Chapter 1
SLASH!!
SLASH!!!
"Ahhh!!"
A figure tore through the clouds, wrapped in gold, halting midair like a divine comet frozen in time.
Sparks rained from his blade, cutting arcs of light through the storm.
"Renji! Are you okay!?"
A voice roared from within not from the outside world, but from somewhere deeper, echoing across the edges of his soul.
Renji's chest heaved. Each breath burned like molten air in his lungs. His eyes, sharp as lightning, glowed with fury.
Gasp!
Gasp!
"Yes… I'm not done yet!" he shouted back, voice shaking the sky itself.
"Good," the voice whispered .. calm, ancient, omnipresent.p
"Then let's end this… once and for all."
Renji's lips curled into a grin. "Let's do this!!!"
And then, as if heaven itself responded, thunder shattered the clouds. Golden power surged through his veins, radiant and wild. The air convulsed, reality flickered, and Renji screamed in unison with the voice inside him:
"AHHHHHH!!!"
Lightning spiraled down from the heavens, flooding the battlefield in blinding light.
Then—he moved.
Deep within the chaos, a single thought echoed
a voice that carried across time itself:
"They say power corrupts.
But what they never tell you…
is what happens when the powerless are the ones who suffer the most."
Renji vanished and reappeared behind his enemies — a blur of gold and flame.
The impact of his strike split the clouds like shattered glass.
Reality itself seemed to reel.
"Reality hits harder than any god," he said, his voice breaking through thunder.
"When you've lost everything… when the world turns its back on you… what else is left—
except to rise?"
The sky bled crimson.
The earth screamed beneath his power oceans of fire swallowing mountains whole.
And then they appeared.
Not men. Not gods. Entities.
Three vast beings whose silhouettes dwarfed the horizon. Their presence warped the world around them bending air, crushing light, and twisting gravity into submission. Behind them surged a legion of beasts millions upon millions — their roars merging into one endless scream that made the air itself tremble.
They were neither shadow nor radiance, but a paradox between both existence that defied logic.
Renji stood alone. His white hair whipped in the tempest.
Circles of flame orbited his body like burning halos. His right eye marked by a jagged scar..pulsed faintly, as though alive, like a second heartbeat.
He raised his staff, spinning it once before locking it behind his back. The air tightened. The storm held its breath.
Renji's gaze sharpened to a killing edge.
"COME AT ME!!!"
The first entity lunged forward, leading the monstrous tide.
Renji moved.
A single flash of gold and the world detonated.
The sky shattered into fragments of light.
Sound vanished.
Only silence… before the shockwave came, obliterating mountains, slicing continents open in molten streaks of destruction.
Renji stood firm amidst the chaos.
"I never wanted this," he muttered, his voice echoing through flame and void alike.
"But destiny doesn't ask for permission."
Another entity struck. He countered every motion fluid, divine, absolute.
Circles of flame erupted from beneath his feet, spreading wings of light across the battlefield.
Each blow carved history into the world itself.
He became rhythm destruction in motion.
And as the storm reached its crescendo, his tone dropped to a calm, steady murmur:
"This is the story of how I lost almost everything…
and why I swore to never bow again."
One final strike.
The world blazed and then, in an instant, the light died.
Reality cracked, folding in on itself like glass collapsing into shadow.
Renji stood alone at the center of it all, faintly smiling as the scar over his eye flickered faint gold light pulsing beneath it.
"Remember this moment," he whispered.
"Because it's where everything began."
Flashback — 27 Years Earlier
The world was ending.
Not metaphorically .... literally.
A massive gate, one of the Thresholds, had split the sky open like a wound. From it poured creatures of nightmare — beasts of bone and hunger, their screeches shattering windows, their claws slicing through steel.
Hunters fought in the streets flashes of magic and blade lighting up the night. But the monsters were endless. The city had become a battlefield, fire painting the skyline in shades of blood.
Renji was ten.
Lily, his little sister, was only four too small to understand, too terrified to cry.
Their mother, Rachel, clutched them both as they fled through the burning apartment complex.
Flames licked the walls.
Smoke filled their lungs.
Every corner glowed red death, waiting to swallow them whole.
Their father, Daichi, led the way.
A man with no mana. No gifts. No weapon.
Only courage.
"Don't stop! Keep going!" he shouted, voice raw, lungs choking on smoke.
Every step was agony, but he never slowed. He couldn't.
Then, the ceiling gave way.
A steel beam, glowing molten red, fell from above straight toward Rachel.
Without hesitation, Daichi turned
and pushed her away.
The beam crushed him before anyone could scream.
Renji never forgot that sound the violent snap, the eruption of fire, the scream of a man giving everything he had for his family.
Rachel's voice ripped through the chaos
"DAICHI!!!"
But it was too late.
The fire swallowed him whole.
Renji watched through the flames his father's shadow standing tall, defiant, unbroken.
And then, gone.
That night shattered their world.
The years that followed were merciless.
For six years Rachel never recovered. Her laughter once the music of their home faded. Grief hollowed her out.
She turned to alcohol, not for pleasure, but to numb the memory of fire.
Each drink made her smaller, dimmer a ghost in her own home.
Renji grew up fast.
Too fast.
By twelve, he was working odd jobs carrying crates, sweeping markets, cleaning blood after hunts.
By sixteen, he was lying about his age to guild clerks, begging for cleanup jobs near low-rank gates.
He scraped every coin together for rent, for Lily's school, for medicine his mother barely took anymore.
He smiled when hungry. He worked through fever. He endured.
But the guilt never left him.
That night's fire still burned in his memory .....his father's scream, his mother's eyes, his own helplessness
The rain fell softly outside the cracked apartment window.
Rachel lay on her futon... pale, frail, trembling. The bottle beside her was nearly empty.
Renji knelt beside her, gripping her cold hand.
"Mom… please," he whispered, his voice cracking.
"Stop drinking. You… you can't leave us. Not now. Not ever."
Rachel turned weakly toward him. Her eyes glazed with exhaustion still carried the faint light of a mother's love.
"Renji… I see him," she murmured, tears trailing down her cheek.
"Your father… every time I close my eyes. The fire… his screams…"
Her hand trembled as she lifted the cup. "The bottle helps me forget. Even if just for a little while…"
Renji bit his lip until it bled. His voice broke. "You're all we have left."
Rachel smiled faintly a smile that hurt to see. She reached up, brushing his cheek.
"Renji… your father gave his life for you and Lily. Now… it's your turn. Protect her. No matter the cost. Keep her safe."
His throat closed.
Tears burned his eyes.
"I… I promise, Mom. I'll protect her with everything I have."
Her breathing slowed. "Good boy… my precious boy… I'm proud of you…"
Her hand fell limp.
Silence.
Renji froze .... kneeling in that silence that was louder than any scream.
The last warmth of family had just left the world.
In the next room, Lily stirred. Her small voice broke through the darkness.
"Renji… where's Mom…?"
He gathered her in his arms.
She trembled confused, frightened, innocent.
He held her tight.
"Shhh… it's okay," he whispered. "I'm here. I'll take care of you. Always."
Outside, thunder rolled. Rain hammered the roof.
The world wept with them.
And in that moment between grief and fire Renji made a vow.
A vow forged in pain, loss, and unbreakable love.
"I'll protect her," he whispered to the storm.
"Even if it burns me alive… just like it did Dad."