Hello everyone.
I'm really happy that those of you who read this far enjoyed what you saw, and thank you for the overwhelming support of the story. I might continue it someday. But right now, I want to announce that I've just released a reboot. Here's why.
I wrote this story on the fly. No structure, pure emotion. And while that produced some genuinely great moments... it was undisciplined, and the story itself never quite knew what it was supposed to be at its core.
Grimdark? Revenge? A love story? Harem? OP character? Not OP? The story had no clear purpose, because it had no spine to follow.
There's also the problem of Van himself. I did focus on his growth, but many of my choices were shaped by reader feedback rather than a path I'd already decided for him. Listening to your audience isn't wrong. But I wasn't committing to it either. Some days I followed feedback, other days I followed my gut, and the result was chaos.
The clearest proof of this? The story is called "I Met the Demon Lord" and the Demon Lord appears in maybe 10% of the chapters. Background characters have more presence than she ever did. That's not a small oversight. That's a story that lost the thread of itself.
And yet, with all its flaws, I love this story. I love its characters. I love Van.
Which is why I've spent months working on a reboot from scratch, with a completely different approach. Writing ahead, re-reading, refining, built around one clear question:
"Can a tail of rot... turn to steel?"
Deeper arcs. More consistent characters. A road that actually knows where it's going.
Same Van Hellix, different universe, slightly different nature. If the original was about Van after he'd already come into his power, this one is about the journey of learning. No unfair cheats this time.
If you're curious, it's here: [Tail of Rot to Steel]