CHAPTER 185: CHAOS

In front of the Tower of Death, Ethan stood, motionless.

The winds stirred around him, weak and irrelevant. The world felt quiet, subdued—as if it too recognized what had changed within him. Once, this place had filled him with fear, hope, ambition. Once, he’d walked up those steps with defiance burning in his chest.

Now?

He felt nothing.

No guilt, no excitement, no anticipation. The tower that had once loomed above him as an enigma, a structure full of unknowable challenges, was now... a relic of a journey long since completed.

All that was left was to end it.

The scent of blood still lingered faintly in his senses—from Seraphina, from Magnus, from countless others he had killed not out of necessity but for evolution. He didn’t need to pretend. There was no justification, no grand purpose beyond power to return home.

And he had made peace with that.

The Ethan that once hesitated, that once argued within himself whether the price was too steep, was gone. Long gone. Killed somewhere on a snow-covered mountaintop, buried under months of wandering and fruitless battles.

Before him, his system interface flashed open, its familiar glow casting light onto his still face.

[You have acquired enough Talents to trigger a major breakthrough.]

[Eligible Merge: Supernatural Strength (S-) + Sonic (S-) + Mental Enhancement (A) + Titanium Skin (S-) + Archery (S-) + Elemental Manipulation (S) + Yin-Yang (S+) + Force Control (S) + Undead (S-) + Regeneration (A)]

[Merge All Talents - CHAOS (EX)]

He stared at the words for several seconds, as though truly reading them for the first time.

And then... a smile broke out on his face.

A real smile. Not cold or mocking, it was a simple smile.

Peace.

It had been nearly two years since he had smiled like that.

His hand moved, almost lazily, and confirmed the prompt.

[Talent Merge Initiated.]

The sky darkened. The air twisted.

From the very fabric of reality, light emerged—not golden, not silver, but something beyond color. Chaotic energy pulsed around Ethan’s body, writhing with invisible tendrils, pulling at every aspect of his existence. And yet, he stood unbothered.

People watched.

They came from behind rocks, behind trees, distant cities, even the tower itself—those brave enough to linger nearby. They watched the man who had become a myth step forward into the impossible.

Watched as he became something else entirely.

[Talent: Chaos (EX)]

[You have gained the Origin Talent: CHAOS. You may now manipulate all elements, all forces of the physical and magical universe. Space, time, gravity, entropy, essence, light, shadow, matter, soul—none are beyond your grasp. Your presence is considered a conceptual threat by the Tower. You have transcended the Saint Path. You are no longer bound by the hierarchy of power.]

The light around him faded. The silence returned.

But the world was different now.

Ethan didn’t check his stats. He didn’t need to. He could feel it. Chaos pulsed in his breath, in his heartbeat, in every single step. If he willed it, he could pull stars from the sky. If he reached out, he could tear through dimensions. But he didn’t care for grandeur.

He simply turned and walked into the tower.

No hesitation.

He had returned to the place that had made him—shaped him, broken him, then reforged him into something new.

Inside, the tower welcomed him not with words, but a rumble of distant thunder. The sky above darkened as if even the structure was preparing for what came next.

And then, as before, the final trial appeared.

The Behemoth stood before him.

A colossus of obsidian flesh, its body laced with pulsing veins of violet light. It breathed in whole clouds, exhaled storms of destruction. Its presence had once made Ethan shiver—its sheer pressure enough to force even Peak-Saints to their knees.

But now?

Now it looked... small.

It was still monstrous, its eyes still glowed with menace, but Ethan didn’t feel anything. Not awe. Not fear. Not anticipation.

The behemoth’s red eyes locked onto him, sensing the change. Where once it had looked down on him as prey, now it tilted its head—not in curiosity, but in fear.

Ethan stepped forward.

The aura of the Behemoth surged, and space distorted. Dozens of spatial cracks opened up around it. The air twisted as time itself lagged and jumped. It was the final boss of the Tower of Death, after all. It wouldn’t go down without resisting.

But Ethan didn’t raise a weapon.

He simply pointed a single finger at the creature.

"Stop."

The Behemoth froze. Mid-motion. Mid-growl.

Time around it shattered like glass. Its body spasmed as gravity surged and then vanished. Fire and water elements within its body imploded into chaos.

Ethan closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again, the Behemoth had collapsed. Dead.

Not exploded. Not shattered.

Dead. Silently. As if its existence had simply been canceled by the presence of something greater.

He stepped past its body, his boots clicking lightly on the smooth stone as the tower began to tremble—not in fury, but surrender.

[Congratulations.]

[You have defeated the final guardian.]

[The Tower recognises your transcendence.]

[Would you like to leave this world?]

Ethan stared at the words.

He had come this far. Killed. Bled. Watched the world shift around him.

And now, at the precipice of everything, his moment of so-called reward—

"No."

The tower offered him a path out.

But he no longer needed permission.

He had surpassed the bounds of this world. The tower’s promise was no longer meaningful. His own strength had long outgrown anything it could give or take.

With a thought, space buckled around him. Time folded like silk and tore away from its seam.

And just like that, Ethan appeared outside the tower.

The world stirred as he did.

His name etched itself across the surface of the tower in radiant flame.

ETHAN BRANDON – FLOOR 30 CLEARED

There was no fanfare. No thunder.

Just silence.

People gathered from the corners of the realm. Rumors turned to certainty. The tower hadn’t just been challenged—it had been cleared. Conquered. Completed.

They didn’t know it was the final floor.

Not yet.

But they would.