Rebirth of the Sword Saint: A Reincarnation Epic Fantasy Saga

by DB King

  The lord who allowed this was simply cruel for cruelty’s sake—spineless and dishonorable. No true warrior would ever raise a hand against peasants and yet the army that’d passed here had acted like brigands and outlaws, looting and pillaging. They acted like wild animals, and Jin would slaughter them like animals.

  The road back to his home was long and desolate. Jin had counted every second and every step he took. There were signs of battle everywhere. Downed soldiers, wearing his clan’s colors and insignia. Alongside them were other soldiers who bore no colors and carried no flags. Their armors were of uniform design and their weapons were in excellent condition—two indicators that this attack was well-funded and the attacking army itself was well-provisioned. Whoever commissioned an attack on our lands was careful enough to cover his tracks. Without clan colors or insignias in their armor, every other neighboring clan could be a suspect of the attack.

  Jin made his way into the woods, running into familiar trees and streams, where he’d once sparred and trained with his father. Following the road was a terrible idea. It was likely that the enemy was currently besieging Murasaki Castle. The beaten path would lead right into their base camp. And so, Jin continued onward underneath the shadows of the trees. His aim was the tiny creek that ran under the castle.

  Very few people knew about the creek and even fewer knew the fact that it fed into the castle’s underbelly. The water system followed a series of furrows that diverted its course into a labyrinth of pipes that allowed the cooks and servants access to a constant source of fresh water. The creek itself, however, was hidden quite well. Magic was used, of course; a series of enchanted trees masked its presence and created an illusion that it wasn’t there at all. Even the sides of the castle, where the water fed into, was greatly disguised by magic—likely by one of the few Murasaki ancestors, who were skilled in the arts of enchanting. There was a door there, a hidden door that led into the courtyard. Hamada knew of it, but couldn’t use it. The whole thing was designed with magic in mind and only mages were capable of seeing it.

  I could use it to sneak in and help fight.

  When Jin finally reached the creek, he breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw that the castle was not burning. A crescent-shaped siege camp stood outside the walls of Castle Murasaki, however. There were no siege weapons, but they were likely under construction already. His father’s personal guards stood atop the walls and released volley after volley of arrows upon the camp.

  The siege camp stretched out further ahead, but the trees obscured much of what he could see.

  Jin looked out. The sun was already nearing the west. The winds were growing colder. Night was nearing rapidly, which—assuming the enemy leader was halfway intelligent—was a perfect time to launch an attack of some kind solely to deny the defenders any sleep. The tactic was crude, but effective. The attacks didn’t even have to be actual attacks, but feints, meant simply to draw out the defenders before retreating.

  Sieges were battles of attrition, whoever broke first would lose.

  The storehouses of Murasaki Castle, however, were filled with dried meats and bags of grain that were in enough numbers to last the defenders for a year if rationed properly.

  Jin was rather confident of victory in the long run, even if it would be an extremely drawn out affair. There was, however, the issue of mages, whose presence could very easily flip the proverbial table. With the right mage, the enemy could simply blast a hole in the walls. However, considering they hadn’t already done so, it was likely that whatever mages they did have, if they had any, weren’t capable of blasting holes in the walls of his home.

  Jin paused.

  There were numerous footsteps approaching his immediate location. The creek wasn’t far ahead. This must be a scouting force of some kind.

  Jin’s senses spread outward, blanketing a huge area of the woods.

  There were five lifeforms approaching. The likelihood of them being enemy soldiers was quite high. Tsk… looks like I’ll have to take care of the trash outside the castle.

  Jin groaned and gritted his teeth as he leapt up and pulled himself up the branches of the tall trees with ease. The enhanced strength really was quite handy. High above, Jin waited, Agito drawn and ready to kill in a moment’s notice. His companion sword was excited. It had been many decades since it had spilled the blood of men.

  From a thicket of trees came five soldiers, whose armor bore no colors and no symbols. They carried long spears and wore open-faced helmets that marked them as Ashigaru, lesser warriors drawn in from peasant stock or mercenaries. They walked in an undisciplined manner, maintaining neither cohesion nor formation. One walked ahead of the rest, while another walked several steps behind. The three in the middle seemed to be enjoying a conversation. None of them bothered looking around.

  Whatever the case, killing them would be easy.

  Jin’s eyes narrowed. Pesky little insects come to invade my home—this will not do.

  As the enemy soldiers passed by under the branch he stood on, Jin pounced. Falling from the tops of the trees, Jin landed behind the enemy soldier who lagged behind. The man stiffened and noticed his landing, but was too late to stop Agito from piercing his forehead. The man’s eyes dulled and rolled back, not dead, but not quite alive either.

  Before the others could react, Jin surged forward with his enhanced strength and speed. One, who stood farthest to the left, Jin disabled by jamming Agito into the man’s spinal column. His blade pierced through the armor as though it wasn’t there. The soldier fell to his knees, eyes wide with shock. His body twitched before falling backward, unmoving, but alive.

  The other soldiers finally started to react. The two, who stood nearest to Jin, screamed in shock and outrage, raising their spears his way.

  Jin, barely standing above their waists, bobbed and weaved through the cumbersome weapons. The first one fell when Jin stabbed him in the testicles. The other did not expect the cone of flames that suddenly emerged from Jin’s left hand as he pulled out his blooded wakizashi. The soldier screamed in pain and panic as he attempted to snuff out the flames that engulfed his frame.

  Ignoring his screams, Jin bent low and surged forward at a blinding speed. The last soldier, who stood ahead of their “formation”, barely had time to react when Jin’s wakizashi met his thigh and came out the other side. The man fell forward, screaming and sputtering curses, now missing one leg.

  “Tsk… little insects.” They were weak—far too weak. But they were animals all the same.

  For a moment, Jin contemplated finishing them off. After all, one lay in a puddle of his own blood, clutching at his nether regions and screaming out every single prayer he could think of. Another rolled on the ground, writhing in pain and agony as magical flames slowly devoured his whole body. One lay paralyzed in silent horror, and the nearest one shuddered and paled at the loss of his leg.

  “I almost wish you beasts hadn’t attacked my subjects; I would’ve given you all swifter and kinder deaths.” Jin spat on the ground before turning and walking away. They deserved to suffer—every last one of them deserved to die, slow, agonizing deaths.

  And he would make it so.

  Chapter 10

  A great pillar of crimson flames shot out into the sky. Magic bathed the air and electrified all of existence at once. The clouds parted. A soft humming sound played in the wind, like a constant buzzing of some distant bee. The afternoon sky, reddened by the slow descent of the sun, lit up in flames, and all fell under an ominous crimson light. Heat surged, pushing away the cold of winter. Ice sheets and icicles crumbled and melted instantly.

  And then the pillar coalesced into a spear-like form, still massive, but now it was barely taller than a redwood tree, glowing with baleful flames. A red-robed mage stood atop a hill, just outside the range of the Murasaki archers. The only discernible thing about the mage was their feminine shape and, even then, Jin was mostly guessing. Much of the mage’s features were obscured by darkness and shado
ws, and – even then – she was so far away that Jin could hardly even begin to make out anything other than the massive spear of fire she held up with a single hand.

  With practiced ease, the mage shifted her grip over the spear of magical flames and hoisted it, as if she was throwing a javelin. The enemy soldiers cheered and roared in response. The mage leveled her aim at the gates of Murasaki Castle.

  She’s… oh no… she’s going to bust open the gate with—

  Before Jin could even finish his thought, the red-robed mage hurled the massive spear of magical fire with such force that it blew away everything and everyone around her. At least a dozen men flew off into the tops of trees and several more who were not as lucky landed hard on their backs. The magical spear surged through the air, like a shooting star in the night sky. It moved so fast that it was only with his enhanced senses that Jin saw it moving at all.

  Everything exploded.

  Jin’s eyes widened as a wave of powerful, oppressive magical energies crashed against him, sending him tumbling into the illusory stream. His body fell underwater, shielding him from the radiant heatwave that followed. Jin’s Fire Salamander tattoo might have given him a resistance to mundane flames, but he wasn’t about to test it against magical fires. Even underwater, Jin felt the ground shaking as the force rippled across the natural world.

  Who is that mage? Jin asked himself, incredulous as the magical fire almost boiled the surface of the water.

  When it subsided, Jin pushed himself out of the water, the surface still steaming, and rushed toward the castle’s secret entrance. He didn’t bother turning to look at the enemies or their formations. He didn’t bother to think about how best to counter them. In that moment, the only thing that mattered to him was getting his father out of this whole mess. Everything else could wait – everything else could follow. The explosion likely would have ripped apart the gates and the walls right next to it, rendering the castle’s defensive advantage moot. Without the walls to hold back the incoming tide of enemy forces, there was really no point in staying.

  Sure, there were still the inner walls to retreat to, but what was stopping the red-robed mage from just hurling another one of those ridiculous fire spears?

  Then again, Hamada being Hamada, getting him to leave the castle and live to fight another day would be an uphill battle.

  Jin rushed through the illusory pathway and found himself looking at an old area that was overgrown with weeds and grasses. Insects and tiny creatures had made this place their home in the generations when the Murasaki Clan hadn’t had any magic users in the family. The stream ran into a grated tunnel of sorts, which fed the water into the castle’s pipe system. There was an entrance in there somewhere, hidden amongst the actual growths and not in any illusion.

  Jin held out his left hand—his Fire Salamander tattoo leaping from his chest to his arm—and unleashed a massive cone of flames that engulfed the undergrowth, bathing the ground in flames.

  When the vines and the moss burned away, a metal door remained. It was plain and didn’t even have an actual lock attached to it, nor was it enchanted or enhanced with some potent magic. It was, for all intents and purposes, a very normal thing amidst the literal wall of illusions that surrounded it.

  Jin returned the Fire Salamander tattoo to his chest and barreled through the door with the enhanced strength and durability that he’d gained from the Earth-Shaker’s Beast Core. The rusted metal door crumpled and barely halted his momentum as he ran through the darkened tunnels on the other side. Light crystals lined the walls, but activating them would take up what little precious time he still had left. Left without a choice, Jin channeled a tiny bit of magic into his eyes, allowing him to perceive the shapes in the darkness. It wasn’t true vision, but it was well enough that it allowed him to navigate in pitch-black environments.

  Screams echoed in from outside as enemy soldiers stormed in through the breach in the castle walls—within an hour or so, the first section of the wall would be overrun with enemies.

  The tunnels themselves were, thankfully, built to be simple and efficient. There were no traps or puzzles or hidden mechanisms to hinder his movements. It was, however, a winding path of seemingly endless stairways that ascended higher and higher until it reached the courtyard, which – by Jin’s own calculations – should be free of enemies at the moment, unless that damn mage had thrown another one of her fire spears and breached the inner walls. Jin ran until he reached the exit door and slammed into it. The door was thrashed open, left dangling on one hinge after he pushed through.

  Once more, he found himself in an illusory space. Soldiers, wearing his family’s crest upon their armors, moved left and right in a surprisingly disciplined fashion. He’d have expected them to be much more panicked after that terrifying display of magical power. None of them noticed him, however, even the ones who briefly wandered into the tiny illusory space. Hamada’s not commanding them personally – not yet. The captain of the guard is here somewhere… aha! There he is, which means Hamada should be relaying his commands from inside the castle.

  The skies had returned to their normal hue, though a slight crimson tinge remained – the remnants of that awesome fire spell. The air was still hot, however, though what heat remained was rapidly dissipating as the cold gradually returned. Looks like that spell took a lot out of her.

  Jin wondered if Hamada had even expected his return at all, given all the… commotion. Was his test still in effect? Did he need to remain unseen and steal the family heirloom? It honestly wouldn’t be completely out of character for Hamada to reprimand him for revealing himself too soon and failing his test despite the damn storming that was currently happening. But then the opposite was just as likely. Tsk… dishonest and dishonorable people are far easier to understand and predict, he thought. I can always trust them to be dishonest and dishonorable. People like Hamada, on the other hand… making plans around them is much harder than I’d like.

  Fine, he’d just have to proceed under the assumption that his test was still in effect. Jin could show himself to his father with the heirloom in hand or—

  Or just grab the man and leave the hopeless situation behind them, which, considering Hamada’s pride and honor, wasn’t going to happen anytime soon unless he knocked his father out and dragged him out through the tunnels, but that probably wouldn’t end well. At the end of the day, this castle was just a castle and they could always just start from zero – they’d be alive, at least. Sure, the treasury would likely be ransacked and their riches stolen to fund the invading army, but no gold was worth their lives.

  But the library was… a difficult matter. Could a powerful enough spell breach the demonic door’s enchantments? If not, then it would be safe and he could simply come back someday. If the enchantments weren’t infallible, however, then they really wouldn’t be getting much aside from what was likely already common knowledge among mages and some scandalous family secrets written down by his ancestors. Sure, a few of their books were probably priceless and irreplaceable but so were their lives!

  Damnit! Why does everything have to be so damn complicated!

  Well, then again, if there was one thing worth saving in the whole castle it was probably the Murasaki Clan heirloom. Everything else could be replaced or recovered later. What about the lives of our retainers? he asked himself. Are we to just leave them here while we flee for our lives?

  The people of Moyatani reminded him of the Atlan people in his previous world: the supposed savages, who held honor above all else and venerated the art of combat as though it was their religion. Subjugating them had been a headache as they simply refused to surrender, even in the most hopeless of situations. The Atlans would rather die on their feet than live on their knees, so he, the Mage-Emperor, was forced to abandon his campaign upon their lands. By then, his only choice was to wipe their people from the face of the world and that… wasn’t a good option. It was his first and only defeat. The Atlans were left to their own devices
even at the height of his power and his empire’s Golden Age, before the Hollowed Knight struck him down from his throne.

  What the hell could he do to—

  The ground shook, and the air shimmered. Foul magic glided down the winds as it blew over them from the mountains. Goosebumps peppered his skin. His hairs stood straight. And, when he looked up, dark gray storm clouds loomed high above, summoned by the will of a powerful mage. Lightning and thunder flashed between the folds of the gray masses in the heavens. The Murasaki retainers paused and looked up, the siege seemingly forgotten as a cackling billow of blue and white loomed over the world.

  An officer dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, mouth agape and eyes glued to the skies above Murasaki Castle. Even Jin could not help but pause at the sight. Oh… that’s not fair.

  That’s not fair at all. Jin had long accepted the fact that, in this new world, he would have to start from a place of weakness. He wouldn’t be the strongest, he wouldn’t be the one to stand above all, and he wouldn’t be feared and respected – not yet. All those things, in this new life as with the previous, were to be earned through blood, sweat, and a lot more blood. Even then, Jin’s wisdom and experience gave him an edge above his peers.

  But this… well, he hadn’t expected this level of magical prowess in this world at all. He’d expected something much higher and much more powerful than his own repertoire, which was honestly just him being able to punch really hard and shoot flames out of his left hand, but magic of this magnitude was simply… dumbfounding.

  Something moved amidst the clouds, a serpent of lightning and magic, swimming in the sky and casting its shadow over the castle. A massive blue dragon peered over and planted its gaze upon Jin’s home. Jin felt a lump in his throat. When it opened its mouth to roar, the sound from its maws was a deafening thunderclap that drowned out all other noises. Though unheard, Jin was certain that several of his clan’s retainers screamed as they ran into the castle.