The chamber beneath the ruins reeked of smoke and iron, as though the walls themselves had bled. Reiji's footsteps echoed against stone carved with forgotten inscriptions, each mark telling of a covenant forged in silence. At the center lay the altar—blackened, cracked, its surface smeared with the stains of countless sacrifices.
It was no temple. It was a wound carved into the earth.
The Codex of the Forgotten pulsed faintly in Reiji's grip, its chains rattling against his arm. It had led him here, as though demanding he face the truth buried deeper than any blade could cut.
---
The altar's presence gnawed at him. Shadows pooled unnaturally, whispering words that clawed at the edges of his sanity. They spoke not in voices, but in memories—faces he had killed, eyes he could never forget, screams that never truly left him.
This is where oaths are severed.
This is where the Court was born.
This is where silence devoured truth.
Reiji placed his palm on the altar. The stone burned cold, and visions flooded him.
He saw robed figures kneeling, their hands drenched in blood as they swore loyalty not to justice, but to silence.
He saw kings who begged for mercy offered up like lambs, their lives ended in the name of order.
He saw children raised not to live, but to kill—their names erased before they could even be remembered.
And at the heart of it all, he saw the first Shadow Monarch, crowned not in light but in ash, standing before this very altar as if enthroned by betrayal itself.
---
Reiji staggered back, his breathing ragged. "All of it… began here."
But the altar was not content with visions. Its voice crept into his thoughts, cold and deliberate.
You bear the Codex. You are its witness. Will you remain another blade of the Court, or will you carve your own truth?
The Codex's chains tightened, binding tighter to his wrist, as though forcing him to answer.
"I am no one's blade," Reiji hissed. "Not anymore."
The altar trembled. Cracks split its surface, spilling black mist that twisted into shapes—phantoms of assassins, each one bearing the face of someone Reiji had slain.
Renji stood among them. His brother's eyes were hollow, his mouth stitched shut by threads of shadow. Yet even in silence, his presence was an accusation Reiji could not escape.
Reiji dropped to his knees, his blade shaking in his hand. "Don't… Don't do this to me."
The phantom of Renji raised a blade of its own.
---
The chamber erupted into chaos. Each phantom lunged at him, wielding weapons forged of grief and betrayal. Reiji fought back, his strikes desperate, each blow cutting through shadows only for them to reform. His body screamed with exhaustion, but the altar demanded the battle.
Steel clashed against specters, sparks flying against the oppressive dark. Reiji's mind fractured with each face he recognized—friends, rivals, innocents caught in the Court's web. Every life he had taken was a blade turned against him.
You cannot fight what you are, the altar whispered. You are silence. You are betrayal. You are death.
"No," Reiji roared, his blade carving a brilliant arc through the shadows. "I am more than what you made me!"
The Codex pulsed, pages fluttering open. Words etched in blood ignited with crimson light, enveloping his weapon. With one final strike, he cut through the phantom of Renji—not erasing it, but laying it to rest.
The chamber fell silent.
---
The altar cracked further, spilling embers of dying shadow. In the rubble where phantoms once stood, a fragment of obsidian gleamed—a shard etched with the same symbol that stained the Codex's cover. Reiji picked it up carefully, and as he did, he heard the altar's final whisper:
The Codex is not complete. To restore it, you must gather what was broken. Each altar holds a shard. Each shard tells a truth the Court cannot bear.
Reiji clenched the shard in his fist. His path was no longer survival. It was revelation.
---
The silence was broken by a voice at the stairwell.
"So… the Blackened Altar has spoken to you."
Reiji turned sharply, blade raised. From the shadows stepped a woman cloaked in raven-black, her mask fractured down the middle, revealing one crimson eye.
"I wondered who the Codex would choose," she said softly. "I prayed it would not be you."
Reiji's voice was cold. "Who are you?"
She descended slowly, each step deliberate, her presence sharp as a blade.
"I was once like you," she said. "A blade of the Court. But I chose differently. My name was erased, so you may call me what remains: the Keeper of Ashes."
Her gaze fell upon the Codex bound to Reiji's arm. "You are walking a path that will unmake the Court itself. But know this, Shinomiya Reiji—every shard you claim will demand a price. And before the end, you will be forced to choose whether the world deserves to know the truth… or whether silence is the only mercy left."
The Codex pulsed again, its weight heavier than ever. Reiji met her gaze, his resolve hardening.
"Then let it test me. Let it break me. But I will not let silence win again."
The Keeper of Ashes gave a faint smile, though her eyes burned with sorrow. "Then you are already marked. The next altar awaits."
And as she vanished into the mist, the chamber collapsed behind her, leaving Reiji alone with the Codex, the shard, and the path of betrayal he could no longer turn from.