Home / Fantasy / STELLAR RIFT / Chapter 8: The Tower of Echoes
Chapter 8: The Tower of Echoes
Author: Kofo
last update2025-04-19 02:02:49

The wind howled across the alien world as the boys stood at the edge of a cliff, staring at the broken tower in the distance.

“That’s where it ends,” Jett said quietly.

The tower stretched into the sky, tilted like it had been hit by a giant. Chunks of its walls floated in the air around it, held up by the same strange energy that powered this whole world. From its top, black smoke spiraled into the purple clouds above.

“That place is alive,” Kael whispered, rubbing his arms. “I can feel it watching.”

Zane flexed his fingers, energy dancing over his skin. “Then let’s go say hello.”

They made their way through a forest of shattered glass trees. The air crackled. The deeper they went, the stranger the world became. Plants shimmered and disappeared when touched. The ground changed color with every step. Somewhere in the distance, something howled—a sound that didn’t belong in any world.

“I have a bad feeling,” Orin said.

“You always do,” Zane replied.

“No, I mean it. This place is wrong. Like it doesn’t want us here.”

They arrived at the base of the tower. A single bridge of stone reached out to the massive front gate. Black metal doors pulsed slowly, like a heartbeat.

Kael stopped suddenly. “Wait.”

The others turned.

“I can’t go in,” he said. “Something’s calling me—pulling me back.”

“You’re still connected to the Rift,” Jett said. “We need to break that connection. Now.”

Before they could act, Kael collapsed, screaming. His body arched, and a symbol flared across his chest—a symbol none of them had ever seen before.

“What is that?” Orin asked, backing up.

Zane stared. “That’s not Rift energy.”

Jett’s eyes widened. “It’s a lock.”

Just then, the ground beneath them split open. From the darkness below, creatures poured out—twisted things with too many eyes, sharp limbs, and mouths that hissed without sound.

“Go!” Jett shouted. “Get Kael inside!”

Orin and Zane grabbed Kael and ran toward the tower while Jett turned and faced the horde.

He reached into himself. Pulled the Rift’s energy forward. It burned his veins, made his skin glow.

He screamed—and released a pulse that flattened the first wave of monsters.

But more kept coming.

Orin kicked open the tower door. Inside was a spiraling staircase lit by floating orbs of light.

As they dragged Kael in, the doors slammed shut behind them. The monsters vanished instantly, like they’d never existed.

The tower was silent.

Too silent.

Kael stirred in Zane’s arms. His eyes opened—but they were glowing white.

“I… see them,” he whispered. “So many lives. So many screams. They’re trapped here.”

“Who?” Orin asked.

Kael looked around. “Souls. Thousands of them. The Rift didn’t just destroy worlds. It collected them.”

Zane swallowed. “Like trophies?”

“Like fuel.”

Jett caught up, panting and bruised. “Guys… the energy in this place… it’s growing. We don’t have much time.”

They climbed the tower.

Each floor was a new world.

First: A battlefield, frozen in time. Soldiers locked in mid-swing, explosions paused mid-air.

Second: A city upside-down, the sky below and the streets above, filled with shadow-people watching from windows that weren’t real.

Third: A room with mirrors—dozens of them—and each one showed the boys as different versions of themselves.

Orin stared at one.

It showed him leading an army, his face cold and cruel.

“That’s not me,” he whispered.

The mirror responded. “It could be.”

Zane shattered it with a blast of light.

They kept climbing.

On the fifth floor, Kael stopped.

“This is it,” he said. “The control room. Where the Rift finishes its cycle.”

The room looked like a cathedral made of light and sound. Energy pulsed in the walls. Symbols floated in the air, constantly shifting. And in the center—

A throne.

Empty.

Until a figure formed in it.

The Rift.

Not a monster.

Not a shadow.

But a person.

A woman.

She looked young. Eyes like stars. Skin like glass. Hair that flowed like liquid metal.

“Welcome,” she said, her voice like music. “You’ve come far.”

Jett stepped forward. “You’re the Rift?”

“I am what remains of the first world,” she said. “The one that broke. I survived. But broken things are not meant to stay still. I moved. I reached. I took.”

“You killed so many,” Orin said.

“No,” she said calmly. “I saved them. From the chaos outside. In me, they live forever. Peacefully. I am mercy.”

“You’re a prison,” Zane spat.

Kael’s body shivered again. The symbol on his chest glowed.

The Rift Queen turned her gaze to him.

“Ah,” she said. “The Gate.”

She stood and approached him.

“Built to be my final key. The last lock to seal all Rift-doors forever.”

Kael staggered back.

“You said you saved people,” Jett said. “Then why do you keep making cracks between worlds?”

“Because the cage was never for them,” she said softly. “It was for me. I wanted to be free. So I made holes. Tiny ones. Let myself out in pieces. And now…”

She touched Kael’s cheek.

“…he is the final door.”

Kael screamed.

The room cracked.

Reality bent.

Jett grabbed Kael and pulled him back.

“You don’t get to decide for everyone!” he shouted. “You don’t get to choose who lives in a cage!”

“You still don’t understand,” she said. “I was trying to protect them. But now… now they scream to be released. The souls want to burn.”

She raised her hands—and the tower split open.

The energy surged.

Reality twisted.

Kael’s body floated, crackling with power.

Then—

Everything stopped.

A voice echoed through the room.

“ENOUGH.”

Kade stepped through a portal, glowing with light.

He held a new device—a blade made of fractured crystal and sound.

“You lied to me,” he said to the Queen.

She smiled sadly. “You were never mine to lie to.”

Kade looked at his friends. “I remember now. Everything. She tricked me into sealing the Rift, knowing I would become part of it. But I found a back door. A code. And now…”

He threw the blade to Jett.

“…we finish this. Together.”

Jett caught it.

The Queen shrieked—and exploded into smoke.

Kael collapsed.

Jett raised the blade and stabbed it into the floor.

Light spread.

The tower crumbled.

The souls screamed—and then sang—as they were released into the sky.

Peace.

They woke up on a field.

The sky was blue.

Birds chirped.

Jett sat up first.

Then Zane, Orin, and Kael.

Kade stood nearby, quiet.

“Is it over?” Zane asked.

Kade nodded. “The Rift is gone. For real this time. All of it.”

Kael smiled. “I feel… free.”

Jett looked at the others. “We did it.”

And for the first time in weeks—

They laughed.

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