Season 1 – THE CURSED SUMMON
Episode 8: The Memory That Screams
Akio didn't scream.
Even as Ren twisted the cursed blade from his shoulder, carving through divine flesh, he remained silent. Only his breath came sharp, his hands shaking—not from pain, but from doubt.
That was more dangerous.
Ren had seen it before. The moment someone begins to question what they're fighting for—the soul fractures, not the body.
"You hesitated," Ren said coldly, standing over him. "If you'd struck a second sooner, I'd be ash in the snow."
Akio looked up, eyes flickering with something Ren hadn't seen in years.
Humanity.
"I didn't want to believe it," Akio whispered. "But you… you're really gone."
"No," Ren said. "I'm exactly the same. You're just wearing divine blinders."
---
Lyra stood at the tower's edge, arms trembling from the aftershock of their clash. She hadn't moved to help—knew she couldn't interfere. This was between them. Brothers torn by fate, tearing through each other in the name of gods who never bled.
Ren stepped back. The cursed blade hummed, coated in god-blood.
Akio slowly stood, leaning on his sword. His divine aura dimmed.
"You don't understand, Ren. The system—it showed me visions. You as a tyrant. You as a Warlord."
"I probably will become one," Ren said flatly. "That's how the game is rigged. But if I'm going to be a monster… I'll choose what kind."
The two stared at each other.
No more words.
Just silence thick with regret.
---
Later.
Akio was gone.
He fled during the night, too weak to fight, too broken to stay. Ren had let him. Not out of mercy. Out of strategy.
Akio was still useful. Even now, a pawn that hadn't realized whose board he stood on.
---
Ren sat alone near the fire, staring into it.
Recursion Core was stable again.
> [Skill Cooldown Complete]
[Warning: Using Recursion Core again may fracture your psyche]
[Continue? Y/N]
He didn't answer.
Not yet.
Lyra sat across from him. Quiet. Watching.
"He still cares for you," she finally said.
"That's the problem," Ren replied. "Caring makes people predictable."
Lyra flinched at his tone.
She remembered when Ren had been different—human. But now? He wasn't just scarred. He was calcified. Hardened into something steel couldn't dent.
And yet…
She still stayed.
Maybe because she'd seen worse.
Maybe because she was worse.
---
Midnight came.
Ren slept restlessly.
And in sleep—he remembered.
---
FLASHBACK – EARTH, TWO YEARS AGO
A rain-soaked street.
A crumbling apartment.
And a boy kneeling in blood.
Ren was younger. Frailer. Covered in cuts not made by blades, but fists. His father's belt lay broken beside him. His mother was gone. She always left when it got violent.
And Akio?
He was the only one who ever came back.
Ren's door creaked open.
Akio stepped in, soaking wet, a bag of food in one hand.
"Jesus, Ren," he whispered, kneeling. "Again?"
Ren didn't look at him.
Didn't speak.
His eyes were vacant.
Empty.
Akio dropped the bag and grabbed him.
Forced Ren to look up.
"You're not alone," he whispered. "I swear, even if the whole world turns on you… I won't."
Ren didn't cry.
He never cried.
But that night, his hand gripped Akio's wrist.
Like a drowning man.
---
Present – Ren Awoke.
And vomited.
Pain wracked his stomach.
Not physical.
Memory-sickness.
The system had begun poisoning his dreams—forcing him to relive what used to matter.
But that part of him was dead.
He had buried it.
---
Lyra came to his side. "Another attack?"
Ren nodded, wiping his mouth.
"It's getting worse."
She hesitated. Then asked, "Why not use the Core again? Rewind before you met Akio."
He shook his head.
"If I do it too often, I stop being real."
She didn't understand.
He barely did.
But he felt it. Every reset tore away another thread of his humanity. He was a tapestry unraveling in reverse.
---
The next morning, they marched again.
South, toward the Shattered Vale—an ancient ruin sealed by the gods long ago. The Warlord's final whispers pointed there. Supposedly, it held a forbidden archive. A vault of pre-system relics.
If Ren could get inside...
He might find something to sever the gods' chain permanently.
---
But the system responded.
It always did.
> [Priority Threat Detected: Ren Aizawa – The Learner]
[Deploying Prototype Units: Archons – Judgment Class]
[Location: Nearing Southern Vale]
[Time to Impact: 6 hours, 43 minutes]
---
Six Hours Later.
Rain fell.
Thick. Cold. Heavy with ash.
Ren and Lyra reached the valley.
What they saw made even Ren stop breathing for a moment.
A graveyard.
Of cities.
Skyscrapers half-buried in dirt. Towers made of chrome and forgotten data. Metal trees twisted into scaffolds. The Shattered Vale was not of this world—it was Earth, broken and repurposed, thrown into this realm like a scar across the heavens.
Ren stared in silence.
"What the hell…?"
Lyra clutched her coat. "Is this your home?"
"No," he muttered. "This is… someone's memory."
---
At the center of the Vale stood a spire.
A monolith humming with corrupted code.
Ren stepped forward.
And something inside it screamed.
Not a voice.
Not a sound.
But a memory.
A living fragment.
---
> [Memory Fragment Detected]
[Warning: Exposure will trigger backlash]
[Proceed? Y/N]
Ren reached out.
Touched it.
---
FLASH MEMORY – UNKNOWN TIME
A boy stood surrounded by corpses.
Not Ren.
Not Akio.
A third figure.
Eyes black as void.
Smiling.
"Let's restart again," the boy said.
And the world burned backward.
---
Ren ripped his hand away.
Blood poured from his nose.
Lyra rushed to him. "Ren?!"
He gasped, clutching his chest. "He's… one of them. One of the Seven."
"Who?"
Ren looked up.
Eyes wide.
"The one who remembers everything. The Original Learner."
Lyra froze.
"You mean…"
Ren nodded slowly.
"One of the Seven Warlords... is me. From the future."
---
Far away, Akio reached a temple.
Fell to his knees.
And screamed at the altar.
"I CAN'T DO THIS!"
The Echoes did not answer.
But something else did.
A voice deeper.
Older.
Not divine.
But something that hates divinity.
"You still want to save him?"
Akio turned.
A figure stood in the darkness.
Wrapped in chain and void.
"Then take my power."