The past you forgot

The air turned dense as Ren stepped beyond the silver archway that ended the Greed Staircase. Unlike the blinding opulence of the tower, this next chamber pulsed with an eerie quiet—velvety blackness stretching far and wide, broken only by faint silver threads dancing through the air like misty spiderwebs.

Lyra was beside him, her fingers curled tightly around his. Her gaze flicked around the void with suspicion, her possessiveness heightening with every unseen whisper.

Ren took a cautious step forward. "This feels… different. No heavy aura. No pressure."

Lyra nodded. "Too quiet. Which means it's watching us."

Suddenly, the silver threads shimmered violently, swirling into a shape. A woman stepped out, dressed in flowing robes made of shadow and moonlight. Her face was veiled, but her voice rang like music in a dream.

"You've passed the trials of Greed. But now you enter the Veiled Memory—a test of what you've left behind."

Ren tensed. "Who are you?"

She raised a pale hand. "I am simply called Seris. A memory keeper. Not your enemy, but I do guard the next path. And to walk forward, you must walk back."

Lyra stepped in front of Ren, protective and sharp. "Enough riddles. What do you want from him?"

Seris tilted her head, unbothered. "To remember. That's all. Let him choose."

A glowing mirror rose from the floor, and Ren felt a tug in his mind. The surface of the mirror shimmered with scenes—flickers of his past before the Chaos Bidding System, before the gods. A mother's cry. A sword held in trembling hands. A betrayal in the rain.

Ren swallowed hard.

"I didn't come here to wallow in regrets."

Seris stepped aside. "And yet, every partner you win adds to the weight of your choices. What you refuse to face… may devour what you hold most dear."

The mirror pulsed.

Lyra's grip on Ren's hand tightened. "You don't need this. We move forward. Always."

But Ren looked into the mirror anyway.

He saw her—Erlyn, one of his earlier partners, standing under moonlight, smiling with wet eyes. She'd sacrificed her power to protect him. Had he forgotten the pain she hid? Had he taken her warmth and moved on too fast?

He remembered Ilyra—how she had once hesitated, her goddess pride fractured before allowing him to see her vulnerabilities.

And behind all of them, Lyra's memory blazed—her eyes wild with jealousy and pain the day she first saw another woman kiss him.

Ren turned away from the mirror. "I remember enough."

Seris smiled beneath the veil. "Then show it. Not just with strength… but truth."

Suddenly, the room warped. Blackness split open like shattered glass, and a twisted figure emerged from the fragments—a creature stitched from Ren's own guilt and doubt. Its eyes were his. Its voice, distorted, yet unmistakably his own.

"I am what you buried," it hissed. "The part of you that fears losing them all. The part that thinks you don't deserve them."

Lyra's aura flared golden. "Then we destroy you."

But the creature lunged—not at Ren, but at Lyra.

Ren didn't hesitate.

His Chaos Blade manifested in his grip, sizzling with crimson light. He clashed against the creature midair, their energies crackling. Every strike the creature made whispered doubts: "She'll leave you. She'll hate you. You are using them all."

Ren grit his teeth. "I am not perfect. But I won't abandon any of them."

The shadow screeched and lunged again. But this time, Lyra leapt forward, wrapping her magic like vines around its limbs.

"Ren!" she shouted. "Use the skill Ilyra gave you!"

Ren's eyes widened—Memory Seal: Clarity. The Chaos Skill Ilyra had granted after their intimacy.

He activated it.

Silver light exploded from his chest, latching onto the creature. The whispers in his head fell silent. The doubt vanished. His mind cleared.

With a roar, Ren sliced through the creature, cleaving it in half.

The pieces dissolved into stardust, floating into the void.

Seris stepped forward again. "You remembered, and you chose to face it. That is enough."

She reached toward him, placing a glowing mark on the back of his hand. "The next gate is yours to open."

The darkness lifted slowly. A silver staircase appeared, spiraling upward into a glowing rift.

As Seris faded into the mist, she whispered, "Not all burdens are chains. Some remind you who you're fighting for."

Ren turned to Lyra, who looked shaken but proud.

"You remembered her," Lyra said quietly. "All of them."

"I never forgot," Ren replied. "But I had to see it… to prove it to myself."

She stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Just don't let them replace me. I'm the first. The one who was always by your side."

Ren rested his forehead against hers. "You're not replaceable. You never were."

They stood like that for a long moment, a silence of understanding stretching between them.

And then, without a word, they began ascending the new staircase—toward the next test, the next realm, and the next partner waiting to see if Ren Zian could remain true not just to his strength… but to the heart that held all their stories.