Touch of Flame - Chapter 268 So Close

Julian D’Aurelius was never meant to live.In this world, villains exist for one reason—to fall. They scheme, they rise, they steal the spotlight… and then they die. Betrayed. Abandoned. Erased so the hero can shine.Julian knows this.Because he remembers every timeline.Every backstab waiting in the dark.Every “loyal” ally destined to sell him out.Every romance scripted to end in blood.The moment he awakens inside the body of the story’s doomed antagonist, he’s bound to the hidden Tyrant System—a cold, calculating force that demands one thing:If villains always die… then become the kind of villain fate cannot kill.So Julian reshapes himself.Cruel when necessary.Charming when useful.Untouchable when it matters.He plays the monster perfectly—while secretly tearing apart the threads of destiny from the shadows.But here’s the problem.The more he tries to distance himself from the female leads…The more they drift toward him.The innocent campus beauty.The sharp-tongued heiress.The aloof genius meant to stand beside the hero.One by one, the women who were supposed to orbit the protagonist begin circling Julian instead.And there’s something even more dangerous— All of them can hear his inner voice.Every cold calculation.Every sarcastic thought.Every hidden plan.All heroines hears it all.But Julian has no idea.This is an urban-fantasy battlefield of ambition, romance, power games, and fate rewritten. The protagonist is trying to avoid the heroines. The heroines? They’re slowly falling anyway.And the more Julian resists destiny…The more destiny seems obsessed with him.

For ten thousand years, the invincible Emperor Xu Lai, descends to the Earth and takes on the role of a stay-at-home dad.Anyone who dares to bully his daughter would face his wrath!Xu Lai asked, “My dear daughter, when you look up, what do you see?”“Nighttime, the stars.”“That's not just the stars, it's the empire I've built for you. In the future, you'll rule over billions of galaxies, you'll be the Empress of the Immortal Realm!”“Dad, you're bragging again. You can't even give me a little brother or sister,” Xu Yiyi pouted.“...”

Eric Langley, an eighteen-year-old boy whose parents passed away three years ago, had no known relatives and was left to fend for himself. To support himself, he worked in a bakery, using his earnings to cover his daily needs and indulge in his favorite pastime—reading chapters of the novel “Humanity's Strongest Mage,” which had recently gone on hiatus.Eric had a love-hate relationship with the novel. While he was captivated by its world, he despised the Protagonist, Alex Whiteheart. Alex had it all from the start: strength, fame, money, and of course, a harem. He never faced any real challenges, effortlessly overcoming every obstacle, which made the story lack something Eric craved....... Chaos.One evening, while taking a walk with his headphones on, Eric was lost in thought. The music drowned out the world around him, and he failed to notice a car losing control and speeding toward him. The last thing he heard was a screech before everything went dark.When Eric woke up, memories flooded his mind, and he quickly realized something was wrong. He wasn't in his own world anymore; he had somehow ended up in the world of “Humanity's Strongest Mage.” To his shock, he found himself in the body of Arin Vale, an insignificant character never mentioned in the novel—a true extra.Now, armed with the knowledge of future events and driven by a desire for chaos, Arin had one goal: to disrupt the smooth journey of Alex Whiteheart, the Protagonist. He was determined to introduce Chaos into the story, making it far more interesting than it ever was, and in the process, he'll also find out that there's more to his character than just being an Extra.Let the Chaos begin!

This is a time of great powers: The vast Persia, Sparta that is founded by force, Athens with its trade and business, Thebes the rising star, The ambitious Macedonia, The twin heroes of the Western Mediterranean, The rising Rome and so on.

This is an era of brilliant stars: Agesilaus II – the last king of Sparta, Epaminondas – the Rising General of Thebes, Philip II – the founder of Macedonian hegemon, Dionysius – the tyrant of Syracuse, Camillus – the Roman dictator and savior…

This is an era of contention among a hundred schools of thought: Plato – the great philosopher, Antisthenes – founder of cynicism, Pythagoras – school of number, Democritus – the encyclopedia scholar, Hippocrates – the father of western medicine, Aristophanes – the great dramatist…

What will the hero bring to the world when he comes to this age as a humble mercenary through rebirth?

- Description from Novelupdates