I reincarnated as the Duke from the North.

Kurt

 

I did my best to shield us from the mage's eyes. But it doesn't help that Her Grace glowed so brightly.

Joshua

 

After a trip through my window, a few minutes climbing to the top of the castle, bad qinggong and umbra steps to hide my presence and footsteps, I finally made it to the watchtower that overlooked the castle ground. I dropped onto the dusty floors, dodging the giant bell that hung unused for decades and I make my way down the stairs. With no guards secure on these rarely used stairways, I confidently descended. Three flights of stairs became seven, then twelve, and I watched the grime, dust, and soot coating increase the further I went down. Leaning on my knees, I gathered a breath on the last flight of stairs and I heard voices in the distance. I ran to a wall to hide.

“Here we are, Cell 12. Your new home.”

Charles… I leaned forward with my back to the wall and peeked. By an open cell, guards—two male and one female—escorted a chained prisoner. One armed? Wait… KELLEN!

“Are…they here.” My half-uncle asked.

Silence.

“I ASKED-”

“They are,” Charles answered with a calm voice.

“Good.” The agitated prisoner's voice relaxed.

"Guards, bring him inside." I moved closer. The female guard suspiciously moved around to Charles's back. From her pocket, something shines in the light of candles. “Guards?”

NO!!

“CHARLES! BEHIND YOU!!” My hand reached out with mana tether and lightning travelled along it to the assassin. The female guard stepped away, cleanly avoiding the lightning that devastated the floor. Her arm curled back to throw but her eyes widened. The browned-haired girl smiled with a face that seemed wrong.

“OH OH OH! Deceitful bastards!” the assassin said with her Liuen accent slipping out.

The two male guards pull out their swords, and Charles shields their heavy strikes with mana. “Joshua! Run! They are after you!!” With speed imperceptible to my eyes, she grabbed my long hair and slammed me to the ground. Despite her slim body, she pressed my head down like a bolder.

“Yes, we are.”

Tarion

Close to the mage, I could finally see the damage the seekers had done. I glimpsed at blue and purple sores from blows and spells under his coach driver's clothes. His face was emaciated, and his eyes drooped down sickly. The crown shone in the dark chasm of the ring. The key to his powers.

It smells.

“WHERE IS SHE?!” BRING HER BACK NOW!!”

I backhanded Vel with my left. The clap echoed. A mana shield shattered and I slapped him once more. His head turned, and the slap echoed.

“TARION!!” Vel's hands reached out and I felt space crush me. As I broke through the Teleport spell, Vel took the chance to flee. Mana tethers sprung on his legs and with a whip, I smacked Vel down to the ground.

50 points to sense. 30 points to agility. 25 to intelligence.

“GET-” runes gathered to cut the tethers from his feet and spells formed me. “AWAY FROM ME!!”

My blade became invisible, slicing through every unformed spell with no air resistance. A moment and twenty slashes later, mana burst like fireworks.

“I can withstand a lot.” I dragged my great sword on the floor as I walked slowly toward him with a smile. “How much can you?”

“Fuck, fuck FUCK!!!” Still on the floor, Vel's palm slammed down. “CREO GOLEM!” Rune spread from her fingertips and out of the rubble and stone humanoid rocky golems climbed out of the ground.

“Strike the glow.” My sword brought twenty golems back to rubble with a mana slice through their glowing heads. “And they fall.” I walked closer to the trembling mage.

“Wait!.”

I paused.

“I-I-I will give up on her! Let us be proper partners. For her! F-F-For the future!” Vel spit flew in every direction while he tried to save himself by appeasing me

“Fuck you.” I stepped forward.

“W-w-w-WAIT! Your Grace, I know the true future! Beyond the devastation. Beyond the cursed invasion. Beyond her marriage… there was a great betrayal that plunged the world into further chaos!!”

Mana flared from my sword. “Speak of it then. The great terror that made you crazy.”

Vel smirked. “That is only for important characters to know!!”

Okay, he dies.

“Spatium!” Cal clapped his hands and the rune crown shimmered. “CANALIS!!”

Before I took a step, mana surrounded me.

“FOOL, FOOL FOOOOL!! HAHAHAHA! STRIKE WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!”

105 points in mana capacity.

Teleport spells layer on me. I pushed outward with the strongest mana shield I could muster. Faintly, a new spell formed around me. So richly infused with mana, my heckles rose from a deathly fear.

Shit… I placed my greatsword in my inventory.

Standing up from the ground, Vel wiped the dust off his trousers. “You almost got me. Bravo. But alas, I. Am. Better.” Vel raised his two hands to the sky. “After I dispose of that THIEF, I will visit your grave with Vanessa’s hand in mine. I will keep her safe. Tweak a few things about her. But don't worry. Kyros won't get her this time.” Vel stared at my chest. “And neither will you.” His mana exploded from the Mages body and scattered into the air.

Vel sucked in the air and yelled. “MAGNUS IGNIS!!!”

105 points to vitality.

Bloodline activated.

Joshua

“Charles! CHARLES!” The Liuen woman cracked the floor with my face.

“Silence boy. I have to treat you care but if you rebel-”

Blood flicked on the floor from an axe made of stone. A ‘guard’s’ chest was savaged and another was knocked unconscious by the bear of a man.

“Let him go.” Chucking the chipped axe away, the ground broke apart, floating to Charles' hand to form another axe. The kind man was no more. Charles held the unconscious guard's hair in his fist and drew blood from their neck. “Now!”

Chains fell to the side. “Which Door?” Kellen asked.

“Eat it and you will know.” The liuen woman answered. Kellen dug into his pocket. Holding a black ball in his hands, he sighed. He gulped the ball, struggling to put it down. He shuddered and fell to his knees.

“Uncle!” I pushed off the ground with the liuen’s hand on my head with futile effort.

“Don't call me that.” He stared at me with obsidian eyes, which shifted back to normal with a blink. Standing straight again, a tendril of black searched down the long corridor of cells. Latching onto the door, metal bolts were broken with ease as my uncle pulled.

“Can’t you hear her shallow breaths?" I couldn’t reply. I heard her. I heard her every time I snuck out to visit these cells.

Kellen stepped to the door, twisted in disgust as he looked through the broken doorway. “You should be ashamed...! Your own mother!?” tendrils reached for another door. Out of the busted cell, a skinny prisoner rushed out.

“Finally!”

“Davis, pick her up,” Kellen ordered.

Davis ran to Kellen, and his wide smile sank. “Oh…”

“Take her!” Charles shouted with the intruder's hair in his hand. “Leave him behind or your guard-”

“Stop playing, An.”

“Hehe.” A deep voice laughed. “Yes, mistress.” The captured intruder shuddered and the axe in Charles's right hand was repelled.

"YAH!” the intruder yelled as he elbowed Charles in the rib, which the butler intercepted with a golden palm.

“There is another,” Charles said as his right hand formed a knife with gold. Down like a guillotine, it fell, and the Liuen fell headless. Charles stomped and a chunk of rock thrust the second, injured liuen intruder's neck to his hand.

The weight on my head lessened after Charles's astonished display of strength. I looked up at a woman perplexed and whispering to herself.

“She’s here…”

Charles squeezed on a restless guard's neck. “Shall I repeat myself?”

“No,” Kennel spoke from the other side of the room. Kellen stroked my mother's gaunt cheeks and guilt wrenched my heart. I heard her.

“My…son…Find…him…”

She deserved it. For what she did, she deserved. I told myself for the thousandth time.

Kellen nodded with a reassuring smile. Turning away from my mother, his face contorted with wrath.

“Davis, show the Xiao the way to the Umbra base. I will keep this man company for a while.” “RUN AWAY! GET HELP!” I cried out. Charles ignored. His eyes focused on the intruders.

“Yes, Sir Kellen. Great to see you after so long- XIAO?!”

“Go.”

“O-o-okay. This way, miss.” Bringing my mother in his arms, Davis went down the corridor, ignoring the pleas for freedom of his fellow jailmates.

I was surprised by the intense pain from my hair being pulled up by the deceptively strong woman.

“OW! Watch it, damn bitch!”

"Come, red boy. We have another job to do.” pulling me along like a donkey. I turned back and Charles's hands glowed gold as the dead man's neck squirted blood below him.

“It's heartwarming to see you care about your friends.” Gradually, mist solidified in a shoulder, tricep, bicep, forearm, and inky black hands. “I wish you cared the same for the mother.” Kellen fiddled with his new ebony fingers, testing his new power. He faced his new right arm, and his palm buzzed with lightning.

“You can mourn your friend when we go back home.” Mana ignited and a blast rocked the floor, everything in its path.

“CHARLES!!!” I scratched the woman's arms that pulled me. Trying to wrestle my way out of her vice grip like a stubborn child. “LET GO! CHARLES!!!”

“Quiet.” The liuen woman poked me in the neck and the world went dark.

Kurt

 

She protected me… With light so holy, I couldn't help but throw away my pride and kneel.

Under the stars, with eyes full of golden fire, she walked silently toward the mage. I dare not stop her. I am not worthy.

 

THE DUKE

Stars sparkled above.

Would you like to watch the end? I said to those in the lands above. Smoke covered the stars. I glanced down at the lava under my feet.

All-consuming power burnt off me with a blackish-red aura. The power to do anything. I trained endlessly for this moment. Two circles forged after that night and I finally got the time for the skill to refresh down to two days.

“Mm?” I looked back up and dozens of meters high, the mage stood by the large crater he created, scared shitless. I winked with a toothy grin. A flash-step brought to the top in a blink. “Boo.”

“AAHHHH!!” The mage fell to his bottom. "NO, IT CAN’T BE! I FEEL IT! THE SPELL ISN’T BROKEN. I CAGED YOU!”

“Caged who?”

“Wha…?”

Tethers pulled him up and a fist of uncontrollable power smashed through all his defences. Vel's nose bled, and I struck, punched, and hit. His once handsome face deformed my fist and I continued to change his facial structure each time my knuckle made contact.

“CAGED WHO?”

I hit again.

“Useless!”

I mould his face like clay.

“Did you think changing your face would get her to like you!? Pathetic.”

I brought Vel’s head down by his gorgeous white hair and kneed him in the nose. His head flung back with a new bald spot. I dragged Vel down again by his crown and another knee caused and mana explosion. Fragments of solid gold fell and tears fell from the pathetic man's brown eyes.

If I hit him anymore, he won't be able to speak, let alone breathe. I ripped through the last of his mana shields and made him vomit blood with uppercuts to his intestines.

“WHO!?”

Vel coughed red, hanging from my tethers like meat on butcher hooks. “CURSE YOU! I WILL RATHER LET THE WORLD BURN! He won't win again. I WON'T LET HIM!!”

Mana turned into a blade on my right hand and I dug into the stomach of the wailing mage. I twisted and pushed in the blade. The louder his cry, the more my smile grew wider.

“You know what? I can ask Vanessa later. Spells break when the caster has died, right?”

“Not always.” An authoritative voice spoke. A staff tapped me on the arm that pieced Vel.

“It's over, son.” A powerful man, robed in clothes I had only seen in books. His skin was dark like bark. His black hair almost knotted into locs at the tip of his afros.

"Yes, it is, Seeker.” I dug deeper with my mana blade.

“The mage tower requires his knowledge of runes.”

“And the future. You were watching, weren't you? Ooooh, so my knowledge is no longer useful, huh? Mm… Best I kill him. Keep my value.”

A crystal on the seeker's staff glistened. “The crystal that you are threatening me with was given graciously to your cranks by my household. Wouldn’t wanna piss off your only supplier.”

The crystal dimmed and I felt Vel tremble on my mana blade.

“I know things.” Vel yacked, and blood bounced off an invisible force like rain on an umbrella.

I turned back to the coward, shuddering from blood loss. “Trying to save yourself again?”

“The betrayer. The… unworthy. Protect…Vanessa…from Kyros!!”

Hands of golden fire clasped on Vel’s throat.

“CURSED BEING,” my wife said.