Chapter 1: The Last Thing I Remember Was Dying Alone
The rain didn't fall that day.
Even the heavens, it seemed, had turned their backs on me.
I lay there motionless, my back against the cold stone floor of the temple we once called our home. My blood pooled beneath me like a dark mirror, rippling gently with every fading heartbeat. Each breath came slower than the last, each blink heavier. The once-familiar ceiling above me blurred into nothingness.
"You did well, Ethan. You really did."
That voice.I knew it too well.Soft. Warm. Trusted.Lethal.
She knelt beside me, the very same woman who taught me how to survive, how to love, how to dream. Her silver armor was spotless. Her hair was tied neatly in the same braid she wore the day we first met. Her eyes — those cruel, beautiful eyes — didn't flinch when she plunged the blade into my chest just minutes ago.
"Don't look at me like that," she whispered. "You were never meant to be the hero. Just the opening act."
She rose, turning her back on me as the others approached. My former comrades. Brothers I bled beside. Sisters I cried with. They all stood behind her now, like puppets waiting for their next command. Not one of them spoke. Not one looked back.
I wanted to scream.I wanted to ask why.But no sound left my mouth. Only blood. Only silence.
So this was it.Not death by a demon's claw.Not on the battlefield, fighting for the innocent.But here — betrayed by those I loved most.
And still… the sky did not cry for me.
Time lost all meaning after that.
There was no tunnel of light. No peace. No judgment.Only darkness — vast and eternal.
Until…
[System Message: Host Terminated. Initiating Soul Drift.][Error Detected: Death Before Destiny Fulfilled][Override Accepted by Administrator: Manual Reassignment in Progress...][Warning: User has triggered the Celestial Wound Curse]
A sharp jolt burned through whatever remained of me.And then — a heartbeat.
But it wasn't mine.
I opened my eyes to blinding white light. My lungs screamed as I gasped for air for the first time.
Everything felt wrong. My limbs were tiny. My cries were uncontrollable. I could barely see.
I was… reborn?
Yes. That was the only explanation.
But I wasn't in a palace or wrapped in silk like in the fantasy novels I used to read.
No.
I was in a ruined chapel, surrounded by corpses.
The stench of blood was thick in the air. My cries echoed into nothingness. The only warmth I felt was from the cold body that held me — a woman, already gone.
My mother.
Even in this second life, I was born in death.
[Status Confirmed: Host Reincarnated with Memory Intact][Race: Human – Rejected Soul Type][Special Trait Unlocked: Soul Remnant Binding (Your past regrets fuel your power)][Curse Status: Active]["Grief-Bound Rebirth" – You will remember everything. No one else will remember you. All bonds are fated to break.]
I lay there for hours. Days, maybe. My infant body grew weaker. Hunger clawed at me. The system didn't care.
And just when I thought I would die again, they arrived.
Raiders.
They didn't come to help.They came to loot the bodies. To laugh. To mock.
And when they found me, they said:
"He's alive? Hah… let's just sell him. He's got no eyes like the others. Probably cursed."
And they were right.
For years, I was passed from hand to hand. A slave. A tool. A thing to be beaten, trained, sold again.
No love. No warmth. No name.
I survived through silence. I endured through hatred.
Each time they hit me, each time they burned my skin or starved me or chained me like a beast…
…I remembered her.Her betrayal.Their betrayal.The moment the world told me I didn't matter.
Now I am ten.
My scars have become my armor. My tears have dried. I no longer ask why. I no longer pray.
But I have not forgotten.
The world betrayed me.And I will not forgive it.
[Status Screen Unlocked: "Awakening Initiated"][Class: Undetermined – Awaiting Catalyst Event][Unique Skill Unlocked: "Soul Echo"]Skill Effect: You can absorb the strength of those who betray you. The more pain you feel, the stronger you grow.
And so it begins.
My second life. Not as a hero.
Not as a savior.
But as a curse born from grief — a shadow destined to drag gods and kings into despair.
Even if I must become a monster…
I will never trust again.I will never love again.I will never lose again.
This time, I will make the world pay.