Adrian found him on the balcony an hour later.
Dante had expected it. The public humiliation in the ballroom demanded a private response, and Adrian wasn’t the type to let a wound like that fester without addressing it. Pride was his weakness, always had been.
"That was quite a performance," Adrian said, stepping onto the crystalline platform that jutted from the building’s edge. Below them, Umbral’s twilight city spread like a map of shadows. "Everyone will be talking about how you made look like a fool."
"I didn’t make you look like anything. You did that yourself."
Adrian’s mask was gone now, his perfect face visible in the bioluminescent glow. Without the social artifice of the Masquerade, he looked different: harder, more focused, the golden boy persona stripped away to reveal sothing colder underneath.
"We don’t have an audience here," he said quietly. "No one to impress, no ga to play. Just you and , Dante. Two people who both know more than we should."
"What do you think you know?"
"I know that your progression makes no sense." Adrian moved closer, studying Dante with uncomfortable intensity. "I know that you fight like soone with decades of experience, not years. I know that you anticipate things before they happen, avoid dangers that should be invisible, make decisions based on knowledge you couldn’t possibly have."
The air between them seed to thicken.
"I’ve seen climbers with hidden power before," Adrian continued. "I’ve seen geniuses and prodigies and chosen ones of every variety. None of them move through the Tower the way you do. None of them look at the upper floors like they’re rembering instead of imagining."
"You’re reaching."
"Am I?" Adrian’s smile was thin, dangerous. "There are records of a phenonon in the Tower’s ancient history. Climbers who died at the top and woke up at the bottom. Climbers who carried mories of futures that hadn’t happened yet." He watched Dante’s face for a reaction. "Climbers who ca back."
Dante kept his expression neutral, but sothing cold settled in his chest.
"That’s a myth," he said flatly. "Stories people tell to explain the unexplainable."
"Maybe." Adrian shrugged, the gesture too casual to be genuine. "Or maybe my masters know more about the Tower’s true nature than anyone below Floor 50. Maybe they’ve been watching for signs of regression since before either of us was born."
"If you’re trying to frighten with fairy tales—"
"I’m trying to understand you." Adrian’s voice hardened. "Because right now, you’re the only variable I can’t calculate. Every other piece on this board moves the way I expect. You don’t. And I need to know why."
They stood in silence, two predators circling without striking.
"Let’s say your theory is true," Dante said finally. "Let’s say I am what you think I am. What then?"
"Then you already know how this ends." Adrian’s eyes glittered with sothing that might have been hope. "You know what the Archon really is, what it’s capable of, and you understand that fighting it is pointless. A regressor with that knowledge would either join us or run. They wouldn’t stay and fight a war they already know they lost."
"Maybe I lost the first ti. Maybe I’m not planning to lose again."
"Arrogance. The sa arrogance that gets every hero killed."
"Not arrogance." Dante stepped closer, and Adrian stepped back, the sa instinctive retreat he’d shown in the ballroom. "Experience. I know exactly what’s waiting at the top. I know how powerful the Archon is, how deep its influence goes, how many people have died trying to stop it."
"Then why fight?"
"Because I’ve already died once." Dante’s voice dropped to a whisper that sohow carried more threat than any shout. "And I learned sothing from the experience. The Archon isn’t invincible. It’s just been winning for so long that everyone forgot it could lose."
Adrian’s mask of confidence cracked.
"You’re insane."
"I’m determined. There’s a difference." Dante turned toward the balcony’s edge, looking out over the city he was about to leave behind. "You wanted to understand , Adrian? Here’s what you need to know: I will tear down everything your masters have built. I will climb until I reach the thing that calls itself a god. And when I get there, I will kill it."
"You’ll betray everyone who trusts you first. They always do."
Dante looked back at him, and sothing cold showed in his expression.
"You will," he said quietly. "And when you do, I’ll be ready."
"That’s not—"
"It’s exactly what’s going to happen." Dante started walking toward the balcony doors. "You’re already planning your next move against . Already calculating how to use the people around you to get what you want. It’s what you always do, Adrian. It’s what you did in the tiline I rember, and it’s what you’ll do now."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Yes, you do." Dante paused at the doors. "The difference between us isn’t power or intelligence or ambition. It’s that I know you better than you know yourself. I’ve watched you betray everyone who ever trusted you, and I’ve learned exactly how it happens."
He looked back one final ti.
"Enjoy the Masquerade. It’s the last party you’ll throw on this floor."
He walked inside, leaving Adrian alone on the balcony with the weight of a future he couldn’t escape pressing down on him.
---
Ravenna intercepted him halfway across the ballroom.
"What happened?"
"He suspects." Dante didn’t slow down. "He knows sothing’s wrong with my tiline, maybe even guessed the truth. His masters have been watching for regressors."
"That’s bad."
"It doesn’t change anything." He pushed through the crowd, heading for the exit. "He suspected before, and he’ll suspect after. The difference is that now the pretense is over. No more gas, no more careful maneuvers. Everything that happens from this point forward happens in the open."
"Does that help us?"
"It helps ." He finally stopped, turning to face her. "I’m tired of playing the role, Ravenna. Pretending I don’t know what’s coming, pretending every challenge is new and uncertain. Adrian wanted the truth? Now he has it. Not the whole truth, but enough to know that whatever he throws at , I’ve seen worse."
"You practically admitted to the regression."
"I admitted nothing. I implied. There’s a difference."
"A difference that won’t matter if he tells his masters."
Dante smiled, and there was sothing almost peaceful in his expression.
"Let him. Let them all know that sothing they didn’t expect is climbing toward them. Let them spend every floor wondering what I rember and what I’ve forgotten." He took her hand. "Fear is a weapon too. And I’ve just given them a reason to be very, very afraid."
The team gathered at the exit, Astrid shedding her dress like a snake shedding skin and Vex erging from shadows he’d probably never left. Ren stood guard with the stoic patience he’d perfected, while Leon and Sera arrived together, their expressions suggesting they’d gathered useful intelligence.
"We’re done here," Dante announced. "Tomorrow is the Passage Ceremony. Whatever happens next, happens fast."
They left the Masquerade behind, a group of climbers who’d co as guests and departed as sothing else entirely. The pretense was over, and the real ga was about to begin.
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