Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~ - Chapter 149.1: The Captured People

[WSA 2025 Entry]Aiden Chase has always lived in the shadow of his family’s legacy. As the eldest son of the renowned Chase family, celebrated for their relentless pursuit and capture of Magi- beings cursed with extraordinary powers- he was raised to uphold their name. But everything changes when Aiden awakens to a power of his own, a fire within that marks him as the very thing his family hunts. When his father hunts him down, Aiden is rescued and taken to Genvah Academy, an illustrious academy for Magi hidden in the outskirts of Soleil. At first, Aiden hopes the academy will offer him solace and a chance to reclaim a semblance of peace. But Genvah Academy nor Soleil is no haven.Beneath the city's golden spires lies darkness- secrets, betrayal, and a looming war that threatens to consume everything. As Aiden unravels the truth about his powers and his family’s legacy, he must navigate a world far more dangerous than he ever imagined.Peace is fleeting, and survival comes at a cost.

The Pantheon of Gods dethroned the Titan Race, ushering a new age called the Era of Gods.In this Era, the Gods decided to create a new race in their own image and have this race serve them. This race was called the Mortal Race. However, in a twist of fate, these beings known as Mortals not only inherited the Gods' image, but also their ambition.Thus, the Mortals who was once deemed as an inferior race by the Gods created a method of cultivating the world's natural energy to become Immortals and stand next to the Gods.The Jade Emperor, the strongest of the Immortals, besiege the Pantheon of Gods and carved out a place at the summit for Mortals, allowing them to become one of the Divine Races, along with the God Race, the Celestial Race, and the Titan Race.However, in retaliation, the Gods divided the world into the Heavenly Realm, and the countless Mortal Realms before casting all the Mortals down to the Mortal Realms. They then blocked their ascension to the Heavenly Realm and their path of cultivating to Immortality, by cursing their entire race to face a series of Heavenly Tribulations.That event was a very, very long time ago. So long ago that the story was all but lost in the history of the Mortal Realms.***'…I'm not as strong as you think Sol. I'm too weak to save the village, that's why I need you to leave. Goodbye son…'After his father was murdered and his peaceful village massacred, Sol woke up to find a mysterious old man standing over him claiming to be his new Master.“You want revenge, don’t you? I’ll train you so you have the strength to take it, but you have to become my one and only disciple first!”***This coming-of-age story follows Solovin Iziah Solaris, a village boy with a mysterious past who is stuck between two Realms. Watch as he grows from a clever, but naive youth, into someone who has to shoulder the world.

Cairn is a prince who is already tired of ruling. Faced with an imminent coronation and an overbearing father, he wants nothing more than to drown his responsibilities in cheap liquor and poor decisions. With the help of his sister, he hatches a plan to escape the clutches of the throne once and for all. It all goes terribly wrong, and Cairn finds his priorities shifting in the face of unimaginable tragedy. The change of heart comes too late, however, and Cairn dies. He reawakens to find himself transported ten years in the past. He immediately begins to plan for the future, only to discover his killer has somehow followed him. To succeed, Cairn must unite the kingdom and discover the motivation of his killer, using as many tries as it takes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I exhausted pretty much every time loop story ever written and decided to write my own. You'll see a few similarities here between this story and some existing stories, at least initially. There's a lot of inspiration drawn from both MoL and Re:Zero, though in terms of pathos and darkness, this story leans more towards the latter. Be warned, it is something of a slow burn. The main character will grow and become powerful, but a theme of this story is that power comes slowly and often at great cost.