Snippet from Reincarnated! Again, regular posts will begin either this Friday or Monday.

King Kadra, the ruler of the northern wall within the great Jade Empire, conqueror of the dark realm, and banisher of shadows kneeled before the funeral shrine to his wife, and wept silent tears of rage and grief. Her likeness would be etched with the other two, never to be lost to time, memory, or war. Forever kept in likeness here on the loadstone of his family's shrine.

This place of remembrance was a library of the words and deeds of those of Kadra’s family who had died. Their journals, chronologies, and histories recorded by scholars filled the shelves around the room he now kneeled in.

Far too many of the most recent entries in this place had been during Kadra’s reign. And none of them had seen a peaceful end. Almost all of them were his children. Hundreds of names, and their deeds recorded in the books and on the plaques that festooned the walls, and his heart ached for all of them. They represented nearly all his progeny over the long years of life a near immortal cultivator like him endured. In his case, nearly all of which were spent fighting, and defending his people.

But there was love there too. Kadra knew that to find true love, a companion who could match you in every way, was a rare and precious thing that few people ever experienced. And he had found it. Three times.

And three times it had been stolen from him.

The monarch lifted his head from the floor, and touched the relief of his long departed wives. They had all been his companions, his friends, confidants, and equals. They had been meant to walk with him upon his ascension out of this world and into the greater cosmos itself. But they had died. All of them had passed on, beyond his reach and touch. Even the Gods who occasionally whispered to him, could not touch that place, where mortal souls went.

Kadra had desperately hoped this latest one, a genius cultivator, magician, and warrior who had nearly caught up to him along the great path of cultivation, would step with him outside the world and ascend alongside him. She had been on her way here to their capital city fortress for just such a purpose. To prepare herself for the final push to the Queen stage, so that together they might make the attempt to ascent beyond.

But as she had traveled, bandits struck. One of them, somehow, was a dragon blooded warrior. That monster's power had allowed the bastard to steal his wife's life from him, along with every member of their family who had been accompanying her. Nearly half their still living progeny, along with the last of his children that had survived from his first and second wifes.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Sha’ra had killed the bastard. But had herself taken a mortal blow. With the rest of the caravan dead to a man, the baby hadn’t lasted much longer. The cold had stolen the air from her crying lounges mere moments after Kadra had arrived at the scene.

At least I got to hold the baby before the end. The thought filled him with a bitter sorrow, and rage tainted its edges. But he had to maintain control. Someone with his power, and authority, could damage everything around him with only a momentary slip of his will.

Kadra lit another incense stick, this one made from the ground horn of a strange horse-like spirit-beast on the far western side of the continent. One with vaunted healing properties. The magic soothed his embittered soul, and tempered his rage.

“Bandits. What a lie,” he whispered quietly in the shrine. The ghosts that haunted the place did not respond. “You will pay for this betrayal, my dear emperor.”

The words spoken, the truth acknowledged, his rage became an unbridled river. It spilled out of him, suffusing his mana and chie in equal measure, as his aura ran wild around him. For the first time in centuries the full force of his wrath was unleashed.

Winter wind howled around him, the ancient stone spirits under foot yawned awake as they answered his wrathful call.

They all heard him. The winds he had used to lay entire armies to ruin whispered thoughts of cold vengeance. The stone under foot that ran along the ancient wall rumbled its wrath, promising him justice and demanding to know who would dare test him. The Truth, or Dao in them was heavy, granting the elemental spirit's weight in the mortal world, and it resonated with his Authority.

He shared with them his rage. His thoughts, and his memories. What he had felt holding his gasping and frostbitten baby daughter as she fought for her last desperate breaths. What it was like to lose his last love, seeing her body burned. What little was left of her skin covered in purple boils and blisters.

And finally the betrayal upon finding the dead body of the Dragon-blooded. Whose bloodline clearly showed he had been a member of the imperial family.

The Winter Tiger yowled in rage, his spirit-animal companion joining Kadra’s bonded spirits in their outcry for justice. And then, as if something deep in the world had shifted, all went quiet. A sense of calm came over the links he had with all of his allies and companions.

Then, as if the Truth of the world, The Dao itself in its purest form had shown itself to him, he Understood.

He threw himself into a cultivation stance, and the world around him shivered and warped, a mere side effect of what he had begun. His companions fed mana and chie into him, rivers of the densest magic and life energy he had ever seen were at his disposal now.

He was ready. But this was going to take a while.

Barghast! He shouted mind to mind with his companion. He felt the presence of the Winter Tiger in his mind. Waiting for his orders. Tell my children, those that still live, to begin. My Ascension is at hand, and the Empire will soon have two Emperors.