Chapter 1: Ace became Harry |
Under the ominous clouds, thunder roared malevolently as monstrous waves engulfed the fragile vessel.
The lone man, tear-stained and drenched, waged his futile battle against the merciless dark whirlpool, desperately clutching the rope of the mini mast.
His muscles strained against the onslaught as each relentless blow of wind, rain, and waves shattered the feeble wooden boat, its fragments devoured by the raging sea. Amidst the cacophony, lightning illuminated fleeting terrors, revealing the voracious whirlpool that awaited him.
And he could only glance at it as his mind filled with terror, 'Am I going to die here?'
In his final surrender, his anguished screams could only merge with the howling winds as his tiny boat succumbed to the insatiable maw of the dark whirlpool, vanishing forever...
'Water.'
'I... Need water,' thought Ace as he struggled to open his eyes. Yet, his eyelids were too heavy... He could only move his hands so far, hoping for a drop of salvation.
However, instead of water, a sharp pain shot through his hands as a broken piece of jagged ceramic pierced his skin, causing it to bleed. But despite the pain, he continued his desperate attempts to wake up,
HWAAA...
His eyes clearing up slightly, he looked to the side and found himself on a rough bed, its white bedsheets messy; the whiteness only marred by the scattered bits of blood drops here and there,
And with a flash, his mind jolted awake and his already pale deadly complexion paled even further – That sea, The traumatic whirlpool, The mysterious storm, His end; The Cursed Bermuda Triangle!
His heart skipping a beat, he gulped and closed his eyes, a splitting migraine starting to emerge as he did a slight analysis of his situation,
What was he doing here when just a second ago, he was deep underwater, struggling for breath and dying?
And opened his eyes abruptly,
'I....was in a dream?"
That was the first conclusion he came up with,
But then again, it was too real just to be a mere dream, the pain; He could still feel it even now, his hands hurt like the rope was still there, attached to it
Yet, it was not there.
There was only a piece of broken and sharp ceramic glass that he held tightly in his hands, But it was nowhere near painful enough to make him care for it at this complicated moment; His whole body was in pain, so he couldn't particularly feel his hands either...
In fact, he felt his hand had become much more fairer than it ever was before,
He wondered as he looked around,
Struggling to concentrate amidst the intense pain, he couldn't help but notice the neat and orderly bedroom around him. The room emanated a captivating atmosphere of literature and art, evident from the small bookshelf and wall painting. Its design exuded a timeless sense of regal elegance, adding to the room's overall charm.
Blinking, He turned to the only other thing of note inside the bedroom—a big mirror.
Struggling with tiredness and moving with effort, he crawled to the edge of the bed, the soft smooth roughed up bedsheets touching his skin, he felt blood sticking on his hands as he reached the edge and finally had a look at himself,
His hands were still dripping blood drop by drop...
his hair was utterly black, his eyes were black and deep like the abyss itself, caramel-coloured skin, And a well-fit body even though it felt untrained–a naturally handsome young man.
Yet, the young handsome face was marred by the dry stains of blood around his mouth and dark eyebags,
The small ceramic tightened in his hands, causing more bleeding; Making him finally notice and throw the piece away
clang! A dull thud resounded as it hit the mirror
Yet, Ace only looked at the mirror, frozen; Not because of his handsomeness, Neither due to his Bloodstained face—But, because it was not him at all!
The face that looked back at him from the mirror was not him, At least not the him that he knew!
Yet,
Seeing the unknown face, it finally clicked.
"I...Have transmigrated" Muttered Ace as his mind rang with elation and disbelief alongside the still throbbing pain in his head,
'So I am not dead!' Laughing excitedly in his mind, he bore through all the pain currently running deep in his body and raised his hand,
leaning back on the bed for support as he looked at the bleeding hand, and brought it to his mouth; The taste of iron spread through his mouth, finally setting in the realisation, alongside its strong taste.
Only he knew how sourly afraid of death he was.
And dying, Just to be revealed he was transmigrated and reborn was a surprise unlike any other...
Yet, the joy lasted only a brief second before he thought back to his life as Ace, and suddenly a thought flickered through his mind; making his emotions of joy vanish and settle into a calm.
Even though he had become one of the most influential individuals on earth before his death,
When his death came, all his influence didn't come of any use...and He hadn't left even any of his seeds behind,
The taste of iron still lingered in his mouth, but that only made the realisation set in even deeper,
his huge fortune was all there, waiting for someone to bite a part off of it...
Chuckling, Ace noted the thing he took a whole lifetime to understand "Fame, fortune, treasures, dreams...All this meant nothing in the face of fate, when it decrees you to die, you die.
Everything, Every Single Thing, is meaningless in front of the irresistible hands of time..."
Losing all his hope for life slightly, his parched throat hurt as he turned to look at the blank ceiling, in the end, what was the meaning of all this?
Then all of a sudden, his whole body felt a watery chill pass through it and he looked in front of him, and standing majestically there was a screen—a dark screen, its edges blending into the fabric of space with a glowing form of blood red writing of an alien and unknown language contrasting the darkness at its centre,
The same colour as his blood,
Gulping, he read–like he had known this language since the day he was born–even though it was the first time he saw it;
[ Flowing blood of Eternals has chosen you as its vessel. ]
Yet, his thoughts got soon broken as the chill lingered, bringing endless images with it as new memories started emerging in his head–The memories of this body, the body of the Null Prince; Harry Lust Vincias.
From the day of his birth to the day of his death,
The heartfelt love of his mother, the protective love of his younger sister, the days they had spent alongside, the love that had only increased after he was revealed a meaningless null; The love that shined brighter than anything he knew from two worlds combined.
The royal family, The Gifts, The Gifted, the strong, the weak...
The land of mystri...a place filled with mysteries!
All these images passed through his head like a flickering flame, yet its brilliance etched on his soul an unforgettable array of memories,
Memories that he — who was afraid of death more than anything else — would sell his life to keep if he was asked,
Chuckling weakly, Ace, No, Harry looked at the mirror again, his gaze a bit different...
Yes, this was him from now on,
And with all the memories already in his head, he already felt he WAS Harry as much as he was ace...
And with all those things that proved to his weary soul that love was real and life still had hope; He was enlivened as he finally turned to the dark screen that stood majestically before him,
[Flowing blood of Eternals has chosen you..]
The words vanished momentarily, only to reappear as a series of options.
"Host, please choose your Eternal path— Pleasure, Slaughter, Business, Slavery, Teaching, Learning, Destroying, Creating, Righteous, Evil, Excitement, Love hate, slothful sin..." There were more below, but it seemed like it was hidden inside a dark depth and hidden behind the system, he couldn't read them clearly; they were out of his reach.
Slightly shocked by the words, he finally felt how weird this screen was, what was its use exactly?
Was it something related to The Gifts?
Was this a hidden 'Gift' of mine?
He pondered as he clicked on a random path—
[Love - Hate: Make your lovers hate you, and haters love you to earn points by which you can make yourself stronger]
"Too twisted!"
The old Ace didn't care about others, he was an indifferent rich entrepreneur. But now?
Ace was Harry too– He cared about his mom, sister and even his maid who has been with him for a long time very deeply,
More than his life.
And being a mixture of two personalities due to the fusion of souls, he was not supportive of what was written on the screen, not at all...
Going back to the page of options, he already had a slight idea of what this system screen could be used for, and excited, he continued scrolling
[ Pleasure Path: Earn points through every pleasurable encounter of life ]
'Oh, it's like passive income; I can just live and earn points living..' Thinking that, he scrolled down
[ Destruction: Destroy and earn Destruction Points to grow stronger, Destroy everything until destruction turns into creation and attain your own drop of Eternal Blood YN].
That was too ruthless and....edgy.
[ Creation: Create things, every new creation from paintings to your own kids will give you points to grow stronger until Creation turns into destruction and you achieve your own eternal blood].
'Eh...again with that, what is this eternal blood? This system seems really grand.. unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have an A.i'
Almost all the paths unrelated to the human heart and emotions ended up with him becoming a lonely yet overpowered creature, with all else ending in the void.
So, he skipped all that; they were not his style, so he went back to emotions...
Even though he was new to this stuff, He was an intelligent man and soon figured out everything there was to know about every path available and the system in general,
The paths all either had a weakness or limitation of their own, like;
[ Righteousness: Be righteous to earn points,
Follow a set of righteous codes followed by your society. Being unrighteous makes you weaker ]
[ Evil: Be evil, Do the most evil things according to your society's ideologies. Being Righteous makes you weaker ]
[ Sinful Sloth: Be a sloth, be lazy to earn points.
Weakness— vulnerable to danger, you become incapable of movement after you stop moving once the system is unsealed.]
They were all very limited in many aspects–
So, in the end, there were only three paths he had to choose from, and all three were an okay choice for him,
One, [The Business Path: Create a Business empire for yourself and trade with important people, Make them your loyal partners. The more empires you own, the stronger you become. But keep in mind, your money is your strength. You grow weaker if you don't have money...]
But this choice seemed like a very weird concept to Harry, even though he was a businessman at heart, No, because he was a businessman at heart; he could tell, this path was full of hidden meanings
As a prince, he owned money, so he could get infinite of it if he wanted, so can he get infinitely strong? he doubted that...
Yes, this path was suspicious.
So he turned to the next path [ Excitement:
Earn points through the exciting moments in life]
'No, I don't want this path either'
He knew excitement was something very hard to attain, especially since he was someone who died on a crusade in search of excitement!
And... 'Hot blood cools down with experience'
The more you seek excitement, the harder it becomes to find...
And finally, he had only one path to choose from,
[Pleasure]
His hands were already very sore and his body was having trouble staying awake, So he moved his hands again and clicked the 'Yes' icon written in bloodlike characters,
And that watery chill again emerged and passed through his body before the system replied:
[ Eternal Blood going dormant ]
[ Pleasure Path commenced. ]
[ You can use one million points to commence your second path. ]
The words blinked and changed in style, now looking like ordinary words instead of one's written in blood;
[Pleasure System... Fusion is ongoing... First fusion successful.]
[Body modification turned on].
His body felt ticklish, His head to toe; they were all screaming for him to itch them but he held on as he looked at his hands, visibly healing...
And turning to the mirror, he could see his body changing alongside,
His previously untrained body becoming much more fit...His cuts becoming much more streamlined,
And soon enough, he was looking at a new him, his body felt much more stronger than previously too...
his weakness and incapability to move were completely removed!
His muscles started having a defining cut, extremely well trained to the core of each cell, an absolutely stunning manly body,
'Was it a starting bonus?' He wondered as he looked at the screen, searching for answers;
and as expected, a status bar appeared in front of him:
• Strength: 1
• Defence: 1
• Stamina: 1
• Abilities[Gift]: Lustful absorption
• Soul Limit: 1
[1= Best possible state of an ordinary human]
And he looked at it, mesmerized...