The tenth floor was quiet. Not the heavy silence of the Hollow, but the stillness of a place that waited.
Veyne stepped out into something that almost resembled a forest—except the trees were white. Not bark-white, but bleached, almost skeletal. They curved at strange angles, as if once alive and still aching from it. Their leaves were thin and brittle, pale as frostbitten skin.
He didn't hear birds. There were no insects. Yet every tree... watched.
Not literally. But through the Revelation Instinct, he felt the pressure of unseen focus. Not hostile. Not welcoming.
Evaluating.
The ground was soft, not with grass, but ash. Pale gray flakes crumbled beneath his boots with each step. Veyne knelt, brushed a bit between his fingers, and tasted it with a grimace.
Not soil. Not sand.
Bone dust.
"Why bones?" he muttered. "Why an orchard?"
Devouring Insight activated.
[Floor Designation: Memorial Grove]
[Purpose: Extraction of Anchored Remains]
[Challenge Type: Harvest]
Harvest?
He didn't like that word. Not here.
Before he could move further, the ground cracked open before him. A single tree split, trunk widening with a scream that only the Tower could make. From within, a shape fell out—a person, or what remained of one.
A body.
She was half-preserved. Skin clung too tightly to bones. Eyes wide open, glassy and dry. But she wore a pendant—one Veyne remembered.
"…Lera."
She had been a fellow climber. Floor three. Vanished without warning. Everyone assumed the Tower had eaten her.
It had.
And yet, as her body hit the ground, something glimmered. A red spark from her chest.
Veyne's skill pulsed.
Revelation Instinct: Fragment Detected.
He moved closer.
The red light wasn't a soul. Not exactly. It was a Remnant—a sliver of a will, a memory so powerful it resisted consumption.
[Harvest Option: Claim | Release | Devour]
Three choices. None simple.
Claim would bind the memory to him. He could learn from it, perhaps even use her abilities.
Release would allow her last thoughts to pass, give her rest.
Devour would grant raw power—but twist it.
Veyne hesitated. She had once fought beside him. Had shielded him from a bolt of shadow on Floor Four. She had laughed with him.
But this was the Tower.
He made his choice.
[Choice: Claim]
The light sank into his palm. The memory hit him like a wave.
He saw her life—not her death. A single moment burned bright: her standing alone, blades drawn, against a beast twice her size, refusing to back down.
[Skill Fragment Acquired: Lera's Stand – Temporary Resistance Boost under Threat]
"Thank you," he whispered.
The tree behind her corpse turned black. It collapsed into ash. One of many.
And suddenly, he understood the floor's task.
Dozens—hundreds—of trees stood before him.
Each one held a memory. A body. A fallen climber.
And the Tower demanded he choose.
To learn.
To honor.
Or to consume.
He didn't have time to reflect. A low hum rang out across the orchard. The trees began to tremble.
And the sky opened.
Not literally. But above the trees, something vast appeared: a being made entirely of bleached branches and woven flesh. It floated, featureless, limbs hanging like puppet strings.
Revelation Instinct triggered.
[Entity: The Caretaker of White Roots]
[Type: Floor Warden]
[Class: Memory Steward / Combat Sentinel]
[Protocol: Reject the Desecrator]
Veyne backed up. "Desecrator?"
Then he understood. Choosing Claim wasn't the Tower's preferred path.
The Tower wanted devouring.
He had chosen restraint.
That made him a threat.
The creature dropped.
He dodged just in time, rolling behind a trunk as the ground exploded. Shards of bone dust rained down, cutting his arm open. The wound hissed—some part of the monster's aura corroded living tissue.
He had no choice.
Skill Activated: Lera's Stand
The pain lessened. His legs moved faster. He twisted under the next swipe, jumped onto a collapsing tree, and hurled a bolt of raw essence into the creature's core.
It shattered a rib—but only one.
The monster's face formed from branches—his own face.
"You shouldn't have hesitated," it hissed in his voice.
Veyne's eyes narrowed. He reached for something deeper.
Devouring Insight: Override Mode—Internal Anchoring Linked
The light in his chest—Echoheart—resonated.
And something answered from beneath the orchard.
A surge of memory. Not his. A thousand screams. Names etched into every tree. They weren't just corpses.
They were stories. Refusing to be erased.
He raised both arms.
And the trees responded.
Roots shot up, spearing the Warden's limbs. The trees bent toward him, fed him their grief, their last stands, their unfinished symphonies.
The monster writhed.
Veyne stepped forward. "You guard the orchard? Then you knew them. Felt them die. And did nothing."
"I preserve," it gasped.
"You hoard," he said coldly.
Then he devoured the light.
All of it.
The orchard went dark.
When he opened his eyes, he stood alone.
Only one tree remained.
It was growing.
And at its base, a single carving:
[Here Grew the One Who Chose Remembrance]
[Trait Acquired: Gravekeeper]
[Skill Gained: Memory Echo – Revive one Remnant in battle per floor]
He looked up at the twelfth door beginning to form.
For the first time, the Tower did not whisper.
It bowed.