Kei's footsteps echoed in the darkness of the tower. The walls surrounding him weren't just stone or metal—they felt like living things. Like the prison itself had become aware of him, following every movement, analyzing his very existence.
The higher he climbed, the more distorted the air became. Time didn't flow here. It was fractured, stretched, and compressed in unnatural ways. The space around him folded like a broken accordion, shifting between past, present, and future.
He kept climbing. The glowing blue energy inside him pulsed in rhythm with his heart, Neuromancer abilities growing stronger with every step. He could feel the power within him—raw, untamed, and beginning to break free.
Ahead, the top of the tower loomed closer. The source of the prison's control. The core. The place where everything had started.
And where everything would end.
As Kei approached the summit, the air around him froze.
A figure appeared before him.
The Faceless Man.
His form shifted again, flickering between versions of himself, each more terrifying than the last. His presence filled the room, distorting time itself.
Kei's pulse quickened.
"This is where it ends, Kei." The Faceless Man spoke, his voice not coming from his lips, but from everywhere. "You cannot rewrite this. This is the final moment."
Kei raised his hand, energy swirling around him, pushing against the constraints of time. Neuromancer activated at full force.
"I'll rewrite it, then." Kei's voice was steady—his resolve absolute. "You can't hold me here anymore. Not when I control time itself."
The Faceless Man tilted his head, and for the first time, there was a flicker of something in his eyes. Fear.
The room trembled. Reality fractured once again, but this time, Kei was ready. He wasn't running anymore.
The Faceless Man reached out, his hand glowing with dark energy, and a blast of time distortion shot at Kei, intending to crush him.
But Kei was faster. He rewound the attack, just a fraction of a second before impact, then rewrote it, sending the blast spiraling back toward the Faceless Man.
The Faceless Man faltered, his form glitching violently as the blast hit him.
"Impossible." The Faceless Man's voice cracked. "You… You've broken the system."
Kei stepped forward, the power of Neuromancer surging through him.
"No."
"I'm rewriting it."
With a wave of his hand, the tower's core reacted. Time shifted, compressed, and unraveled. The very existence of the Faceless Man seemed to destabilize—his form flickering in and out of time, caught between the versions of himself Kei had seen in the fractured memories.
The Prison of Time was breaking.
But so was Kei.
The power within him was starting to burn. His body trembled as he felt the strain of controlling so much. Time. Reality. The Neuromancer. It was too much. He was splitting, breaking, much like the prison around him.
But Kei had no choice.
He pushed forward, toward the heart of the tower, where everything had started—where the source of time manipulation lay. The heart that controlled the fate of the prison. The fate of him.
"This ends now."
As Kei reached the center of the tower, everything paused.
The core—a massive, glowing sphere of raw energy—hovered in midair. It was the source of the prison's power. The control center. Kei reached out, touching the core with his hand.
For a moment, there was nothing. Then—
The world stopped.