The blinding light was unbearable. It pierced through the cloth over my eyes, burned into my skull, and filled my mind with a swirling tempest of stimuli. And then, as suddenly as it came, the brilliance faded.
I awoke lying on cold, unforgiving stone. My back ached, my head throbbed, and my mouth felt like sandpaper. Slowly, I sat up, feeling every bone and muscle protest as if I had aged decades in mere moments.
Where… am I?
Blinking slowly under the blindfold, I adjusted the makeshift wrap over my eyes, letting just enough vision seep through to orient myself. What I saw made me forget my pain, if only for a moment.
A vast stone hallway stretched out in both directions, its walls lined with faded murals. Strange imagery covered every surface—unknown figures, battles beyond reason, symbols I couldn't read but felt eerily familiar. Some murals depicted beings towering above mountains, others had figures with glowing orbs, ethereal wings, weapons formed from abstract geometry.
The hallway was ancient—eerily untouched. The floor had cracks, but not a speck of dust. It was like the very air preserved this place. There was no ceiling, only a skyless void above, and in the center, a solitary orb of white light floated high overhead, casting down a divine glow on where I'd awoken.
This place… it felt eternal. Sacred. Forgotten by time, and yet—waiting.
I got to my feet and steadied myself, brushing the stone grit from my pants. The paintings pulled my gaze again. I stepped closer, trying to absorb every detail. Were they warnings? Stories? Declarations of power?
Then, without warning, a voice echoed through the hallway.
"Oh ho… Another Irregular. How long has it been since the Tower had received such glorious visitors this frequently from the outside?"
The voice was a deep, sing-song monotone. It came from everywhere—and nowhere.
I spun around, heart thundering in my chest, scanning the corridor.
Then I saw him.
Or it.
A figure emerged from one of the darker corridors, not walking, but simply existing, as if space bent to his presence. A humanoid being—roughly my height at first glance, but his presence made him feel like a giant. He had two long, rabbit-like ears that extended high above his head, pushing his silhouette closer to a towering 200 cm. His face was long, pure white, and smooth, like porcelain. Featureless—except for a single vertical slit running down its center.
From behind the slit, I saw something glint. A crystal-like blue eye—or maybe teeth. I couldn't be sure. The front of the slit showed faint rows of sharp, jagged fangs, tucked away yet unmistakably threatening.
His body was bulky in a way that made no anatomical sense, his limbs strangely proportioned—arms too large, torso too narrow. He wore a skin-tight purple outfit that clung to him like spandex, and in one hand, he idly spun a golden staff topped with a gleaming crystal orb. Tricks of light danced inside the orb with each lazy spin, casting reflections of stars and spirals onto the stone floor.
He was both unsettling and majestic. Ugly and beautiful. Alien and divine.
Every instinct I had from my past life—those countless cultivation novels, those stories of gods, monsters, and mortals—screamed the same thing:
Don't look directly at a god.
I stiffened and lowered my head, not out of reverence, but strategy. My eyes, my Six Eyes, could be a blessing, but staring at this being directly might invite madness—or worse.
Still, I had to say something.
"…Who are you?"
The figure didn't react to my posture. He simply continued twirling the staff in a slow rhythm.
"I am Headon," the voice replied, echoing with power and calm. "The guardian of the Tower's first floor. And you… are an Irregular."
That name. Headon.
Then it clicked.
My blood ran cold and then boiled with realization.
I was in the Tower of God universe.
This wasn't just some random fantasy world. This was that Tower—the Tower filled with unfathomable beings, deadly tests, and endless floors of ambition, power, betrayal, and legend.
I should have panicked.
But I didn't.
Because deep down, beneath the layers of confusion, pain, and disbelief, there was a fire burning.
Finally.
A world I understood. A world that gave me a chance to rise. And with the Six Eyes in my possession?
This Tower… it was mine for the taking.
"Headon…" I muttered, straightening up.
But he wasn't done.
Without acknowledging my thoughts, he began again, voice like a rehearsed litany:
"What do you desire?"
His tone changed with every word, like he was tasting each one with his mouth.
"Money and wealth? Honor and pride? Authority and power? Revenge? Or something else?"
His glowing orb stopped spinning. The hallway dimmed, as if the Tower itself held its breath.
"Whatever you desire, it is here. All of it. At the top of the Tower."
I stood frozen. He wasn't asking casually.
This was a ritual. A test.
He was asking me what pushed me to open the door. What drove me.
"What's your resolve?" he asked. "Why did you come here, Irregular?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
I had a thousand reasons. A thousand regrets. I wanted to scream that my past life was trash. That I lived chained to expectations, drowned in mediocrity. That I never mattered.
I wanted to say that I'd die before returning to that meaningless existence. That this was my only shot.
But when the moment came, all those thoughts vanished like dust.
What did I truly want?
I looked at my hands—trembling, real, powerful hands. The Six Eyes buzzed faintly behind the cloth over my face. The sheer pressure they emitted could crack apart lies I told myself.
I didn't want salvation.
I didn't want money.
I wanted dominance.
This was my world now. My Tower to claim now. And I wasn't here to beg. I wasn't here to survive.
I was here to stand above.
The hesitation faded. I let my lips curl into a smirk as confidence seeped into my bones. I stood tall ,unwavering as if the Tower already belonged to me.
"The name's Gojo Satoru," I said, voice rich with arrogance. "And I've come to stand above all beings."
"I…"
I pulled off the blindfold,
Blue light poured out—pure, divine, infinite, the glow of my eyes flooding the hallway in shimmering blue light.
"…am the Honored One."