"Once upon a cringe," I muttered, flipping through the pages of my high school fantasy novel.
That's right. Before I was Ash Autumn, the firstborn of a low noble house, I was Yuuji Tanaka—a corporate slave and part-time closet chuuni. And back in the day, I wrote the most over-the-top fantasy story known to mankind.
It was called: "The Demon King is Strong and the Elves Hero is OP."
Rolls right off the tongue, huh?
In that legendary tale, a portal to the Demon Realm opened, and the first demon stepped into our world with a dramatic: "I HAVE INFINITE MANA!" (All caps, of course.) The Demon King's army smashed through kingdoms like they were paper castles. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastkin—everyone united to fight back.
And lost.
Until the chosen heroine descended. An elf hero—sparkling, smug, stunning—and her quirky non-human party turned the tides and defeated the Demon King in an epic battle full of sparkles, one-liners, and explosions.
And then… peace.
Yeah. That's how I wrote it.
But history, apparently, got drunk and rewrote itself.
Because the books here say that Luminex, a human hero, was the one who saved the world. Even worse, the elf heroine? Lurian? She's recorded as a traitor who joined the Demon King.
Excuse me, what?
"They butchered my cringe masterpiece," I muttered dramatically, lying on the roof of my house and staring at the stars.
Just then, Fay popped her head up. "Hey. You done monologuing like a weirdo?"
"…I was being cool."
"Sure. Anyway, I found another hideout of the Demon Cult."
"Nice," I said, flipping up my hoodie. "Time for Phantom to strike again."
She blinked. "Do you… name yourself when you wear that?"
"…No."
We met again at midnight. Because that's what mysterious heroes do. Duh.
Fay wore a black hoodie too, mostly for stealth. I wore mine because it made me look like a vigilante anime protagonist. Together, we snuck through the jungle under the moonlight, a pair of edgy blobs in the dark.
Eventually, we spotted a group of cultists trudging through the forest, mumbling ominous things like, "The sacrifice is ready," and "Lord Demon, grant us dark barbecue sauce."
Okay, I may have misheard that last part.
Anyway.
We jumped out dramatically.
"WHO DARES—GAH!" one cultist shouted before I roundhouse kicked him into a tree.
Fay knocked out the others with ease. Seriously, she was way too good at this. I had to fake-struggle a bit so I didn't look suspicious.
"PHANTOM STRIKES AGAIN!" I declared, posing under the moonlight.
Fay sighed.
And then we heard it. Whimpering. Coming from a cage nearby.
Inside was a beastkin girl about my age—wolf ears, tail, golden eyes, and a wild look. She stared at us, scared out of her mind.
Without a word, I slashed the cage open with a stick. (Well, not a normal stick. It was shadow-enhanced.)
She fainted the moment she saw us.
"…We're terrifying," Fay said.
"We're cool," I corrected.
So, naturally, we carried her unconscious body to the top of the mountain, because that's where all mysterious stuff happens.
She woke up the moment we tried to feed her soup. Saw us still in our hoodies. Screamed.
"DEMONS! SHADOW DEMONS!"
"Wait, no—"
She kicked Fay in the face, headbutted me, and ran off a cliff.
Unfortunately, we were still holding onto her.
We all fell. Again.
Landing in a very familiar bush.
"…Déjà vu," I mumbled from the thorny embrace of nature.
"Ow," Fay groaned, lifting her face out of the dirt. "We need to stop meeting new people like this."
The beastkin girl sat up. "W-Who are you people?!"
I stood up slowly, dramatically, brushing leaves off my cloak. "We… are justice cloaked in darkness. We strike fear into evil hearts. We are—"
Fay bonked me on the head.
"He's Phantom," she said. "I'm Fay. You screamed. We fell."
"Oh…" The girl wiped her eyes. "I'm Marta. T-Thank you for saving me."
"Who were those cultists?" I asked, crouching next to her like a mysterious mentor.
"They… they bought me from slavers," she said, tears welling up. "They said I would be a sacrifice to summon the Demon King…"
Her voice cracked. She started crying again.
I panicked.
W-What do I do now?! I've never comforted a crying girl before!
Time to improvise.
I placed a hand on her shoulder and deepened my voice.
"Fear not. For I, Phantom, shall crush the Demon Cult beneath my shadowed fist. Not because the world needs saving… but because it looks cool."
Fay facepalmed so hard I heard it echo.
But Marta sniffled, looked up… and sparkled.
"T-That's… amazing!" she said. "You're like a shadowy knight of justice!"
"…Yes," I said, totally not blushing. "That is exactly what I am."
"Then I'll help!" she declared, standing up. "Let me fight with you!"
"Wait what—"
"I want to join your shadowy justice army! Do you have a name? What's your organization called?"
Fay turned to me, smirking. "Yeah, Phantom. What's our organization called?"
Crap. I hadn't thought this far ahead.
Think, Ash. Think.
"…The Phantom Legion."
There was silence.
Then Marta gasped like I had just dropped the most legendary name in history.
"That's SO COOL!!" she shouted, tail wagging. "The Phantom Legion! We're like a secret guild of mysterious heroes!"
Fay leaned over. "Seriously? That's what you came up with?"
"I panicked, okay?!"
And thus, the Phantom Legion was born.
One edgy boy trying to look cool.
One elf girl silently judging him.
And one beastkin girl who thought this was the coolest club ever.
We sat on the cliff under the stars, eating soup from stolen cult pots.
"Hey Phantom," Marta said, "Do we get matching uniforms?"
"…I vote no," Fay said instantly.
"I was thinking black hoodies," I added.
Marta gasped. "Yesss! We'll be like shadows in the night!"
Fay muttered, "I'm surrounded by lunatics."
But I smiled.
Because for the first time since I got reborn… I had a team.
A weird, chaotic, misunderstanding-filled team.
But a team.
And we were going to shake the world.
…Probably while falling off more cliffs.