Reader's POV
Location: Skystitched Ruins – First Trial Seat: Hollow Bell District
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The sound came again.
Not metal on metal.
Bone. On. Bone.
Like gods gnashing their teeth behind the veil.
The bell—massive, chalk-white, suspended between two rotted towers—didn't swing so much as shiver with intention. It didn't toll with sound.
It tolled with weight.
A low, crawling pressure that slid under the skin, past the ribs, and reached inside your skull like it had been living there all along.
> It wasn't a sound.
It was the sensation of your past being scraped out with a spoon.
---
> "Trial Seat Initiated."
My interface flared to life, sharp and clinical:
[Hollow Bell District]
Combat Style: Chaos Rank Melee
Win Condition: Outlast the Sound
Special Rule: All pain is shared
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> Ereze exhaled, lips thin. "That last part sounds like hell."
> Jiwoon cracked his knuckles. "We've done bad. This is worse."
We stood at the edge of the district.
But it wasn't a district.
It was a scar.
Imagine a city where every architect had gone mad halfway through a blueprint.
Where houses sat sideways, roofs floated above ground, and doors swung open into nowhere.
Veins of barbed wire stretched between ruins like capillaries. Lanterns flickered on bones instead of poles.
And in the dead center —
a figure stood.
No.
It didn't stand.
It waited.
Chained.
Silent.
Unmoving.
---
It was tall — a full head and shoulders over Jiwoon, who wasn't small to begin with. Human in shape. But not in spirit.
Its face…
wasn't there.
Just the smudged remnants of what could've been one. Like someone started drawing a soul and gave up halfway.
> "That's not a boss," I whispered. "That's a prisoner."
> Ereze drew her sword. "Then why is it holding a blade?"
She was right.
Its hands were bound in chains.
But one still held a weapon — a jagged thing, part-metal, part-bone. It pulsed like a memory.
The creature looked up.
The chains clattered once.
Then it moved.
---
It didn't run. It charged.
Not fast.
Just relentless.
We scattered — instinct over thought. Jiwoon spun forward, catching its blade with a reinforced parry.
And screamed.
> "What the hell?! I blocked it!"
Blood sprayed from his shoulder.
But the enemy hadn't touched him there.
> Ereze gasped, clutching her side. "Pain is shared… You took my hit."
I blinked — and felt their pain lance through my ribs, slicing reality thin.
The whip carved into Ereze's back — I felt it.
Jiwoon stumbled — my knees buckled too.
Not figurative.
Literal.
---
> "We'll die like this," Ereze hissed through clenched teeth. "Every wound lands on all of us—"
> "Then stop fighting like solos!" I shouted. "We share pain—so we share rhythm!"
---
Tactics wouldn't save us. Strategy wouldn't sync us.
So I let go.
Of fear. Of hesitation. Of control.
I listened for something deeper than commands.
And I found it.
Rhythm.
---
Ereze dipped low — a sweeping strike. Jiwoon dove from above, landing with his knee on the thing's arm. I phased behind the creature's spine, carving a glyph of weakening with the last of my strength.
We all felt every strike.
Every burn.
Every scream.
But instead of breaking us — it bound us.
Three hearts.
One rhythm.
One breath.
---
Then the bell tolled again.
And the creature didn't attack this time.
It screamed.
A raw, furious howl like it remembered something it shouldn't.
Chains snapped.
Not all — just one.
But that was enough.
---
Its body began to split.
Not bleed. Not shatter.
Fracture.
Black ink veined through its skin. Its spine twisted in shapes the world wasn't built for.
Eyes blinked across its arms, confused and furious.
> "It's evolving!" Jiwoon yelled.
> "No…" I breathed, a sick chill rolling over my bones. "It's remembering."
---
> [Chaos Spike Detected: MID-RIFT ASCENSION]
Narrative Entropy rising…
And that's when I saw it.
A glyph. Alien.
Burning in the corner of my status window.
Not blue. Not red.
White.
> [SCRIPTBURN: UNLOCKED]
Burn memory to gain temporary narrative control
Cost: 1 Core Memory
Warning: Forgotten memories may not return.
---
Ereze's voice was quiet beside me. "You don't have to."
Her blade trembled. Her shoulder was bleeding where I had been hit.
> "No," I said, already reaching for the glyph. "I do."
I touched it.
The pain vanished.
So did something else.
Something inside me —
A birthday?
A face I once loved?
A promise?
Gone.
In its place came a phrase —
Burned into my bones:
> What if it was never chained?
---
Reality cracked.
Not shattered — rerouted.
I spoke the phrase aloud, and the script of the world glitched around the prisoner.
The timeline bent.
And the chain that should've held the creature?
It had already broken.
Now it wasn't evolving.
It was confused.
Wounded. Weeping.
We didn't hesitate.
We moved as one.
Ereze sliced the knee. Jiwoon broke the guard. I plunged a final glyph into its chest — and released a scream that belonged to all of us.
---
The creature faded.
So did the bell.
It didn't fall — it crumbled.
Bone to ash.
Ash to memory.
Memory to silence.
---
In the sky, a sigil ignited in gold flame:
> [Trial Seat: Hollow Bell District – CLEARED]
+1 Chaos Rank
+2% Throne Sync
[Scriptburn Ability Registered]
---
We collapsed behind a crumbled mausoleum wall.
I don't know who laughed first.
Probably Jiwoon. Maybe Ereze.
All I knew was that it hurt.
And that somehow…
…that made it okay.
---
> Jiwoon, still bleeding: "So that's what a throne trial feels like."
Ereze, wincing: "Remind me to never ring any more bells."
Me, staring at the sky: "We're going to ring all of them."
---
Far above us, beyond the threads of broken timelines, another throne dimmed.
Not taken.
Not claimed.
Just…
Noticed.
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