He was back in his soul canvas.
But it wasn’t the same.
The endless void and the massive chessboard were still there, but now something new floated in the sky.
An amethyst-colored star hung above, glowing softly. It wasn’t just light— it burned like real fire, like living gas, with tiny sparks drifting inside, swimming in slow, graceful patterns. It was beautiful. Almost hypnotic.
Levi would have admired it... if not for the wound above it.
High in the empty sky, a massive scar split his soul canvas. The torn edges glowed faintly gold, jagged and raw, as if his soul had been ripped apart and seared shut at the same time.
Levi’s breath caught. His soul canvas was inside his very soul, which meant only one thing.
The Golden Crow had torn through o him.
He stood there for minutes— five, maybe more— trying to calculate the damage.
The truth was simple. And it made his stomach twist.
He was leaking. His soul essence was flowing out through that scar, little by little.
And that quiet strength he had felt earlier? That sudden burst of power? It wasn’t a blessing.
It was his own soul, bleeding out. Just like how a person would bleed when injured, his soul essence was dripping away with every passing second.
Yes, it gave him strength for now. But it wasn’t real strength. It was temporary, unstable. Like a fire from an explosion— bright, fierce, but short-lived.
"System...". Levi’s voice cracked. "How much time do I have left?". He dreaded the answer, but he had to know. He had to plan.
The system stayed quiet for a moment. Whether out of caution, or out of pity, Levi couldn’t tell.
[If you don’t use that power on purpose, I’d say three years... But if you draw on it directly—]
The system paused, letting the silence drag on before finishing.
[You could burn your soul out and die at any moment. It depends on how much you use it.]
Levi froze. The words sank into him like ice.
All of this... was his fault.
He should have been more careful. He knew, even from the novel, that every Favored One had protection from the god or deity that chose them. That kind of shield wasn’t something a mortal could meddle with lightly.
But at the end, he had gotten arrogant. He thought he could outplay the story, twist it to his favor. Just because he had some scraps of information, he walked around like he was the man, the one holding all the cards.
Now look at him. His very soul was cracked open, bleeding out. He felt like a clown.
His hands curled into fists, trembling. Above him, the scar pulsed faintly, glowing gold at its jagged edges, as if mocking him. Every second, he could feel it— his essence slipping away like water through a cracked bowl.
gods knew how badly he wanted to scream. The lump in his throat swelled, his chest tight with the weight of it. But he forced it down. He couldn’t give in— not now.
Every second he wasted, was a piece of him gone.
"H-how did that happen". Levi pointed at the star directly above him, his voice a bit stuffy. As if he was suppressing something.
[It was the clash between the Golden Crow and your knight piece. The impact released origin energy. Then it naturally compacted and formed the star.]
Levi considered it for a moment then said in an attempt at humor.
"At least I got something out if it".
Then he left the soul canvas, appearing back in the realm, his gaze locked on his previous body. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⁂𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
Only— it wasn’t a body anymore.
What remained on the ground was a skeleton, half-buried in dust, ribs cracked inward, its jaw slack as if frozen in one last silent scream. The faint tatters of his old clothes clung to the bones like faded cobwebs, brittle and paper-thin.
Levi crouched beside it, his throat tightening. He knew enough from him previous life knowledge, to judge the passage of time.
The flesh was gone, the ligaments dried and rotted away. Only clean bone left, weathered and flaking at the edges.
"...Half a year at least.". His voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper. "Maybe closer to nine months".
A lot of things had gone by now, the novel had officially kicked on. By this point, the main characters had must certainly enrolled, and settled into their school schedules, walking the very path the story laid out for them.
Levi exhaled through his nose, slow and bitter. But that didn’t matter.
He never had the faintest idea of going to the Academy anyway.
That place— with its neat uniforms, rigid rankings, and hollow promises of "opportunity"— was nothing more than a gilded cage. A factory for pawns. He had no interest in dancing on the stage the gods and authors had prepared, smiling like he belonged there.
Because he knew what was arriving— the apocalypse. He knew that at a certain point this world would become a mess.
Levi then sat on the floor, back against the wall as he purged his thoughts.
Now that he had formed a star in his soul canvas, it was time to form a link and a node.
Just because he now had a star, doesn’t mean he now have access to power immediately, he still needed to form a link.
In this world, the path of Ascension was etched into the flesh of every human, hidden but waiting to be awakened.
Invisible points scattered through the body, where flesh and spirit overlapped. Like chakra points in his old world, they were the keys to channeling star power.
But possessing a star wasn’t enough.
A star was only potential— an origin flame burning in the soul canvas. To wield its strength in the material world, one needed a channel to bridge spirit and body, and then link that channel into a node.
The first node always began at the navel. The body’s center. Once the star’s energy flowed through that node, a person truly stepped onto the path.
And here was the law that governed progress—
One star for one node.
To advance to Grade One, a person needed to link their single star to a single node. To rise to Grade Two, seven stars and seven nodes were required— each star forged in the soul canvas, each node awakened in the flesh.
It was like building a constellation, both inside and out. The more stars one held, the more nodes they could awaken, and the more energy could circulate through their body.
[Help me with a comment, simple here would suffice]