The morning air was sharp, carrying the clang of metal and the low hum of magic as the Guild's central plaza transformed into an arena.
Banners hung from stone archways, glowing faintly with runes that pulsed in rhythm, sealing the space. Hunters of every rank gathered, their faces a mix of excitement, suspicion, and morbid curiosity.
Haruki stood at the edge of it all, his cloak pulled tight around his shoulders. He tried to ignore the stares drilling into him, but whispers slid through the air like knives.
"That's him… the Crimson survivor."
"An F-Rank? Impossible."
"He'll break before the Binding even starts."
Kana walked beside him, her usual confidence replaced with nervous glances. "They're treating this like a festival," she muttered. "Not a trial."
"That's what it is to them," Haruki said bitterly. "Entertainment."
Ahead, Rai marched in silence, his posture stiff. Kuro, on the other hand, looked like he was enjoying every second, hands behind his head, a smirk dancing on his lips.
"Don't pout, Haruki," Kuro drawled. "They just want to see if you explode. Think of it like fireworks. You'll make their night."
"Shut it," Kana snapped.
Before Haruki could retort, the crowd parted as Guildmaster Renshiro strode forward. His armor gleamed beneath the morning light, and the weight of his presence silenced the Hunters.
"Today," Renshiro declared, his voice carrying across the plaza, "we strip away doubt. Today, truth will speak louder than rumor. Haruki Aoi, step forward."
Every eye turned. Haruki's legs felt like stone, but he forced them to move. Step by step, he crossed the plaza until he stood before the Guildmaster.
Renshiro's gaze bore into him. "Do you accept the Trial of Binding, knowing it may reveal power too great or corruption too deep to control?"
The System stirred inside him, its voice quiet. Say yes. There is no escape now.
Haruki clenched his fists. "I accept."
A roar of voices surged around him cheers, jeers, shouts. Above it all, the Binding Chamber's gates groaned open, revealing a cavernous hall lit by crimson torches.
The Trial had begun.
The Binding Chamber swallowed Haruki in silence the moment he crossed its threshold. The air inside was heavy, tinged with the metallic bite of old blood and scorched stone. Crimson torches lined the walls, casting jagged shadows that stretched and writhed like living things.
Rows of Hunters filled the raised galleries circling the chamber. Their eyes hundreds of them glittered in the torchlight, watching, weighing, waiting. Whispers spread through the gallery like a current.
"He doesn't look special."
"Watch closely. The Core left its mark."
"If he loses control, we'll put him down."
Haruki's throat tightened. He forced himself to keep walking toward the center, where a massive circular seal glowed on the floor, runes etched into stone that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. The Binding Circle.
Kana, Rai, and Kuro trailed behind him, but only Haruki was meant to step inside. He paused at the edge, staring down at the runes. For a heartbeat, he swore they looked like chains reaching for his ankles.
"You hesitate," Renshiro's voice boomed from the gallery above. "Do not. The Circle accepts only the willing."
Haruki swallowed hard and stepped inside. The runes flared, crimson light racing outward like veins of fire. The chamber hummed, the walls trembling as ancient magic awoke.
A sharp pain jabbed behind his eyes. The System stirred. This circle probes. It will peel you apart. Do not resist… yet.
"Not helping," Haruki hissed under his breath.
The Hunters' murmurs grew louder. Some leaned forward eagerly, others whispered prayers for his soul, and a few glared as though daring him to fail.
Kana pressed her palms together, whispering under her breath. Rai kept his gaze locked on Haruki, face carved from stone. And Kuro? He smirked, eyes glinting, as if waiting for the inevitable collapse.
Haruki forced himself to lift his chin and face the crowd. "You want to see the truth?" His voice cracked at first, but he steadied it. "Then look. I won't run. I won't hide."
The Circle pulsed brighter, answering his defiance. The Binding had accepted him.
From the gallery, Renshiro raised a hand. "Then let it begin."
The chamber plunged into silence.
And the first chains of light shot up, coiling around Haruki's body.
The chains of light snapped taut around Haruki's arms, chest, and legs, burning hot but leaving no marks. The Binding Circle roared to life, runes flaring like molten veins underfoot.
The crowd leaned forward, hushed now, anticipation thick in the air.
A voice not Renshiro's, not the System's echoed in Haruki's skull. Deep, ancient, mechanical and divine all at once.
Identity scan initiated. Core resonance detected. System anomaly confirmed.
Haruki gasped as heat flooded through him. The chains pulsed, burrowing into his veins, digging for something deeper than flesh. His body convulsed.
From the galleries, whispers spread.
"Look at his veins they're glowing!"
"That's not normal… is it?"
"No. Something's wrong."
The System spoke up, sharp and urgent. Haruki hold steady. It's mapping me, not just you. Do not resist, or it will tear us both apart.
"Easy for you to say!" Haruki gritted out, his knees buckling under the pressure. The chains didn't just bind they probed. Every memory, every fragment of the Core, every whispered temptation it was all being dragged into the open.
Suddenly, visions flared across the chamber, projected by the Circle itself. Haruki's past: a frail boy in a hospital bed, coughing blood, clinging to life. His parents weeping. His brother Makoto clutching his hand, whispering stories of adventure.
Gasps rippled through the Hunters.
"Is this… his life?"
"He was just a sickly child…"
"No wonder he"
Then the visions twisted. The red glow spread, flooding the images until the hospital burned, Bantings prowled the halls, and Haruki's own shadow stood tall above the corpses, claws crimson and eyes blazing.
The crowd erupted.
"He's cursed!"
"No look, that's corruption!"
"He's becoming one of them!"
Haruki thrashed, heart hammering. "No! That's not me!" His voice cracked with desperation.
It's not all you, the System said firmly, voice like a lifeline. The Circle is mixing your truth with the Core's corruption. Fight. Show them which one is real.
Haruki roared, straining against the chains. The visions flickered between boy and monster, frailty and fury, humanity and corruption.
And in that war of images, one thing was clear.
The Binding had not decided yet.
The runes beneath Haruki flared brighter, and suddenly the chains tightened, driving him to his knees.
A surge of raw energy hot, searing, merciless flooded through his chest. It felt like his heart was being ripped apart and reforged in molten fire.
First Pulse initiated. Soul integrity test begins.
The voice of the Binding rang through the chamber, audible to every Hunter in the gallery. A hush fell over them as the air vibrated with sacred power.
Haruki screamed, clutching at his chest. His veins burned crimson, glowing through his skin. The Circle wasn't just showing his past anymore it was digging into his very essence.
The crowd gasped as the visions shifted again. Haruki stood in two halves: one as a fragile boy, weak and trembling, clutching Makoto's hand. The other as a looming figure wreathed in crimson fire, claws dripping shadow.
"The Binding… it's splitting him!"
"Half human… half Banting!"
"Which side will win?"
Kana gripped the rail of the gallery, eyes wide with fear. "He's still Haruki! He has to be!"
Rai remained silent, though his fists clenched at his sides. Kuro leaned forward, eyes gleaming with dark amusement. "Now this is entertainment…"
Inside the Circle, Haruki's body trembled. Every nerve screamed, every heartbeat felt like it might burst through his chest.
The System's voice cut through the agony. Focus. Anchor yourself. Find the thread that is truly you. The Binding is testing whether your soul bends or breaks.
"Anchor?" Haruki gasped, vision blurring. "To what?"
To who you are. To what you refuse to let go.
The red visions pressed harder. Banting claws reached for Makoto, his little brother screaming as the shadow version of Haruki towered over him. The monster raised its claws, ready to strike.
"No!" Haruki roared, forcing himself upright against the burning chains. "I am not that thing! I am not your weapon!"
The Circle pulsed, shaking the chamber. For a brief moment, the monstrous vision wavered, shrinking. Haruki's true form trembling, broken but defiant stood stronger in its place.
The crowd erupted into shouts. Some cheered, others cursed.
Renshiro's single eye narrowed, studying him. "The first pulse did not break him. Interesting…"
But Haruki knew this was only the beginning.
The Circle pulsed again harder, deeper sending shockwaves through Haruki's body.
He cried out as crimson lightning arced across the chamber, lashing the floor, the walls, even the galleries above. Hunters scrambled back, shielding their eyes.
Second Pulse initiated. System resonance forced into revelation.
The chains tightened until Haruki thought his bones would snap. The runes on the floor flared brighter than ever, and then his System itself was dragged into the open.
A glowing construct appeared above him: shifting symbols, flickering lines of script, and in the center, a jagged orb of light that pulsed like a heart.
But unlike other Hunters' Systems, which appeared clean and orderly, Haruki's was unstable. Glitches ran across it. Text scrambled. Fragments of red code leaked like blood.
Gasps rippled through the gallery.
"What is that?!"
"Systems don't… glitch."
"That thing looks alive…"
The orb twitched, then spoke.
Oh wow, System Zero said aloud, its voice echoing in every Hunter's head. This is awkward. You're all staring at me like I'm some cursed artifact. Spoiler alert: I'm gorgeous.
Chaos erupted. Hunters shouted, some in fear, others in outrage.
"It talks?!"
"That's impossible!"
"No System has a voice of its own!"
Guildmaster Renshiro's face hardened, his single eye blazing. "So the rumors were true… an evolving System."
Haruki struggled to breathe under the crushing weight of the Circle. "Stop… they'll kill me if they see too much!"
Relax, the System muttered, though its tone was tighter than usual. I'm scrambling the feed. They'll see enough to doubt you but not enough to understand what you really are.
But the Binding Circle didn't like interference. The runes cracked, red sparks bursting as the construct glitched wildly.
For a split second, everyone saw it: not just Haruki's System, but the faint outline of something deeper something vast, chained, clawed, watching through him.
The gallery fell dead silent.
"What… was that?" a Hunter whispered, pale.
The vision vanished as quickly as it appeared. System Zero slammed the feed shut, its voice snapping: Too much. That wasn't supposed to show.
Haruki's chest heaved. He caught Kana's terrified stare, Rai's tightened fists, and Kuro's twisted grin.
The Binding's voice boomed, final and cold. Truth incomplete. Anomaly unresolved. Judgment deferred.
The chains dissolved. Haruki collapsed to his knees, trembling.
The Trial was over.
But the whispers had only just begun.