EPISODE 10 — When Light Judges the Darkness
The explosion of light swallowed the entire shrine.
Renji felt the world disappear — the walls, the tatami mats, even Aya's voice — everything dissolved into a roaring, brilliant white. A pressure like a thousand hands pushed against his chest, trying to force him to the ground.
This wasn't normal light.
It was divine law, the kind that ignored physics and cut directly into a soul.
Renji heard the God of Fear snarl inside him.
"Judgement… always pretending to be righteous."
A heavy ringing sound filled Renji's skull. He clawed at the ground as the divine light tried to burn through the seal on his chest, searching for the god inside him.
The silver-eyed vessel stepped forward through the brightness, their feet not even touching the floor but floating a few centimeters above it — supported by threads of shimmering golden script.
Their voice echoed in the air like a verdict:
"Vessel of Fear… submit."
Aya, beside the fallen shrine doorway, fought against the pressure, her knees shaking. She slammed talisman after talisman onto the floor, trying to weaken the divine field.
"Renji—! Get up!"
He tried.
But his body refused to move.
Because the light wasn't attacking his muscles…
It was attacking his fear.
It was stripping it away.
Renji realized with dawning horror what was happening:
They weren't trying to kill him.
They were trying to separate him from the God of Fear.
Forcefully.
Inside him, the god laughed — a raw, mocking sound that felt like shards in Renji's ears.
"Let them try. Judgement has failed before. It will fail again."
The silver-eyed vessel lifted their hand, and the golden scripts swirled around their fingers like burning feathers.
"Renji Kurogane," the vessel intoned, "You are hereby taken under custody of the Divine Enforcers. The god inside you is a danger to the balance of this world. Surrender, and your life will be spared."
Renji clenched his fists.
Something inside him cracked.
Fear.
Anger.
Shame.
Helplessness.
The pressure tightened — his ribs felt like they were folding inward. His heartbeat slowed.
And then—
It stopped.
Not completely…
But enough for him to feel the god's presence spill into the space around him.
Like black water leaking through a broken dam.
The light wavered.
The silver-eyed vessel narrowed their gaze.
"You're resisting…?"
Renji wasn't.
The god was.
"You overstep, little judge."
The voice was no longer inside him — it echoed in the air around him, vibrating the shrine beams, ripping through the golden scripts.
Shadow mist surged outward in a violent pulse.
The divine light cracked like glass.
Aya staggered back, shielding her face.
Renji rose to his feet slowly, the black mist swirling around his legs, forming thin tendrils that shaped wings, claws, and dozens of black eyes that blinked open in the air behind him.
He wasn't transforming.
He was leaking.
The silver-eyed vessel took a single step back. For the first time, their expression changed — just slightly.
Caution.
"You… should not be able to influence the external world yet," they said quietly.
Renji's voice was shaking, but steady enough:
"I didn't do that."
The God of Fear whispered through Renji's lips, overlapping his voice with a monstrous echo:
"He is mine."
Golden chains shot out from the Judgement vessel's hand.
Black tendrils erupted from Renji's shadow.
Light collided with darkness —
and the shrine collapsed into a storm of splintered beams, flying talismans, and spiritual pressure so sharp it nearly sliced the moonlight.
Aya screamed Renji's name.
Renji reached for her.
A chain wrapped around his arm.
A shadow wrapped around the chain.
Light and darkness tore each other apart in a blinding explosion.
And when everything settled—
Renji was no longer standing where Aya had been.
He was gone.
Taken.
Or dragged.
Either way…
Episode 10 ends with Aya kneeling in the destroyed shrine, holding Renji's broken glasses, whispering:
"I'll find you… wherever they took you."
To Be Continued........