The wound on Adam’s side had stopped bleeding, but Elias could feel the way his friend winced with every breath. They sat together in the ruins of the butcher shop, the shattered glass and burnt at giving the place a haunting atmosphere. Outside, the rain kept falling — a soft, mournful rhythm that matched Elias’s thoughts.
He hadn’t just defeated that monster — he had enjoyed it.
> [System Notification: Sinborne Threshold Passed]
[Warning: Emotional Instability Detected]
[Wrath Core at 41% Saturation]
"Are you going to explain what the hell that was?" Adam asked, his voice tight from pain.
Elias looked away. "You wouldn’t believe ."
"Mate, you turned into a shadow-armored devil and punched a thing with a forked tongue into a new tizone. I’ll believe anything right now."
Elias sighed. "It’s a system. A living one. Tied to... the Devil. It gave power after I died."
Adam blinked. "So, like... a video ga system? With stats and levels?"
"More like a curse. It feeds on sins, emotions... . The more I use it, the less human I feel."
Adam leaned his head back against the wall. "And yet, you’re still risking your neck to save . Sounds pretty damn human to ."
Elias didn’t respond. But in the silence that followed, a voice whispered from deep within his mind:
> "The more you protect, the more you will lose."
"Only power ensures survival."
He shoved the thought away, but it clung like oil to his bones.
---
Elsewhere, far above in the obsidian halls of the Council of Chains, the grand bell had not stopped ringing. Hooded figures stood in a circle, each wearing masks made from bone and tal.
"The Wrath Core has reached manifestation level," one of them said.
"He’s no longer a fragnt. He’s a vessel," another murmured.
"The Devil’s System is adapting faster than predicted."
A third voice cut in. "Then it’s ti we sent the Reaper."
Gasps echoed around the chamber.
"You can’t—"
"Silence! If we don’t move now, Elias Black will beco the second coming of the Original Sin. We all rember what that brought last ti. Entire pantheons fell."
The vote was unanimous.
A shadow broke from the ceiling and descended with wings like torn parchnt and a blade made from severed tilines.
The Reaper had been summoned.
---
Back in Whitmoor, Elias helped Adam into an abandoned safehouse — an old subway maintenance hub hidden under the city. He laid him on a makeshift bed, and for a mont, the two just breathed.
Then a soft knock echoed against the stone wall.
Elias imdiately snapped his fingers, and the shadows thickened around the door.
"Relax," ca a familiar voice. "It’s just ."
Seraphine.
She stepped inside like the rain had summoned her, her crimson coat glistening and her eyes glowing faintly gold.
"You’re bleeding," Elias said.
"So are you," she replied smoothly, nodding toward the dried blood on his knuckles. "How’s the taste of wrath?"
"Addictive," he muttered.
She smiled like that was the right answer. "Good. You’ll need it."
Seraphine tossed a file onto the table.
"What’s this?" Elias asked.
"Your father’s original experints. The ones no one could find."
Elias froze.
"You had them this whole ti?"
She nodded. "He wasn’t just researching the Devil’s System. He was trying to recreate it. From scratch."
Elias picked up the file and began flipping through pages — sigil diagrams, DNA prints, soul-mapping codes... and at the very end, a list of test subjects.
One of the nas was Steve Morran.
Elias’s hands tightened around the paper. "He experinted on his own assistant?"
"Not just him," Seraphine said. "He also experinted on you."
Elias’s breath caught.
The world tilted.
> [System Alert: Core mory Suppressed. Do you wish to recover suppressed mory fragnt YX-Alpha?]
[WARNING: Exposure may cause system instability.]
Elias whispered, "Yes."
The world ripped open.
---
He was twelve.
Cold. Strapped to a chair. His father stood beside him, not angry or cruel — just distant.
"There’s potential in you, Elias," he said. "More than you understand. The Core responds to your blood."
A red vial pulsed on the table.
The room was full of ritual circles, bones, and silver needles.
"I don’t want this," young Elias said.
"You will," his father whispered. "One day, you’ll thank ."
---
Elias stumbled back into the present, clutching his skull.
Seraphine caught him before he fell.
"You were never reborn by accident," she said softly. "You are the experint."
Elias’s eyes glowed dark red. "He used ."
"He created you."
---
That night, Elias sat alone on the steps of the maintenance hub, watching rats scurry through puddles. His thoughts were broken, scattered like shards of mory.
The System pulsed within him like a second heartbeat.
> [New Quest Available: Face the Creator]
[Objective: Find the final lab and confront the truth of your origin.]
[Reward: Unlock the Core of Deceit.]
Before he could process the quest, a gust of wind blew out the lanterns.
And then the world fell silent.
No rats. No rain. No breath.
A figure erged from the darkness, tall and silent, draped in robes that flickered like candle smoke.
> [System Warning: High-Level Entity Detected]
[Title: The Reaper of Chains]
[Class: Dinsional Executioner]
"Elias Black," the figure said, voice like bones grinding in snow. "Your trial begins."
Elias rose to his feet, shadows coiling around him.
"Trial?"
"You’ve been marked by the Devil. Your existence is a breach in the cosmic code. I am the verdict."
Elias grinned, blood in his mouth.
"Then let’s make it a good one."
The battle exploded.
The Reaper moved like a blink — one second in front, the next behind. His blade cut through stone like mist. Elias countered with shadow tendrils, slamming the Reaper into the ceiling, but the creature twisted mid-air and sent a pulse of null energy straight through Elias’s chest.
> [Damage Taken: -872 HP]
[Warning: Core Instability Rising]
Elias coughed blood but smiled through the pain.
"You’re fast," he muttered. "But I’ve died before. You’ll have to do better."
He let go of restraint.
Let the wrath rise.
Let the System roar.
A crimson explosion radiated from him as the Second Sin Core briefly activated. The shadows around him shifted into living demons, and the Devil’s Crown flickered with deeper thorns.
> [Core Evolution Triggered: Sinborne Wrath - Stage II]
[Ability Unlocked: Hellbrand Surge]
He clapped his hands together and summoned an enormous demon-arm — fiery red, crackling with cursed runes — and hurled it toward the Reaper.
The Reaper deflected it — barely.
And then Elias was in his face, fangs bared, voice shaking.
"I choose this power."
Their clash ripped open the ground beneath them.
And the Devil, watching from the black between stars, smiled.
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