Location: Yxtrielle – Riftfall Scarline, Near Collapse Vector
Time: [Post-Combat Drift Sync – System Rebalancing: Ongoing]
Va'theran lay broken, one hand twitching in the glyph-soaked earth, his body flickering with corrupted fragments of memory that no longer belonged to him.
The Riftblade, still pulsing faintly beside him, had stopped whispering.
It had gone quiet.
Not obedient.
Just... uncertain.
Ren stood over him, panting, Threadbreaker's light still wrapped around his aura like a cloak of wounded fire.
The battlefield was cold now. Still.
The summons hovered behind him, watching in silence.
Even Blaze and Frost had gone quiet.
Because what they all saw —
was something worse than death.
Va'theran was afraid.
But not of dying.
Of surviving.
VA'THERAN (glaring up, snarling through cracked teeth):
"You won't kill me…?"
REN (quiet):
"No."
VA'THERAN (trembling):
"Why?"
"You think mercy makes you strong?
You think this is forgiveness?"
REN (voice like a blade):
"No."
"It's punishment."
Silence.
Ren stepped back.
Threadbreaker deactivated — dissolving back into his body with a final flash of silver-blue flame.
The glow from his chest dimmed.
He didn't need to flex anymore.
Va'theran wasn't a threat.
Not because he couldn't fight.
But because he had nothing left to fight with.
And that made it worse.
VA'THERAN (voice cracking):
"You're not a Riftborn.
You're a virus Kael left to rot everything I built."
REN:
"Maybe.
But I rot slow… and I remember everything."
Va'theran screamed.
Not in pain. Not in agony.
In rage.
In defiance.
In that horrifying, stomach-curdling sound of a man who knows he will never matter again — not enough to be feared, not enough to be avenged.
He grabbed the Riftblade in both hands, shoved the tip into the earth, and began channeling a vanish-sequence.
A self-encoded override tether.
A one-way escape route.
One that pulled him from this world — not to safety, but to somewhere else, deeper in the Drift's rot, where reality was weaker and anger could fester undisturbed.
FROST (whispers):
"Wait—he's vanishing—Ren, he's cutting his own tether—"
BLAZE (furious):
"No. NO. Don't let him run—burn him, bury him, end him—"
But Ren didn't move.
He just watched.
VA'THERAN (spitting, eyes glowing black with hatred):
"You should've ended me."
REN:
"I know."
The Riftblade howled once.
And Va'theran was gone.
Not dead.
Not healed.
Just missing.
But his eyes — gods, his eyes —
those murderous, humiliated, vengeful eyes —
were burned into Ren's memory like a brand.
He wanted to die.
Ren hadn't given him that.
So now?
He'd make dying Ren's burden.
One day. Somewhere.
The Riftblade would return.
And it wouldn't be alone.
SYSTEM LOG: MARKED
🟥 ENTITY ESCAPED: VA'THERAN
⚠ Status: In Drift Exile
⚠ Revenge Probability Index: 98.7%
⚠ Last Sentiment Registered:
"I will cut through the mercy you called justice."
Ren dropped to one knee.
His hand brushed the shattered Vey'stryx, still half-buried nearby — its once-defiant voice now a dull whisper.
VEY'STRYX (weak, but alive):
"Dumbass…"
"You let the glitch crawl away…"
REN (smirking):
"You'll get your chance, old blade."
Threadbreaker stirred inside him.
And for just a second… so did the Riftblade's leftover presence.
Three blades.
Three cores.
One voice.
Beginning to form.
The merge hadn't happened yet.
But the seed was planted.