A week passed just like that.
I needed time.
Time to come to terms with the fact that I was no longer in my world.
Time to come to terms with my new reality.
Time to grasp how a smartphone from Earth had followed me into a fantasy built on blood and pages.
But time… didn't care.
It moved.
Relentless.
And with each passing second, the quiet, maddening tick echoed in the back of my skull like a clock counting down a life I hadn't asked to live.
The infirmary was quiet — too quiet. Nurses came and went like ghosts. They offered food, smiles, and potions.
I ignored all of them.
They asked my name, expecting an answer I didn't have.
I had no memories of this world.
And the name from my past life? Sadly, street rats with no parents had no one to name them.
So I gave them the only name I could think of.
Loki.
That was it. My only conversation in the last seven days.
My attention stayed fixed on one thing:
The phone.
It sat on the table next to my bed, the screen black most of the time. But every morning, just once, it would blink to life and mock me.
Ding—!
{
Current Objective: Pass the entrance test and become a member of the Imperial Academy's Supernova
Award: No change in the time left for the epilogue
Penalty: -1 Year
Current Story Progression: 0%
Current Time left: 6 years, 357 days, 23 hours, 35 minutes, and 57 seconds
}
I didn't know what was worse — the fact that it was treating my life like a game, or the fact that somehow, I believed it.
"Hah…"
I laughed to myself, bitter and dry. "Guess I should've finished that damn book."
My eyes drifted to the mirror across the room. The unfamiliar face I had been seeing for the past week stared back at me.
I walked up to it and touched my cheek. A guy with medium-length auburn hair and golden eyes looked back — my reflection, though it still felt like someone else's.
Dark circles clung beneath my eyes, and my frame was thin, almost frail. Seventeen years old, but I barely looked fourteen.
There was no strength in these arms. No muscle memory. No familiarity. Just skin stretched over bones and an expression caught somewhere between exhaustion and confusion.
I leaned in closer.
The eyes... they were the only part that didn't lie.
They were sharp. Observant. Tired, yes — but not broken.
'So this is the vessel I've been dumped into.'
I didn't know if the original owner of this body was dead, erased, or simply… overwritten. But whoever he was, his story ended the moment I woke up in this world. And mine began with stolen breath and borrowed flesh.
I raised a hand and watched the mirror copy me. The fingers trembled slightly.
No, not fear.
Just hunger. Weakness.
A body on the edge. Starved of warmth, of nutrition, of purpose.
"I'll fix you," I murmured quietly to the glass. "But you better hold up until I get my answers."
Because in this world, weakness wasn't just dangerous — it was fatal.
I couldn't afford to stall any longer. If I wanted answers, I had to move. I had to act.
Still… before anything else, there was one thing I needed to confirm.
Slowly, I placed my hand over the left side of my chest over the steady, unnatural beat of the heart.
Just like I read in the novel, I closed my eyes… and called.
'Come to me.'
A black book flashed into existence right before my eyes and floated around me.
I didn't waste time admiring it again. I had already done that. Emotion clouds judgment, and I couldn't afford distractions.
I traced my hand over its textured cover. Three purple rings were etched on it, surrounding the mark of man and beast.
"hah…"
With a deep breath, I flipped it open. Divine spirit energy leaked from its pages.
Subtle, but potent.
Spirit energy was the essence that formed these cards. Mana, on the other hand, was what powered them.
On the first page, nestled in the center, was an obsidian spirit card. Its surface shimmered faintly under the light.
***
Base Form: Nyxveil, the Veil of Night
Max Ring Potential: 3 Rings
Current Ring: 1
***
Beneath the card was a single vacant slot—a place for an attack card.
If my memory served me right, attack cards were external ability cards that you could teach your spirit cards.
The number of slots varied from card to card, mostly depending on potential.
Most 3-ring potential spirits didn't have any.
But lucky me, I wasn't like most people.
I had one.
Focusing back on my spirit card, I placed two fingers on it, calm and firm.
"Nyx. Come out."
I called out the cat that saved me, but nothing happened.
"..."
I raised an eyebrow.
"I summon thee."
Still nothing.
Shadows rippled slightly at my feet, but otherwise… silence.
"Fuhh…"
I let out a long breath through my nose. I wasn't angry. I was entertained.
"You know," I muttered, smiling faintly, "most creatures respond by the second call. You're either very brave… or very stupid."
I leaned forward slightly, voice dropping to a whisper.
"Third call."
The shadows tensed, but still, he didn't appear.
Now I laughed. Quiet, controlled.
"Oh, we're playing that game."
Then I flicked a trace of mana into the card, not to summon him, but to poke him.
It had taken me a week to get the hang of mana.
Not because it was hard, but because it was different.
Mana here wasn't like some mystical force out of a fairytale. It was more like… oxygen with an attitude.
You didn't grab it. You didn't force it. You let it flow.
It was everywhere—woven into the very air, the earth, the essence of the world. If Earth had oxygen, this place had mana.
Invisible, but heavy. Breathing it in was instinct; moving it was technique.
So I imagined I was just breathing.
Inhale. Circulate. Exhale.
Once I stopped treating it like power and started treating it like a habit, it clicked.
Now, it flowed through my body like a second pulse. Quiet and obedient, waiting to be weaponized.
And today, it had one job. It was to wake this damn shadow brat up.
I muttered softly to the card while adding a bit of mana:
"If you don't come out on the fourth try, I'm feeding your essence to a holy relic and telling it you're full of demonic cat."
That worked.
The shadows at the edge of the room groaned.
The card in the grimoire flashed, taking the form of a cat. He appeared before me, small with two violet eyes. His black fur reminded me of the night, while his eyes glowed like twin moons.
'It was a he, right?'
Most probably.
The moment Nyx fully emerged, a soft glow formed above my head. A single black ring hovered there, faintly tinted with purple light.
I wasn't surprised.
According to the novel, whenever you summoned a spirit card, it manifested a set of glowing rings on you depending on its current rank. Nyx was only at the first ring, so only one appeared.
The position of the rings also told you what kind of grimoire was being used.
Summoning rings hovered above your head like a halo.
Integration rings circled behind your back like ghostly wings.
Weapon rings formed over the back of your palm, like a forged seal.
Each position had meaning.
My eyes went to the little furball lazily eyeing me. His eyes glowed faint violet, half-lidded, as if he had just woken from a long nap.
He walked up to me and rubbed his eye against my legs.
"Huaaahhh~" he yawned. "God, you again? You know, just because you can summon me doesn't mean you should."
I blinked, deadpan. Was this really the same shadowy spirit who pulled me out of that mess a week ago?
Hardly felt like a lifesaver now.
More like a lazy cat ignoring my calls.
But still, something about him stood out.
He spoke. That alone was abnormal. Spirits under the fifth ring rarely spoke.
Certainly not with this kind of dry sarcasm and verbal precision. But this cat wielded his tongue like a blade.
I reached out, trying to pull him up into my lap. But the lazy furball swatted my hand away and pounced on my head.
I froze for a moment while a heavy weight and two hairy tails settled on top of my head.
"You do know," I said carefully, "that I'm trying to have a serious conversation here, right?"
Nyx stretched lazily, claws gently raking through my hair. "I know. You're Loki, and you came from somewhere else, yada yada."
I paused. How did he know?
"How do I know?" he said with a smirk, reading my mind. "Simple. Because I'm connected to you. I can hear your thoughts, unless you really try to hide them.
Don't underestimate me just because I'm a newborn."
A psychic type. That explained it.
This one was special. Intelligent, far more than his ring level would suggest.
I didn't mind it.
Better to have a clever cat than a barking mutt.
I settled back, feeling the weight of his tails like an unwelcome, yet oddly comforting scarf wrapped around my neck.
A small smile formed on my lips.
I left him alone, but I wasn't done yet.
I had one more grimoire to summon.
I closed my eyes and imagined the second grimoire.
Golden. Radiant. Regal.
It beautifully appeared before me. But as soon as it appeared, both my heart tightened.
Ba… Thump! Ba… Thump!
It felt as if chains wrapped around my hearts, squeezing them with every heartbeat.
'Tch…'
It hurt, but the pain was bearable. Enough to keep me on my own two feet.
Ignoring the pain, I observed the book in front of me.
Unlike last time, it wasn't thrashing or resisting. No aggressive pulses. No pressure trying to shove me backward.
It floated mid-air, calm and serene.
Suspiciously peaceful.
I flipped it open.
As far as I knew, no human in this world possessed two grimoires. At least no humans.
"How did you calm this grimoire earlier?" I asked Nyx, keeping my voice low and even.
From above, Nyx's tail twitched.
"I just stepped on it," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And it stopped."
I stared at him. "You stepped on it."
"Yep."
"…Are you joking?" I asked, my tone glacial.
He yawned. "Do I look like the joking type?"
Yes. But he wasn't joking this time. Just like how he could read my thoughts, I could read his emotions.
And they clearly stated he was telling the truth.
'Sigh…'
Sighing, I looked at the golden grimoire. Unlike the black one, it had seven rings, each one slowly glowing with a silver colour.
In the middle of the rings was a hand. Each finger hooked to a small chain, trying to cover the sun.
'It feels cursed and divine at the same time.'
Flip~!
I slowly flipped it open, and in front of me stood a golden card prouder than the sun. I smiled faintly at it.
***
Grimoire Type: Weapon
Element: Shadow / Psychic
Base Form: Enkidu, Chains of the Broken Heaven
Max Ring Potential: 7 Rings
Current Ring: 2
Description:
The pride of heaven that caused its downfall.
***
The card activated at my command.
Golden chains erupted from the edges of the grimoire, swirling around me like living serpents made of light and shadow. Each link shimmered with a divine brilliance.
But they were not all.
I could feel. More chains. Hiding in my shadow, waiting to be called.
Two rings formed on the back of my right palm. Golden, but tainted with a swirling black hue.
A perfect mixture of Divine and Demonic.
This was it.
My curse. My crown.