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Chapter 1 — The Throne of Ashes
"The heroes killed me.
The gods laughed.
This time… I won't give them the chance."
The pain was still there.
Burning. Acidic. Relentless.
As if the world itself was rejecting his return.
Yet—he breathed.
His eyes opened.
A cracked black ceiling. Chains hanging from above. The scent of sulfur, blood, and scorched stone.
He knew this place.
"The Pact Chamber…" he muttered.
This was where the Dark Lord forged his blood contracts. Where screams echoed in the dark.
Where countless fates were broken.
But this wasn't a memory. It wasn't a dream. He could feel the pulse of dark magic beneath the ground.
This was real.
"I've been reincarnated."
Not into a stranger.
But into a name feared across the continent—
Darius Noctros, Lord of the Abyss.
But he was no longer Darius.
He was Akiel Valen, a strategist betrayed and executed in his former life. A man who once fought for justice… and was rewarded with a blade through the heart.
Now, he had returned.
Inside the body of the villain the world once destroyed.
And this time…
he had infinite mana.
He raised his hand.
Blue sparks danced across his fingers. Mana surged up his arm like a living current—hungry, limitless.
He poured more.
It kept flowing.
No strain. No cooldown. No cap.
His lips curled into a slow, wicked smile.
"They made a mistake.
They gave me power no mortal should have."
He walked forward, stepping toward a shattered mirror at the end of the hall.
Not a demon. Not a monster.
Just a man—dark eyes burning with fury, aura oozing dread.
He touched the glass, his voice low.
"I didn't come to save this world."
"I came to burn it."
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End of Chapter 1
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