The first floor of the Ascension Tower looked nothing like the outside world.
The sky above them was an endless swirling loop, as if someone copy-pasted a storm cloud and forgot to add variety. The ground was polished obsidian. And the air vibrated with the hum of digital life.
Aeris raised her hand. "Something's coming."
From the darkness, an oversized wolf made entirely of shifting red code emerged. Its body glitched with every step, as if it was still loading. But its eyes… its eyes locked directly on Riley.
Lyria squeaked. "It's a Follower-Eater!"
"A what now?!" Riley shouted.
Kaela twirled her sword, the blade buzzing with electric light.
"They eat follower counts to grow stronger. If it drains you, you'll drop to zero."
"That's illegal," Riley snapped. "Isn't there some kind of—"
The beast roared, cutting him off.
Then it lunged straight at him.
Riley instinctively raised his hands.
Static crackled.
A shield of glitching pixels burst from his palms, deflecting the wolf sideways. It slammed into a wall, shattering stone.
Aeris gasped. "You manifested a barrier?! But you never—"
"I didn't mean to!"
The wolf reloaded its body (literally—chunks of it blinked back into place) and lunged again.
Kaela charged first, slicing a clean arc through its flank. The blow made the beast flicker violently.
Lyria followed with a burst of pink influence magic.
"Go away, ugly!"
The wolf staggered, confused.
Riley saw his opening.
He stepped forward, hands buzzing with black-blue light.
"Please work…!"
He fired a blast.
Half of it curved sideways.
The other half hit the wolf square in the chest.
The creature convulsed—
Then shattered into pixel dust.
A chime echoed:
FLOOR 1 COMPLETE
RILEY: LEVEL UP!
LEVEL: ??? → ??? (FAILED TO DISPLAY)
FOLLOWERS: +73,000 (Battle Recorded by Lyria)
Riley groaned.
"Lyria… did you just stream that?"
"Maybe."
She winked.