Castle of Black Iron - Chapter 1973 - Overwhelming Strikes (III)

On the will left behind by the 14 year old suicide victim K:

“Taku Sugawara is the devil. Nobody should believe his words.”

When the Soul Plague arrived, it struck fast, transforming its victims into soulless monsters. The horde swept across the land unchecked—until the Awakened appeared. These survivors, immune to the plague, turned the tide of war into a bloody stalemate. But while the front lines held, the plague continued to spread and the horde only grew in number.Desperate for reinforcements, the World Government began conducting controlled infections of its able-bodied citizens to produce more Awakened. Hill was one of the conscripts. After going through a harrowing trial induced by the plague, his life was torn apart and remade: he emerged Awakened, endowed with strange new powers—but also bound by a dark curse that resides deep within his own soul.As Hill learns to wield his abilities alongside fellow survivors, he uncovers unsettling truths about the plague’s true nature and the hidden price of becoming one of humanity’s last line of defense.

God rewards hard work, and there must be rewards for paying.

And no matter how hard you work, you will gain 100%!

So, for things like cultivating immortals, don’t you just need to have hands?

- Description from novelbuddy

While on a plane ride, Shuuta Fenton and his classmates are whisked away to a fantasy world by Holy Lord Meruria. She reveals to them that they are to be her Soul Warriors. Most of the students display extraordinary skills after opening their Soul Crystal, but Shuuta is the only one to not have any potential, being cursed with a 0-Star Soul.After a sham trial to decide whether or not he can be useful to her, in which his own sister argues for his sacrifice, Holy Lord Meruria banishes him to the void, an inescapable realm of unending torment, to recoup the Holy Mana she spent on summoning him.While his body was destroyed, Shuuta's desire for revenge keeps his soul intact long enough to gain the attention of an unknown entity. It alters his essence and turns him into a chimera, something viewed as a blasphemous abomination that grows stronger by consuming others.After his soul is summoned again, and this time by the imprisoned Dark Lord of Tyranny, Shuuta frees her and throws away his former identity to become Lyudmila Springfield, the future Transcendent Dark Lord that will spill the blood of her enemies.