A red storm was exploding around Ren right now… The whole abandoned school building started to shake… Just a faint vibration at first, but growing—deep, uneasy, crawling through the walls like something alive. The red threads whipped outward, slamming the air itself, pushing the walls back with sudden violent force. Dents appeared in the concrete, and long, vicious gashes were carved through the floor, the ceiling, and every surface nearby.
Ren hung suspended in the centre of it all, floating in what felt less like cursed energy and more like a collapsing red tempest.
Ren's thoughts were on fire.
'Wait! Shit, fuck no! NO—they're resisting each other? They're trying to converge, but—AHHH… The binding vows are colliding with each other! That must be it; they're contradicting each other! But fuck, how?! I've said eight binding vows so far, so how do I know which one is contradicting which one? no! In theory, they all shouldn't have any duality! I made sure of it! So how?! AHH!'
As seconds dragged, the pain doubled. Red threads sliced through the air, and Ren felt them carve into him. Cuts opened all over his body—thin, sharp, merciless. His shirt shredded apart in long strips. His hair was being trimmed by invisible razors, falling away in red-lit slices.
Then—
"SHRAAAKK!"
A screech ripped out of the shadow nearby.
Rika.
She burst from the darkness and wrapped herself around Ren fast, arms and mass curling tight around him as if trying to cage the storm itself. Another screech tore out of her as the threads lashed her too.
Ren's head rang, but his thoughts refused to stop.
'FUCK IT. It doesn't matter if they're contradicting each other right now—maybe it's because I haven't completed all the binding vows yet!'
Yes. Yes—that had to be it.
Ren didn't even give himself another heartbeat.
He started muttering, voice cracking between the storm's shrieks:
"3rd vow! 'Ephemeral Edge'…
'The sword shall fade within an hour—its edge never lingers.'"
The moment the words left him, the red threads surrounding him and Rika grew sharper—finer—jagged like glass splinters in a hurricane.
They tore through Rika faster.
"SHRRRAAAA!!!"
Her scream shattered across the room. Ren felt every cut she took as if the threads were slicing through Rika now! Ren could feel them slicing him too!
But he kept going.
"4th vow: 'The Self-Sharpening Fang'…
'The harder the resistance, the keener the blade. Every obstacle hones the sword.'"
And that was the end.
A paradox was born.
Half of the thin red threads moved again—but this time they carved through everything. Even the thicker, stronger threads were severed like wet paper. The room filled with the cold reality of damage—cuts, slash marks, deep rends tearing through walls, floors, and heaps of concrete.
Rika's arm dropped away—cleanly severed. Half her head followed, sliced through by an impossibly fine edge.
Ren's blood joined hers in the air; the pain was too much…
Everything froze.
Ren's breathing stuttered.
'It's over… I can't handle it. I can't believe it. This is how it ends? In a failed experiment? Did I just build a grinder around myself—is that how I die? I can't control anything. I don't even know why the red threads are acting like this… I don't know which vows are contradicting each other. I—I just don't know! Fuck…'
Red surrounded him like a collapsing star; he was falling unconscious…
But something moved.
The worm slipped out of Ren's shadow—quiet, unnoticed.
It was sliced once by the storm—
—but before its body was completely severed, it vomited something out.
Ren didn't even see anything; everything round him was blacking out…
But then suddenly His skull ignited. His vision expanded.
Time slowed.
It felt like his skull was on fire…
He blinked. Something appeared. Or nothing did.
He saw white.
Someone wearing white.
Ren muttered, barely conscious, "Who are you?"
The white figure stepped—or drifted—closer. Their edges blurred like light bent around itself. A hand extended, a finger pointing at Ren.
A voice followed.
"The question is, 'Who are you?'"
Soft. Feminine, maybe. Or maybe just gentle.
Ren couldn't tell. He didn't know if he was hearing or dreaming. But before he could understand—
But then Ren's body jerked!
He snapped awake.
Dark mist wrapped around him—thick, suffocating, desperate.
Rika.
Or what was left of her.
She was shielding him with everything she had left. Her form quivered, breaking apart from damage too deep to heal.
She faded away.
Ren didn't even pause; he screamed.
"STOP!"
The cursed tattoo across Ren's mouth ignited—the twin serpent eyes and fang marks glowing with harsh light.
Ren used Cursed Speech and suddenly stopped the entire storm… halted!
Ren moved his finger, writing through the air, tracing kanji.
癒 — Heal
A white glow burst outward, washing over him. His body stopped bleeding. Wounds knitted. Pain dulled into nothing. Breath returned. Sight steadied.
Ren's throat tore open as he spoke fast! "5. Invisible Blade!"
"I vow to bind this blade to absence:
Let no eye, no sense, no strand of cursed energy perceive it—
not even my own;
Let its threads, when called, conjoin and pool their timers and sharpening into a single, prolonged edge."
The storm changed instantly—half of the red threads dispersed, dissolving into emptiness as if erased.
And Ren didn't stop speaking again—
"Vow of Continuity"
"I vow that the eleven vows are final.
They cannot break or bend unless I redo the ritual in full.
In return, those eleven vows will stabilise and strengthen within me."
As Ren spoke—everything stopped this time, not because of cursed speech…
The red threads froze mid-air.
Then collapsed. Then faded.
Ren released his cursed energy.
His body dropped.
He hit the ground as the roof cracked—falling apart in chunks. Dust billowed out, clouding the entire abandoned building. The structure groaned, splitting, shaking, until—
Silence.
The building stopped moving.