The city was alive with tension—reconstruction teams, survivors clinging to hope, and soldiers from nations that barely held together now acting as peacekeepers. Yet among them, whispers spread. A strange figure had returned. Someone... not ordinary.
Someone from the Tower.
---
Avoiding the Spotlight
SeTa moved through the ruined alleys and underground sectors of Lusaka's fractured districts with a cloak over his head and Zuvanox trailing like a shadow. The system had not marked him, but rumors were quick to grow legs.
Whispers.
"Did you hear? A Clim—no, not just any Climber. He didn't come out bleeding or gasping for air. He walked."
"They say he had golden eyes and something following him... something ancient."
He heard it all and ignored it. Fame, applause—meaningless noise. If anyone knew who he truly was, what he carried, Earth would crumble from its own fear and greed. No, he had no intention of being recognized.
---
The Child with the Red Thread
By midday, in a block overgrown with mold and silence, SeTa paused.
A red thread floated in the air. Not real—spiritual. Subordination Sense responded faintly, not as a summons but as a connection—a plea.
He turned the corner and found her.
She sat in a cardboard shelter pressed into a collapsed wall: a little girl with tangled hair, hugging her knees. She was thin, clearly starving, but her eyes had the same thing SeTa once had—cold awareness, and restrained tears.
"You're not from here," she said, too calm for her age.
He knelt. "Neither are you... anymore."
From his spatial inventory, he drew out food, clean clothes, and a pendant with a basic shield array. She flinched at first—then reached for the food.
Zuvanox sniffed the air once, then circled behind her protectively.
"What's your name?" SeTa asked.
"...Mika."
He stood. "You're coming with me, Mika. I'll give you a place where no one will touch you."
---
Hidden Shelter: The Basement Garden
A forgotten subway line beneath the city. SeTa's search earlier had been intentional. With Zuvanox's treasure sense and SeTa's system integration, he had found a stable zone. There, he constructed something the world wouldn't notice.
> [SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Hidden Shelter Constructed
Type: Secret Base – Level 1
Tag: Orphan Protection | Shadow Zone
Auto-defense active
Registered Subordinates: Zuvanox (Guardian), Mika (Provisional Resident)
Growth Potential: HIGH
Metal panels shifted into place. Runes aligned. A pocket of silence formed beneath the crumbling chaos of the world.
Inside, Mika sat on a mattress, staring at SeTa.
"Why help me?"
He didn't answer immediately. Then:
"...Because you remind me that even in ruined worlds, seeds still grow."
---
The Shadow's Mission
SeTa looked out from the hidden base's only viewport. Earth was bleeding. The Tower was merciless. The people who had climbed and returned—those with strength—would soon be hunted or worshipped.
He wanted neither.
But if he could create a place, even a small one, where the forgotten and abandoned could survive...
That would be enough.
He turned back. Mika was asleep now, Zuvanox curled nearby like a loyal beast.
"Let the world burn its own crowns," SeTa whispered. "I'll build thrones underground."