Pain

  A dull, throbbing pain coursed through Ethan's head as he slowly regained consciousness. His body was wrong, it was Heavy. Weaker and way too much Different

  A chilly breeze started to sweep across his skin, bringing with it the smell of something. Strange. The air was clean, and it was unpolluted, with the slight scent of baked bread, burning wood, and damp stone

  Blindly, he opened his eyes slowly and started wincing at the bright sunlight

  And what he saw, that thing chilled his blood

  Monolithic stone structures rose towards the heavens, their windows shining in the morning sun. Cobblestone roads teemed with folk attired in tunics, cloaks, and armor, their voices blending into a cacophonous harmony of haggling merchants, giggling children, and cshing steel

  A carriage passed him, its rhythmic clip of hooves resonating against the stone thoroughfares

  Knights in shining silver armor guarded the corners, their eyes keen and alert, it seemed that if they saw any danger they would eradicate it in a blink of an eye. A bcksmith beside them pounded at a hot-red hunk of metal, sparks shooting with every hit he made on the metal with his hammer

  Ethan caught his breath

  This, this was not his world. This is somewhere unknown yet familiar

  A sickening realization ran over him like a runaway train

  He recognized this pce.

  No.

  He recognized this world.

  His gut churned in agony as the name appeared in his mind like a bad dream, it started crawling out of the darkest recesses of his subconscious

  This was the world of 'Gods Final Requiem'

  The world of the book he had just read. The world that was fated to be destroyed.

  "This is not real. This is not real"

  But no matter how many times he said the words, the feel of the sun on his skin, the coarseness of the ground beneath his fingertips, the smell of rain in the distance hanging in the air, it was all too real

  His heart pounded against his ribcage, panic scratching at the back of his throat. He was tensed scared and anxious at the same time

  He had to see

  He had to verify something

  With shaking legs, he leaned over and propelled himself up to the edge of a puddle of water near where he had ended up. The surface was disturbed slightly by the wind, but as he dipped his head to peek in

  The reflection looking back was not his. It was someone else and the one whom he never heard of

  Messy bck hair

  Dull gray eyes

  Frail, malnourished build

  Wholly unfamiliar face, yet handsome

  Shivers of icy fear slithered up his spine

  And then, with a dam burst of remembrance, thoughts assaulted his mind and these thoughts were not his

  A name

  A past

  It was a life that belonged to someone else

  "Emil, I'm Emil Valcrest?"

  His voice trembled as he whispered the name. His name was not Ethan anymore. It was Emil

  A sickening weight settled in his gut

  He knew that name

  Not because Emil was an important figure in 'Gods' Final Requiem'. No, it was worse than that

  Email Valcrest was a nobody

  Not a protagonist. Not a hero

  Not even a named side character

  Just a random, talentless, background brat

  He dug through his new memories in desperation, looking for anything that might assist him

  Nothing

  Emil was the son of a destitute merchant. His father had died of sickness when he was a child, and his mother scraped by barely enough to keep them both from drowning. He was not skilled at sword fighting, did not have any talent for magic, no special skills whatsoever

  His stats were trash

  In a universe where dominance ruled survival, Emil Valcrest was anything but insignificant

  And now that Emit was him. He was just a nobody in the world who would meet a harsh and brutal ending

  His breathing became erratic

  "This is bad"

  This world was going to perish

  He already knew how the story ended. The Demi-Gods and the Outer Gods would consume everything. The hero, the strongest of warriors, the greatest heroes all of them would perish.

  And he?

  He was not even worthy enough to be a footnote in history

  A wind gust swept over him, billowing the coarse, ill-fitting tunic he wore

  Something tiny nded on the ground beside him

  Emil's gaze shifted in its direction

  It was letter

  It must have been dropped from somebody's pocket

  His curiosity overwhelmed his fear as he cautiously reached for it. The paper was thick, luxurious, stamped with a golden crest

  His brows knitted as he turned it over, his hands shaking a little as he read the words printed on the envelope

  Empire Academy Admission Lette

  His breath caught

  Empire Academy

  The most elite academy in the empire

  A pce where only the strongest, the most brilliant, and the most talented were admitted

  A pce far beyond his league

  But that wasn't what shook him the most

  It was the name written under it

  Recipient: Emil Valcrest

  His name

  His fingers tightened around the letter

  But he never applied applied for it. So how did he get it?

  With his garbage stats and nonexistent talent, he should not have even been considered someone worthy enough to be here in this academy

  So then

  "Who sent this? And more importantly. Why?"