The Gate loomed across the valley, nestled in the heart of an ancient crater. It was enormous—an arch of obsidian bones and shattered stars, suspended in air by chains of light and shadow. Its core shimmered like a pool of midnight water, rippling between worlds.

And at its base stood Renji.

Cloaked in gold-threaded black. Surrounded by the last of his corrupted knights.

Waiting.

---

✧ ✧ ✧

Yuto, his mother, Kael, Lyra, and the remaining Exile vanguard stood upon the last ridge before the descent.

The snow had stopped. The sky was burning red, though no sun was visible.

Aya, now stronger, looked up at her brother.

“You’ll have to fight him, won’t you?”

“I think I always did,” Yuto replied. “Even before this world.”

Kael tightened his gloves. “We disable the gate. Kill Renji if we must. But the priority is severing his link to Veyrath.”

Lyra added, “The Gate of Sundering isn’t just a portal. It’s a **throne**. And Renji is trying to *ascend*.”

---

✧ ✧ ✧

The battle began at dawn.

The Exiles charged from the eastern cliffs, sigil-fire blazing through the sky. Lyra led the first wave, piercing the cursed knights with precision. Kael erected magical barriers, pushing the front line forward.

Yuto moved through the chaos like lightning, his mother at his side—a black flame dancing beside crimson fire.

They cut down the Echobound, shattered sigil traps, and forced their way to the gate platform.

Renji stood at the heart, hands raised high, his body crackling with god-light.

> “Welcome,” he said, his voice echoing like a thousand voices.

> “I was waiting for you, brother.”

---

✧ ✧ ✧

Yuto stepped forward, sword raised.

“You were my friend. My brother. You murdered me.”

“I gave you freedom!” Renji roared. “You were trapped in a world that never saw your worth! I gave you purpose. Power. I gave your **death** meaning!”

Yuto shouted, “You gave me **pain**!”

Their blades clashed—sigil magic colliding with divine corruption. The Gate pulsed with each blow, the veil between worlds thinning.

Renji moved like a storm, enhanced by Veyrath’s essence. But Yuto wasn’t alone.

His mother joined the fight, shielding his flank.

Kael fired arcane volleys from above.

Lyra struck at Renji’s shadow.

And Aya, on the cliff, whispered a prayer she remembered from their old world.

---

✧ ✧ ✧

As Yuto struck Renji down to one knee, the ground trembled.

Veyrath’s voice roared across the skies.

> “You are broken, Renji. The pact is weak.”

Renji screamed—his body unraveling, becoming part of the Gate itself.

He looked up, hollow-eyed, and whispered,

> “Yuto… if I die… then so does everything I built…”

Yuto gripped his sword, heart burning.

“No. Just the part built on lies.”

With one final strike, he plunged the blade into the Gate’s heart—into Renji—and released the **Binding Sigil**.

Light exploded.

The Gate shattered.

And the skies bled gold.

---

✧ ✧ ✧

When Yuto awoke, the Gate was gone.

The valley was still. The sky—blue.

Kael knelt nearby, wounded but smiling.

Lyra was tending to survivors.

His mother stood quietly, watching the sunrise.

Aya ran to him, tears in her eyes.

“It’s over,” she whispered.

Yuto looked up.

“Not yet,” he said.

He had one last thing to do.

---

Here is **Chapter 14**, the final chapter of the first arc of *Crimson Pact: The Hero Who Died Betrayed*.

---

## **Chapter 14: A World Left Behind**

The valley was quiet.

The Gate of Sundering was no more. Renji’s body had vanished with the last pulse of divine light, leaving only a scorched platform and wind-churned dust.

But the silence wasn’t peace.

It was mourning.

It was *choice*.

---

✧ ✧ ✧

Yuto sat beneath a broken archway, watching the sun rise over the Hollow Spine. His mother stood beside him, staring at the horizon, the color in her eyes returning little by little.

“I remember almost everything now,” she said softly.

Yuto didn’t respond right away.

“I was ready to fight you,” he finally whispered. “And I didn’t know if I could stop.”

“You didn’t need to,” she replied. “You saved me before you raised your sword.”

He looked down at his hands.

“And Renji?”

She lowered her gaze.

“He chose to forget himself. And when we forget who we are… we become monsters.”

---

✧ ✧ ✧

In Ashmark, celebrations were beginning.

Kael was crowned Arch-Seer of the Reformed Sigil Council. Lyra led the reconstruction of the Exile Order. Aya, with her strength returned, was training to be a guardian of peace.

But Yuto stood at the shrine.

The shrine that had appeared from nowhere.

Inside it: a mirror.

It shimmered with light from *his* world.

**Earth.**

His apartment. The streetlight outside his window. The ramen shop he always passed after cram school.

It was calling to him.

The mirror could only be used once.

A one-way path—home.

---

✧ ✧ ✧

“I made a promise,” he said aloud.

Lyra stood beside him, arms crossed.

“To who?” she asked.

He smiled faintly. “Myself. That if I ever had the choice again… I’d live.”

She glanced at the mirror. “So this is goodbye?”

“I don’t know,” Yuto said. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I need to see… what my world became without me.”

He turned to her.

“Thank you, Lyra.”

“For what?”

“For making me fight again.”

---

✧ ✧ ✧

As the mirror hummed with energy, Aya ran to him, hugging him tightly. Kael gave a solemn nod. His mother placed her hand on his shoulder—no words needed.

And Yuto stepped through.

Light engulfed him.

---

✧ ✧ ✧

Somewhere, in a quiet Tokyo apartment, a young man gasped awake on his futon.

The clock ticked past 3:33 a.m.

Rain pattered on the glass.

He looked down at his hand—

—and saw a faint red sigil glowing on his palm.

He wasn’t dreaming.

Not anymore.

End of Arc I: Crimson Pact**

 **Arc II** follows where Yuto investigates a new magical anomaly in modern Tokyo—and realizes the other world may not be finished with him yet?