Reincarnated Hero System

It Rained.

A downpour of faint green liquid.

Acid rain.

It was a thing people avoided, but only he stood under it silently.

It couldn’t be helped, as the green reminded him of her.

Lightning flashed across the dark cloudy skies, illuminating the field of corpses below.

Winged humanoids lay scattered, their skin marred with burn marks. Some bodies were headless, others limbless, and some had gaping holes in their chests and torsos.

Their blood flowed infinitely, staining the land, and it was at the centre of this that he stood.

The man had black hair. A portion of it was highlighted with the opposing white colour and tiny scales, a blend of these two contrasting colours, adorned the sides of his neck and the backs of his hands.

He possessed a handsome face that made ladies swoon. His striking eyes were a notable feature, with one iris a sharp grey, while the other was devoid of any colour.

Written in gold within his right iris, was a single word from an Ancient Aidosian Shorthand language. It read; Mimicry.

His left eye, however, had no Iris.

Instead, it featured a tiny dark pupil encircled by three golden rings, each ring adorned with a black dot on either side of the pupil, totalling six dots.

The appearance of his eye evoked the image of a planet with moons orbiting around it.

If one were to zoom into these dots, they’d notice that each one had a Mystic Eye symbol inscribed within them.

With his sword stabbed into the body of the dead six-winged Demon—a Demon Lord—at his feet, the man stared blankly at the sky.

Nevertheless, this man was aware of his surroundings like always.

At his level of power, he was aware of everything that went on around him even if he didn’t want it.

That was why he knew about the approaching platoon of Knights.

Each one exuded the aura of a Transcendent, at least Level 900.

They stopped a few metres behind him, with one of them taking two steps forward before they all dropped to one knee simultaneously.

“Lord Bourne…please.

The Acidity of this rain has been forecasted to reach levels where even you would be affected after long exposure.

Please, take shelter.”

The Knights pleaded with him, but the man said nothing. He remained there for over a minute before finally speaking.

“It was today, wasn’t it?”

There was no context to his words.

But most of them knew what he was talking about. It made their expressions turn dark and even though they knew, they remained silent.

No one wanted to remind the man of the tragedy that occurred on this day years ago.

The man could feel the gazes containing sympathy in their eyes, but he ignored them.

Such things used to anger him in the past, but now, he had grown desensitized to everything, so it mattered not.

He bent down and pulled his sword out of the Demon Lord’s heart, before asking.

“What about the other battlefronts?”

“We recorded victories, My Lord.”

“What of the Dragonlord? I sent her to deal with the Dark Dragon Race Lords with Griselda on Delta?”

Hearing this question, the Knight Captain hesitated for a moment, but he eventually spoke.

“She succeeded…but she sustained some grave injuries and may be out of commission for a while.”

Hearing this, the man only raised a brow in light surprise before ordering.

“She cannot be out of commission. Send Luke. He should do whatever he can to rewind her wounds.”

“But Sir Luke’s soul has been ‘Stained by the Ink of Time’ far too much, my Lord! Any more and…”

The Knight Captain let the sentence hang, alluding to the grim fate that awaited those who were completely ‘Stained by the Ink’.

The price they paid, for their Great power.

“With how severe her wounds are, if he reverses her wounds, he might be completely consumed!”

“Consumed? No, he would not.”

Before the Knight Captain could reply, Lord Bourne waved his hand and tore open the fabric of space, dipping his hand into the tear and retrieving a bottle of strange blue liquid.

“Here. Let him drink this. It’d reduce the ‘Stain’.”

“But, My Lord. Even if he can reduce the Stain, the agony to his soul…”

“It’s just a little bit of pain. He’d get over it.”

Saying that, Lord Bourne turned around and began walking. The Knights parted ways to let him pass and one of the younger knights who had misgivings about his orders wanted to speak up but the Captain grabbed him by the shoulder and shook his head.

Lord Bourne walked forward, then he pierced his sword into the space in front of him and split it open to create a spatial gate, before entering it and disappearing into the void.

As the gate closed up, the young knight finally voiced out his thoughts.

“Sir Luke has suffered far too much. He’s on the frontlines and yet he still has to rewind time over and over.

We both know this would take Sir Luke out of commission, we should have tried to object!”

The Knight Captain had the same thoughts, but he had restrained himself because of the date.

“Any other day, I would have done so without you saying it. But do not forget what today is.”

The young Knight’s eyes widened in shock and that statement prompted another junior knight to ask.

“Was he always…like this?”

“Of course, he wasn’t. And you know that as well.”

One of the Senior Knights replied in place of the Knight Captain, lightly glaring at the Junior Knight who turned his face away.

This Junior Knight knew this as well.

The person he had grown up admiring, the person he had sworn his loyalty to, and the person he wanted to Fight by…was definitely not the man who had just left the area.

“How did he turn out like…”

He glanced at the field of corpses around him, his expression turning difficult as he said.

“…like this?”

Thousands? Tens of Thousands? Maybe even millions. They did not know how many just how many Demon, Dragon and Dark Elf Corpses surrounded him.

Although they were of different races, these corpses all had one similarity.

It was the expression of pure terror immortalized on their faces.

The man looked down at his feet and he saw one Demon with his organs spilling out from his stomach and his frown darkened.

“It’s because of what happened on this day many years ago.”

The Knight Captain held out his hand and let a fistful of green water pour into his palm as he continued.

“It was the day He lost Her.

The day our Lord became a pitiful man, only living because of his Lover’s dying wish.”

Originally, the Heroes were Seven in number.

But that changed one day.

“No one knows the full specifics, but we do know that a plan of the Invaders succeeded, and the Heroes were corrupted, played like puppets on a string.

They were turned against him.”

“It was a sneak attack during a major battle. He never expected it, and neither did I or anyone else there that day.

He had trusted them with his back, and they stabbed Six Blades right to it.

No one saw it coming.

Only She noticed it at the very last moment.

Her magic alone was not strong enough, so she put herself on the line.

The Six blades meant for him, sunk into her instead.

But that…that wasn’t the end of it.”

The Knight Captain’s expression turned grim as he recounted the events that occurred next.

“As it turned out, his death was never their goal. The blades were conduits for dark magic. They sought to corrupt him like the other Six Heroes.

But since the blades got to her instead, she was corrupted in his place.

No power of purification could help her…as such, she became a ‘Corrupted Fallen’.

One so powerful, that only he could put her down.”

Gasps of shock escaped the mouths of the Junior Knights who had never heard of this part of the story.

“She bled out in his arms; her soul was damaged beyond repair. Even her own power of Life could not help her.

I still remember the sight of him cuddling her corpse in his arms in the middle of the battlefield like it was yesterday.

Acid rain fell that day, and its colour which mirrored her aura only served to worsen his pain.”

Now, knowing why the man remained standing under the rain in silence for hours, despite knowing the potential it held to harm him, the Junior Knights had no words to say.

“He wasn’t the kindest around, but he was surely the most amicable. Even those who did not like him had to admit his greatness.

He protected us from our World’s Grim Fates, the ‘Disasters’ that plagued us, even though we did not truly understand his actions.

But now, it seems as if he had not protected us, but had taken our Grim Fates and the karma of all the deaths he prevented upon himself.

Because why…WHY ELSE WOULD FATE DEAL HIM SUCH A HAND?!”

The Knight Captain’s anger surged uncontrollably and his aura burst forth from his body, releasing shockwaves that blew away all the corpses around them.

His comrades placed their hands on his shoulders and calmed him, while one of the Junior Knights suddenly arrived at a terrifying conclusion.

“Wait…then the reason why…he’s the only Hero left…?”

“What do you think? Does Lord Bourne strike you as the one who would let go of the people who caused the death of the one person he cared for the most, even if they were manipulated?”

“…”

The Young Knight went silent upon hearing this, and then he remembered the sight of Lord Bourne’s eyes earlier.

“His left eye…”

“He personally killed them all and gouged out their eyes. That much should tell you all you need to know.

Right now, he is One Hero, but at the same time, he is the Seven Heroes of Aidos all in one.”

As he said this, the Knight Captain clenched his fist and took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing.

“We’ve stayed out too long ourselves. Let’s get to shelter before the Acid Rain gets to us.”

As the platoon of Knights moved to head to the special shelters, the scene panned out, zooming out to reveal the planet floating in space. The view continued to recede, unveiling that everything was encapsulated within a large crystal orb, suspended in the air.

The orb floated between two figures seated facing each other.

A man and a woman.

The man’s left eye, a shade of cerulean blue, glowed in the dark space as he spoke.

“A World Where He Lost Her.

What do you think about this one…”

Raising his head, he looked right at the black-haired and golden-eyed woman opposite him and called her name.

“…Artemisia?”

“…Are you really asking this?”

“Haha! You may have a thing for tragic love stories. I just wanted to make sure.”

The man laughed lightly as he spoke and seeing this, Artemisia shook her head and replied concisely.

“I do not.”

She then looked at the orb hovering between them and seeing her gaze, the man asked.

“This pathway has everything resolved the fastest. He becomes that strong in just two years. Are you sure you do not want this version overlaid upon reality?”

“At what cost does that strength come? The Sacrifices of this timeline are not worth it in my eyes.

Please, Erase it.”

She bowed her head and seeing this, the man smiled wryly as he spoke.

“You care for him a lot more than I thought. Oh well, since you asked so nicely.”

Raising his hand, the man shrunk the orb hovering between them and held it in his palm. With a ‘light’ squeeze, he crushed it, forever destroying this possible future timeline.

Next, he waved his hand and another orb manifested before them, displaying another future timeline, one that did not have him within it.

“This one. Though there are a few parts that I find distasteful…I can introduce variables to deal with them.

Let’s go with this, please.”

Artemisia spoke and the man asked her once more, to confirm if this was truly the reality she wanted.

“Yes. I would like to use this.”

“Very well.

I would compress the details into a memory gem and have it sent to your domain. You can use it to begin making your little game.”

Artemisa bowed in gratitude, but as she rose from her seat, the man’s eyes glowed with sudden inspiration. He spoke again, halting her departure.

“Wait up…how about I do the honours and give it a name? I just thought of one, a very simple name.”

Intrigued by his proposal, the goddess paused and asked.

“What name do you suggest?”

Leaning back on his throne, the man smiled and replied with two words.

“Aidos Online.”