Chapter 2 – Rebirth

"Twelve years. For twelve years, I've been waiting and patiently searching through it. I've finally found a life inside the Stream of Life that would suit me. A new life to quench my boredom. Well, it's great that I went out on my own terms. Sadly, these fools will somehow turn it around and steal the glory for my willing demise, and term it something of a 'happily ever after' kind of story, tch. I'm pained though."

The demon was in a state of ennui as he sighed. His face was listless with the grave indifference visible on his face.

The Incubus Lord was talking to himself as he was bound by heavy chains under the blazing heat of the sun with different wounds on his body that he allowed to be doled out on him.

He showed no fear in his last moment. In fact, he was excited and satisfied to be dying.

To him, only death could grant him the freedom he yearned for. Freedom from the gripping doldrum within him.

His true goal had only been known to him.

His true goal was to be reborn in another world... another life, where he could start afresh and have an enjoyable life.

As he thought about the new life he had chosen to take from a supernatural Stream of Life, the demon heard his name and looked up in the direction of the voice that called upon him, squinted against the blinding light of the sun.

It was the King calling him.

The King had wasted no time after Ser Hathor had reported what the demon had said to him.

He rushed out of his chambers in his personal robes, not minding what any of his citizens would think about that.

The demon saw him and laughed.

"Your Majesty. How generous of you to grace the event of my demise! I am truly honoured! Honoured, I tell you!" he yelled back, his voice resonating in the atmosphere.

"Oh," the King muttered having realised something.

He was so excited about the news of the Incubus Lord's willingness to die that he forgot to ask the important question.

He leaned to the side where Ser Hathor stood beside him and the knight inched his head closer to his liege, lending the King his ear.

"What method will we be using this time?" the King asked.

Ser Hathor hesitated for a few seconds before providing the needed answer to the King's question.

"Your Majesty, he requested for death by the sword, says we should stab all over again and that is the same method we've been using for days now."

The King clenched his fist and gnawed his teeth. "So he mocks us even in our own land!"

"Tch. No!" he exclaimed. "That's what he wants. We won't do that. We won't give him what he wants. There must be a reason why he chose that method to die. We will end him in our own way."

Ser Hathor was taken aback by the King's response. The King was talking as though they had the demon under control and could execute him at any time.

"B-But, Your Majesty... what if he refuses to die then? That means we're back to square one."

The King turned to See Hathor and placed a hand on the knight's shoulder.

"No, he won't. If there's one thing that demon has, it's pride and I'm certain that he would rather die than tarnish that pride of his. He has agreed to die and will do so to save his pride as a living being especially since he made that bold statement before thousands of humans."

The demon smiled on hearing everything the King was saying from that distance.

He giggled. "Foolish humans."

Everything was going well for him. The humans had fallen into his trap.

The demon had never wanted to be killed by stabbing and he knew the only to escape that was to personally request for him.

"Right back at you, King. Human leaders are so full of themselves and would go to any length to show off their authority," the demon thought to himself.

He knew that if he requested for death by stabbing, it wouldn't be granted.

That was exactly what he did to manipulate the King.

What the Incubus Lord truly wanted was death by...

The King cleared his throat. "I, King Fell Attio IV of Agagorth, hereby sentence you to death by fire!"

...Fire.

That was the only way he would purify himself to enter into the Stream of Life.

The demon knew that the humans would not use ordinary fire because of the fear that it wouldn't work.

Instead, they summoned a conflagration that was known as the Great Elder Flames with the forbidden sorcery.

The preparation for such a spell took another twenty-four days but eventually, the day came.

The D-day. The day that the demon was to be burned.

The demon was taken to an expanse of grasses whose atmosphere was dominated by the wind.

That was where they burned him to ashes.

The demon burned with a wide grin on his face as he let down all his guards, allowing the magical fire to raze him down to mere ashes.

Even in his last moments, he tormented the humans with his sinister and menacing giggles.

.

.

.

At the bank of a river in a place called the Bambara Village.

The sun sat high up in the sky, blazing down with its heat at the peak.

A pair of eyes fluttered open, revealing their golden colour.

The figure lay on smooth stones of different sizes on the bank of a river.

His clothes were wet and so was his bushy, curly black hair.

ACCKKK! ACKKK!

He coughed harshly and in many bouts.

He spewed water from his mouth and his chest burned from so much coughing.

This individual turned over to his side and water started to trickle down from the corner of his mouth.

His skin was paper white and he was cold but as time passed, the colour of his skin started to return albeit gradually.

He felt heavy as well as body aches in many parts of his body. His breathing was fast and his chest visibly heaved like a person in distress but with time, his breathing pattern also began to normalize.

After some time had passed, he sat up and looked around, assessing his surroundings.

He was beside a river in a forest. He could see a small boat floating casually on the river.

"Is that mine?" he questioned with a high level of doubt in his voice.

He got on his feet after another fifteen minutes and looked at himself.

His tunic was wet and so was his body.

It was obvious what had happened here.

"I was drowning..." he remarked, deducing the entire incident in a moment.

He had drowned while sailing his boat on the river.

His eyes continued to dart around in confusion until realisation hit him.

This individual was a male.

He glanced at his hands and the exposed part of his body. The expression on his face clearly showed that it was different from what he remembered.

He rushed over to the river and looked at its clear surface, seeing his reflection as well as the fishes and stones under the water.

"This is a young body, about nineteen or twenty years old," he thought to himself.

He laughed afterwards. "Seems the Stream of Life rejected me again, tch. I don't even get to choose where I am reborn into."

The boy took another quick assessment of his body. He felt his skin and his whole body was ice cold and slowly brightening up from the pallor.

"Seems this body had died by drowning and I was reincarnated into it still. The Stream can be petty, perhaps it intended to take care of me for good that way but once again, it has failed. I saved this body from the afterlife by giving it a new life after death."

The boy looked up to the sky and giggled menacingly.

"My rebirth was successful!" he yelled with much jubilation.

The Incubus Lord who had been executed in the kingdom of Agagorth through the Great Elder Flame had now been reborn in another world and inside a new body.