No fire, no ice. No deep sea adventure, nor a journey among the clouds. Instead, the twenty-second floor takes us to the urban jungle, decayed and ruined by decades of degradation and disuse. The scenery reminds me of post-apocalyptic movies, which might be fitting, considering the world that lies outside the Tower. Tall towers beginning to crumble from the ceiling down, shattered windows all around. Broken glass and rubbled asphalt interspersed by grasses and small bushes reclaiming the land for nature. And, rather than our vivid, yellow-white sun, the sky above is illuminated by an orange star

The wind howls through the skyscrapers, carrying with it a floral scent marred by the acrid stench of oil and metal. At Alexey’s insistence, I take to the air, shooting up above even the tallest skyscrapers, trying to figure out what our objective on this floor might be. And it doesn’t take long to find. About two miles ahead, there’s a massive crater in the center of the colossal once-megalopolis, and within it is a strange sphere that’s radiating incredible energy. If that’s at least an objective to this dungeon, I couldn’t imagine what else it might be.

I dive back down with haste, a nagging feeling taking hold of me. My [Archangel’s Gaze] doesn’t pick up any creatures that are directly eyeing me. But there’s that strange itch in the back of my head, like I was just scanned by some sort of machine or other presence, perhaps the Floor Boss. I dare not ignore it.

“Did you see something?” Alexey asks.

“There’s an impact site about two miles away… And something is watching us.”

Chloe looks around, but Alexey looks straight up. He narrows his gaze. I don’t see anything in the cloudless sky, a shade of muted blue, but he’s insistent. And considering his experience in war, I dare not doubt his wisdom.

He continues, running up to the nearest building, a five-by-one apartment complex with several of the suites little more than dirt and wooden beams barely keeping themselves stable through System sorcery. A single leap from his heavy frame and massive [Strength] sends him up to the top floor with a single bound. And with [Speed] and dexterity unbefitting his bulky form, he grabs hold of a plank, flips himself into a backward somersault with the grace of an Olympic gymnast, and continues peering up at the sky, searching for… some sort of aerial drone? It’s the only thing I can think of.

“We should get moving, and fast,” he says after staring up for about thirty seconds. “And it’d be best if we kept to the ground from here on. The buildings will provide us with cover.”

“Is something wrong?” Chloe asks.

“I trust Seraphina’s words,” Alexey says. “If she thinks we are being watched, I’m assuming she’s right. But there’s no planes or drones that I can see. And I don’t see anything that looks like a camera, either. That leaves one option. Spy satellites. And those usually have weapons attached.”

I shiver. If that’s the case, then…

“I’ve heard of the concept of orbital bombardment before,” I say. “Rods from God, as it’s sometimes called. Do you think a satellite would be capable of creating that crater?”

Alexey shakes his head. “I’ve never heard of the technology actually existing. As for whether it’s possible, I don’t know. But, you girls can fly and materialize objects out of thin air. Best to assume everything is possible now.”

The three of us move at a measured pace. We could all move faster, but Alexey wants to take it slow. I fear the Tower Warden creeping up on us, but he insists we be cautious. Possibly his training showing itself. I choose not to make a big argument about it. And after a bit of mental discussion with Chloe in the span of five seconds, she concurs for the sake of maintaining the harmony between us.

As we get closer to the meteor, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. A tiny glint on the edge of my [Archangel’s Gaze], something glittering. Possible treasure, or possibly a trap. And even as I peer at it, I can’t tell which.

“A trap, no?” Alexey says. “Too obvious.”

“Just because it’s a trap doesn’t mean the bait isn’t valuable,” I answer. I take a few cautious steps toward the building, my [Mechanical Arm Cannon] raised, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

Chloe laughs. “That’s how she is, Alexey. Her favorite line is ‘not taking a risk is itself taking a risk.”

I blush and demur slightly, backstepping a bit. “She’s right, as usual. But we should all be in agreement before we decide on anything.”

Alexey looks around, staring up, then closing his eyes, his right ear toward the sky. I don’t know what he hears, but the second he opens them, he shouts ‘Run!’ at the top of his lungs. Neither Chloe nor I bother to ask questions. There is no hesitation. Only the sound of our footsteps, sprinting at the speed of a highway car, breaks the otherwise total silence.

And then it happens. A glint out of the corner of my eye, from high, high above. Then a yellow glow, intensifying, eventually outshining the star above. We rush into the nearest building. Chloe runs up against the wall, casting [Saintess’s Cloister] upon the both of us. Alexey lets out a war cry, and I cast a barrier of [Wind] and [Repulsion] to protect us.

In a flash, the building just down the road is annihilated. The sound is deafening. If not for the stilled air around us, there’s a good chance all three of our bodies would have been shredded from the pressure wave alone. As it stands, vibrations still resonate through my body, causing me dizziness and disorientation and dealing considerable damage which is swiftly absorbed through Chloe’s magic upon me. The shrapnel is far less than I would have expected, so much of what might have flown toward us simply no longer existing in any solid state.

Seconds pass in a somehow even more eerie silence. By the grace of the goddesses, the building we were in somehow remains intact, if only barely. I’m forced to retract the previous statement a moment later; the whole structure is wobbling, in imminent danger of collapse.

The three of us rush to the nearest egress, dodging bits of falling ceiling as we do. With a burst of [Impulse] at the last moment, I grab Chloe, diving past the outer threshold with less than half a second before the hundred-foot-tall building implodes. This time, plenty of dust and debris follows in the destruction’s wake, all of which I blow away with a simple [Wind] spell.

Where once a skyscraper stood, now only empty space remains. All of the work that went into it. All the memories, good and ill, the records of the achievements, all denied, scoured without a trace. Only another crater, this one the size of a professional baseball field, remains where once steel and concrete towered above.

None of us says a word. With a silent nod, we continue on. Through the desolation, we march. No enemies. No monsters. No more loot. Just emptiness, all the way until we make it to the crater.

“You said there would be stairs leading up?” Alexey asks. “But I see none here.”

“Not until we’ve cleared whatever challenge awaits us,” I say. “Usually it’s a fight with a powerful monster. Sometimes it’s a puzzle or there’s some switches we have to pull or… something. But it’s rarely spelled out exactly what we have to do. All I can say is that it’s too quiet. And that scares me.”

“This whole place is unnatural,” Alexey says.

“It feels off,” Chloe says. “The aura of this place is wrong. The entire cityscape… It feels like a giant morgue.”

“Undead?” I ask.

Chloe shudders. “I don’t know. But… It's possible. I don’t want to jinx things by saying any more than that.”

I make my way down to the center of the crater, alone. Chloe wants to come along, but I stop her. With the effects of Alexey’s [Rally Cry] and Chloe’s [Saintess’s Cloister] and [Saintess’s Blessing] both doubled by [Angelic Bond], I’m by far the most durable of the three of us. I’m protected against over 10,000 points of damage now, and defensive parameters are likely higher than even Alexey’s now after factoring in the armor I’ve made for myself. In the likely scenario where this smooth, metallic sphere is a trap, I have the best chance of extricating myself from the situation without injuries beyond Chloe’s ability to heal.

Sensing no danger beyond the baseline in this wasteland, I place my hand on the sphere. It’s cool to the touch, perfectly smooth, but somehow… a little soft. Rather than being rigid like nearly all metals and alloys, this structure has a bit of give to it. It’s like metal and rubber had a child. I’m able to push my hand into the sphere, creating a handprint that eventually smooths over to again reveal a pristine surface.

How bizarre. If such a substance could be harvested or synthesized and then used as a crafting material, it would greatly expand the frontier of Ethertech. It’s self-repairing, and far beyond the minor durability enhancements that enchanting glyphs gives mundane materials, a fact I learn after attempting to cut it with a simple [Sharpness]-enchanted dagger. I’m able to slice through the sphere without difficulty. But it stitches itself back together nearly as quickly, showing no wear after only a few seconds. I’m able to tear off only a golf-ball sized piece of the strange substance and secret it away in my [Inventory] before the rest repairs itself.

Unfortunately, I see no glyphs anywhere on the structure, nor embedded into the substance itself. This leaves two possibilities. First, that this is some alloy unknown to science with fantastical properties. I consider this the less likely scenario. More likely, and far more interesting, is the possibility that some aspect of the molecular lattice structure of this material naturally shapes into some sort of [Flexibility] and [Repair] glyph sequence. If so, this is absolutely groundbreaking, though immensely daunting to try to grapple with.

In short, it means that, with sufficient knowledge in chemical engineering, it might be possible to construct new substances with strange and wondrous attributes, covering anything that glyphs can do, which might well be anything that can be conceived in the language of magic. Just a matter of working out the right compounds through a lot of computer analysis, Skill-assisted intuition, and a lot of trial, error, and money.

What a fool I am! I thought before that I had delved into the forefront of glyph research. I thought that all there was to know, I was on the right track to one day uncovering. But now… chemical engineering, processor design, even bioengineering glyphs into the structures of one’s proteins and DNA. All of this and much, much more. So many mysteries about this field are still waiting to be discovered.

Madison and the researchers of Dr. Chotono’s labs must have known all of this. Hell, they must have known far more than even this. That’s the only way they could have created me. But then… Why didn’t they tell me? Could they not have told me? Or is the System blocking my memories still, only reawakening them a little at a time as I grow in levels and both Experience and experience?

I try to remember more about who I was, who I am, what I am, and what happened in that world? I focus on my mind, which starts spinning as more and more ideas and information from the outside flood into me. My vision blurs, and then goes white. Sensations of the outside world fade away. Time moves slowly. Wait… Time. What is time? Does time exist?

Why can’t I remember? Why can I only remember tiny snippets of my life? What was so horrible about everything that came after? Did… No, it wasn’t the System. I wished for this. I don’t know how or why or when, but it was my decision to remove my memories. I don’t know why… But there must’ve been a reason why I took such a step.

“You know the reason why,” a voice says. Except, I know the voice. It’s my own.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Surely you know the answer to that. Or do you not recognize the voice you hear the most?”

“You sound like me.”

The sea of white coalesces into my double, a perfect replica, right down to the scuffs on my mechanical arm and the split ends in my hair. “Of course I’m you. Who else would be here in our mind?”

“We’re in my mind?”

“Our mind,” my double corrects. “Was that not what I said?”

“Are you the me from the old universe?”

“I’m you. And she is you. She’s me as well. All of us are one.”

“Then the reason I can’t remember everything that happened is because?”

“Have you ever wanted to forget? Felt pain so bad that the only way you could move past it is to block it out of your mind completely? To trick yourself into thinking that what happened, didn’t, all so you could take one more step?”

“I– I haven’t… But if something happened to Chloe, then…”

My double nods.

Even though my conscious mind doesn’t remember, I know this is true. The reason why I don’t have my memories is because I don’t want to know. The part of me that remembers is waiting for me. Waiting until I’m ready to know everything about who I once was and what transpired in that forgotten universe so long ago.

“Then I have to protect her…”

I hear a voice. She’s calling for me. Telling me that it’s time to wake up. Time to go back and see her again.

----------------------------------------

“Sera?” Chloe asks, leaning over my body, lying in a building just outside of the crater. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” We’re still here in the dungeon. I can’t see Alexey with my eyes, but I can sense his presence a short distance away. He’s scuffed up a bit, but not hurt too badly… I guess I must’ve passed out at some point and missed the fight.

“Oh, thank heavens!” Chloe leans down and hugs me. “I was so worried about you! You… reckless!” She moves to slap my face, but stops herself at the last second, caressing my cheek instead.

“I’m sorry to have worried you, Chloe. I– Something happened when I was investigating the meteor, and next thing I know, here I am, waking up from having whited out. How long was I out?”

“About twenty minutes. Thankfully, the fight for the floor wasn’t too perilous. A [Scorpiobot], Level 52. Alexey got hurt taking it down, but thankfully, I was able to heal him completely.”

“I’ll have to thank him for that once we get settled. And, I’m sorry. I didn’t think something like that could have happened.”

Chloe helps me to my feet. My right leg is a bit numb, the feeling of it having ‘fallen asleep’ from sleeping or sitting on it for too long.

Ahead, there’s a staircase leading up into the heavens a few hundred feet away. Alexey is standing next to it. No signs of another orbital attack. Was that a one off, or did we get lucky while I was out? I decide not to question our good fortune too much.

“I guess I have no choice but to forgive you,” Chloe says with a wide grin. “But we should get a move on.”

And so we do. The twenty-third floor awaits.