Chapter 1457: Story 1457: The Tower Hungers

The world shifted again.

Elena tumbled through cold and shadow, lungs crushed by pressure that had no weight, only intent. Then she slammed onto solid ground, her cry muffled by the tower’s interior. The air here was thick and wet, every breath like inhaling a foreign tide.

Mira staggered upright beside her. The walls pulsed around them—not stone, not glass, but translucent membranes streaked with veins of light. Through them, vast silhouettes twisted, humanoid yet broken, their eyes sliding across the walls like trapped fish in a tank.

The chamber had no corners, no ceiling they could see. It was infinite and claustrophobic all at once.

“Where… are we?” Elena whispered, her voice trembling.

Mira scanned the room, her skin crawling as the walls breathed with their words. “Inside. The tower didn’t keep us out—it let us in.”

A low vibration traveled through the floor, rattling their bones. The walls shifted, folding inward, corridors peeling themselves open like wounds. One path stretched ahead, glowing faintly with veins of blue. Another split to the side, darker, twitching as though alive.

Behind them, the wall they’d come through was gone—sealed, as though it had never existed.

Elena’s panic rose. “We can’t go back. It’s closed us in!”

Mira grabbed her wrist, forcing steadiness. “Forward, then. Always forward.”

They stepped into the corridor. Each movement triggered the walls to react—faces pressing closer, lips parting in silent screams, eyes rolling, hands scraping against the membrane as though begging release. Some looked human. Others… not at all.

The path narrowed, and a sound followed them—wet dragging, like something crawling within the walls.

Elena’s breath hitched. “It’s not empty.”

Mira didn’t answer. She could hear it too.

The corridor opened into a chamber with a pit in the center. Inside, black ichor churned like a liquid heart. From it rose a structure—an altar of bone and glass, studded with twitching eyes. The walls leaned closer, pressing them toward it.

Elena recoiled. “It’s feeding us to it.”

The ichor surged upward, forming tendrils that reached toward them, dripping black fire. Mira drew her knife—useless against things like this, but the act grounded her.

One tendril lashed forward. Mira slashed, the blade sparking as if striking metal. The tendril recoiled, then split into two, writhing faster.

The tower laughed. Not with sound, but with vibration—a shuddering pulse through their bones. The faces in the walls grinned, mouths stretching impossibly wide.

Elena screamed as another tendril coiled around her ankle, dragging her toward the pit. Mira grabbed her, yanking with all her strength, their boots skidding on the slick floor. The ichor’s pull was stronger, inexorable.

“Mira—help me!” Elena cried, nails clawing the floor.

With a snarl, Mira dropped her knife and seized a shard of glowing glass torn from the wall. The shard pulsed in her hand, alive. She plunged it into the tendril.

A scream shook the chamber—this time audible, a thousand voices tearing at once. The ichor writhed back, releasing Elena. The shard in Mira’s grip burned blue, brighter, embedding itself into her palm.

Elena gasped. “What did you do?”

Mira stared at her hand, where the shard had fused to flesh. It pulsed with her heartbeat.

“I think…” Mira whispered, her eyes wide with dread, “the tower just marked me.”

Behind them, the sound of the monarch’s triple howl echoed faintly—seeping even here, into this impossible prison.