A figure had suddenly appeared in front of me. He was a luminous being more beautiful than the sun, a creature of such incomparable beauty that even in my hatred, I could not deny there was not a single flaw to be found. Pure white robes covered his body. Long and silver hair flowed freely like a waterfall down his head all the way to his bare feet. His long, pointed ears were the clearest signs that he wasn’t human.
He did not have a very muscular body. Indeed, his body was quite feminine. He was slender and willowy. However, I didn’t let that fool me, and even if he had been a woman, I wouldn’t have underestimated him like some people would have done.
Despite his beauty, there was something odd about this man. Every part of him seemed bright and divine—every part except his blood red eyes. They were a dark crimson that seemed tainted somehow. Furthermore, that dark aura surrounding him seemed to present a direct contradiction to his vibrant, almost divine appearance.
The man took a deep breath as he looked at the three birds. He surveyed them with a slight frown, and then quickly glanced at where I had killed the others. I wanted to move, to attack this man with everything I had, but some invisible force kept me in place. Even if I attacked now, I wouldn’t be able to land a good hit.
Finally, he looked at me.
“To think a half-blood like you was able to defeat four of my seven slaves,” he murmured. “You know I had enslaved these monsters specifically to kill you? Your powers are indeed great. Given enough time, you might even pose a threat to me. It seems trying to send enslaved Demon Beasts after you was a mistake. I should have just come myself.”
“Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm…” My fists shook with barely restrained hatred as I stared at the being before me. “You took everything from me. My wife. My child. Everything. I have waited for this day, waited for the day I would finally face you again, for the day I would finally kill you.”
The being before me, the one I called the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm, chuckled as though I had said something amusing. It was a grating laugh, not at all like something I’d expect from such a feminine figure. His laugh caused the hair on my neck to prickle.
“Had your wife not shielded you from me, she would not have died. She only has herself to blame.” He paused, his head tilting as he stared impassively into my rage-filled eyes. “As for your daughter… I could not allow a human who possesses such divine blood to live. Had I not killed her, she would have become a threat.”
“A threat?” I whispered. “We were just living peacefully when you attacked us unprovoked and without warning. We were no threat to you. You laid waste to our home, destroyed our civilization, and killed my family without even a hint of mercy or provocation.”
The Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm snorted. “You may not understand it now, but you are indeed a grave threat to me—no, you are perhaps the greatest threat to ever exist. What I did was necessary.”
I didn’t think the blood flowing through my veins could have run any colder than it already was, but I was wrong. It was like my blood had frozen over. Only a chilling coldness that seeped through my entire being remained.
“Necessary, you say?”
“Yes. Necessary.”
“Necessary… for what?”
“To keep you from being able to interfere with my plans.” The Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm spread his arms wide and chuckled again. “Just look at what you have done. A half-blood who hasn’t even learned to control even a tenth of his abilities has defeated four of my seven slaves, divine-rank demon beasts capable of annihilating entire cities with a single attack, and you would have defeated all of them had I not intervened. I’d say this level of destruction warrants intervention.”
I had no idea what this monster was talking about, but I was done listening. He had attacked my family for a reason as dumb as protecting himself? From what? It was true that I had been the one who awakened him, but I had never harmed him nor had any intention to. Had he never attacked my city, never attempted to kill me, never murdered my daughter and wife, we would have left him alone.
My hatred surged, allowing me to overcome the intense pressure that had been pushing down on me. I compressed the last remaining Spiritual Power in my body. The aura that had been covering me vanished. To the average eye, it would have looked like my power had disappeared. I didn’t even turn into an element this time.
The Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm narrowed his eyes.
Then I vanished.
It happened in a flash. I appeared directly behind my foe, thrusting out my fist in a punch that caused the air to burst. However, without even looking behind him, the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm placed his hand in the direction of my punch, catching it. A shockwave erupted from the contact.
I was already moving.
Appearing on his left in a manner that was almost like teleportation, I launched a powerful kick. This was also blocked. I was undeterred. I appeared again and again, moving all around him at speeds so fast I left multiple afterimages in my wake. One. Two. Four. Sixteen. Thirty-four. Sixty-eight. One hundred thirty-six punches were delivered in less than a second. Yet no matter how many punches and kicks I threw, no matter how fast I pushed myself, this monster blocked each and every one of them as though it was easier than breathing.
Meanwhile, I was running on empty.
With the last of my strength, I released a vicious scream and channeled all my energy into my fist. A bright glow erupted from it. The air around it distorted. Ripples spread through the sky as though the fabrics of reality itself were being torn apart.
The Great Overlord’s eyes finally widened. With something resembling panic, he threw out his own punch, which glowed in the same manner as mine but with a dark energy that seemed vile and repulsive. The air exploded between us as one fought to overpower the other. I gritted my teeth and pushed as hard as I could, wrecking my body. Blood exploded from my arms as my capillaries burst, my muscles tore apart like they were made of soggy parchment, and I could feel my very life being drained.
I didn’t care. It didn’t matter if I died so long as I killed this man.
Perhaps it was because I was so focused that I didn’t see the attack coming at me until it was too late. However, when a fist appeared out of nowhere, all I could do was swear. The attack hit me. Pain overrode my ability to see, causing a white film to cover my eyes.
I think I must have passed out. When I came to, I was lying on my back, in the middle of a massive crater so large I couldn’t even judge its size. The Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm was above me, a sword made of pure darkness grasped firmly within his right hand. He raised the sword and brought it down.
In a last-ditch effort, I unleashed all of the Spiritual Power I had left, channeled it into my right hand, and met the blade with a punch. Our attacks struck each other. Light bent. Air warped. Lightning crackled. It wasn’t enough. More. I needed more. Gritting my teeth, I gathered all the elements under my command. Light streaked in and enhanced me. Water motes whirled around my hand. I even absorbed the lightning from the divine lightning beast and used it to fuel my attack. With a snarl, I compressed all of these elements together.
The Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm gasped. The area around our mutual attacks became distorted as strange cracks appeared in the atmosphere like the gaping maw to a bottomless abyss. An explosion suddenly rent the air as the world around me was torn apart. The last thing I saw before darkness engulfed me was the Great Overlord’s surprised crimson eyes.
Chapter 2
Back to the Time Before it all Fell Apart
I woke up with a startled gasp. My body jerked into a sitting position like it was a puppet whose strings had been tugged on. Hacking and rasping, I placed a hand against my chest and tried not to vomit. My head was spinning. I closed my eyes, inhaled, exhaled, and slowly let my rapidly beating heart settle down. One minute passed. Then two. Finally, my body relaxed, and I fell bonelessly onto my back.
>
A somewhat uncomfortably hard mattress underneath me caused my thoughts to pause before they could fully form. It felt familiar but vague, like I should recognize the sensation on my back but couldn’t. Opening my eyes, I stared at the dull brown ceiling overhead. It was made of wood panels. As I glanced at it, I found a crack in the ceiling that I followed until it disappeared into a wooden wall.
It looked familiar.
My frown deepened.
Where was I?
The last thing I remembered was clashing with the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm, of my fist meeting his sword, creating spatial distortions as reality warped around us, and then nothing. The world had gone black, and then I was here. The problem was that I didn’t know where “here” was.
After lying in bed for another half an hour, I decided that it was high time I figured out what was going on. I climbed out of bed. Then I paused. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the world felt bigger somehow. Shrugging that thought off, I glanced around the room.
It wasn’t much of a room. I’d say it was about thirty or forty square meters. It had the plain-looking wooden bed that I had been resting on behind me, a bookshelf to my left, and a small basin filled with water on my right. The basin sat against the wall. Above it, a broken mirror hung. There was also a small dresser next to the basin.
Frowning, I wandered over to the basin, splashed some water on my face, grabbed the towel that was next to it, and dried my face off. The action was so smooth that it made me pause. I was used to bathing in a tub or taking a shower, not washing myself off with water and a towel, but the action was so natural it startled me. It was like my body had reacted out of habit.
A strange sense of dread welled up inside of me. I tried to shake it off, but I couldn’t. Finally, I glanced at the mirror.
The face that stared back at me was both mine and not mine. It was a smooth face that would probably get me mistaken for a girl. Pale and smooth skin without a single blemish or scar greeted me. I ran my left index finger over my left eye, trailing down where a scar I’d received decades ago had once existed. It wasn’t there now. My face was surrounded by light green hair that was so long it traveled down to the middle of my back.
I looked down at my shirtless torso next, and a strange sound escaped my mouth when I saw the scrawny-looking body my head was attached to. While I had never been covered in bulging muscles, the years of intense training I underwent to gain strength had given me a body filled with compact muscles that contained explosive power. Now I looked like a twig that would blow over in a stiff breeze.
“What… what…”
I think I tried to say, “What happened to me?” but all that came out was that single word. Glancing around the room again, I spotted a window near the bed. It was covered by a wooden shutter. What the heck? Shaking my head, I rushed over to the window, opened it, and peered outside.
The sight that greeted me was at once familiar and foreign. Numerous wooden and stone structures spread out as far as the eye could see. A combination of flat, shingled, and gabled roofs greeted my gaze. Glancing down, I realized that I was on the second story of a building. Several meters below me was a swelling mass of humanity, a threnody of people walking to and fro as they went about their daily lives.
“This place…”
My throat felt thick as I gazed at these people who were both familiar and unfamiliar, trying with all my mental capacity to figure out what was happening, to figure out where I was. My thoughts flitted to and fro as I wracked my brain. I eventually discovered an answer, but it was not one that I could just accept.
“Is this… Nevaria?”
No one answered me. Of course they didn’t.
Closing the wooden shutters on the window, I hurried over to my dresser and pulled out a set of clothes. I slipped into the black pants and ruffled shirt. The quality of the material wasn’t what I was used to anymore. It was rough and definitely not made of A-Rank Demon Beast silk. I ignored the feeling and slid into a leather vest that I fastened together with straps. The last thing I did was put on a pair of ragged brown boots.
Then I headed out the door, down a set of stairs, and walked outside.
The cool spring air hit me immediately thereafter, as did the noise that came from the massive crowd of people. A hundred different smells assaulted my nose. The odor of unwashed masses, the perfume of people who didn’t realize roses only smelled good when it wasn’t in your face, and the delicious scent of grilling meat from food stalls mixed together to create a pungent smell that was hard on my nose. I was used to more natural scents these days.
I tried to contain my growing sense of unease as I allowed myself to be swept along by the crowd.
This place was definitely Nevaria. The architecture was familiar to me. I recognized the combination of wood and stone structures that were packed so tightly together there was barely half a meter between them. This particular part of the city was known for its Residential Units, but it was also sometimes referred to as the Peasants Quarters, and it was known for the housing units that people rented out for dirt cheap. Back when I had been living in poverty, this was where I had lived.
Something was wrong, so very wrong. What I was seeing could not be real. Nevaria was gone. It had been destroyed several decades ago in a Demon Beast invasion. I remembered coming back here after Kari and Kayli had been killed. The entire city state had been in shambles and inhabited by numerous powerful Demon Beasts.
I let my feet take me wherever they willed as I tried to figure out what was happening. A young man walked past me, brushing against my shoulder. A pair of children ran through the street as they played a game of tag, laughing and giggling. Several young women stood on the side of the cobblestone road, gossiping about something. I turned my head every which way to take in the sights as I tried to figure out what was going on.
Was this a dream? Had I been trapped inside of an illusion? Was I hallucinating? Was I dead? I had no idea, so I pinched myself really hard to see if I was dreaming.
“Ouch!”
A slight stinging pain erupted from my arm, which I believed meant I wasn’t dreaming. That said, I could have still been hallucinating.
While I was doing everything I could to figure out what was going on, my feet eventually stopped in front of a two-story building. While the first floor was composed of stone, the second floor was made of logs. Likewise, the roof was mostly made of wood shingles. It didn’t look like much, but a wooden sign hung from the door, and on that sign was an open book and the words Library engraved underneath it.
“I think… I used to work here, didn’t I?” I muttered to myself. After debating what to do for longer than was probably healthy, I slowly walked up to the door and entered.
The library didn’t look very big on the outside, but it was longer than it was wide. Four long tables had been set up in the center in a two across and two side by side format. There were another two tables located in the back, sitting lengthwise against the wall. Around the tables were aisles filled with books.
As I walked further inside, I glanced at the staircase to my left, partially hidden by a bookshelf, and then I looked over to my right. I stopped. A long counter was situated a little ways off near the wall. That counter… I used to sit there a lot when I was younger. Yes, whenever I had a free moment from work, I remember sneaking books back there to read. Ms. Nadine would always scold me when she found out, even though she also read books back there during work hours…
The more familiar sights I laid eyes on, the more I remembered. This library used to be my sanctuary. Back then, I was always coming here to escape from bullies who used to pick on me for my hair and feminine appearance. Ms. Nadine, the owner, eventually gave me a job. She’d said something about how if I was gonna keep coming here anyway, she might as well put me to work. It was thanks to her that I could live in that small room. Also, this place was where I first met her.
“Eryk Veiger, I hope you realize how much troubl
e you are in,” a calm voice filled with annoyance came from behind me.
I turned around and faced the person who the voice belonged to. She wasn’t very tall, only coming up to about my chest. That said, she was about average height for a normal person. Her shoulder-length blond hair had slightly curly ends and framed a pale face with green eyes and a smattering of freckles. While her face retained a youthful appearance that made her seem like a teenager, she had a massive chest hidden underneath her red tunic. I remembered accidentally seeing her naked once before. The term “womanly” definitely applied to this woman as far as her figure went.
“Ms. Nadine,” I said.
“Don’t ‘Ms. Nadine’ me.” Ms. Nadine narrowed her eyes and smacked the book in her left hand against the palm of her right. “Do you know how late you are?”
I actually needed a moment to answer her, and when I did, I gave her the most brilliant answer I could muster. “Um… no?”
“It is half past noon. You were supposed to open. Do the math.”
“I… I see.” I paused for a moment to try and collect my thoughts, but it was really no use. I was overwhelmed by everything I was seeing and couldn’t even begin to fathom what was happening. However, I at least managed to reply. “I’ll stay late to make up for it.”
“See that you do,” she mumbled. “I don’t pay you to laze around in bed all day.” She walked over to me and slammed the book into my chest. I grunted and took a step back, but I at least had the sense of mind to catch the book before it fell. “There are several books that you need to sort. Hop to it.”
“Okay,” I responded in an absent tone that caused her to look at me.
She narrowed her eyes again as though searching for something. I stared back under her scrutiny, causing her frown to deepen. However, after several minutes, she shrugged and walked away.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 1 Page 2