Season 1 – THE CURSED SUMMON
Episode 7: The Chosen Betrayer
Blood dripped from Ren's fingers.
Not his own—this time. The Herald's ichor stained the stone beneath his feet, still glowing faintly with divine energy. Ren's arms trembled, his lungs burned, but his eyes never left the spot where the angel vanished.
He had survived.
But that wasn't a victory.
He could still feel the system watching.
Waiting.
"You shouldn't be alive," Lyra whispered behind him, rising from the rubble. Her voice trembled—not from fear, but from something worse. Awe. "You… changed the system."
Ren didn't answer.
Because part of him hadn't come back right.
Ever since activating Recursion Core, there was a... silence in his soul. Something missing. He couldn't feel the part of himself that died. It was gone. Swallowed. The reset had worked—but at a cost he couldn't measure.
---
Hours passed.
They buried the Warlord.
Or rather, what was left of him.
He died smiling, seated on his broken throne, fingers wrapped around the hilt of his cursed blade. His final words to Ren had been simple:
"Break their cycle. Or burn with it."
Ren didn't mourn.
He didn't know how to anymore.
---
They escaped the ruins by nightfall, trudging through the Black Hollow's corpse-strewn outskirts. The fog had receded, likely fearing the Herald's divine residue, but the silence lingered.
Neither of them spoke.
Not until they reached the edge of the Crimson Marsh.
Lyra broke first. "So… what now?"
Ren stopped walking.
Then turned toward her, eyes dead calm.
"Now we make the gods bleed."
---
Far away, the city of Velris wept.
Smoke rose from temple spires.
Corpses lined the marketplace.
And in the center of it all stood Akio.
Clad in silver armor veined with runes, divine light glowing in his veins, he looked nothing like the boy Ren once knew. His sword, gifted by the Council, shimmered with fragments of celestial judgment.
Around him, the city burned.
It was his trial.
A "test of heart."
The system called it a cleansing.
He had killed over two hundred people.
And he hadn't blinked once.
---
A priestess crawled toward him, her body torn, hands bleeding. "Please… why?"
Akio looked down at her.
And smiled.
"Because they said you weren't worth saving."
He ran her through.
The system pulsed.
> [Skill Acquired: Lightbrand – Tier A]
[Divine Affinity Increased]
[Judgment Level: 2 of 5]
Akio wiped the blade clean.
He didn't feel guilty.
He didn't feel anything at all.
---
Flashback – 13 Days Earlier
When Akio awoke in the divine sanctum, he had screamed.
Begged.
But the gods didn't listen.
Instead, they spoke into his mind.
"Your friend has become a threat."
"He is infected by the Warlords."
"You must correct the world."
Akio didn't understand.
Ren was his best friend. His brother. His hero.
But the system kept showing him visions.
Ren covered in blood.
Ren standing over corpses.
Ren smiling as angels fell.
Akio cried.
And then… he stopped crying.
Because slowly, he understood.
Ren was no longer Ren.
He was something else.
Something that had to be destroyed.
---
Present – The Holy Sanctuary of Eidros
Akio knelt before the Echoes.
Their voices danced through his skull like glass windchimes.
"The Learner has fused a recursion skill."
"He must be erased before it stabilizes."
"You are the Chosen Sword."
"Cut the thread."
Akio nodded.
"I'll kill him."
---
Meanwhile – Ren's Camp, Northern Wildlands
They rested in a shattered watchtower—what remained of a failed resistance outpost. The walls were scorched, beds torn to bones and rusted steel, but it was shelter.
Lyra paced, nervous.
Ren sat against the wall, staring at his hand. Watching the glowing veins fade slowly. Recursion Core still pulsed in his soul, but the system had locked it for cooldown.
> [Skill Recovery in Progress: 4 hours, 32 minutes]
He was mortal again.
And Akio was coming.
Ren could feel it in the wind.
"I need a new weapon," he muttered.
Lyra stopped pacing. "The Warlord's blade is fused to your soul. You can't use another."
"I need a weapon for him," Ren replied, looking up. "If they turned Akio… he's not just a Chosen."
Lyra frowned. "He'll be like you. Maybe stronger."
"No," Ren whispered. "He'll be worse. Because he believes he's right."
---
Hours Later – The Wind Howled.
Lyra spotted the light first. A glow on the horizon. Too fast to be a torch. Too clean to be magic. It moved like a comet.
Ren stood.
Drew the cursed blade from the stone beside him.
"Stay back," he told her.
Then, the sky tore open.
Akio descended.
Armor radiant. Eyes hollow.
His feet touched the ground with the grace of prophecy.
And Ren felt it in his bones.
This was not a reunion.
It was a sentence.
Akio looked at him, almost kindly.
"I've missed you."
Ren smiled coldly. "That makes one of us."
Akio's expression didn't change.
"I don't want to kill you. I want to bring you back."
"To what?" Ren said, stepping forward. "To chains? To a life where we lick the boots of gods and thank them for not stepping harder?"
Akio's fingers tightened on his blade.
"Ren, you broke the cycle."
"Good."
Akio's sword ignited.
"Then I'll break you."
---
They clashed.
Steel met soul.
Magic screamed.
Ren moved with instinct born from death. Akio moved like the system itself was guiding his every twitch. Their blades collided with thunder, shaking the ruined tower apart. Sparks lit the night.
Ren ducked under a holy arc, sliced across Akio's shoulder—only for the wound to close instantly.
> [Auto-Restore Triggered]
[Blessing of the Echoes: Health Lock – 60 Seconds]
Ren's eyes narrowed.
Akio was untouchable.
For now.
Akio raised his sword, light building.
"This ends now."
Ren let the blade fall from his hand.
"Then go ahead. Do it."
Akio froze.
"What?"
Ren stared into his friend's eyes. "You still believe in justice, don't you? Then look me in the eye. Look at everything I've done—and kill me."
Akio hesitated.
Just one heartbeat.
That's all Ren needed.
He flicked his wrist.
A stolen sigil lit beneath Akio's feet—one of the Warlord's last tricks.
Chains of null magic erupted from the stone, binding Akio's limbs.
For the first time, Akio looked shocked.
"Ren—!"
Ren grabbed the cursed blade.
And drove it through Akio's shoulder.
The system screamed.
Akio did not.
---
Blood soaked the snow.
Akio collapsed, breathing hard.
Ren knelt beside him, breathing harder.
"You're not the enemy," Ren whispered. "But if you stand in front of me again—"
Akio looked up.
Tears finally in his eyes.
"—I'll make you my enemy."
---
Far above, the gods watched.
And for the first time…
They feared the Learner.