The last thing he remembered was the battle at the loot house. He had delivered a carefully controlled, mana-draining slash toward the infamous Bowel Hunter.
Too much strength, and the bystanders would have been disintegrated. Too little, and Elsa Granhiert's vampiric-like healing would have let her escape.
His vision had been bathed in a soft blue glow as mana surged from his swung sword, cutting open space… and then nothing.
Now, his memories felt strange. Merged. Overlaid with someone else's thoughts. Two lives, distinct yet nearly identical, had become one.
Oddly, it didn't feel wrong. It didn't matter who he was, Reinhard, or this new presence, Rein. Why not both? He could access Rein's memories as if they were his own.
It was paradoxical. Through Rein's eyes, he felt stronger; through Reinhard's, weaker.
The Divine Protections he had once carried with thoughtless ease were gone, or at least, suppressed. His godlike physical strength, enough to level mountains, now felt muted. Power still coursed through him, but it no longer felt limitless.
It was like being bound in a body not meant to contain him.
To an ordinary person, his thoughts would sound insane. But rationality had never applied to Reinhard van Astrea.
Am I beyond the Great Cascade?
The legendary waterfall at the edge of the known world, marking the boundary between the four great kingdoms, had long been a site of myths. Travelers beyond it rarely returned, and only Divine dragons and one man were truly believed to have crossed.
Four hundred years ago, before the Witch of Envy plunged the world into shadow, the first Sword Saint, Reid Astrea, had brought with him a foreign culture unlike anything Lugunica had known.
If Reinhard was beyond the Cascade, or somewhere even stranger, like Rein had been, then his connection to Od Laguna, the divine mana reservoir that fueled his Divine Protections, would explain the faintness he now felt.
Still, one silver lining remained.
The air here was dense, soaked with pure mana. Denser, richer, and more potent than anything he had ever encountered in Lugunica. His Broken Gate, the rare ability to absorb ambient mana, greedily drew it in, like a siphon drinking the sea.
His body buzzed with energy. Each breath filled him with warmth, clarity, and vitality. Yet his connection to Od felt… strange. Perhaps it was the merged soul, or the altered laws of mana here.
Whatever it was, his core now contained an unimaginable reservoir of mana, far beyond anything he had ever known.
Its purity was unreal.
With mana of this quality, his Flow Method—the martial art that used internal mana to augment the body- could evolve to unprecedented heights. Tenfold boosts in strength, speed, and durability might be an understatement.
Even stripped of most Divine Protections, Reinhard would remain among the strongest beings in Lugunica, if not the entire world. His swordsmanship and sheer physical might placed him leagues above ordinary men.
He was not Reid Astrea. Reid could slice through abstract concepts with nothing but chopsticks; Reinhard still needed the Dragon Sword to reach that level.
But even so… he was the second-greatest martial artist in the history of the world when it came solely to the sword alone. And that was no small title.
Enthralled by the mana wrapping around his body and absorbed by his core he had stood in place for far too long.
He carefully walked out of the crater, only to be surrounded by armed men. Weapons aimed directly at him.
Rifles, guns, firearms, they had many different names all of which relied on shooting a metal projectile smaller than one's thumb. He recognized them immediately, thanks to Rein's memories.
For a moment, he froze, unsettled by so many weapons trained on him. But as a knight, a peacemaker, courtesy dictated his response. Hands raised.
He spoke first in Japanese, the common tongue of Lugunica. Their confused expressions and snippets of foreign conversation quickly confirmed his suspicion: these were not his people. Their technology, uniforms, and demeanor were alien to him.
He exhaled and switched languages. Rein's tongue flowed easily from his lips, despite moments ago feeling foreign. The tension shifted. Fingers slackened on triggers. Faces softened, even slightly.
A man in a black suit stepped through the line of troops, moving cautiously but confidently.
"Lower your weapons," Agent Coulson instructed. His gaze locked on Reinhard, calm but unwavering.
"Can you understand me? Who are you? What are you? Where are you from? And what do you want?"
Reinhard blinked. Not at the questions, but at the unfamiliar feeling they stirred within him.
Who am I?
A question he no longer knew how to answer.
His lips parted, but before words could escape, a soft ding echoed, not through the air, but directly inside his mind.
Not sound, not thought. Something deeper: instinctive knowledge. A memory he had never learned, yet somehow understood.
A screen appeared, not in front of his eyes, but inside his mind, as if it were natural, imagined, inevitable.
Ding!
Dual template
[Subaru Natsuki, Ayamatsu Pride Route variation]+[Reinhard Van Astrea, Main Route]
Name: Reinhard Van Astrea
Age: 19
Race: Human
Template Rank: SSS
Faction: Hero
Titles: Sword Saint, Knight among Knights
Compatibility:
Current Sync Completion Rate: 00.0001%
Template Compatibility: 97%
Template Load Speed: 970% Faster
[Equipped Item]
Name: Dragon Sword Reid
Rank: SSS
Description:
An indestructible blade that cannot be affected by any form of interference or tampering.
Can only be unsheathed if the opponent is deemed worthy.
Unable to be physically parted from the wielder.
Capable of cutting through anything, even abstract concepts like light, magic, time, and space.
Can only be wielded by one blessed with the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint.
Capable of restoring anything it has cut back to its original form.
[Physique]
Sword Saint Bloodline (Rank B):
Inherits the strength of the legendary Sword Saints.
Strength, durability, stamina, and regeneration are enhanced over the average human.
Basic senses and perception are enhanced.
Excess Mana Circulation Constitution (Rank B):
Absorbs ambient mana, able to empower the body and weapon. Allows for basic forms of energy and power absorption.
Note: Prevents the user from casting magic.
[Skills]
God's Favored (Rank SSS) – [Limited: 1 Divine Protections active. 1 Temporary Slot. 10-minute usage, 1-day cooldown]
When fully unlocked, it allows selection or creation of any Divine Protection.
When fully unlocked, it automatically grants any needed Divine Protection for specific situations.
Current Protections:
Divine Protection of the Sword Saint (Rank SS)(Temporary Slot: Empty)
Master Swordsman (Rank S):
Unlocks the full potential of any swordlike weapon wielded.
The greatest swordsman alive, based purely on skill.
Master Martial Artist (Rank A):
Trained martial artist in all forms of combat.
Complete Flow method mastery using mana to enhance the body.
Able to produce Tangible Aura that is the amount of fighting spirit contained.
Precognitive intuition (Rank B):
Supernaturally heightened reflexes and battle intuition.
Gut feelings are almost always accurate.
Jack of all Trades (Rank D):
Increased learning speed and mastery for any teachable skill.
Pseudo Spirit Affinity (Rank D):
Pseudo Spirits will likely respond favorably. More likely to contract a Spirit. Reduces hostility from spiritual entities.
[Adapted Cosmology]
OD Laguna Core (Rank ???):
The will of the Re: Zero world OD Laguna, as the source of all mana, has combined with your soul.
Synchronization Progress Daily Passive Sync: +0.097% Daily 3 Years to completion
Combat Sync Boosts as an (SSS- Rank):
Defeat S-Rank Template: +1%
Defeat SS-Rank Template: +5%
Defeat SSS-Rank Template: +10%
Hero faction Bonus: More Respect earned increases boost.
All of this information had revealed itself in a video game-like manner, just as he remembered from playing with his friend.
To see his data displayed as stats was, oddly enough, thrilling.
However, the excitement was tempered by a harsh reality: he was operating at only one percent of his original power. Hundreds of passive Divine Protections had been stripped away.
The one that remained seemed to linger more as a symbol than a complete blessing.
Still, it held meaning.
Both Rein and Reinhard had been proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Rein was self-taught, wild, and reactive. Reinhard had been trained by the Royal Knights, refined, precise, and disciplined.
The Divine Protection of the Sword Saint, however, was something different.
It was ingrained into his very being. It was the reason he became what he was. This Divine Protection granted him absolute perfection in swordsmanship, his body's martial potential drawn out completely, each slash guided by ethereal white vectors said to be traced by the Sword God himself, following the optimal path.
It also showed the enemy's future attack trajectories, perfect for both offense and defense. A level of mastery just below Reid's Heavenly Sword, allowing him to transcend the very concept of "possibility."
Then there was the Divine Protection of the Phoenix. This blessing granted him rapid healing, regeneration, and, once, a single resurrection.
It had been given to him by Od Laguna, the will of the world itself. It never wanted him to die. He was its favorite toy, and it would always bend fate to keep him alive, no matter the cost.
Having lost that Divine Protection that had made him immortal, he truly felt naked. If he were killed now, would he die permanently?
That was far too heavy a topic to contemplate at this moment, as Reinhard had always carried self-deprecating thoughts about his own worth, even fantasizing about suicide.
This "synchronization bonus" came with a strange familiarity; it too followed the rules of a game-like system.
If he were to put it simply, the template users were the enemies he needed to beat to gain the experience points to level up.
He wasn't foolish enough to think he was alone.
Others like him must have been granted a second soul. If death-row inmates were also chosen, also empowered… then he wasn't the only one sent here.
'Power reveals a person's true self.'
And if the other killers were released into this world…
There would be chaos.
Innocents would die. But as cruel as it was, his priority at the moment should be his current situation.
As Rein, he had focused entirely on his loved ones, ignoring the world, and even himself.
As Reinhard, he had focused on the world, saving everyone he could, and treating all equally.
He knew that showing favoritism, even unintentionally, would allow the very government that kept him bound in moral chains to gain more leverage.
That was the nature of his life, one misstep, one visible bias, and the balance he walked would tip.
At the age of eight, after receiving the honorary title of "Van," the Kingdom passed what would later be known as The Reinhard Law, a formal recognition of his power as a national threat.
He already had the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint from his grandmother, along with another, far more dangerous blessing: the Divine Protection of Mind Changing. His father had begged him never to use it.
That plea had come after a group of armed rebels broke into the Astrea estate, acting under the banner of insurrection.
They had come to kill him, on the grounds that he had "unknowingly" used that, most dangerous Divine Protection, forcing a retiring knight commander to reconsider, after Reinhard had told the man not to retire.
At eight years old, he had already become the strongest and most dangerous person in the world.
In response, the Council of Wise Men created the Reinhard Law, forbidding him from ever leaving the Kingdom. They made it clear: if he disobeyed, they would enforce it by killing the few family members he had left.
The memory still filled him with bitter regret.
'He who bears the weight of his memories is destined to shoulder the burden of his own truth.
After all, isn't that what builds character?
Everyone wants to be the strongest… but no one talks about the cost.
Being the strongest is a curse. It separates you from everyone else. It makes others fear you, not feel secure, only wary.'
No matter how polite or kind he was, others only saw it as a mask, keeping more distance.
The way to regain his full power had three options. He could wait; the natural synchronization process would take approximately three years to reach 100%. He could activate his Hero Faction bonus, though the full conditions for that remained unclear.
Or he could defeat other template users… a far more uncertain option. If any of them had even remotely comparable strength, that road would be anything but easy.
Still, at least he had managed to keep his family's sword, the legendary Dragon Sword, passed down through generations of the Astrea family.
Without it, his power wouldn't reach its peak. That blade was the very essence of his strength, designed to always be exactly as strong as he needed it to be to defeat his enemy.
A concept that made his power absolute, but only when facing a strong adversary.
'Where was I? Ah, yes…'
To onlookers, Reinhard appeared to be contemplating Coulson's question like a philosopher lost in thought. Then, at last, he spoke with calm composure and clarity, his face bright and noble.
(AN: Recommend me some good Marvel fanfics that are not made by AI)