The Revenant stood taller than the gate it shattered through—its frame a blackened skeleton, wrapped in perpetual flame, each rib glowing like the bars of a furnace. The earth behind it crackled with molten cracks, and its footsteps scorched the stone.
Raen didn't move. He couldn't.
He only had a dagger—iron, dull at the tip. The kind meant for peeling roots, not fighting death incarnate.
"Selene," he muttered.
"I see it," she said calmly.
Then the Revenant lunged—no build-up, just immediate momentum. One moment it stood idle, the next, it was flying forward like a thrown weapon, arms ablaze and trailing embers.
Raen barely rolled aside. Heat singed the side of his face. The dagger clattered from his grip and skittered toward the wall.
"Shit!"
Selene didn't move until the Revenant twisted back toward them, ribs flaring wide like an open bear trap.
She extended her hand into the air.
The shadows bent.
From beneath her boots, ink-black shapes unraveled—uncoiling, not cast—and formed a humanoid silhouette with jagged limbs and no face. The Shadow twisted once and then darted forward in a spiral, slipping past the Revenant's arms like smoke through a broken window.
The flames bent around it but didn't burn.
She had these types of powers? She could've killed me if she wanted to earlier. Raen scrambled to his feet, grabbed the dagger, and watched as Selene whispered something he didn't catch.
The Shadow leapt, striking the Revenant's side—and passed through.
Nothing.
The flames whirled, and the Shadow exploded into curls of ash.
Selene frowned. "It's not physical. We need a binding."
She drew a symbol in the air—three jagged lines converging inward. Behind her, the earth cracked open like a mouth yawning in silence.
A creature emerged: small, low to the ground, shaped like a serpent made of stitched black fabric and trailing chains from its jaws.
The Shadow Eater.
It crawled forward, slow and graceful. When it touched the air beneath the Revenant's ribs, the creature froze. Not stopped—frozen. Mid-motion, mid-breath, its fire flickering but locked in place. Even the smoke seemed paused.
Raen didn't waste it.
He rushed in, dagger held backward, and jabbed for the Revenant's skull—only for the heat to ignite the air inches from its surface. The fire rebounded like a slap.
He flew back into the wall, his jacket catching flame, eyes wide with pain.
Selene waved, and the Shadow Eater retreated. The freeze broke. The Revenant roared, a furnace-scream that cracked the stone underfoot.
It looked at Selene now.
"You made it angry," Raen coughed.
"Good," Selene said. Her eyes narrowed, pitch black at the edges. "Let it burn. That's when shadows stretch longest."
The Revenant raised its hand. A sphere of fire grew in its palm.
The fire in the Revenant's hand swelled—no longer a flame, but a churning mass of heat and pressure. Raen squinted against the light. If it launched that, they'd both be ash.
[SYSTEM WARNING – LOCAL DOMAIN: HEAT SATURATION RISING]
Estimated Detonation Yield: 32 Meters / Fatal]
Recommendation: Break Line of Sight or Engage with Binding Effects]
"Selene!" Raen shouted, voice cracking. It's getting hotter! It's almost as if I'm getting cooked for dinner by this bastard!
She didn't answer.
Instead, she exhaled sharply and raised her hand again—but this time, she sliced her thumb against her own blade, let blood fall into the growing shadow beneath her. The Shadow Eater hissed like it tasted something real.
A second figure pulled itself from the void.
This one was taller, armored in black shard-plates and holding a crescent-hooked blade. It looked almost human—until you saw it had no feet. It floated above the stone, trailing mist like a funeral banner.
[NEW ENTITY SUMMONED: DROWNED SHADE – CLASS: Dreadbound]
She's crazy! What are these shadows she's summoning?
The shade twisted its head once—and vanished.
Then—clang.
It reappeared midair behind the Revenant, striking the creature's skull with a downward cleave. The flames hissed and bone cracked. The fireball in the Revenant's hand destabilized.
Raen didn't wait. He leapt in again—not to attack, but to act.
There—beneath its ribs—an exposed core. Not its heart, but something like a Sol fracture.
He threw the dagger. Not at the core—but at the ground beneath it.
The dagger struck stone, bounced—
—into the Revenant's flame-saturated ribcage.
The dagger flared white-hot—then burst with a pulse of compressed light.
The Revenant staggered. Its fireball collapsed inward like a dying star, pulling in air, ash, even the sound around them.
Then—
BOOM.
A low, sucking detonation. The shockwave blew Raen backward again, but the heat passed overhead. The Shade and the Shadow Eater anchored themselves in shadow.
The Revenant knelt now, staggered, molten cracks running along its limbs. It wasn't dead—but it was vulnerable.
Raen's chest heaved. He could taste copper.
And yet, something clicked in his mind. Every step it took and every motion. It followed a rhythm. It wasn't alive—it followed a program.
"Selene…" he said. "It's repeating. Same stance. Same firing posture. Same recovery frames…"
He trailed off.
Selene gave him a look. "You're reading it like a system?"
Raen nodded. "It's not just a monster. It's a pattern wearing skin."
The Revenant stood once more.
The Revenant moved like a thunderclap.
One moment it knelt—cracked, flickering. The next, its limbs snapped back into place with violent precision. Fire poured from its joints like blood.
Raen barely lifted his arms when it struck.
He flew across the forest, hit a tree, and slid down in a crumple of limbs. The hardened dirt cracked where he landed. He tried to move, but couldn't.
Pain—sharp and twisting—ran through his ribs.
Selene lunged forward, shadow stretching again. Her Shade moved to intercept. But this time, the Revenant was ready.
It reached through the Shade's midsection and crushed it like paper. The shadows exploded into smoke, trailing embers. The Shadow Eater hissed but hesitated, as if it was afraid.
The Revenant didn't slow. It drove its molten fist straight into Selene's stomach.
Raen watched—horrified, half-conscious—as she coughed blood and shadow in equal parts. Her body twisted around the strike.
And then… she laughed. Not in pain. Not from madness. But from amusement.
She staggered back, one hand on her wound, the other flicking upward. A signal—not to fight, but to retreat.
The Shadow Eater lunged and wrapped around the Revenant's arm just long enough for her to slip away.
"Selene—!" Raen croaked, blood in his throat.
She looked back. Not with regret, but with curiosity. As if he were a question she no longer needed the answer to.
"You'll survive," she said, almost cheerfully. "I bet on it." And then she vanished into the collapsing shadows.
Leaving him behind.
The Revenant turned toward Raen, flames pulsing like breath.
Alone, broken, bleeding—Raen dragged himself to his knees. He couldn't run. He couldn't fight. He was hopeless.
Raen couldn't feel his legs. His fingers barely twitched in the ash-soaked ground. Every breath scraped his lungs raw. The Revenant stepped closer, its burning skull framed by the crumbling tower's orange light.
This is it.
He wasn't afraid, just tired.
Selene's gone, the wager's laughing, and I'm going to die on my knees.
Then—the System blinked.
> [SYSTEM INTERRUPTION – CONTRACT CLAUSE DETECTED]
Ash Clause Activated – [Condition: Terminal Scenario Triggered]
Passive Boon: "Wagered Ash – Refusal of the End"
Clause Effect: Survival is forcibly negotiated in lieu of direct divine aid.
Cost: Memory Seep. Outcome: Fragment Reclamation.
Ash rose—gently, like breath. Then violently, like wind remembering fire. Raen's vision blurred. He wasn't hallucinating. He saw shadows forming a crown, twisting and burning until they split in half.
> [You Have Inherited: TRAIT FRAGMENT – "Throne Refuser"]
Status: Incomplete.
Origin: The Shattered King of Ashvar.
Class: Shard
Trait Effect: "You do not kneel to those who would bind you. Once per encounter, resist any effect that would suppress your will."
Warning: Fragmented traits may destabilize the Wagering System.
Trait Fragment? What is this? Raen coughed, blood spilling from his mouth.
The Revenant's fire recoiled—just slightly. Almost… in recognition.
Then—
It turned, and walked away.
Not because it was defeated, but because something older had claimed Raen now. And it was forced by the system.
> [WAGER CONDITION FULFILLED: SURVIVE WITHOUT STRIKE]
Gemstone Acquired: Shattered King's Memory (Bound)
Trait Fragment Acquired: Throne Refuser
Passive Registered. Fragment can evolve with further resonance.
What are these? Are these rewards? I didn't even do anything... Raen collapsed fully. Ash clung to his skin like chains trying to remember warmth. His hand clenched around the gemstone. It pulsed—like a dying heart. And, it suddenly entered through his body, clinging like a chain in his heart.
---
The tunnel swallowed him whole.
Raen dragged himself beneath the shattered altar, into a passage choked with soot and forgotten rites. He collapsed beneath the stone, chest heaving. His limbs ached like they had been boiled inside his skin.
Selene's laughter still echoed in the dark.
He didn't have the strength to curse her.
Not yet. If he had the energy earlier, he would've called her every slur in his book. She was lucky.
His breath slowed.
And then:
> [SYSTEM STABILIZATION DETECTED]
Recovery Threshold Reached. Divine Signal: Fragmentary.
Local Domain Lock: Lifted.
The glow of the interface returned, pale and clean against the rot around him.
"System... stabilizing?" Raen whispered, voice scraped raw.
That meant the divine interference—Selene's trick, or maybe the revenant's field—had jammed it before. Whatever just ended must've lifted that lockdown. He was… accessible again.
To who?
> [TRAIT FRAGMENT OBTAINED – "Throne Refuser"]
Description: "You refused a crown bound by death. Even the gods blinked."
Status: Incomplete
Trait Class: Shard
Effect: "You do not kneel to those who would bind you. Once per encounter, resist any effect that would suppress your will."
Source: Unknown – Associated with an Unclaimed Throne.
Raen narrowed his eyes at the screen. "Throne… Refuser?"
He tried to breathe through the weight those words carried.
This wasn't just a stat boost or ability token. The system had tagged a moment of choice—the fact that he'd stayed human, that he hadn't begged or broken when Selene left him to die. It read that refusal as important. Something that meant something.
"Even the gods blinked," he repeated under his breath.
Then the interface blinked again.
> [System Upgrade: Wagering Interface v1.3 – "Rookie Contender"]
Effect:
– Access to Deeper Clause Scripting
– Unlock Memory-Trace Combat Playback
– Enable Void Signature Detection
> > Memory-Trace Combat Playback: 1 Use Available
Void Signatures: 3 Detected Nearby (Shard)
Clause Scripting. That sounded… dangerous. He'd read about it. It let you twist the conditions of wagers—if you were clever.
Memory-Trace Playback. He could replay battles and learn from them. Maybe even relive them. Could he rewind to the moment the revenant moved? Obviously, that is what the system meant.
Void Signature Detection…
"Three? Nearby?" Raen whispered.
I don't know about this. I'll have to learn more about this system. He leaned his head back against the stone wall. Closed his eyes just for a moment—but not to sleep.
So the system had evolved.
It had adapted to his failure. That meant it was watching, not passively and not neutrally, but watching and learning.
He opened the interface one last time.
> "You are now being watched by something that doesn't wager. Be careful."
Raen froze.
What? Not a god. Not a contender.
Something else.
He closed the screen slowly.
Raen exhaled, the air steaming in the chill of the tunnel.
"I'm tired."