Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Chapter 444 - Awakened

Lara had seen the lives of most of her reincarnations, it was like a long dream. She had now literally lived dozens of lives. At the beginning of each one of her reincarnations, she tried to beat every reincarnation of the Strongest Mortal Soul. Evangeline believed that if she could somehow defeat him in battle he would lose the title of strongest making him sway from his destiny with the ORIGIN.

It was an absurd idea and it was a crazy plan which made little sense, but it was the only thing she could think of. Yet as expected from a legendary being that could fight the very creator himself, all of Gabriel's reincarnations were monsters that could not be beaten in direct, one on one combat. Still, she tried her hardest to change his fate. She would do anything just to somehow free him from his burden.

Yet winning against him proved difficult to do with his next reincarnation, the overly powerful Leonard Tranor. This reincarnation was literally the embodiment of victory itself. She opposed him as the master of the Giants and Wild dragons. Despite her having the strength to rule the land, to him, she was nothing more than a warm-up. So she needed to try again.

The next reincarnation was Rei Krimen. This reincarnation was different from the others as he was finding a place to die. Deep down like all the other incarnations, this one loved battled as well, but for some reason, he had suppressed his basic instincts. She tried to oppose him as an evil sorceress trying to take over the world. Yet every time she saw him struggle, every time she did evil, her heart would feel like it was breaking. So she kept on telling herself that this was an evil she was willing to do for the sake of her love. For him, she would become something he hated the most, for him she would become an enemy to oppose. She couldn't think of any other way to save his soul. Still in the end she also failed in that reincarnation.

The next reincarnation was the vengeful Shun Midgar. During this reincarnation, there were a lot of problems, at first she couldn't even locate his soul. She was linked to him, so that was supposed to be impossible, but it did happen. This was the first time she couldn't locate it which made her panic a bit. So she wasn't sure if she had reincarnated properly.

In this reincarnation, she became the demon lord. Since she wasn't sure where he was reincarnation she told all of her people not to harm the humans, so that they may live in harmony. That was when the humans reacted violently. Seeing that the demons looked like they have weakened, they started attacking them. At first, she tried to negotiate with the human king, but he called all demons evil. He even dared to say that they were the cause of all calamity in the world.

She didn't want to do this but, she needed to protect her people. So she answered violence with their own violence.

As the war raged on, she heard of a human, who was treated as a hero. Curious she looked for him, she then met the boy called a hero and journeyed with him. During the journey, the boy continued to remind her of Gabriel. Though Gabriel fought for justice and this boy fought for vengeance they felt similar.

One day she then asked why the boy started his journey. Once she heard his story, she felt it… This boy was one of Gabriel's reincarnations.

She quickly went back to her castle. Shun was another of Gabriel's reincarnations, and unlike the others, his heart was weaker.

That was when she thought of a plan. If he kills her, then he will gain the resentment of the demons. Though he will be hailed as a hero of the humans, he will still be the most hated enemy of the demons. This might sever his fate his link as the first hero. That was all she could think of.

So when the time came, for Shun to strike her, she allowed herself to be killed. Her heart and soul felt relieved as she was dying thinking that this time, she might have saved him…

Due to the link of her soul to his, she found out that wasn't enough. The link he had as a hero wasn't severed, his fate to fight and die did not end. She continued to try other ways in the next reincarnations but all of her plans failed.

When she reincarnated as Rina, she changed her plans and no longer tried to change his fate. Instead, despite the odds, despite it being something she knew was impossible, she decided to fight alongside him to defeat the enemy she thought was undefeatable.

In the last incarnation as Rina, they were so close to winning. Even among all of the reincarnations of the Strongest Mortal Soul, Rei Kuraki was the strongest, he was nearly comparable to the original. So after weakening the ORIGIN, she thought that maybe this time it would finally be over. This time her love would bear fruit and she could have her happily ever after. This time her love would be free. Yet despite all of her effort the same fate still happened. Same as all the other incarnations of the Strongest Mortal Soul, Rei Kuraki died in battle.

Even with all the preparations they couldn't win. Lara could feel the anger and sorrow, Rina felt when she later learned of their failure. As she waited in the astral plane for her next reincarnation, Rina learned of the reset that happened. Even with that she still couldn't save him, she still couldn't change his fate.

'Even with everything on my side, I still failed?! How?! How am I supposed to save him?! Can we really not win against our creator?! Will he continue to fight until his soul dissipates?! Why?! Why?! Why does it need to be him?!'

Rina raged on in the Astral Plane cursing at the creator, at the ORIGIN. She hated it, she hated all of this. No matter how hard they struggled victory was so far away. As she was wallowing in despair she noticed that she still hasn't reincarnated and the she once again couldn't locate his soul. She started to panic as confusion took over her, even though they couldn't win she still wanted to stay by his side, at least she should be allowed that much.

As time flew by and she still couldn't find his soul through their link, she felt immense despair, but then as if he could hear her pleas she found him. She quickly followed his soul to the path of reincarnation and was once again reincarnated near him.

'This time I will…'

…

Lara slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by a familiar figure.

"Good Morning, Lara." That smile of his was even more dazzling than normal.

This was the person that all of her past reincarnations fought for. This was the person that all of her past reincarnations died for… As she could now see all of his past incarnations upon looking at him, Lara who was usually stoic suddenly teared up and her emotions burst out.