Chapter 5 - The Fusion

🧠 Lucas's Perspective

I stood there... or rather, I hung between an incomplete death and a voice that couldn't be heard.

I saw him. My father.Standing by my grave, his eyes heavy with exhaustion, and his voice... broken for the first time:"I'm proud of you, my son."

The image of the frozen man I knew shattered like glass.Time, air, and I—all froze in that moment.

A burning rage exploded within me. A wave of anguish clawed its way from my chest to my throat:

"Why? Why didn't you tell me this before I died?"

My words dissolved into nothingness. Nobody heard them.Then I whispered with sorrow:

"Why now? When I've become nothing but a name carved into cold stone?Where were you when I needed you... to look at me? To smile at me? To say anything—even one word?"

I stepped toward him... the distance was minimal... yet uncrossable.

"When I burned from the inside, when I begged for a look of pride... where were you?"

My father remained silent for a moment before finally saying in a low, broken voice:

"I'm sorry... sorry I wasn't the father you needed."

I took a deep breath and stared at him in a deadly silence. Something in me shattered—or perhaps... was freed.

I lifted my head calmly and spoke once more:

"Goodbye, Father... you were too late."

The moment I spoke, something inside me receded—the anger, the pain, the yearning... began to dissolve.

The emptiness around me remained silent, but only for a heartbeat.A familiar mechanical voice pierced the void, this time with a unsettling intimacy:

"Hello... where are you?"

I shut my eyes and murmured angrily:

"I know what you want, System..."

I took a step in the darkness, as though confronting an unseen presence:

"You want me to give up my world... to forget all I have been, all I lived, all I was... to turn into someone else."

A hollow laugh escaped:

"Fine... let me be blunt... I succeeded."

My voice firm:

"Yes... I abandoned myself... Lucas Aldric... the boy who died in a rusted factory on the city's edge—a place that never cared if he existed."

I stared into the colorless sky:

"I will merge the souls—or whatever madness you cook behind your screen...But I will do it on my terms."

I whisper with resolve:

"I won't be just 'Luca de Verg.' Or another pawn in your game...I'll become something new... something you never saw coming."

I raised my arms to embrace the screen as it reappeared:

csharp

[Soul Fusion in Progress...]

[Initializing...]

In that instant, I was no longer just 'Lucas.'Nor had I fully become 'LuKa' yet.I was both... more than both, born from us together. 

"I AM LUCA"

Then the screen lit up again:

📥[ Logging in...]

⏳ ...

✅ [Login Successful]

[Current Host: Luca de Verg]

I snapped sharply:

"First, what is your goal? What do you want?"

[SYSTEM OBJECTIVE: 🛡 Guarantee Host Survival.

To rewrite fate, you must confront it.]

📘 System Overview:

🔹 A series of destiny missions tied to the Host's life.

🔹 Completing them awards Fate Points.

🔹 Fate Points are used to:

 • Upgrade the body

 • Unlock new skills

 • Influence key decisions

 • Avoid dark endings

🎯 Mission 1:

[📌 Survival – 10 Years]

[🕒 Remaining: 10 Years]

[💡 Host's original survival rate:] <0.3%

📎 Fusion Complete

🔄 Fate System Activated

🧠 Shared Consciousness

⚠️ Expecting temporary personality instability

[STATS]

• STR: 16

• SPD: 12

• END: 18

• INT: 11 

• PER: 5 

• CHA: 8 

• MANA: 0

• MAN A.CTRL: 0 

• PSY STAB: 3

[Bloodline]

De Verg – Purity SS (Dormant)

I stared at the stats and smiled:

"Good... solid numbers for someone not yet Awakened.With this, I could take down a newly Awakened person with ease."

It wasn't empty boasting. The screen didn't lie—I'd exceeded human limits before Awakening.Impossible… except the System made it possible.To "Europa," I wasn't an exception... I was a glitch, to be exploited or eradicated.

[Transferring Host: Luca de Verg...]

I whispered, breathing deeply:

"Finally... I can leave this damned darkness behind."

"Finally..." muttered Luka—or perhaps Lucas—as a faint, genuine smile crept across his lips for the first time in a long while."Finally, I'm leaving this damn darkness."

But before the smile could fully bloom, he felt something—A force, immense and undeniable, pulling him from the depths of the void.

The darkness around him began to crack.To fracture.To shatter like glass under pressure.

And then—Light.

Blinding. Sharp. Painful.

A faint cry escaped his lips as he opened his eyes wide.He was lying on a velvet bed, cushioned by deep, dark silk pillows.

Above him, the ceiling was adorned with golden patterns.The walls were lined with aristocratic paintings and ornate décor.

The room was... luxurious.

He slowly sat up, pressing a hand to his forehead.The new memories were still clawing their way into his skull, carving new paths through old thoughts.

He rose and stepped toward the mirror.

And there—reflected back at him—was the face of a fifteen-year-old boy.

Jet-black hair.Eyes of deep, intense blue.

A gaze filled with defiance, pain…and something else—something he couldn't name.

A soft knock echoed through the room.

"Master Luca, your meeting with the Family Council is in thirty minutes."

The voice was calm, formal... yet held a hidden warmth.

The door creaked open.

[Survive the Next Ten Years]Objective: The host must survive without being killed, kidnapped, or turned into a tool.Reward: One wish granted.Penalty: Death / System Reset.

Luka read the message on the screen silently.Then, with a faint, almost amused smile, he muttered:

"Alright... let's play your little game."

And she entered—Reina.

A girl of sixteen or seventeen stood with quiet grace, as if she'd been raised among royalty.Her silky golden hair flowed down to the middle of her back, catching the morning light and gleaming like threads of pure gold.Her eyes, deep brown, carried a glint of stubborn wit and subtle empathy. She stood with confidence, her posture flawless, and her gaze sharp—yet gentle.

There was no doubt... this girl wasn't a simple maid.She was something far more.

In the game, Reina had been one of the hidden heroines.Her side story? Tied to a pivotal moment in Luca's past.

"Good morning, Master Luca," she said with a graceful bow.

Luca didn't answer immediately.

He stared at her—into her features—his mind racing through overlapping memories of past lives and pixelated cutscenes.

Finally, he smiled. A real smile.

"Good morning… Reina."

She blinked, visibly surprised.

How long had it been since she last saw that smile?

"Master… you're late. Lord Ragnar is already waiting."

She spoke with gentle rebuke but suddenly paused.

Her eyes locked on his.

His eyes…

Before, one had been blue and the other brown.But now… both were an intense, glacial blue.

"How…?"

She stepped closer with hesitation.

"Did you put on contact lenses?" she asked, her curiosity cautious but genuine.

Luca paused, then replied with mild indifference:

"Yes."

He wasn't in the mood to explain the complexities of soul fusion and cosmic systems.

"No worries," he added. "I'll be there in five minutes."

He glanced up at the ornate ceiling, sighed deeply, and asked inwardly:

"System… how long was I gone from this world?"

The response came instantly, in that same mechanical, emotionless tone:

[Host's absence: One hour and three minutes.]

Luca blinked.

"One hour?"

A faint smirk played at the corner of his lips.

"All that darkness… those memories… everything I went through… in just one hour?"

He tilted his head slightly and whispered:

"What a strange world…"

Suddenly, a quiet voice called from beyond the door:

"Master Luca… if you don't come out now, I'll come in myself."

Luca chuckled under his breath.

"All right, all right… I'm coming."

He stepped out, his boots clicking softly against polished marble floors as he walked through the grand halls of the de Verg estate.

Golden chandeliers shimmered above, and the walls were lined with antique weapons and paintings of ancestors with sharp eyes and sharper legacies.

But Luca paid no mind.

His thoughts raced.

How will I grow stronger?What must I do next?And more importantly…How do I avoid the Academy at all costs?

That place…The Academy, where the elite and the awakened are trained.Where the so-called "Hero's Party" would soon form.

If I enter the Academy... I won't leave it alive.

It wasn't fear.It was certainty.Fate, written by someone else's hand… and he had no intention of following that script.

But therein lay the problem.

All noble heirs were required by law to attend the Academy.

No exceptions.No escape.

And as the heir of House de Verg, his name was already etched into the incoming class.

Sure, he could renounce the title.Give up his birthright.Live in the shadows, unnoticed.

But the cost?

He would lose the protection of the strongest man he knew.

As these thoughts consumed him, he suddenly found himself standing on the palace balcony—one that overlooked vast gardens stretching to the horizon.

And there...A man stood.

Broad-shouldered. Still as stone.He looked like a general plucked straight from a battlefield.

His posture was perfect, back unbowed. Not even time dared weigh him down.

His hair was dark, save for the silver streaks at his temples.A short beard framed his sharp jawline.His eyes—cold, deep, black—held the weight of countless wars.

They weren't eyes you could look into for long.

They weren't eyes many dared to meet.

And yet... they were familiar.

The man didn't turn, but his voice carried across the balcony:

"So. You've come."

Luca froze.

That voice… That presence…

He whispered under his breath:

"Ragnar de Verg…"

The head of the family.His grandfather.A living legend.

Ragnar de Verg…The name alone could silence a room.But for Luca, it was more than just a name.

It was blood.

It was history.

It was the weight of a legacy he didn't ask for.

Ragnar was one of the few people in the world whom no one dared challenge directly.A man ranked SSS-, one of the top ten powerholders on the continent.And the youngest to ever reach that rank — at just 53 years old.They called him , The Iron Wolf, The Sword Without Mercy.

But to Luca...

He was simply "Grandfather."

Luca's voice trembled faintly as he repeated the name again—this time in his heart.

"Ragnar de Verg…"

In the eyes of the world, he was a cold and ruthless commander.

But Luca knew better.

He was the only one who ever truly cared.

When Luca—back in the timeline of the game—had stormed and destroyed the main facility of Europa, the secretive, brutal organization… no one had dared lay a finger on him afterward.

Not even Europa's own leader.

And when Luca mysteriously disappeared soon after…

It was Ragnar who had ordered the entire Academy shut down for fifteen days.

No one dared question it.

Because everyone knew:The one who vanished…Was his grandson.

Ragnar didn't speak at first.He just stared out at the horizon, arms behind his back.

His presence was heavy—like a mountain that had seen a thousand winters.

Luca stood still, not out of fear…But respect.

He knew what the man beside him had sacrificed.

Both of Ragnar's sons were gone.

The first—Luca's uncle—assassinated under mysterious circumstances still unsolved to this day.The second—Luca's father—slain on the battlefield during the Northern War, body never recovered.

And so…

Luca was all that remained.The last carrier of the de Verg bloodline.

"The last wolf of a fading pack…" he muttered in his mind.

Ragnar finally spoke, voice deep, calm, yet carrying a buried storm:

"You've changed."

Luca blinked.

No greeting. No questions. Just… that.

And somehow, it was enough.

"A lot has changed," Luca answered.

His voice was steadier than he expected.

Ragnar turned his head, just slightly.His sharp eyes scanned Luca from head to toe.And then—briefly—paused on his eyes. The two matching blues.

He said nothing. But a flicker of thought passed behind those dark irises.

Recognition? Suspicion? Approval?

Luca couldn't tell.

Then, Ragnar spoke again—this time, with unmistakable weight:

"Whatever you've become… remember this: You carry my name. Don't tarnish it."

His words weren't a threat.

They were a bond.

A reminder.

And perhaps… the only form of love Ragnar knew how to give.

Luca stood frozen for a moment, feeling the wind brush through his dark hair.His heart beat steadily—but inside, emotions tangled like wild vines.

So much had changed.And yet…

"I'm still… me," he whispered."But I'm no longer just Luka… and I'm not only Lucas either."

He clenched his fist tightly.

"I am what neither of you could become alone."

He took a breath and stepped forward.