Season 1 – THE CURSED SUMMON
Episode 3: The Warden's Labyrinth
Ren never imagined the underworld of this cursed kingdom would stretch so deep. He thought the Hollow was the worst hell he'd experience.
He was wrong.
The path below the Hollow was called the Warden's Labyrinth. A place so old it predated the rise of the divine summoning ritual. The scroll given to him by the priest glowed faintly in the dark, leading the way through half-collapsed tunnels, whispering walls, and decaying sigils etched into stone with blood.
Lyra limped beside him, silent, her side still wrapped in fresh bandages. She hadn't said much since their fight with the Maggot.
"You should've stayed behind," Ren said, not looking at her.
"I'm not leaving until I pay back what I owe," she muttered. "Once."
Ren smirked slightly. "Fair enough."
The torch flickered in his hand, illuminating an archway carved into the shape of a skull screaming. Beneath it were words written in an old tongue, one that he somehow understood.
> "Beneath blood and bone, only monsters rise. Only monsters survive."
He felt it again.
That low, humming presence in his chest. Ever since he'd awakened in this world, it pulsed when death surrounded him.
Maybe it was that cursed Divine Learner skill.
He hadn't unlocked anything from the Maggot. Not yet. But it felt like something was changing.
---
The first level of the Labyrinth was almost too quiet.
Stone hallways draped in chains. Empty cells with claw marks on the inside. Ritual circles drawn in dried blood.
Lyra whispered, "This place… it's like it remembers pain."
And it did.
Because soon the screaming began.
Not from them. But ahead.
They found the first Warden construct hanging from the ceiling—spiderlike limbs, blindfolded, with a stitched mouth and dozens of blades where its fingers should've been. It looked like it had once been a man—twisted into a holy abomination. Its chest bore the insignia of a broken halo.
The scroll flared.
> Warden Class: Level 32 – Limbcleaver
Status: Dormant… Engaging.
Its head snapped up.
"RUN!" Ren shouted.
They did—but the Warden moved like lightning. It dropped, blades spinning. One tore into Ren's shoulder, blood spraying the wall. Lyra tripped and rolled into a cell. Ren ducked into the same room, slamming the iron gate shut just as blades scraped across the bars.
Limbcleaver hissed.
Then it spoke.
"Trial initiate… failed… compliance… execute…"
It began cutting through the bars.
Ren scanned the cell. Chains. Rusted weapons. Skeletons.
And a glowing stone etched with the same script as the scroll.
> "Touch me, child of betrayal. Learn the sin."
He grabbed it.
The moment he touched the stone, agony erupted in his skull. His body screamed. His memories fractured. But knowledge poured in.
Images.
Names.
A woman with black wings screaming as her skin was torn off by chains of light. A man made of fire devoured by priests in white robes. And a word burned into his soul.
Skill unlocked: Fragment of Sin – Blood Recollection.
Allows you to replay the death of any creature you kill. Understanding grants further evolution.
Ren gasped, dropping to his knees.
Outside the cell, the Warden sliced through the last bar.
Lyra kicked the rusted blade on the ground toward him.
"Kill it!" she screamed.
Ren stood. Blood poured from his shoulder.
He waited.
And as the Warden lunged in—
He moved.
Lower. Faster.
And jammed the blade straight into the Warden's eye.
It screamed.
Steam burst from its sockets.
It thrashed.
But Ren didn't let go.
He climbed it.
Clung to its back.
And stabbed again.
And again.
Until it stopped moving.
The silence was heavy. Thick with the taste of metal and rot.
Ren stood over the twitching corpse, panting.
The scroll flared again.
> Skill Available: Blade-Tremor (Lv. 1) – Passive.
Choose to Extract?
He hesitated.
Then said aloud, "Extract."
> Skill acquired: Blade-Tremor (Lv. 1)
(Passive: Slightly increases vibration damage with sharp weapons. Evolves through pain thresholds.)
Ren grinned faintly.
So this was how Divine Learner worked.
It wasn't about stealing power instantly.
It was about understanding death.
Earning it.
Lyra sat beside him, shaking, her face pale.
"You… you're really going to survive this, aren't you?"
Ren wiped the blood from his mouth. "I don't have a choice."
She looked away.
"…They did things to me," she said. "Before the Hollow. When I was summoned. They… they branded us. Like cattle. We were numbers."
Ren turned his head slowly.
"What was your number?"
"Seventeen."
His stomach churned. "I was Forty-Eight."
Lyra chuckled bitterly. "Guess we were both trash."
He nodded.
Then whispered, "Not anymore."
---
The deeper they went, the colder it grew.
The second level of the Labyrinth wasn't stone.
It was bone.
Skulls, femurs, and ribcages formed the walls. Screams whispered through the cracks. The air buzzed with cursed energy.
The scroll trembled in his hand.
> "Warden Prime sleeps below. Bound by the sins of nine false prophets."
Ren asked, "What's a Warden Prime?"
Lyra swallowed. "A god that failed."
They entered a large chamber with a shattered throne made of fingers. Chains stretched from the walls to the center, where a cocoon of flesh pulsed like a heartbeat.
The air was thick with rot.
Ren felt it before it moved.
A voice echoed—not aloud, but inside their minds.
> "You carry sin, mortal. You carry Divine Learner. I smell Eidros on your soul."
Ren froze.
Lyra stumbled back. "What—what is that thing?!"
The cocoon pulsed again.
A tendril slithered out, formed into the shape of a humanoid arm with golden skin and seven fingers.
> "I was the First Warden. Eidros sealed me when I refused to follow the lie. He feared what I learned. And now… you walk my prison, carrying his corruption."
Ren stepped forward, fists clenched.
"I don't serve Eidros. I don't serve any of them."
> "Then prove it."
The cocoon split.
Inside was a half-rotted divine, still alive—its torso glowing, chest torn open, heart replaced by a red core.
> "Take my memory. Take my truth. If you survive it… I will give you the First Sin."
Ren looked at Lyra.
She nodded once. "Do it."
He placed his hand on the red core.
And the world vanished.
---
He stood in a memory.
A battlefield.
Thousands dead.
Divines slaughtered like animals. Eidros atop a tower, holding a blade that screamed with every soul it devoured.
The First Warden knelt in chains, begging.
"Please—let me save them. Let me teach the others."
Eidros smiled.
"No. The system must remain pure. Knowledge is a curse. You'll be buried beneath the lies."
Ren watched as Eidros plunged the blade into the Warden's chest—
And sealed his memory into the Labyrinth.
Ren staggered back into his own body, gasping.
Blood poured from his nose. His vision swam.
But he was awake.
More awake than he'd ever been.
> New Skill: First Sin – Revelation Fragment (Passive)
You now see through divine lies. Skill interactions and history will slowly unveil their truths.
The Warden smiled as it began to dissolve into ash.
> "You will suffer, boy. But so did I. And if you rise… then rise as a curse. Not a hero."
The chamber collapsed behind them.
Ren and Lyra barely escaped.
As they crawled into a narrow stairway leading upward, Ren finally whispered:
"…I'm not a hero."
Lyra asked, "Then what are you?"
He looked back into the dark.
"…I'm what they tried to bury."
---
Above ground – Capital of Etherya
Akio stood in front of the divine mirror. His sword was drawn. A dozen priests kneeled in fear.
The mirror cracked.
Blood poured from it.
The High Bishop paled. "This—this is impossible. That mirror reflects only the purest Chosen Ones—"
Akio's eyes narrowed.
"…But it just showed me Ren."
The mirror shattered entirely.
Blood burst from the walls.
And a single word appeared, burned in holy flame:
> TRAITOR.