He stared at the shattered ceiling within the ruins of his Castle, he had been defeated by his greatest adversary in a great battle that had demolished his castle, his seat of power.
This is no different from back then, He thought as he clenched his right fist and he turned his gaze towards his opponent. A brave young woman with a tired look on her face, her armour had been shattered and her sword had been split into two thanks to their duel. Despite her sorry state, she had gotten off far better than he was since his entire armour had been disabled, and his legs and left arm had been sliced off his body.
He was once an Emperor that had ruled and dominated the world with an iron fist, enslaving those that he deemed inferior and taking all the wealth for himself and himself alone. His greed and desire to dominate the world under his own hands had led to an endless cycle of rebellion with each level of brutality would escalate each time it would happen.
However, this finally led to the final rebellion led by this young woman whose father had been part of his inner circle. He smiled underneath his mask as he took off his helmet and stared at the skies as Dusk began to set in.
He remembered being a young boy, afraid of the world around him, but was determined to survive whatever it takes.
Oh, how the passage of time changes the soul, He sighed wondering what had gone wrong with him to turn from that scared boy into the monster that he was today, he finally took a deep breath as he felt his heartbeat wane and his vision began to darken.
"What are you waiting for?" He said looking at her as she was struggling to stand due to exhaustion and her wounds, it wasn't a taunt it was far from it, he wasn't satisfied in bleeding out like a wounded animal left to die. If he were to die here then it would be in the hands of the person that had bested him in combat. The young woman was surprised that he was still capable of speaking despite the wounds he had sustained. She grabbed the broken sword and carefully walked towards him wondering what would be his next move.
"I knew your father, he was a smart man but I never expected his flesh and blood to become a traitor like the rest." He asked struggling to sit up and propped himself against a shattered pillar and looked at her with a dissatisfied look. In between this, he would hear the sounds of a woman wailing in pain between those moments of silence, this further infuriated him which made him all the sourer at his defeat.
"Traitor? No, it was you who betrayed us." She said as she finally stood before him. "I have seen the things you have done for the Empire, the infrastructure, the reforms, you could have led us into a golden age. And yet you threw it all away for your greed and trampled over the very people that looked up to you!"
Was that disappointment in her eyes? He wondered as he looked at her with confusion as she continued to lecture him on his wasted potential to become a great Leader but he had thrown it all away. Could he have been a great ruler? All he cared about was his self-being as the reason he took the throne on his desire for power and nothing more. His mind was slowly beginning to waver, and the sound of that woman crying wasn't helping his line of thought as he remained silent from what he is seeing right now.
"You amuse me Girl," He laughed as his vision began to fade in and out and during those moments he would continue to see darkness as he felt his body grow cold. If he were to bleed out then he would at least spend his last few moments verbally tormenting the girl for her actions. "You admire my acts and yet here you are turning your blade against me? You hypocrite."
"So be it, but listen well and remember this," She answered as she drove her broken sword at his chest, impaling his heart and causing him to choke on his blood as the wails of the woman grew louder and louder. "You could have been remembered as the Greatest King of your time and yet you chose yourself."
"I see." He made a noise that was more or less a mix of both a cough and a laugh as he looked at her one more time, this time with full sincerity and admiration for her courage and wisdom. "Had things been different…that might be possible…"
And then his vision began to fade out leaving his consciousness in pure darkness.
He was dead.
So this is the afterlife, He thought to himself as he drifted into the darkness. Eventually, he heard a voice call out to him. This time it was a young man reaching and calling out to him, or that's what it felt like as he saw a glimmer of light from the distance.
"You are a Dirus," The Young man told him as he extended his hand towards the light like a moth drawn to a flame. "You must fight my son."
Where am I? He asked as he started to cry and look around and found two people in white who were taking turns congratulating the couple as they held him and a baby girl next to him who was crying as well.
"Well, how about that!" The young man smiled at the young woman next to him who started to cry tears of joy as the young man handed the two of them to her. He is a fairly rugged yet handsome-looking young man in his mid-twenties with dull auburn brown hair and bright blue eyes as he looked at him proudly.
"A great pair of lungs!" He explained as the young woman hugged them both. She was a beautiful young woman that looked as though she had never once experienced hardship in her life, with sandy blond hair and bright green eyes as she was still crying tears of joy.
Hold on!
"Hello, my children." She said as she gave them both a kiss on the forehead she then looked up at the young man with a happy look on her face.
Have I been reincarnated? He thought as she continued to hold him there happily further throwing his line of thought into confusion. It was the first time he had someone to hold him with such love and happiness, something that he had never experienced once in his old life.
A life that had been filled with nothing but struggle and hardship.
"Have you thought of their names?" His pondering was quickly interrupted as he turned his attention again to the young couple who were happily looking at him, once that look of love was present that it was unnerving him.
"Mark," His Father said excitedly while He, or rather Mark, was mildly disappointed but chose to go along with it. Moments later the father would also celebrate and name the girl, most likely his twin sister, Miriam causing all of them present to celebrate.
Mark huh? Well, it's way better sounding than his old name anyways compared to Marchosias. It sounds more like a short version of it. Mark thought to himself as his parents happily embraced them to his surprise.
Is this what it means to be a family? Mark wondered to himself as the two continued to talk, growing up as an orphan he knew little of such concepts. It was after all the main reason why he was driven purely by greed and domination. Such a strange feeling this is.
[The Second Advent]
Years had gone by, Mark is now seven years old by this world's standards. And during those seven years, he had tried his best to learn everything within that world. Which itself was a difficult endeavour on account that he is still a seven-year-old and he cannot just reveal himself to be a reincarnation of an older man.
Nonetheless, he was still able to learn a handful of things from the world around him.
First, the world around him. It appears to be an advanced civilization, or rather far more advanced than the world he was once in, as various stone towers can be seen from the distance.
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They currently live in what appears to be a small settlement built around the ruins of a metal warship, life within the settlement was no different to that of a small village back in his world but what made it different was these strange metallic devices that people seem to revolve their world around it while they are operated by what appears to be an advanced form of electric magic. While he was not proud of it, Mark had spent much of his time studying and trying to learn these machines only to his shame these devices are used for mundane utilities such as cleaning clothes, cooking and preserving foodstuffs all of which are nothing more than mundane objects meant to make things easier for them.
But what caught his interest were the weapons used by those that live in the settlement, while the traditional weapons that they used were still present such as swords, spears, axes, and even bows, he noticed that they were armed with what seemed to spear that unleashed small spheres of kinetic energy that is accompanied with a loud noise.
Though what seems to baffle him is that while they are somewhat more advanced they appear to be stuck in some form of primitive state as the small settlement has small metallic walls, likely salvaged from the warship, which is usually meant to keep out wild animals or in worse cases Humans who are less than keen in negotiating.
Mark sighed as he stared out the window from his own home in the living his mother was busy preparing and so came the second thing he had learned, His family.
His father, Joshua Dirus, was a soldier that spends his days training men and women to form what seems to be a militia of sorts that is meant to protect the settlement from any threats. Mark had seen his father once or twice training them, though it was clear that Joshua appeared to be far stronger than he lets on as he is just holding back in training them.
Handsome, strong and dependable. I would not be surprised that Joshua would be the type to win over people and become a leader. Whoever is leading the settlement must be far superior both in body and in spirit to surpass him. Mark surmised as he watched him continue to train young men and women who were training out in the centre of the settlement. His eyes then landed on his mother who was now outside talking to other young women, some older, some younger than her while Miriam, his twin sister who in terms of appearance was more or less Mark's female counterpart with curlier hair similar to that of his mother's hair, was sitting next to her while eating snacks as they talked.
His mother Mary Dirus operates as a nurse that works for the doctor in the clinic. Incidentally, she is also the most beautiful woman in the settlement with many jokingly envying Joshua for being able to win her over, suggesting that she was a strong-willed woman who isn't easily swayed by empty words of lesser men.
She must be pretty popular with the other women too given how they always turn to her for advice or just for small talk, Mark wondered as he used this opportunity to sneak out of the living room and made his way towards the study where his parents would occasionally store their books.
Among other things that borderline traumatized him despite his experiences.
The third thing he learned was the language barrier, while he had spent his first three years struggling with learning how to speak and read, which nearly caused worry within his parents as they feared that he might have some learning difficulty when in reality adapting to a new language was far harder than what Mark remembered. But by the time he had reached the age of five, he was now literate and he wasted no time trying to learn and study with the hoard of books that his parents had kept.
The first book he grabbed was a book was the history of Ortus, which was the name of the world he was born into.
"This would do," He said with a tired sigh silently cursing himself for struggling in carrying this book as he began to flip through the pages while lying on his stomach to read them. But before he can start turning he sensed movement, this caused him to panic and attempted to close the book and—
"I knew it."
He slightly paled as he saw Joshua leaning in the doorway with a smile on his face as he walked towards Mark with an amused smile.
"Looks like I caught myself a little bookworm," Joshua teased as he picked up a book but his eyes furrowed as he discovered he was reading a somewhat advanced book. "Don't you think this is too much for a kid?"
"I was curious?" Mark said unable to find a good excuse to use on his father, which was odd as in his past life he was more prone to improvised works, especially as a child. Perhaps a side effect of his rebirth is that his mind was still immature and lacked knowledge.
"Well if you want to read books I got one for you," Joshua said slightly unconvinced by his excuse and instead pulled out a simpler book, which he had already read in the past in less than a minute, and handed it to him.
"Also why not go outside and read there," Joshua suggested as Mark tucked them under his arm he took his hand and the two walked out of the house.
"I guess," Mark relented, plus he wanted to get a taste of the fresh air anyways. But as soon as he was out of the house, Mark would proceed to make a beeline towards the nearby lake. It was a common place for children around his age to be playing around there but Mark, would sit quietly underneath a tree which gave him a clear view of the entire lake for the children, plus a few adults who came to supervise them, continued to play around.
"Ugh, Mark is here."
He heard one of the boys from the settlement looking at him as they were busy playing with a ball. Despite being the son of the famed Joshua Dirus, the man responsible for ensuring the peace and security of the Settlement, Mark was by far from popular as many of the children found him strange as they preferred spending time with his twin instead and Mark, in turn, would just leave them to their devices and read silently. Mark didn't mind though since this meant he can spend his time reading and studying the world rather than just fooling around with other children. Though Mark had a feeling that had he not been born as Joshua's Son he might have ended up being bullied by the other children.
"This again?"
And then came this annoyance. Mark thought to himself as he looked up to find a feminine-looking boy at least a year older than he was, where Mark has his father's long auburn hair and his mother's green eyes, this boy has very short pinkish white hair and aquamarine eyes as he bore holes into Mark's figure.
"I like reading," Mark said trying his best not to ignore him. Unlike the other boys and girls that live in the Settlement who found him strange and thus agreed to just ignore him while they form their little playgroup, this boy on the other hand decided to make it a personal mission to befriend him. A real goody two shoes are what Mark thought of this boy, worse of all is that this boy would constantly try to get him to join in the games the other children were up to but neither Mark nor the other children were thrilled at that idea, and in those cases, there are only two results; the boy would succeed and Mark would play along with them, or he would give up and call it a day.
And then the boy would come over again and the cycle would repeat. Though the truth is told, the boy's presence didn't bother Mark very much. It was oddly refreshing for him despite being persistent and at times annoying. The only downside is that he needs to be extra nice towards him because this boy, Gray Archiman, is the son of Aina Archiman, the Master of the Settlement known as Dahlia and thus his Father's Superior.
Another thing to note is that the settlement he lives in is part of a greater series of Settlements, according to his father the Archimans have control over three Settlements thus making them somewhat of a powerful family. While Mark found the idea underwhelming as it was just three settlements, this also gives him the idea of how blasted the world of Ortus is that the idea of having a series of Settlements alone is considered a force to be reckoned with.
That being said, he was told by his parents that he must be on good terms with the Archiman's son because of their livelihood and standing within the Settlement. That alone was easy, as in his early years that was his method of getting close to people he deemed powerful and superior.
"But this isn't the time for reading, This is the time for playing! Can you see how wonderful today is?" He said placing his hands on his hips in annoyance. "By the order of the Master of Dahlia, you must play with the other children."
Mark paused his reading and fought the urge to laugh at his futile attempts of asserting dominance. But he can work with this, if he carefully played his cards right he can make Gray Archiman become the next Master with him as his right hand. From the looks of things, Gray already knows that he is from a family of prestige so all he needs to do is to just win his favour and he can easily make his way to the top.
Yes, I can already see the possibilities in that path, but first. Mark thought as he took a deep breath and looked at the lakeside to find the other children who were busy having fun and playing in the water.
"They don't seem to like me very much." Mark pointed out as he set aside his book and looked at Gray who was still standing over him with a disapproving look. "That's because you look so gloomy and creepy all the time," Gray said without hesitation.
Listen here, you insolent child. Mark thought frowning at him and fighting the urge to punch him for that insult. But before he can comment on that insult, Gray quickly grabbed him by the wrist and helped him up.
"Do not worry, if you stick by my side you will be able to make friends. I'll even help you." Gray said smiling at him.
Mark smiled as he thought about it. Studying the history of Ortus it was clear to him that this isn't the same world that he had to claw his way to the top. A world filled with infinite possibilities and thus giving him a chance to start over and try again, perhaps this time in this new world he can grow up and become the new ruler of this world, it may take some time as he is still a seven-year-old but he was certain that using the skills he had acquired in his past life as Marchosias he can become a ruler this time through careful manipulation instead of fear.
Yes, I can see the benefits of this new world. Mark thought to himself quietly smiling as Gray ended up strong-arming him and a few other children into playing games with him on that lazy afternoon. This new world is filled with infinite possibilities for me.