Chapter 2: Gravewalker

—–

After awakening his Fantasy Heart, Louis stepped into the Realm of the Spiral of Madness, joining the ranks of those who had tapped into its mysterious power. Through the Spiral, he unleashed his Incarnation: the Gravewalker, an ominous figure, frail and fading, composed entirely of white ash. Half dragon, half human, it bore glowing red eyes.

In Sinner Academy: Love at the End of the World, every playable character awakened their Incarnation upon reaching Tier 9 of the Spiral of Madness, a pivotal story-bound event tied to the formation of their Fantasy Heart.

Louis, however, had never experienced such a transformation. He was a crippled outcast, a bastard with no talent, unable even to awaken his Fantasy Heart. He relied on authority and influence to oppress others, bitter over his own inadequacies.

But now, everything had changed. The past had shifted. After merging with William, Louis discovered he was just a year away from the start of the game’s story, a backstory never shown in-game. It included Louis being stabbed with a poisoned knife and left to die inside the Dimensional Labyrinth.

Yet the game never revealed how he survived. Louis couldn’t guess how he had walked out of that place, especially since he had died there the first time William’s soul merged with him.

But had William’s soul truly merged with his? And why? If Louis was alive, why would another soul combine with his own?

Was the real Louis dead, and what remained now merely William’s soul fused with Louis’s memories?

If so, why did Louis’s personality still persist?

William. Louis.

Two egos now intertwined. Even now, he wrestled with conflicting thoughts about his identity. But survival came first.

“I think I know how Louis ’survived.’ He didn’t truly live…” Louis thought. “That bastard… the reason he’s a Necromancer is obvious. Why he was stabbed with poison, to die slowly, with minimal damage to his body…”

The realization struck like lightning.

“Louis was undead. That explains his self-destructive, obsessive tendencies. He was a puppet for the Vultarn High Dominion throughout the third arc of the game, where he served as the main villain.”

This revelation surfaced as Louis considered stealing others’ Spirals and efforts. He seemed selfish, but he was also a prideful prince, a noble.

His actions didn’t align with his personality or his quest to cure his mother.

“Then this bastard… he acts weak and pathetic, but he must be a high-ranking member of the Vultarn High Dominion.”

The Vultarn High Dominion was a vast territory in the Northern Lands, where North America once stood. After the Dimensional Convergence fifty years ago, Earth merged with four parallel worlds. Their atmospheres filled Earth with Fantasium, distorting space and time.

Invaders settled in these lands, forming alliances with survivors. Continents sank and fused, plunging the world into chaos.

Amid this turmoil, the Vultarn High Dominion rose like an empire, battling the threat of the Hintergrid. They sealed Dimensional Rifts leading to deeper layers of the Dimensional Labyrinth and slowed Fantasium’s corrosion of the world.

Near North America, Louis’s mother founded the Frostbane Kingdom, becoming Queen. His father, an Esper Human Scientist, was crowned King. Using her Divine Realm, she created a sanctuary for humanity amidst the chaos.

Since then, the Frostbane Kingdom and the Vultarn High Dominion had been bitter rivals, clashing over territory and resources. Assassins targeted the young prince for years.

Some even speculated that the deadly curse his mother suffered during her battle with a Grade 5 Entity had been orchestrated by the Vultarn High Dominion.

“I must survive. I have to crawl out of this godforsaken place and avenge my mother, my kingdom.”

Louis couldn’t afford hesitation or fear. He refused to rely on regression recklessly, especially when it was tied to a being that wanted his family dead.

He would fight with everything he had, refusing to give up or take his own life over a mistake.

He would owe every failure and live each life to its bitter end.

“How can you wield the power of an Incarnation so easily? What… what are you?! It took me years to master mine!”

“…”

Louis glared at the desperate, armored soldier. Behind him loomed a shadowy silhouette, a floating, ghostly skeleton veiled in darkness.

“As I thought. You’re a Sinner too, aren’t you? An Awakened.”

Louis’s eyes gleamed. That ghostly skeleton was the First Incarnation of the Desecrated Soul Spiral of Madness: the Necromancer.

Necromancers infused corpses with corrupted Fantasium—a black liquid called Miasma—cursing them into flesh puppets under their control.

But early-stage wielders of the Desecrated Soul Spiral weren’t physically strong.

If Louis could reach him, the fight would be over.

He just had to get past a dozen zombies that had appeared out of nowhere.

“Does he have some kind of storage item for all these corpses?”

As Louis pondered, he stepped forward. The necromancer flinched; his gun pointed at Louis and ordered the zombies to finish Louis off.

“Tsk! This wasn’t supposed to happen! Just… just die already, you useless prince!”

He fired his last three bullets. Louis dodged them with enhanced senses, hiding behind trees and tracking the zombies.

“Graaarrr!”

Two zombies rushed from the left and right. Louis prepared to engage. He had only a flimsy poisoned dagger and a gun with two bullets.

He saved the gun for the necromancer, conjured Ashen Frost into his dagger, and manifested a long spear of gray ice and ash.

His mother had trained him in spear combat since childhood. Unable to transform into a dragon, she taught him martial arts using her weapon of choice, the Radiant Dragon Spear, forged by her father, the Dragon King, as a gift for her fifth birthday.

It was the Frostbane Kingdom’s treasure, coveted by the Vultarn High Dominion. Louis now planned to wield it until his mother recovered.

“Now that I’m awakened, I’m no longer a weakling you can look down on!”

Louis slashed the throat of the zombie on his left, then kicked it away.

The zombie on his right attacked, but the Gravewalker swung its massive claws, tearing the corpse apart.

SLASH!

“Thank you.”

Incarnations could fight independently, but they weren’t reliable. Their attack patterns were random, and they might defend their master, or do nothing.

At higher Spiral stages, Incarnations became sentient and obeyed orders more effectively, becoming essential for late-game content.

“Graah!”

The kicked zombie crawled back, trying to bite Louis’s leg. He stabbed its head with his spear, killing it.

“Where are you, coward?!”

Louis chased the necromancer, who fled behind trees. More zombies emerged from every direction.

Louis pressed forward, dodging the slowest and slashing those that came too close.

“So it took you years to master this flimsy power? Manipulating a bunch of corpses? Pathetic.”

“Tsk! What do you know, damn noble?! You were born with everything. I had to earn it!”

“Is that so?”

Louis smiled. His words enraged the necromancer, who stopped fleeing, just long enough for Louis to catch up.

“I found you!”

“Eek! Stay away!”

The man fired his last bullet. Louis dodged left, but three zombies grabbed him.

“Damn it! Gravewalker, do something! Hey!”

“…”

The Incarnation did nothing.

“Tsk!”

Louis slashed all three zombies with his spear, then crushed another with a stomp.

“Soul Sacrifice!”

Louis’s eyes widened. The necromancer unleashed a torrent of Miasma and Phantasmal Souls, firing them like a projectile.

“A Tier 2 Spell!”

Louis swung his spear but couldn’t dodge in time. A massive explosion of black miasma engulfed him.

BOOM!

“Nngh!”

He rolled across the ground, slammed into a salt tree, and vomited blood. Dizzy, he saw the necromancer approaching.

“Damn it. He saved that spell for this moment.”

Louis stood, his body covered in poisonous miasma, draining his Fantasium Essence.

“No matter. He’s close enough. I’ll finish him with one strike.”

He clutched his dagger, manifesting Ashen Frost. White ice spread, ashes fell, and pulses of Fantasy began to distort reality.

“You’re still an amateur. You think you can manifest your domain? Fucking idiot!”

The necromancer roared and attacked with his mechanical spear.

Louis smiled. At this range, it was a guaranteed hit.

Ashen Frost absorbed Despair and gathered around him, forming a wave of ice.

“Gaaah?!”

The knight tried to destroy it but was impaled by dozens of icicles.

“Aaaaaggh!”

Louis sighed in relief.

The necromancer had assumed Louis was too wounded to cast spells. But Louis had been stockpiling Ashen Frost, gathering Despair to unleash it all at once.

“Just die already!”

Louis crawled forward and stabbed the necromancer in the neck, consumed by bloodlust.

“Graaarrr!”

Louis’s eyes widened. Dozens of zombies surrounded him.

“What? Why?!”

The necromancer groaned, his body grotesquely mutating as he smirked through the pain. He had turned himself undead to survive the stab wound, and now he was merging with his remaining zombies.

Louis could only rely on his own strength to finish him off. But with that damned helmet protecting the necromancer’s head, it felt hopeless.

“Hah, just let them kill you and start again, right?”

“You can do it. It’s not that hard.”

“Just kill yourself and restart until you get the perfect run.”

Louis heard his own voice echoing in his mind, a Heart Demon born from self-doubt, tempting him to take the easy way out.

“No… This isn’t a game anymore. I don’t know what will happen if I keep regressing recklessly. I’ll survive to the very end. I won’t die easily. Never!”

Sacrificing his own lifeforce, Louis roared. The Gravewalker suddenly moved, slashing through four zombies and saving him.

“Gravewalker? You helped me…!”

Louis was stunned. It was as if the Gravewalker had responded to his conviction. Perhaps the key to controlling an Incarnation wasn’t just strength, it was the will to resist temptation and face death head-on.

“Nnngh… Graaarrr!”

The necromancer began freeing himself from the ice, crawling away as nearby zombies fused with his body.

“…?! What are you doing?!”

Louis chased him, firing his gun at the necromancer’s head. But the creature kept growing, merging with corpses.

This wasn’t a skill from the game.

Louis clenched his teeth, realizing not all in-game logic applied here.

“AAAHHH! AHAHAH…!”

The necromancer, now fused with four zombies, charged at Louis like a centipede made of human flesh, shaking the forest with its grotesque movements.

Louis was exhausted, his body broken. He had no energy left.

But the mechanical spear—an artifact of magic and technology—lay nearby.

He grabbed it, collapsing to the ground as the monster leapt over him, crashing into the forest and destroying salt trees.

CRASH!

“It’s no longer heavy.”

Louis swallowed hard, gripping the spear. He recalled his mother’s teachings and closed his eyes, awakening his dragon senses.

A mental domain spread around him, thirty meters wide.

Within it, he saw the undead centipede recovering, preparing to pounce against him again.

“Dragon Fang Spearmanship.”

Louis opened his eyes. The spear absorbed Fantasium from the air, glowing with magical energy.

“First Form.”

RUMBLE!

The monstrosity lunged, claws descending.

Louis remained calm. His spear surged forward, his aura erupting.

The Gravewalker reacted, exploding into ash and merging with the spear for a brief moment.

“Dragon Rising!”

Louis swung upward, impaling the beast and using its own weight to drive the spear deeper.

His weapon’s aura expanded, resembling the fangs of a dragon tearing through flesh.

“Almost there!”

The monster struck him with multiple limbs, breaking another rib.

“Second Form!”

Louis roared. His Fantasium recovered through his breathing technique, linked to the Spearmanship his mother had taught him.

“Coiling Dragon!”

Louis’ weapon aura shifted, transforming into a massive, coiling serpentine dragon. It pierced the monstrous undead creature, tearing through its insides piece by piece.

BOOOM!

“Gryaaaaeerrgh!”

A blinding white explosion erupted from Louis’ final attack. The creature let out a hollow scream before collapsing, half of its upper body obliterated.

Louis fell to the ground, gasping for air, his eyes darting around in fear. He had done it—he had won—but he could hardly believe it.

He remained on high alert, convinced something else might emerge to kill him.

“…”

He scanned his surroundings for several minutes.

And finally, he sighed.

“I won…”

Leaning against a nearby salt tree trunk, Louis slowly closed his eyes and drifted into sleep, too exhausted to move another inch.

…

“Louis…”

“Can you hear me, son?”

“Louis!”

“Dear… come here.”

“…?”

Louis opened his eyes slowly. He was in the middle of a lush green forest. The sky was blue, and the sun shone brightly.

In the distance stood a beautiful woman with clear blue skin, long white-blonde hair, and golden eyes. She was calling him.

“My dear son, come here.”

“Mother?”

Without hesitation, Louis ran toward her, realizing he was much smaller and younger than he remembered.

“There you are my little sunshine.”

Benladra smiled warmly, kissed his forehead, and embraced him.

She opened a basket filled with her delicious homemade food and handed him a small pastry, a cream puff.

“Here, cream puffs. Your favorite.”

“Wow, really?!”

Louis devoured the cream puff, smearing chocolate and cream across his face. His mother giggled, finding him adorable.

She wiped his face with a handkerchief, gently patting his head and caressing his long white hair.

“Is it yummy?”

“Yes!”

As he stuffed his cheeks and basked in his mother’s presence, Louis looked around at the peaceful world.

Maybe it had all been a nightmare. Maybe this perfect world hadn’t yet shattered into a million pieces.

But as he ate, tears welled in his eyes.

“L-Louis? Dear? What’s wrong?”

He walked toward his mother and hugged her tightly.

“I had a nightmare…”

“What?”

“In that nightmare, the world was full of monsters… people died… and you got sick… and never woke up again…”

“…?”

“Mom… don’t leave me…”

“Oh dear, what kind of nightmare was that?”

She hugged him tightly and lifted him into her arms.

Louis smiled faintly, he was reassured it had only been a dream.

“That wasn’t a nightmare after all… my dear prince…”

Suddenly, her face turned pitch black, dry, lifeless, and hollow. Her eyes glowed with a cold red light.

…

“Ahhhhh!”

Louis screamed, jolting awake and coughing blood. He looked around with a bitter expression, his eyes empty.

“I’m still alive…”

He sighed, stood up, and stretched. The first layer of the Dimensional Labyrinth might have been the safest, but it was far from secure. Entities still roamed this area, always hungry for human flesh and souls.

“I have to get out of here…”

Louis tried to summon his Incarnation, but the Gravewalker didn’t appear. He lacked the energy. As a Tier 9 Awakener, he was among the weakest. His Fantasium regeneration was so slow it was practically nonexistent. Still, he felt stronger than before. That battle hadn’t been in vain.

He examined the necromancer’s corpse, hoping to find something useful.

“Nothing. Just destroyed armor and… Hm?”

His eyes caught a small white pouch that had fallen from the man’s armor. The moment he touched it, he knew.

“A Dimensional Storage Item…”

Inside was a small fortune in Fantasium Crystals, shaped like rainbow-colored stars, and a golden ring, his ring. The one his mother had given him.

“So that bastard had it with him…”

Louis slipped the ring onto his index finger without hesitation. It marked him as the Prince of Frostbane. Alongside it, he found three Health Tonics and one Fantasium Injection.

Tonics, made from magical herbs from Fantasy Worlds like Yggdrasil, could heal wounds and restore vitality in Espers and Sinners. For ordinary humans, however, they were lethal, crystallizing their organs.

The Fantasium Injection contained pure, liquid Fantasium in its most refined form, glowing with vibrant colors.

Without pause, Louis injected it into his veins.

BA DUM! BA DUM! BA DUM!

His heart pounded as energy surged through him, heating his body and flooding him with vitality.

For breakfast, he drank one of the Health Tonics, feeling his strength return.

“If that necromancer had all this, why didn’t he use it?” Louis muttered. “Or maybe he did, and this was all that remained…”

After analyzing the situation, he used his knife to cut open the necromancer’s chest and skull.

He was searching for something, and he found it.

“There.”

He pulled out a blood-covered black stone etched with a spiral and a skull at its center. A fragment of the Desecrated Soul Spiral of Madness, crystallized upon the necromancer’s death.

“If he hadn’t died so horribly, I might’ve gotten something better… but this will do.”

Awakened who consumed their own madness and died in battle sometimes left behind fragments of their power.

These Spiral Stones could grant random abilities, or if one was lucky, a portion—or even the entirety—of the Spiral itself.

Louis didn’t hold out hope. He saved the stone for later and searched for the zombies’ corpses. Finding nothing, he turned to the second soldier.

His armor was mostly intact. Louis wore it, planning to impersonate a member of the Vultarn High Dominion if he were to meet them.

They were likely waiting near the Rift. If he looked like one of them, he might slip through unnoticed before the portal closed.

“How long did I sleep? A couple of hours? I have to hurry. The portal only lasts two days… I’m not getting stuck in Antarctica forever.”

The Dimensional Labyrinth was a vast, spiraling maze of overlapping parallel worlds, located at the heart of Antarctica. Normally unreachable, it could be accessed temporarily using Dimensional Rift Stones.

These stones were mined from areas where Fantasium and Dimensional Energies were condensed and solidified.

“Let’s go.”

Fortunately, William’s memories included the entire map of the first layer, allowing Louis to navigate the treacherous terrain with ease.

Along the way, he checked hidden spots where treasure chests and items had once been.

But…

“Nothing?”

“No…”

“Not a single item?”

These were all in-game locations where he had once found equipment, stat boosts, or consumables.

Now, every chest was either missing or already looted.

“Ah, screw this.”

In a single-player game, no one else could take your loot. But in the real world, nothing stayed hidden for long.

Still, Louis was grateful. Awakening wasn’t part of the original game’s story. He had already surpassed his own expectations.

“…”

He stopped. His Dragon Senses flared—something was nearby.

He ducked behind a hollow salt tree and watched the bushes rustle.

A large black wolf emerged. Its head was a skull, its eyes glowing an eerie blue.

“A Small Scavenger… Grade 1 Entity.”

Scavengers were the lowest class of Entities. They lacked reality-warping powers and were essentially oversized beasts. Still, they could infect humans with Fantasium Overdose, leading to crystallization and death if untreated.

The beast sniffed the air, searching for food. Had it not crossed paths with Louis, it might have feasted on the corpses nearby.

But its fate was sealed.

“Grrr…!”

It growled. Louis lunged, thrusting his mechanical spear. The beast tried to dodge but was impaled before it could react.

“Gryack?! Gaaack!”

Blood sprayed as the creature writhed, then fell limp.

Louis withdrew his spear and used his knife to cut open its chest. Inside, he found a small, glowing green crystal, the Fantasium Core. As he gazed the stone, he began to remember the classification of “Monsters” in this world.

“Monsters” is a broad term used to describe the many types of creatures that now threaten Earth and humanity. Among them are Anomalies, beings that defy proper classification, originating mostly from other worlds. Though difficult to identify, some Anomalies can be recognized or categorized, as they tend to follow certain physical laws native to their realms—Louis’s mother being one such example.

Then there are Entities, which are completely unknown. They are unique, lacking any defined species, and are typically born within the Dimensional Labyrinth. Emerging from Dimensional Rifts, they prey on living beings indiscriminately, attacking Humans, Sinners, Espers, and even Anomalies alike.

Unlike Anomalies, which may belong to species or follow patterns, Entities are entirely singular and often far stranger than any alien from a Fantasy World. Their very existence can defy logic, such as a wolf with a skull for a head and nothing inside it, yet not undead either. Some scientists argue that Anomalies themselves may not even qualify as living beings.

Lastly, there are Grievances, the most dangerous of all. These Entities embody not only entropy, but also forgotten worlds, fractured memories, and the darkest emotions. Some are heralds, rulers, or destroyers of entire dimensions.

Espers were humans with psychic powers, connected to the Esper Dimension. Though resistant to Fantasium, they weren’t immune. Louis, despite being the son of one of the top ten Espers, had inherited no such power.

Sinners, on the other hand, were hybrids—humans with powers from Entities, Anomalies, or Grievances. Dangerous and unstable, they were often confined to special facilities. Louis had never been contained, as he had no powers.

His father, however, had founded the Sinners Academy to train them as protectors rather than threats.

“And that’s where Sinner Academy: Love at the End of the World begins.”

Louis crushed the Fantasium Core between his teeth, reducing it to glittering dust. He swallowed it, feeling his internal energies surge and stabilize.

Sinners possessed a unique trait: they could consume Fantasium freely, without suffering its toxic effects. In fact, they were the only humans completely immune to it.

However, this immunity came with a cost. Sinners depended on Fantasium to survive. Without daily intake, their bodies would deteriorate, their minds would unravel, and they would eventually mutate into Grievances.

This was why governments treated Sinners as walking time bombs. Concealing one’s identity as a Sinner was considered reckless, even criminal, given the risk to loved ones and society.

“Did that necromancer mutate into a Grievance when he died?” Louis wondered aloud. “No… he was too weak.”

Even with his Spearmanship techniques, Louis knew he couldn’t defeat a true Grievance. Those beings were still far beyond his reach.

He wandered for hours, navigating the icy terrain until he reached the outskirts of the first layer. Before him stretched an endless frozen landscape.

“The Antarctic Continent… Even after everything, aside from the Dimensional Labyrinth, it’s so peaceful and quiet.”

Louis paused, awestruck by the stark beauty of the world William had never imagined visiting. Towering glaciers and distant mountains shimmered under the pale sunlight.

And then, in the distance, he saw it.

“There it is…!”

The Dimensional Rift.

—–

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep