The storm inside the gate had calmed.
Jin stood in the eye of it all, breathing hard. Three of the seven chains had broken—and with each one, his spirit mark shifted. No longer a circle, nor a flame… but something older. Something geometric, sacred, and wrong.
Aezra'el's voice echoed faintly.
"Do you feel it now? The weight of the system that bound you?"
Jin nodded. "You said the Rankings were created after you fell. Why?"
Aezra'el turned to face the swirling wall of runes around them. "Because the world feared power it couldn't measure."
He raised a hand, and the realm shifted.
Suddenly, Jin stood in a different place—a memory. An ancient amphitheater filled with glowing, floating banners, and thousands of cloaked figures.
"The first council," Aezra'el said. "After the Abyss was sealed. They created the Rankings—not to empower—but to control."
Jin watched as spirits were tested, measured, labeled.
"E-rank. C-rank. S-rank…"
And then one child stood, shivering, as the spirit crystal shattered in his hands.
The council whispered: "Rank: Zero."
Aezra'el looked at Jin. "That was me."
Outside the gate, Arin and Kael were losing ground. Veyla had transformed again—blades made of mirrorlight swirling around her like wings.
Kael was bleeding. Arin was down to her last spirit seal.
The Herald raised a hand—and the second gate pulsed harder, now feeding directly from Jin's awakening.
"Four chains remain," it said. "Soon the Vessel will remember. Then we reclaim him."
Back inside, Aezra'el stood before a cracked throne made of obsidian and bone.
"The Rankings were built as cages. You think the higher your rank, the stronger you are—but they were designed to cap you. To keep you within boundaries the world could accept."
Jin stepped closer. "So what happens if I break all seven chains?"
Aezra'el finally looked afraid.
"You'll remember what came before the Rankings. What was erased."
He turned slowly.
"And so will the world."
Suddenly, a blast of dark flame ripped through the realm.
Noctis stepped forward from the smoke, his form no longer just a voice in Jin's head—but a cloaked figure, tall and flickering like shadow made solid.
"Enough memory," Noctis said. "It's time to choose."
He looked Jin dead in the eye.
"Break the fourth chain… and the gate will fall. But so will the Rankings. Permanently."
Jin's heart pounded.
This wasn't just about him anymore.
This was about everyone.
He looked at his hand.
Saw the crack forming in the fourth link.
And whispered—
"Let it break."
The gate above Kaizen shattered like glass.
The second gate twisted in on itself and exploded in a storm of black and gold light.
The Herald flinched.
And somewhere deep below the earth…
The thrones began to stir.