From the moment I was chosen by the holy relic

The Twilight Tower Fragment

Author: Aslan Veyn

Identity: Bloodstainer, Wandering Bookbinder, Old Abyss Observer

Date of completion: Year 582, the twentieth year of the Five Pillars Era

The Twilight Tower Fragments: First Era

Chapter One: The Origin Era: Fire Descends from the Stars

At the very beginning of the Primordial Era, a fiery object from beyond the astral plane tore through the atmosphere and fell from the skies above the northern border. As it crashed into the wasteland of the northwest of the continent, igniting the earth and triggering earthquakes, storms, avalanches, and celestial anomalies, the world was unaware that a new era had begun.

That land, later known as "Isano Plains," was at the time a desolate exile far from tribal communities, a land perpetually chilled by biting winds, teeming with wild beasts, and plagued by inter-tribal hunting. When the alien fire struck, it ignited the entire plains, burning for three weeks without ceasing. Black snow fell from the sky, and the sun and moon were obscured for three days. The elven calendar records it as "the year before the Great Wind," while dwarven oral history calls it "the year of slumber beneath the earth."

In the heart of the flames, some people survived. They weren't even injured.

Some of them, upon touching the remnants of flame, felt their blood begin to glow, their pupils reflecting flowing star trails. Some saw the veins of the wind in the darkness, others could hear the murmur of the mountains and rocks. These people became the earliest "Awakeners," having never learned any magic, yet they summoned flames with their minds, tore apart walls of wind with their gestures, and caused grass seeds to grow into forests overnight. Their power was not inherited, but rather a response to nature. A new "language" was born within them—the language of the laws of the world.

Later generations called him "Tuha Maryar", meaning "the one who gives the spark".

The Awakened Ones were initially few in number. They did not establish sects but were regarded as gods or taboos by their respective tribes. However, as the fires subsided, more tribes began to place their hopes on these "Word-givers." They drove away wild beasts, healed the wounded, lit bonfires, and changed the seasons. Tribes that had originally fought for water gradually rallied around one Awakened One.

His name was Sirius.

Legend has it that he was the first person to fully control the "Speech of Fire." He could ignite an entire forest with just his fingertips, melt snow with his words, and dispel miasma in the night with his will. He was not the strongest, but the most steadfast; not the most arrogant, but the most adept at winning people's trust.

Around him, the various races established an unprecedented alliance government—with mages at its center, tribes as its pillars, and magic as its governing tool. They called it: the Kingdom of Asra.

This was the first kingdom in the history of the mainland.

This was also the first time that magic became part of social law.

Within 120 years of the founding of the Kingdom of Asra, the system of sorcery developed rapidly. Awakened beings were no longer the legendary "gifted by the stars," but became practitioners of magic who could be trained and taught. Various schools of magic emerged: Fire Speakers, Stone Masters, Wind Riders, Pulse Healers, and Memory Speakers. Numerous magical systems diversified, and schools of thought abounded. Magic was no longer merely a source of inspiration and miracles, but a cornerstone of civilization.

However, amidst prosperity, the lust for power also takes root like a shadow.

The seventh king, Valon Hirios II, was a descendant of Hirios and a highly gifted pyromancer. Even in his youth, he could control multiple fire veins and summon lava flows, making him the youngest Grand Master in the kingdom's history. But he was not content.

In his eyes, magic should not be merely a tool for governance, but rather a "theorem," a "divinity." He questioned the existence of gods, yet aspired to become one.

He started a war.

He conquered the elven forests, burning down centuries-old woods and forcing the elves to retreat to the Moon Abyss; he channeled lava into the dwarven mines, turning entire underground cities into molten stone. What magic could not conquer, he scorched with the language of fire. Ten years later, all known territories came under the rule of the Kingdom of Asra.

But he did not stop.

He believed that if the starlight could grant people "art," then the primordial star must have hidden even deeper power. He ordered the sorcerers to return to the Plains of Elsano, excavate the sealed land of the fallen star, and retrieve the remaining fragments of the star core from the earth's core.

He commanded a sorcerer to infuse the pendant with his soul's blood and to forge it using the method of the Three Languages—

The primordial star fell.

The pendant not only amplified his magical power but also gradually allowed him to shed his human form. A flame that burned day and night ignited in his eyes, his body ceased aging, and his language became a command of nature. He no longer relied on magic books or needed spellcasting gestures; his very existence was the source of magic.

The Twilight Tower Fragments: First Era

Chapter Two: The Era of Origin - The Tragedy of the Kingship

In the year 217, the Kingdom of Asra entered its thirteenth year of reign as its seventh monarch, Valon Hirios II. The black fire in the palace tower burned day and night, and the pendant forged from a meteorite always hung on the king's chest, its color gradually deepening to a deep red, shaped like a burning eye.

In that year, the event later known as the "Tragedy of Conferring a Royal Title" began to brew.

More than a decade after receiving the "Primal Starfall," Valon's transformation became undeniable. His will began to twist, his emotions became extreme, his speech incoherent, and he would often summon the entire court in the dead of night, demanding that his ministers listen to his conversations with the "Star Speakers." His commands became increasingly incomprehensible, and his punishments of those who questioned him became swifter and more brutal.

The black flame first appeared that spring. He ignited it in public at a mage assembly, but the flame was not scorching; instead, it was like a writhing, black serpent that could penetrate any shield and body, leaving only distortion and corruption.

After that day, all those who opposed him, whether nobles, mages, or officers, were either burned to death or vanished within the palace walls. The kingdom, which had originally been governed by magic, was now completely under the rule of the "Law of Fire."

The Mage Council was abolished, the academy burned down, and the knowledge of the old tower was erased in the "Purification Ritual," leaving only the most loyal Blackfire Mages to survive. Clad in black cloaks, they roam the land, hunting down anyone considered a "memory of the old era."

This reign of terror lasted for three long years, until a small but determined force of resistance regrouped in the snowy valleys of the North.

Five people were recorded in history books.

They are:

Starfall Swordsman: His real name is unknown and his identity is unclear. He is a border knight and the only one who can make the Radiant Sword resonate. He has no magical abilities but can resist the corrosion of black fire.

Aisora: A scholar of the Elven memory school, specializing in mind sealing and cognitive mapping.

Tyne: A dwarven craftsman and former royal weapon maker who participated in early meteorite forging and has some understanding of the structure of falling stars. He was the forger of the Radiant Sword.

Saman: A radiant exiled pastor, recorder, and interpreter of prophecy.

Mirror Girl: Real name unknown, human female, taciturn, the only caster who has mastered the complete "Blood Seal Sealing Technique".

That night, the snow in the capital of Asura had just melted, the sky was filled with nebulae, and the moon cast no shadow. Crows circled above the palace, and an eerie silence enveloped the entire area.

The group of five, led by Starfall Swordsmen, sneaked into the old city from the abandoned well, passed through the fault passage under the ruins of the Alchemy Tower, and stepped into the core area directly beneath the throne, the Hall of Star Language.

The dome of the Star Language Hall has been transformed into a floating star ring structure, composed of fragments of shattered meteorites, swirling and humming among them. The primordial starfall hangs at its very center.

And the king stood there.

He is no longer human.

Valon Hirios II's figure seemed to be made of shadow and fire, his robe trailing to the ground, with a wisp of constantly twisting black flame trailing behind him. His eyes seemed to be staring into some unseen space-time, and he chanted softly, his voice seeming to come from another dimension. The words were indistinct, but one could feel a chill and suffocation.

The five men remained silent. They knew that at that moment, saying anything would be meaningless.

The mirror-image girl activates the sealing seal, constructing the "Spirit Seal Gate";

The priest Saman constructed the "Golden Seal Lock" with sacrificial blood;

Blacksmith Tyne drove the "Sealing Nail" into the Earth's core;

Aesola erected a mental barrier, sealing the connection between the meteorite and the king;

He uttered no incantations, nor did he make any grand vows. Only one sword strike after another, severing the black flames and tearing through space. Each of the king's responses was a catastrophe: lightning and fire fell from the starry sky, shadow claws emerged from the earth, and the air swirled in the incantations, almost tearing his consciousness apart.

He survived only through his swordsmanship and willpower.

Seventy-seven clashes, three heart ruptures, four broken right arm bones, blood splattered at the gate.

Just as Wang Jiangxing was fully awakened, he stepped into the sealing formation and used himself as a trigger to activate the blood seal.

The blood seal locked the door, the spirit seal sealed the soul, and the golden seal suppressed the body.

Although the war to crown the king determined the fate of the Demon King, it did not truly restore peace to this land. After that night, the capital of Asura was reduced to scorched earth. The sealing light, like a bolt of lightning, shattered the foundation of the royal palace in the center of the earth. The Star Language Hall collapsed, the heart of the city crumbled, and an ancient imperial capital, along with its last king, was buried in an unnamed abyss.

From then on, the capital was never mentioned again, and that corner on the map was called "Land of the King's Mark." No one knew its exact location, and it was no longer recorded in detail in the surviving scrolls.

The Demon King called upon the pendant at the end of his life, and that call has not ceased. The will of the black flames pierces through death, still attempting to return to its rightful place in its slumber.

The Starfall Swordsman took the Radiant Sword and pendant away from the Land of Kings' Mark and built a place to seal them away.

He left no map, nor any inscriptions to guide him.

They didn't even tell the other four the real location of the sealed location.

From then on, Starfall and Brilliance lay dormant together in nameless ruins.

The kingdom fell, the Demon King was sealed away, and the memories of sword and fire vanished with the wind. The five went their separate ways; the Mirror Girl was the first to disappear, the priest Saman died in the southern mountains, Tyne returned to his homeland, and Eisora ​​stayed on the dwarven border to establish the Tower of the Mind, attempting to record the derivative variations of the sealing technique.

As for the Starfall Swordsman, he completely disappeared from history.

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Second Era

Chapter Three: The Era of the Five Towers - Prologue

"The flames have died down, but the secrets have not ceased; they swore oaths with towers and blood with arrays; not for protection, but for return."

In the 224th year of the era, the Asura Kingdom had been destroyed for seven years.

After the Demon King was sealed away, the land gradually returned to a state of apparent peace, but whispers still echoed in the dead of night.

On the day the seal was completed, the five dispersed. Sword and Fallen Star disappeared together into the forbidden land, and the Gate of Starfall vanished from the world. Of the Thirteen Night Speakers, only six escaped. They did not die, nor did they forget; they carried the king's dying wish and hid in the shadows of history.

The king's dying wish consisted of only eight words: retrieve the pendant and release me from my seal.

This single sentence became the sole creed passed down through generations of the Blackfire remnants. Six Night Whispers, scattered across the five realms, disguised themselves as merchants, sorcerers, and scholars, traversing the continent for decades. They no longer attempted to break through the seal head-on, but instead sought the location of the original ruins—the Gate that buried the sword and the fallen.

They found it; the sealed place was opened by the Night Whispers through blood offerings, curses, and spirit sacrifices.

However, a great earthquake shook the earth, and the stagnant air surged upwards; the aura of a falling meteorite first appeared on the surface. But the door remained closed.

The Night Whisperer attempted to break the formation, employing Lava Spell, Necromancer's Pact, Dream Spirit Split Spell, and even drawing illusions from the Void Layer to penetrate the gate seal.

All were ineffective.

The Blood Seal is the most crucial of these, and it was personally sealed by the Starfall Swordsman himself at the last moment using a blood-binding incantation.

When the seal was first set up, the only condition for breaking it was: blood returned to its proper place, sword returned to its intent, and the seal could then be broken.

They finally understood that the pendant could be retrieved, but the key to the door was already engraved in the blood of the Starfall Swordsman.

Thus, the Five Towers Era officially began.

The Night Whisperers devised a long-term, secretive, and massive plan: to build a tower.

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Second Era

Chapter Four: The Five Towers Era

"Seek its blood, and also its form; where the tower rises, the destiny is intertwined." — Inscription of the Five Towers Era

◎The Tower of Deep Shade

Inscription on the tower: Without light, there is no me; the shadow of dreams is my body; the echo of the abyss is the first word I utter when I call upon the name of blood.

Tower Master's Oath (Night Whisperer Nakshu): I forge the tower with dreams and use souls as ladders. Even if my body sinks into eternal night, I will still hear the one with the blood seal, even if only for a moment.

▣Background of Tower Construction

The Deep Shadow Tower, the earliest activated and deepest Blood Seal Tracker buried beneath the earth, was built at the bottom of the ruins of the old capital of Asura, a broken domain that had been burned, collapsed, and devoured by black fire during the War of the King. The place where the tower was built was devoid of light, wind, sound, and time. Meteorite embers were scattered in the rock layers, mixed with fragments of spells remaining from the night of the King's Conferment. Based on this, Nakshu spent seventeen years setting up seventy-three layers of slumbering spells and five layers of soul entanglement arrays, and finally, with the "Virtual Layer Echo Spell" as the core, transformed the entire tower into a dream echo device.

▣Nakshyu: His Person

Naxxhul, the Demon King's earliest and most loyal spiritualist, also known as the "Father of Night Whispers," was a master of dream manipulation, capable of allowing the living to enter the memories of the dead or causing individual consciousness to fall into a potential rift of "never having existed." He was not skilled in combat, yet he could kill hundreds of times in his dreams. He did not utter incantations, but once you fell asleep, you could no longer distinguish reality from illusion. After failing to become the Demon King, he chose to become the first sealing spell of the tower with his "undying consciousness."

▣Deep Shadow Tower Mechanics and Existence Status:

The Deep Shadow Tower is not a residential tower, but a living consciousness engine. Inside its core is a constantly decaying yet constantly resurrected corpse, Nakshu's physical body.

"He died eight thousand times."

"But he never truly died."

"His nerves were embedded in a spirit array, and his soul shared perception with the tower."

"He is the tower."

▣Function: Dream Echo Detection

The sole function of the Deep Shadow Tower is to listen for unusual dream movements of the Bloodstained Ones.

The Night Whisperer firmly believes that when a true Blood Seal Responder awakens, there will be no real-world reaction; instead, the first disturbance will occur within a "dream." This is a sign that the seal is about to shatter.

Therefore, the purpose of building the Deep Shadow Tower was to become an echo shell of the dreams of the entire continent, an auditory tower, used to capture the ripples caused by the distant, lurking, and unknown "blood" in the dreams.

▣Capture conditions (inferred from literature):

The dream features symbols such as "door," "sword," and "pendant" that represent the core theme.

The mental fluctuations resonate within the sealed structure;

The sleeper possesses "star blood" characteristics (family clues unknown);

Dreams can be interpreted as "time reversal" or "future echoes".

"Even if you have a dream in the most remote forest, and a sword flashes or flames flicker in your dream, the Deep Shadow Tower will know."

▣Editor's Note

"It is not a tower."

"It is an ear, an ear inserted into dreams."

"The Night Whisperer uses it to hear the future, but the future only echoes with one word: blood."

◎The Second Tower, the Gilded Echo

Inscription on the tower: The mirror does not speak, the tower does not move; yet it has seen you long ago.

The Tower Master's Oath (Night Whisperer Irem Entur): I do not seek souls, but their shadows; I do not remember names, but their traces. People may escape fate, but not their own form. I discard my shadow, forging the form of man; I use the soul as a vessel, the mirror as a blade. Those without faces will surely bear marks.

▣Background of Tower Construction

The Golden Tower, the one with the "deepest observation" among the five towers, is built in the core canyon of the Mirror Source Mountain Range in the far east. Constructed using natural magnetic energy, its body is pierced by seventy-nine layers of soul frequency recognition arrays, and its core is the "Eternal Shadow Stone," forged from fragments of an ancient mirror. Its master, the Night Whisperer Irem Entul, is the originator of the "Soul Echo Reflection Array," a master of mirror arts, and the most secretive of the "Named Ones" during the Demon King's era.

"He was not on the battlefield of the fall of the king."

"It's not about blood oaths, not about battle formations, not about prophecies."

"He was alone in the mountains, and cast a mirror as his eye."

▣Functional Mechanism: Soul Frequency Capture

The core of Irem's doctrine is: Blood does not speak, but the soul resounds.

He believes that any Blood Seal Awakener will release a "unique vibration frequency" in the early stages of awakening. This is a vibration that is non-verbal, non-willful, and purely from the source of one's identity.

Thus the Golden Tower was born: it does not detect "people," but detects "who."

▣Tower Structure

Tower height: 79 stories; the base of the tower extends 30 zhang (approximately 15 meters) into the mountain.

Outer wall: Embedded with fragments of the "Demon King's Mirror" from the old palace of the royal capital, possessing the power of soul reflection;

Internal structure: It is equipped with a six-tiered spirit return array, with each layer capable of storing 700 spirit frequency records;

Tower Core: The suspended "Eternal Shadow Stone" is a crystal with a diameter of nine feet and is bound by six soul chains.

It does not emit light, but once it makes a sound, the entire tower vibrates—like a thousand mirrors resonating.

▣The Secret at the Bottom of the Tower: The Dead Seal Chain Node

Beneath the Eternal Shadow Stone lies the "Soul Judgment Chamber," where six skeletons, known as "Memory Prisoners," are suspended. These are one of the six nodes of the "Death Seal Chain," a secret system shared by the Five Towers. Each Soul Judgment Prisoner has a long nail piercing their bone on their forehead; they are awakened once every seventy-nine days to compare their soul frequencies with those in the Eternal Shadow Stone. They have no mouth, no eyes, no name, only the tower inscription and the soul frequency they recognize; the judgment is irreversible and recorded as either "correct" or "false."

"They were warlocks, priests, and mages; now they are six pieces, living organs of the tower."

▣Known cases of spiritual shock

Record number: GE3.217/B (Third Age)

Three days after the birth of a baby in the capital, the Everlasting Shadow Stone at the bottom of the tower suddenly moved, and the vibration lasted for three days and nights. The soul frequency highly matched the initial shock curve of the "Starfall Original Frequency".

The four Soul Judges fell into a state of confusion, and the Everlasting Shadow Stone showed a "calling the master" pulse for the first time.

Follow-up processing: The infant was identified by the tower as a "fake imprint";

Verdict: Triggers "Soul Shattering Judgment";

Ending: Soul torn apart, frequency split, infant dies instantly;

The record of the missing name reads: "It wasn't him."

▣The Death of the Tower Master - The End of Irem

In the fifth year of the tower's construction, Yrel disintegrated herself, splitting her soul in two:

Half of it is embedded in the Eternal Shadow Stone, becoming the "Soul Frequency Receiving Main Array";

Half of it transformed into a soul shadow of obsession, merging into the "golden mirror" of the entire tower;

The body spontaneously combusted in golden light, leaving no ashes behind.

The tower has been ownerless ever since, but the golden tower has never closed its eyes.

▣Editor's Note

It doesn't ask who you are.

"It only listens to the breath of your soul."

"The Tower of Gold is not searching for bloodlines, but recording all those who try to hide."

◎The Third Tower: The Tower of Dreambinding

Inscription on the tower: Blood may fall silent, but dreams will not.

Tower Master's Oath (Night Whisperer Iseline Logo): I forget my name, I forsake my body. I take illusion as my dream, and dream as my blade.

The one I curse is not you—it's the self you believe yourself to be. Faith can be changed, memories can be erased. Only what you see in your dreams is the true reality.

▣Background of the Tower Builders

Yselin Lorgol, of royal elven birth, was originally the daughter of the Lortheran family of the Spiritlight Mountain system. With pure blood, she was hailed as "the last Spellcaster of the Morningstar Clan".

"She didn't just betray us."

"She was the first elf to be voluntarily implanted with black magic."

"She used her memories as a price to build a tower from nothingness."

▣Tower Site and Structure

The Dream Curse Tower is built in the Fault Valley between "Windfall Ridge" and "Shalo Basin". The valley is filled with intertwined spiritual veins, and there is no distinction between day and night all year round. Ordinary people are very likely to experience hallucinations and time distortion when they enter.

Tower height: only seventy feet;

Tower base: extends to 400 underground floors;

Configuration: Inverted triangular tower, small at the top and large at the base;

Material: Grayish-brown cursed rock, inlaid with thousands of spiritual lock imprints and reliefs;

Core: Seven layers of "personality stripping array" sealed underground.

▣Functional Mechanism: Sevenfold Phantom Lock System

The true function of the Dream Tower is not early warning or investigation, but "reverse selection".

When the Bloodstained One is sensed by the First Tower and confirmed by the Second Tower, their identity will be simultaneously transmitted to the Dream Curse Tower.

"The tower instantly awakens the illusion lock."

"The goal is to destroy his 'self'."

The contents of the seven-layered lock are as follows:

Stripped of your identity: Everyone calls you by a stranger's name, even your mother doesn't recognize you.

Memory Reversal: Everything you see is a false reconstruction of the past, every moment telling you that you've remembered it wrong.

Misplaced Family Bonds: You dream of seeing your closest relative again, only to be accused of being your father's killer.

The reflection of faith: The ideals you once fought for have proven to be laughable.

Pain sensory implantation: Every time you think "Am I me?", the pain is like an axe splitting your skull.

Language deprivation: You open your mouth, but cannot utter any human or elven language.

True Self Covering: Your name, identity, and soul will be covered by the tower inscription. You will exist in the world as "the Other."

"If the seven locks are completed, the Bloodstained One will completely lose his personality and become an empty shell."

"Only the Black King's will can be implanted into this body."

▣Iserlyn's End

"After the tower was completed, she never reappeared in the world."

"Her body sits cross-legged atop the neural nucleus layer of the Dream Curse Tower."

"Not decayed, not rotten, not dead."

Her soul had long since merged into the Sevenfold Illusion Lock, becoming the will of the tower.

"Not for living, but for waiting."

▣Editor's Note: The Third Tower - Dream Curse Tower

"This is not the Illusion Tower."

"This is a living scalpel for personality surgery."

"Here, you will deny yourself in your dreams and eventually forget who you are, which is exactly the 'empty shell' they want."

◎The Fourth Tower: The Tower of Bloodcarving

The inscription on the tower reads: "The King of the Soul should have a King of the Body; since Heaven will not create one, then I will."

The Tower Master's Oath (Night Whisperer Voss Riddle): I do not believe in gods, nor in souls, nor in destiny. I believe only in bone and blood, only in the warmth of flesh and the length of nerves. If the Black King returns, there will be a vessel to carry him. If Heaven does not grant it, I will create one.

▣Background of the Tower Builders

Vos Ridel, the only human sorcerer among the Nightwhispers to be of mortal origin, was born at Midzer College in the North and was formerly the Associate Director of "Living Structures." His majors included dissection, biological neural matching, and interspecies fusion.

"He does not cast spells, does not understand dreams, and does not recognize spell arrays."

"But he could see the difference between every inch of bone and flesh."

He said, "God is not in the scriptures, but in the form of the spine."

▣Tower Site and Structure

The Blood-Sculpted Tower was built in the "Abyss of Dead Bones," at the bottom of a primitive canyon in the western region, connected to the earth's core by the extraordinary spiritual spring "Bone-Breathing Pool."

Appearance: Irregular structure, resembling stacked snail shells;

The core of the tower: "Bone Imprint Core", forged and synthesized from more than 500 kinds of exotic spinal bones;

Material: No stone, no iron, composed entirely of biological tissue;

Features: The tower body continuously evolves, growing one layer every thirty years.

"The tower itself is a behemoth that is still growing."

"Its heart doesn't beat, but it pulsates."

The tower's purpose: to create "pseudo-divine bodies".

The Blood-Sculpting Tower is not used to detect blood seals, nor does it contain dream spells or soul frequencies. It does only one thing: create a perfect vessel that can hold the Demon King's soul.

A pseudo-god body must meet the following conditions:

1. It can withstand the pressure of the Black King's soul without breaking;

2. Possesses sufficient neural density for embedding curse patterns;

3. Self-awareness must be rejected to ensure that "willpower slots" can be used for soul implantation;

4. The spirit and the body are one, inseparable, and cannot coexist.

The formula envisioned by the Tower Master: Soul + Pulse + Cursed Core + Physical Shell = Container. If any one element is missing, it will not work.

▣ Manufacturing process and testing classification

The Blood-Sculpting Tower underwent numerous experiments from its inception, and Worth numbered and categorized all of them:

Basic forms: S-01 ~ S-79, modified from ordinary humans, orcs, and elves, verifying the "basic compatibility frequency".

Reconstructed: R-01 ~ R-32, multiple soul core construction, attempting high spiritual pressure adaptation.

Enhanced versions: X-01 ~ X-19, strengthen bone density, inlaid compression resistance test.

Demonic Bone Style: M-01 ~ M-05, fusing with deep necromantic bone embryos, attempting necromantic anchoring.

Unnamed: Z-∞, the final aptamer, only one exists, sealed within the core of the tower.

Excerpt from typical test records:

S-13: A modified Southern Knight, spontaneously uttered ancient black incantations within three days, attempted to sever its own spinal cord on the twelfth day, and was sealed away by the annihilation mechanism on the fifteenth day. Still active.

X-11: Utilizing a dragon spinal cord and a half-human torso, exhibiting a high degree of neural proliferation ability, but refusing to be embedded into the Soul Frequency Module. Tower Heart Rating: Unsuitable.

Z-∞ (shell): Not activated. The only configuration that did not exhibit any dissimilatory reactions.

▣Special Component System: Bone Imprint Core and Soul Construct Pit

Bone Imprint Core: The core of the tower, formed by the fusion of five hundred types of spinal bones, serving as the "nerve center" of the entire tower.

Soul Pit: A "soul trial area" excavated between the ninth and twenty-ninth underground levels, used to capture, tear apart, and reassemble the souls of prisoners.

"You can even see three spines and four Adam's apples in one of them."

"Not for fighting, but for exploring possibilities."

▣The Tower Master's Own Fate: His Doppelganger Enters the Vessel

Worth Riddell left no remains. His last handwriting reads: "When I am finished, I will be a vessel of myself. If he comes, he will dwell in me."

Voss disassembled himself into four parts: nerves, bone marrow, blood, and mouth; each was sealed into four "tower-like bodies"; these became the four control nodes of the tower, giving the entire blood-sculpted tower "semi-organic self-computing" capabilities.

▣Final Form: Shell (Z-∞)

Type: Unnamed

Status: Still, Sealed

Composition: Six limbs extended, coccyx not degenerated, anchor mark intact

Function: Preset "Soul Descent Connection Point" to accommodate the Black King's soul descent.

Record: In soul frequency sensing, it spontaneously unfolded into a "fetal breathing state," seemingly foreseeing its return.

"This body has not yet awakened."

"Never went berserk."

"It waits quietly."

▣Editor's Note

"The Blood-Sculpted Tower is not a building; it is a corpse that never ends."

"Worth didn't want God to return; he wanted to create a shell that could house God."

"He is not afraid of failure because he has created the mold of failure itself."

◎The Fifth Tower: The Tower of Ashen Deep

The inscription on the tower reads: Fire does not originate from wood, but from meaning.

Tower Master's Oath (Helsa Erchi): I will not build a tower for the return of the Demon King, nor pave the way for destiny. I will only define variables, set functions, and arrange fields. The Black Flame needs no believers, only the slow collapse of the world.

▣Background of the Tower Builders

Hersa Etzhir, former chief alchemist of the Black Vein branch of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, holds dual doctorates in philosophy and runic literature, and is a rebel in the field of logic. She advocates that "black magic is a highly efficient explanatory system," and after receiving a fragment of the Black King's will, she voluntarily constructed the Tower of Abyss.

"She was not a theologian, not a sorcerer, and not a general."

"She is a liar."

▣Tower Site and Structure

The Tower of Abyss is located on the "Misty Ridge," an area perpetually filled with "Ghostly Ash" particles, originating from the periodic burning output of the "Cursed Fire Chamber" at the tower's core.

Surface portion: only three layers, constructed of limestone, in an inverted, burned state;

Underground structure: extending seventy-six layers into the earth's veins, its structure is shaped like an inverted torch;

Material composition: Gray cursed steel, will limestone, and corroded copper veins; the wall surface is engraved with "combustible speech array";

Structural characteristics: Time flows differently, the concept itself can be rewritten, and the intruder will lose the basic semantic system.

▣Sequence Entropy System (SEI Index)

Helsa constructed the "Spirit Seal Entropy Value System" to measure the degree to which the world is influenced by the Dark Magic. Its thirteenth level corruption threshold is:

SEI level and corresponding corruption status:

SEI 0: The world completely rejects black magic; black curses have no effect.

SEI 5: Black magic began to circulate in the form of folk customs or legends.

SEI 8: National institutions begin to tolerate and test some black magic or structural spells.

SEI 10: Black magic has entered the military and magic academies, becoming a means of research and practical application.

SEI 11: Clergy began to accept black magic as part of "mystical revelation".

SEI 12: The three races of the world (humans, elves, and dwarves) generally accept that "black magic is the truth".

SEI 13: The spirit seal structure is completely broken, and the world enters the "Black King can descend state".

"By the end of the Second Age, SEI had reached 8.7."

▣The core structure of the Tower of Abyss: The Chamber of Cursed Fire

At the Earth's core, thirty-six "Conceptual Flames" are sealed away;

Each flame burns not fuel, but "semantics";

The intruder will have certain linguistic structures (such as "I", "no", "God" etc.) erased.

The tower master Hersa "deconstructed" himself into thirty-six mental organs, which were then sealed in his heart.

"She became the tower."

"She became fire."

▣The Seven Paths of Corruption

Hersa did not wait for the world to fall into depravity, but instead designed seven pathways for the infiltration of social structures to achieve the infiltration of black magic culture.

First Gate: The Gate of Customs

The black curses are packaged as local "blessing spells" or "amulet" and integrated into folk customs.

For example, in the infant mortality crisis in the Duerwei tribe, the black dominoes "warmth and nurturing charm" were regarded as an ancestral protective spell.

The Second Gate: The Gate of Scholarship

The concept of Black Magic was introduced into the Art Academy classroom under the name of "Artistic Modeling".

Example: The Royal Academy of Thurlow offers a course on "The Unlawful Energy Model," teaching the logic of constructing black curses.

The Third Gate: The Gate of Religion

The concept of the birth of the Black Demon was mixed into apocalyptic prophecies and disguised as divine pronouncements.

For example, the Third Revelation disguises itself as the doctrine of the old gods, leading believers to accept the "ash and fire totem".

Fourth Gate - Gate of War:

Applying black magic to alchemical weapons, making them a practical means of combat.

Example: Soul-Burning Bullet, which uses remnant souls to unleash black flames, is used as a forbidden weapon.

The Fifth Gate: The Gate of Nobility

Under the pretext of "heralding modification" through alchemy, black curse runes were branded onto noble families.

For example, the "Guardian Serpent" emblem is embedded in the crests of the three major families in the south and is passed down through generations.

The Sixth Gate: The Gate to the Market

The black curse was simplified into amulets and ornaments, which were then distributed to various places through the circulation of goods.

For example, gray fire peace stones and rootless gray talismans have become sleep ornaments and auspicious items for business travelers.

The Seventh Gate: The Gate of Nursery Rhymes

They mixed the sealing curse into the lyrics of nursery rhymes and spread them by word of mouth among children.

For example, the thirty-two songs in "Selected Nursery Rhymes in the Flames" were used as entrance tunes in private schools in various places.

"Each door represents a step the world takes closer to the Black King."

▣The Tower Master's Final Incantation

Hersa finally lit all the bone lamps in the Cursed Fire Chamber, completing the ritual in the form of semantic self-immolation, leaving behind the sacrificial inscription:

"I melt myself with words, and reconstruct my name with cursed flames. No one can burn my soul, for I first burn myself to ashes."

If you call me, I will only hear fire in the ashes, neither name nor sound nor shadow, but only Hersa.

▣Editor's Note: The Fifth Tower - Tower of Abyss

"This is not a tower."

"This is a quiet, century-long project to rewrite the world."

"The Tower of Abyss does not wait for fate; it rewrites fate into a 'default value'."

"She used seven gates to create a world for the Black King."

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Second Era

Chapter Five: The Final Chapter of the Five Towers Era

The sixth Night Whisperer: Sawyer Elnot

"The towers are built, the tower masters are asleep, and the fires have burned out. Only one person remains, after all the rituals have ended, echoing between the towers."

His name was Soyer Aelnoth.

It has no record of birthplace, bloodline, or curse core, and has not made a vow to the tower master.

He was not the most prominent of the Night Whispers, nor did he preside over the groundbreaking ceremony for any of the towers. However, according to the "Postscript to the Twilight Tower Fragments," the final proofreading seal on the design drawings of the five towers was signed by this man.

He was known as the "Architectus," the one who held the seal of the five-tower structure.

He never uttered any spells, yet he was the one who coded the structure of the Five Towers; he never received any seals, yet he was connected to the core secondary channels of the Five Towers; he never saw the soul of the Black King, yet this was the one who planned his path.

Sawyer Elnot is not the master of the tower, but its coordinator. After the tower master perished, the spiritual core extinguished, and the dream energy severed, he became the sole remaining operating force of the five towers.

▣System Printer's Authorization Record (Copied from the Twilight Tower Fragments - "Gray Page Guide")

▸Can remotely read the Dream Rift listening node of the Deep Shadow Tower;

▸The Eternal Shadow Soul Frequency Screen Lock of the Gold Casting Tower can be manually activated;

▸The initiation ceremony of the Illusionary Lock of the Dream Tower can be remotely initiated;

▸Can issue commands to awaken and reprogram blood-sculpting tower test subjects;

▸The SEI orbital entropy ratio of the Abyss Tower can be calibrated to regulate the "structural offset" it releases to the world.

▣The only unbound person

Unlike the five tower masters, Sawyer did not embed his soul imprint into any tower core, nor did he establish any altars, blood monuments, or spirit pillars. He did not belong to any tower, and therefore could intervene in all towers. His identity was like an ever-flowing execution process within the five-tower system, responsible for maintaining inter-system coordination, command execution, error correction, path verification, and the final link: dealing with the awakening of those with blood imprints.

▣Hunting Protocol·Blood Tower Fourth Model·Out of Control Response System

According to records, on page 67 of the Blood Plastic Tower structural document, there was a section titled "Special Model Design Summary":

"If the Black King's descent fails and his will shatters, a physical structure is needed to temporarily take its place. This structure must meet the following conditions:"

1. High resistance to backlash from black curses;

2. Autonomous hunting capability;

3. Spirit frequency masking mechanism;

4. Tactical adaptability.

These constructs are not legions. They are not formal entities.

Instead, they are a group of individual units called "Hunting Response Units," designed by Voss Riddell himself and tested inside the fourth tower, the "Blood Shaping Tower."

Ultimately, the person in charge of its authority was Sawyer Elnot.

▣Tachi Oath Monument (Fragment Copy)

On the margin of page "Postscript to the Twilight Tower, Appendix 2", there is a fragment of an inscription:

"If God cannot descend to earth, I will use structure as my path."

"I have no skill in my hands, nor do I curse in my heart; I rely solely on the bones of rules to pave the way."

If the tower loses its voice, I will be its tongue.

"If the tower goes out of flame, I will be its core."

"If the tower collapses, I will take its form."

▣Editor's Note

"He's not the one who follows orders."

"He is the layer of logic that enables that order to be executed."

"The Five Pagodas are pagodas."

"And he was the one who wrote about the Tower as 'grammar'."

First Tower - Deep Shadow Tower: Dreams are the door, awakening is the cause;

The Second Tower - The Gold-Casting Tower: The soul serves as a mirror, recording its frequency;

The Third Tower - Dream Curse Tower: The mind is locked, stripping away the self;

The Fourth Tower - Blood-Sculpted Tower: A shell for creating gods, where a hundred souls return to one;

The Fifth Tower - Tower of Abyss: Corrupting the world, paving the way for the king.

The Five Towers Era has ended.

"The dividing line of history should not be determined by dynasties or wars, but by whether fate can still be recorded."

—Excerpt from the marginal notes of "The Twilight Tower Fragments: General Edition"

In the year the five towers were completed, the multiple dating systems previously used by various countries became completely ineffective.

The Elven "Star Laws Chronicle", the Human "Royal Calendar", the Dwarf "Forging Calendar", and the Giant "Annal Chart Chronicle" have all become inaccurate due to the Tower system's lack of intervention.

From that moment on, the world was no longer the old world.

Thus, through the joint agreement of the later recorders of magical principles and the oath-taker of the remnants, the year of the completion of the Five Towers was officially designated as the beginning of the calendar, named: Year 0 - The Beginning Year of the Dark Flame Era.

From then on, the dating system uniformly adopted "Year" as a prefix, and all old dating methods were classified as "The Fragmented Epoch" or simply "Pre-Year".

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Third Era

Chapter Six: The Dark Flame Era: The First Flames Ignite

Year 0: The Year the Five Pagodas Were Closed

After completing their respective rituals, the five tower masters were completely submerged in the heart of the tower that year. No further written correspondence or inter-tower communication took place. From then on, the names of the tower masters only remained as inscriptions on stone tablets and seals of incantations.

The Dream Breath Locking Array beneath the Deep Shadow Tower began to operate autonomously; the Golden Plate Locking Frequency of the Forged Gold Tower detected "soul echo misalignment" for the first time; the Dream Curse Tower did not move, and the seal remained unbroken; the Blood Sculpting Tower entered the sixth layer of the flesh embryo growth stage, recording the structure numbers: S-061 to S-073.

The first batch of "ash fire" indices in the Abyss Tower rose abnormally, covering the entire 500-mile-long Wuchen Ridge.

The Dark Flame Era begins.

Year 7 - The First Signs of a Shattered Dream

That year, the Deep Shadow Tower spontaneously activated its monitoring array for the first time, capturing the outlines of three "Sealing Totems" in dreams. The analysis report was not released. Rumors circulated that one of the dream images featured a "Grey Fire Serpent," one of the symbols of Hersa's spells. From then on, the Dream Rift Tower began periodically monitoring dream wave variations at fifty-three spiritual vein hubs worldwide. Document number: DR-E/07-1, tagged: "Suspected Echo."

Year 11·First Structure Rampage

The Blood-Sculpted Tower specimen, number R-14 (reconstructed configuration), went out of control on the tenth underground level, broke through the Spirit Bone Cable Lock, and autonomously invoked a spell.

The test subject exhibited "non-input spell activation," meaning that its spell core was not activated, but it automatically generated a spell response.

The incident lasted 89 seconds. The tower core forcibly guided it back to slumber, but the test subject still retained some memories of the "Summoning God Language." The event was recorded, marking Voss's "Bone Imprint Network" as potentially capable of triggering "Divine Realm Gravitational Resonance" for the first time. Official label: "Initial Manifestation of a Phenomenal Anomaly."

Year 19 · Eastward Expansion of the Abyss

Helsa left no incantation, but the Ashfire Belt of the Abyss Tower crossed the Empire's eastern border defenses for the first time that year. The Ashfire Index spread to the Pales Plateau, the Southern Valley of Lezer, and the Twilight Forest Plains, resulting in the loss of contact with eight border observation posts. The SEI index rose to 9.1 for the first time on the inscription at the bottom of the Abyss Tower, marked as "Primary Critical Point for Cultural Contact." In the same year, a case of children in the Pales Academic District singing "Nursery Rhymes in the Flames" was secretly reported. Number: EF-G/19 - "Ash Infant Group"

Year 32·Spiritual Disorder·Three Souls Sacrifice

When the Tower of Gold was listening to the spirit frequencies, three consecutive "frequency overlap" events occurred: three scholars, travelers, and chanters from different continents had their spirit frequencies overlap to the standard "blood mark waveform" on the same day in different locations.

The tower's core mistakenly identified the target as a "multiple seal master," triggering the automatic incineration mechanism. All three victims perished; their bodies were found with "exploded golden patterns," their spinal cords severed, and identical incantation remnants around their throats. The incident was recorded by the Golden Tower as a "non-target incineration" accident. This was the first recorded instance of the "Soul of the Seal" causing death to unrelated individuals.

Year 54 · Dream Curse First Break

At midnight, the Dream Tower received a proactive reverse dream induction attack. It wasn't that the monitored subject's dream was abnormal, but rather that someone was attempting to enter the tower's dream structure itself. The tower's master personality reflection system immediately activated, and the first lock—identity stripping—was initiated. The target's identity was unknown, and they did not enter the main layer, but their attempt caused dream chaos in a village 700 kilometers away. Forty-two villagers in that town suffered from collective personality disorder; seven committed suicide, twelve suffered amnesia, and three suffered lifelong semantic derangement. This incident was filed as: "Dream Level Backflow Interference Case," number: DM-T/54.

Year 79 · Blood Plastic Thirteen Structure Completed

The Blood Sculpting Tower completed its thirteenth batch of prototype forging this year, officially numbered FX/01~FX/11 (Complex Enhancement).

FM/01~FM/02 (Experimental Magic Bone Style)

One of the FM/02 prototypes exhibited dual attributes of "self-driven consciousness + anti-curse feedback" during testing, attracting Sawyer's attention. Subsequently, FM/02 was designated as a "monitoring active construct," and its code name was changed to "pre-shell form." In the same year, construct models and batch numbers were no longer publicly disclosed for areas below the seventh level of the Blood Shaping Tower.

Year 95 - Beginning of the Tharton Silence Era

From that year onward, all standard structural communication between the five towers was completely shut down. Sawyer Elnot activated the Tower Chain system, elevating his own tower chain permissions from "monitoring" to "autonomy." On page 28 of his "Tower Chain Operation and Maintenance Manual," he wrote: "The Tower Master is not awake, the cursed fire is not extinguished, the five towers are like vessels, and vessels need to be controlled. I now assume the throne, and with a human body, I uphold the laws of the towers."

The Night Whisperers officially entered the later structural phase—the Sawyer-dominated period.

Year 120 - The Eve Before the End of the Initial Flame Stage

The world remains at peace, the country remains stable, and there have been no large-scale riots or wars among the people.

However: spiritual frequency disturbances have become the norm; nearly half of the children's rhymes contain "gray and fire tones"; "non-spell construction diagrams" in college textbooks have been used without authorization; the Gold Tower no longer updates the "comparison diagram of seals"; the Deep Shadow Tower's listening semantics are ambiguous, seemingly "actively closing off dreams".

The Dark Flame Era, Phase One, has come to an end.

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Third Era

Chapter Seven: The Dark Flame Era: The Storm of Ember Wars

Year 120

The Five Towers completed their first round of structural awakening, and the initial infiltration and oppression began. The Dream Rift Tower detected an anomaly in the "Ring within the Gate" totem, identifying it as the fluctuation of a potential Bloodstained One. Sawyer Elnot activated the "External Hunting Protocol" for the first time, sending the first batch of Blood-Sculpted Prototypes to the Alanil Monastery in the North. The entire monastery vanished, leaving only the blood-written inscription "It wasn't him."

The Ashfire of the Abyss Tower has been released in its second wave. The pollution has covered the borders of the Empire, and Ashfire infantry have appeared in human villages, gradually transforming the cursed villagers into the "Darkfire Army."

Year 130–160

Ashfire spreads, dreams become chaotic, and social structures continue to crumble. The first "Spellcaster Apostles" appear in dwarven passages and elven outposts, causing seven consecutive dream-related collapses. Blackfire infantry infiltrate city sewer systems, structurally corrupting large quantities of spirit stones, salt, and metal workshops. Multiple border regions report "language-chaotic villages," suspected to be caused by the spread of spells leading to semantic collapse.

Year 170–210

The fourfold division of the Beast race, the differentiation of the Black Tower, and the infiltration and stratification have been completed.

Sawyer Elnot, an outsider to the tower, controls the "Blood-Sculpting Tower Bio-Vault," officially dividing the orcs into four functional systems:

I. Blood-Shaped Beastmen: Numbered command receivers, precisely hunting down Bloodmarked Ones, possessing tower-level spirit frequency synchronization capabilities. Only executes high-priority missions.

II. Blackfire Infantry: Humans corrupted by incantation ash, their organization is scattered but highly aggressive. They have gray-spotted skin and their weapons are mostly "Heat-Incantation Bone Hammers" and "Burning Fire Short Blades".

3. Spiritual Apostle: A spiritually corrupted being with the ability to manipulate language and distort dreams. Usually a remnant of former Dream Tower experimental subjects. The most dangerous.

IV. Wild Beasts: A race nurtured by the cursed soil for generations, resembling both beasts and humans, speaking a language of towers, constructing cursed totems, and possessing primitive religious consciousness. They constitute the largest population.

Meanwhile, the Dream Tower received an abnormal dream frequency, suspected to be the initial signal of the "Seven Locks Linkage".

Year 240–260

The conflict among the three ethnic groups has reached a fever pitch, and the infiltration mechanism has become apparent.

The Elven Three Sacred Forest was corrupted by the Corrupted Stone Carvings, and the Guardian Tree spontaneously combusted; the Dwarven Holy Forge's "Ancestral Seal Stele" cracked and developed incantations, causing the spiritual seal to peel off; a fragment of "Tune of Flames, Song No. 4" appeared in the Human Western Regions Eight Schools' Nursery Rhyme Collection, with lyrics containing a reversed incantation core; the Giants split: the Eastern Tower Spirits and the Western Fire Repellers broke out in civil war.

The SEI index of the Tower of Abyss has increased to 11.9.

Year 280

The End of the Ember War Storm: A Sign of Structural Paralysis Looming Over the World.

A "silent week" occurred in all the kingdoms' capitals, with no birdsong, human voices, or the sound of reading for seven consecutive days;

The public disclosure of the numbered structure of the Blood-Sculpted Tower is suspected to be due to the "God-borne Project" being shut down.

The sixth gate of the Tower of Abyss, the "Market Gate," has experienced a visible outbreak, resulting in a surge of cursed ornaments.

Private rituals by "Ashfire Believers" are common in towns, and they often establish their own "Fire Oath Societies."

The global alliance mechanism has completely failed. The structure of trust has crumbled. The Black Tower remains silent, but hordes of beasts gather across the four borders, brewing the next storm.

Editor's Note: This phase never saw a war, yet it brought about a global collapse. There was no smoke of gunpowder, no fallen flags, yet millions died in their sleep. And those who survived, upon waking, no longer trusted those around them. The Black Tower did not rule the world, but it forced the world to submit to the logic of 'having no choice but to act.'

The Dark Flame Era, Phase Two: The Storm of Ember Wars, has come to an end.

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Third Era

Chapter Eight: The Dark Flame Era: The War of the Burning Flag

Year 280

Humanity has tried to unite. They tried three times, and each time it ended in collapse.

The first alliance was formed that winter after the Elf King's disappearance. Before snow had fallen in the north, the Dreamshattering Tower heard the echoes of ancient totems in a dream, which spread to the five kingdoms overnight. The kingdoms were thrown into chaos, hastily convening a meeting. Before the oath was even completed and the pledge stone erected, a nobleman began repeating words he hadn't spoken, and another sorcerer saw the face of his dead son in his eyes. Chaos erupted, and no one spoke of the oath again.

Year 293

The Second Alliance was established in the North Ridge Mine. Representatives from seven nations gathered deep within the earth's veins. The agreement had barely been signed when Blackfire Infantry emerged from the old mine shafts. The banquet hall was reduced to a bloodbath; before the meeting ended, everyone was wiped out.

Year 314

The third alliance was the most cautious. Every detail was kept secret using ancient methods, with high-ranking officials from all five kingdoms personally overseeing the proceedings, resulting in no unusual activity for three days. Then, the altar's flames were lit, and a black feather drifted into the fire, extinguishing it. No one admitted to dropping it; the alliance crumbled on its own in the absence of enemy forces.

Year 380

The Hill of Ash Frost. A desolate frontier with no strategic value. Messengers from various nations meet here; there is no altar, no ceremony, only a line of words carved in stone:

"If you are not willing to die together, you cannot live alone."

The fourth alliance was officially established.

Year 381–419

During this period, the Allied Forces of the Returning Fire Alliance advanced slowly, clearing out Blackfire strongholds and orc lairs across the land. The clearing of West Ridge was completed, the Seven Gorges blockade was secured, all the Spellcaster Apostles were incinerated, and the Blood-Sculpted Construct forces were forced to retreat to the main tower area for the first time. The spread of the Abyss Tower's ashes was suppressed to within a hundred miles.

With the Five Towers project halted, the world briefly experienced a false sense of "superficial victory."

Year 420

The allied forces began to run out of resources.

The dwarven mines were cut off from supplies, the elves were cut off from reinforcements, the army's food supplies were unbalanced, and morale at the front lines collapsed. The Grey Oath Alliance was on the verge of disintegration.

Year 421

A supply ship was caught in a storm and swept by ocean currents into the Old Map area.

There were only twenty wounded soldiers, one retired sailor, two carts of medicine, and a tattered old map on board. In the fog, they saw the dragon.

Two ancient dragons, a male and a female, slumber on Lavaridge Isle, their bodies covered in iron-rock scales, locked in a deep sleep. The Alliance sent sorcerers, priests, and beast tamers to attempt communication, but all attempts failed. The Alliance decided to send troops.

Year 432

Operation "Molten Ridge Breaker" has been officially launched.

The first wave of troops consisted of 4,000 elite soldiers from the "Integration Vanguard," bringing together the strongest combat forces, sorcerers, knights, and strategic commanders from the five nations.

Year 433·Day 1

The mother dragon opened her eyes. She made no sound, only exhaled.

The first wave of heat descended like divine punishment. All three forward camps were wiped out. The shield bearers were reduced to golden statues in three breaths. Over three thousand were killed or wounded within six hours, and there was no further news. The dragon did not pursue, and once again fell into slumber.

Year 434·Day 6

The dwarven army ventured deep into the mountains to lay ley line mines. The male dragon, awakened by the iron smell in the dwarven sweat, swept its tail with a single blow, causing the entire rock wall to collapse and burying the six squads along with the ley lines.

The tactician left a six-word note:

"The mountain's eye cracks, the dragon's tail is lifted."

Year 436

The alliance mobilized all remaining main combat forces.

Thirty-six of the strongest knights and fifty high-ranking mages set up a seven-layered wind array, a nine-cornered soul net, and a four-layered spirit-concealing array on the three peaks of the volcano to launch a plan to lure the enemy.

Year 437 · Dawn of the 17th Day

The Dragon-luring Plan was a success.

The mage simulated the imposing aura of ancient dragons, triggering their instinct to inhabit the land. The male and female dragons took to the skies to vie for territory, an event known as "The Twin Flames Compete for the Nest."

All thirty-six riders charged forward, their soul nets sealing the sky, lightning spells tearing through wings, and falling flames piercing hearts.

The female dragon plunged into the sea of ​​earth, causing the fiery ridge to collapse; the male dragon's skull was pierced, and he fell into the wind wall, dying in mid-air.

Fewer than thirty survived the war.

Year 438

The dragon's remains sank to the heart of the island.

The Alliance cleared the volcanic core and discovered five dragon eggs beneath it.

They are not yet fully formed, but they already pulsate, slumbering with an unknown power.

The death of the dragon is not the end, but the beginning.

Year 440

The alliance entrusted the five dragon eggs to the five strongest tribes for secret incubation.

The world was torn open by blood and bone, a gap bought with blood and bones.

After that era, what they remembered was not which prince led the victory, nor which country won glory, but those who chose to believe in each other even after repeated defeats.

The Dark Flame Era, its final phase, has come to an end with the Burning Flag War.

And from that year onward, a new era slowly began.

The Twilight Tower Fragments, Fourth Era

Chapter Nine: The Dragonfire Era - The Awakening of the Five Dragons

Year 495—The Fire Dragon, Azdaran's Hatching Chronicle

Dragon Name: Azdaran

Translation: To extinguish the shadow of blood.

"That was the first time, in a true sense, that fire raised its head in this world in the form of 'life'."

【incubation】

Year 495, the fifty-fifth year since the official start of the Fourth Era, the Fire Alliance established its largest fire-type hatchery in the Crimson Rock Highlands. That dragon egg was called the "Egg of the Rending Flame."

Its surface was not stone, not a shell, but slowly moving magma patterns, crawling across the surface like solidified hot iron. At four o'clock in the morning on the sixty-third day of incubation, as thunderclouds pressed down and lightning illuminated the red rock altar, the dragon egg cracked. There was no thunder, no roar. Only a line of fire, slicing straight through the center of the eggshell. Fire erupted from within, the eggshell shattered into five pieces, exploding in all directions and sweeping away all the fire elemental magic arrays within the incubation area.

A dragon with flame veins wrapped around its body, its eyes like burning embers, its body covered in charred, armor-like bone scales, and seven molten horns that spread backward on its back like tattered flags of an altar, burning in the wind.

With his first step, the gravity anchor array in the center of the altar collapsed, the walls cracked, the earth's veins resonated, and all spell scrolls became ineffective. Before the three sorcerers could utter a word, they were torn apart by the scorching energy.

The flames did not attack them; it was the heat itself that killed them.

Azdaran did not pounce. He walked to a warlock's burnt-out glove, lowered his head, touched the tip of his nose to the terminology ring, and then gently licked it.

Everyone present fell silent. No one dared to move. No one understood whether it was a tribute, a return of courtesy, or an end to the "controller." That very night, they decided: not to tame it. Because it was not something that could be "controlled."

[Growth Period]

For the next five years, Azdaran walked alone in the deserted pastures.

He wanders along the fire veins every day, traversing molten lakes, fire cliffs, and underground rock layers, tearing apart the earth's crust to forage for food, and devouring fire-containing metals and the remains of beasts with self-generated fire patterns.

No one has ever seen him fly. His bone wings never unfold.

In the sixth year, a Blackfire Infiltrator force raided Firepulse Valley. The Alliance urgently summoned the defenses, but the tactician believed that "the dragons are out of control" and refused to summon them.

It was a wounded soldier who uttered the fire-sparking spell. Three breaths later, the ground spontaneously combusted, a storm swirled around the fire, a wall of fire rose in the valley, and the dragon descended.

Azdaran burst forth from the underground rock, striking the enemy ranks head-on. He transformed into a torrent of blazing flames, and wherever he passed, enemy soldiers who were not burned exploded. Those constructs—the undead soldiers created by the Bloodshaping Tower, immune to fire spells—had their cores torn apart by the scorching flames, and their neural structures dissolved by "Blood-Breaking Energy Condensation." Even if their soul fire remained, they could not reshape their bodies.

After the battle, only black, weathered ashes remained in the valley, and even the military surveyors were unable to collect samples.

This place was henceforth known as: Valley of Embers.

This was also the first time since the Five Towers were established that "the Blood-Sculpted Tower structure actively retreated" was recorded in a battle report.

【Tactical Characteristics】

Azdaran possesses a rare marrow vein system: flames ignite from the heart, burn through the blood to the limbs, and erupt from the spine.

Its flames are not ordinary high temperatures, but rather a "core failure attack" on the regenerating structure, which even the Shieldbone Man, the Fusion, and the Blackfire Construct cannot regenerate;

He cannot roar. When he speaks, all the practitioners in the room are unable to cast spells because the sound waves disrupt the structure of their brains;

He attacks his target only once, never turning back, but that strike is always the final blow.

Naming and Praise

In the Fourth Age, Year 499, he was officially incorporated into the Oath of Fire and granted the unique tactical title: "Blazing Edge - The Unreturner".

Different countries have different names for him: humans call him "Burning King" or "Flame of the End," dwarves call him "Red Fury Bloodclaw," elves avoid his name and only call him by his title "Shadowless," and the orc tribes have a saying: "If he turns around, even the gods will bow down."

Year 498—The Hatching Chronicle of the Phantom Dragon, Sorethal

Dragon Name: Thoreser

Translation: Twilight Dream

There was no fire that day, and no sound of the shell cracking.

"Only one ray of light moved slowly through the tower chamber."

【incubation】

In Year 498, the Illusionary Light Incubation Ground was built on the shore of Floating Mirror Lake in the Secret Forest. The entire tower structure was made of mirror-like runic crystals, with no walls, and only a spell curtain to maintain a stable dream frequency. The dragon egg was named "Void Abyss Crystal Embryo".

It is like a drop of suspended liquid light, without a specific shell. Whenever the sunlight shines into the top of the tower, the dragon egg will refract a sky full of dreamlike shadows. Sometimes it is the shape of a dragon, sometimes a giant bird, sometimes the cry of a baby, and sometimes a lightly floating battle report.

On the morning of the seventy-first day of incubation, the monitoring record remained at "no change".

But when the first ray of dawn pierced through the morning mist and fell on the center of the egg platform, the entire crystal embryo suddenly disappeared.

Silence reigned within the tower, and the incantation remained silent. Only the young sorcerer by the window noticed that his shadow had vanished. He looked up and saw a silver dragon's shadow moving among the carvings on the ceiling, like a reflection in water, shimmering faintly between every ray of light and shadow.

He did not cry out, nor did the dragon roar.

However, after that day, the shores of Floating Mirror Lake often witnessed phenomena such as light rising against the current, folded shadows, and overlapping dreams.

That crystal embryo was never found again.

[Growth Period]

Sorezel does not reside on the ground.

She has no dwelling place, but rather wanders through the borders of various alliance territories, the ruins of spell towers, and human cities in the form of "light and shadow." Only dreamers can sense her "shadow presence."

She neither feeds nor flies, and she is almost never seen in any "measurable field." The only evidence of her existence is the dreams she left behind.

In Year 499, the Deep Shadow Tower's monitoring system experienced its first "full-frequency interference," with sixty-one monitoring arrays identifying thirty-seven "high-intensity Bloodmark Resonators" simultaneously. The Blood Shaping Tower dispatched three hunting teams, but only one survived.

He reported back, "In that city... everyone dreams of themselves holding a sword, standing at the tower gate. And she is always by their side."

Since this incident, the town has been known as "Mirror Dream Town" and has been designated by the Alliance as a permanent forbidden area for Reimu.

Three years later, the Dream Tower deployed a reverse dream array with ten "Curse Apostles" as its core, intending to block its frequency trajectory. However, all the apostles fell into a coma in the second second after the array was activated, and brain scans showed that the "dream suppression layer was locked," the cause of which is unknown.

Someone saw her gently glide out of the mirror reflected in the well outside the tower, her tail feathers slightly upturned, smiling before she spoke, and then she turned into light and disappeared.

【Tactical Characteristics】

Soleserl does not possess physical attack capabilities. Her fighting style combines dream infiltration, multi-frequency disruption, and tactical reverse interference.

She can split into up to 99 independent shadow clones, each of which can project a "pseudo-dream layer structure" to simulate a high-intensity blood-marked dream.

It can penetrate tactical communication arrays using light as a medium, causing the enemy to eavesdrop on incorrect commands.

Wherever it went, the false alarm rate of the monitoring system increased to 92.8%; the failure rate of spellcasting by dream-curse tactical units reached 64.1%; and the tower-level spiritual awareness observation failed 17 times, all of which were archived.

She wasn't cutting off the enemy forces, but rather tearing apart their confidence and judgment.

Naming and Praise

In Year 503, the Alliance Think Tank officially classified her as a "High-Level Tactical Interference - Uncontrollable Force," naming her "Phantom Mirror Dragon - Sorelzel."

Its tactical serial number is: LUX-0

Sorcerers revered her as "The Dream Disruptor," Deepshade terminology called her "The Void Specter," elves called her "The Whisperer of the Forest," and dwarves privately referred to her as "The Silver Goddess," for she had been reflected in the seven races' forges and remained unseen; only the human sorcerers classified her as an "unclassifiable miracle," calling her "The One and Only in Dreams, Thoresel."

Year 498—The Spiritual Dragon, the Hatching Record of Isova

Dragon Name: Isoviah

Translation: Whispers under the starlight / Echoes of the soul

"He hasn't hatched."

"He is manifestation."

[Incubation Record]

In Year 498, the spiritual dragon egg "Star Breath Embryo" was placed in the Silent Tower of Shadowheart Valley. This incubator was stabilized by seventy-two mind resonators and had its walls made of pure silver to minimize interference from external forces.

Late on the ninety-ninth night, the spell array remained unchanged, the temperature control remained the same, and the spell was performed without alteration. This continued until the water mirror inside the tower revealed the phenomenon of "egg shadow transparency." A level-seven incubation supervisor attempted to collect a sample and discovered that the dragon egg's cytoplasm had completely lost its material properties.

A faint beam of light slowly flowed from the center, first like starlight, then like a night spring. Subsequently, the five sensory water veins within the tower simultaneously heated up, and the dream incantation wave recorded a whisper: "I have returned."

The sorcerer's notes record: "He opened his eyes. Not the eyes of new life, but... the eyes of return. As if the stars were remembering the name of the universe."

The dragon egg then became completely transparent and vanished. That night, all the night birds outside the tower fell silent, the wind stopped, and the heartbeat spectrum recorder vibrated nine times in a row.

【Ability Characteristics】

Isova is the only known being to possess the "Spiritual Ripple Domain".

It can emit stable frequency spiritual pulses from the heart meridian, possessing three major functions: "pollution removal", "curse poison dissipation", and "spiritual connection awakening".

During the expansion of its spiritual domain, it does not require spellcasting or a catalyst; it is driven solely by consciousness to purify the residual corrosive phenomena in the battlefield.

Possessing the ability of "spiritual resonance activation" across races, it can enable those corrupted to remember their own identity, emotions, and language structure, thus blocking the path of spiritual conquest by the Taliban.

It possesses natural counter-attributes to the Abyss Tower's products "Blackfire Infantry" and "Dead Mud Pollution Zone";

Typical Case: Year 501, Battle of Palestine

The Blackfire Infantry launched a full-scale attack, and the city was ordered to hold out. Isova entered the city alone, without fighting or flying, simply releasing her spiritual domain on foot. Six hours later, all the Blackfire Infantry were paralyzed, and 73% regained consciousness. The Abyssal Flame Poison was peeled away and evaporated from the body without any magical intervention.

The analysis report behind the tower stated: "He is not a sorcerous unit. He is 'Purification Itself'."

[Tactical Effectiveness]

Isova is classified as a non-offensive support dragon unit/spiritual purification-level creature miracle, codename: CLARIS·01

It has no claw strikes, no dragon flames, and no ability to leap and break formations; its tactical contributions come from final purification, retreat interruption, and consciousness retracing and awakening; its spiritual frequency cannot be copied or imitated, and six tower magic imitation formations have tried to simulate its "purification band," but all of them failed; in the ruined city of Viheran, which was being monitored by the Deep Shadow Tower, Isovia once restored a vanguard team that was about to be "completely towerified" to themselves without contact, and with just a glance, made the enemy lieutenant general put down his weapon.

Records from the sorcerer:

"We do not know whether it is an arrival or a call."

"We only know that we no longer hate."

Naming and Praise

In Year 504, the Allied Forces officially included it in the "Higher Mental Intervention System," referring to it as: "Spiritual Dragon Isovia."

"The Cleanser," "The Echoer," "The Father of the Amnesiacs"

The various races have the following alternative names: the Human Poets: call them "Whispers After the Fire"; the Elven Moonlit Library: call them "Light of the Bowed Old Gods"; the Dwarves: call them "The Silent Ones"; and the Orc Tribes: have their images engraved in bone jars, forbidding them to be named, and call them "Eternal Return".

Year 503—Golden Dragon, the Hatching Record of Carnerus

Dragon Name: Carnruth

Translation: Earth's Hammer / The Silent One

"He didn't come from the fire."

"He is the heartbeat deep within the earth and iron."

[Incubation Record]

In Year 503, the Fire Oath placed the third dragon egg in the "Red Rock Furnace" incubator, under the joint supervision of the Dwarf Workshop and the Leyline Wizard. The egg was initially dark bronze in color, but over time it continuously grew metallic veins into the ground, which the wizards speculated was due to its active absorption of mineral elements.

On the morning of the ninetieth day of incubation, the base of the incubation site collapsed, and the entire ground collapsed as if a mine had been shaken down, swallowing the dragon eggs. Then the earth's crust rose, and a giant dragon shadow rose from the fault line.

Its shape resembles a cast-metal weapon, with its spine covered in alloy-like metal plates and scales, and natural rivet patterns embedded in its joints. It produces no fire, no sound, only a low-frequency vibration that emanates from its heart and spreads outwards.

The equipment present vibrated violently, the magical array went out of balance, and the iron objects floated into the air on their own. The dwarf workshop supervisor noted: "That wasn't incubation. That was... forging."

【Ability Characteristics】

Karnrus is a high-impact, geologically resonant dragon unit with the following characteristics:

The heart pulse emits a "rhythmic vibration frequency" of 5 to 8 times per minute, which is a natural frequency. This frequency coincides with the "boundary value" of the frequency domain tracked by various tower types, which can cause the gold casting tower judgment system to continuously fail.

The vibrations generated by walking can penetrate three underground levels, actively triggering concealment artifacts and cursed lightning traps;

The spine can release "fixed-frequency resonance" to dismantle the runestone defenses in densely structured areas;

The bone wings are not used for flight, but only as shock wave conductors, which can extend the attack range to a fan-shaped area of ​​100 meters.

Possessing extremely high spell resistance and metal assimilation ability, it can "devour" the opponent's armor energy during battle to strengthen its own bone armor;

Classic Battle Example: Year 506 - Battle of Northridge Lockspine Fortress

As the army advanced, before the spell array could be set up, Karnrus charged forward with a single dragon, slamming his forehead against the spell wall, instantly shattering the level 5 stone fortress. The enemy spell wall mage didn't even have time to activate his spirit shield before the entire fortress was destroyed in a single blow.

[Tactical Effectiveness]

Karnrus was designated by the Allied Forces as a "forward-deployed behemoth unit," codenamed TREMOR·01.

It belongs to the "Breaking Through the Barrier" category and is used to destroy high-density defensive spell arrays and static tower bases;

The battlefield is mainly used to suppress the advance of structural clusters and disrupt the Blackfire's advance.

The grounding synchronous connection of the Blood-Sculpted Tower structure was successfully interrupted multiple times, causing its battle formation to collapse.

It is the only dragon unit that retains its tactical deterrent effect even when "stationary";

The tactical liaison officer's record: "He doesn't need to lift a finger. He just stands there, and the enemy has to change course."

Naming and Praise

In Year 507, the Oath of Fire officially bestowed upon him the titles: "Molten Hammer of the Earth - Karnrus", "Walking Siege Hammer", "Shatterer of the World", and "Lord of the War Walls".

The alternative names for each ethnic group are as follows:

The Eastern Ridge Chapter of Humanity: refers to them as "Fortress Crushers".

The Ironforge of the Dwarves: Their name is inscribed at the head of the Nine-Forged Skyridge.

Elven Council: Their names are not recorded; they are simply referred to as "The Silent Ones."

Orc tribes: They are called "Earth-Treading Dragons," and legend says they can "collapse the heavens without roaring."

Year 510—Lin Linglong, Loresia's Hatching Chronicle

Dragon Name: Lorethia

Translation: The one who calls out names / Dream Forest Whisper

She was the last one.

"It's also the lightest one."

"She came not to break anything, but to wake someone up."

[Incubation Record]

In Year 510, the Oath of Returning Fire completed the placement and incubation of the last dragon egg at the "Altar of Twilight Forest".

The egg had a moss-green texture, was the smallest in size, and showed no signs of heat or magical energy, leading the sorcerer to initially conclude that hatching had failed. After a hundred days of no response, it was only when large-scale dream frequency fluctuations appeared at the bottom of the hatchery that it attracted attention.

On the night of the 131st day, without any magical intervention, the dragon egg began to "become transparent" from the bottom. It did not rupture or evaporate, but was quietly emptied like a reflection in water.

Then, a tiny young dragon, its body covered in moss-like scales, silently emerged. There was no cry, no light, no magical pressure. She lay curled up in a corner of the incubation grounds, motionless for three days, without food for five days, and unresponsive to summons for ten.

The warlocks called it the "Airborne Dragon," meaning "dragon-like in appearance but powerless."

[Initial Manifestation of Abilities]

The turning point came in early autumn of Year 511 when a Bloodmarked being at the sixth stage of the Dream Tower was sent to the "Twilight Altar" for refuge.

This person's consciousness has completely detached from the thought structure, the language system has collapsed, and self-harm is severe. The sorcerer judged that he was about to enter the "personality substitution state".

As dusk fell, Loresia approached and, disregarding the protective array, gently touched its forehead. She then emitted a very soft "dragon's roar," not an ordinary sound wave, but a sound stream that resembled the frequency fluctuations of a dream.

The one with the bloodstain suddenly regained consciousness and uttered three words, his real name.

This is the first time in history that a target defined by the warlock as a "personality dead body" in the sixth lock stage has autonomously recalled its original name.

At the time, the Dream Tower observation notes stated: "The consciousness has not been reconstructed by external forces."

He wasn't "rescued".

"It's about 'self' returning to its rightful place."

[Spiritual Characteristics]

Loresia lacks direct offensive capabilities, but her very existence constitutes a unique "Dream Recall Frequency Field," possessing the following anomalous effects:

It can generate a "name echo" area in the dream spell domain, prompting the person whose dream spell has been rewritten to actively recall their original name and identity structure;

Its dragon sound waves are not destructive, but they can break the implantation state of "personality cavity" and remove the "name-covering membrane" of the Tower Planting Curse;

They are skilled at making non-verbal contact with those who are "neither dead nor alive" and are often used in outposts, quarantine areas, and for the care of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

It has no purification effect on "dead constructs" and "black fire infantry", but has a recovery rate of up to 48.3% for "those on the verge of death".

The recall process is without any signs of pressure and is a non-interventional spiritual guidance mechanism. It does not create illusions or replace memories; it simply "hands out a mirror."

Naming and Praise

In the spring of Year 512, the Oath of Returning Fire officially bestowed upon her the name: Loresia the Caller.

The terms of address for each party are as follows:

Human Sentinel Medical Corps: Privately known as "The Whistling Dragon"

Echo Monument in the Elven Forest: Lists its dragon's cry as the fifty-third form of "Sacred Words of the Forest".

The Dwarven School of Sound Casting defines its frequency as "Seventh-Order Low-Regulation, Life-Recognizing Sound".

The orcs are unnamed, only referred to in legends as "the green shadow that can awaken the names of the dead."

[Tactical Classification]

Despite lacking offensive capabilities, Loresia is classified as a V-F1 tactical unit within the Allied Forces, with the unique designation: "Non-combat Unit - Awaken Core".

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Decommissioned structures restoration and investigation

Echo detection of post-operative residual effects after Dream Curse

Frontline fear and stress relief

Identity reconfirmation in the tower suppression area

The most frequently occurring phrase in frontline terminology records:

"We still remember ourselves."

"She's the one I remember."

Thus, all five dragons have emerged from their shells, each possessing its own symbol and domain:

Azdaran: The Last Flame and the Charge

Sorel: Mirror Image in a Dream

Isovia: Purification in Stillness

Karnrus: Earthquake Siege

Loresia: Naming Echo