Damn The Author

Chapter 14 - The Sacrifice[3]

The path ahead wasn't a corridor. It was a ledge.

A narrow strip of crumbling black stone, stretching across an impossible void.

No walls. No ceiling. No stars. Just... darkness.

Absolute.

Tap.

Tap.

Each step echoed as if I was walking on the spine of some dead god. Each breath felt borrowed.

At the end of the ledge stood the final altar.

No Guardian this time. Just the card.

It floated above the altar like a frozen ember, shackled by five chains of light.

Four of them were broken. The fifth was still whole, trembling with power, like it was waiting for something.

And beside it...

A mirror. One last mirror.

I approached and saw myself in the mirror.

And found my reflection had returned.

But it wasn't me.

Not really.

This version of me was older. Harder. Taller. His eyes glowed faintly, like someone who had stared into truths too long.

His cloak was tattered. His grimoire floated beside him, and burning chains surrounded him.

He was smiling.

Not kindly.

Not cruelly.

Just knowingly.

Like he had seen this moment before.

I stared at him.

And he stared back.

Then I heard the final voice—not spoken aloud, but deep inside me.

"What will you become... when all else is gone?"

Not who. Not where. Not why.

What.

I didn't answer right away.

The question felt like a knife under my ribs. Quiet, precise, meant to bleed truth.

I thought of everything I had lost. Everything I had sacrificed.

My past. My body. My comfort. My self.

What would be left when it was all over?

What would I become?

A hero?

A king?

A villain?

A ghost?

No.

None of those fit.

My eyes drifted back to the card.

Its golden chain wriggled like a living thing. As if it knew the answer too.

"I will become..." I began.

My voice didn't tremble this time.

"...the chain that binds this world's truth."

The reflection smiled wider.

And the altar erupted in light.

Chains screamed.

The final vow was accepted.

I stumbled back as the fifth chain ignited, burning in golden flame, letting the card free.

But it wasn't done.

The flame circled me fast and pierced into my chest.

"Agh."

I gasped.

It wasn't pain.

It was... connection.

Like something being branded into my soul.

The flame reached my golden grimoire and formed a connection between the attack card and my spirit card, Enkidu.

And with it came the condition.

If I break any of the five vows... the card will shatter. And so will I.

No second chances.

No forgiveness.

This was my final chain.

My final scar.

Finally, the card hovered over me, silent, weightless, and then sank into my grimoire.

The page flared with light as the Vow Card etched itself permanently with Enkidu.

I staggered and the world shook.

Behind me, the void cracked like a mirror splitting from within.

The altar crumbled.

The path dissolved into light.

And the forgotten temple... began to collapse.

The trials were over.

The Guardian no longer needed to exist.

As I turned to climb, one final thought settled into my mind:

These weren't just chains.

They were vows.

And I chose to wear them.

***

The temple died behind me.

Not with an explosion. Not with fire or fury.

Just... silence.

As I climbed back through the shattered corridor and across the bridge of chains, now rusting and snapping behind me one by one, the darkness receded like it was sighing.

As if it had fulfilled its final purpose.

As if the world that had been holding its breath for centuries... was finally ready to exhale.

I didn't look back.

Not even once.

The canyon's staircases waited like welcoming me home. The red mist had thinned, but not vanished.

It clung to my legs. To my boots. To the part of me I had left behind.

One hour.

Every day.

Gone.

A fragment of me would act without my consent. Move without my will. I wouldn't even remember what I did.

Not knowing was the real curse. I didn't trust anything that moved in the dark, especially not myself.

Still... I kept walking.

Nyx appeared beside me, summoned without a word.

He didn't speak.

Just sniffed me once, then fell into my shadow.

Smart cat. He knew.

He knew I wasn't the same.

The forest rim came into view again above, lively and green, unlike the bleeding red light.

'Ah, I missed it. The illusions here are more friendly compared to what's underneath.'

I thought as I finally emerged.

The sun hit my skin, warm and real. Too real.

I blinked, squinting at the sky, as if it might judge me for what I had lost down there.

But it didn't.

The wind returned.

Birds chirped.

The world moved on.

But I didn't.

I stood at the canyon's edge, staring back down, not into the depth, but into the weight I had accepted.

The Vow Card pulsed quietly inside my grimoire.

I didn't open it.

Didn't dare. I had to get out first.

Because I could feel it now. Not just in my hand. Not just in my soul.

But in the way the world looked at me.

The trees rustled slightly when I passed.

The shadows stretched longer when I wasn't watching. It wasn't an illusion this time.

People would never see it. But something fundamental had shifted within me.

Like I had signed a pact not just with the card, but with the world itself.

I hadn't won.

I hadn't conquered.

I had chosen.

And that choice came with scars.

Five of them.

One for every vow.

I would never forget who I was.

I would surrender control.

I would chase the truth until it broke me.

I would walk alone.

And I would carry the weight of it all.

The world might not notice.

But I would.

Every day.

Every hour.

Every breath.

These weren't just chains. They were promises.

And I wore them like a crown.

Not because I was noble.

Not because I was strong.

But because sometimes, the only way forward... is to bleed for your own truth.