Ashfield

Enter a graveyard too weak to put down a single corpse. Survive, grow, and become the thing the dead cannot outrun.
This is later.
You, a ruined field, and a horde that has run out of ideas.

You do not start like this. I wish you did.
You start like this.
Small sword. Several swings needed. A lot of dignity leaving the building.

So you run. You grab a little power. You try again. At some point the dead stop being a nightmare and start being your problem.
Then something bigger walks in, and the old instinct comes back.

Don't worry. You'll want him back later. Just to see what you've become.
That is the whole game. Pathetic. Then impossible. Then you climb it again.
What you actually do
Multiple hero's. Each has a unique attack. Every upgrade is bolted onto the same attack. It gets wider, meaner, and eventually becomes a problem for the whole field.

The first minute is supposed to be embarrassing. Several attacks. One corpse. Running is correct.

Fifteen minutes later the camera has pulled back and that same attack is a disaster. The run keeps a number for how far you climbed.

Draft pieces of the attack. Fuse the ones that start talking to each other. One fusion-of-fusions per night, if you earn it.

The same warlord walks in more than once. Early, he hunts you. Later, you hunt him.

Clear the Summit. Stay for Endless if you want to see the density outrun the build.

Between nights
A ruined hub. A quest board that unlocks new cards and new trouble — not a permanent damage shop. Power resets at the gate. The humiliating climb is the game.