Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Inside Ren's soul realm the sounds of battle continued to rage on. The sounds of weapons clashing, explosions happening, and the laughter of the residents could be heard. This was the normal sound that could be heard echoing everywhere as all the incarnations of the Strongest Mortal Soul were battle-hungry freaks and they battled each other on a daily basis. 

Among them there were two people that were out of place, they were the two Primordial Demons Ren captured. In the torrent of the neverending battlefield inside Ren's soul, these two were even weaker than the weakest incarnation of the Strongest Mortal Soul.

Even after the many incarnations tried to teach them how to improve themselves, it took them quite some time to grasp even the basics of the basics. Well, in the eyes of the super-geniuses that reside inside the soul realm most of which could copy a skill after witnessing it once or a couple of times, the effort the two Primordial Demons were showing was too slow. 

Yet if other masters saw the improvement of the two Primordial Demons they would have praised them as once in a century geniuses. Still, despite them being called too weak and such, they were grateful to the teachings of the many incarnations. Even though the incarnations keep on saying they were improving too slowly, to the Primordial Demons that slow improvement was only great. In the thousands and thousands of years they have existed they have only improved a bit. Compared to their improvement in the few months they stayed in Ren's soul realm, the improvement they had in the thousands of years was worthless. 

Currently, these two were watching Ren training with different incarnations. Yet watching someone like Ren training was a huge blow to their egos. 

They already understood that all of the incarnations of the Strongest Mortal Soul were geniuses of battle, but to see Ren easily grasp the concepts that they tried learning for months now was a huge blow to them. Not to mention every time Ren grasps something, he would ask the two of them to be his sparring partners, which was basically him asking them to be his punching bags. 

...

While Ren was taking a break, Leo appeared before him. He was watching Ren's training as Ren continued to beat the weaker incarnations in a battle to learn their techniques. 

"You do understand knowing too many techniques is not really beneficial in a battle, in fact, it's a demerit. It would slow down your decision-making during  crucial parts of the battle were you would be thinking of what technique to use next." 

"Of course, I know that, I'm not some aspiring young swordsman that hasn't bathed in blood and death of battle. I just want to learn as many techniques as possible to create a new set of skills. I already have a bunch of skills and whatnot, but if I'm somehow able to mesh together all the techniques of the other incarnations into one, won't I be able to create a more powerful style? Right now, my body and spiritual energy are growing stronger without me even doing anything, so I no longer need to bother training in those aspects. What I need now to grow stronger are better techniques. So fighting with the different styles of the past incarnations had helped me visualize a better form." 

"I see..." Leo shrugged his shoulders as he sighed. He should have expected that Ren wasn't making such beginner mistakes. Still, just to be sure he needed to remind Ren, as some of the past incarnations had on occasion tried to learn as much as they can believing the more techniques you know the better. Unfortunately, he was one of those incarnations that believed such a thing, back when he was younger. 

"So are your preparations done, will you be waking up now? That reincarnation of the crazy girl Louise, what was her current name again... Oh right, that girl called Lara has been looking at your unconscious body day in and day out, and while doing that she's even teaching someone alchemy." 

"I am almost done I just need to refine these new techniques in actual battle. So how about it will you spar with me a bit, Leo?" 

"Hahaha, it's been a while since we sparred. Of course, I'm willing to spar with you." Leo then summoned replicas of his beloved blades Chaos and Serenity. Ren then summoned an entire field of weapons that were scattered all over the place. 

"This reminds me of one of my own techniques back then, when I was still using Lauria. So are you going to use all these weapons for these new techniques of yours?" Leo asked as he was getting excited by the sense of danger he suddenly felt. Back when Ren first came here even at his peak state, Ren was no match for Leo and he won with ease, yet now Leo could actually sniff the scent of danger from Ren. 

'Is he already at a level were he can harm me?' Even in this soul realm, all the past incarnations were still improving and most of them were already more powerful than they were back when they were still alive. So it was an incredible feat for Ren to be able to catch up. Seeing the excitement in Leo's eyes Ren replied. 

"Yeah, I need these weapons for my new techniques. So are you ready?" Hearing Ren's question Leo lowered his hands and went into his most natural state as he became one with his weapons. 

"I'm always ready, come and show me how much you have improved." When Ren saw Leo's stance he was once again reminded of how powerful this person was. Even though he had grown stronger than he was before, even stronger than his time as Demon Lord Kretos, he was still astonished by the dangerous feeling he got from Leonard Tranor. Even when he fought the Goddess of Light it didn't feel this dangerous.

That stance that Leo uses seems like it had a lot of openings, yet Ren who had a bit of knowledge of Leo's fighting style knew that those openings were just feints. Make one wrong move and you would be cut in half without even knowing how it happened. Ren couldn't help it as a vicious smile appeared on his face and he too took his stance. 

Leo finally noticed that there were steel wires moving around Ren. He then saw Ren lowering his center of gravity making his stance look extraordinarily stable, but at the same time, there was something weird about it. Leo couldn't help but smile the same vicious smile as Ren when he saw that stance of his. The two then stared at each other for a period of time making the atmosphere extremely tense, it was at that moment Ren made the first move. 

...

A few minutes later the battle ended, Ren was on the ground his weapons were scattered on the ground broken, while Leo was standing above Ren his blade pointing at Ren's head. Despite the victor and loser being so obvious the expressions on their faces told a different story. 

Ren who was on the ground and obviously the loser of the spar was smiling from ear to ear, as he was filled with excitement. On the other hand, Leo who was standing tall as the victory had a surprised expression on his face. 

"What the heck was that technique?! Even with my eyes, that could copy most techniques could not discern how that was done?! That technique ignored distance and defense. I have seen a lot of techniques with the same effect, but yours was somehow different from that?... That was... That was such an awesome move?! If you're able to refine it to the point that I would not even see the initial movement, then it would become an unavoidable attack, same as the Original's normal sword strike, [God Slayer]." 

"Of course, it has some similarities from that technique. I got my inspiration from the Original's sword style, what was it called again... Origin Swordsmanship... Yeah, that single strike was perfection itself, and then it turns out that was just his normal sword strike. It even had a grandiose name and that was just his normal attack, of course, I wanted to replicate it. My own technique might be an imperfect copy, of meshing multiple techniques together, but after some more refining I believe it can become something more." 

Ren got excited as he imagined how to improve his new sword moves.. He felt like he was advancing into a new stage.