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The Moment Rei Realized the Stair Was Not a Stair

It was supposed to be just another spiral — one of many that defined the lower structure of the Abyss Core. Rei had descended dozens of these paths before: rusted, silent, geometrically perfect.

But this one was different.

At first, it looked like a staircase. Angled. Angular. Descending into the circular depths like an invitation from a dream you can't remember. But Rei felt it — not through his eyes, but through his spine. The longer he stared, the less it resembled something made by sentient design.

And more like something... that lived.

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He took a step forward. The silence pressed against his chest like the air had weight. The spiral seemed to breathe — not literally, but like a being that waits. That longs. That knows you're coming back even when you say you're not.

He blinked.

And the step he was about to take... moved.

Not as an illusion. Not as a trick of shadow.

It contracted, like muscle. Like something digesting slowly.

The stairs were teeth. The spiral was a throat.

Rei’s breath caught in his throat. He stepped back, and for a moment — just a moment — he heard her voice again.

"You don't have to fight anymore."

Kamila.

No... Nytherion.

He looked at the spiral again. He felt it watching him — or rather, not watching... waiting.

"The Mouth of Mercy," she once called it.

The final option. The place for those who couldn’t rise, couldn’t run, couldn’t rebuild. A peaceful kind of end.

But Rei was not at peace.

He clenched his fists. He remembered Dominic’s voice. The Library. The Lights of Astralis. He remembered why he came here in the first place.

"This is not a staircase."

He turned around. He walked away.

And for the first time — the spiral shuddered. As if it knew... that its next chance might never come again.

---

The First Time Rei Saw the Core-Eater

The descent had ended, or so he thought.

He stood in silence at the final chamber — a place so deep that even sound itself seemed to hesitate. The spiral no longer spun; it narrowed into a pulse. Something darker. Something more ancient.

There, before him, in the middle of nothing — hung a hand.

Or what once was a hand.

Five curved, jagged talons hovered above the center of a glowing spiral. It did not move. It did not reach. It simply hung there like a question that no one wanted to answer.

At first, Rei couldn’t tell what he was looking at.

But then the ground vibrated. Not from motion, but from hunger.

And then he understood.

This was no artifact. This was no structure. This was alive.

It wasn’t a hand waiting to grab. It was a mouth that chose not to chew yet.

He watched in horror as the glowing spiral flickered — every line of it bending ever so slightly toward the center, as if surrendering. And above it, the blackened claw remained still… respectful… patient.

'This is the Core-Eater,' Rei whispered.

Kamila had never mentioned this. Not even in her cruelest metaphors.

Because this was not meant to be seen. This was meant to be fallen into.

And yet, here he stood — breathing, trembling, resisting.

The hand did not move. But its silence said everything:

"I know you’ll return. They always do."

Rei closed his eyes. He summoned the pulse of Astralis inside his chest. He did not run. He did not cry.

He turned.

And walked away — not from the abyss, but from the permission it begged him to give.