Chapter 13: When Chains Begin to Break
The fractured arena had stopped shifting.Not because it stabilized…But because something bigger had frozen it from the outside.
A cage.
A prison made of dimensional chains.
Arin felt the pressure build with every breath—thick, crushing, like the entire Underworld was leaning on his spine. Even Raviel stopped moving, eyes narrowing as he scanned the air.
Lira's voice was a whisper."…This isn't part of the trial anymore."
Reth floated at the center of the suspended chamber, wrapped in chains of living code. The glyphs around his body slowly rotated, each turn forcing a twitch, a jerk, or a shift he couldn't control.
And the scream he couldn't let out was worse than the ones he did.
Arin stepped forward.
Raviel grabbed his arm. "Hold on. You rush in, you die. That thing will read it as intent to break the puppet string. And the controller clearly doesn't want that."
Arin didn't turn back."I'm not watching him suffer."
"You won't help him by blowing yourself apart."
"Then help me not blow apart."
Raviel clicked his tongue. "Tch. You are unbelievable."
That was the closest thing to 'fine, I'll help' he'd ever get.
Lira, still pale, pointed at the chains constricting Reth's torso. "Those sigils… I've seen them in old texts. They're used by higher authorities. Controllers from outside our dimensional layers."
"Like the tower overseers?" Arin asked.
"No. Higher than that." Lira swallowed. "These are signature patterns of a Sovereign Authority."
Arin felt his pulse drop into a cold pit.A Sovereign.Something above towers.Above worlds.A cosmic ruler, the kind only mentioned in systems nobody believed were fully real.
Raviel rubbed his chin. "Figures. Only a Sovereign would interfere in a trial this deep. And only for one reason."
"To take Reth," Lira whispered.
"No," Raviel corrected quietly. "To break him."
Arin clenched his fists until his knuckles cracked. "Then we break the chains first."
Before either could argue, Reth jerked again—hard enough to snap one of the glowing restraints. A shockwave blasted out as the glyph reattached itself with twice the force.
The system boomed overhead:
[WARNING: Dimensional Integrity Dropping][Subject RETH — Stability at 23%][External Authority Attempting Replacement]
Lira blanched. "Replacement? Replace him with what?"
Raviel's face darkened. "Not what. Who. If a Sovereign wants a new vessel—"
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Arin moved.
A blur of motion across the floating slabs. Gravity shifted violently, tugging him sideways and upward at the same time, but he forced through it. His steps kicked sparks from the stone as he dashed across one plate, then launched himself—straight toward the core of the chains.
The moment he entered the central zone, the air changed.
Pressure slammed into him like a mountain falling.
His bones creaked.His lungs locked.His vision turned white.
He didn't stop.
Reth's head snapped toward him, eyes glitching between pain and blank code.
"Arin… don't. They… they'll take you too…"
Arin planted his foot on the nearest floating fragment and pushed off. "You dragged me out of the Blood Gate. You taught me how to use the system. If someone wants to take you—"
Another chain lashed out at him.
Arin dodged, barely, the edge slicing through his sleeve and scoring a hot line across his forearm. He hissed but kept moving.
"I'm not letting them."
Raviel appeared beside him in a burst of dark mist, daggers drawn. "Told you. You die alone, not with me watching."
Lira landed behind them, palms glowing with runic light. "If a Sovereign touches down here, we're all dead. So hurry."
Reth screamed again as the chains tightened, bending him backward at an impossible angle.
The system roared:
[STABILITY 19%][HOST INTEGRITY COMPROMISED][SOVEREIGN HAND DESCENDING]
Arin saw it.
Not physically—But in the trembling of the air and the dimming of the arena fragments.
A hand of pure authority, slipping between layers of reality like a god lowering a finger toward an ant.
Arin grabbed the closest chain.
Agony shot into him instantly—a surge of electric force that burned through his muscles and into his spine. His knees buckled. Teeth clenched. Breath tore out of his throat.
He held on anyway.
Lira shouted, "Arin! Let go!"
Raviel stabbed a shadow dagger into another link. The blade cracked, shattering from the impact. He clicked his tongue. "This is stupid."
Arin pulled.
Each muscle screamed.
Something inside the chain pushed back—like a will older than worlds. An authority that did not allow disobedience.
Arin pushed anyway.
His feet slid across the stone, sparks flying.
Reth's voice broke.
"Don't—sacrifice—yourself—"
"I'm not."
Arin's grip tightened.
"I'm freeing my mentor."
The chain snapped.
The rupture of energy blasted Arin backward, slamming him into the wall of a floating slab so hard the stone cracked beneath him. His vision blurred. His ribs screamed.
But Reth's body dropped a few inches—slightly looser.
He was still bound.Still controlled.Still breaking.
Arin spat blood and stood again.
Raviel grabbed his collar. "Do you WANT to die?!"
Arin shoved him off. "There are seven more chains."
Lira pointed upward, voice weak. "Too late. The Sovereign's hand is forming…"
Above them, the air thinned, colors bending around a shape—translucent, massive, descending slowly with weightless finality.
Arin didn't blink.
"Then we break them faster."
He charged again, legs shaking, eyes burning.
Reth looked at him, just a glimpse of clarity.
"…You stubborn idiot…"
Arin reached the next chain.
Grabbed it.
Pulled.
Fire exploded across his nerves again—so intense his vision went white, sound warping, heartbeat turning to thunder.
But he held.
He would always hold.
The chain groaned.
Cracked.
And finally—
Snapped.
Reth collapsed another inch.
Lira screamed, "The hand is speeding up!"
Raviel cursed under his breath. "We have to break them all?"
Arin wiped blood from his chin. "Yes."
"That's insane!"
Arin smiled weakly. "Then help me be insane faster."
He sprinted to the next chain.
Raviel followed, blades out.Lira ran to the opposite side, channels glowing along her arms.
Across the ruptured arena, while a Sovereign descended to claim its puppet, the three of them tore into the chains binding Reth—one link, one scream, one burning nerve at a time.
It was hopeless.
It was impossible.
It was exactly what Arin did best.