Chapter 5: The Headmaster’s Game. Supernatural & Dark Fantasy Manga Web Novel - Crimson High: The Blood Pact.

The Forbidden Wing lay in ruins, its ancient stones now scattered rubble, the dust of shattered pacts still thick in the air. But deep within the heart of Crimson High—beyond the sight of students, beyond the knowledge of even the pact-holders—another chamber pulsed with life.

Candles flickered in a vast, circular hall. Crimson threads dangled from the ceiling like veins, stretching downward and attaching to dozens of sigil-marked mirrors, each reflecting distorted images of the school grounds.

At the center of the room stood the Headmaster—a tall, imposing figure cloaked in flowing black robes, his face hidden behind a smooth, featureless silver mask.

The mirrors showed Riku, Kaito, and Reina emerging from the rubble, their bodies bruised but alive.

“They’ve survived the Threadborn,” a teacher murmured from the shadows, voice tinged with unease.

The Headmaster’s gloved fingers tapped rhythmically against the stone table. “Good. We need them to survive—at least, for now.”

The faculty members shifted uncomfortably.

“But Headmaster, they’ve already destroyed one crystal,” another argued. “If they reach the others—”

The Headmaster raised a hand, silencing him. “It’s all part of the game. Let them believe they’re winning. The deeper they go, the closer they come to the truth—and to their inevitable end.”

A tense silence filled the room.

But in the farthest shadowed corner, the hooded figure—the one who had been watching Riku since the beginning—remained still, their intentions unreadable.

Above the ruins of the Forbidden Wing. 

Riku sat on a broken pillar, staring down at the cracked ground where the Threadborn had fallen. His hands trembled slightly—the sigil on his arm now faded but still pulsing faintly with residual energy.

“I almost lost control back there,” he murmured.

Kaito, sitting nearby and nursing his injuries, glanced at him. “But you didn’t. That counts for something.”

Reina stood a few feet away, arms crossed, her expression still cold but less hostile than before.

“You tapped into something most pact-holders don’t survive,” she said flatly. “The souls you released—if they hadn’t obeyed you, they would’ve consumed you.”

Riku’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t want to use them like that. They deserved freedom, not another master.”

Reina’s gaze softened for a moment, almost imperceptibly. “You can’t save everyone, Riku. Sometimes, power demands blood.”

A heavy silence settled between them.

Kaito broke it. “We need to focus on the other crystals. If destroying them is the key to ending this system, we can’t waste time.”

Reina nodded reluctantly. “The next crystal is likely hidden beneath the central tower—the oldest part of Crimson High.”

Riku frowned. “And I’m guessing it’s not going to be unguarded.”

“Nothing here ever is.” Reina’s voice was grim.

In the shadowed depths of the central tower.

The Headmaster stood before an enormous stone mural—etched depictions of countless pact-holders from centuries past. Their faces were twisted in agony, their hands reaching toward a towering figure looming above them, strings attached to their limbs.

The Headmaster reached up, placing a hand against one of the etched figures. “They never understood,” he whispered, his voice hollow. “The pacts were never about granting power. They were about control. About survival.”

From the shadows, the hooded figure approached, their face still obscured.

“They’re getting closer to the truth,” the figure said.

The Headmaster didn’t turn. “It won’t matter. Even if they destroy every crystal, the threads binding this school won’t break. Not unless they find it.”

The hooded figure hesitated. “And if they do?”

A cold laugh echoed through the chamber.

“Then they’ll face the true cost of freedom.”

Back with Riku, Kaito, and Reina.

The trio made their way through the crumbling lower levels of Crimson High, following ancient tunnels that led beneath the central tower.

The air grew colder the deeper they went, the stone walls narrowing around them, covered in ancient sigils that glowed faintly with crimson light.

Reina stopped suddenly, holding up a hand. “We’re close.”

Ahead, a vast underground chamber opened up, lit by floating crimson flames. At its center stood another crystal, larger than the first, pulsing with a steady heartbeat-like rhythm.

But guarding it was something unexpected.

A lone figure—cloaked in deep red, a silver mask covering their face—stood silently before the crystal, hands resting on a massive blade made entirely of threads.

Riku’s blood ran cold. “Is that…?”

Reina’s jaw tightened. “A Thread Knight. They were the original pact enforcers—elite warriors bound directly to the Headmaster’s will.”

Kaito swore under his breath. “We’re not ready for this.”

But the Thread Knight raised its head, the eye holes of its mask glowing faintly. It spoke, its voice hollow and metallic.

“One of you must die here. That is the price for this crystal.”

The tension in the air was suffocating.

Riku took a step forward. “I’m done with these games. We’re taking that crystal, and none of us are dying today.”

The Thread Knight raised its blade, its threads shimmering like a web ready to snap.

“Then prove your worth.”

The battle erupted. The Thread Knight moved faster than any of them expected, its blade slicing through the air with precision. Crimson threads extended from its back, lashing out like whips, forcing the trio to scatter.

Riku dodged narrowly, feeling one of the threads graze his cheek, leaving a searing line.

“We can’t beat it like this!” Kaito shouted, parrying another strike. “It’s too fast!”

Reina gritted her teeth, her threads clashing with the Knight’s, but even her mastery wasn’t enough.

“We need to disrupt its core thread!” she called. “Like the Threadborn!”

Riku scanned the Knight, focusing, his sigil flaring as he tried to see its core thread—but something was different.

The core thread wasn’t in the Knight’s chest.

It was connected… to its mask.

“The mask—it’s controlling it!” Riku shouted.

Kaito nodded. “Then we break it.”

But as they launched their attack, the Knight’s movements became erratic, as if it sensed its vulnerability.

Reina hesitated, her threads poised. “I… I can’t reach it!”

Riku clenched his fists. “Then I’ll do it.”

He lunged forward, black tendrils shooting from his arm, wrapping around the Knight’s mask.

The Knight roared, trying to shake him off, but Riku tightened his grip.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, before yanking the mask free.

The Knight’s body convulsed, threads snapping violently. Beneath the mask was a gaunt, pale face—human, eyes wide with horror.

“P-please…” the Knight gasped before disintegrating into a cloud of threads.

Riku staggered back, breathing heavily, the weight of what he’d done sinking in.

“They were human,” he whispered.

Reina placed a hand on his shoulder. “We all were. Before the pacts twisted us.”

Kaito stepped forward, smashing the crystal with his blade.

Another pulse of energy burst outward, and the sigil on Riku’s arm flared again, absorbing the freed energy.

But this time, Riku felt something else—deeper within the crystal’s remnants, a fragment of a memory.

The Headmaster, unmasked, stands before an ancient altar, forging the first pact.

And at his side… was Sable.

Back in the faculty’s hidden chamber, the Headmaster stood motionless, sensing the destruction of the second crystal.

“Two crystals down,” a teacher muttered nervously.

The Headmaster’s masked face tilted upward. “They’re moving faster than expected. But it changes nothing.”

In the shadows, Sable emerged, his veil fluttering.

“They’re getting closer to the truth,” he purred.

The Headmaster’s voice turned cold. “Then it’s time they learned the price of rebellion.”

The air in Crimson High felt heavier than ever, saturated with the lingering echoes of shattered pacts and broken souls. With two of the crystals destroyed, the ancient threads that bound the school had begun to fray. But with every victory, the price became clearer—the line between savior and monster blurring further for Riku and his companions.

Yet, in the shadows beyond the crumbling walls and hidden chambers, one figure watched it all unfold with an amused grin.

Sable.

The demon who had haunted Riku since the moment he stumbled upon the cursed notebook—his voice a constant, poisonous whisper—now stood at the center of a vast, dark space, threads dangling from the void like strings from a puppeteer’s hands.

But tonight, the shadows stirred with memories long buried.

Centuries Ago.

Before Crimson High became a feeding ground for pacts, before the sigils and crystals and cursed notebooks, there was only an altar—a sacred ground built deep beneath what would one day become the school.

At that altar stood two figures:

• The Headmaster, though younger then, his face unmasked, eyes filled with a cold ambition that hadn’t yet curdled into cruelty.

• Sable, though he wasn’t called that yet.

Back then, he had been human.

A scholar, obsessed with the threads of life and death, convinced that power didn’t belong to the gods but to those willing to claim it.

Sable, then known as Elias, stood beside the Headmaster, holding a tome bound in crimson leather—what would one day become the Vinculum Sanguinis.

“Are you sure about this?” Elias asked, his voice laced with both excitement and fear.

The Headmaster nodded, though his jaw was tight. “We can control it. The pacts will bind the souls, and grant power to those who deserve it. It’s the only way to survive.”

Elias hesitated. “But at what cost?”

The Headmaster placed a hand on the altar. “Sacrifices must be made. I’m willing to pay that price.”

But it wasn’t the Headmaster who paid it.

When they performed the ritual, the ancient threads didn’t bind to the Headmaster as planned. Instead, they latched onto Elias—his body contorting, his soul twisted and bound by the threads. He became the first pact demon, an eternal puppet master, cursed to weave the fates of others while losing his humanity.

His name was erased.

Only Sable remained.

Back in the present.

The central tower loomed over Crimson High like a scar on the horizon. Riku, Kaito, and Reina sat in the shadows of a broken hallway, resting after their battle with the Thread Knight and the destruction of the second crystal.

But the silence between them was louder than any battle.

Riku’s mind churned with guilt—the image of the Thread Knight’s face beneath the mask still haunted him. A human, once like them, is reduced to a puppet.

“I didn’t know…” Riku muttered, his voice low.

Kaito, sitting nearby with a torn bandage around his arm, glanced over. “None of us did. But it doesn’t change what we have to do.”

Reina, her arms crossed, leaned against the crumbling wall. “This place turns us all into monsters eventually. You just have to decide what kind of monster you’re willing to be.”

The words stung, but Riku knew she wasn’t wrong.

The sigil on his arm flared softly—Sable’s presence pushing into his thoughts.

“You’re learning, Riku,” Sable’s voice echoed, amused. “This world isn’t about heroes and villains. It’s about survivors and the forgotten.”

Riku clenched his fist. “Why are you still here? You got what you wanted—the crystals are breaking, the system’s crumbling.”

A low chuckle. “You think this is about the crystals? Oh, Riku… it was never about that.”

The sigil on Riku’s arm pulsed violently, and before he could react, the world around him blurred.

Suddenly, Riku stood in a vast, dark void—threads crisscrossed endlessly above and below, forming a chaotic, twisted web.

Sable appeared before him, his form clearer now than ever. His sharp features were still hidden beneath the veil, but his eyes gleamed with something deeper—something ancient.

“Where are we?” Riku demanded.

“The in-between,” Sable replied, twirling a strand of crimson thread between his fingers. “The space where all pacts are born and where all broken souls come to rest.”

Riku’s heart raced. “Why bring me here?”

Sable stepped closer, the shadows around him twisting. “Because it’s time you knew the truth.”

With a flick of his wrist, the threads around them shifted, revealing a memory—the Headmaster standing over the altar, performing the ritual that had created the pact system.

Riku watched as a young man—Elias—was consumed by the threads, screaming as his body twisted and transformed into the Sable he now knew.

“That’s you,” Riku whispered.

Sable’s voice darkened. “I was the first. The first to be bound, the first to be forgotten. The Headmaster used me, twisted me into this… thing. And now, I’m making sure the system he built falls apart.”

Riku’s mind reeled. “You’re not helping us destroy the pacts out of kindness. You want revenge.”

Sable grinned. “Bingo.”

The threads above them tightened, and Riku felt a pull deep within his chest—the sigil on his arm reacting violently.

“But here’s the catch, Riku,” Sable continued. “When the last crystal shatters, the system will collapse. But so will the balance. Every pact, every soul bound by them… including you.”

Riku’s breath caught. “I’ll die?”

Sable’s grin widened. “You’ll unravel. Unless you do the one thing I never could—kill the Headmaster before the last crystal falls.”

The vision shattered, and Riku found himself back with Kaito and Reina, gasping for air.

Kaito rushed over. “Riku? What happened?”

Riku’s mind spun, but he managed to choke out the truth. “Sable… he’s not just some demon. He was the first pact-holder. The Headmaster did this to him.”

Reina’s eyes narrowed. “Then we have more in common than I thought.”

Kaito frowned. “And what happens if we destroy all the crystals?”

Riku hesitated. “We all die… unless we kill the Headmaster first.”

The trio moved swiftly, now driven by a terrifying urgency.

Reina led them through the school’s western wing, a forgotten area rumored to be cursed—the walls covered in faded sigils, the air thick with the stench of decay.

They reached a large, sealed door, covered in complex crimson threads.

Reina ran her hand across the sigils. “The next crystal is behind this.”

Kaito studied the threads. “It’s protected by a blood seal. We’ll need to sever the guardian threads before we can open it.”

Riku stepped forward, raising his hand. The sigil on his arm flared, and black tendrils shot out, slicing through the outer threads—but the deeper he cut, the more the threads resisted, coiling tighter around the door.

Suddenly, the threads shifted, forming a mouth-like opening that whispered:

“Only one may pass. Only the willing may pay the price.”

Reina’s jaw clenched. “It wants a sacrifice.”

Riku stepped forward without hesitation. “I’ll do it.”

But Kaito grabbed his arm. “Riku, think. If you go in alone, it could kill you.”

Riku met his gaze. “If I don’t, the system stays intact. We don’t have time.”

Reina sighed, her voice softer than usual. “Just… come back alive, idiot.”

Riku gave her a small smile before stepping into the mouth-like opening, the threads closing around him like a cocoon.

In the shadows of the faculty lounge, the Headmaster watched through a flickering sigil mirror as Riku entered the sealed chamber.

“He’s getting closer,” one teacher murmured.

The Headmaster’s voice was calm but edged with malice. “Let him. The deeper he goes, the tighter the threads around his soul will pull.”

But Sable’s whisper echoed faintly in the darkness.

“This time, it’s my turn to cut the strings.”

To Be Continued....

Chapter4: https://storylinespectrum.blogspot.com/2025/03/chapter-4-battle-against-threadborn.html

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