The Watchers’ Judgment

  The air hummed with a pressure Renji had never felt before. It wasn’t magic—at least, not the kind he understood. This was something older. Something fundamental.

  The shadowed figures loomed in the ruins, their forms flickering between solid and smoke.

  One of them—taller than the rest—stepped forward. Its face was a void, a hollow absence in the shape of a man.

  "The traitor returns," it murmured. "And she brings an outsider."

  Selene didn’t flinch. Her expression was cold.

  "I do not seek forgiveness," she said. "Only passage."

  A ripple passed through the Watchers, a soundless murmur of voices overpping.

  "You know the cost."

  Renji’s instincts screamed at him to move, but Selene’s hand on his wrist held him in pce.

  "What cost?" he muttered under his breath.

  Selene didn’t answer.

  The tall Watcher turned to Renji.

  "You are unmarked by the Eternal Wheel," it whispered. "Yet you stand at its center. Curious."

  Renji scowled. "Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly ask to be here."

  The Watcher tilted its head, considering him.

  Then—it raised its hand.

  The space around Renji twisted.

  His vision blurred, the ruins dissolving into a vast sea of memories.

  The Glimpse Beyond Time

  Renji saw—

  A battlefield drenched in crimson. Soldiers in ancient armor, their faces twisted in rage and despair.

  A great city, burning beneath a shattered sky.

  A woman in golden robes, standing alone against a tidal wave of darkness.

  And at the center of it all—

  A throne of obsidian and bone.

  A figure sat upon it, his eyes burning with an endless, unrelenting hunger.

  Renji’s breath caught. He knew that face.

  It was his own.

  The vision shattered.

  Renji gasped, staggering back into the ruins.

  Selene caught his arm. "Renji!"

  His head throbbed. His heart was pounding.

  "What the hell was that?!"

  The Watcher’s voice echoed in his skull.

  "The weight of what you were. And what you may become."

  The Choice

  Selene turned to the Watchers, her voice sharper than before.

  "We have no time for riddles. Let us pass."

  The shadows shifted.

  "A toll must be paid," the Watcher said. "Blood or memory."*

  Renji stiffened. "What does that mean?"

  Selene’s grip on his arm tightened.

  "They want either a sacrifice… or a piece of your past."*

  Renji’s chest tightened. His past?

  Did he even want to remember?

  For a long moment, silence stretched between them.

  Then—

  Renji made his choice.

  To Be Continued…