The sky above the Eterna Kingdom was never truly blue; it was a bruised purple, heavy with the scent of salt and the looming threat of the Great War.
Age Throne gripped the hilt of his standard-issue iron broadsword, his knuckles white. Around him, the world was a cacophony of "The Song." He could hear it not as a melody he could command, but as a roar of power that belonged to everyone but him. To his left, a veteran knight unleashed a Thundercall, the air shrieking as bolts of lightning incinerated a charging line of infantry. To his right, the earth groaned and rose in jagged spires as a commander manipulated the very foundation of the battlefield.
Age felt nothing. No spark in his blood, no resonance in his soul. He was a "basic" knight, a placeholder in a suit of dented plate armor, meant to fill a gap in the line until a real warrior arrived.
'Why did I even join?' Age thought, his breath coming in ragged gasps. 'For the thrive of the kingdom? For the glory of Eterna? Or was I just hoping that, in the heat of death, the Song would finally choose me?'
He didn't have time to find an answer.
The line broke. A volley of arrows hissed through the air, darkened by the soot of a hundred explosions. Age raised his shield, but he was a fraction of a second too slow. His sword felt like a lead weight in his hand useless, clumsy.
Thwip.
There was no pain, only a sudden, jarring cold. The world tilted. He saw the muddy ground rushing up to meet him. An arrow had punched through his visor, through his forehead, and out the back of his skull.
'Ah... so this is it,' he mused as his vision faded into a dull grey. 'No grave. No Song. Just... silence.'
There was no pain, only a sudden, jarring cold. The world tilted. He saw the muddy ground rushing up to meet him. An arrow had punched through his visor, through his forehead, and out the back of his skull.
'Ah... so this is it,' he mused as his vision faded into a dull grey. 'No grave. No Song. Just... silence.'
Age tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like they were glued shut with thick syrup. His body was heavy, yet strangely small. He felt a profound sense of restriction, as if he had been stuffed into a tight, warm sack.
'The arrow. I died. I know I died.' He remembered the sensation of the steel boring through his brain. Memories of the battlefield the smell of ozone and wet iron were still vivid in his mind. 'If reincarnation is real, why do I still have these memories?'
Slowly, painfully, he forced his eyes open.
The world was a blurry mess of light and shadow. He wasn't on a battlefield. He wasn't in the mud. He was being held.
*"Be careful, my lady. He is a loud one."*(I'm using this ** to show that he can't understand what they're saying.)
Age froze. The sounds coming from the person holding him were melodic, but utterly incomprehensible. It wasn't the dialect of Eterna, nor was it the harsh tongue of the neighboring empires.
'What are they saying? Why can't I understand them?'
He turned his head a monumental effort that made his neck ache and saw her.
The woman was breathtaking, even though his clouded vision. She had long, flowing hair the color of polished silk or fresh seafoam a brilliant, shimmering white. Her eyes were soft, though rimmed with the exhaustion of labor. She looked down at him with a warmth that Age had never experienced in his previous life.
'Is that... my mother?'
Beside her stood another woman with sharp, practical features and raven-black hair tied back in a strict bun. She wore a clean, white apron and held a basin of water.
'A nurse?' Age deduced.
He let out a small, huffed breath. 'At least it's quiet. If I have to start over, I hope it stays this way. No more wars, no more noise. And please, for the love of the Song, let me be an only child. I don't have the energy to deal with—'
The door to the room creaked open, and the "quiet" vanished instantly.
*"Is it here?! Is the baby here?!"*
*"Move out of the way, I want to see!"*
*"Is it a boy? Tell me it's a boy!"*
Age's heart sank into his stomach. Three small figures burst into the room, ranging from about five to nine years old. They were a chaotic blur of energy.
One girl had hair as black as the nurse's, her eyes wide with curiosity. The other girl had hair that matched the mother's a striking, ethereal silver-white that seemed to catch the morning light. The third, a boy who looked to be the oldest, had messy black hair and a grin that suggested he was already planning how to get his new brother into trouble.
Age stared at them in horror.
'One... two... three? Are you kidding me?'
The three children crowded around the bed, their faces looming over him like giant, inquisitive moons. They were poking at his blankets and making high-pitched noises that made his new ears ring.
'Three siblings. Three. Fuck.'
He wanted to scream, to tell them to get lost, but all that came out was a pathetic, gurgling whimper.
*"Look! He's moving!"* The black-haired girl shouted, pointing a finger at his face.
The nurse stepped forward, placing a hand on the mother's shoulder. *"Now, now, let your mother rest. I need to ensure the young master is healthy."*
Age watched the nurse closely. She reached out, her hand hovering just inches above his chest.
'What is she doing?'
Suddenly, a soft, emerald-green glow began to emanate from the nurse's palm. It wasn't the harsh, crackling energy of a Thundercall or the jagged strength of a Stoutman's earth magic. This was fluid, rhythmic, and soothing. Age felt a wave of warmth wash over him, knitting together the lingering aches of his birth and clearing the fog in his lungs.
His eyes widened. He knew the Attunements of his time. He knew the elements. But this? This was different. It felt like the Song, yet the frequency was entirely foreign. It was a refined, specialized form of magic he had never seen in Eterna.
'What is that?' Age thought, his mind racing as the green light faded. 'I've never seen that type of Attunement. Where am I? What has happened to the world?'
He looked at his small, wrinkled hands. In his mind, a strange flickering light began to appear a gold spark that didn't belong to the room or the people in it.
The war of the Four Kingdoms felt like it was only minutes ago, but as he looked at the nurse's magic and the strange clothes of his new family, a cold realization settled in his gut.
He wasn't just in a new body. He was in a new era.
And for the first time in two lifetimes, something within him something deep and dormant began to hum in response to a Song he finally felt he could touch.
[System Initializing...]
[SSS-Rank Talent: Absolute Swordsmanship — Confirmed.]
Age didn't see the screen yet.
'Fine,' Age thought, closing his eyes as the nurse handed him back to his mother. 'If I have to do this again... I'm doing it right.'