I had always wondered what it would feel like to wake up as someone else.
But not like this.
I wasn't supposed to wake up again. Not after the betrayal, not after that sword tore through my chest like parchment. But death didn't hold me. The world — or something greater — had different plans.
When I opened my eyes, the scent of damp earth filled my lungs. Rain was falling softly through the canopy above. Pine. Mud. Blood. My blood.
I was lying in a shallow ditch half-covered in leaves, as though someone had tried to hide the corpse and given up halfway. My tunic — the fine silk of nobility — was shredded, blood-stained, and soaked through.
And yet I breathed.
My chest, where the blade had pierced me, pulsed with raw magic instead of pain. I could feel something thrumming deep inside — ancient, limitless. Like the beating heart of a dragon.
[ System Core Integration: 83%... 84%... ]
The voice again. Mechanical. Cold. And yet, comforting in its certainty.
I sat up slowly, every joint stiff like rusted iron. My fingers trembled, not with fear, but with clarity. I was alive — and not just alive, but... remade.
I looked at my palms. Smooth, unmarred. My body was no longer the same as the one Damon and Lucien had butchered. It was stronger, leaner, humming with restrained potential. My skin glowed faintly in the rain — not from light, but from raw mana bleeding through my veins.
[ System Initialization Complete. ]
[ Title Acquired: The Forgotten Son. ]
[ Perks Activated: Shadow Sovereign – All stealth, illusion, and darkness-based skills gain a 300% boost. ]
[ Unique Trait Unlocked: Infinite Mana Core. ]
[ Class Assigned: Master of Shadows. ]
[ Skill Tree: Unlocked. All SSS-Rank Skills granted. ]
A wave of knowledge crashed into me — names, runes, movements, mental diagrams. I saw through illusions I didn't cast, heard whispers in the trees, felt the presence of animals scuttling meters away in the underbrush.
I knew how to kill a man with a leaf.
I knew how to vanish into thin air.
I knew how to make someone fall in love with me, then destroy them from within.
And I had never learned any of it. Not in my old life. Not in this one.
This wasn't reincarnation. It was rebirth.
****
The next few hours passed in silence.
I wandered through the forest, barefoot and bleeding, but not lost. My memory was crystalline. I knew this land from the novel. This was the Hintermarch Wood — five miles southeast of House Ceylian's estate.
The estate where my murderers drank wine and played politics, while my corpse was supposed to rot in the dirt.
I came upon a stream and knelt to drink. My reflection startled me.
The boy in the water looked... like me, but sharper. His features were sculpted, his eyes no longer dull brown but deep obsidian, flecked with gold. His hair was longer, black as midnight, clinging to his face with rain.
This was Reinhart Ceylian — not the heir, not the weak son of a noble.
This was the Master of Shadows.
And yet… I wasn't ready. Not yet. I had power now, yes. But that wasn't enough. My brothers ruled from behind gold and steel. They had armies. They had the favor of the Crown. They had control of the Hero — the protagonist of the very novel I used to read.
To challenge them now would be suicide.
No. This would require patience.
And in the shadows, I would build something the world could never predict.
****
Night fell quickly in the forest. I built a small fire using only a flick of mana and a skill called Flame Veil — it burned smokeless, invisible to the naked eye. Just a small orb of warm light, enough to keep the cold at bay.
And it was there, in the dark, that the voice returned.
[ New Quest Assigned: Reclaim Your Name. ]
[ Objective: Establish a Shadow Network. ]
[ Requirement: Recruit First Follower. ]
[ Reward: Organization Menu Unlocked. Succubus Pact Option Available. ]
Succubus Pact?
I blinked. That wasn't in the novel.
Or was it?
I remembered faintly… a footnote. A cursed bloodline of succubi sealed beneath the Blackspire Ruins. Dangerous. Untamable. Doomed.
They were monsters. Female demons who fed on lust and essence, used as tools of war by the ancient kings, then hunted to extinction.
But if the system was pointing me there...
I grinned.
The world had cast them aside — just like me.
I would give them purpose. A new name. A new god.
My fire flickered as I stood.
****
It took three days to reach the outskirts of Blackspire. I fed on foraged roots, conjured water with spells, and practiced walking without sound. The deeper I went, the more alive I felt. Birds avoided me. Predators circled but never dared draw close.
By the time I reached the ruins, I no longer felt human.
Blackspire itself was a jagged husk of obsidian, half-swallowed by time. The entrance was a spiral staircase carved into the mountain's base, sealed with rusted sigils.
I reached out. My mana flowed like lightning through my fingers.
The runes screamed and shattered.
The way opened.
****
The air inside was thick with ancient power. Every step echoed with whispers. Torches flickered to life as I passed, sensing my mana. The system pulsed in my mind.
[ Location: Sealed Chamber of the Crimson Lineage. ]
[ Status: Ward Unlocked. Succubus Queen in Dormant State. ]
[ Would you like to awaken her? ]
> [Yes]
[No]
I hovered for a moment, then pressed Yes.
The chamber ahead rumbled. A great coffin of crystal began to crack. The magic was suffocating — erotic, violent, ancient. The temperature dropped. My heart pounded, not from fear, but anticipation.
The crystal shattered.
And she stepped out.
She was tall, curvaceous, with crimson eyes that glowed like dying stars. Wings, torn and folded, rose from her back. Horns curled from her temples, and her hair spilled like ink across alabaster skin.
She was naked — but she was no woman.
She was death given beauty.
Her eyes locked onto mine, and the air trembled.
"You… woke me," she said, her voice like silk dragged across blades.
"You were forgotten," I said simply.
"So were you," she replied, and smiled.
[ Pact Available: Bind Queen of Lust – Azael. ]
[ Warning: This will form a soul contract. Consent required from both parties. ]
>[Proceed?]
I took a step forward, holding her gaze.
"My name is Reinhart Ceylian," I said. "The world abandoned me. Just like it did you. But I've come back to take everything it tried to steal."
She tilted her head. "And you want my power?"
"No," I said. "I want your loyalty. Your rage. Your hunger for revenge."
She laughed — a sound that shook the stones around us.
"You would make me kneel?"
"No," I said. "I would make you my first."
That stopped her.
She studied me then. Not like prey. Like an equal.
Like something more.
"Very well," she said. "I will give you my name, Master."
[ Pact Complete: Azael Bound. ]
[ New Skill Unlocked: Crimson Court (Passive) – All bound followers gain 50% stat increase in darkness. ]
[ Succubus Faction Menu Unlocked. ]
As the contract flared to life in my veins, I felt it — a link, hot and powerful, not of control, but of connection. She wasn't just a servant. She was a mirror of my own soul.
And she wasn't alone.
Behind her, I felt dozens more.
Buried. Sealed. Waiting.
****
That night, I stood atop the ruins of Blackspire with Azael by my side.
The moon cast our shadows long across the broken stones.
"This world," I said quietly, "belongs to those who take. Not those who wait for justice."
Azael nodded. "Then let us take everything."
In the darkness, I smiled.
Reinhart Ceylian was dead.
But The Master had only just begun.