Three hundred years before Raen's rebirth, in a realm where time did not flow forward, the Demon God sat upon a throne carved from the marrow of extinct titans.
It had no name. It had devoured all of them.
Where its eyes should have been, voids spun.
Where its heart should have pulsed, a sun had collapsed.
It watched the boy—Raen Valor—die for the second time.
And then it laughed.
---
"He Broke the Cycle"
"He was supposed to fade," whispered a voice. It came from a thousand-winged creature kneeling before the throne.
"He consumed a god's Name," said another. "The resonance should've burned him to ash."
"And yet," said the Demon God, rising slowly from the throne, "he survived the echo."
It stepped forward.
Before it, Raen's soul floated—torn, raw, barely stitched together by a thread of will.
Stubborn, the Demon God thought. Or perhaps… hungry.
The Demon God knelt before Raen's soul, clawed fingers tracing lines in the memory-stained air.
"I will give you a choice, boy. Not because I pity you, but because you intrigue me."
---
"Live. But not as you were."
Raen opened his eyes—within the Void.
He didn't scream.
Even now, in death, the fire in him refused to dim.
"Who are you?" he asked. His voice echoed into eternity.
The Demon God smiled.
"I am the only one who remembered the beginning. And I will be the last to forget the end."
Raen frowned. "Cryptic bastard."
The Demon laughed—deep, ancient, shaking the foundations of the dead stars around them.
"Good. You still have teeth. You'll need them."
---
"You Will Be Born Again."
"But not now. Not yet."
Raen's ghost tilted its head. "What's the price?"
The Demon's expression darkened. Galaxies collapsed in its breath.
"You will return in a world that has already forgotten you. Three centuries from now."
"You will consume gods. Eat their Names. Wear their memories like cloaks."
"You will not belong anywhere."
"You will not be free."
Raen waited.
"And in return?" he asked.
The Demon's smile widened.
"I will give you a System that none of their kind can trace. A path that was once severed. A hunger even the gods cannot understand."
"And a weapon."
---
The First Training: Echo Resonance
Raen stood—reborn in soul, if not yet in flesh.
A field of broken thrones surrounded him—each one occupied by a fragment of a dead god's echo. These weren't full entities. Just memories, sealed and preserved by the Demon.
"Your first trial," said the Demon, "is not combat."
"It is survival."
Raen blinked. "What do you mean?"
"You will walk through each of these thrones. Sit upon them. If the echo accepts you, you live."
"If not?"
"You will die again."
---
Trial One: The Tongueless God
The first throne was carved of obsidian and silence.
Raen stepped forward, heart steady.
The memory of the Tongueless God surged—pain, suppression, forgotten truths.
When he sat, the throne screamed. Not in sound, but in emotion.
> "You are not worthy."
> "You remember too much."
Raen gritted his teeth, blood pouring from his ears. But he stayed.
And the scream faded.
A sigil etched itself into his chest—faint, unfinished.
The Demon God watched, unreadable.
---
Trial Two: The Laughing Saint
This throne bled.
It bled laughter. Chaos. Ecstasy. Lies made flesh.
Raen stepped into the throne's madness.
The echo surged.
> "A joke, a joke, he thinks he can be more!"
"He'll choke on Names like all before him!"
"Wanna see what forgetting yourself feels like?"
Raen bit his tongue.
Literally.
To anchor himself.
He endured.
The throne went still.
Another fragment of a sigil burned into him.
---
After Three Thrones
Raen collapsed.
The Demon God spoke.
"You're not ready for more. You've absorbed fragments of concepts older than your species."
Raen coughed blood. His soul trembled. But his eyes—his eyes were learning.
"I can take more."
"No," the Demon said. "The resonance will shatter your core. Even now your soul is warping."
Raen forced himself to one knee. "What is this place?"
"A pocket within death. A training field for those who walk between Names."
"You mean… Devourers?"
The Demon smiled.
"No. I mean Kings."
---
The Memory of the Blade
Then the Demon lifted its hand.
A sword—long, black, and weeping smoke—descended.
Not into Raen's hand. Into his memory.
"This blade is not yours yet," it said. "But it will remember you."
"When the time comes… it will find you."
Raen looked up. "What's its name?"
"Names are lies," the Demon said. "But if you must call it something…"
> "Call it Ashrend."
> "It cuts not flesh. But legacy."
---
Back to the Womb
The training ended not with a fight, but with a whisper.
> "When you are reborn, you will forget this. But only at the surface."
> "Deep within, the hunger will wake. The echoes will find you."
And so the Demon touched Raen's fractured soul, and it collapsed into stardust—
Descending—
Through timelines—
Into a world that had moved on—
Until, in a peasant's home beneath a withered sky,
A cry pierced the silence.
And Raen Valor breathed again.
---
End of Chapter 5