Location: Yxtrielle – Shatterhalo Plateau
Time: [Override Recovery Phase – Glyph Reactivation: ONLINE]
The glyph-lock timer hit zero.
Ren felt it like a gasp in the soul.
First — a flicker in the spine.
Then a pulse from the Aetherium Core.
And finally, a roar in the blood.
His glyphs came back to life.
All of them.
SUMMON CHANNEL: RECONNECTED
Mire Whisperer → Unstable Rattlejaw Knight → Rebound Velkrin → Active Graith'Vor → Roaming Xal'Zirach → In flux ECLIPSIS → Dormant (but listening)
BLAZE (relieved, half-laughing):
"They're back."
"Thank fuck — I was this close to setting the sky on fire."
FROST (warning):
"Ren—be smart. You're still bleeding intention. That blade in your soul is half-chewed by the Core. We don't rush."
But Va'theran was still standing.
Barely.
But not broken.
His left arm dangled useless, twitching with overwritten timelines.
The Riftblade pulsed beside him — still intact. Still hungry.
His eyes were rage-still, a dying god's last threat scribbled across a glitching corpse.
VA'THERAN (hoarse):
"You think power makes you worthy?"
"You're just an echo Kael left behind. A clean-up protocol in skin."
Ren exhaled.
Then held out his hand.
The air rippled. His glyphs ignited.
Not just one.
Not even two.
All six resonated simultaneously.
And the first to answer was the one that should never have listened.
SUMMON UNSEALED:
Xal'Zirach – Apex Resurgence Form
Status: Rage-Bound / Loyalty Shifted
Power Signature: Draconic Layer 3 – Core Memory Repaired
Abilities:
Soulfire Surge (Consumes corrupted magic) Temporal Roar (Stalls all timeline abilities in 100m) Echo Rebirth (Rewrites own death once per cycle)
A meteor of shadow-fire slammed into the plateau —
And from it, Xal'Zirach rose, no longer howling in corrupted static, but singing in rage-song.
Draconic glyphs spiraled across the sky, ripping Va'theran's false summons apart mid-manifest.
XAL'ZIRACH (growling directly into Ren's thoughts):
"I remember who broke me.
I remember who fixed me.
Let's give this fucker a new origin story."
Ren grinned.
And snapped his fingers.
VELKRIN blinked into existence mid-air, throwing up its anti-illusion halo.
Rattlejaw stepped from a mirrored echo and locked its Echo Recall on Va'theran's last known clean timeline.
Graith'Vor roared — disrupting the corrupted glyphs still clinging to Va'theran's leg.
Mire Whisperer emerged in silence, sinking the battlefield into emotional null.
Ren didn't even move.
He stood there — arms limp, cloak tattered, bleeding from three different types of wounds — but surrounded by everything he'd earned.
He didn't need to attack.
He just needed to let his glyphs tell their truth.
VA'THERAN (gasping):
"Summoner trash…"
"You still think creatures bound by ink and pain make you a god?"
REN (quiet, intense):
"No."
"I think surviving what they became makes me worthy to lead them."
The battle tilted again.
Va'theran launched forward with a broken rift-step, dragging the Riftblade with both hands, arcing toward Ren's chest.
But the moment he struck—
—
Threadbreaker's light exploded from Ren's body.
Not a sword.
Not a wall.
A pulse of identity.
The Riftblade was stopped.
Not by a hand.
Not by force.
But by refusal.
Threadbreaker didn't block the strike.
It unmade the reason the blade should've reached him.
And in that pause — that moment of impossible stillness —
Ren vanished.
Only to reappear behind Va'theran, whispering:
REN (soft):
"You forgot who wrote the ending to your story."
And then —
he drove a blade of light into Va'theran's spine.
Not a killing blow.
But enough to make the Riftblade pulse uncomfortably — like it was… uncertain.
Almost like it feared Ren now.
STATUS REPORT
Va'theran
Down to 10% capacity Riftblade unstable Summon control shattered Glyph anchors torn
Ren
Exhausted Core heat rising Glyph sync maintained Override Core holding at 63% integrity
Ren staggered back.
He could end it.
But he didn't.
Not yet.
He looked down at Va'theran — coughing, half-glitched, broken but still snarling.
And whispered to himself—
REN:
"Not yet.
You're going to see what I become.
Then I'll erase what you tried to be."
The Riftblade twitched.
So did Vey'stryx, still lying somewhere in the dust nearby, quietly pulsing.
And Threadbreaker, now forged into Ren's body, felt them both.
And they felt it back.
A resonance.