Capítulo 1: Prologue
A boy, no older than sixteen, with tousled brown hair and piercing green eyes shadowed by dark circles, sat cross-legged on the cold, concrete floor in front of three tombstones within the confines of an graveyard.
His features were not strikingly handsome, but there was an undeniable charm that set him apart from the average boy.
The warm, golden sunlight caressed his skin, offering a comforting contrast to the hard surface beneath him.
The serene melody of birds chirping filled the air, adding a sense of peace.
A bouquet of flowers was placed in front of each tombstone.
---------------------
Jeanne Karumi
Best mother, perfect daughter, and a kind human
---------------------
Ronald Karumi
Best father, troublesome son, and a kind human
---------------------
Lia Karumi
Perfect daughter and cutest little sister
---------------------
Leo smiled softly as he read what was written on the tombstones in front of him.
The tombstones had a simple design as he didn't have the money nor any other relatives who could help out.
His grandparents had unfortunately passed away last year.
Every day, he came here after school to spend some time with his only family...
If only that driver wasn't drunk.
If only he had persuaded them to stay home with him instead of going to a restaurant.
Perhaps if he went with them, the outcome would have been different...
Shaking his thoughts away, he stood up, being done telling them how his day went.
"...I will see you guys tomorrow again," Leo said as he started to walk away, ignoring the annoying sympathetic gazes directed towards him from other visitors.
Seeing a young teenage boy visiting the graveyard can lead to a lot of speculation after all.
"I am too tired today for work... I will just call in sick later today," Leo muttered to himself, not in the mood to work.
He was sure it would be fine since he never took a break, and the manager of the supermarket he worked for was a kind old man who felt sorry for him.
Opening his phone, he contacted his friend Nathan.
Leo: Skipping work today. Want to hang out?
Nathan: Sorry, got a basketball match today!
Nathan: Let's hang out tomorrow after school.
Leo: Sure, no worries. Good luck with your match.
Nathan: Thanks!
A sigh left his lips as he closed his phone.
"Well, I guess I can just read today instead," he said to himself, starting to walk towards his home.
It only took 20 minutes for him to walk home since it was close to the graveyard.
The apartment he lived in was quite decent in size and price, bought by his parents, where he lived with them.
"I am home..."
He said, opening the door and entering his home.
He had become used to hearing no response whenever he came back.
'Some habits never change, I guess...'
As he thought this, he closed the door and removed his shoes before going to sit on the couch.
A book was placed there that he had been reading before he had to leave for school earlier that morning.
"Great, I had to stop at the most exciting part this morning," Leo said as he picked up the book titled Path of Heroes: Battle Against the End on the front cover, showing a single boy holding a sword with both hands.
******
"Haa..."
Breathing out loud, he closed the book after reading for the past three hours.
The sun was already starting to set.
Standing up, he went to get a glass of water.
"Really, to think someone like him would die when the story is barely halfway done."
It had been a while since he had read something so fun and exciting.
It felt like he was actually part of the story and living the protagonist's life.
Though if he had a single complaint, it was that the protagonist had a harem.
He wasn't a big fan of harems, but other than that, everything was just perfect.
He couldn't wait to read the rest of the story as he hurriedly filled his glass with water.
But the moment he was about to take a sip, the glass fell from his hand, shattering on the ground with water spilling as well.
"Argh! Shit, what the hell!"
Leo held his head as he suddenly felt extremely lightheaded.
His eyes became blurry, making it difficult to see.
"What is happening, damn it? Am I dying?"
Gripping the counter tightly, he tried to stabilize himself.
"Haa...haa..."
His breathing became short and labored.
'Am I getting a heart attack? At this age!?'
Gripping his chest as he felt his heart thumping loudly, he tried to walk towards the couch where his phone was.
'I need to call an ambulance!'
The moment he tried to take another step forward, the book he left on the couch started to emit a blinding light throughout the entire apartment.
He had to tightly close his eyes as the light was blinding him, forcing him to use his hand to cover his eyes.
"What is happening now! Am I becoming delusional as well!?"
Trying to calm himself down from all the things happening, he tried to walk to the couch again.
Yet,
The moment he stepped forward again, his foot slipped because of the water on the ground, making him fall on the broken shards.
"Argh!"
He cried out in pain as he felt broken glass pieces digging into his back.
He felt the energy leaving his body, making it extremely difficult to stand up again.
Leo couldn't see the blinding light anymore; instead, all he saw was darkness with stars surrounding him everywhere.
'I must have hit my head hard...'
He could breathe easier again, and his heart had calmed down, but now his entire body was in pain.
He groaned as he did his best to push himself back up instead of laying on the ground.
His body was aching so much, yet he endured and finally managed to stand up again.
Feeling the wind caressing his cheeks and the rustling sound of leaves, he calmed down a little.
'I am not dead yet...'
'Wait...'
Finding it strange to hear the sound of wind and leaves, he opened his eyes, which had been closed the entire time.
When he finally opened them, instead of finding himself back in his apartment, he was on an old, broken street.
Looking around, he saw broken buildings, some tilting sideways, others only half-standing.
Debris was scattered everywhere, remnants of the old houses and buildings.
Tree branches and other plants covered many of the buildings, intertwining with the ruins.
It felt no different than being inside an abandoned city that hadn't been lived in for ages.
"Huh?"
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
Crypthh
Crypthh Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Capítulo 2: Azriel Crimson
"...Where am I?" Leo asked himself as he looked around.
Just a few seconds ago, he was inside his apartment, and now he found himself in some abandoned city.
"Is this some kind of prank, perhaps?" he wondered.
Maybe he had become one of those poor victims of pranksters on social media.
"But everything looks and feels so real, though, so it's not that..."
The pain surrounding his body was only intensifying, becoming more and more unbearable with every second.
"Damn it, just what is wrong with me!"
He was getting frustrated with everything, but when he checked himself, he noticed something odd.
"Did I get taller?"
His body ached yet felt weird as well. He couldn't feel any blood on his back but instead noticed something else.
"Muscles? I don't remember working out..."
He was never a fan of going to the gym or doing any sort of sport.
The only real workout he did was after his family died, and he was forced to work almost seven hours a day.
As he thought, he caught his own reflection in an old abandoned and broken car in the middle of the empty street.
When he saw himself reflected in the broken mirror, he froze.
His reflection was that of a young boy with jet-black onyx hair, so dark it seemed to absorb all light that touched it, cascading over his shoulders in unruly waves.
His eyes were a striking shade of crimson, reminiscent of rubies glinting in the sun, captivating and intense.
His complexion was as pale as moonlight on freshly fallen snow, contrasting sharply with his dark hair and vivid eyes.
His features were finely sculpted—a straight nose, high cheekbones.
In short, he possessed an extraordinary handsomeness that bordered on mesmerizing—a quality that could effortlessly draw the gaze of anyone who crossed his path.
And by anyone, it meant anyone.
Leo felt like he was staring at the window for years before finally snapping out of his thoughts as he stumbled on his own feet and fell back.
"W-what the hell! How is that me!?"
He definitely knew that the person reflected wasn't him in the slightest.
He had brown hair and green eyes!
He definitely wasn't that handsome, as much as it pained him to admit it.
"Just what the hell is going on!?"
As he was starting to panic, his heartbeat was thumping loud against his chest again.
He didn't have time to calm down as suddenly a piercing sensation entered his head.
"A-ARGH!"
He cried out, rolling on the ground as it felt like a knife was stabbed into his brain and kept getting twisted.
The pain was unbearable as suddenly memories started flooding his mind.
Memories that weren't his.
A mature and beautiful woman with blonde hair and red eyes hugged a young boy that looked like her gently after the boy had a nightmare.
The young boy sparred on an open grass field with someone that looked like a younger version of the woman, but unlike her, the young girl had black hair like the boy and red eyes like the mother.
A handsome man with black hair and eyes taught him gently how to use the sword; no matter how many mistakes he made, the man would always be patient with him.
All kinds of memories kept flooding inside his mind, merging with his.
His heart felt warm from them.
Feelings that weren't his own started to become his.
People he didn't know started to become known.
Experiences he didn't have started to become his own.
The last of the memories and feelings that flooded his mind were... painful.
The handsome man and the boy, a little older now, visited the border of the European and Asian continents.
But when they arrived, multiple phase 3 void rifts appeared, sending everyone into chaos.
Humans were getting swarmed as the father of the boy was forced to fend off the void creatures with the help of the army stationed there.
The people there started to flee as they were getting killed and eaten alive.
The boy, though, never left as he watched everything unfold before him.
The last of his memories was that of the boy's father annihilating the creatures, covered in their blood with a crazy smile on his face, before everything went black.
After a while, the pain in his head finally started to subside as the memories and feelings became easier to digest.
"...I see," he muttered.
The blinding light that the book he was reading back at the apartment was emitting.
Suddenly finding himself in an abandoned city out of nowhere.
The person he saw in the reflection of the car window.
A bewildered sigh escaped his lips as he realized what exactly had happened.
"I am inside the book Path of Heroes..."
He found it hard to believe his own words.
"And the body that I am inhabiting... I am not Leo Karumi anymore. Instead—"
"I am Azriel Crimson."
*********
Azriel Crimson.
A character never mentioned in the book.
Nothing was known about him, and he had no relevance to the plot in the slightest.
A mere extra.
Or at least, not quite entirely.
The only reason for his existence was perhaps that the author had an excuse for the protagonist to get close to one of the main heroines: Jasmine Crimson, the next head of the Crimson clan and one of the most talented geniuses on Earth.
She was also the president of the student council in the hero academy and one of the main characters in Path of Heroes.
Yes, Azriel's elder sister who, in the book, at first seemed cold to everyone after becoming depressed and closing off her heart to anyone after someone extremely close to her died.
The protagonist, being kind-hearted in nature, tried to comfort her and help her get over the loss of her important someone, and in the end, succeeded in winning her heart after many attempts.
It looked like that important someone was her younger brother, Azriel Crimson, as it was never mentioned who the close person to her was by anyone, not even the Crimson clan.
The Crimson clan was one of the four great clans that ruled the Asian continent.
The Crimson clan's current head was Joaquin Crimson, his wife being Aeliana Crimson.
As Leo, or better said now Azriel, recalled how his elder sister, whom he now had, would get into the harem of the protagonist, his face changed to one of disgust.
He already hated people who had harems, as he believed those were the ones who couldn't stay loyal or love someone enough.
Besides, the protagonist was someone equally loved and hated by the gods, attracting danger wherever he went.
"Like hell I would let him get together with her," he vowed as he got up again, stretching his body.
No brother would want his sister to be in danger constantly
Inheriting the previous owner's feelings and memories, they were now essentially his own.
He had become that person.
"I am sorry for what happened to you ... I know this might sound like just some pathetic excuse to the both of us, but I promise I will protect our family," Azriel said, promising to the current him and the former him.
A tear leaked from his right eye that he hurriedly wiped away.
Everything and everyone he knew from his previous life was gone.
Forever.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES
Crypthh
Crypthh
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
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