Extra: The Path to Survival

Nicholas Blackheart died with no regrets. A brilliant Genetic Surgeon in his previous life, he dragged the man responsible for his death into the abyss with him and expected oblivion. Instead, he woke up inside his favourite novel. Not as the protagonist. Not as the villain. Not even as a supporting character. He became Nicholas Blackheart, a name mentioned only once in the entire story before being forgotten forever. To make matter worse the world he entered was already doomed. The novel had been so successful that several comics and games were created with alternate endings. But again and again, heroes rose to stop the Cult of Satan. Again and again, they failed. Even when they succeeded, something worse happened. In the main ending where they managed to kill Satan, the battle awakens a fallen god that lays waste to their world. In some endings where the heroes managed to destroy Satan's Vessel, he simply possessed the protagonist, and everyone gets slaughtered immediately after. In one of the games Nick personally played where he managed to destroy Satan without awakening any of the fallen gods... guess what 72 dukes popped right after and the slaughter commenced anyway. Every ending... no matter how creative led to extinction. Nicholas knows this because he played every route, read every chapter, and witnessed every ending. There is no happy ending. So unlike the protagonist, he has no intention of saving the world. His goal is simple: Survive. Blessed with the Soul Ability Adapt, Nicholas discovers a terrifying path to power. By grafting the organs, blood, bones, and tissues of monsters into his own body, he can permanently inherit fragments of their abilities. Each graft makes him stronger. Each graft makes him less human. As ancient gods stir, daemonic cults spread, and reality itself begins to fracture, Nicholas starts building something of his own from the shadows. A future beyond the apocalypse. A path no one in the original story ever walked. Because when the end of the world finally arrives, Nicholas Blackheart doesn't plan to be one of its victims. He plans to be long gone.