text began to fade.
The lines dissolved one after another.
"Hey, wait…"
I quickly turned the page.
Empty.
The ink had vanished completely. Leaving me puzzled as to who this Great and irreplaceable person was who had left this message in this strange book.
And a second later, the book flared up sharply and slipped from my hands, scattering into hundreds of sparks.
I opened the arsenal of the soul.
The book was there again.
Untitled.
Unranked.
But now…
It didn't respond. It just lay there, resting in the arsenal of the soul.
I tried to summon it again.
Nothing.
One more time.
Still nothing.
"Great…" I muttered.
For a few seconds, I just stood there, processing everything that had happened.
"What kind of schizophrenic nonsense is this?" I snapped.
"What the hell? Some old trick with a beam and a ladder? Why is this the second ancient thing claiming to know me?"
I fell into thought.
"Was the Ashen Wanderer really that popular in life… But I'm not him. Am I?"
Then my gaze fell on the table again.
The map.
The very one that had been tucked under the book.
I carefully unfolded it.
The old paper rustled softly.
And within a second, I realized I was holding something incredibly valuable in my hands.
The map of Spire is quite detailed.
Considering what Brian had said, I dare say that people aren't particularly aware of what's happening beyond the borders of Eliar.
In short, there were eight zones on the map.
The White Wasteland of Askeil
The Green Realm of Eliar
The Celestial Whirlpool
The Forest of the Black Moon
The Crystal Rift
Crimson Sands
Misty Marshes
City of the Forgotten Sun
Strange symbols and notes left by someone's hand.
Some places were crossed out.
Some were circled.
And next to some were short notes.
My gaze was drawn almost immediately to one inscription.
It was highlighted slightly more than the rest.
Hall of Wind Trials.
There was a small mark next to it.
Whoever made the map had specifically pointed out this place.
I exhaled slowly.
"Well then…"
As soon as I said that, the map vanished into my soul's arsenal.
An artifact of unknown class has been added to the Soul Arsenal.
"Defeat the Spire… what fool would think of such a thing?" I said thoughtfully.