The Spire wasn't a building. It was a clock.
Kael and Elric stood on a disk of floating obsidian, ascending through the central shaft. Around them, the walls rotated. Gears the size of houses clicked and whirred in perfect, terrifying rhythm.
*Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.*
"The engineering..." Elric whispered, staring at a piston that pumped shimmering blue fluid. "This predates the Kingdom. Predates the First War. Who built this?"
"We didn't build it," Kael said, looking at the symbols etched into the metal. "We just found it. And learned how to feed it."
They passed Level 10. The walls here were lined with glass pods. Thousands of them.
Kael walked to the edge of the platform.
The pods were empty. Just piles of grey dust at the bottom of each one.
"The Fuel Cells," Kael realized. "This is where the 'Ascended' go."
"There are so many," Elric said, his voice trembling. "Generations of Knights. My father... he might be in one of these."
"They aren't dead," Kael said, touching the glass. he could feel the resonance. "Their bodies are gone. But their ether... it's still in the system. Trapped in the circuit."
He looked up. The shaft stretched up for miles, disappearing into the clouds.
"We have to let them out," Kael said.
The platform accelerated. They passed Level 20. Level 30.
The air grew colder. The ticking grew louder.
At Level 50, the platform stopped.
"Why are we stopping?" Elric asked. "We aren't at the top."
"Obstruction detected," a mechanical voice announced from the walls.
The doors to the Level 50 landing opened.
Someone was waiting for them.
A figure wrapped in charred bandages. Pieces of black armor fused to melted skin. He leaned on a staff made of twisted void-iron.
"Hello, Heretic," the figure rasped.
Kael stepped off the platform.
"Malakor."