Season 1 – THE CURSED SUMMON
Episode 10: The Sin of Knowing
The storm hadn't stopped since the Archons fell.
Thunder rolled like distant drums. The sky above the Shattered Vale churned—black clouds bleeding gold along their seams, like the gods were staring down through the cracks in heaven.
Ren sat alone near the cliff's edge, blood still crusted across his chest. His wound hadn't healed properly.
It refused to.
Because divine wounds didn't close the way normal ones did.
They lingered. They reminded.
And the reminder was burning a hole in his sanity.
---
Behind him, Lyra and Akio stood apart—silent, still unsure how to speak around each other. Old loyalty weighed on one side. Betrayal and guilt on the other.
Ren didn't care anymore.
He'd seen too much to pretend words fixed anything.
Still, Lyra finally broke the silence.
"We should leave. The Vale's no longer safe."
Ren didn't turn. "Where would you have us go?"
Akio answered. "North. The Bastion of Glass. That's where the third memory fragment is stored."
Ren exhaled. His voice was bitter.
"More answers. More pieces. More… sins."
He looked up at them finally.
"Every one of these fragments costs something. The first took my sanity. The second nearly took my life. What do you think the third will take?"
---
They left the Vale behind.
But not the weight of it.
Every step Ren took felt heavier, like the truth buried in his mind was clawing to be remembered.
> [System Notice]
[Cognitive Overload Detected – Memory Sync Level 3 Imminent]
[Warning: Neural Instability Rising]
He didn't tell the others.
Didn't want them to know.
He just kept walking.
---
Three days later.
The Bastion of Glass appeared at the edge of the frozen horizon like a broken god's cathedral.
Shards of mirrored crystal stretched to the sky like spears. It wasn't a fortress.
It was a wound.
And Ren could feel the third memory fragment pulsing at its heart.
But something was wrong.
As they stepped inside, the cold vanished instantly. Replaced by heat.
Heavy, suffocating, internal heat. As if the walls themselves were alive.
Ren's system blared again.
> [Fragment Detected – Pre-System Archive #3]
[Caution: High Memory Burn Risk]
[Divine Interference Detected]
And then—his vision shattered.
---
He fell into the memory.
Not slowly.
Violently.
---
He saw a battlefield soaked in fire. Towers fell like dominoes as skies split with screaming metal.
And standing in the center… was himself.
No, not quite.
It was a version of him older, calmer, emptier.
Clad in obsidian armor forged from the corpses of Archons.
Leading armies of chained creatures that bled black fog.
His voice, when it came, was hollow.
> "I killed the gods because they lied."
"But I killed humanity because they begged me not to."
Then—he turned.
Looked directly at Ren.
"You aren't me yet. But you will be."
"And the price of knowing… is becoming."
---
Ren screamed as he was thrown back into his body.
Blood poured from his eyes and ears.
Akio caught him, barely. "Ren?! What the hell was that?"
Lyra was already drawing her blade. "What did you see?"
Ren couldn't answer at first. His throat was raw from the scream.
He trembled—utterly shattered.
"...It's real," he whispered.
"They weren't metaphors. The Warlords… They're memories."
Akio froze. "What?"
Ren looked at them both, voice low and cracked.
"They're not separate people. They're versions of me. Every Warlord… is me from a different point in time."
---
Silence fell.
Only the breathing of three broken souls remained.
Akio sank to his knees, shaking.
"No… That can't be right."
Ren ignored him.
His system flickered to life again.
> [Memory Fragment #3 Secured – System Sync 47%]
[Skill Archive: "Soul Compression: Phase Seed – UNLEARNABLE"]
[Warning: Host Identity Conflict Approaching Threshold]
Then another prompt. One that hit harder than the last.
> [Divine Learner Passive Activated]
[New Trait Absorbed: "Temporal Echo"]
[Passive Effect – See glimpses of parallel selves during unstable states.]
Ren clenched his fists.
He remembered standing on a mountain of corpses. Remembered smiling.
And liking it.
---
"Now you understand," came a voice behind them.
They turned.
A woman stood there.
Cloaked in robes of pure time-thread. Her skin shimmered like light reflecting off glass, her eyes hollow yet endless.
Lyra stepped forward, sword raised. "Who the hell are you?"
The woman smiled gently.
"I am the Witness."
"I was born to observe the cycle… and to end it when the pattern becomes unfixable."
She looked directly at Ren.
"You're broken, Ren Aizawa. Not because of what you've done—but because of what you will do."
Ren spat blood. "Then kill me."
She shook her head.
"I can't."
"Because if I do… the Original awakens prematurely."
---
Akio stood.
"I won't let any of this happen. We can still change it."
The Witness tilted her head.
"You can't change what's already been written in the bones of time."
"But you can choose who suffers less."
She raised a hand.
And summoned an image into the air.
A burned village.
Dozens of bodies. Charred. Screaming.
A child holding a melted sword. Wailing.
Ren looked closer.
His face.
That child had his face.
"No," Ren whispered. "I didn't—"
The Witness cut him off.
"You will. This is your path."
"Unless…"
She held out a blade.
One carved from starlight.
"I can seal your growth. Stop your soul from syncing with the other Warlords. You'll lose your potential—but you'll never become them."
Lyra stepped forward. "Wait. That sounds like—"
"A death sentence," Akio finished.
Ren's heart pounded.
It was a choice.
Power or peace.
Truth or denial.
Salvation or damnation.
He looked at the blade.
It pulsed with mercy.
But all he felt… was rage.
Because he remembered what that future version of him said:
> "I killed the gods because they lied."
"But I killed humanity because they begged me not to."
And now… he understood why.
---
"I won't take your seal," Ren said.
The Witness's smile faded.
"Then you are lost."
"No," he said. "I'm choosing to know. No matter what it costs."
Lyra's voice trembled. "Ren, please…"
But he stepped forward.
"I won't let fear decide who I am."
He reached for the fourth fragment.
And everything turned to static.
---
Far above the sky…
In a realm only the divine could access…
The Original opened one eye.
And whispered:
"It begins again."