Ryuu Kusari no Ori -Kokoro no Uchi no “Kokoro”- - Chapter 2.08

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension

When my whole class got summoned to another world, I was the only one to encounter a divine being on my way over.And when everyone started getting Systems that were to define their fates?I've got an FFF-Rank Failure System.And to make matters even worse, it bugged out as it attempted to launch, teleporting me to the centermost point of the world, right where the strongests of the monsters resided.Right into the lap of a Tyrant's Puma!But what's with that sparkling glinter in the distance, that comes bearing down the weight of our shared destiny?And who's looking down on a chessboard, smiling as the pieces are starting to move.The divine intervenes. The ancient prophercies finds fulfillment.The purpose long gone awakens as the universe's destiny weaves itself into the fate of the two entangled souls.

The Empress does not grant my resignation.

“They only call me mad because they're unable to comprehend me.”After recovering from trauma, Dan was just about to reconnect with the world when some cursed force yanked him into another world without warning.He became, Jules Evanava, a similarly traumatized minor character from the novel, Aftermath of Destroyed Worlds.Jules was now the heir to the strongest clan in the world, thanks to their esteemed, world-balance-altering artifact—but there were thorny strings attached.On the same day he arrived, he was thrown into a mission meant to end with his death.Yet he survived, seizing the Archangel of War’s power in a gamble with death—high risk, higher reward.Blood Manipulation, the Crimson Sigil, War Forged—a sentient sword—and Bloodlust Control were just the beginning. There was more to come. So much more.And with each new power and growth, something in him cracked. Sanity frayed, slowly but surely, as Jules danced closer to the edge of madness.Now, with enemies in his own clan and chaos rising across multiple lands—and even space—Jules must navigate a brutal world on the edge of collapse.Armed with the novel's knowledge and his growing abilities, Jules was going to survive it all—even if he had to become the very madness they struggled to understand.