NOVEL WEB Chapter 2: PAST REFLECTION
"Ughhh..." William groaned, the sound crawling from his throat like gravel scraping stone.
His body trembled as he struggled to turn over. Every joint screamed with the memory of agony. He blinked slowly, golden eyes flickering in the dim light. Around him, the forest remained eerily still bent trees and scorched soil stretching in all directions, as if the land itself recoiled from his presence.
He tried to smile.
But he couldn't.
The gesture so simple, so human was now foreign. His emotions had been hollowed out, carved away and consumed by void. All that remained was silence in his soul.
Yet he was grateful
He was back.
He rose slowly to his feet, legs shaky but responsive, as though his flesh remembered suffering but had evolved beyond it.
The air still pulsed with darkness residual echoes of the power that had killed every creature nearby. A one-meter ring of absolute stillness surrounded him, a silent boundary where nothing dared to breathe.
William inhaled deeply. The breath tasted of ash and raw ozone. His muscles ached with phantom pain reminders of the divine whip and the golden mist but they moved.
He stepped forward, his bare feet crunching over blackened grass.
He found a narrow stream nearby, the water slow-moving and strangely dark. Kneeling beside it, he peered into the warped reflection.
White hair clung wetly to his face.
Golden eyes stared back not with warmth, but with a hollow gleam.
He looked like a ghost of the boy he used to be.
"I'm not the same," he whispered to the reflection.
And that was the truth.
Then it came back Void's promise.
The system.
William narrowed his eyes. He needed confirmation. Proof that he hadn't been deceived.
"System," he said quietly, testing the word on his tongue.
A tone chimed in the air clean, digital, but laced with regal elegance.
>[It's an honor to be your guide, Mister Vale.]
A blue holographic screen blinked to life before him, floating midair. The letters shimmered, angular and arcane.
William stared.
Mister Vale...?
That wasn't his name. But the system said it like truth unchallenged, embedded into reality.
Had even his name changed?
Was William Toren truly dead?
[Would you like to see your interface or your status, Sir?]
He stood there, silently, his golden eyes reflecting the screen. He didn't recognize the soul in the water. Didn't feel the heart in his chest. And yet
"I want to see my status," he answered.
The screen shifted instantly.
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[ STATUS SCREEN ]
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NAME: Tamiel Vale
CLASS: █████
THREAT LEVEL: Celestial supreme Potential
AFFINITY: Darkness Dual (Dark Flare)
RACE: Chimera
LEVEL: 10
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[ STATS ]
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STR: 25
AGI: 30
INT: 60
STM: 30
CHM: 100
LCK: (SEALED)
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[ MAIN SKILLS ]
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• Shadow Slicer (+1)
▸ Summons shadow blades forged from pure darkness.
• Shadow Hide
▸ Grants temporary invisibility and allows traversal through shadows.
• Shadow Bind
▸ Conjures dark chains that immobilize enemies above or below your level.
• Shadow Accelerate
▸ Enhances speed using condensed shadow energy.
• Self Heal (+1)
▸ Rapidly regenerates health using dark essence.
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[ DUAL SKILLS ]
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• Shadow Flare
▸ Unleashes a burst of destructive dark-element Flame's.
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[ HIDDEN SKILLS ]
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• Magic Stone Extraction
▸ Absorbs latent energy from harvested magic stones.
• Predator of Darkness (5 minutes)
▸ Temporarily boosts all dark-based abilities to lethal levels.
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[ MAGIC POINTS ]
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MP: 150
SE: 200
HP: 100
FP: 20
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[ BLOODLINE ]
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{Celestial (0.002%)}
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[ SYSTEM NOTICE ]
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Status synchronization complete.
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The blue screen hovered, flickering in the air.
Tamiel stared at it, his breath steady, mind slowly catching up.
"So... he really kept his word," he muttered.
His fingers ran across his chest the place where his father's blade had ended him. No scar. No mark. William was gone.
"What's with the name?" he asked. "Tamiel Vale? That's not mine…"
>[William Toren is dead].
[You are Tamiel Vale now]. [The vessel of the Seven].
He didn't flinch.
"The seven bodies… they were brothers, weren't they? That's why I'm called Vale?"
>[Correct, Master Vale. You are a Chimera.
A fusion of multiple beings in a single body. The corpses used to build this vessel passed their DNA into you].
Tamiel exhaled, slow and calm. "Then tell me... what were those bodies?"
The system responded immediately.
>[You selected the remains of the Seven Great Sins. These are the names they were once known by:]
[Azazel Vale – God of Pain]
[Azrael Vale – God of Desire]
[Alister Vale – God of Fear]
[Lucifer Vale – God of Destruction and Light of Evil]
[Hades Vale – God of Death]
[Escalor Vale – God of Gluttony]
[Gladiel Vale – God of the Abyss]
[They were brothers. Powerful. Dangerous. Erased by the Order].
[Their flesh was cut, burned, and scattered. You chose them. Now, they live through you].
[As your bloodline unlocks, you'll inherit their skills, powers, and physical traits. Right now, your bones are as strong as a full X-Rank who's unlocked all their potential].
Tamiel stared ahead. His face didn't change.
"Hmph. So I was killed for having an X-Rank bloodline…"
He glanced at his hand. It didn't feel like his anymore.
"...only to be reborn with one made from gods."
He let out a soft breath, almost a laugh but there was no joy.
"I wonder what the world will do when it finds out."
>[Kill you, Master Vale].
He smiled, just a little. The first smile since his death.
"That's if I don't kill them first."
His voice dropped, the hatred in his tone sharp and final.
"I'll tear the Order down. I don't care how long it takes."
He took a step forward. As the dark aura trailing behind him seemed to agree to his declaration.
As Tamiel followed the stream's soft current, a blue notification blinked into view.
> [You have killed a Basic Tier Beast.
+20 EXP Gained].
He paused.
"Huh? I didn't even touch anything."
>[You did, Master Vale.
Your system's auto-defense mode is still active. That's why your body is releasing thick dark miasma it kills anything within a meter of you. The potency depends on your current strength].
He looked down at the faint mist wrapping around his legs. The grass near his feet was scorched. Small insects floated lifeless in the stream beside him.
Tamiel let out a low sigh. "So I've been walking around poisoning the forest?"
>[Yes, Master].
"Well, turn it off."
>[Are you sure? It's a passive protection skill].
"I'm sure," he muttered. "If everything dies before it touches me, how am I supposed to grow?"
His eyes narrowed, golden glow pulsing faintly.
"I don't want to win by default. I want to crush them. I need real experience, not cheap kills."
>[Understood. System defense mode deactivated].
The miasma slowly faded, like a dying breath retreating into his skin.
Tamiel rolled his neck, bones cracking softly.
"Let them come now."
He took a step forward.
"I'll face them myself."
Soon enough the forest had gone quiet. Too quiet. Only his footsteps was heard.
Then he heard what he had been waiting for, A rustle.
Faint, almost insignificant to most ears. But Tamiel wasn't most. His sharpened senses caught the disturbance instantly two kilometers to the east, veiled behind trees and thick undergrowth. A wild, uneven pattern. Stalking. Hunting.
His body tensed.
Not in fear.
In anticipation.
He turned, golden eyes narrowing as he faced the direction of the noise. Each second dragged as the sound crept closer low pads against the earth, branches swaying, leaves rustling. Whatever was coming, it was bold enough not to mask its presence.
And it was fast.
A guttural growl sliced through the still air, primal and hungry. Tamiel's lips curled slightly not in a smile, but something close to it. A dark thrill coursed through him, waking instincts buried in the bones of gods. He didn't know the exact name of the skill itching in his veins, but he knew this was what Void had promised.
Then it burst from the brush.
A creature, feral and twisted by the forest's corruption, lunged at him with jaws wide open, fangs glinting and dripping with rot. Its eyes burned red with hatred and hunger. It went straight for his neck, a clean, practiced motion meant to decapitate.
Tamiel moved before thought could catch up.
His body bent low and sideways, ducking beneath the beast's lunge with inhuman grace. As it flew past him, he twisted his weight and let his fist fly upward, clean and vicious. His knuckles connected with the underside of the creature's jaw.
CRACK.
The impact echoed like a bone snapping under steel pressure. The beast's head jerked violently, its momentum redirected by the sheer force of the punch. It collapsed mid-air, landing with a hard thud and rolling across the ground in a trail of broken limbs and blood.
Tamiel stood still for a moment, his hand still outstretched, feeling the faint tremble in his knuckles. The thrill hadn't faded.
"That felt... good."
The creature twitched, trying to rise, its jaw grotesquely unhinged. Tamiel watched it writhe, studied the way it moved, learning. He could end it now but he didn't.
He wanted to see what else it could do.
He wanted to test himself not just to kill, but to dominate. He wanted to feel the ecstasy of becoming the predator.
The beast twitched once… then again. With a rattling snarl, it forced its mangled jaw back into place bones crunching against bones, ligaments tearing and mending in real time. Blood drooled down its throat as it rose on shaky limbs, trembling with rage… and something close to fear.
Tamiel didn't move.
He watched it calm. Cold.
Like a butcher eyeing meat that refused to stay dead.
It charged again sloppier this time, desperate, driven by instinct more than reason. It swung a claw at Tamiel's chest with enough force to split stone. But Tamiel stepped aside, almost lazily, letting the wind from the swipe ruffle his torn cloak.
Then he responded with a single, brutal knee to the beast's ribs.
THWACK.
The air fled the creature's lungs in a wheeze. Cracked ribs. It staggered backward, clutching at its side like it still remembered pain. But before it could recover, Tamiel was already behind it.
CRACK.
An elbow smashed into the back of its skull, driving its face into the dirt. It shrieked and flailed, but Tamiel grabbed its leg and dragged it in a slow circle grinding its face across stones and roots like punishment.
Then he let go, just to see it crawl.
The thing rose again, slower this time. A grotesque growl bubbled from its throat rage mixed with disbelief. Its pride was shattered, but its body didn't know how to surrender.
Tamiel tilted his head.
"You're not learning," he muttered, voice low with amusement. "Try again."
It roared, blindly, stupidly and lunged. Tamiel dodged, swept its legs out from under it, then stomped on its back, pinning it to the ground. The earth cracked beneath the force.
It screeched, writhing under him like a trapped animal.
Tamiel knelt beside its skull.
"Do you feel it yet?" he whispered.
The beast didn't answer it couldn't. He grabbed its throat, lifted it effortlessly, and hurled it into a tree with enough force to shatter bark and ribs alike.
The tree snapped in two.
The beast lay slumped in the wreckage, barely breathing. Its body spasmed from internal damage, yet something deep in its monstrous eyes still resisted.
Tamiel's shadow stretched across its broken form as he approached again, slow and deliberate.
"I'll keep breaking you… until you understand what it means to fight against your undeniable fate."
He clenched his fist. Dark energy pulsed around his knuckles, swirling like a storm begging to be unleashed.
The game wasn't over.
Not until he said so.
He was enjoying himself.
Beating the mutated wolf was addicting. He felt exhilarated swept up in the excitement, the thrill, the intoxicating joy of dominance.
So much so… he didn't even notice when the wolf gave up its life.
Then, a quiet chime echoed in his mind:
[Basic-tier beast killed. 20 EXP gained].
Tch it's dead now am bored again, ughhhh I need more.