Regression of the Tower's Final Survivor-Chapter 29: Return to Earth

Floor 8 had an Earth access point, which was something he planned for from the moment they arrived on this floor.

Most floors maintained connections to the world below after a certain point in the climb, portals that allowed climbers to return home for brief periods before the inexorable pull of the climb drew them back. The gates were regulated, monitored, and limited to climbers who proved themselves worthy of the privilege.

Dante rarely used them in his original timeline because there was nothing to go back for, not after his mother died and Yuki grew distant from the brother who was never home. But this time was different, and this time he had someone waiting.

"You’re going back?" Ravenna sat cross-legged on her bedroll, watching him pack a small bag with the supplies he would need for a three-day trip as her tail swayed slowly behind her. "To Earth?"

"I need to check on my sister, make sure she’s safe and see how she’s doing." He secured the bag’s straps with practiced efficiency, not meeting her eyes. "I’ve been gone for weeks."

"Can we come?" The question was soft, almost shy, and she pulled her knees up to her chest as she asked it.

She never saw Earth, was born in the Tower to a demon mother who abandoned her before she could walk, and the world below was as foreign to her as the sunken city was to him when they first arrived.

"Not this time." He saw the disappointment in her eyes and moved to sit beside her, his shoulder brushing against hers. "It’s not that I don’t want you there. Earth access requires special clearance for non-human climbers. The process takes weeks."

"Because of what I am." Her voice was flat, resigned to a truth she knew all too well.

"Because humans are suspicious of anything different." He took her hand and squeezed it gently. "Give me a few days. I’ll talk to Yuki, make sure everything’s okay, and then I’ll be back. We can tackle the dungeon together."

Astrid was listening from across the camp, her expression unreadable as she sharpened her blade with slow, deliberate strokes. "And what are we supposed to do while you’re gone? Sit here and wait?"

"Scout the dungeon entrance, map the approaches, and don’t engage the Drowned King without me." He met her eyes, his voice hardening with emphasis. "I mean it, Astrid. That boss killed half my party in the original timeline. I’m not losing either of you to impatience."

She bristled at the implication but didn’t argue, just drove her whetstone down the blade with more force than necessary. "Fine. Three days. If you’re not back by then, I’m coming to get you."

"I’ll be back." He stood and shouldered his pack, then paused at the edge of their camp where Ravenna rose to see him off, her expression a complicated mixture of understanding and longing.

"Be careful," she said, stepping close enough to touch but not quite reaching for him. "The world outside the Tower... I don’t know what it’s like, but it can’t be safer than what we’ve faced here."

"It’s a different kind of danger." He reached out and touched her face, a gesture that still felt strange after years of keeping everyone at arm’s length, but her smile was worth the awkwardness of saying the words. "I’ll miss you."

"I’ll miss you too." She leaned into his touch for a moment, then stepped back with visible reluctance.

Astrid made a gagging noise that neither of them acknowledged, though he caught the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

He walked toward the portal chamber and left his companions behind in the drowned city, stepping through into a world he hadn’t seen in weeks that felt like years.

---

Meridian City was exactly as he remembered it, sprawling and chaotic, a metropolis that grew explosively in the fifteen years since the Emergence when the Tower first appeared and humanity learned it wasn’t alone in the universe.

The streets were crowded with people going about their lives, most of them blissfully unaware of the battles being fought in the floors above, and he navigated through them with the ease of someone who spent years walking these same paths.

The portal exit was located in a Tower Authority facility, a heavily guarded complex that processed the constant flow of climbers to and from the floors. He submitted to the standard security checks without complaint, letting them verify his identity and registration before releasing him into the city proper.

His old apartment was a twenty-minute walk from the facility, and he made it in fifteen as his pace quickened the closer he got to the building where Yuki still lived, where their mother died, where his second life began.

The door opened before he could knock, and Yuki stood in the doorway with an expression that told him she was waiting for exactly this moment.

"You look like shit." She stepped back to let him in, her sixteen-year-old face sharp as a blade beneath a messy ponytail and the same oversized hoodie she seemed to live in.

"Good to see you too." He stepped past her into the apartment, noting the changes since his last visit as his eyes swept the room.

"Get inside before the neighbors start asking questions." She shut the door behind him and locked it with practiced efficiency.

New wards on the windows, subtle but well-constructed. A weapon rack by the door that wasn’t there before. Books on combat training and awakened abilities scattered across the kitchen table. She was preparing for something, even if she didn’t fully understand what.

"You’ve been busy." He picked up one of the books and flipped through it, recognizing the author as a retired climber who knew what he was talking about.

"Someone has to be." She dropped into a chair and gestured for him to do the same, her brown eyes assessing and completely awake despite the early hour. "You’ve been gone for almost a month, Dante. I had to do something besides sit here and worry."

"I told you I’d be fine." He sat across from her and set the book aside.

"You always say that, and then you come back looking like you’ve been through a war." She leaned forward, studying him with uncomfortable intensity. "What happened up there? And don’t tell me ’nothing.’ I can see it in your eyes."

He considered how much to reveal, weighing the risks of honesty against the dangers of keeping her in the dark. In the original timeline, he kept Yuki away from Tower business until the Black Surge forced her into it, but everything was different now. She was already training, already preparing for something she didn’t fully understand.

"I found something powerful," he said finally, watching her face for any sign of fear or disbelief. "A source of energy that’s going to make me stronger. Strong enough to face what’s coming."

"What’s coming?" She didn’t flinch, didn’t look away, just waited for the answer with the same steady patience their mother always showed.

"The Archon." The word felt heavy in his mouth and he leaned back in his chair, letting it carry that weight. "The thing at the top of the Tower. It’s not just a boss to be beaten, Yuki. It’s something from outside reality, and it wants to come down. If it does, everything ends."

She was quiet for a long moment while she processed that, her fingers tapping against the table in a nervous rhythm. "And you’re going to stop it."

"I’m going to try." He spread his hands in a gesture of honesty. "I don’t know if I can. But I have to."

"Alone?" Her voice carried an edge of accusation, of worry that she was trying to hide.

"No, not alone." The answer came easier than it would have in his original timeline, and he felt something loosen in his chest as he said it. "I have people with me now. A team. They’re not here, but they’re waiting for me to come back."

"The half-demon girl and the berserker." At his surprised look, she shrugged and leaned back in her chair. "You mentioned them in your last message. Before you went dark for two weeks."

"They’re part of it, and there will be others eventually." He leaned forward, his expression serious. "But right now, I’m here because I need to know you’re safe. The Obsidian Cult, the people who worship the Archon, they’re starting to move. In my original timeline, they caused something called the Black Surge. Massive dungeon breaks on Earth, thousands dead, chaos everywhere."

"And me?" She asked it bluntly, without the softening of "what about" or "how did I" because that wasn’t who she was.

"You survived, barely." He held her gaze and didn’t soften what he said. "You awakened during the attack and nearly died using abilities you didn’t understand. I’m not going to let that happen again."

Her expression shifted, something flickering behind her eyes that he couldn’t quite read, and her fingers stopped their tapping. "You keep talking about your ’original timeline.’ Like you’ve done all of this before."

"I have." He said it simply, without elaboration, waiting to see how she would react.

"That’s impossible." But her voice wasn’t dismissive, just uncertain, and she searched his face for any sign that he was joking.

"So is a Tower that appears overnight and connects to dimensions that shouldn’t exist." He spread his hands and gestured at the world around them. "So are demons and dragons and vampires that hunt humans for sport. The impossible is my daily routine now. A little time travel isn’t that strange by comparison."

Yuki stared at him for a long moment, her expression cycling through disbelief and skepticism before settling on something like grudging consideration. She laughed, sharp and disbelieving but not entirely dismissive. "You’re serious. You actually believe you’ve lived through all of this before."

"I don’t believe it, I know it." He met her eyes without flinching. "I have eight years of memories from a timeline where I climbed to Floor 75 and failed to stop the Archon. Everyone I cared about died. Then somehow, I woke up here. In this body. With a second chance."

"Why are you telling me this?" She was leaning forward now, pulled in despite her skepticism. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Because I’m tired of lying to the people who matter." He reached across the table and took her hand, something he hadn’t done since they were children, and her fingers tightened around his instinctively. "You’re my sister, Yuki. The only family I have left. In my original timeline, I kept you at arm’s length because I thought distance would keep you safe. It didn’t. You got caught up in the Black Surge anyway, and I almost lost you."

Her grip tightened on his hand and her voice came out smaller than he expected. "What are you saying?"

"I’m saying I want to train you, properly, before your awakening happens." He squeezed her hand and held her gaze. "So when the Cult makes their move, you’re ready for it."

The offer hung between them, weightier than any system notification or Tower reward, and Yuki didn’t answer immediately. She looked at their joined hands, at the scars on his fingers and the calluses from years of blade work, and something shifted in her expression. Then she met his eyes with a look that reminded him painfully of their mother.

"When do we start?"