So, this story is my first english written one in a long time, I'm obviously no native speaker. Also, I don't usually write in third person, neither do I write in past tense. Thus, this project is kind of new to me in certain ways and I would appreciate, if you gave me time to correct my mistakes, as I'm sure there will be a lot of them during the first or second overhaul of each chapter.
Still, feel free to comment on existing problems, I will be making sure to take a look at.

IMPORTANT Facts to know before reading:
This is actually a crossover, but not really. Story / Lore is alternated, but also not really.
In other words: I try to not change anything or at least not much from the original Reborn-Plot, to use it as a frame; my story kicks off where the Manga left us, but at the same time, it won't involve much of the people of later chapters, referring specifically to Kozato Enma and so on. They will exist, but they aren't in focus.
I change up things that will only be relevant when looking at the same story from a different angle. Meaning, everything, to the general character's knowledge, has happened as shown in the Manga, but in this alternate universe, there was more going on in the background. For said background, I fuse Reborn's Universe with the Lore of one of my own stories - a bookseries, called »Enter the Black - Das Vermächtnis der Zwielichtgeborenen« (title of the series roughly translates to »The Legacy of the Twilightborn«). You don't need to read said novel, as everything will be explained in due time, except for things that happened in the original Reborn-Plotline (which you hopefully know).
Just felt like I should explain this somehow, as this thing has no fandom (obviously – it's just some random german novel). There will be Lore, as well as established characters from the Legacy of the Twilightborn-bookseries appearing in this FanFiction. It's not labeled as crossover, as it could just be mine and as I said, there was no way to do so, so if you don't like the idea of it, you have been made aware with this.

OVERALL Warnings
There's going to be violence, swearing, mentions of death (probably no major character death from Reborn's side though), possibly gore elements and a lot of sexual content with, at some point, non-con vibes to it (I'm not sure of how much, it's up to my mood). There are also only MxM pairings involved in it. Rated M for a reason - read at your own descretion! It takes a few chapter for those topics to set in though.

In any case: Hope you have a fun read, I guess?


Chapter 0: Prologue

Wind brushed by his face. He moved his head to look around and let his ruby hair dance in the sky, before tugging the shorter strand on the right back behind his ear.
Something was off with the weather today, it gave him the chills, despite it being reasonably mild - as it is typical for the midland-region, really. Brushing the feeling off, he turned away, thinking of all the unnecessary work he was burdened with before he could go to sleep at home.
It's not that he heard the old bell chiming at first. It was more like a feeling, as if something was unpleasently tugging at the back of his head. A cold feeling of foreboding reverberating throughout his entire being, making his heart flutter.
Warm brown eyes shook as the thoughts behind them stopped and time felt as if it didn't mean anything anymore. The young man, who looked no older than 20 years, turned back to face the building that was reaching high into the sky from the middle of the village. Powerless, he took a jump through a wormhole, ending up almost immediately infront of the black tower, then falling to his knees.
Black shadows started to spread through the green grass of Valhaym's central plaza and he began to think. Numbers were floating through his mind, thoughts and conclusions, his brain was running hot from calculating his next step as fast as possible. He could already see the black cloud of shadows forming below the top of the belltower, ready to swallow everything around him whole.
Thus, he didn't even have the second it took to come to his decision, as he could already feel pressure weighing down on his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.
As a speck of dust turned into a cloud upon the first wave of the explosion lashing out in his direction, a crooked, wry smile formed on the Grandmaster's pale lips.

»Well ... Fuck me.«