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— 1867 —

— London Backstreet —

In the dead of night, London's backstreets were draped in an eerie and unsettling silence. A thick mist curled through the narrow alleyways, enveloping the cobblestones in a ghostly veil. Dim and flickering, the gas lamps cast long, wavering shadows that danced ominously on the weathered brick walls.

The alley was strewn with remnants of the day—discarded newspapers fluttered weakly in the faint breeze, and a solitary rat scurried along the gutter's edge. The tall, looming buildings seemed to huddle together, as if fearing what might lurk in the darkness. The distant echo of a church bell tolled the hour, each chime resonating with unsettling clarity.

A mysterious figure in a long, dark trench coat dashed through the dark alley. Blood-stained bandages covered the face, revealing only fiery red eyes that reflected deep resentment.

His movements were swift and agile, shifting between human form and merging with the shadows, seamlessly sliding through the building walls within the alleys.

Suddenly, the darkness sprang to life as black tentacles with rows of sharp, shadowy teeth rushed toward the figure. However, they were met with a red mana shield emanating from the mysterious figure, preventing further penetration.

"Jack the Ripper, you're surrounded! Stand down and come with us to face trial!" The voice echoed within the alley as many white-cloaked figures suddenly appeared on the rooftops surrounding the alley. Two of them leaped down and rushed toward Jack The Ripper.

Jack showed only surprise but didn't flinch at the challenge from the two white-cloaked figures. His eyes blazed with resentment as he looked at all of them. Then, with a flicker of his hand, scalpels appeared between the fingers of his right hand, while his left arm bore a mechanical gauntlet that could transform into a bladed weapon, coupled with a bracer to block attacks from the white figures.

As the white-cloaked figures rushed toward him, unsheathing their swords—short sabers designed for close combat—the bracer blocked their slashes. The magic of protection and destruction enhanced both their respective tools of war.

In that moment, the scalpel sliced through the necks of the two cloaked figures, killing them instantly. The curses of resentment took root within their bodies, corroding their mana pathways. Like a fatal poison, it caused mind-rending pain before they died in agony in the shortest time.

Seeing their two comrades die so easily, the cloaked figures flinched, unwittingly creating an opening for Jack the Ripper to slip past.

Jack used this chance to rush through the circle and into another alley. He traversed many alleys, believing he had evaded pursuit. As he slowed down to assess his surroundings, suddenly...

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A black tentacle that looks more like an infernal creature, pierced through his abdomen from front to back, paralyzing him immediately.

Jack the Ripper fell to his knees, his flaming, resentful eyes fixed on the one who had done this to him. From the shadow of the alley emerged a silhouette—a woman with gorgeous light purple hair, clad in a red and black noble Victorian dress. If Daniel were present, he would recognize her as Envy, although her eyes now bore a cold and merciless light, unlike her usual kind demeanor.

"Jack the Ripper, Guild Master of The Reaper Gate... Your plan to engulf the world in war ends today," Envy declared in her cold voice.

"Hahahaha! Heeeeeehhhh— hAHAHAHAAHAA!!!" Jack laughed out loud, though his throat lacked a larynx, emitting only the sound of air rushing through his windpipe. He fixed his fiery, resentful gaze on Envy before activating his last spell, a desperate move known to any mage—the self-explosion.

Envy quickly retreated out of the alley, floating to the roof of a nearby building just as the explosion thundered, obliterating the alley and several small buildings nearby.

The burning of flesh, bone, and mana pathways brought a final solace to Jack the Ripper. Pain, something he hadn't felt in a long time since his voice was stolen by a demon with whom he had made a deal. Jack wasn't afraid of death; in fact, he welcomed it. But a meaningless death before reaching his goal was something he was unwilling to accept.

As his consciousness sank into darkness, just before oblivion claimed him, he felt a strong call from somewhere. His senses kicked in, and he unconsciously answered the call. Instinctively, he opened his eyes and found himself in a strange environment.

A golden starry river amidst the dark space appeared before his eyes. From his knowledge, this should be the galaxy according to science, but it wasn't exactly that. No… what he saw was something entirely different.

"This place... is not space...!" Jack the Ripper was startled as he checked his hand. His once dainty hand appeared before his eyes, as if he had returned to the form he once yearned for—the form before he became known as Jack the Ripper.

"My voice…" He touched his throat and discovered that it was healed, and his larynx was intact, unlike after the deal. But his voice was still obscured by magic, disguising it.

"So... is this the state after death? The spiritual form returning to its perfect state?" Jack the Ripper uttered. He had nothing to use to see his own face, so he tried to will his form to change back to that of Jack the Ripper, the form of a living vengeful spirit.

"This place... is this... is this what I think it is?" Jack looked around as he recalled the advanced content he had studied in the Hightower—a place of origin of the concept of magic, where limitless possibilities could be made by magic, a place countless mages and even gods tried to visit, but none succeeded.

"Is this place... A@#&%$* &%^o*#!?" Jack found that he couldn't speak of this place. No, his knowledge about this place started to slip from his mind. In seconds, a gap formed in his memory where his knowledge of this place once existed.

Jack checked himself and realized that something in his very soul had been deleted, but he also knew it was something he could live without.

At this time, a golden road weaved from golden starlight extended to him. He sensed that if he were to step on his road, he would be granted his second chance, but he could forget the thought of betraying the owner of this road.

Jack The Ripper hesitated, but in the end, he chose to comply, a chance to be resurrected is even rarer than 1 in a billion chance one could encounter in their lifetime. Who knows, maybe he could have a chance to take revenge on those sly bastards.

As his feet stepped on the golden road, it retracted to its origin. His consciousness faded, only to be regained once more in a strange space. No… he was still within the golden starry river amidst the darkness, but now there was a man dressed in a suit slightly different from those he knew.

"You must be Mr. Jack the Ripper. I'm Daniel Emberweave, nice to meet you." Daniel extended his hand toward Jack the Ripper, who caught it and shook it without saying anything.

"Don't like to talk much?" asked Daniel, tilting his head.

Jack the Ripper replied with a nod. His very being told him that this man was the owner of that mysterious space. He chose not to tell this man, his current lord, that he could talk for now. Even though Jack couldn't betray him, that didn't mean he couldn't withhold information.

Just because this man was his lord and they had a contract didn't mean Jack was going to fully trust him. He couldn't betray his lord, but there was no guarantee that his lord would not betray him.

"Ok then, welcome. I'll rely on you from now on, Mr. Jack." Dnaiel said with a polite smile and Jack nodded in response as he nodded his head.

After that, Jack witnessed a scene that shook his mind: he saw his new lord create life. Yes, he was certain that his lord had just created sentient life forms out of thin air, or at least, incredibly advanced homunculi that could easily pass as human or even surpass them.

No, the initial goal of homunculi was to create artificial life forms that could surpass humans. But that's beside the point.

Why was he so sure? Because all the people his lord had 'created' were assassins in his organization, all proficient in stealth and infiltration magic. His lord even created shadow morphs, a type of mage that experimented on themselves to become half-human, half-monster, blending seamlessly into any shadow, with the night as their domain.

Even if they blended into shadows in a room and the room was suddenly lit, leaving no shadows, the shadow morphs would just lose access to that shadow and use another nearby. They were that mysterious. In his organization, even at its peak, there had only been two shadow morph mages, and he personally knew them.

But his new lord had just created ten shadow morphs out of thin air, just like that!

This action completely dispelled all of Jack's skepticism and wavering. Now Jack knew that if he were to do something borderline betrayal, he would not meet a good end. Who would want to mess with someone who could create life out of thin air like this?