Gilded Ashes - Chapter 61: Floating Knives

I met the male lead in prison.

I died in an explosion—a betrayal engineered by the man I trusted most.But instead of the end, I woke up in a new body. A noblewoman’s body. Evelina, disgraced and hated, accused of poisoning the Crown Prince of a kingdom where werewolves rule the land.And worse?The man whose life I supposedly tried to end is now my fated mate.Damian, the Crown Prince, is as cold as the moonlight that binds us, his piercing silver eyes filled with distrust every time they land on me. He doesn’t believe my innocence, and frankly, I don’t care.My only priority is survival in this dangerous, medieval world—and figuring out why fate decided to shove me into the life of a traitor.But the longer I’m near Damian, the harder it is to ignore the pull between us—the undeniable heat of the mate bond that makes his touch electric and his presence intoxicating.Enemies lurk in the shadows, including the woman who thinks she should be his Luna. Court intrigue spirals out of control, and the person behind Evelina’s betrayal might be closer than I realize.Damian’s trust is my only shield, but when the truth of my transmigration comes to light, I’m not sure even that will be enough to save me.Because in this world, it’s not love that conquers all—it’s power. And mine might not be enough.

[Of all the music I’ve ever heard, it’s your voice that calms my soul. He whispered]***Tang Xue Mei was the legitimate heir of the company, but her best friend caused her to lose her sight and her status. She was tortured every day until she ended her life. To her surprise, she was reborn three years before her death!Now, she isn't going to waste her second chance. With a new lease on life and the determination to change her fate, Xue Mei finds herself entangled with a man suffering from insomnia, who offers her power in exchange for her help in curing his sleep disorder.Feng Shihan, CEO of AG corporation, had everything from looks, fame and wealth, but he could never get a good night's sleep due to his rare severe sleeping disorder. Until he met Tang Xue Mei, he never thought he could get a decent sleep.But then he finds out that as long as she's on the bed with him, he could sleep as well as he liked. She was his miracle sleeping pill.Soon he finds out she’s difficult to get, so he proposes a form of alliance to her.“Miss Tang…if you agree to be with me, I’ll give you all the power you need…”In a desperate attempt to gain power and get back at those who had hurt her, she agreed to his request.

I was some twenty-something woman dying of stage four cancer.I got obliterated by the “Truck-kun” you nerds are always joking about. Turns out it's a lot less funny when it's your guts splattered on the pavement. Crap.Next thing I know, I'm floating in the dark and this thing pops up in my face.[A choice is now available to you.][Option One: Fade.Cease to exist.][Option Two: Reforge.Begin anew.]You think you can just erase me? Hah. As if.Fueled by pure, uncut spite, I slammed the reforge button. Turns out the universe has a totally sick sense of humor, though.I woke up as a male elf. A seriously hot elf —a mage, of all things. Let's just say I was working with some… unfamiliar hardware downstairs.And Jonny? My best friend, my bro, my lifelong meat shield? The universe decided he'd look better as Yael—a stunningly beautiful elf chick with a charisma stat that was probably maxed out.For a while, we weren't just getting by. We were crushing it. It was awesome.Our new life was shattered by the arrival of Vex, an overpowered demigod who saw our world as a resource to be harvested. He was a cosmic-level threat.My pride, the same stupid pride that always gets me into trouble, wouldn't let me kneel. So I told him where he could stick it.Big mistake.The price for my big mouth was paid in her blood. Vex decided to make an example of her. He didn't just defeat her; he shattered her legs into pulp right in front of me.After that, she just… erased me. Walled me off. I went from being her best friend to a ghost she looks right through. Her hatred isn’t loud; it's a permanent debuff, and the silence is a thousand times worse than her screaming would have been.Broken by my failure and rage, the System offered me another choice.I accepted. The System laid out the cost in cold, hard code:The friendly blue “Overwhelming Pride” interface shattered, overwritten by a brutal, blood-red OS running one program: The 'Overlord Slayer'. My personality was stripped for parts. My charm and pride were forged into an 'Aura of Dread.' My guilt became a damage buff called 'Pain Eater.' My grief is now, literally, my mana pool.My quest is no longer about survival. It is brutally simple: Kill Vex. Absorb his power. Fix what I broke.But to become strong enough, I have to grind this new 'Slayer' class, and every level up feels like I'm deleting a piece of myself.The real question is, by the time I'm strong enough to squash him, will there be anything left of the person Yael knew?And even if I can fix her legs… what's she going to think of the monster who comes back?