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# Novel: Echoes of Cursed Time
## Chapter 1: Death... and Ten Years Back
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The air was thick with the scent of blood and gunpowder, and the sky above the city of Valeria groaned in its inky blackness, as if on its deathbed. In the heart of this hell, where streets had turned to rubble, Ayan knelt. Crimson blood gushed from a deep wound in his chest, staining the ground around him. His grey eyes, which had always reflected a deadly coldness and stinging indifference, now gleamed with a faint light of pain mixed with bitter regret.
"So... this is the end," he murmured in a hoarse voice, barely audible above the whistling wind through the shattered buildings. Around him lay scattered corpses of demons and vampires, silent testimonies to his lethal prowess. Ayan was known as the "Grey Ghost," a ruthless mercenary. He was no hero who followed principles; rather, he was the complete opposite—selfish, devoid of morals, and willing to do anything to achieve his ends.
The heavy smoke of battle seeped into his dying lungs. He felt nothing anymore, his body numb with cold. His mind replayed quick flashes of his cursed life: a series of destructive choices and cruel decisions. He remembered the day he was expelled from the Royal Academy Acadia, choosing the path of darkness instead of its false light. He remembered "Laila," the only girl who dared to show him kindness in those days, and for whom he paid a heavy price for ignoring her. The image of "Fiori," the Demon Princess who cursed him when he refused to ally with her, returned to him. Then "Serena," the icy Vampire Queen, with whom he could have had a world if he hadn't let his pride stand between them. And even "Isabella," his former comrade-in-arms, whom he betrayed without hesitation for a temporary contract—her enigmatic glances haunted him in his dying moments. Each of them was a new imprint of regret in his dark heart.
He felt a deadly chill sweep through his body, and the world began to fade before his eyes. "Perhaps... this is what I deserve," he thought bitterly. "A meaningless life... a miserable end."
But as darkness consumed him, he felt a strange prick in his heart. It wasn't pain, but a cold electric current coursing through him. A faint glow, like a distant star, began to shine from a gemstone he wore as a pendant. A stone he had obtained on an old mission whose true value he had never realized. The glow intensified, becoming a dazzling white radiance, followed by a wave of warmth that swept through his frozen body.
"What... is this?" he muttered with difficulty, staring at the light.
He had no chance to understand. A glaring white light completely swallowed him, followed by a violent vortex of chaotic colors and jarring noise. He felt as if he was falling into an endless abyss, where the sounds of past, present, and future collided. Shouts of his battles, forgotten laughter, words spoken, and tears unshed. His body and consciousness dissolved into that infinite spiral.
And suddenly... everything stopped.
Ayan slowly opened his eyes. There was no smoke, no smell of blood, no rubble. Bright sunlight streamed through a large glass window, illuminating a simple bedroom, filled with textbooks and faded posters. He felt a soft touch on his face; it was his pillow. He rose slowly, feeling as if his body had become strangely lighter. He looked at his hands; they were smaller, free of the scars that had adorned his palms throughout years of fighting. He ran to the mirror hanging on the wall.
Shock surged through his body. He didn't see his pale, chiseled face and tired eyes. Instead, he saw a young face, barely sixteen years old. Smooth skin, jet-black hair falling over his forehead, and wide grey eyes that still held a touch of innocence.
This was his face ten years ago. Before he was expelled from the Academy. Before he became a heartless mercenary. Before he lost everything.
"No way..." he muttered, touching his face in disbelief. "I died... didn't I?"
He looked around the room. It was his room in the Royal Academy Acadia's student dormitory, the prestigious academy that housed human students and trained them to fight demons and vampires. This was before they discovered a dark secret in his lineage and ruthlessly cast him out, shattering his dreams.
He reached for the pendant. It was there, on his neck, glowing softly. The same gemstone that emitted light moments before his death.
"Did... did I go back in time?" he wondered in a faint, almost disbelieving voice. "Ten years back... to the day I was a teenage student?"
A strange feeling washed over him. It wasn't joy, nor sadness. It was a mixture of overwhelming shock, confusion, and perhaps... a faint glimmer of hope he never thought he'd feel again. Life had given him a second chance. A chance to correct his mistakes. A chance to avoid the miserable fate he had met.
He looked at his watch. It showed seven in the morning. He had a training session in an hour.
"This is insane..." he whispered. Then he smiled faintly, not the cynical smile his dead face was accustomed to, but one that held a hidden promise. "But... maybe this isn't so bad."
Ayan rose from the bed, filled with a new feeling. This time, he wouldn't make the same mistakes. This time, he would play the game smarter. He had knowledge of the future, and he had a chance to change everything. But would he change his path to become a noble hero? Or would he use this opportunity to serve his own interests, leveraging every piece of information he possessed, to forge a stronger destiny for himself, even if it was dark?
The new chapter of Ayan's life was about to begin. A chapter where choices intertwine, desires clash, and where he could rewrite his fate... or curse himself anew on a path no one expected.
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