Chapter 27: The Bloodbound Path
Rayden woke beneath the jagged outcroppings of Hollow Spire's heart, every breath a struggle, every muscle screaming. His blade lay nearby, scorched and cracked at the edge. Around him, smoke drifted through the broken battlefield, and the stench of ash and blood clung to the air.
He sat up slowly.
The silence wasn't peaceful — it was the kind that followed loss.
Lyss limped toward him from the rubble, her arm wrapped in scorched cloth, eyes hollow but alive. "He's gone. For now."
Rayden winced, scanning the wreckage. Half the fighters had fallen. Thorn was nowhere to be seen. Kaelri was being carried on a stretcher, unconscious, whispering strange numbers under her breath.
"We slowed him," Lyss said. "That's all we could do."
Rayden didn't answer. He looked toward the crater where Ashthane had vanished, a rift of charred time still distorting the space. "That wasn't his full power. He was testing us."
"Testing you," Lyss corrected.
---
Later, in the war chamber beneath the Bastion, the survivors gathered.
A new mark had formed on Rayden's chest — not of ink, but of seared energy. A crimson eye surrounded by black flame. The Berserk System had evolved again.
[System Notice: Path Unlocked – Bloodbound Tier Initiation]
[Caution: Soul Fragment Fusion Detected – Host Mental Stability at Risk]
Lyss and the others watched in silence as the System interface hovered over Rayden's hand like a flame refusing to die.
"We need answers," Jexa said flatly. "He called you an error. A relic. What are you, Rayden?"
He looked at his palm, where lines of red code danced like blood in water.
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out."
---
That night, Kaelri woke from her coma screaming.
They rushed to her side. Her eyes were wide, wild, pupils dilated like someone staring into the sun for too long.
"I saw him," she gasped. "I saw Ashthane before he was Ashthane."
Rayden knelt beside her. "What do you mean?"
"He… was human, once. Or close. A prototype. A fusion of mind and system. The Seers created him — no, sacrificed someone to make him."
She clutched Rayden's sleeve. "They did it before. They'll do it again. You're not the first, Rayden. You're the latest."
---
Rayden stood before the old vault beneath the Bastion — sealed for centuries, untouched even by the Broken. Inside were the shattered records of ancient systems, pre-collapse tech, and relic-class cores.
He pressed his hand to the lock.
The Berserk System flared.
The stone parted.
Inside, amidst the dust and wires, sat a throne made of chain and bone. A figure was bound to it — or rather, what remained of a figure. A husk. A fossil of power long consumed.
Rayden stepped forward.
A whisper reached him.
"You followed the path… as I did…"
It was a voice that came not from the body, but from the memory etched in the air itself. A soul-echo.
"I was the first host… of Berserk."
---
Rayden knelt.
"Tell me."
The echo responded.
"They used us… forged us into weapons… then called us errors when we couldn't be controlled. You are different, Rayden. You didn't just inherit the System… you awakened it fully."
The air vibrated.
[Memory Fragment Absorbed: Berserker Prime – Yaren of the First Flame]
[Skill Unlocked: Wrath Conduction – Lv.1]
[System Warning: Host Neural Pathways Under Stress. Recommend Soul Anchor.]
Rayden's breath hitched. Images rushed into his mind — memories that weren't his: fire wars, starfall battles, betrayal by the High Seers. The origin of the Berserk System was not divine.
It was vengeance.
---
When he emerged, Lyss and Jexa were waiting.
"What's in there?" Jexa asked.
Rayden stared into the night.
"Answers."
He raised his hand, and the crimson eye on his chest glowed. Flames coiled around his fingers, calm yet full of fury.
"I'm not just going to stop Ashthane," he said. "I'm going to expose the Seers for what they've done — and burn their lies from history."
The war had changed.
Now it wasn't just survival.
It was revelation.