Chapter 10: Forbidden Entry – Codex Unbound
"Do you wish to unlock a Forbidden Entry?"
Ren's breath hitched. Around him, fire and void clashed, steel rang, and magic seared the night.
And still, the Codex waited.
He clenched his fist.
"Unlock it."
The air bent.
Reality trembled.
The Codex Nullum pulsed in his hand, its pages glowing with violet sigils never seen before—living runes that twisted, screamed, and reshaped themselves with every breath.
Then it spoke.
"Entry Unsealed: ∴ Tenebris Sapientia – The Knowledge That Should Not Be Known."
Chains shattered across Ren's soul.
His body lifted from the ground as the Codex fused with him—energy carving darkened glyphs across his arms, his chest, his eyes. He wasn't just reading the Forbidden Entry anymore. He was becoming it.
Across the battlefield, everyone froze.
Even Kael Veylor stepped back, his flames sputtering uncertainly.
"That power…" he whispered. "It's not yours. It can't be."
Ren opened his eyes. They glowed pure void.
"You're right. It wasn't. But now?"
"It answers to me."
He raised his hand—and the world blinked.
The statues around the courtyard moved, cracking from stone to flesh. Ancient guardians long sealed by the academy's founders awakened, answering to Ren's command.
Kael shouted, backing away. "This is madness! You're calling the Dead of Oaths! They'll consume you!"
Ren smiled. "Let them try."
From the shadows, Nyxria watched with something between awe and dread. The glyphs pulsing across Ren's skin… she recognized them.
"He's unlocking the Protocol fully," she murmured. "That shouldn't be possible… unless—"
"Unless what?" Lira said, still shielding them from a flurry of arrows.
"Unless he was never supposed to be mortal to begin with."
As the Dead of Oaths stormed the battlefield, Kael roared and unleashed his secret weapon.
A crimson blade forged from cursed flame and divine crystal.
The ground cracked as he plunged it into the earth.
"Awaken, Drakensoul Aegis!"
From the blade surged a wyrm-shaped aura—divine, ancient, furious. A dragonborn phantom wrapped itself around Kael like armor, and the sky bled crimson.
"If you want war, Kamizuki," Kael snarled, "then I'll show you the kind of power a true heir commands!"
And Ren?
He just walked toward him, page after glowing page of the Codex spiraling around him like a living grimoire.