The third man died with his hand on the ladder.
Jaehyuk drove the knife up under his ribs, twisted once, and kicked him off the iron rungs before the body could scream. It hit the wet stone below with a heavy slap.
"Third," Mira said.
"Fourth," Somin corrected from behind her, voice tight. "I'm counting the one by the door."
Jaehyuk wiped his blade on the dead man's coat. "Count faster."
The chamber stank of rust, damp wool, and blood that had gone warm against the floor. Water dripped somewhere in the dark, each drop sharp on the ear.
Above them, the Tower core hummed like a distant machine with a fever.
Five bodies lay in the room now. Six if you counted the one under the overturned supply crate.
None of them had made it to the alarm bell.
Mira glanced at the cracked stone arch ahead. "That the last wave?"
"For this corridor," Jaehyuk said.
Somin crouched by the nearest corpse and checked the satchel at his belt. Her fingers came away red. "You could warn me before you throw people off ladders."
"You'd slow down."
"I would not."
"You would."
She stared at him, then snatched a shard pouch off the dead man and shoved it into her own bag. "Fine. I'm stealing from the dead to prove a point."
"Good point," Mira said.
Somin made a face. "You too?"
Mira sheathed her sword with a click. "He's right."
"That's never comforting coming from you."
Jaehyuk turned toward the next gate. Floor 32's route was a narrow supply maze that funneled climbers into three choke points and a false exit. In his first life, this floor had taken three hours.
This time, twenty-one minutes.
The Tower had changed the pressure points, but not the shape of the trap.
That was enough.
He listened for footsteps beyond the gate. Nothing. Then the thin scrape of cloth on stone.
"Two more," he said.
Mira moved without question. "Left or right?"
"Left. The right team's trying to flank through the cistern."
"How do you know?"
Jaehyuk looked at the water pooling in the floor groove. Fresh ripples. The smell was stronger there too, metallic and cold.
"Because they want the dry route," he said. "Dry route means boots. Boots mean noise. They're trying not to make any."
Mira followed his gaze and gave a single nod. "Annoying."
"A little," he said.
Somin rose, tugging her sleeve back over her bloodied wrist. "I hate that this is getting normal."
"It's not normal," Jaehyuk said. "It's efficient."
She gave him a flat look. "That's worse."
They pushed through the gate together.
The next room was wider, a broken storage hall with shelves bent inward like ribs. Crates were split open across the floor, spilling salted meat, torch oil, and old rope. The air was thick with the smell of preservatives gone sour.
Three climbers waited behind the shelving.
One lunged at Mira.
She met him halfway and cut him down from collarbone to hip before the man could finish his shout.
The second threw a spear toward Somin.
Jaehyuk stepped into its line, caught the shaft with his forearm guard, and drove forward. The impact numbed his arm to the elbow. He grabbed the thrower by the throat and shoved him into a shelf. Wood cracked. The man slid down screaming.
The third ran.
"No," Somin said, almost offended.
A pulse of blue light flared from her palm and hit the man in the calf. His leg locked. He crashed face-first into the floor.
She blinked at her own hand. "That was new."
Mira kicked the spear away and finished the one on the ground with a clean stab through the neck. "About time."
Somin stared at her palm like it had betrayed her by being useful. "Did I just stun someone?"
"You did," Jaehyuk said.
"With healing?"
"With something adjacent."
She looked horrified. "That's not a real explanation."
"It's the one you've got."
She dragged in a breath through her nose, then glared at the room. "Fine. I'm calling it combat support. That sounds better than accidentally hurting people."
Mira snorted once.
That was almost a laugh from her.
Jaehyuk glanced at her, then back to the hall. The shelf line at the far wall had a gap in it. He stepped over the bodies and pulled the wooden slats aside.
A hidden passage.
Somin came up beside him. "You knew that was there."
"Yes."
"And you didn't mention it until after the stabbing."
"You're adapting."
She squinted. "That sounded like praise."
"Don't get used to it."
They went through the passage.
Floor 33 was worse.
Not harder. Worse.
The trial room was a narrow kiln chamber lined with heated stone. The air hit them like a wet towel over the face. Sweat slicked instantly on Jaehyuk's neck. Metal fittings along the walls radiated a dry, bite-hot smell that sat at the back of the throat.
Mira swore under her breath. "I hate this floor."
"You said that last floor."
"I hate every floor until it stops trying to kill me."
A narrow groove ran along the chamber's center. Hot sand spilled through it in a steady hiss, hiding pressure plates under the heat shimmer.
Jaehyuk stopped before the first line of tiles. "Nobody step on the second and fourth rows."
Somin frowned. "Why those ones?"
He dropped a pebble.
The first row held. The second sank a finger's width and a dart shot out of the wall, striking the opposite shelf.
Mira gave him a look. "That's annoying."
"That's why it works."
Somin folded her arms. "You just knew that?"
"I remembered the original trap layout."
"Original?"
Jaehyuk stepped around the tile and kept moving. "It changed after the first month."
She swallowed whatever question she wanted to ask.
Good. Questions cost time. Time cost lives.
They crossed in a line, slow and precise, following his foot placement. The chamber smelled of heated dust and iron filings. Each breath scraped dry in the nose.
Halfway through, a tile clicked under Mira's heel.
She froze.
Jaehyuk said, "Don't move."
Her voice was almost cheerful in spite of the situation. "That sounded bad."
"It is bad."
Somin's hand lifted. Blue light bloomed between her fingers. "Can I help?"
"Not yet."
Mira kept her weight centered. "What's the play?"
Jaehyuk crouched and looked at the seam around her boot. The tile had dropped less than a millimeter. Enough to trigger the floor lattice if she shifted wrong. He could hear the faint ticking underneath the stone, like a clock with a bad temper.
"Take your left heel off slowly," he said. "Then shift to the right. Don't trust the tile. Trust me."
Mira's mouth twitched.
"That's a terrible sentence."
"Move."
She did.
The trigger released with a dry snap and a spear punched through the air where her shin had been. It impaled the far wall with a shriek of metal.
Somin slapped a hand over her mouth. "That was close."
"That's what close is," Jaehyuk said.
Mira stared at the spear in the wall, then at him. "You really did remember all this."
"Not all of it."
That was the honest answer.
The room hadn't stayed still across timelines. The Tower's adjustments were bleeding into his memory, sanding edges off the old map until some of it felt borrowed.
He hated that part.
They made it across the chamber by inches.
On the far side, the exit gate had been sealed by a slab of stone etched with the Tower seal. Somin pressed a hand to it and grimaced.
"Warm," she said. "Too warm."
"There's a live core behind it," Jaehyuk said.
Mira stepped back. "Can you open it?"
"Yes."
"Can you do it fast?"
He looked at the grooves around the seal. The relief carving was shallow, fresh enough to matter, old enough to be deliberate. A pressure release ring sat in the lower left corner.
"Stand back."
Mira and Somin moved.
Jaehyuk jammed his knife into the ring and levered hard. Stone groaned. The seal shifted with a grinding sound that shivered through his teeth. Hot air vented from the seam, carrying a smell of ash and wet plaster.
Then the slab rolled aside.
A stairwell dropped down into darkness.
Somin looked at the opening. "That's not a normal exit."
"No," Jaehyuk said.
Mira glanced at him. "You sound pleased."
He wasn't. But he was tired of floors pretending to be one thing when they were another.
"It's faster," he said.
Floor 34 was a map room.
Not a reward room. Not a boss chamber.
A map room.
The walls were lined with slate boards covered in chalk routes, arrows, and names written in four hands. Most of the markings had been scraped away. Fresh symbols sat on top of old ones like the floor had been revised by committees.
Somin ran a finger along one board, then pulled it back. Chalk dust stained her skin. "This is real?"
"Very real."
Her voice dropped. "Why is there a map room on a combat floor?"
Jaehyuk stared at the wall closest to him. The route lines there had been updated three times. One section had been marked with a black circle and the word CONTESTED.
Under it, in smaller writing, were six numbers.
He knew the pattern immediately.
Deployment nodes.
Guild staging points.
Vanguard.
His throat went dry.
Mira noticed the change in his face. "What?"
"This wasn't here before."
"The room?"
"The markings."
Somin looked between them. "That's a bad sign, right?"
"Yes," Jaehyuk said.
He read the latest chalk line. Three routes led toward the same central zone. Two were marked red. One had been overdrawn so many times the slate was white.
The contested zone.
The place every guild wanted.
The place the Tower was letting them argue over like dogs around a bone.
Mira leaned in. "Can you read it?"
"Most of it."
He traced a route with one finger. "Old access from Floor 31 is gone. This passage used to run into an empty service loop. Now it connects to a market hall."
Somin blinked. "That's not supposed to happen."
"No."
He moved to the next board. The route there had been drawn with fresh chalk. Not tower staff. Climbers. Maybe scouts.
One line had a note beside it.
TROOP MOVEMENT.
Jaehyuk felt the words settle in his stomach.
Mira's voice went flat. "Read that again."
He did.
Somin said, very softly, "Troops?"
"Not climbers. Troops," Jaehyuk said. "Formation groups. Supply crews. Shield line."
Mira straightened. "Guild war?"
"Close."
He looked at the black circle on the wall and the routes leading into it. One route had Vanguard's old seal mark scratched beside it. Another had a mercenary badge. The third was unmarked except for a tally line and a date.
Floor 35.
Target zone.
"They're all converging," he said.
Somin's fingers curled around her shard pouch. "On what?"
Jaehyuk didn't answer right away.
He was reading the last board.
It had a list of recent clears. Names. Times. Casualties.
And one line at the bottom, written in fresh charcoal like someone wanted it seen.
VANGUARD ADVANCE IN PROGRESS.
His mouth went dry.
Mira saw it before he spoke. "Jaehyuk."
"Yeah."
"Say it."
He stared at the line. The chalk was still bright. Not old. Not archival. Current.
The Tower's map room wasn't just recording routes.
It was announcing a claim.
"They're moving troops," he said.
Somin went still. Even her breathing changed, shallow and tight. "Toward the contested zone?"
"Yes."
Mira rested a hand on her sword hilt. "How many?"
Jaehyuk read the margin note under the tally list.
Enough.
That was all it said.
Enough.
The stairwell behind them groaned open on its own, and a runner in Vanguard colors burst into the room, breath ragged, face white with dust.
He saw Jaehyuk, froze, then shouted down the stairs over his shoulder.
"They're here! Vanguard's moving the second wave into the zone now!"
Another set of boots thundered behind him.
Too many.
Too fast.
The runner looked past Jaehyuk, toward the map with its chalk routes and contested mark, and his voice cracked on the next word.
"And they're not alone."