The golden towers of Ossirion rose from the horizon like the jagged teeth of a sleeping titan.
Once a beacon of spiritual enlightenment and mystical scholarship, it now loomed like a fortress of silence, its walls gleaming with enchantments old as the continent itself. Its gates bore sigils etched in divine fire, glowing faintly beneath the morning mist. The atmosphere here was heavy—not with dread, but judgment.
To most, it was a city of miracles.
To Zareth, it was a city of lies.
He stood with Lilix on a high ridge overlooking the valley that cradled the city. His army waited behind him, stretching in rank and steel as far as the eye could see. But Zareth gave no command to advance.
Not yet.
"Look at them," Lilix said beside him, eyes cold. "Hiding behind their relics and chants, thinking their light will protect them. But they are not prepared for what we bring."
"They never are," Zareth murmured.
His gaze was fixed not on the city—but on the cathedral at its center.
A white spire that pierced the clouds, radiating divine energy. That was where she would be. Selene, the High Priestess. The last guardian of the Relic of Reversal—a holy artifact capable of disturbing the reincarnation cycle.
He could feel it calling to him.
The relic was not just a key to understanding the system—it was a wound in the order of the world. And Zareth intended to drive his hand deep into it.
But he knew Selene would not give it up freely.
"Prepare the advance," he commanded, turning his back on the sunrise. "No siege. No blood. I will walk through the gates."
Lilix arched a silver brow. "Alone?"
"I am not unknown to them," he said. "Let them see the monster they fear. I will give them a chance to kneel."
Lilix smirked. "And if they don't?"
"Then I'll burn the cathedral to its foundation."
The gates of Ossirion opened without a single arrow fired.
Zareth walked through the threshold in silence, clad in black battle robes threaded with crimson runes. The enchanted steel of his shoulder plates shimmered beneath the city's divine aura, casting fractured shadows across the white cobblestones. His cloak dragged behind him like a trail of night.
Citizens watched from windows and balconies, their eyes wide with fear and reverence. Children were ushered inside. Bells rang. Prayers rose.
Zareth ignored them all.
A group of silver-cloaked paladins awaited him at the end of the main street—led by a figure cloaked in a radiant veil, standing tall atop the cathedral steps.
Selene.
She lowered her hood as he approached, revealing a face of ethereal beauty—moonlight skin, piercing violet eyes, and silver hair bound with golden filigree. The aura around her pulsed with holiness, but Zareth saw the sharpness beneath the veil.
"You walk boldly, Deathlord," she said, her voice soft, yet echoing with divine authority. "And yet, you bring no sword."
"I've learned that in cities like yours," Zareth replied, "the real blades are words and eyes. I bring both."
"You seek the relic."
"I seek answers."
Selene descended a single step, her long robe whispering across marble. "What makes you believe you'll find truth here, in the house of gods you've spat upon for lifetimes?"
Zareth took another step forward. "Because this house was built by mortals. And mortals leave cracks in their illusions."
Their eyes locked. For a long moment, there was only silence.
Then Selene said, "Come. If you truly seek the truth, you'll find it not through conquest, but confrontation."
She turned and ascended the steps again, her robes trailing divine light.
Zareth followed her into the cathedral.
Inside the cathedral was not a temple, but a sanctum. The walls bore murals of ancient history—dragons and gods, wars of soul and fire. At the center of it all, atop a dais carved from celestial bone, floated the Relic of Reversal.
A crystal sphere, suspended mid-air in a lattice of holy chains. It pulsed faintly with red and white light—blood and purity, trapped in eternal struggle.
Zareth approached it, and instantly, pain seared through his chest.
The system mark on his spine ignited.
❖ WARNING: Villain Alignment Faltering.
❖ Villain Path Integrity: 87%
❖ Reminder: If Villain Alignment reaches 0%, WORLD TERMINATION PROTOCOL will be triggered.
Zareth gritted his teeth as the burning pain spread across his back, forcing him to his knees.
Selene knelt beside him, her hand glowing with gentle power as she traced her fingers along his spine. "You are bound tighter than I expected."
He shoved her hand away. "Don't pretend to pity me."
"I don't," she whispered. "I hate everything you stand for. But I see the scars. You are not whole."
Zareth rose, the pain still seething beneath his skin. "You know what this relic does."
Selene nodded. "It severs the anchor of reincarnation. Not destroys it—distorts it. It can fracture your cycle, weaken the hold the system has on you."
"And the cost?"
"Pain. Memory. Power. And... it may change you."
Zareth's gaze darkened. "If I become good..."
"The world dies," she finished. "Yes. I've read the prophecies. But maybe it doesn't mean what you think. Maybe good and evil aren't binaries—but variables."
He stared at her.
She stared back.
And for the first time in this life, Zareth felt the weight of the system tremble.
Selene reached for the relic, and without touching it, drew forth a thread of memory.
"Let me show you what they've hidden from you."
The world shattered around Zareth.
He fell into light and shadow, into a torrent of visions. Lives flashed before him—dozens. He saw himself as a tyrant. A conqueror. A madman. A betrayed lover. A protector who had turned cruel. A hero who had failed. In each life, the system had twisted his path toward darkness. But the core of him—his original self—had always asked the same question.
Why am I not allowed to change?
The vision ended with one life he did not recognize—a younger version of himself, kind-eyed, laughing beneath a tree.
A moment before his death.
Shot in the back. Branded as evil. By the very heroes he once called friends.
Zareth gasped as he returned to the cathedral, eyes wide, sweat beading his brow.
Selene knelt beside him again.
"That was the original life, wasn't it?" he said hoarsely. "Before the system."
She nodded solemnly. "You were betrayed. The system locked you in a path you never chose."
"And now it threatens to destroy the world if I escape it."
Selene placed a hand on his chest. "Then maybe it's not you that must die."
Zareth stood, trembling, but resolved.
"I'll take the relic."
"It will hurt you," she warned.
"I've lived through hell," he growled. "Let me bleed for something real."
As his hand closed around the Relic of Reversal, a scream tore from Zareth's throat.
The system roared in his ears.
❖ CRITICAL EVENT DETECTED.
❖ Villain Path Compromised.
❖ ALIGNMENT SHIFT: 82%
❖ WARNING: Anti-System Interference Detected.
The cathedral shook.
Selene caught him as his knees buckled.
"You did it," she whispered, her eyes wide.
But Zareth wasn't listening. His mind was filled with fire and memories, with the searing knowledge of what had been stolen from him across lifetimes.
The system had shaped him into a monster.
Now he would become a rebel.
He rose slowly, relic pulsing in his hand, breath steadying.
"The world won't end," he said quietly.
Selene blinked. "How can you be sure?"
Zareth smirked.
"Because I'm going to burn the system down before it gets the chance."
To be continued...