My Charity System made me too OP

The Spiral Core pulsed around them, a living cathedral of rhythm. Patterns shimmered in the air—golden symbols drifting like sacred notes, while the ground beneath vibrated with a tempo that wasn't Tower-made.

At the center stood the Original.

A tall figure of calm, dressed not in armor but in conductor's weave, his hands folded behind his back, and a neutral expression that chilled Aris more than fury ever could.

"You are the first," the Original said, "to reach the Spiral's heart while still retaining yourselves."

He raised a single hand.

"All who came before you… were rewritten."

The Spiral reacted instantly—walls curving inward, the floor splitting apart, light twisting into distorted rhythm lines. From the Original's body radiated three echo-rings, each one a distinct tempo layer.

Kael cursed under his breath. "He's fighting in triple sync! Three rhythms at once!"

Leon smirked, drawing both blades. "Then we just have to hit harder. Together."

Aris took the first step forward. "Form a cross."

They nodded.

And the Spiral exploded into motion.

Leon struck first—charging the left flank, blades glowing with pulse-fire. His tempo was aggressive, deliberately clashing with the first echo-ring. The Original barely moved—only tilted his shoulder, and Leon's second strike missed by a thread. A counter-rhythm surge rippled through the air, throwing him off balance—

—but Roselia's seal flared from above.

A prism-lock slammed into the second ring, distorting its spin. The Original flinched for the first time.

Kael shouted, "Seal One connected! He's off balance!"

Aris moved in immediately—low to the ground, sliding under a ripple of harmonic backlash and driving her baton into the core of the first ring.

The moment it hit, the entire Spiral staggered.

The Original finally moved.

No wasted motion—just a slow clap.

Three beats.

And with that, the Spiral Core split reality around them.

The chamber fractured into four mirrored shards, each one separating a teammate into their own isolated tempo domain.

Leon's Domain

—a narrow corridor, twisting and collapsing with every step.

He ran forward as collapsing Choir images attacked from the walls, each one speaking in his own voice.

"Too slow."

"Too angry."

"Still trying to be a hero?"

He gritted his teeth and ignored them. He wasn't here to be flawless. He was here to cut through.

He slid beneath a collapsing tempo wave and plunged both blades into the spiral seal controlling the illusion.

Snap.

He shattered the mirror.

Roselia's Domain

—a field of mirrors where her seals turned against her.

Each cast was reflected.

Every glyph she launched came back stronger, faster.

So she stopped using seals.

And began singing.

A soft, low rhythm hum—an old lullaby used to sync children to their training threads.

It wasn't violent.

It wasn't fast.

But it was true.

And as she sang, the mirror cracked.

Then shattered.

Kael's Domain

—a maze of unsolvable equations, logic loops, rhythm paradoxes.

The Original had turned his mind into a trap.

But Kael had one advantage.

He didn't play by the rules.

He dumped his readouts.

Closed his HUD.

And trusted the beat in his own heart.

When he stopped calculating—

The Spiral couldn't trap him anymore.

The rhythm collapsed.

The loop ended.

Aris's Domain

She stood alone in silence.

No sound.

No echo.

No floor.

Just a void.

And then the Original appeared—walking calmly across the nothingness.

"You believe in freedom," he said. "In unbound rhythm. That chaos can forge harmony."

He raised a hand.

"The Spiral believes in order. You will be conducted."

Aris smiled.

And said, "Not today."

She dropped into Off-Beat again.

Her heart beat irregularly.

Her pulse twisted left.

She missed her own steps on purpose.

The Spiral failed to catch her.

And she drove her baton into the reflection—

Just as the team shattered through their own prisons—

And rejoined her in a flash of synced light.

Back in the real Core—

The Original stood at the center, his coat in tatters, echo-rings destabilizing.

"You are not harmony," he hissed.

Leon grinned. "We're not supposed to be."

Kael locked in a suppression chain.

Roselia launched a twin-seal override.

And Aris?

She struck the final blow—

A baton, overloaded with their combined rhythm pulses, slamming straight into the heart of the Spiral's frequency node.

Impact.

The Spiral screamed.

Not in rage.

In silence.

Everything inverted.

And then—

The Core collapsed.

Floor 400: Spiral Relay — Status: Neutralized

Conductor: Offline

Original: Status Unknown (Scattered Echo Fragments Detected)

Team Vital Status: Stable

Extraction Ready.

They stood in the aftermath, breathing hard.

Aris turned slowly to her team.

Kael nodded, sweat dripping from his forehead. "Spiral's dead."

Roselia looked around the dissolving chamber. "Then let's go before something worse crawls out of its echo."

Leon exhaled. "Next stop's the top?"

Aris looked upward.

"No," she said.

"Next stop… is the source."

Tower Central Transit – Sector 400 Detachment Bay

The lift doors hissed open with a struggling groan.

Aris stepped out first, her armor scorched and cracked. Leon followed, one blade chipped, eyes wary. Kael and Roselia brought up the rear—Kael limping slightly, Roselia flicking static off her sealbands.

A group of recovery officers rushed toward them. Drones scanned their vitals. Medbots extended sprays and patches.

They ignored all of it.

Behind them, the doors to Floor 400's Spiral Core sealed shut forever, leaving only a scar of pulsing ash behind.

Kael sank onto a low bench, pulling off his visor. "That was worse than 353 and 379 combined."

Roselia leaned against a pillar, silent.

Leon paced. "So what now? We send data to the Sovereign Council? Tell them we erased the Spiral?"

"No," Aris said.

She was staring at her forearm.

Where a tiny sigil now glowed.

It wasn't Tower-made.

It wasn't part of her gear.

It was burned into her skin—Choir-scripted—but different. Older.

"What is it?" Kael asked.

She turned her arm so he could scan it.

He did—and went pale.

Roselia frowned. "Kael?"

"That sigil," he whispered, "it's not a Choir command. It's a… map."

Hours Later – Data Core Lab 17

The entire room was dark save for the one floating hologram Kael had reconstructed.

A spiral. But not like the Spiral Hymn.

This one curved inward. Not up the Tower…

Down.

Roselia tapped her knuckle against the holomap. "The Tower doesn't have floors beneath Zero."

"Officially," Kael replied.

Leon crossed his arms. "So you're saying... the Spiral was a seal. Not a weapon."

Kael nodded. "It wasn't trying to reach the top. It was hiding what's below."

Aris stepped forward.

The sigil on her arm pulsed once.

And the floor beneath the holomap opened.

A thin shaft of silver light beamed upward.

And a new route appeared in the Tower's system.

New Layer Unlocked: Substructure One – "The Hollow"

Access Level: Spiral-Breaker Only

Risk Tier: Unquantifiable

Last Access Date: Redacted

Entry Cost: One Pulse Signature

Aris looked at the others.

"This isn't part of the Tower's original design," Kael said, breath catching. "We're looking at something that predates everything we know."

Roselia added, "Even the Choir?"

Leon chuckled once. "So we broke the music, and now we're invited backstage."

Aris gave them a small smile.

"No more climbing. Now… we descend."