Reborn into a Cursed Fate: The Sealed God’s Return

On the ninth layer of the heavens, the sky was trembling violently. Five individuals clad in dazzling armor and wielding divine swords stood, glaring at the twenty-year-old youth before them. A profound hatred and malice burned in their eyes; the taut posture of their bodies made it evident that they were watching for any opportunity to slay him, yet the youth remained completely at ease. His expression was calm, his gaze razor-sharp, and the black sword he held rested in a menacing posture.

The youth slightly raised his black blade, revealing his face—not conventionally handsome, yet possessing a strange, enigmatic charm and a piercing gaze—and inquired in a casual tone:

Are you ready to die?

You overestimate yourself! came the sharp, resentful reply from one of the Eternals.

A mocking smile played on the youth's lips as he confronted them with reality:

Do I? Turn your heads and look around you! I have already annihilated five of you ten Eternals, and now it is your turn!

His words struck the remaining five like a physical blow, their shaken expressions betraying their shock. These five were, in truth, the most powerful beings to have ever existed throughout history—the final representatives of the Eternal race. For thousands of years, they had been worshipped as gods. Ruling as ten siblings, they had never turned their backs on one another, manipulating the world at their fingertips and achieving whatever they desired. Yet, it was their own insatiable ambition that brought about their downfall.

The youth standing before them was one of the mortals who had suffered from their tyranny, returning after thousands of years to exact his vengeance. Five of their siblings had already perished by his hand, and now the remaining five faced the exact same threat.

The five siblings gathered together, tense and prepared:

It will not be that easy! We have prepared for your arrival! You may be stronger than any one of us, but not all of us combined!

In an instant, before the youth could even react, the bodies of the Eternals began to glow. As a divine yellow light erupted from their flesh, leaving the youth with no chance of escape, the five roared in unison:

DIVINE SEALING SPELL!

The youth was momentarily taken aback; he had not anticipated that they would sacrifice their own lives to seal him, yet despite the imminent threat, he merely offered a calm, unbothered smile:

There is one thing you have forgotten... I am an immortal!

An Eternal replied with a sinister, sadistic smirk:

And that is precisely why we are sealing you away into eternal torment!

Their hatred for him was so pure and unadulterated that they willingly forfeited their lives to ensure his subjugation. The youth's eyes widened; he attempted to take a few steps back, but his body was already being imprisoned by the overwhelming yellow light, prompting him to cry out:

ESTER! GET ME OUT OF HERE!

Despite her lack of a physical form, Ester’s voice resonated clearly within his mind:

Your body is already sealed, Zed. I can only salvage your soul.

Save me then! Nothing else matters, so long as I am not sealed for eternity.

I will do it, but you must know that you will occupy a completely different body with entirely foreign memories. Furthermore, you will be weak—extremely weak.

As long as you come with me, I can achieve anything. I would rather embark on the path of strength from scratch than succumb to death.

Then prepare yourself; I am applying the magic formation to your soul!

Zed closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, fury pouring from his form. He had been a single step away from ending everything, yet he was defeated. To escape the most agonizing outcome, he was abandoning his might, his memories, and his wrath. Accepting this was no easy feat; the five individuals before him had destroyed everything he cherished, tyrannized humanity, and slaughtered for their own amusement. Zed had resisted them, rallying humanity to rise in rebellion, but everyone had perished. The Eternals had spared no one, purging the entire world until not a single mortal remained. Aside from the six beings standing on the ninth layer of the heavens, life had ceased completely, and now these six were dissolving as well.

Zed abandoned his vessel to transition into a spiritual state, while the five Eternals surrendered their lives to seal him. Zed's greatest sorrow lay in his inability to take their lives with his own hands; his disappointment was immeasurable.

The moment Ester finalized the magic formation, Zed's body began to convulse. He tilted his head toward the heavens as the color drained completely from his eyes, leaving his pupils stark white. His skin turned as pale as milk, and his jaw unhinged to a terrifying degree, resembling that of a serpent, as a bolt of blue lightning erupted from his throat and soared into the sky at immense speed.

The Eternals recognized the situation immediately, but there was nothing left to be done; once initiated, the spell could not be rescinded. One of them roared in absolute fury:

It is heading to the tenth layer of the heavens! It will cross into another dimension!

Another Eternal spat with deep-seated malice:

If he desires to live another life, I shall ensure it is far from easy. Raising his hand, he gathered the last remnants of his strength, targeting Zed's ascending soul. I am the Eternal of Fate. With the final vestige of my power, I condemn you to face the most bitter of destinies.

Before the blue lightning representing Zed's soul could pierce the tenth celestial layer, the curse of the Fate Eternal struck it, causing a minute deviation in its trajectory. Yet, this tiny shift was bound to alter everything.

Ester had intended to place Zed into the body of a powerful prodigy in the other dimension, making preparations so he would possess an ideal vessel and supreme resources to aid his reclamation of power. However, due to that single millimeter of deviation, he was destined to enter the body of someone viewed as cursed. Though Ester realized the situation instantly, she knew she was powerless to alter it, offering only a deep sigh as she plunged through the tenth celestial layer alongside the blue lightning.

***

Meanwhile, in another dimension, a boy lay stretched out upon the green grass of a high hill. His face was marred with deep bruises, his eyes swollen and bloodshot. His body suffered from fractures and contusions in dozens of places; there was scarcely a bone left unbroken, and a faint blue fluid slowly leaked from his spirit power center, located just above his abdomen and slightly below his stomach.

It was evident that he had been brutally beaten and tortured, his spirit power center crippled before being left to perish in agony. This boy was an orphan, completely devoid of relatives. He survived by begging, holding out his hands for a few coins to sustain his existence, and the perpetrators behind his current state were none other than the fellow beggars who had assaulted him, beaten him severely, urinated on him, and abandoned him to die because his deception of having blue eyes and pretending to be blind earned far more money and disrupted their business. In this world, no one possessed blue eyes, and those who did were cast out and reviled as servants of the devil.

The boy no longer cared about the throbbing pain consuming his flesh. As he gazed up at the clear expanse adorned with hundreds of thousands of tiny, glowing dots and the full moon shining on the right, he felt a sense of peace for the very first time, muttering to himself mockingly:

I lived a miserable life, but I shall at least have a beautiful death.

The boy harbored no malice toward those who beat him; he knew the law of this world perfectly: The strong crush the weak; the strong take everything, while the weak only receive what the strong permit. In this world, power was worshipped, and all individuals were wretched creatures who fled like mice before the strong and acted like tigers before the weak. He had lived by this rule—he had deceived, stolen, and killed as well. He was not proud of it, but he felt no regret.

Having experienced the bitterest facets of life, his fifteen-year existence was drawing to a close beneath a beautiful sky, his focus entirely captured by the stars. He offered a deep sigh, which caused his ribs to ache, eliciting a soft groan.

Suddenly, an explosion detonated in the sky, drawing his gaze to the point of impact. The heavens split open, pushing the small lights aside to reveal a black rift. A bolt of blue lightning shot forth from the fissure, instantly painting the sky in a vivid blue hue. The boy’s eyes widened completely, locking his blue gaze onto that specific point. His body felt a sudden chill as his hair stood on end from the static electricity, prompting him to mutter with bitterness:

Damn it! I cannot believe how unlucky I am! While awaiting a peaceful death, my end will come from being struck by lightning—and beneath a cloudless sky, no less!

The blue lightning advanced toward him at immense speed. In desperation, the boy closed his eyes, waiting for death to claim him. In that exact instant, the bolt struck him, launching his body into the air like a ball. A black shadow emerged from his chest, and the boy vanished forever, leaving behind an empty vessel. The blue lightning began to seep into the corpse, mending the wounds and causing the bruises to fade. As his body regained absolute health, the only point that remained unhealed was his shattered spirit power center.

When the suspended vessel crashed back to the earth, it belonged to an entirely different entity. The boy remained unconscious, though his steady, rising and falling chest indicated that he was now perfectly healthy.

***

Hours later, as the dawn began to illuminate the sky, the eyes of the boy lying upon the hill slowly fluttered open. His face was thoroughly ordinary—not remarkably handsome, but acceptable. Aside from the striking blue of his eyes, he possessed nothing extraordinary, and since his spirit power center was utterly destroyed, he was destined to be known as one of the crippled in this world.

He rose slowly, surveying his surroundings in an attempt to orient himself. He knew neither where he was nor who he belonged to; his past was an absolute blank. He questioned in a bewildered tone:

Where am I?

A voice sounded, resonating through the air:

You are in a place known as the Sky Continent.

The boy turned his head from side to side in alarm, and demanded with sorrow:

Who is there? Who are you?.. And who am I?

The voice replied calmly:

You are Zed, and I am Ester.

Zed questioned, holding his hands up:

Am I Zed?.. But where are you exactly?

I reside within your mind.

My mind? What is a mind?

Ester offered a heavy sigh, deeply saddened that Zed lacked even the most fundamental knowledge, but reassured him:

You will learn everything in time, do not worry; there is nothing strange about it.

Zed found little difficulty in accepting the situation; considering he possessed nothing aside from the capacity to speak and comprehend, the presence of a voice conversing within his thoughts did not seem entirely beyond comprehension.

Ester wasted no time and began infusing Zed’s mind with knowledge. She was the final surviving member of the ancient Eternal race, known as the Eternal of Wisdom, possessing information regarding countless matters across infinite dimensions. All knowledge was consolidated within her essence. This attribute was precisely what had caused her to be ostracized by the others and reduced to a spiritual form; her mastery over information granted her the ability to glimpse the probable future. Because she foresaw the future, she suffered their wrath, for she knew that the future they were creating would lead the Eternal race to annihilation rather than ascension. Of course, she did not possess the power to view the absolute future, but rather the most probable outcomes. Had she known the definitive result, she would never have permitted the Eternals to trap Zed’s body.

Ester began transferring all foundational knowledge concerning the Sky Continent into Zed's mind, deliberately withholding details of his past life, and Zed absorbed the influx of data unconsciously. Ester knew that an abrupt revelation of everything could shatter a mind, so throughout her years with Zed, she had taught him gradually, a method that had proven effective. Thus, she remained resolved not to teach anything before its proper time.

The Sky Continent was one of the six continents in this world. It was known that every living being utilized a force termed "Spirit," which developed within the spirit power center. Without exception—whether rich or poor, noble or common—everyone was born with a spirit power center, meaning the true foundations of the Sky Continent were built entirely upon strength. Spirit power was divided into distinct ranks, beginning at Rank 1 and continuing indefinitely. However, advancing through these ranks was an arduous journey; the boy whose vessel Zed now occupied was merely a Rank 1 Warrior at fifteen years of age.

Similarly, different classes existed within this world: Warrior, Assassin, Mage, Dark Mage, and Healer. Transitioning between these classes generally posed no significant restriction, as Spirit power could be utilized in various manners; a warrior could continue their training as a mage in the future, or a mage could train as an assassin. There were no strict limitations, though individuals typically specialized in the field for which they demonstrated the greatest aptitude. However, Dark Mages and Healers were the exceptions; because individuals belonging to these two classes were exceedingly rare, they were not permitted to transition to other fields and were trained exclusively within their single domain. A Dark Mage was a terrifying figure, feared and respected across the Sky Continent, while Healers were viewed as sacred individuals to be fiercely protected. The distinction between these two classes stemmed entirely from how they manifested their power; Dark Mages were entities of destruction, whereas Healers were bringers of life, representing a total antithesis to one another.

Furthermore, another fundamental reality of this world was currency. Wealth was the greatest factor determining how powerful an individual could become, as money could provide immense support for cultivation, enabling one to achieve monumental strength. Consequently, money spent on the path of power was deemed far more valuable. The currency system was structured as follows: 100 Copper pieces equaled 1 Bronze piece, 100 Bronze pieces equaled 1 Silver piece, and 100 Silver pieces equaled 1 Gold piece. Nevertheless, it was a well-known fact that things existed which far exceeded the value of gold.