My Charity System made me too OP-Chapter 449: Throne IV

Tower Branch – The Oblivion Path: Floor 0X1

The instant he crossed, the world turned grey.

Not lifeless, but empty. This was a dead floor. A broken one. The kind the Tower abandoned when no Architect could stabilize it.

Yet... something lived here.

Ruins stretched endlessly in all directions—familiar and foreign, echoing pieces of earlier floors, as if the Tower had tried to rebuild past memories and failed. Leon walked through crumbled remains of things that resembled the Obsidian Arena, fragments of the Dwarf Forgehalls, echoes of the Mirror Floors.

Memories. Just without their meaning.

Until he reached the center.

There, floating above a cracked dais, was a single throne—upside down. Beneath it hovered a figure chained in silence. His presence wasn’t massive. His aura wasn’t violent. But the Tower bent around him.

Not in fear.

In debt.

The figure’s eyes opened as Leon stepped closer. No announcement. No threat.

Just a voice.

"...Leon Aetheren. I remember when you were still in the Shell Pulse trial."

Leon stopped walking. "Who are you?"

"I’m the last Architect who tried to fix the Tower without taking power. I failed."

Chains wrapped tighter around the man, as if reacting to the memory.

"I tried to make a floor like yours—one that could grow, live, breathe. But it kept collapsing. The Tower rejected it. The other Architects erased it. And when I refused to yield..."

Leon’s jaw tightened. "They sealed you."

The chained Architect nodded. "Not out of cruelty. Out of fear. Because if a world can exist without conflict, then what is the Tower for?"

Leon’s thoughts went still.

This was what waited at the top. Not glory. Not conquest. Ideological war.

And now, he was in the middle of it. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"You can walk away," the chained Architect said quietly. "You’ve created your floor. Your allies are strong. You’ve changed the Tower already. No one will blame you if you stop here."

Leon looked up.

Then at the chains.

Then at the floor—at what had been lost. At what could be rebuilt.

And finally, at the man who’d tried before him.

"No," Leon said. "You tried alone. I’m not alone."

He raised a hand.

Power surged—not destructive, not forceful, but clear. Will.

Shell Reverb pulsed beneath his skin.

Karmic Loop lit up around his spine.

Echo of Origin twisted time itself.

He didn’t strike the chains. He spoke into them.

"This floor still remembers what it could’ve been. And I’m not done building."

The world trembled.

The chains cracked.

The Tower did not resist.

[Tower Protocol Breach Confirmed]

Floor 0X1 – Status Shift: Collapsed → Stabilizing

Sealed Architect "Ryn Varis" – Release Initiated

The man gasped as the chains shattered, and light flooded the ruins. Floors began reforming, not into what they had been—but into something new.

Not Leon’s creation.

Not Ryn’s mistake.

But something between.

Ryn staggered forward, stunned. "You... rewrote a collapsed path?"

Leon extended a hand. "We build. Or the Tower devours itself."

For a long moment, the man said nothing.

Then he took Leon’s hand.

[New Branch Aligned]

Oblivion Path → Stabilized Node: Ryn’s Echo

Architect Ally Gained: Ryn Varis

Floor 0X1 Converted: Memory Haven

Tower Integrity Report: 4 Unaligned Architects Detected

Threat Level: Escalating

Leon exhaled.

One reclaimed.

Four more... watching.

The next move wouldn’t come in peace.

It would come in fire.

But this time, the Tower wouldn’t face him alone.

It would face the Architect of Wake—and the worlds rising with him.

Leon returned to Floor 543 not with exhaustion, but with quiet certainty.

Ryn Varis walked beside him—slightly hunched, bearing the kind of weariness that couldn’t be cured with rest. Yet, there was a flicker of purpose returning to his steps. The scars on his arms hadn’t healed, but his eyes were sharper now. Alive.

The Bastion recognized them. It didn’t resist. It welcomed Ryn, folding him into its memory like a long-lost puzzle piece finally set in place.

Roselia was waiting at the dais. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the stranger beside Leon.

"He’s with us," Leon said simply.

That was enough.

Naval gave a slight nod. Roman offered Ryn a half-smile. Kael gave nothing but a glance. Milim—predictably—floated upside down near the tree, waving. "If he turns evil, I get first hit."

Ryn stared at them all, amazed. "You trust this fast?"

"No," Roselia said. "But we trust Leon."

Ryn didn’t speak after that. He just lowered his head in silent acceptance.

Later that evening, the group gathered on a cliff overlooking the valley. It was a spot Leon had never touched with his powers—left wild and uneven, as a reminder of the raw nature of this floor. Here, they could see the boundaries of the Bastion stretching into the pale sky. Mana pulsed beneath the soil. Stars shimmered in the daylight above.

And in the far distance, a new fracture had begun forming.

It was thin now—like a hairline crack across the heavens. But it was growing.

Kael was the first to say it.

"They’re watching."

Leon nodded.

The Tower’s Architects. The others. Those who’d ruled their own domains in silence, in madness, in cruelty. They had let him play. Let him reclaim one ruined floor. But now?

Now they were deciding if they should stop him.

"We need to move soon," Ryn said. "Before they react. Before they unify."

Leon sat with one knee raised, fingers resting lightly on his own blade—not for battle, but for grounding. He was thinking carefully.

"No. We don’t move fast. We move right."

He turned toward the others.

"We’re going to make contact."

Roman blinked. "With them?"

"With one of them," Leon clarified. "Not all are hostile. Some might be waiting. Some might want change—but couldn’t risk starting it."

Ryn rubbed his jaw. "You have someone in mind?"

Leon looked toward the fracture.

"I know her name."

The group fell quiet.

Then Kael asked, "What’s the plan?"

Leon stood.

"We’re going to build another branch—one that connects directly into the Architect Layer. Not through conquest. Not through challenge. Through invitation. If there’s an Architect out there still holding on to the Tower’s original purpose, they’ll answer."

"And if no one does?" Roselia asked.

Leon looked up at the stars.

"Then we make them see it. One world at a time."

Tower System Update

[New Construction Initiative Activated]

Title Gained: Architect of Wake

Tower Branch Node Status: Expanding

Accessing New Directive: The Dream Corridor

Purpose: Bridge to Architect Layer

Cost: 12 Core Fragments | 1 Reality Seed | 1 Architect Signature

Current Progress: 3%

Contributors: Leon Aetheren, Ryn Varis, Roselia, Naval, Roman, Kael, Milim

Night

That night, under a sky shimmering with mana storms and unspoken destinies, Leon worked alone.

He stood at the center of a massive sigil carved into the plateau. Not of war. Not of conquest. A binding circle—a handshake offered across layers.

The Dream Corridor was a path to speak without swords.

He laid the foundation not in power, but in memory—scenes drawn from his journey. The Obsidian Arena. The Dwarven Forge. The Mirror Depths. The Tower of Shell Pulse. Every floor he had passed left an imprint, and now he wove them into a signal.

An invitation.

"Come see what I’m building," Leon whispered.

"And remember what you once believed in."

The wind shifted.

The Bastion Floor stirred.

And far above, somewhere in the Architect Layer—

A signal was received.