Chapter 111: Ren Ryzard
The gates of black iron opened on their own, exhaling a breath of cold air. Jack stepped through first, Corvin a silent shadow on his shoulder, Melania gliding behind.
Blue-white torchlight flickered along the vast corridor ahead, throwing restless shadows against walls carved with scenes of forgotten wars.
No guards. No servants. Only the echo of their steps.
The hall stretched like the throat of an ancient beast. Murals showed warriors mid-strike, armies frozen in triumph and ruin, but none of the painted faces bore joy. The silence was complete. So deep Jack felt it pressing against his eardrums like water.
His breath turned to mist.
The temperature dropped with each step forward, as if they were descending into winter itself. Frost began forming along the edges of the murals, and Jack noticed his fingers were going numb despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
Finally, a pair of immense doors parted without a touch, groaning like the earth itself was splitting apart.
The throne room swallowed them whole.
A single shaft of silver light fell from the domed ceiling, illuminating a throne carved from midnight stone shot through with veins of silver that pulsed like a slow heartbeat.
The very walls seemed to breathe around them, shadows shifting without any source of movement.
A man lounged across the throne, long dark hair spilling over one armrest, a boot hooked over the other as if he had merely paused mid-thought and forgotten to rise for eight hundred years.
Jack’s breath caught. The air itself felt different here. It was thicker, charged with something that made his skin crawl and his pulse stutter.
It looked like someone left a dead corpse on the throne.
The faint pulse of power in the air told him this figure was anything but dead.
Power radiated from the still form like heat from a forge, ancient and utterly overwhelming.
Then the man opened his eyes.
They glowed like distant stars caught behind storm clouds, and the weight of his presence crashed across the room like a tsunami.
The temperature plummeted another ten degrees in an instant. Every torch in the chamber guttered simultaneously, flames bending away from the throne as if even fire feared to burn too close.
Jack’s knees nearly buckled. His body betrayed him.
His hands trembled despite every effort to maintain control, cold sweat beading on his forehead even as his breath turned to visible mist. The rational part of his mind screamed warnings while his legs refused to respond to his commands.
[Entity Detected: ???]
[Rank: Unknown]
[Status: Aware]
[WARNING: Extreme psychological pressure detected]
[Recommendation: Do not make sudden movements]
"Welcome, Soul Warden."
The voice didn’t just fill the chamber. It rewrote the air itself. Low, resonant, heavy with oaths as old as the Spire itself.
Each word pressed into Jack’s bones like a 10 ton weight, making him feel suddenly, desperately small.
Jack’s mouth went dry. When he tried to speak, his voice cracked slightly. "Patriarch, I presume."
Something that might have been amusement flickered behind those star-bright eyes. "You presume correctly." The man sat up with unhurried precision, planting both boots on the black stone floor.
The simple movement sent ripples of pressure through the room. The silver veins in the throne flared brighter, pulsing in rhythm with what Jack realized was the being’s heartbeat.
Frost spread across the floor in delicate patterns that looked almost like writing in a language Jack couldn’t read.
"It has been an age since a Soul Warden crossed my threshold. The last one..." Those ancient eyes studied Jack intensely. "The last one knelt."
Jack’s spine stiffened at the implication, even as every instinct screamed at him to drop to his knees and beg for mercy.
His hand moved instinctively toward where his spear would materialize, then stopped as those glowing eyes tracked his movement.
Melania bowed, her serpentine tail curling like a dark ribbon. "As requested, Lord Ren, I bring him before you."
Ren. The name settled into Jack’s mind like a key turning in a lock, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that names had power here, and knowing it might have cost him something.
The Patriarch, Ren, gave her the briefest nod, then fixed those star-bright eyes on Jack again. The attention felt like standing under a magnifying glass held by a giant. "Approach."
Jack’s legs felt like lead as he moved forward. Each step required conscious effort, as if he were wading through invisible quicksand. The silver light brushed his boots, and he realized his hands were shaking badly enough that Corvin had to adjust his grip on Jack’s shoulder.
The great raven’s feathers were raised in permanent alarm, violet eyes darting around the chamber as if expecting attack from every shadow.
"You wanted to meet me," Jack managed, his voice barely above a whisper.
Ren’s smile was as sharp as winter. "I summoned you," he corrected gently, and Jack felt the distinction like a slap to the face. "And I will not waste either of our time with riddles. I wish to leave this tower."
The words hit Jack like a bucket of cold water. "Leave the Spire?"
"Yes." The single word carried the weight of centuries, of endless patience wearing thin, of power constrained for far too long.
Jack’s mind raced, fragments of thought colliding. "That’s not possible," he said, though his voice lacked conviction. "No one leaves except gods." He paused, feeling the system’s ever-present hum like a lifeline in the overwhelming pressure. "...and Soul Wardens."
Ren’s smile widened, showing teeth that gleamed like polished bone. "Precisely."
The information crashed down on Jack like an avalanche.
This being. This ancient, impossibly powerful entity needed him. Actually needed him. The realization should have been empowering. Instead, it felt like discovering he was the only key to a cage containing something that could unmake reality.
Jack’s jaw tightened, though whether from fear or determination he couldn’t tell. "You expect me to free you."
"I expect nothing," Ren replied, voice smooth as silk. Each word was measured, calculated, chosen for maximum impact. "But I ask. Because only you can break the chains that bind me to this Spire."
He rose to his full height with deliberate grace, and Jack realized with a start that the being wasn’t particularly tall or imposing physically.
It was the aura that filled the chamber, the weight of presence that made him seem like a titan.
Though his frame was human, the power that radiated from him was anything but.
Ancient. Patient. Utterly, terrifyingly controlled.
Jack kept his stance, though his spear flickered in and out of existence in nervous bursts of blue light. He couldn’t seem to stop the involuntary summoning.
"Why are you trapped here? What makes you so dangerous that you need to be imprisoned?"
A shadow crossed Ren’s face. Something complex and ancient that Jack couldn’t read. The temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees, and Jack’s breath came out in small puffs of vapor.
"I was too powerful, so I was cast away by those closest to me." Ren said without moving his gaze from Jack.
Jack fought to keep his thoughts clear through the crushing weight of Ren’s presence. "If what you say is true, why haven’t you forced the issue? You’re obviously powerful enough to crush half the floors below you."
For the first time, something genuine flickered across Ren’s features. Pain or bitter amusement. Jack couldn’t tell which it was.
"Because power and freedom are not the same, young Warden." His voice dropped, cold as a winter sea. "The Spire is a cage designed by gods who feared what they had created. I can shake the bars until the tower trembles. I can make the very foundations weep. But I cannot step beyond them."
The admission settled over the room like falling ash.
In it, Jack heard the echo of centuries. Rage, frustration and a patience that had been tested to its absolute limits.
Jack studied him, searching for deception even as his vision swam from the supernatural pressure. "And you think I can."
"I know you can," Ren said simply, and the certainty in his voice was more terrifying than any threat.
He trailed off, but the unfinished sentence hung in the air like a promise of violence.
The weight of that statement tightened something behind Jack’s ribs. The Spire... watching. Always watching.
Ren’s gaze sharpened, twin stars burning brighter, and Jack realized with growing horror that the ancient being could probably sense the system notifications.
Could probably read them as clearly as Jack could.
"Will you help me, Soul Warden?" The weight of centuries pressed into his voice.
Jack didn’t answer immediately. Couldn’t. His throat felt paralyzed, his mind struggling to process the impossible choice being laid before him.
The system remained silent except for the faint electric hum of a quest waiting to be accepted—or refused.
"But," Ren continued, his star-bright eyes never leaving Jack’s face, "I think you will help me. Because you are not here by accident, and I suspect we both know it."