Chapter 86 – The Floor of Reflections

The answer to the fortieth floor came on the ninth day.
Not through strength.
Not through fighting.
And certainly not through intelligence alone.

It came through acceptance.

The moment Team Snail stopped trying to control the floor, the floor stopped resisting them.
The changing landscapes became calmer.
The shifting paths became predictable.
The illusions weakened.

It was as though the floor had been waiting for them to understand something simple.

Not everything needed to be controlled.
Some things needed to be understood.

Once they accepted that, the entrance to the forty-first floor finally revealed itself.
A stone archway appeared atop a hill that hadn’t existed the day before.
Or perhaps it had always been there.
None of them were entirely sure anymore.

Mira hated that.

“I miss normal floors.”
She complained while climbing the hill.

“There were never normal floors.”
Aerin pointed out.

“There were monster floors.”

“Which are not normal.”

“They are normal compared to whatever this was.”

Nobody argued with that.

The fortieth floor had exhausted all of them mentally.
Even Kael.

When they stepped through the gate and entered the forty-first floor, they immediately noticed something different.

There was no landscape.

No forest.
No mountains.
No rivers.
No sky.

Only white.

An endless white space stretching beyond sight.

Mira immediately grabbed Aerin’s sleeve.

“No.”

Aerin blinked.

“No what?”

“I refuse.”

“Refuse what?”

“This floor.”

The mysterious man laughed.
Actually laughed.

The sound surprised everyone.
Including himself.

For several seconds he seemed almost embarrassed.

Then the floor reacted.

The white world rippled.
Like disturbed water.

And suddenly they weren’t together anymore.

Kael found herself standing alone.

The others had vanished.

She immediately reached for her weapon.

Nothing answered.

Only silence.

A silence she knew.

A silence she had lived with for years.

Then the white world began changing.

Buildings appeared.
Streets.
Shops.
People.

A familiar town.

Kael froze.

It was her town.

The place she had spent most of her life.

The market.
The guild.
The old streets.
Everything.

Even her shop stood exactly where she remembered.

For a moment she genuinely thought she had returned.

Then she noticed something.

Nobody looked at her.

Not a single person.

People walked past.
Talked.
Laughed.
Traded goods.

Yet none of them acknowledged her existence.

She was watching a memory.

Or perhaps something pretending to be one.

Kael slowly walked through the familiar streets.

Then she saw herself.

A younger version.

Working silently inside the small shop.

Organizing materials.
Writing numbers.
Ignoring customers unless necessary.

Alone.

The sight felt strange.

Because she remembered that girl.

She remembered believing she didn’t need anyone.

She remembered convincing herself that being alone was easier.

Safer.

The memory continued.

Days passed in moments.

Then another figure appeared.

Riven.

Young.
Annoying.
Smiling.
Talking far too much.

Exactly as she remembered.

Kael watched the scene silently.

The first conversation.
The first trade.
The first time he forced her to speak more than three words.

A small smile appeared on her face before she realized it.

Then the floor changed again.

The memory shattered.

White returned.

A voice echoed through the empty space.

“Who are you?”

The question felt familiar.

Not because she had heard it before.

Because she had asked herself the same thing many times.

Who was Kael?

A merchant?
A climber?
A leader?
A friend?

The silence stretched.

For once she didn’t answer immediately.

Because the answer wasn’t simple anymore.

Months ago it would have been.

Now?

Now there were too many pieces.

Then slowly she smiled.
A real smile.
Small.
But genuine.

“I don’t know completely.”
She admitted.

The white world remained silent.

Kael continued speaking anyway.

“But I’m learning.”

The moment the words left her mouth, the world shattered.

Not violently.

Gently.

Like glass dissolving into light.

And suddenly she was standing beside the others again.

Aerin appeared first.
Then Mira.
Then the mysterious man.

All three looked equally confused.

“What happened?”
Mira asked immediately.

“You tell us first.”
Aerin replied.

Nobody answered.

Not because they couldn’t.
Because some experiences felt too personal.

Too important.

Even Mira remained quiet.
Which was impressive.

The mysterious man observed the three of them carefully.

Then nodded.

“We passed.”

Ahead of them, a staircase slowly emerged.
Leading upward.
Toward the forty-second floor.

As they climbed, Kael noticed something unusual.

The mysterious man looked thoughtful.
More thoughtful than usual.

Eventually she walked beside him.

“What did you see?”
she asked.

The man glanced at her.
Surprised.

Then smiled faintly.

“Someone I used to be.”

That was all he said.

And strangely enough, Kael understood.

The forty-second floor welcomed them with darkness.

Not evil darkness.
Not dangerous darkness.

Simply night.

An endless night sky filled with stars.

The floor resembled a giant plain illuminated only by moonlight.

Beautiful.
Silent.
Ancient.

The moment they stepped onto it, Kael felt something.

The crystal sphere reacted.

Not strongly.
Not like when a shard was nearby.

But enough.

The streams of light inside it shifted.

One of them pointed forward.

Not upward.

Forward.

Toward something waiting somewhere on the forty-second floor.

Kael quietly tightened her grip on the sphere.

Only one shard remained.
Only a handful of floors remained.
And somewhere above—
Riven was waiting.

For the first time in a long while, she allowed herself to think it.

Not as a possibility.

As a certainty.

She would find him.

No matter what stood between them.