Phanteonix
It was a gacha open-world game that had been released five years ago.
At the time of its release, it wasn't very well-known, but when a famous English-speaking YouTuber talked about this game and the fact that it was a story-rich game with characters that had innovative mechanics, many people started playing it.
To the point where the game became the most downloaded in the world.
"And with this, all that's left is to wait for the next update." A sigh of disappointment escaped his mouth as he leaned back in his seat.
He had finished the main quest of the game's current version, the feeling of satisfaction and loss mixing together.
This chapter of the main story was exciting and yet... sad.
"Anyway, now is not the time for lamentations." He clapped and focused back on the game.
"Since I finished the main story, I need to farm the materials for the character in the next version."
His eyes shone with determination and he quickly used a teleport waypoint to start gathering the ascension materials for that character in advance.
"Huh?"
The boy stopped while gathering any materials he found along the way, but suddenly his character froze as an old page appeared on the screen.
"In the dawn of a new tomorrow, the wilted sun will appear, the moon will quietly hide, time and wisdom will weep on."
His face scrunched up at the strange writing on that page.
After storing the item, a side quest was activated; the rewards were too good to ignore, so without wasting any time he quickly looked for a nearby teleport point close to the quest's location.
It took several hours, hours during which he had read a large amount of confusing text.
But the rewards, as he progressed, kept getting better and better, so much so that he wanted to see this quest through to the end.
After all, the character he had been waiting for so long was in the gachapon and he was now short on resources.
"Finally!" The side quest finally reached its end.
Although there were no battles, collecting the fourteen "memory fragments" was a very complicated task due to their locations.
An animation began to play on the screen and the fragments started to unite after being brought together.
His expectations were high, and he had started recording to post it later.
A blinding light forced him to close his eyes.
"Tsk." As he rubbed his eyes, he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
When he could finally see again, his gaze fell upon what the fragments had created.
"A portrait?"
Yes.
It was a portrait, what seemed to be a family portrait where a young man alongside who appeared to be his wife were hugging a girl with white hair and blue eyes.
Although disappointed, his eyes began to notice several similarities with some characters from the game, and the image of the woman looked very much like...
"The Saint from the Church of Life?"
The animation ended and he had returned to his original position, but now something was different.
"You have reached level ninety!"
"You are one of the Chosen Ones!"
He froze in his seat.
Level ninety... the level that no character in the game had achieved across all servers and in the story itself.
Even the developers had mentioned they didn't know the reason why no one had reached it in all this time.
"Strange." A feeling of incongruity began to invade him as he clicked "yes."
Name: Ren
Age:18 years old.
Level:8.
But the only thing that appeared after that was personal data; he didn't know when, but everything around him had begun to change unnoticed and his computer had already vanished into nothingness.
"What a surprise to first meet the person who was destined to discover her secret!"
New windows began to appear around him.
"W-what the hell?"
He began to panic; he couldn't read all those pop-up windows.
"Mmmm."
A murmur, like from someone who had just woken up, reached his ears and the pop-up windows vanished.
"It's you..."
Ren froze while trying to find the owner of that voice.
"Anyway... you are the first, so... do what you did again, so we can meet..."
The voice spoke lazily, but Ren could still recognize the seriousness behind it.
"Until then... survive."
Crack!
The sound of shattering glass was so loud it forced Ren to cover his ears and close his eyes instinctively.
The seconds passed, but the expected rain of glass falling on him never came.
Still with some doubt, he began to open his eyes and fell silent, observing his surroundings.
What was once his special gaming room had been replaced by a room with several pieces of furniture with luxurious finishes.
"Where... am I?" He wondered in total confusion.
He seemed like someone who had just woken up from a nap, so he pushed the sheets aside and stood up.
His body felt light, the pajamas he was wearing were very comfortable, and the feeling of his bare feet touching the carpet was something he had never felt before.
Although the sensations were strong, the boy walked quickly towards the large mirror in the room.
He didn't know why, but he felt the need to do this quickly.
When he stood in front of the mirror, he looked at his face.
Nothing had changed, his white hair was still there, his dark blue eyes were also there, his face was just as young as he remembered from the last time he looked in the mirror.
But there was something different about him... and that was a pendant he was wearing.
His hands moved clumsily until they took hold of the pendant and he quickly looked at what decorated it.
There was a photo there: a white-haired boy and a white-haired girl, both dressed in elegant clothes and smiling.
A sigh of relief left his mouth.
"Nothing has changed... it's just the memento of my twin sister." He smiled, but that smile gradually began to fade.
"Twin sister?..."
His head began to hurt after those words; images, memories, and feelings he hadn't experienced began to invade him.
"I am... Ren Silvyris, the heir of House Silvyris?" His dark blue eyes now looked at his hands in disbelief.
If he was Ren Silvyris... then he was now in the kingdom of Eldoria.
One of the seven great kingdoms of Phanteonix.
And it was also one of the starting options given at the beginning of the game.
When starting to play Phanteonix, there was a crucial choice that decided your playthrough, and that was:
"In which kingdom do you wish to begin?"
This was also one of the reasons why Phanteonix attracted a lot of attention, as depending on the kingdom you chose, you would have a different main story, but one that followed the same timeline as the other kingdoms.
That is, there were six main stories for the same game, and with that, six protagonists independent of gender choice.
"But why am I in Eldoria? At the very least, I should be a character from the kingdom of Midgar." Ren murmured in confusion, remembering that he had chosen to start in the kingdom closest to Eldoria.
The kingdom of Midgar.
A kingdom more based on Norse mythology and focused more on sword fighting with the use of magic.
Different from Eldoria, which was a kingdom more focused on magic.
"Tsk." He clicked his tongue while holding his head; nothing made sense.
But... from the very beginning, since when was being sent into a game something that made sense? He used to think that only happened in novels, but now he was here, in the flesh and blood of a character he once believed was fictional and who bore a great resemblance to him.
"Wait." Ren looked up in panic as he remembered what had happened in the last main quest he completed.
No, more specifically, the information he had read about Eldoria's main quest.
"Dead." He murmured. The image of that character named Ren Silvyris appeared in his mind.
He had died in the last released main quest; his death was at the hands of the protagonist of the kingdom of Eldoria.
He began to panic. The fact that he had appeared in a world he once considered fictional didn't matter.
He was now completely sure that this was real, and this was his reality now.
He was Ren Silvyris.
A villain who would be killed in...
"What is the date now?"
He quickly stood up and began rummaging through his things. Seconds later, he pulled out an artifact from his belongings and channeled his magical power into it.
The action was instinctive for him, so much so that he didn't even notice it until he remembered what needed to be done to activate this artifact.
"Phew." A sigh of relief left his lips upon seeing the date.
"It's only June 7th, there's still a month before I head to my first year at the academy, so there's still over a year and a half before the events of the main story begin." The white-haired boy sighed again as he let himself fall onto the comfortable bed in the room.
He raised his hand, which was holding the artifact, and looked at it carefully.
His thoughts had become calmer and he began to notice many things.
"I've changed..." He didn't know where that thought came from. Was he the Ren who played Phanteonix, or Ren, the son of Duke Silvyris?
No... he was simply a thought of Ren.
An abnormal tranquility regarding his situation was visible in his eyes, it was as if this situation was of little interest to him.
Without realizing it, the white-haired boy had begun to play with that necklace while remaining lost in thought.
His memories as a player had merged with his memories as a mage.
So he quickly realized something.
"How did he die?"
Ren Silvyris wasn't just the heir of a family in decline.
Ren was a mage and swordsman with great talent; even the game developers had revealed that his talent was beyond almost anyone's, and there were only seven people similar to him if the protagonists were excluded.
"Hey... shouldn't I have a system or something to guide me?"
Ren wondered, his thoughts rapidly jumping between topics.
But as he kept thinking, time continued to pass.
Nothing happened. Nothing appeared, no pop-up window like before, no old man emerging from one of his relics.
"Well, it seems I'm screwed..."
As if fate was mocking him, someone knocked on his bedroom door.
"Young Master, it is time to continue our journey."
It was the voice of his attendant, and the only person who had stayed with him after the disaster that had struck the Duke Silvyris mansion.
Frowning, he quickly focused on recalling his current situation.
They were currently heading towards the capital of Eldoria, Eldoria City.
For a kingdom founded by scholars, the name of the capital was... rather unoriginal, frankly.
The reason for going to the capital was simple.
He would soon turn eighteen, and with that, he could assume his role as heir of House Silvyris.
"Give me a minute."
He quickly responded and jumped out of bed.
As he put on his clothes, the thought that just his trousers were more expensive than a family home made his hands tremble slightly.
When he was finally ready, he quickly went to look at himself in the mirror.
The white, blue colors and golden ornaments made his already attractive appearance only increase.
Now he understood, in a way, why the game's small female fandom had the highest percentage of purchases when his gachapon was available.
He had just thrown in his savings and was lucky enough to get the best DPS in the game.
The white-haired boy let out a heavy sigh as he prepared to leave the room.
He didn't know the reason why he was here; he didn't have a system to guide him; the reasons why the original Ren died were still unknown to him.
But there was one thing he did know.
This was his reality now; he was no longer that Ren who could get up and grab something to eat and then spend a long time in front of the monitor.
He was now Ren Silvyris, a noble from a house in decline, a "villain."
"Here we go." His restless eyes soon became as deep as the ocean; calmly, he opened the door.
"I hope you rested well, Young Master."
A grown man, already with completely white hair, bowed to him.
His butler suit was perfect, without a single wrinkle, and his posture was impeccable.
"Although it's hard for me to accept it..."
Ren looked with cold eyes at the old man accompanying him.
"This is my reality now."
The white-haired boy gave a small smile.
"I rested well." He said with a cold voice. The butler seemed accustomed to it and simply straightened up again.
"Does the Young Master wish to depart now, or will he have his breakfast first?"
"I'm not hungry today."
Ren began walking towards the reception. Behind him, the butler looked at him for a few seconds before following.
Elric Noir, the butler who previously served his father.
In the game, more specifically in Ren's character dialogues, there was only one mention of this character who was now walking behind him.
"Dogs that bite their masters are worse than trash, don't you think, Butler Elric?"
For some reason, that dialogue began to resonate louder and louder in his mind as he kept walking.
"How long until we reach the capital?"
Ren asked as they exited the building they had stayed in.
"Six hours." Elric responded calmly and Ren nodded.
That was more time than he thought, but in this world, long journeys were the norm.
The immensity of each kingdom was colossal, to the point that the distance from Eldoria's capital city was almost a year's travel by normal carriage to the border with the kingdom of Midgar.
Clearly, this only applied to normal carriages.
Ren looked at the carriage that stopped before them.
It was a carriage without any decoration, completely black, revealing nothing about the identity of the person inside.
Elric walked calmly and opened the carriage door; he invited Ren to enter, and he simply accepted the invitation with his usual coldness.
When he was finally seated in the carriage's comfortable seat, Ren let out a nervous sigh and was finally able to relax.
The carriage had begun to move.
"There are many protective seals." The white-haired boy's hands caressed the interior of the carriage.
Instinctively, his senses expanded, and in his perception, the engravings of protective seals appeared.
There were also silencing seals and climate-control seals.
Finally, he leaned back in the carriage seat and began to resume his previous thoughts.
He had already accepted his new identity; he also accepted that he had to be very alert during the next year when he would attend the kingdom's most prestigious academy.
And now he had to go further.
Not just think about the dangers within the kingdom of Eldoria.
Although the plot of Phanteonix hadn't advanced that far, the character dialogues and books one could read in side quests revealed a lot of information about this world.
Both the power system and the existing beings.
The power system of Phanteonix was, in fact, very simple.
There were three systems, but they were all unified in terms of ranks.
The most well-known was clearly the magic system; its ranks were based on the level of magic one wielded.
Novice mages, first-level ones, wielded first-circle magic; then there was second-circle magic, then third-circle, and so on up to the eighth circle.
Although the ninth circle also existed.
But that grade was impossible for mages until now; even the most powerful mage in Phanteonix was only an eighth-circle mage.
Meanwhile, with warriors, it was somewhat similar.
Warriors normally used energy in a different way than magic, and someone came up with the idea to call it fighting spirit.
Anyway, he didn't want to dwell on the names, so he'd better keep thinking.
Warriors, like mages, were divided into nine ranks:
First-level warrior,second-level warrior, and so on. They also shared the similarity with the magic system of only reaching the eighth level, as the ninth was believed to be a legend.
And then there was the system of the religions.
This one was a bit complicated, and to keep the explanation short, they established the same ranks as in the magic and warrior systems: from first level to ninth.
The only difference was that the believers depended heavily on their prayers and their faith in their gods; without these, they were nothing more than normal people.
"Mmm."
Ren stroked his chin while humming.
"If I'm not mistaken, practicing one of these doesn't mean you can't use the other two.."
He murmured.
The greatest proof was himself: a second-level mage and an advanced first-level warrior.
The white-haired boy looked out the window.
The nature of this world was so beautiful, with views that seemed like works of art.
"This world is both beautiful and dangerous." He sighed again.
He didn't know how many times he had done so that day since he woke up.
The dangers of this world didn't just reside in humans with dark hearts, but also in the beasts that inhabited it.
There were also the different races and the fact of the existence of the gods.
Now that I think about it… Ren felt a slight chill down his spine.
As if by coincidence, information he had read before on the Phanteonix community about Ren appeared in his mind.
"Didn't Ren suffer an assassination attempt while heading to the capital?"
As if the world itself was answering his question, magic began to swirl around the carriage.
The crackling noise hurt his ears.
Boom!
The trees around the road were shattered as powerful lightning-element magic struck the carriage.
The vehicle's defenses acted quickly and a barrier generated around it, protecting it from that devastating impact which had scared the horses.
"I've only been here for a day…" Ren complained while looking out the carriage window.
The raised dust still obstructed his vision, but thanks to his senses as a second-circle mage, he could perceive what was happening.
"Seven, eight, nine…" his face began to darken as he kept counting.
"Is this how I'll start this new life?" he asked himself while his hands trembled slightly.
"Do not worry, Young Master." Elric's voice came from outside.
Ren's face lit up.
Yes, Elric was still with him. He was the butler serving his father; clearly, he wouldn't be an ordinary person.
As if Elric's help wasn't enough, a pop-up window appeared before him.
Beginning evaluation.
Ren felt tears were about to well up in his eyes from the emotion of having two great aids in this dangerous situation.
Probability of the host dying in the current situation: 90%. Please find a way to survive.
Crack!
The sound similar to shattering glass was heard around him, but the frozen Ren paid no attention as he silently observed that system window.
"Ninety percent?" His blue eyes began to lose their light and he stood up.
The footsteps outside the carriage were getting louder and louder.
The horses had long since stopped making noise.
The sound of blades clashing against each other also reached his ears.
It was surely Elric confronting the attackers.
"Why?" Ren questioned himself, his gaze lost in the void.
His thoughts raced: thousands of questions, no answers.
Chants began to be heard outside the carriage.
There were no more barriers protecting him; the attackers were prepared, it seemed.
"You must flee, Young Master!" Elric's shout snapped Ren out of his thoughts.
Yes… he had to flee.
His eyes once again took on the coldness that characterized the Silvyris.
And the only way to do it now…
From among his belongings, the white-haired boy drew a sword.
Ren Silvyris, the genius born into the ducal House Silvyris.
"There is a ten percent chance…"
Ren murmured as he stomped his foot. Magic circles began to etch themselves onto the ground; the memories and experiences of his counterpart had merged with his own, but until now, his part as a video game player seemed to hold more influence.
"So… we'll have to bet on this."
He would have to face his attackers with his current power. That was the only way to try and survive.
End of Prologue.
This is the prologue of my story 'Phanteonix: The Heir to a Great Destiny', translated from Spanish.
So I apologize for any spelling mistakes or errors in this chapter, as English is a language I am currently learning.
If you liked how this story has begun, don't forget to follow it or leave a comment. That would help me know that someone enjoyed it :v.
I don't have much else to say, so until next time.