Chapter 24: Bloodlines Collide
"Some fights decide a victor. This one decides a future."
Scene 1: The Duel Begins – House Umbros Revealed
The Academy's Trial Grounds had never been this silent.
Students lined the high balconies, whispering, watching.
Ren stood, gripping Voidglaive: Aetherbane, its edge distorting reality itself.
Kael Veylor faced him, wreathed in ember-black flames, a Crown of Thorns forming above his head.
But then—
A third faction entered the battlefield.
The air froze.
A dozen figures in dark robes, masks shaped like broken mirrors emerged from the shadows.
House Umbros.
Their leader stepped forward: a tall, silver-haired heir with no visible eyes, only darkness where sight should be.
"Ren Kamizuki. We are not here to kill you."
"We are here to awaken you."
Scene 2: The Battle Shifts
Kael launched forward. His Cradle of Thorns lashed out, extending blackened chains meant to bind fate itself.
Ren countered with [Null Rewrite], severing the attack before it existed.
But Umbros did not move.
They merely watched.
"We only fight to test. If you survive, you will remember."
Then—they activated a relic.
A Sealed Eye of the First Forgotten God opened above them.
The battle…
became something else.
Codex Chain Five Unlock – "Nullborn Ascension"
Effect: Ren now has access to the "Nullborn State"—a form where he can fight as both his current self and his forgotten past self at the same time.
He does not just read history. He becomes its author.
But there's a price:
Every use erases something of his current self.
He may become the First Null… but lose Ren Kamizuki.
"Choose, heir of forgotten time. What matters more?
What you are… or what you were?"
Scene 3: Lira's Moment of Truth
After the battle…
Ren sat against the broken arena wall, blood on his hands—not his own.
Lira knelt beside him, pressing her forehead against his.
"They tried to erase me once," she whispered. "But you pulled me back."
"Ren… if you ever start to forget yourself—"
She grabbed his wrist, pressing something cold into his palm.
A ring.
Engraved with her name.
"Then use this. If I vanish from your mind, I'll make you remember me again."
Ren stared at her—words failing.
For the first time since awakening the Codex… he feared what he was becoming.
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Academy & World Map Expansion
Academy of Chains (Main Campus)
Trial Grounds – Where Ren and Kael fought
The Vault of Stars – Where House Umbros emerged
The Forbidden Library – Elyra's sanctuary, buried archives
World Regions Outside Academy
The Hollow Lands – Where the gods buried fallen divine weapons
The Lost Pantheon – A ruined city of erased gods
The Rift of False Memory – A fracture in reality that only Nullborns can cross