Chapter Six: Irikrit's Bargain
"Who dares enter the throne room of Irikrit?"
The voice was not loud. It was vast. It didn't strike Aleister's ears. It sank into the space behind his ribs and settled in his spine like an old weight waking up.
Aleister didn't answer at first. He could barely breathe.
Black mist clung to the chamber, thick as oil. The ceiling stretched into shadows, vanishing into emptiness. Chains groaned above him, invisible but ever-present. A pale, violet glow pulsed from somewhere behind the throne, revealing shapes that might once have been walls but now looked grown rather than built.
"I… I'm Aleister," he finally said. "A boy. A failure. I came to find out what I am."
Laughter answered him. Dry, hollow, and old. It didn't echo. It just spread.
"You don't know?" the voice asked. "Then let me enlighten you."
The figure on the throne leaned forward. Chains scraped stone. Aleister stepped closer.
Three horns curled back from the figure's skull. His eyes burned like dark suns. His body looked carved from obsidian. Runes glowed faintly along the chains that wrapped his arms, chest, and throat. His face was too symmetrical to be human, and too expressive to be anything else.
"Irikrit," the demon said. "The First Dark."
Aleister's heart stumbled. His card pulsed at his side. It lifted into the air, trembling as if caught between reverence and fear.
"You feel it," Irikrit said. "The hum beneath your skin. The pull behind your thoughts. You feel it because you were never blank. You were sealed."
The card glowed faintly. Not bright. Not white. But with a slow, steady throb like something alive.
"You are my kind, Aleister. Not just a dark user. A source. A remnant of the First Arc. They buried your nature because they feared it. They told the world you were a mistake because the truth was more dangerous than silence."
Aleister stood still, breathing carefully. "The card system, the gloves, the colleges... are you saying they're all lies?"
"They are not lies. They are control. And I helped build them."
Aleister froze.
"I forged the Arc paths. I built the first cards. I made the gloves to bridge this world's energy and ours. I believed we could create harmony between soul and storm. But they twisted it. They made classes, castes, limitations. They severed will from truth. And when I refused to watch the world be locked into false balance, they bound me. Just as they silenced you."
Aleister's pulse quickened. His hands clenched. "So why help me now?"
Irikrit tilted his head. "Because your card is reacting to mine. Because you were born without the filters they created. Because your soul speaks the forgotten language."
He stood slowly. Chains snapped tight. Runes sparked blue flame. "Because I cannot be free alone."
"You want me to break your chains," Aleister said.
"In time. As you grow, as you open the sealed gates within yourself, my bonds will loosen. Your awakening is the key to my release. And in return, I will give you what this world never would."
"What happens when you're free?"
"I burn down the lie."
Silence stretched between them. The card beside Aleister wrote its first rune in the air. It didn't match any category. It looked carved, not written. Like a memory resurfacing.
"If I refuse?" Aleister asked.
"Then you will return to nothing. And when they come for you, you will die as they intended."
Aleister looked into Irikrit's eyes. There was no anger in them. Only weight. Only memory.
He stepped forward.
"I accept."
They touched hands. Light cracked. The throne exploded in silence.
And Aleister woke in the Grove of Third Names.
His card hovered beside him. Whispering.
He was no longer blank.
He was chosen.