Regression of the Tower's Final Survivor-Chapter 26: Floor 8 — The Sunken City

The transition to Floor 8 felt like drowning in reverse.

One moment they were standing on the platform between floors with the gate humming with energy. The next, water surrounded them on all sides, pressing against invisible barriers that kept them dry while an entire ocean tried to crush them into nothing.

[Floor 8: The Sunken City]

[Format: Exploration and combat]

[Objective: Reach the city center]

[Hazards: Aquatic predators, unstable structures, limited air zones]

[Time limit: None]

"Okay," Astrid said slowly while watching a whale-sized shadow drift past maybe fifty meters away, "this is different."

They stood on a walkway of ancient stone that cut through the depths, air somehow preserved in a corridor maybe three meters wide and two meters tall. Through the walls of nothing that separated them from the water, he could see the ruins of a civilization that had been drowned for millennia. Towers reaching toward a surface they would never find, domes that might have held thousands, streets and plazas and monuments to gods nobody remembered anymore.

"The city was already flooded when humans first reached this floor," he said while starting to walk. His boots echoed against stone that had been underwater for longer than humanity had existed. "Nobody knows what happened to the people who built it. The Tower provides air pockets and breathing enhancements, but certain areas are completely submerged."

Ravenna pressed close to him while taking in the alien architecture. Light filtered down from somewhere impossibly far above, painting everything in shades of blue and green that made the drowned towers look otherworldly.

"It’s beautiful, in a sad way."

"Most dead things are."

Astrid had already recovered from her initial shock, her attention focused on the practical concerns of survival. "What kind of predators are we dealing with? That shadow looked big enough to swallow us whole."

"Leviathan-class, they don’t enter the air corridors so we’re safe as long as we stay on the main paths." He paused at an intersection where four walkways converged while consulting memories eight years old. "The smaller predators are more dangerous. Phase eels that can move through solid matter, depth stalkers that hunt from blind spots, and something called a drown spawn that looks human until it gets close enough to grab you."

"Wonderful, just wonderful."

"This way leads to the main climber camp, we can resupply and gather information before pushing deeper."

They moved through the drowned streets in careful formation with him leading, Ravenna in the middle, and Astrid covering the rear. The architecture spoke of a civilization that had been both advanced and utterly alien with its aesthetic nothing like anything Earth had ever produced.

Spiraling towers rose from depths too dark to see their foundations, their surfaces covered in carvings that might have been writing or art or something that served a purpose humans couldn’t understand. Bridges connected buildings at heights that suggested the original inhabitants could fly or swim with equal ease. And everywhere, in the coral that had grown over ancient stone, bioluminescent life pulsed with colors that had no names in any human language.

"I’ve seen a lot of strange things since entering the Tower," Ravenna said softly. "But this might be the most beautiful."

"Enjoy it while you can because the deeper we go the less pretty it gets."

The first hour passed without incident. The air corridors were well-maintained by whatever ancient magic kept them functional, and the paths were clear of debris and obstruction. Other climbers passed them occasionally, heading in various directions with the focused expressions of people who knew where they were going.

Then they encountered their first threat.

The phase eel materialized from the stone wall without warning, its serpentine body flickering between solid and translucent as it lunged for Ravenna’s throat. She screamed with fire bursting from her hands instinctively, but the creature simply phased through the flames and continued its attack.

He was faster.

His blade caught the eel mid-phase, the moment when its body had to become solid to actually attack, and the Champion’s Blade cut through it cleanly. Dark ichor sprayed across the corridor as the creature’s two halves fell twitching to the ground.

[Enemy slain: Phase Eel]

[System points: +50]

"Are you alright?"

Ravenna was shaking with her hand pressed against her throat where the eel’s teeth would have found purchase. "I couldn’t hit it, the fire went right through."

"Phase creatures need to solidify to attack, that’s when they’re vulnerable." He cleaned his blade on the eel’s corpse. "Watch for the shimmer in the air, that’s the transition between states."

"You could have mentioned that before it tried to eat me."

"I was going to, during the dungeon prep session." He met her eyes and saw the fear still lingering there. "You’re okay, you reacted well even if the attack didn’t connect, that’s what matters."

She nodded slowly as her breathing steadied. Astrid had moved to examine the eel’s body, poking at it with one boot.

"Ugly thing, are there more of them?"

"Plenty, they nest in the walls and hunt anything that moves through their territory." He gestured forward. "We should keep moving because where there’s one there are usually more."

They continued more carefully now, all three of them watching the walls for the telltale shimmer that preceded an eel attack. Two more emerged before they reached the camp, and he killed both before either woman could react.

The camp appeared after maybe two hours of walking, a collection of temporary structures built on one of the city’s larger platforms where multiple air corridors converged. Merchants had set up stalls protected by portable wards while healers offered their services for system points, and dozens of climbers milled about resting and organizing for their own pushes toward the center.

"Busy," Ravenna observed.

"Floor 8 is a checkpoint for a lot of teams, good place to rest, resupply, and recruit new members." He scanned the crowd automatically while cataloging faces and threats. His attention snagged on a particular cluster of climbers near the eastern edge of the platform, and his jaw tightened.

’She’s here, of course she’s here, this is exactly when we met in the original timeline.’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"What is it?" Ravenna had noticed his reaction, her emotional sensing picking up on the sudden spike of tension. "You felt anxious just now."

"It’s nothing."

"That’s a lie."

He sighed because she knew him too well already to buy his deflections.

"There’s someone here I need to avoid, someone from my original timeline who..." He searched for words that would explain without explaining too much. "Someone who hurt me badly, a different kind of hurt than Adrian."

Ravenna’s expression shifted with understanding. "The ex-girlfriend, the one who left you."

"Yeah." The word came out heavier than he intended. "Her team camps on this floor, and I knew we’d run into her eventually, but I was hoping we could get through without making contact."

"What do you want us to do?"

"Find a campsite away from the main platform, keep a low profile, get what we need and move toward the dungeon as quickly as possible." He forced himself to look away from the eastern edge of camp. "With luck, she won’t even know I’m here."

Astrid had been listening quietly, her expression unreadable. "And if we don’t have luck?"

"Then I’ll handle it."

They found a spot that satisfied his paranoia after maybe fifteen minutes of searching: a partially enclosed alcove in the ruins of what might have been a shop, with clear sightlines in three directions and only one approach that wasn’t blocked by water. Astrid declared it acceptable while Ravenna started setting up their supplies.

He stood at the edge of their new camp, watching the crowd.

He could see her now, maybe a hundred meters away. Dark hair perfectly arranged despite the humidity, that warm laugh he remembered so clearly carrying across the drowned plaza as she joked with her companions. She looked exactly the same as she had the day they met in the original timeline.

The day he had fallen in love with someone who would eventually leave him shattered.

"You’re staring." Ravenna appeared at his side, her voice gentle. "Is that her?"

"Yeah."

"She’s pretty."

"She’s a lot of things." He forced himself to look away, to meet Ravenna’s mismatched eyes instead. "And none of them are your concern, I’m not going to do anything stupid."

"I wasn’t worried about that." She moved closer, her hand finding his. "I was worried about you, your emotions right now feel like a battlefield."

"That’s not far from the truth."

They stood together in silence, watching the distant figure of Seira Valen move through the camp without any awareness that her future victim was watching from the shadows.

He told himself he would be fine, that the past was the past and this version of Seira had never hurt him, that he had Ravenna now and Astrid and people who actually cared about him for who he was. He told himself a lot of things, and he wasn’t sure he believed any of them.