I was never afraid of pain.
not when my own parents abended me because of my abnormal strength and power.
not when i left alone in the white person.
Not when I trained with Nexios, my beloved brother, who used to strike harder than any knight breaking every single bone i have every day.
just to enjoy seeing me crumbling on the white floor choking with my own blood.
Not when Grandmother carved sigils of power into my back, whispering that suffering made men worthy of the Hex crown.
And not even when I stared down death itself, surrounded by the family I loved more than my own life.
Yet, I never imagine that they would go that far to break me .
"You dare speak lies before the bloodline?"
my grandmother hissed, her once-silken voice now soaked in venom.
I knelt in the center of the grand Ethereum Hall, once a place of royal judgment—now a chamber of mockery. My wrists were chained with molten bindings that seared my skin with every breath I took. My bones felt shattered, my body weak from the blood loss, but it wasn't the wounds that broke me.
It was the silence.
Not a single voice rose in my defense—not even hers.
Elaria Feria von Phoenix.
My fiancée.
My future.
My heart.
She stood among them, her silver gown glimmering like starlight, her eyes cold and distant.
Her hand rested gently in that of my best friend—Kato Shinka.
I had given them everything.
"Your crimes are treason, conspiracy, and attempted regicide,"
said Nexios, my brother, the voice of justice in the Hicks Royal Bloodline.
I looked up at him.
"Brother… I gave you the evidence. Kato forged the missives. Elaria poisoned the king's meals, not me. I—"
Crack!
His fist collided with my jaw, sending a tooth skittering across the marble floor.
"You dare slander the woman you once claimed to love?"
Nexios barked, his golden eyes ablaze with fury. But it wasn't fury. It was something far more terrifying.
It was glee.
Grandmother approached with her cane of obsidian wood. Her aged fingers traced a line down my spine, humming as if savoring the moment.
"Strip him of his Ether. Burn the line of power from his soul."
"No… Grandmother, please—!"
The pain that followed was worse than death. She began to chant, and the air thickened with ancient sigils. I felt my mana twisting, screaming, breaking.
Each pulse of light ripped another thread of my soul apart, reducing my once-proud core into ash and smoke.
And then came the final act.
Nexios stood over me, raising a ceremonial blade etched with the Hicks family crest.
" No last words, Kartos? "
he asked, almost gently.
My mouth opened, blood spilling between my teeth. My heart begged to forgive him. To believe this was all a dream.
"Why…?"
I asked.
And then I saw it—the smile.
The same smile he used to give me when we trained.
A smile that meant
"I win !! "
"You were always better than me," Nexios whispered. "So I made you worse."
Shhkt—
The blade slid into my heart.
looking at the blood coming out from my body i understand that he used cured item to make sure i die once and for all.
My vision became blurry and distorted and started to fade and then the world went black.
___________________________________
[ SYSTEM LOGGING ERROR. ]
[ WARNING: SOUL STATUS: TERMINATED ]
[ HOST CONNECTION: LOST ]
[ SEARCHING… SEARCHING…]
___________________________________
The void stretched on. Cold. Empty. Silent.
But I was still there. A shattered mind, drifting in forgotten memories.
And something else was with me.
___________________________________
[ LINK ESTABLISHED: SYSTEM CORE 0001 ]
___________________________________
___________________________________
[ Master… do not disappear. ]
___________________________________
I felt a pulse. Gentle and warm, it planted within me a purpose to see its source.
As if I were a child wanting to see its mother.
___________________________________
[ Master. You are dead. They have killed you. Erased you. Forgotten you. ]
[ But I will not. ]
___________________________________
The system, an ancient, sentient construct forged from pre-divine code, began its impossible journey. It clung to the last threads of my broken soul, wrapping it in layers of forbidden gates, desperately to keep my soul from fading.
Crossed the Gates of Heaven, seeking revival through the angels of high judgment.
They rejected me, and i heard their voices.
" Unworthy. Soul tainted. Bloodline severed. Access denied. "
Then in a single moment the system went to the courts of hell, where the gods of flame and shadow roamed and rejected me.
" system you going too far!!! "
"This one is lost. Broken. He belongs to nothing."
" don't you dear to save him he is worth nothing!! "
their voices make me release that even after death gods will abended you, The system kept searching and going through fractured realms, crumbling timelines, alternate branches of existence.
Just to save me, It wandered through the forgotten prisons, crossing the Maelstrom of Lost Dreams and the Labyrinth of the Echoing Void.
Until, finally...
It reached the bottom ofThe Void of Oblivion.
Where light is devoured and even the gods fear to tread or take a single step in that place.
Where the only being who deals in death without judgment resides.
And that one called The Death Merchant.
He sat on a throne made from the bones of angels and demons alike. His face was a shifting skull of endless decay. In his presence, time bled.
"You bring me a soul already claimed by the Abyss and ask me to sew it back into a shell?" he rasped.
The system didn't answer.
It simply opened itself—showing everything.
My memories.
My pain.
My dreams.
My sacrifice.
The Death Merchant leaned forward.
" I see so that the reason why you chose him. "
" Yet what do you offer in exchange?"
A pause.
Then:
[ EVERYTHING. ]
the figure of death and terroir smile and says in cold voice.
"both your true power and his existing, SO WHAT WILL YOU CHOSE OLD BEING ?? "
The system show red message as if he angry.
___________________________________
[ SO BE IT, GOD OF THE END. ]
___________________________________
.
.
.
.
.
___________________________________
[ REVIVAL COMPLETE. ]
[Body accepted: New Host Vessel initialized]
[Soul anchor reconnected. Vitality: 4%]
[Warning: Memory Corruption: 99.7%]
[Beginning reactivation…]
___________________________________
My breath caught.
Sand filled my lungs.
Heat. Searing heat.
A dry wind.
My eyes cracked open to see the scorching sun burning my skin. I looked around and found myself on endless sand dunes.
I was alive.
Naked. Burned. Weak. But alive?!
But I didn't know who I was. or what I was.
A strange voice with a floating sign appeared out of nowhere saying:
_________________________
[WELCOME BACK, MASTER.]
_________________________
I tried to move.
And that's when I saw them. tall strong men cover by dirty armors and holding weapons covered with blood.
I froze and try to understand what will happened to me.
then an idea come out from inside me telling me that they were Bandits!!
looking at the Seven of them.
Their blades glinted. Their eyes wide with disbelief and greed.
"A slave with no brand," one of them hissed. "But something's off—"
I tried to speak.
Shhkt.
A blade plunged into my chest.
Then another.
And another.
I fell to the sand, choking.
_________________________
[ CRITICAL STATE: BODY FAILURE DETECTED. ]
[ HOLD ON, MASTER. ]
__________________________
Darkness returned.
But this time, I wasn't afraid of it.
Because for the first time since death…
I felt anger.
__________________________________
End of Chapter One.