Rodolph snarled, swinging his sword against the barrier. The blade bounced off like a toy.
"Bastards!" Rodolph screamed.
As soon as they confirmed the barrier's resistance, Fox, Owl, and Bear turned their backs and entered the darkness of the corridor.
All Kayden could do was scream as the three masked figures vanished down the corridor, but that wasn't his style. They were trapped, but they still had another corridor in this room.
Kayden's eyes strained in the dark to make out their only exit. A hallway's mouth, not dark, but hungry. Light died there before it could whisper against stone. His gut knew the truth. That wasn't an exit; it was a throat, waiting to swallow them whole.
At that moment, ice crawled up Kayden's spine.
The darkness breathed; expanding, contracting. Something moved in that silence. Something that made his bones want to crawl out of his skin.
Kayden stared silently at the hallway. Countless thoughts raced through his mind, but logic prevailed. For now. If there was some powerful artifact to be gained in this crypt, surely something equally powerful would be protecting it. They were not alone.
The barrier shifted from red to a pulsating black. Runes throbbed like inflamed veins, spreading a sickly glow across the walls. The energy didn't just seal the corridor, it spread outward, forming a semicircle of stone pillars around them. Each pillar pulsed with the same black light, creating an unbroken chain of energy. They were caged in an arena with only one exit: the dark corridor where pale bones glinted in distant alcoves.
Kayden's worst fears, realized.
The silence of the corridor shattered. The deliberate scrape of metal against ancient stone made Kayden's spine freeze. Something approached in a shambling gait. Each step echoed like a death sentence across the crypt walls.
Two violet glows cut through the empty darkness.
"Kay, prepare your fragment," Rodolph said, his voice tense for the first time.
Kayden's heart pounded out of rhythm, from the dark, the presence revealed itself.
'Please be wrong. Just once, be wrong about this cursed thing.'
A knight forged from nightmares. Kayden's eyes tried to focus on its armor: black metal that hurt to look at, that made his vision slide away like oil on water. Wherever the knight stepped, shadows thickened. The air around him shimmered like inverted heat.
His helmet was a macabre work of art, with serrated edges like thorns, and a single narrow slit in the visor revealing violet eyes that burned like cold embers.
The sword he carried was long, carved from the same supernatural obsidian color metal as his armor, polished to gleam like black glass. Pale runes ran across its length, pulsing in sync with what seemed like the Knight's heartbeat. If he had one.
The knight stopped three meters away. He tried to hold himself upright, elegant, but couldn't keep from slouching. He looked tired, no, exhausted.
But to the two of them, that sounded more like a provocation than weakness. The knight was in no hurry, after all, they had nowhere to go. Kayden and Rodolph took steps backward involuntarily, only to collide with the barrier again.
They faced each other across cracked stone tiles; Kayden had his back to the sealed barrier, Rudolph right beside him. The knight commanded the center, positioned like a spider in its web.
The knight slashed his sword in a perfect arc, cutting the air with a frightening sound. He took his first step, and Kayden couldn't help but feel like the knight's prey.
The knight's next move was fluid, like a wave crashing. As quick as lightning. The obsidian sword came so close that Kayden could feel the coldness of its blade, forcing him to dive aside on instinct. A scarlet line marked his cheek where the edge had kissed his skin.
But that didn't stop his momentum. The Knight connected another attack toward Kayden, like a deadly poem.
"Shit!" Rodolph barely blocked the follow-up, the impact forcing him two steps back. "This one isn't like the others, kid!"
Kayden rolled, pulling out his dagger. The red fragment in his pocket vibrated violently, begging to be used. Its heat scorched his palm as he hesitated.
The knight spun, calculated and precise lunged at Rodolph. He wasn't savage like a beast. He was exact, technical, deadly. Every strike had purpose. Every step landed exactly where it should.
Rodolph's eyes went wide as soon as their blades met, the first time Kayden had ever seen real fear there.
Rodolph smashed his brown fragment against his chest. Stone spread across his body like a second skin, but even then, he could barely keep up with the onslaught.
"Kayden! Now or never!"
Adrenaline exploded through Kayden's veins. He clenched the red fragment tight.
And broke it.
The fragment seared his palm. Fire exploded through his bloodstream; not blood anymore, molten metal racing through his veins. The taste of iron flooded his mouth. Coal smoke burned his nostrils. His muscles screamed as they transformed, fibers tearing and rebuilding in real time.
Kayden rushed from the side while the knight pressed Rodolph. His dagger found a gap in the armor, between shoulder and chest. Sparks flew as metal met metal, and something dark and viscous, something not quite blood, dripped from the wound.
The knight didn't even grunt.
Instead, with terrifying grace, he twisted his wrist and slammed Kayden in the gut with the sword's pommel.
Air burst from the boy's lungs like he'd been hit by a hammer. He flew back, crashing against a stone pillar that cracked from the impact.
"Kayden!" Rodolph roared, using the distraction to strike with everything he had.
His sword hit the knight's chest, but the blade only scratched the obsidian surface. The response was a dance, one step back, a graceful twist, and his own blade swept upward in a rising cut.
The black sword sliced through the air. Rodolph twisted, too slow in his stone armor. Metal kissed flesh.
"NO!" Kayden screamed, forcing himself up despite broken ribs.
Rodolph staggered, looking down. A red line spread across his abdomen where the obsidian blade had slipped past the stone.
"Shit…" he muttered, more surprised than pained.
The knight stepped back, raising his sword in a formal salute. As if honoring a worthy opponent.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Kayden charged blindly, tears of rage blurring the knight's advancing form.
He tried to strike the knight with his dagger, but all he could think about was Rodolph lying on the ground.
The knight went on the defensive, which irritated Kayden even more. Why didn't he execute him like he did Rodolph?
Was it a provocation? Maybe he wasn't worthy of a fight.
The sound of metal against metal freed Kayden from these thoughts, he had broken through his opponent's defense, his dagger slid across the armor, leaving a visible scratch. Nothing caused serious damage, but enough to bring Kayden back into the fight.
'What am I doing?!'
Kayden jumped back, and for the first time in the fight, the knight didn't follow.
'What did I do differently? Why couldn't he defend himself?'
The sound of Rodolph's heavy breathing hindered Kayden's reasoning, but he took a deep breath.
'He's not at his best... But I can't hurt him.'
He gritted his teeth, as if the truth was more than he could bear.
'So there's no way I can kill this thing.'
Despite his defeatist thinking, Kayden let logic go. The situation forced him to do something he hated the most: dream about the impossible.
Reality struck again. The knight was ready for battle, but was Kayden?
This time, it was the knight who advanced, and the sound of metal clashing filled the crypt. Once fluid and graceful, the knight was now rigid, like an unlubricated gear.
Kayden's guard dropped as he pivoted left, his sword arm swinging wide. The knight's blade hung motionless in the air; a perfect opening for a thrust to the ribs. Nothing came. The creature's sword cut only empty space, striking at where Kayden had been moments before.
Kayden stumbled backward, his heel catching on loose stone. He braced for the inevitable; a heavy boot to his chest, a pommel strike to his skull. Instead, he watched the knight's own feet tangle together, sending the armored figure staggering sideways. Metal scraped against stone as the knight fought to regain balance.
The knight's helmet tilted at an odd angle, as if the head inside struggled to stay upright. Each breath came as a hollow rasp echoing from within the armor, growing more labored with every passing second. The sword arm that had moved with deadly precision now trembled slightly.
'Is he breaking down?'
In the middle of an exchange of blows, Kayden managed to land another attack.
This time, Kayden's eyes widened.
The knight had retreated and slowly brought his hand to the two scars on his chest.
His eyes burned more intense than ever.
"It's as if..." Kayden swallowed hard. "I had wounded his pride."
The particles around the armored figure moved irregularly. His intense stare made Kayden's bones tremble. That thing was not supposed to be defeated.
The knight raised his sword with one hand, pointing its tip at Kayden.
Blinding light erupted from the sword's tip, forcing Kayden to shield his eyes.
'If that hits me...'
He gripped the hilt of his dagger tightly, took his arm away from his eye, and, in a move of faith, definitely not his favorite type of move, threw the dagger toward the thin tip of the sword.
The precision required to hit the tip of that thin sword was tremendous.
But he threw it anyway. As soon as the dagger moved away from his hand, he lost sight of it. Light filled the crypt, just as darkness had once done.
Kayden's vision was then bathed in the purest white he had ever seen. The explosion was devastating.
Kayden was hurled back, crashing against the barrier. The impact nearly knocked him out cold.
Everything went hazy, his ears were ringing and he couldn't see the floor. White spots covered most of his vision. It was as if he had looked directly at the sun for a few seconds.
As soon as his senses began to return, the sound of liquid splattering across the stone made him lift his head.
The arm that once carried a sword, vanished, leaving a gaping hole that took part of the knight's chest and belly with it. Rivers of whatever that thing called blood flooded the floor of the crypt.
Despite all that, still, the knight stood. It walked toward Kayden, who lay broken on the floor, every step it seemed as if the creature would fall apart at any moment.
Each metallic step sending shivers down Kayden's spine. The knight stopped mere centimeters away.
With a distinct lack of grace, one of the knight's knees slammed into the ground. He jerkily raised an arm in salute. His eyes dimmed. The crushing aura faded.
The obsidian warrior froze like a statue, trapped in his final moment.
The obsidian warrior froze like a statue, trapped in his final moment.
Kayden stared at the frozen figure for a heartbeat, his chest heaving as the adrenaline began to fade. The silence that followed felt wrong, too complete, too final. Then the metallic taste of blood in his mouth reminded him of what mattered most.
Rodolph.
He scrambled to Rodolph, who sat slumped against the wall, hands pressed to his wound.
"Hey, kid…" Rodolph gave a weak smile.
"Shut up! Don't move. We're getting out of here, I'll carry you—"
"Kay." Rodolph's voice was firm. "We both know that's not happening."
Kayden dropped beside him, back to the cold wall. Side by side, like they always sat after a job at the bar.
Rodolph coughed, blood staining his lips. "You fought well, kid. Your dad would've been proud."
The crypt seemed to exhale. One by one, the runes that had held them captive flickered out, their glow dying with their guardian.
"This world we live in… it's ugly," Rodolph muttered.
Kayden squeezed his own hand so tightly that it started to bleed.
"Back when I was a kid, your dad and I dreamed of joining the imperial army together. Thought we could reconquer what the Djinns took from us, save some people. Be some kind of hero, I suppose."
"A foolish dream," Kayden said weakly.
"Yeah…" Rodolph nodded, and the motion seemed to carry him away. "But it was a beautiful one."
Copper flooded Kayden's mouth. The taste mixed with salt; when had he started crying? His chest felt hollow, scraped clean.
"Thank you… for everything, Rodolph." His voice shook.
But no answer came.
Tears ran freely down Kayden's face, but no sound escaped him. He knew he didn't have the luxury of mourning.
Rage filled the hollow where grief had carved him out. Those bastards. The thought pulsed with each heartbeat, hot and sharp as the fragment's fire. Kill them. Kill them all.
His instincts screamed to run. He had always listened. He couldn't win against the three. Not alone.
This time, Kayden silenced them.
'I've got nowhere to run.'
Broken, barely able to stand, he forced himself down the corridor where those three went.
As soon as he entered the hallway, he noticed a light that he hadn't seen from outside, as if there had been a protective cloak of darkness hiding the light.
The further he went, dragging himself along the wall, the more the light blinded him.
'What the hell is this…?'
He pushed through the glow and entered a chamber. The chamber beyond was circular, maybe eight meters across, with a domed ceiling that disappeared into shadow. The walls, smooth obsidian, unmarked by runes or carvings. At the center, a raised pedestal of white marble, the only clean surface in this entire cursed place.
On the pedestal floated something that defied logic. Not stone or crystal but starlight made solid. It pulsed like a captive sun, casting shifting shadows that danced across the obsidian walls. The air around it bent and twisted reality itself. It radiated an energy that made his skin crawl with recognition.
Beautiful. Inviting. Powerful.
The thing called to him; whispered promises of power in a language older than words. Every instinct screamed that this was what he'd been searching for his entire life.
At his feet, reality offered a different lesson.
A charred corpse.
'That's… Owl?' Kayden recognized him. Both arms gone, one he had cut off himself, the other clearly disintegrated when it touched the object.
"Guess I'm not the one rotting in hell, bitch." He spat on Owl's body.
The room was empty. Fox and Bear must've fled after seeing Owl's fate.
'I'll deal with those fuckers later…'
Kayden turned to leave. An object that killed on touch wasn't exactly inviting. But with every step, his chest grew emptier.
"Damn it."
He turned back, drawn by something he couldn't explain. Without realizing, his hand reached out, heat radiating from this thing.
He touched it.
[Stellar Fragment detected.]
[Warning: Overload risk.]
'What the fuck…?!'
[User lacks sufficient strength to absorb the star.]
[Overload imminent.]
"Shit!" Kayden squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for death.
But a voice filled his head:
[Adjustment: Singularity found.]
[Title granted: Voidborn.]
[Contract available: Star Devourer, Level 1.]
[Accept?]
Kayden didn't understand. But anyone born in the Collision Zone answered that question by instinct.
"Yes."
His heart thundered once, hard, then stopped. Kayden collapsed, agony ripping him apart.
His body became a construction site of agony. Muscles tore like wet paper, rebuilt themselves, tore again. His bones felt like they were being filed down to splinters, reshaped by invisible hands. Acid replaced his blood. He was drowning in his own liquified organs, choking on copper and flame.
He couldn't breathe. Until finally, after what felt like an eternity, he gasped, lungs reborn.
[Contract established. You are now an Oathbounder.]
[Contract Rank: Primordial.]
[Lumen: Spark 0/500.]
[Ability unlocked: Stellar Beam, Level 1.]
The messages faded from his vision. The crypt's silence felt merciful after all he went through.
Curiosity burned in him; what was this contract? Screw it! He was an Oathbounder. The possibilities were endless. But the need to escape, to breathe clean air and think clearly, burned stronger.
Every muscle screamed, but his new power held him upright. His breathing steadied. His wounds sealed too fast. Bones realigned under his skin. The contract mocked human fragility. Wounds that should cripple him for months faded into dull aches.
When the faint glow of the exit appeared, hope flickered in his chest.
But froze just as quickly.
The cathedral's corridor, no longer empty. Among the broken columns stood something that should never exist.
Kayden's mind refused to process what blocked his path. Flesh folded wrong, shoulders sprouting from shoulders like a fever dream of anatomy.
Three meters of wrongness that made his stomach climb toward his throat. Two heads facing opposite directions, both grotesque, jaws lined with uneven teeth, eyes that never blinked.
Every cell in Kayden's body screamed the same order: Run.
He leaned back, ready to turn and vanish into the shadows, when the creature's eyes moved, both heads turned toward him.
The world stopped. His heart thundered, but not with fear. A crushing pressure wrapped his chest, suffocating him.
Then, like a blade slicing air, words appeared before his eyes:
[Oath Violation.]
[Active Oath: Never retreat from a stronger enemy.]
Kayden's eyes widened. "What…?" His voice rasped out, almost inaudible. He blinked, hoping the message would vanish.
A dry laugh escaped him, more nerves than humor. "This has to be a joke…" he whispered.
But it wasn't. The weight of truth crushed him.
No escape. No loophole. No choice.
Retreating? No longer an option. The power came with a price, and that price might kill him faster than any enemy. The contract hadn't given him a blessing. It had given him a chain.
And his first trial… Already waiting.