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King Aldric's hand glowed with power that made the air itself ripple.
"You think you're the first heroes to try this?" His voice was almost gentle, which made it more terrifying. "Marcus tried two hundred years ago. Elena and her team tried twenty-five years ago. The heroes of the twelfth summoning, the seventh, the third. All of them discovered the truth. All of them tried to break free. All of them failed."
"We're different," Ren said, though Kaito felt his fear spiking.
"Are you? Or are you just the latest iteration of the same pattern?" Aldric took a step forward, and the temperature in the chamber dropped. "Let me tell you what makes you different, hero. What makes you special."
He gestured at Yuki, still frantically working at the altar. "Her reality coding is unprecedented. No previous hero had that capability. I'll admit, she's gotten further than anyone else in breaching the binding."
Another gesture toward Kaito. "His empathy is deeper than any before. He can communicate with the trapped souls, feel them from across the city. Remarkable."
Toward Daichi. "His enhancement magic could potentially match Marcus at full power. Given enough time."
Toward Himari. "Her restoration goes beyond healing—she can inspire hope itself. A powerful gift."
Finally, to Ren. "And his command magic... ah, that's what really concerns me. Strong-willed, strategic, and desperate enough to use it without hesitation. Like Marcus."
"You're stalling," Ren said. "Trying to run out Yuki's time."
"I don't need to stall. Watch." Aldric raised his hand higher, and Kaito felt a surge of power that dwarfed anything he'd experienced.
The World Altar flared with blinding light. Yuki screamed as her code constructs shattered. She was thrown backward, crashing into Ren.
"What did you—" she gasped.
"I reinforced the binding. Every flaw you exploited, I've sealed. Every weakness you found, I've strengthened. You'd need another ten hours now, and you don't have ten minutes."
"No!" Yuki scrambled back to the altar, her hands moving desperately. But Kaito could see it wasn't working—the code wasn't responding the way it had before.
"It's over," Aldric said. "You tried. You failed. Now you have two choices: surrender peacefully and accept the modified harvest, or fight futilely and receive the original version. Choose quickly."
"We fight," Daichi said, his enhancement magic burning brighter. He charged the king.
Aldric didn't even move. He simply gestured, and Daichi stopped mid-stride—frozen in place, unable to move forward or back.
"Enhancement magic powered by bonds," Aldric mused. "Impressive, but limited. You're strong, boy, but I've been doing this since before your grandparents were born."
He made a crushing motion, and Daichi screamed. His enhancement shattered like glass. He collapsed, blood streaming from his nose and ears.
"DAICHI!" Himari ran to him, her healing song beginning.
"Your turn," Aldric turned to Ren. "Command magic. Try it. Order me to stop. Let's see if you're stronger than Marcus was."
Ren's jaw clenched. Kaito felt his desperation, his rage, his fear for his team. "RELEASE THEM! RELEASE ALL THE TRAPPED SOULS! BREAK THE HARVEST SYSTEM!"
The command crashed against Aldric like a wave against a mountain. For a moment—just a moment—Kaito felt the king's shields waver. Felt something underneath them. Surprise? Concern?
Then Aldric's shields solidified, and Ren's command shattered.
"Better than Marcus," Aldric admitted. "Your will is stronger. But not strong enough."
He gestured again, and Ren dropped to his knees, clutching his head. Blood poured from his nose. His eyes went wide with pain.
"Empathy boy," Aldric said, turning to Kaito. "You're next. Try to manipulate my emotions. Make me feel guilt, remorse, mercy. Show me what you can do."
Kaito extended his empathy with everything he had, throwing every emotion he could muster at the king. Fear, guilt, empathy for the trapped souls, love for those who'd been murdered, rage at injustice—
It hit Aldric's shields and evaporated like rain on hot stone.
"Nothing," the king said. "As expected. I've had centuries to perfect my defenses. Your powers, impressive as they are, are still new. Still raw. Still no match for someone who's been harvesting hero essence for longer than your countries have existed."
"How old are you?" Kaito gasped, seeing the truth finally. "How long have you been doing this?"
Aldric smiled. It was not a kind expression. "I was summoned in the first ritual. One thousand years ago. I was the one who discovered how to harvest hero essence. I was the one who built this system. And I've been maintaining it ever since."
The revelation hit like a physical blow.
The king wasn't just using harvest magic. He WAS a harvested hero. The first one. The one who'd started everything.
"You're..." Himari's voice was horrified. "You're supposed to be a hero..."
"I WAS a hero. I saved this kingdom from demons. I defeated the first demon king. And when my team was executed for our powers, I alone survived because I'd learned the secret—if you harvest others, you can extend your own life indefinitely." Aldric's expression was cold. "I've ruled this kingdom for a millennium. I've guided humanity through countless crises. I've sacrificed everything—my humanity, my conscience, my soul—to ensure civilization survives. Don't presume to judge me, child."
"You're a monster," Ren spat blood. "You murder innocents."
"I maintain order. The demons would have destroyed humanity centuries ago without the barrier system. Millions live because of my sacrifices. Yes, I harvest five heroes every fifty years. That's one hundred lives over a thousand years. Compared to the millions saved, it's a bargain."
"It's evil."
"It's necessary. You'll understand that when you've lived as long as I have. When you've seen civilization collapse without strong leadership. When you've watched weakness destroy nations." Aldric moved toward Yuki, who was still desperately trying to break the reinforced binding. "But you won't live that long. None of you will."
He raised his hand toward her.
"NO!" Kaito threw himself between them, knowing it was futile but unable to watch Yuki die.
Aldric's power hit him like a freight train. Pain exploded through Kaito's body—every nerve ending on fire, bones feeling like they were breaking, lungs unable to draw breath.
But in that moment of contact, with Aldric's power flooding through him, Kaito's empathy breached the shields.
And he felt the king's true emotions.
Not the cold calculation he projected. Not the pragmatic ruthlessness. But underneath, buried deep, corroded by centuries but still there:
Guilt. Soul-crushing, endless guilt.
Aldric hated what he'd become. Hated every hero he'd harvested. Hated himself for continuing the cycle. But he was trapped in it—bound by his own magic, by the system he'd created, by the weight of a thousand years of choices.
He couldn't stop. The binding that held the heroes also held him. He was as much a prisoner as the souls in the crystals.
"You're trapped too," Kaito gasped through the pain. "You can't stop even if you wanted to."
Aldric's eyes widened. "How did you—"
"I felt it. Your guilt. Your self-hatred. You're suffering as much as they are."
"Shut up." The pain intensified.
"You started this to save people. But somewhere along the way, it became about survival. Your survival. And now you can't remember how to stop."
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Aldric's composure cracked. "You know nothing! You're a child playing with powers you don't understand!"
"I understand you're hurting. I understand you're scared. I understand that somewhere beneath all this power and cruelty, there's still a hero who wanted to do good."
"That hero died a thousand years ago."
"Did he? Or is he just buried under centuries of guilt?"
Kaito pushed his empathy deeper, projecting not fear or anger, but compassion. Understanding. Forgiveness.
Aldric staggered back as if struck. "What are you—"
"I forgive you," Kaito said. "For everything you've done. For what you're about to do to us. I understand why. And I forgive you."
Something broke in Aldric's expression. For just a moment, the immortal king looked like what he was—a terrified boy who'd lived too long and made too many terrible choices.
Then his shields slammed back down, harder than before.
"Enough," he said coldly. "I've wasted enough time on philosophy. Guards—seize them. Mages—prepare the binding ritual. We harvest them today. Now. Before they can cause more damage."
"The harvest can't be performed outside the celestial alignment," Yuki protested. "You need the proper conditions—"
"I need the proper conditions for the full ritual. For an emergency harvest? I just need power and will." Aldric gestured at the World Altar. "This will hurt significantly more than the standard harvest. You'll be conscious throughout. But you brought this on yourselves."
Guards swarmed into the chamber. Mages began chanting, preparing bindings. The heroes were outnumbered, outmatched, and out of time.
Kaito felt Ren's desperation spike—he was preparing to use his command power at full strength, consequences be damned. Yuki was trying one last desperate code hack. Daichi was forcing his broken body to move. Himari's song had shifted to something wordless and terrible—a dirge.
They were going to lose.
Then a voice echoed through the catacombs: "I don't think so."
Everyone turned.
Standing in the entrance, power radiating from him like a visible aura, was Malachar.
Behind him stood his seven generals. And behind them, an army.
"Marcus," Aldric breathed. "You dare enter the capital?"
"I dare many things, old friend." Malachar strode into the chamber, demons parting before him. "Including rescuing five children who are about to make the same mistakes we did."
"They're my heroes. My property. You have no claim to them."
"They're people. Not property. A distinction you forgot somewhere in the last millennium." Malachar looked at the five heroes, his expression sad. "I told you to come to me when you were ready to fight. I didn't expect you to start the war without me."
"How did you know we were here?" Ren asked.
"I didn't. But I felt the barriers weakening—your friend was making impressive progress breaking the binding before Aldric reinforced it. I've been waiting for someone to actually damage the harvest system. When I felt it happening, I took a gamble and attacked." He turned back to Aldric. "It's time to end this. One way or another."
"You want war in the capital? Millions of civilians in the crossfire?"
"I want the harvest system destroyed. If that requires war, so be it. But I'm hoping we can be civilized about this." Malachar gestured at the trapped souls. "Release them. All of them. End the cycle. I'll withdraw my forces and we can negotiate a new arrangement."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then we fight. Here. Now. And one of us doesn't leave this chamber alive."
The two ancient heroes faced each other—the First King and the Demon King, separated by two centuries of war but connected by the same tragedy.
"I can't release them," Aldric said quietly. "The barriers would collapse immediately. The city would fall within hours. I've spent a thousand years protecting this kingdom. I won't destroy it now."
"Then you'll die protecting it."
"So be it."
They moved simultaneously.
The explosion of power was apocalyptic. Kaito's empathy was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of their clash. Reality itself warped around them as two master magic users with centuries of experience and stolen hero power went to war.
The chamber shook. Crystals cracked. The World Altar itself began to fracture under the strain.
"EVERYONE OUT!" Malachar's general Velria shouted. "This place is coming down!"
The demon army began evacuating. Palace guards fled. Mages ran. Duke Blackwood disappeared into the chaos.
But the five heroes remained, clustered around the altar.
"The crystals," Himari gasped. "The souls—they'll be destroyed in the collapse!"
"We have to get them out," Yuki said.
"How? They're bound to the altar!" Ren looked around desperately.
Kaito felt it then—the souls themselves, all one hundred of them, reaching out through his empathy. They were showing him something. A way. A desperate gamble.
"I can absorb them," he said.
"What?"
"My empathy—it connects to them. If I open myself completely, stop shielding, I can take them into me. Temporarily. Just long enough to get them out of the chamber."
"That'll kill you," Yuki said flatly. "One hundred conscious souls flooding into your mind? You'll be destroyed."
"Maybe. But if we leave them, they're definitely destroyed when the chamber collapses."
"Kaito, no—" Ren started.
"It's my choice. I'm making it." Kaito moved to the center of the crystal circle and dropped every mental shield he'd built over the last two months.
The empathy hit him like a tsunami.
One hundred souls, one hundred minds, one hundred lifetimes of pain and experience crashed into his consciousness all at once. He felt himself fragmenting, dissolving, unable to contain so much—
Then the others were there. Ren's hand on his shoulder, commanding: "HOLD TOGETHER." Yuki coding structure into his mind, creating frameworks to organize the chaos. Daichi's enhancement magic strengthening his mental resilience. Himari's song wrapping around him like a protective blanket.
With their help, Kaito endured. He absorbed all one hundred souls, felt them settling into his consciousness like passengers in a vehicle. It was agonizing, overwhelming, impossible—
But he did it.
The crystals shattered, empty now. The souls were inside him, and he was still conscious. Barely.
"Run," he gasped. "I can't... can't hold them long..."
Ren grabbed him. Daichi grabbed Yuki. Himari grabbed them all with her song, pulling them together into one unit. They ran.
Behind them, Aldric and Malachar's battle reached a crescendo. The entire chamber exploded—stone and magic and ancient power detonating like a bomb.
They fled through collapsing corridors, debris raining around them, the cathedral itself beginning to fall. Behind them, they could hear the two ancient powers still fighting, still destroying each other and everything around them.
They burst out of a side entrance just as the central section of the cathedral collapsed inward. Dust and smoke billowed into the dawn sky.
The heroes collapsed on the grass, coughing, bleeding, barely conscious.
Kaito could feel the one hundred souls inside him, pressing against his consciousness. Elena's voice rose above the others: *You did it. You freed us. Thank you.*
"Not... not free yet," Kaito managed. "Just... different prison..."
"We'll fix it," Yuki promised. "We'll find a way to release them properly. But Kaito, you can't hold them indefinitely. Your mind isn't designed for this."
"I know. But... but I can hold them for now. Until we figure out what to do next."
They lay there, watching the dust settle, watching the sun rise over a city that didn't know its entire foundation had just been shaken.
"Did we win?" Himari asked softly.
"I don't know," Ren admitted. "The harvest system is damaged. The souls are freed—kind of. Aldric and Malachar are occupied killing each other. But the barriers are going to fail completely now. The city is vulnerable. And we're fugitives with no plan."
"So... typical day for us then," Daichi said, and laughed weakly.
Despite everything, the others joined in. Hysterical, exhausted, traumatized laughter from five kids who'd just declared war on a kingdom and a thousand-year-old system.
"What do we do now?" Yuki asked when the laughter faded.
Ren sat up, looking at the damaged cathedral, at the city beyond, at his team. "We finish what we started. We find a way to properly free the souls. We stop the war between Aldric and Malachar. We save the city and break the cycle. Somehow."
"That's impossible," Yuki said.
"Everything we've done has been impossible."
"Fair point."
They helped each other stand. Five heroes—broken, bleeding, carrying one hundred souls between them—facing an impossible task with no clear path forward.
But they were alive. They were together. And they were free.
For now, that had to be enough.
---
In the ruins of the cathedral, two figures emerged from the rubble.
Aldric, bloodied and weakened but alive, his ancient power diminished but not destroyed.
Malachar, similarly injured, his two-hundred-year war finally brought to the heart of his enemy's capital.
They looked at each other across the devastation.
"They took the souls," Aldric said.
"Good. They deserve freedom."
"The barriers will fail within days. Millions will die when your army attacks."
"Then don't make me attack. End the cycle. Make peace."
"I can't. I'm bound to the harvest. If I try to stop, the binding kills me."
"Then die. You've lived too long anyway."
Aldric laughed bitterly. "Says the man who's also lived two centuries past his natural span. We're both monsters, Marcus. The only difference is you've convinced yourself you're fighting for something noble."
"At least I'm fighting. You've been perpetuating atrocity for a thousand years."
"To save civilization."
"To save yourself."
They stared at each other, two ancient heroes who'd become the very thing they'd once fought against.
"Those five," Aldric said finally. "They might actually break the cycle. They have the power, the determination, the naivety to try what we couldn't."
"They're better than we were."
"Maybe. Or maybe they'll become like us, given enough time and enough impossible choices."
"I hope not."
"So do I."
They turned and walked away from each other, back to their respective forces, back to a war that had just escalated beyond either's control.
Behind them, the cathedral burned.
And in a safe house across the city, five heroes tried to figure out how to save a world that was trying to destroy them.
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