My Charity System made me too OP-Chapter 417: Null Void VI

The door opened not into a battlefield.

Not into a city.

Not into ruins.

It opened into a valley—wide, green, peaceful. Wind drifted through tall grass, and a silver river cut through the center, winding past stone markers and quiet shrines. Birds sang. The air smelled like spring.

For the first time in hundreds of floors—

There was no threat.

Only quiet.

Too quiet.

Leon stepped through first, his hand ready near his blade—not drawn, but prepared. His team followed, forming a loose formation around him. They felt it too.

This was not real peace.

This was the calm held together by force of will.

They walked for several minutes in silence before they saw them.

Seven figures.

Seated in a semicircle atop a ridge above the valley.

Each one wore different garb. One cloaked in wind-silk robes. Another in battle-worn armor. One in a cloak of black ash. One wore a healer’s coat. Another, a blindfold. All of them bore the mark of a former King—once Crowned, now unbound.

They rose together as Leon approached.

A woman stepped forward first—tall, white hair braided down her back, her eyes sharp with age and patience.

"You are the one who passed the Architect’s Test," she said.

Leon nodded. "I am."

Another voice came, this time from a younger man, his voice bitter. "Then you’re also the one dragging the Tower into motion again."

Leon met his gaze without flinching. "I’m not dragging it. I’m climbing it."

The woman raised a hand, calming the group. "Do you know where you stand?"

"I do."

She gestured to the ridge beneath them.

"This is the Crownless Floor. Every one of us bore the Crown. Every one of us stepped away. Not because we were weak. But because we learned the cost."

Leon frowned. "You mean failure."

She didn’t blink. "No. I mean understanding."

The younger man stepped forward. "You’ve reached high. I respect that. But we did too. We killed for the Tower. And then we realized what it demanded of us."

Roselia stepped beside Leon, eyes narrowed. "So you just quit?"

"No," the older woman said. "We chose."

The blindfolded man spoke for the first time. "The Tower doesn’t want a King. It wants a vessel. The deeper you climb, the more you stop being you."

Leon took a step forward. "And you think I’ll lose myself."

"We know you will."

Leon was quiet for a moment.

Then he said, "Maybe you’re right. But if you stopped here—if you chose to live on this floor instead of continuing—then the Tower already won."

The young man scoffed. "You think continuing is victory?"

Leon looked at him, calm and steady.

"No. I think standing still is surrender."

The valley fell silent again.

Then the older woman said quietly, "There is a trial. A final one. We don’t offer it lightly. But you’ve come this far."

Leon nodded. "I’ll take it."

She turned.

"Then step into the Circle of Kings."

The trial space formed around him—seven thrones of memory, surrounding a ring of light.

Each Crownless King created an echo of the self they had been—at their peak. A storm-caller. A destruction blade. A chrono-savant. A soulweaver. Each one radiated overwhelming power.

Kael whispered outside the circle, "He has to fight all of them?"

Varessa crossed her arms. "No. He has to survive them."

Aris muttered, "Somehow that sounds worse."

Inside the ring, the first challenger stepped forward—a woman with sky-element mastery so complete that every step left clouds in her wake.

She bowed.

"Let’s see if you’re worth the climb."

The Trial of the Crownless – Begins

Leon didn’t draw his sword.

He closed his eyes.

And for the first time—

He let all six elements flow freely.

No control.

No restraint.

The floor glowed beneath him as water, fire, wind, earth, lightning, and void resonated in harmony. Not as weapons. As parts of one being.

The woman blinked in surprise.

Leon opened his eyes—and moved.

The duel was quick.

Precise.

No wasted motion. No overkill.

Every strike from her was dodged barely, every spell countered by redirection, not destruction. Every time she accelerated the wind, he rooted himself in stone. When she cracked the sky, he split the air with lightning.

He didn’t overpower her.

He matched her.

And at the end—

She smiled.

And stepped back.

"Next," she said.

One by one, they came.

The Soulweaver’s illusions. The Temporal King’s rewinds. The Fire Queen’s melting aura. The Ice Monarch’s time-locked domain.

And still—

Leon stood.

Weakened. Burned. Exhausted.

But whole.

By the end, only the older woman remained.

She stepped into the circle.

"You didn’t win. You endured."

Leon nodded, breathing hard. "That’s the Tower, isn’t it?"

She gave a faint smile.

Then raised her hand.

A small orb of light floated from her palm and hovered in front of him.

[Crown Fragment Acquired: Legacy of the Crownless]

• Passive: King’s Tempered Path – Endurance no longer drains mental stamina

• Skill: Crownless Mirage – Create an echo of yourself immune to one source of elemental damage per floor.

The woman bowed her head.

"You have earned our legacy. But the next floors... will not be so kind."

Leon looked toward the sky as it shimmered—revealing the next gate.

"Good," he said.

And stepped forward.

As the gateway shimmered open, the team stepped through together.

But this time—

They emerged separately.

Leon blinked. The ground beneath him was soft, dry... brittle. Dust.

Nothing but dust.

An endless plain of cracked white powder stretched in all directions. No sky. No walls. No scent. Even his footsteps didn’t echo.

He reached for his comm crystal. No signal. No voice.

No sound.

Leon looked down—and realized he wasn’t wearing his armor.

His blade was missing.

His spirit rings—dim.

His elemental resonance—gone.

Not sealed.

Forgotten.

Where am I?

That thought floated in his mind for a moment, and then—

It, too, began to fade.

Panic tickled the edge of his thoughts, but even that felt... distant.

He knelt, pressed his palm to the dust, and focused.

Nothing.

No feedback. No mana.

Not even Void.

Leon breathed slowly. Think.

But his name—even that—began to slip.

He stood quickly. "I... I’m..."

Silence.

No answer.

The Tower wasn’t challenging his body here.

It was erasing his identity.

Meanwhile—Elsewhere on the Floor

Aris sat under a bone-dry tree that didn’t cast a shadow.

She blinked.

Where... was she?

Why was she holding a blade?

Kael wandered through the dust barefoot, eyes wide, muttering numbers that no longer meant anything.

Roselia stood still, her hands trembling, staring at her reflection in a cracked mirror that showed no one.

All of them were forgetting.

But Leon—he had something else.

A Crown.

Even if he didn’t remember it now... the Tower did.

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