Season 1 – THE CURSED SUMMON
Episode 9: The Deal That Binds
The temple air reeked of blood.
Akio stood still, panting. Rain mixed with sweat and guilt soaked his robes. The voice he heard wasn't divine. It was something older. Something the gods feared.
Chains slithered along the altar. From the black behind it, the figure emerged.
"Do you still want to save him?" it asked again. Not kindly. Not cruelly. Just… asking. As if it already knew the answer.
Akio hesitated. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head. No eyes. Just a mouth sewn shut by gold thread, which still moved as if it spoke from a place deeper than voice.
> "I am what your gods tried to erase."
"I am the memory of the first betrayal."
"I am the price of truth."
Akio took a step back, divine aura flaring reflexively—but the chains tightened, binding the room in silence.
> "You seek to stop a future where Ren becomes a Warlord."
"But your gods created that path."
"You fight their enemy while following their rules."
The figure raised a hand—and Akio's divine interface shattered.
[ERROR]
[Divine Protocol Disconnected]
[Authority Link Severed]
Akio gasped as his HUD vanished. His blessings… gone.
"What did you do?!"
> "I gave you freedom."
"Now you must choose."
"Do you want power—or salvation?"
Akio fell to his knees.
He thought of Ren.
Not the killer. Not the destroyer.
The boy who once grabbed his hand and whispered, "Don't let go."
"…If it means saving him, I'll take anything," Akio whispered.
The chains surged forward.
Wrapped around his chest.
Sank into his bones.
> [NEW CONTRACT FORGED]
[CLASS: CHAINED SAVIOR]
[SKILL OBTAINED: "REJECTION ORDER" – Cancel one divine command per day.]
[PASSIVE: "Oathbound" – Cannot harm Ren Aizawa directly.]
[WARNING: This contract cannot be undone.]
And just like that…
Akio became something the gods could no longer see.
A rogue variable.
---
Elsewhere, deep within the Shattered Vale…
Ren sat, shivering under the weight of what he'd seen.
Future self.
The Warlord with no face.
The Original Learner.
Lyra knelt beside him, brushing frost from his shoulder.
"You've gone pale," she whispered.
Ren didn't speak.
Not right away.
He was listening.
The memory still echoed through his nerves like a scream too large for flesh to hold.
"I saw… me. But not me. Not yet. The one who remembers everything."
"The first Learner?" Lyra asked.
He nodded.
"Which means," he said slowly, "I don't become a monster. I've already become one. I'm just… catching up."
---
They stood before the spire again. Its surface now pulsing with soft, rhythmic light.
A heartbeat.
Ren placed his palm on it again—but this time, it didn't scream.
It whispered.
> [Access Granted – Fragment 2/7 Unlocked]
[Skill Archive: "Pre-System Tech – Obsidian Protocol"]
[Skill Not Learnable. Storage Only.]
He frowned.
"It's sealed."
Lyra raised a brow. "Then what good is it?"
He stared at the message. "It's… a roadmap. There's seven of these fragments. If I collect all seven…"
Lyra finished it for him. "You unlock something even the gods buried."
Ren nodded slowly.
Seven Fragments.
Seven Warlords.
Seven chances to rewrite destiny.
But then—his system pinged.
> [URGENT WARNING]
[Prototype Archons Approaching – ETA: 00:19:33]
His breath caught.
Lyra gripped her blade.
"They're sending Archons?"
He looked at her.
"If they sent anything less, I'd be insulted."
---
Nineteen minutes later.
They came.
Falling from the sky like metallic angels.
Three in total. Each twelve feet tall. Wingless, faceless. Armor of shifting obsidian, engraved with divine glyphs that twisted mid-air. Blades of light buzzed in their hands.
ARCHON – JUDGMENT CLASS
[Objective: Destroy Ren Aizawa]
[Sub-Objective: Annihilate All Witnesses]
The moment they landed, the ground fractured.
The Vale shuddered.
Ren didn't move.
He was done running.
---
The first Archon lunged.
Lyra moved first—faster than she ever had.
Steel clanged against light. Sparks screamed as her sword clashed with divine energy. But she wasn't the target.
She was a distraction.
Ren activated Recursion Core.
> [Recursion Core Active – Version 4.7.9]
[Skill Borrowed: "Magnetic Surge – Level 3"]
[Target: Eastern Archon]
The Archon froze mid-leap—its metal limbs pulled downward violently as Ren redirected the planet's magnetic field around it. Its blade cracked into stone, carving a crater.
But that left two more.
Ren turned—
Too late.
The second Archon's spear struck him clean in the chest.
He didn't scream.
He remembered.
> [HP: -67%]
[Internal Damage Critical. System Stabilizing.]
Blood sprayed from his mouth.
Lyra screamed his name—but he waved her off.
Activated another skill.
> [Divine Learner Activated – Absorbing "Kinetic Deferral" from Hostile Unit]
[New Skill: Kinetic Deferral (Lv. 1) – Redirect one attack's force every 10 minutes.]
The next spear strike came.
Ren caught it bare-handed.
The force redirected back into the Archon's chest.
A hole blew through its divine plating.
It staggered—sputtering divine code from its frame like dying light.
---
Then came the third.
Silent.
Impossibly fast.
Its blade aimed for Ren's skull—
Until a chain erupted from nowhere.
Snagged its arm.
And ripped it backwards into the cliff wall.
Ren stared, panting.
Then turned.
"...No way."
Akio stepped out from the shadows.
But he looked different.
His divine glow was gone.
Replaced by a dull silver aura—and eyes that shimmered with fractured light.
"I'm not here to kill you," he said. "Not anymore."
Ren narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?"
Akio lifted his chained arms.
"I made a deal."
And with a whisper, he commanded:
> [Rejection Order: Cancel All Archon Protocols in Area.]
The Archons froze mid-air.
One by one, they convulsed—then shattered like glass.
The light in the Vale dimmed.
Ren stared in disbelief.
Akio—no longer divine.
No longer bound.
Just… chained.
And powerful.
---
"You really are insane," Ren muttered, clutching his bleeding chest.
Akio nodded. "Yeah. You made me this way."
They stood in silence.
Neither sure what came next.
Until Lyra asked the question neither wanted to.
"…Now what?"
---
Ren looked up at the black sky.
At the Vale behind them.
At the ruins ahead.
At the fragments still waiting to be found.
Then, finally, at Akio.
"I don't know," he admitted.
"But I think we've both crossed the point of no return."
---
Far away, in a divine sanctum…
The gods watched.
Cold.
Silent.
Unmoving.
Until one finally spoke.
"The Chained One has been born."
Another replied.
"The Learner approaches the truth."
And the third whispered what none wanted to hear.
"Soon, the Original will awaken."