AJ's diminished form quivered—a small puddle of iridescent slime no larger than Lily's cupped hands, his once-vibrant core now flickering like a dying ember.
"He's fading," Lily whispered, kneeling beside the puddle. She reached towards him, then hesitated, afraid her touch might further damage his fragile state.
Her fingertips trembled in the air above his surface. "What do we do?"
Sam knelt opposite her, as his mind raced through possibilities even as his heart constricted with dread. "He probably needs energy."
"Food," Ethan said, already tearing through his pack. "He absorbs stuff, right? That's what he does." His movements were frantic, almost violent, as he pulled out his rations.
He placed bits of meat, nuts, and a few berries beside AJ's form with uncharacteristic gentleness. "Come on, buddy. Eat something."
They watched, breath held collectively, as AJ's surface rippled weakly towards the offerings. A tendril—thinner than a thread—extended towards the food, then collapsed back into the main mass.
"It's not working," Victor said, his voice stripped of its usual sarcasm. He crouched down, reaching into his own pack to extract a carefully wrapped package.
"I've been saving this." He unwrapped a small chunk of crystallised honey, amber and gleaming. "High energy. If anything—"
Walter placed a hand on Victor's shoulder. "Try it."
Victor placed the honey directly against AJ's edge. Again, the slime attempted to absorb it, his surface dimpling around the sweet substance. But like before, he lacked the strength to draw it in.
"The food's just... sitting there," Lily said, her voice cracking. "Like he can't absorb it anymore." She brushed away a tear, leaving a smudge of dirt across her cheek.
"If only we had some of that moss from the forest. He absorbed it so quickly and easily back then."
Sam's eyes widened. "Mana. Yes, that's what he needs, not calories but mana." He looked around the barren chamber, its stone walls offering nothing but cold indifference. "But there's nothing like that here."
"The screen," Ethan suddenly said, rising to his feet. His massive frame cast a shadow over the blue interface.
"Hey! Tower! Spire! Whatever you are!" He slammed his fist against the glowing surface, which rippled. "We want to make a deal!"
The others stared at him, confusion in their eyes.
"What are you doing?" Walter asked.
"The reward," Victor said, understanding dawning. "We might be able to trade it in."
"Right," Ethan growled, addressing the screen again. "You hear me? Keep your token. We don't want it. We want AJ back instead."
The screen remained impassive, its blue glow steady and unresponsive.
Lily scrambled to her feet. "Please," she begged. "He saved us. He broke himself to defeat your monster. Doesn't that count for something?"
Walter stepped forward, his cane tapping against the stone floor. "This tower tests us. Rewards strength and cunning."
His voice was steady despite the tension in his shoulders. "AJ displayed both in abundance. Surely that merits recognition."
For long minutes, they took turns pleading with the screen. Victor argued in terms of value and exchange.
Sam attempted to reason using logic. Ethan threatened. Lily begged. Walter appealed to principles of justice and merit.
The screen remained silent, indifferent to their desperation.
Eventually, they fell quiet, helplessness pressing down upon them. Lily returned to AJ's side, watching his glow flicker ever fainter.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, finally letting her fingers make contact with his surface. His slime felt different—thinner somehow, less substantial. "We tried."
Behind her, the others exchanged glances heavy with unsaid goodbyes. The truth hung in the air between them: after everything they'd survived together, they were about to lose one of their own to this spire's cruel rules.
In the silence, Victor spoke, his voice unusually soft. "He knew the risk." When the others looked at him sharply, he continued, "Not that it makes it right. But he chose to do it. For us." He cleared his throat. "For Lily."
Lily's shoulders shook with suppressed sobs. "I never asked him to—"
"Of course you didn't," Walter said gently.
The blue screen flickered.
So subtle was the change that at first, no one noticed. But then it flickered again.
Sam was the first to notice. "Look."
The screen's surface rippled, like a pond disturbed by a stone. Text appeared, different from the congratulatory message and warning:
Request acknowledged
The air in the chamber seemed to vibrate with sudden energy. The screen pulsed once, twice, then projected a beam of concentrated light directly onto AJ's diminished form.
"What's happening?" Ethan demanded, tensing as if preparing to snatch AJ away from whatever new threat the tower presented.
Samuel squinted at the phenomenon, his researcher's mind cataloguing the details even as hope bloomed cautiously in his chest. "It looks like... a mana transfer."
The beam intensified, its blue light shifting to a green that reminded them of AJ's natural colour. Where it touched his slime, ripples of energy spread outward, like ripples in a pond.
Suddenly, the food offerings they'd placed near him began to sink into his mass.
First the honey, dissolving instantly into his substance, then the dried meat and berries, each disappearing into him as his body seemed to regain its ability to absorb.
"It's working," Lily breathed, her voice caught between laughter and tears.
AJ's form began to expand, slowly at first, then with increasing speed. The cracks that had marred his surface sealed themselves. His glow strengthened, the irregular flicker steadying into a gentle pulse.
The beam from the screen gradually diminished, then disappeared entirely. New text appeared:
Reward exchanged: Floor Skip Token → Life Stabilisation
Congratulations on beating the 9th floor
Proceed to the rest area
The far wall of the chamber dissolved, revealing a passage back to the main area.
"Rest area again," Victor said, an eyebrow raised. "That makes a pattern, four trials with the fifth being a rest stop each time."
On the floor, AJ's form continuously rippled, almost bubbling like boiling water. He grew to roughly half the size of a basket ball before settling.
"AJ?" Lily ventured, her voice tentative. "Can you hear us?"
The slime pulsed once, deliberately. A tendril rose from his mass—weak but controlled—and formed a shape that unmistakably resembled a thumbs-up.
Ethan chuckled lightly. "That's our guy."
Sam scribbled frantically in his notebook. "Fascinating response from the tower. It must have some form of sentience, or at least sophisticated programming capable of value assessment and negotiation. I wonder what parameters—"
"Sam," Walter interrupted gently. "Perhaps the analysis can wait until we've all had some rest." He nodded towards the golden passage. "Five hours, according to the screen. After what we've been through, I think we could use it."
Victor was already on his way out. "I agree with the old man. I feel like I've been trampled by a pack of triceratops." He winced, pressing a hand to his ribs where the nightmare creature had struck him.
Lily carefully scooped AJ into her cupped hands. "Can you manage?" she asked him. "Or should I carry you?"
AJ's form rippled, then extended a small tendril to wrap around her wrist—a silent request.
"Got it," she said, smiling through her tears. "Let's go rest."
They moved towards the open passage, each step heavy with exhaustion. The events of the 9th floor had left more than physical wounds.
It had shattered their sense of invulnerability, forced them to confront the true stakes of their journey. They had nearly lost one of their own, and the reality of that close call weighed on each of them differently.
As they crossed the threshold into the 10th floor, the environment transformed around them. Gone were the cold stone walls and eerie lights.
Instead, they found themselves in a space that reminded everyone of the hot springs they had enjoyed just before ending up in the spire.
Natural rock formations created private alcoves around steaming pools of crystal-clear water. Soft moss grew in patches, emitting a gentle bioluminescence that filled the space with soothing green-blue light.
The air was humid but pleasant, carrying the scent of mineral water and something floral that none of them could quite identify.
"Five hours," Sam repeated, already eyeing one of the pools with undisguised longing. "That's more than the previous one."
"Yea, good thing too, we really need it," Walter observed, lowering himself onto a smooth stone bench with a sigh of relief.
The floor seemed to recognise their injuries—near each pool was a small stone table bearing simple medical supplies: clean cloths, what appeared to be healing salves, even fresh water in stone cups.
Ethan was already unlacing his boots. "I don't care if it's a trap. I'm getting in that water."
Victor snorted. "Careful the water might bite." He glanced at AJ in Lily's hands. "Will the water hurt him?"
Lily looked down at AJ, whose form was gradually becoming more cohesive. "What do you think?"
AJ pulsed twice, then flowed up Lily's arm to perch on her shoulder—his usual spot when they travelled.
She walked over to one of the pools and leaned in closer. A tendril extended, dipping just slightly into the water. His entire form shivered and thickened ever so slightly.
"I think that's a yes," Sam observed, smiling faintly.
For the next several minutes, they moved with the practice of people who had spent months learning each other's rhythms.
They tended to their injuries first—Victor helping Walter wrap bandages, Lily assisting Sam with the gash on his side, Ethan stubbornly insisting he could handle his own wounds.
AJ remained on Lily's shoulder, occasionally extending a tendril to help hold a bandage or pass a salve. Though still diminished, his presence was a comfort none of them would ever take for granted.
Once immediate injuries were addressed, they separated to the various pools, an unspoken agreement to give each other privacy.
The water was perfect—hot enough to soothe aching muscles but not scalding, somehow maintaining its temperature without any visible source of heat.
Lily chose the smallest pool, partially secluded by a formation of rocks. She slipped into the water with a sigh that seemed to release weeks of tension.
AJ flowed down her arm and onto a flat rock at the pool's edge, his form spreading into a thin disc to maximise contact with the stone's warmth.
"That feels good, doesn't it?" she asked softly.
AJ's surface rippled in agreement.
Lily leaned back, letting the water support her weight. "I thought we were going to lose you," she whispered after a long moment. "I couldn't—" Her voice caught. "I don't know what I would have done."
AJ's form gathered itself slightly, pulsing with gentle light.
From the other pools came the sounds of their companions settling in—Ethan's contented groan as he sank into the water.
Sam's quiet muttering as he continued to process their experiences, Victor's silence, and Walter's humming.
In her secluded pool, Lily looked at AJ's slowly recovering form and then up at the cavern ceiling, where crystal formations caught and reflected the bioluminescent light like countless stars.
"We're going to be okay," she told AJ, not entirely sure if she was trying to convince him or herself. "All of us."
Steam curled above the pools in languid spirals, carrying with it the accumulated tension of their trials. One by one, wounds sealed, muscles unknotted, and minds quieted.
AJ felt the transformation most acutely. With each passing minute, his diminished form reclaimed something of its former self.
Not in size but in coherence, continuity of thought, the ability to extend tendrils with precision rather than desperate effort.
"Thank you," he said to Lily, his voice echoed. "For not giving up on me."