The Price Of A Sacrifice

Filiar piety

Filial piety? Adrian thought. Love for the parents who let me die alone in this dark hole?

Take it... Adrian whispered.

Mia stopped moving. What? Adrian, talk to me!

Take it all... Adrian was no longer speaking to Mia. His eyes were locked on the system screen.

Erase every drop of love I ever had for them. Don’t leave a single warm memory of this family behind.

WARNING: THIS PROCESS IS PERMANENT. YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO FEEL AFFECTION FOR YOUR PARENTS AGAIN.

I don’t need their love, Adrian thought. I need their blood.

Do it, Adrian hissed.

Instantly, the room felt as if it were being sucked into a vacuum. The sound of Mia’s sobbing vanished. The piercing cold was replaced by a searing heat burning from within his chest. Adrian saw fragments of his memories flickering past like burning film.

Elena’s smiling face when he was a child... burned to ash.

Dimitri’s voice reading him a storybook... faded into silence.

The hope of being held after this surgery... crumbled into black dust.

Adrian felt something inside him being forcibly torn away. A soul-bond that had tethered him to humanity for so long had been severed. An immense void began to fill his chest, a bottomless black hole.

Adrian? Adrian! Wake up! Mia shook his shoulder, but Adrian only stared straight ahead with eyes that had now turned darker, sharper.

The heartbeat on the monitor, which had been slowing down, suddenly stopped. A long, flat line appeared, accompanied by a deafening, continuous beep.

No... no, not now! Mia began performing chest compressions frantically. Don’t die, Adrian! Please!

Adrian didn’t feel like he was dying. On the contrary, he felt as if he had just been born into a different world. The pain in his abdomen no longer felt like suffering; it felt like fuel.

SACRIFICE ACCEPTED.

BLOOD TIES: SPIRITUALLY SEVERED.

INITIALIZING THE ARCHITECT PROTOCOL.

Suddenly, the temperature in the room plummeted until Mia could see her own breath turning into mist. The light bulbs on the ceiling vibrated violently before finally shattering, plunging the room into total darkness.

In the midst of the darkness, Adrian’s heartbeat was heard again. It wasn’t the weak, faltering beat from before, but a powerful, stable, and heavy thrum. Like the sound of a massive engine being brought to life.

Nurse Mia, Adrian’s voice sounded entirely different. There was no longer a tremor of fear. There was only a flat, cold tone, as cold as newly forged steel.

Mia took a step back, bumping into the tray table and knocking it over. A-Adrian? How is it possible...

Tell them, Mia, Adrian said as he stepped down from the bed. His feet touched the cold floor, but he no longer shivered. Tell them that Subject B-02 is indeed dead.

Adrian stared at his own hands, which were now coursing with a faintly glowing black energy.

And tell Dimitri... Adrian paused, a faint, terrifying smile creeping onto his lips. ...that The Architect will be coming soon to collect every inch of flesh they stole from me.

Adrian turned around, but he found nothing but an endless black void. Who are you? Where am I?

You are at the Altar of Loss, the voice answered again. A space in between, a place where everything discarded is gathered. And you, Adrian Durnevra, are the purest remnant.

A remnant? Adrian laughed bitterly. Even in the afterlife, I’m still called a remnant?

The world considers you a backup. Your parents consider you a spare part. But to the Altar, you are the unawakened architect.

Suddenly, a point of blue light appeared in front of him. The light formed intricate geometric patterns, swirling until it shaped a throne made of shadows and black crystal. Above it, a giant transparent screen froze in the air.

What do you mean by architect? Adrian asked, his eyes narrowing as he tried to withstand the glare of the blue light.

The Architect of Vengeance, the voice vibrated, making the vacuum hiss. You have enough rage to burn the world, but your body is too weak to hold the match. Your heart is dying, Adrian. Your remaining kidney is failing. In three minutes of human time, you will stop breathing.

Adrian fell silent. He could feel the truth in those words. Even though he felt no pain here, he knew his physical body on that rusted bed was giving up. Then why did you bring me here? To mock me before I truly vanish?

I am offering a contract, the voice lowered, becoming a tempting whisper. Life. Power. The chance to tear the Durnevra empire down to ashes. I will give you a system capable of manipulating reality, economics, and human lives.

Nothing in this world is free, Adrian hissed. Especially from an entity like you. What’s the price?

The price is something you no longer need, the system replied. On the transparent screen, a large text appeared: FIRST REQUIREMENT: FILIAL PIETY.

Adrian stared at the words with a furrowed brow. Filial... piety? You mean, my ability to love my parents?

Correct. Hand over every drop of love, longing, and desire to be acknowledged by Dimitri and Elena Durnevra. Surrender your nature as a son. If you agree, the memories of them will remain, but you will never be able to feel any emotion toward them other than absolute coldness.

Adrian was stunned. He pictured himself at five years old, running toward Elena with a drawing of a flower, only to be pushed away because his mother was afraid he would get her clothes dirty. He remembered Dimitri, who never looked him in the eye when speaking, as if Adrian were a stain on the wall he wanted to erase.

You’re asking me to throw away my humanity? Adrian asked softly.

I am asking you to throw away the chains that keep you a victim, the voice corrected. As long as you still love them, you will always hesitate. You will always hope they will change. Hope is poison for an avenger.

If I throw it away... will I still be human?

You will become something more efficient. A monster capable of designing destruction without trembling. The choice is yours, Adrian. Live as a machine of vengeance, or die as a failed product that will be forgotten within a week.

Adrian clenched his fists. The image of Julian laughing at his suffering flashed by. The image of Elena looking at him as if inspecting livestock. The pain that had vanished earlier now seemed to return in the form of suffocating mental pressure.