I reincarnated as the Duke from the North.

The Duke

Pirn

Fighting an Old Man.

My sword rebounded off a thick dome of mana. I stepped back with a flash step as the Vioden warrior spun backwards to slash.

“Old man.” I rested my great sword on my shoulder. “Name.”

“You’re not worthy of my name, scoundrel!!” The warrior's sword flared and swung with a crescent blue wave of mana. Keeping my feet still I point my toward the mana slice.

Azure was replaced by white on my Greatsword. Stable Qi hummed as I inhaled.

Rushing water.

Sword and mana slice touch. Mana grazed my blade and with subtle movements, I redirected the attack to the side.

The old warrior flung mana flew at me with intensity, slicing dozens of times in the air. With each slice I diverted, I took a step forward to the storm.

I punctured the air, leaping with flash. I slashed, colliding into the Viodian’s mana shield. I mana sawed into the shield and the wall shattered. The warrior guarded high with his blade and my strength Forced him down on his knees with a sore arm.

Distressed, the Vioden asked “Sixth circle! Who are you?!” He pushed me off to stand in a two-handed defensive stance.

I smiled, “I asked first.”

The warrior spread his feet on the debris-covered floor and lowered his stance.

“Sir Givens. Seventh circle knight of Vioden.”

The quivering fellow behind the wall must be important for such a man to abandon his army.

“And you.”

I chuckled to myself, as I sent my greatsword back to my inventory and a jian replaced it. Arm behind my back, I waved my sword forward.

“Sir Givens. Look into my eyes.”

Eyebrows scrunched in confusion, lift in shock. The elder's whole body erupted with blue mana. “Greystone…”

“It's fun being famous. Always gets Me the greatest reactions.” a flick of the wrist and cut in the air, shooting out a small mana slice. Givens guarded his face with a mana shield and with veteran's experience he arched his sword to protect his left thigh. A diagonal slice from him almost cut my chest before I leaned. In the compromised position, I attacked back with a glowing stab to Givens' face.

My Jian bounced off the shield and the veteran advanced to strike again from my left side. Parrying away the strike with my Jian, I lunged into Givens’ armoured shoulder and felt my sword pierce through flesh. I stepped back as a heavy slash destroyed the ground. I flicked my blade again and Sir Givens’ blocked the mana aimed at his face. Givens’ collected a mass of bright mana, carving a wide groove as he sliced.

Open.

With a flash I disappeared, moving faster than Givens’ eyes could sense, a strike broke through steel and mana amour. As his blood sprayed from his abdomen on the floor, the injured knight lifted his sword high. A loud tired roar and a sword blazing

blue, Givens made a desperate attack, his man cut into the ceiling as he slashed.

A rock, sturdy and still, braces against the washing waters.

Qi on my Jian parried the manor destroying slice to my right. My enhanced strength lodged the Viodian's blade into the ground. From my back, knuckles whitened.

No shield.

A flicker Jab imbued with Qi broke Givens’ chest plate. Passing through metal, Givens’ sternum turned to powder and the old warrior flew into the hole into an office and crashed into a trophy wall.

“Weak for a seventh but a great battle-”

“GIVENS!!”

Climbing over the broken wall, I turned to the right and a terrified

Redhead noblely dressed shouted next to a mysterious, cloaked pale man.

Is that… HA!

“The lands above have given me a great gift today. And you brought me a summoner too!”

Coughing blood and his chest concave, the knight held his hand up.

“Run…RUN!!” He said using the lawst of his strength

“Shit!! Hold him back!”

Hearing footsteps, I glimpsed a redhead running away, leaving his cloaked friend behind.

“Come back, Harold! I must thank you-Shit.” The Vioden’s cold eyes stare at the ground as I watched Harold with Life-Sight through the walls and something winds around my legs. Looking down, a black mist tangled around my legs.

“So you can use it that way…”

I ran, exploding the floor with my charge. Slipping past tendrils of mist coming to me.

“I have been searching for you a lot since you ran away in that forest.”

Cutting more mist tentacles with my sword I pressed forward till I was less than a metre away. My Jian put away into my inventory, I grasped the summoner's arms as he controlled the mist. Like a wet towel, I whipped hard enough to pull his arms from his shoulder sockets. As the summoner screamed I twisted both arms until his shoulder tissue ripped. Enhanced with qi, my kick devastated the summoner’s knees. Letting his useless arms go, a quick jab knocked out the summoner before he fell to the ground.

“Stay put, Okay?”

The allocation window near my fingers, I concentrated my points into speed and ran through the corridors following Harold's life pulse. I shot a mana pulse at the basement door and down a flight of stairs an underground winery had been altered to have space for a summoning circle painted in blood. Flies buzzed about the dead that lay on the corners of the room.

Just like Mouve…

Out of a small room, Harold pulled a dirty, roughed-up boy by his arm. I summoned the sword of Osberg and levelled it at the redhead.

“Release the boy.”

Standing still under my glare, Harold's eyes looked between me, Keith and a strange ball of condensed mist the size of a jawbreaker. An exasperated sigh came from his mouth as he made a judgment.

Throwing away the boy, Harold swallowed the ball of mist. Not wanting to deal with any fuckery, I shot multiple mana bullets as the Wolfburn heaved and trembled from what he consumed. The Third circle blocked the energy blast with a weakening shield.

“Kieth! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!! Kelly’s waiting for you!!” I pointed to the exit with my thumb. At the mention of his sister's name, the boy sprinted away.

Still shooting my bullets, Harold’s shield regeneration at a faster rate. Its transparent blue changed to greyish black.

“Fuck me.”

Fast fingers twitched as I reorganised my stat points to be strength and mana-capacity focused. I dashed in and I flared my greatsword brighter than the candles that lit the underground winery. Jumping high, my glowing sword fell on the shield and a hand grabbed it instead.

Harold smiled wide with blackened eyes. I felt my greatsword being pulled towards him and instinct used the wind to drift my head bacon from his punch of black mist. I dematerialised my blade and danced off the air.

Not again.

“Do you like, Greystone?” The Wolfburn hunched like a beast. A black mist covered his blade.

“So many lives…The Wolfburns haven’t fallen far enough to depend on the sacrifices of innocent people. If your father hears of this.”

“He won't ever, boy. All witnesses will die.” Launching from the ground with newfound strength, I veered away from a lunge that switched into a downward slash. My greatsword materialised to protect my left shoulder, bending my knees while I held back against Harold's power.

He is not as strong as Hymir. Not enough sacrifices? Is the quality of the souls not high enough?

I spun, letting the mist blade slide down my sword to the floor. I revved all six circles and my mana blade grew until its tip pierced the winery’s ceiling. I swung down on the stone, missing a fleeing Harold. I flash-stepped out of the several metre deep crater, to follow.

Skipping backwards, Harold jabbed into the air, shooting out a thrust of energy. Three flash steps allowed me to evade each blast. I thrust with my own energy and sparks of mana essence burst into the air as our blasts met each other.

The angry Wolfburn halted his retreat. “Since our last meeting, your hand on my neck has plagued my nightmare. Today you pay for that humiliation!”

“Hey, man. Ain’t normal to think of another man like that. Unless you swing that way. I don’t mind, I have family members-”

“CEASE YOUR CHATTER, CHILD AND DIE!” A furious Harold burst through the air leaving a white atmosphere in his wake, lunging with a mass of black on his blade. I angled my blade to the floor on my right.

Oh.

I sidestepped with my back to the left and I lifted my greatsword up with great speed and Qi-imbued muscles. Harold stood befuddled as he gawked at his sword stuck in the ceiling.

“Information was right about you.” Harold slowly looked down at his chest. Despair still showed in his dark eyes as I pushed my greatsword deeper.

“You can’t fight at all. Now it makes sense that the 2nd born child was treated far worse than his younger brothers. Makes me almost feel sorry for you. I can relate too well.”

I yanked my blade, pulling blood and pieces of bone from the hole. Still living, Harold collapsed to his hands and knees, wheezing on ruined lungs. I crouched with him.

“I understand feeling weak. Feeling useless. But resort to… Tell me. What are the cult's aims and maybe I won't tell your father of this.”

“Haha…”

Laughing?

“To think it would end like this. I am sorry, little sister, father…”

Tears fall from the middle-aged Wolfburn's eyes. How is he still talking? Nay, how is he still alive? Fuck answers.

I stood up and raised my blade high.

Harold kneeled with his back straight, and with a crazed smile he stared directly at me.

“I just have to kill you. No matter the cost”

Mist slithered from the cavity in his chest and a pulse of energy pushed my mana shield.

Dust obstructed my vision but l

Life-Sight saw a clouded man's life pulse flicker as he stood up. My wind blew the dust away and a tendril of mist sonic boomed in my direction. I weaved to the right, cutting up the mist vine with a mana saw. A two-handed guard deflected three vines as they targeted my head, chest, and belly. The misty vines retracted into a large blob of flowing black fog. Always moving and mixing, the cursed monster could not retain a shape resembling anything living. I assessed the situation with Life-Sight.

The mist does not doesn't register on my system but is invisible to Life-Sight.

Although his life pulse was weak, I noticed Harold floating, still alive in the blob.

It is sustaining him, as the curse still needs a body to tether to. But that also means it has a weak point.

I tapped the air again.

Agility, some on the senses. Umm… capacity too.

I hit away a mist tendril and a grin crossed my face as I crouched low. Grabbing the floor with my empty hand while my greatsword was to my right with a tail stance. I coiled my body like a spring. Qi settled deep in my bone and muscle tissue in a warm, refreshing bath. Life-Sight saw my target in the guggling mass.

My mana essence extended outward, binding and resonating with the air around me. My clothes, cloak, and hair billow in the soft wind.

My ring hummed.

I am safe.

Mana repulsing from my soles, I lunched spritely like a gazelle. I made my own slipstream as I rocketed ahead with jets of mana. The cursed blob wiggled as if it sensed my approach and hundreds of vines zoned in on me. I jumped above one, hitting away second. Air spun away from a third while I sliced into seven tendrils with rapid slashes. I twirled in the air as a tendril cut into my nose, and mana jets propelled me closer to the mass of curses. Hundreds more grow out, hungry for new body

There is a gap.

Concentrating my energy into a large mana blade, I threw my greatsword up twenty or so centimetres and hooked my index and middle fingers on my pommel. I judged the distance as the mist closed in. Throwing with mana repulsing from my fingertips, I threw my greatsword with Qi-enhanced strength, blowing a hole in the air. Producing a sonic boom, the greatsword just passed through the hole plunging into the swirling curse. Although stuck to its hilt, it failed to touch the barely alive body floating.

“Ah, shit.”

Qi hardening my skin, I protected my face with the back of my gloved right hand. My left flicked up at a tendril dissipating the mist with repulsion. Like swatting away mosquitoes, my hands blur into thousands. I flipped forward in the air, evade a vine, and kicked it to the ceiling. Hundreds more come from behind as a thousand mist tendrils surround me. With no escape in sight, I set my eyes on the stuck sword.

I need to push it in.

I inhaled untill my chest was full of air and I yelled. The air shook with my mana essence as it pushed away the thousands of tendrils.

With a blast of mana and the guidance of the wind, my vision stretched. Light-Sight saw the target I soared for. I called Daggers from my inventory into my hands and I hacked at the mist vines like a blender.

“Hmph, closer…” arms swung as a thousand more tendrils attacked me. Just a few metres of cutting.

“MISTER! HELP!” Light Sight saw behind me a boy pulled by invisible tentacles around his legs.

Why didn't he... "Bloody kids.”

A sphere of mana encased me and I hovered in the air. As tendrils poked against the shield, I pulled my hands to my waist, forming vacuums in my palm, sucking in the air. With the atmosphere condensed to two points, I let my shield down.

“WHEN I SAY I RUN, I MEAN RUN, DAMMIT!”

A big push and two tornadoes unleashed from my hands drill through, puncturing through the wall of mist. Mana propelled me into the hole and my greatsword waited for me. Right fist hardened by Qi, my knuckles met the end of the greatsword's pommel.

The mist poofed, vanishing back to the ether, unveiling from the fog the Sword of Osberg impaled in Harold's neck. Deadeyes stared at the ceiling, a single tear fell as I ripped out my sword, decapitating the Wolfburn.

I sighed "Geez, a bit tough but got there in the end!” From the floor, I picked up my prize by his hair.

“Sir!” Keith ran up with a big smile on his sooty face. “Thank you so much-”

“You were watching, weren't you?”

The boy twiddled his fingers and his eyes shied away.

Can't blame him. I would too.

I sent my sword back to my inventory. “If you can still listen to instructions, follow me out of here.”

Walking for the exit, the boy scurried behind,d taking quick looks at the headless body.

“Keith,” I said on the stairs. “Eyes straight”

“Are you a mercenary? A knight?”

“Better. I own an army of them.”

From the basement stairs, the sound of war became louder as we went to the front gate. Opening the gate, I saw five of my men fight off a group of eleven with spears.

“Wait a bit, Keith.” I pounced with Harold in my hand. I swung, materialising my greatsword midswing into a second circle's arms. I flash stepped to the right, cutting through metal amour with a razor-sharp mana blade. I parried a third’s sword and gifted him with a mana thrust that shocked his comrades into running away.

“Guard.”

“Orders, Your Grace!”

“ Protect the boy.” My sword pointed at Keith. “I take him to a safe place. Also, you will find a maimed occultist inside the premises. Bind him and keep an eye on him.”

“YES, YOU GRACE!”

I stabbed my blade into the dirt road to take a Charles-made stamina pill.

Gonna be a long night.

I waited for an answer.

Be…well…See… tomorrow.

A step moved me metres in less than a second. Two heads twirled around as I sliced wind, killing four in a single swing. Viodians flee on fast feet. But mine were faster. One two three spines cut.

“Whew.” I rolled my shoulder, already feeling the effects of the pills i pulled my sword out and flew for war.

Head dripping red on the roofs, I land on a roof by the village gates where my men battle with fervour. I breathed in, infusing the air in my lungs with mana.

“LISTEN ALL!!” I yelled with mana projecting my voice. I lifted the head in my left hand by its red hair. “YOUR LEADER DEFEATED. YOUR LORD’S HEAD, I HOLD. YOU HAVE NOTHING!”

The fighting stilled. All eyes look up to me. “I would, as is the norm, order for your surrender, be patient and take the time to integrate you into my corps. But the thought of it DISGUSTS me.” I placed the head on the roof and my sword burned blue. I raised my greatsword point to the dark cloudy sky above. “THIS VILLAGE ONCE BUSY WITH LIFE, WITH HUMOUR WITH, JOY IS AS DEAD YOUR SOULS.”

Wind floated me above the army while I allocated points from Strength to Agility Mana Capacity and Senses.

“YOU SERVED MEN WILLING TO SCARIFICE MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FOR FLEETING POWER.”

My sword illuminated the area with its azure light.

“POWER I DEFEATED WITH EASE.”

Videos look upon me with despair spread around the leaderless army. “THERE IS NO RUNNING OR HIDING FROM YOUR SINS. FOR THE MOMENT YOU PICKED A SWORD AGAINST THE INNOCENT WAS THE DAY YOUR FATE WAS SEALED!” I shifted my greatsword to my left thigh, letting my mana hum as it charged.

“Men. No Vioden soldier leaves here breathing.”

To a thousand eyes I disappeared. My Greatsword wrecked bodies before the air boomed. Slicing and dicing, my sword ripped apart men. First, second or even fifth my sword would cut them all down as I zipped around the battlefield like a blue and black bullet. Arms and legs flopped to the ground with entrails. Dancing past attacks with flash, my blade smashed into mana shields and armours crushing bone faces, ribs and legs. I heard the yell of my men joining the fight and continued with the slaughter. I skidded to a stop, and my sword flared like a dozen blue bonfires.

“GO DOWN!”

I swung.

A wave of blue incinerated all it cuts through. A hundred torsos fall with the other halves smoking.

I glanced down at a frightened young Vioden soldier hugging the ground. Trembling, his piss ran down his breeches. A mana bullet to the head saved the boy from a worse death. My men stand up. Uninjured as they followed my orders. Proud faces revered me.

I punched the air. “FOR PIRN!”

“GREYSTONE!! GREYSTONE!! GREYSTONE!! GREYSTONE!!”

Their cheer shook the ground underneath me and with every stomp and clap, it slowly filled me with more drive. The passion of war. The danger of death at every cut. The all-encompassing feeling of triumph felt by all as we lived to see another day. I squeezed my fist with uncontainable happiness.

This world fits me too well.

“GREYSTONE!! GREYSTONE!! GREYSTONE!! GREYSTONE!!”

A while later.

Sitting by a blazing fire, I poured water on my beautiful blade, rinsing off today’s blood and human remains. With Keith sent to his sister, I watched over the disposal of the bodies while an unconscious summoner lay bound on the ground next to me.

“Your Grace.” Marquess Bradshaw the Marshal of today's battle paced up to me holding his helm in the arm. He bowed. “I have apologies. I questioned your reasoning for eliminating all the Viodens. But…”
“You saw the winery.”

“I saw. I wish I didn’t.”

“But you had to. Or more will suffer the same way.”

Bradshaw solemnly nodded in agreement.

From my inventory, I took out my blade sharpener. “Marquess Bradshaw. We go to war. Prepare your main troops to leave for the border.”

Bradshaw stomped and saluted. “Yes, Your Grace!” The marquess left and I returned to wiping off the water with a towel as I sense for my wife.

Dear? Use the ravens to spread the news of the sacrifices in Pirn. Two witnesses will be sent to your orphanages. Tell James to head to Kirgfield with Alpha, Beta, and Ceta to join Bradshaw.

I waited for an answer.

Tell…Rydel…Ships?

I gazed at my gleaming blade, reflecting red eyes unsated by the gory battle.

Yes. Tell him to bring Uncle and his men. Sleep well, Vanessa.

You...too...

Back to my inventory, my greatsword went. I hung my head as I rested my arms on my knees feeling the recoil of stress from the night.

War…At last.

I slapped the summoner's face. Blinking as he awoke, the tattooed man looked around and made a muffled scream into his gag.

"Tell me." A dagger from my inventory cut a line in the summoner's face. "Tell me everything."

 

VOLUME 2

WAR OF DUCHIES.

 

A few days later.

Wolfburn manor.

 

The Wolf.

 

"Your Grace," a butler held up a suspicious package. "I have checked its contents... I am so sorry."

"On the table." My father ordered. He stared coldly out of his window.

Box placed on the table, the butler squirmed away leaving only me and Father in his lonely office.

"Open it, Kellen."

Following his order, I lifted the lid up. I slumped to my knees, tears leaking down uncontrollably, I wailed. "No, no, NOOOO!" I held the box close to my chest, remembering times hunting in the woods, and dinners full of laughter. "Brother, no...!"

"Failure." The Greying red-haired duke turned to me. "He was a failure from start to finish. He should have been born a woman if he was going to disappoint me this much. Then maybe I could have sold him like that little girl." He sat in his office chair twirling his three braids on his reddish-brown beard like he had heard the daily reports.

"FATHER!"

I felt his frightening blue eyes stare.

"They..."

"Continue, Son."

I backed down under his glare, holding my brother's head tighter. "How do we proceed, Your Grace."

He twirled his braids again. "Bring the summoners here. They want people? We will give them plenty."