A suffocating weight pressed down on Daniel's consciousness.
There was no light. No warmth. Only the gnawing ache of existence itself. His body… no, this body… felt alien. Broken. Torn. Each breath was a shallow, ragged thing — laced with the metallic tang of blood and the damp scent of earth and rot.
What…?
Where… am I?
His eyelids flickered open, the dim, colorless world above blurring into strange shapes — tall, dark silhouettes of unfamiliar trees, branches heavy with rain. Fat drops of water fell against his skin, cold and stinging where they struck torn flesh.
Then the pain struck.
An agony so raw, so absolute it blotted out everything else.
His chest convulsed, a strangled gasp escaping his throat. Every nerve screamed. Bones ground against one another, fractured and splintered. Flesh burned and throbbed, sticky with blood both old and fresh. Something deep inside his torso — a lung? A rib? — shifted with a sickening crunch.
He wanted to scream.
But his voice was gone.
Instead, a soft, eerie chime filled the air, like the tolling of some ethereal bell. A pale, translucent screen appeared in front of him, hovering above the battered wreck of his body. The words were crisp, unnaturally clear in the haze of his shattered senses.
[System Notification]
Soul Resonance Detected.
Primary Soul: Luciel Eloi Vaelmont
Secondary Soul: Daniel Carter
Status: Merging…
Compatibility: 100%
Warning: Severe physical trauma detected. Stabilizing vessel…
Estimated time until completion: 00:00:13
Thirteen seconds.
It felt like centuries.
Daniel Carter — or at least what remained of him — gritted his teeth through the unbearable agony. His mind struggled to piece together what had happened. The bookstore… the shouts… the little girl… the truck's blinding lights. And then—
Nothing.
Now, here he was, drowning in a storm of memories that weren't his.
Names, faces, sensations flooding his mind.
The world around him flickered, and with a jolt, he felt weight — cold, broken weight — return to his limbs. Blood, thick and sticky, clung to pale skin. His chest rose and fell in ragged, shallow breaths.
[Soul Merger Complete]
Vessel Stabilized.
New Identity Registered: Luciel Eloi Vaelmont (Daniel Carter)
Opening Status Window…
==[Status Window]==
Name: Luciel Eloi Vaelmont (Daniel Carter)
Race: Half-Elf (Half-human)
Age: 12
Potential: ???
Mana Core: Formed
Affinities: Ice , ???
Condition: Severe trauma, blood loss, multiple fractures, mana depletion
====
Daniel's vision blurred as the words etched themselves into his mind. His breath hitched.
Luciel Eloi Vaelmont…
A cold shudder passed through him.
That wasn't his name.
And yet — somehow — it was.
Fragments of another life flickered like dying embers, refusing to be extinguished. A pale-haired boy with crimson eyes, standing alone in a grand hall bathed in cold light. A woman's soft laughter, the weight of a sword in his hand, a grand mansion with towering pillars, a younger girl's warm voice calling out "Big brother!"
The warmth of a mother's embrace — soft hands running through his hair, a gentle voice humming lullabies of distant forests.
The unbearable weight of expectations.
A birthday banquet filled with hollow smiles.
Rumours whispered behind walls.
Daniel could feel it now — the other soul, battered, weakened, yet stubbornly lingering like a dying ember refusing to fade. Their emotions were tangled — pain, betrayal, loneliness, and overwhelming despair. And underneath it all, a suffocating numbness. Like someone who had long since given up on feeling anything at all.
Daniel's breath hitched.
Another mother's face appeared, blurred by time — his mother, in that distant, familiar world he left behind. His little sister's laughter echoing in the corridors of his memory. Faces he would never see again.
Regret coiled inside him like a serpent.
I left them behind… I left you, mom… Lillian… I promised I'd protect you… I promised I'd do better…
His throat tightened.
I failed you.
And now… another mother. Another promise.
A young woman with silvery white hair and gentle green eyes, her hand warm against his cheek. "My little snow prince."
A name rose unbidden in his mind — Lumiere.
The warmth of her voice. Her unshakable faith in a son the world had scorned. The gentle brush of her fingers through white locks.
The promise he made in the sanctuary of the elven forests, under starlit skies.
"I'll prove myself, Mother… I'll reach heights no one ever dreamed of… for you."
But that promise, too, lay shattered in the mud and blood.
A rasping, bitter sound escaped his lips — a laugh, or perhaps a sob.
I'm sorry… I couldn't keep it… I failed you too…
But as his mind spiraled downward, something else gnawed at his soul. Hatred. Hatred for this world. Hatred for the lies that had damned him, for the rumours that had torn his family apart. Hatred for everything that had brought him to this point — to this place, to this body, to this pain.
Hatred surged within him. Not the wild, blind fury of a man cornered, but something deeper, colder. A festering loathing for the world that abandoned him — both worlds. For those who turned away, for the hands that pushed him off the edge, for the gods, fate, whatever cruel force wove his fate into a noose.
The pain wasn't just in his body. It ran deeper, etched into his very soul. Two lives, two burdens, merging into one vessel not meant to carry such weight.
His fingers twitched, nails scraping against the wet earth.
The rain began in a whisper—tiny droplets sifting through the canopy and tapping against the forest floor. Each raindrop felt like a drumbeat, echoing the slow, steady rhythm of Luciel's fading heartbeat.
The System's screen flickered again.
[Warning: Vital signs critical. Loss of consciousness imminent.]
[Entering stasis…]
His vision dimmed, consciousness fraying at the edges.
His crimson eyes fluttered shut, and Daniel — Luciel — slipped into unconsciousness.
Within the boy's fractured mind, the fusion of two lives stirred something unexpected—a faint, pulsing glow where his mana core once lay dormant. Though critically injured, the body's dormant core flickered with ice-cold energy, as if Luciel's latent power strained against the prison of broken bones and bloodied flesh.
In the stillness that followed, the forest exhaled, and Luciel's broken form lay bathed in moonlight and shadow. Somewhere beyond the trees, down forgotten paths and across silent glades, compasses of fate shifted.