The Phantom's Gambit - Chapter 58: A Demon in the Academy

Strength: 1Agility: 1Stamina: 1Magic Power: 20Luck: 1All my stats are dumped into Magic Power.I can only use one spell.There’s no character as broken as this, and yet, that’s me.And somehow, I got mistaken for a once-in-a-lifetime genius.

Amidst the eerie silence of an unfamiliar hall, a cacophony of confused voices rose, mingling in a chorus of bewilderment. “Where are we?” “What happened?” “I thought I died!” Each utterance hung in the air, a testament to the collective disbelief gripping the room.As the haze of confusion lifted, disjointed memories surfaced, fragments of lives cut short by tragedy. “I remember... I was stabbed...” ventured one voice, echoed by another's affirmation of a similar fate. “I... I died in a plane crash,” muttered a third, only to be met with a stunned agreement from a fellow survivor.Amidst the chaos of bewildered voices, one man stood apart, his expression a mask of contemplation amidst the turmoil. As his companions recounted their brushes with death, his mind churned with questions, each more confounding than the last.“I got shot... I remember it vividly,” he murmured to himself, his voice barely audible above the din. “So how am I still here?” The enigma of their shared resurrection gnawed at him, compelling him to seek answers in the depths of his memories.With each revelation of a paired demise—a male and female, bound by the same tragic fate—a flicker of recognition ignited within him. “This... this seems familiar,” he mused, the pieces of a puzzle slowly coalescing in his mind. But the picture remained incomplete, obscured by the fog of uncertainty that shrouded their surroundings.As the words “pairs, pairs, pairs” echoed in his mind like a cryptic mantra, a sudden realization struck him with the force of a revelation. “It can't be... don't tell me...” he whispered, his voice trembling with disbelief. With a sense of urgency, he began to scan his surroundings, searching for any sign or clue that could confirm his suspicions.Then, as if guided by an unseen force, his gaze shifted upwards, and there, bathed in an ethereal light, stood an angelic figure with golden apparel, its gaze fixed upon him with a warm smile. The sight took his breath away, filling him with a mixture of awe and trepidation.The man's heart raced as faced a real angel, his mind struggling to comprehend the surreal encounter unfolding before him. The angel's words, spoken with an air of amusement, only deepened the enigma shrouding their meeting.“I never expected anyone to notice me,” the angel remarked, a hint of playfulness in its voice. “I was concealing my presence to let everyone fully calm down, but to think someone noticed me. Just who are you?”Ethan's disbelief and confusion intensified at the angel's question. “Eh... Ethan Rivers,” he stammered, his voice barely above a whisper.As Aurelia, the angel, finally revealed himself to the bewildered assembly, a hush fell over the room, each soul drawn in by his radiant presence and commanding aura. Ethan's gaze lingered on Aurelia.“Greetings, lost souls,” Aurelia declared, his voice resonating with a majestic power that seemed to fill the very air around them. “I am Aurelia, and I shall be your guide to your new life.”As Aurelia extended his arms in a gesture of welcome, Ethan felt a surge of rage and hesitation, “This it bad, really bad.”

Standing last among those sailors, Byron was shoved roughly onto that narrow gangplank by the pirates.Just a short distance beneath his feet churned blood-steeped waves and dozens of gaping mouths filled with sharp teeth!“Thud.”He could only watch helplessly as the sharks opened their mouths, stirring up turbulent currents in the ocean as they bit viciously towards him!However, the [Sailing Logbook] formed before his eyes and wrote furiously on its own:“The ancient blood of the Bayfolk within you begins to boil.Spiritual sublimation commences!”

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.