NARAK: The Blood Covenant

"You'll need to choose soon, Vicki," Narayana said, eyes glowing like stormlight through ancient glass.

"Choose what?" Vicki asked, barely able to steady his breath.

The Headmaster's reply was simple.

Quiet.

And cold.

"To be the fire… or to be what it burns."

Vicki didn't respond. He couldn't.

Because something inside him snapped.

Just a hairline fracture—deep, invisible, but final.

And far below the school, the Third Sigil screamed.

04:02 a.m. The class list for XI-C updated itself with a soft digital blip.

No system alarm. No security alert.

Just a space.

A blank where a name should have been.

Fathan Dimas

Status: [REDACTED]

Then... nothing.

As if he never existed.

Again.

Vicki jolted upright in the hallway, his heart hammering like it was trying to tell him something in Morse code.

"It's begun," Avici said grimly. "The Third Sigil has cracked."

"I thought it would give us more time," Vicki whispered.

"It did. You just didn't notice when it ran out."

Back in Class XI-C, Nayla's tablet flared to life with static and glitch trails before settling into a new name count.

Thirteen students. Nine remembered. Now only four.

"That's number nine," she muttered. "And the pattern's accelerating."

Raka slammed the window shut.

"Great. So what are we now? The final four in a horror game?"

"No," Nayla replied, her voice cold. "We're the last firewall."

Somewhere beneath the foundations of Naraya Dharma International School, a black chamber breathed.

Narayana stood before a monolithic door marked by the Third Sigil.

It pulsed like a wound refusing to close.

He placed his palm against the glyph.

"You want to be seen again, don't you?" he whispered. "But not yet."

The sigil hissed like boiling blood.

A voice slithered through the cracks.

Not words. Not yet.

But intent.

Anata Dharma, in his archive vault, poured another cup of that strange tea that tasted like burning pages.

He glanced at the blinking light on the stone tablet.

Then smiled.

"The board is live."

He opened his ledger.

Wrote one word.

UNFORGIVEN.

In a cathedral of mirrors stitched from forgotten reflections, Arvanu Shura stood still—arms wide, eyes closed.

Each mirror showed a Vicki that had almost survived.

Some laughed. Some wept. One screamed until the glass shattered.

He opened his eyes.

"The seal is cracking…"

"And my brother burns beautifully in confusion."

He stepped forward.

The floor rippled with black fire.

"Let's meet at the next fracture."

Back in the real world, Vicki leaned against the wall, sweat pouring like he just ran a marathon in his head.

"It's not just breaking," Avici said. "It's inviting."

"You mean it's calling us?"

"No. It's calling him."

A chill ran down Vicki's spine.

He looked toward the East Wing, where a new hallway had just appeared.

It hadn't been there yesterday.

Or an hour ago.

Or ever.

And at the end of that hallway?

A door made of smoke and mirrorlight.

It had no knob. No lock.

Only a sigil.

Pulsing.

Beating.

Alive.

"That's the entrance to The Third Sigil," Nayla said, standing beside him.

"How do you know?" Raka asked.

"Because it's whispering my name."

They gathered quickly.

Vicki. Nayla. Raka.

Avici pulsing beneath Vicki's skin like wildfire looking for oxygen.

And just behind them—calm, unreadable, terrifying—stood Narayana, now in full regalia.

"You three step forward," he said. "But you're not alone."

"You're coming with us?" Vicki asked.

"No. I'll hold the corridor."

He turned to Anata Dharma, who had somehow already arrived, leaning against the archway with a notepad and a smile.

"And you?"

"I'm the observer," Anata said. "Always have been."

"We'll need more than notes," Nayla snapped.

"Notes outlive gods," he replied.

As they approached the door, the sigil split open.

Like a mouth.

And inside the darkness, a voice echoed—

"Arana..."

It wasn't Avici.

It wasn't Arvanu.

It was something worse.

Something that remembered being a god.

"Arana…"

It vibrated in Vicki's spine like static and bone dust, like someone whispering inside his skull but backward.

His knees buckled.

The door pulsed with lightless energy—a paradox. Not black. Not red. Something deeper.

"Vicki, don't step forward," Nayla said, grabbing his arm.

"He's already inside," Avici muttered. "The seal's trying to take him in."

"Nope," Raka said. "Absolutely not. You're not dying dramatically in front of us, bro. Not on a Monday."

Then, without warning—The sigil screamed.

It wasn't a sound.

It was a thought broadcast through emotion.

Raka fell to his knees clutching his ears.

Nayla's tablet shattered in her hand—glass bleeding sigils that wriggled like worms before dissolving.

Vicki gasped, felt blood trickle from his nose.

Avici roared inside him:

"STEP BACK! IT'S A MEMORY LEASH—"

Too late.

The light inverted.

Reality ripped.

And Vicki was gone.

Just like that.

He disappeared into the seal.

No portal.

No flash.

Just erased like chalk from the edge of a name.

Nayla screamed.

Raka reached into the fading glyph with both hands.

Too slow.

"VICKI!"

Inside the seal, Vicki didn't fall.

He unraveled.

Piece by piece, not physically—but as data.

He saw flashes of his own memories in floating glass:

His mother humming.

The day his dog died.

The first time he bled during gym class and Avici stirred for the first time.

And then...

They started playing backward.

"What is this?!"

"A trap," Avici answered. "We've entered the Sigil's mind."

"The what?!"

"Every seal has a consciousness. This one... screams."

The world around them flickered like an old film reel breaking mid-reel.

Suddenly, Vicki was standing in a classroom.

Except everyone had mirrored faces.

Even Nayla and Raka.

And every mouth chanted in sync:

"Arana. Arana. Arana. Arana."

Back in the real world—

Narayana turned to Anata.

"Can you reach him?"

"No," the Broker replied calmly. "This part of the stage is his alone."

"He's in the core of the Third Sigil," Narayana said. "Alone?"

"Not entirely." Anata raised one eyebrow. "He still has the flame."

Inside the Sigil realm—

Vicki turned in circles.

"This is a joke, right? A prank? Spiritual hallucination with a side of trauma fries?"

Then, from the glass around him—

A version of himself stepped forward.

But its eyes were empty.

No Avici inside.

No life.

"I am what remains when you forget."

"I'm getting tired of clones."

"I am not a clone."

The figure held up its hand.

A sigil spun into existence, shaped like a bleeding circle within a triangle.

"I am what answers the call when gods sleep."

"Who are you?"

The thing stepped forward.

Smiled with no mouth.

"I am the part of you that belonged to Narakasura."

Vicki froze.

Even Avici went silent for a moment.

Then, almost a whisper:

"No. No, no, no. That part was burned out generations ago."

"Guess someone left the door open," Vicki said shakily.

"Arana. You need to get out. Now."

"I can't even find the door."

"Then we make one."

Back outside—

Raka pounded the wall as the sigil flickered.

"We have to go in after him!"

"No," Narayana said. "You do that, and the seal will eat all of us."

"Then what do we do?!"

"We wait. Or…"

He looked at Anata.

"...we bend the rules."

Anata chuckled.

"Fine. Just this once."

He took out a coin.

Flicked it into the air.

It hovered—stopped—then split into two, floating like twin moons.

"Let the vessel scream. Let's see who hears it."

Inside the seal, Vicki raised both hands.

The mirrored version of himself lunged forward—blade of sigil-light in hand.

Vicki shouted:

"AVICI NARAK!"

And the world exploded in flame.

The name tore through the Sigil Realm like a bell made of flame cracking the spine of silence itself.

But this wasn't the first time.

No.

Vicki had called on Avici before—once, beneath the gym floor where the First Seal broke like old bone.

But this?

This was different.

Because this time, the realm heard it too.

And it answered.

The mirrored Vicki, twisted by Arvanu's touch, halted mid-swing.

Glass froze midair.Time warped.And fire—true, ancient, Oathfire—rushed through Vicki's body like it remembered how to burn.

He fell backward.

And something stood up in his place.

A circle of sigils burst around him, thirteen glyphs orbiting his spine like halo-blades.

Vicki's frame stretched—taller, sharper.

His hoodie burned into obsidian armor etched with ancient script.

Chains of gold and bloodlight snapped around his arms, binding nothing—and everything.

His left hand was fire. His right was memory.

And his voice, when it returned, was not human.

It was judgment.

"I am Avici Narak, Oathbound Flame."

"Keeper of Thirteen Truths. Breaker of Hollow Kings."

"And you—" he stared at the mirror Vicki,"—are a glitch in the covenant."

The entity grinned with fractured teeth.

"I'm what he forgot."

"You're what should've stayed forgotten."

The battle ignited.

The Sigil Realm transformed into a battlefield stitched from shattered reflections and bleeding geometry.

Mirror-Vicki dashed in—blades formed of screaming names in forgotten tongues.

Avici deflected with a backhanded swipe that reversed gravity in a 5-meter radius.

"Azhkar vel'vani."(Speak backwards, false name.)

The mirror-entity screamed as its name folded inside itself and exploded in a cascade of glyph-fire.

But it didn't die.

It laughed.

"Your oath is old. My god is waking."

Avici narrowed his eyes.

"Then I'll burn what's left of your faith."

The entity summoned sigils of its own—distorted, red, and wrong.

A spell tried to overwrite Avici's form. Reality stuttered.

"Zhal-Kevruth: Invert the soul."

Avici slammed his foot down, snapping a radiant sigil into the ground.

"Dra'a Voluun: Deny rewriting."

The spells collided. A flash of black and gold ruptured the realm itself.

Glass turned to sand. Sand became blood. Blood whispered truths:

"He is coming..."

Avici's eyes narrowed.

"Very well."

He raised both arms.

And began the invocation.

"By the covenant of flame and forgetting, by the oath sealed in bone and silence—"

"I summon the Verdict of Memory."

The sky split.

A blade descended.

It wasn't metal.

It was concept.

Formed from memory itself.

"Let's end this."

He charged.

They collided.

The entire Sigil Realm screamed.

When the light faded…

The mirror-entity was shattered.

But in its final moment, its broken lips whispered:

"The Fourth Seal... has already opened."

Avici paused.

"No. That's impossible. It's still bound by—"

The world jerked.

Not inside the seal.

But outside.

In the real world...

Raka felt it first.Nayla saw it second.

A crack appeared in the ceiling.

Not structural.

Dimensional.

From it, a single drop of black light fell and hit the floor like a chime only souls could hear.

Narayana's head snapped toward it.

"That's not the Third. That's… the Fourth?"

Anata Dharma's smile vanished.

"Oh. Oh this is earlier than expected."

Back in the seal, Avici looked up.

The realm was collapsing.

He reached for the exit glyph—

But something pulled back.

Not Arvanu.

Not Narakasura.

Something else.

A voice like rusted bells whispered:

"Oathbound. Stay."

Avici's fingers trembled.

Outside, the seal burst open.

And Vicki collapsed onto the hallway floor.

Alone.

Avici… was gone.