Demon Lord's Reincarnation

"I see..." Lisa mumbled to herself.

"Is that all you have to say after hearing what I have said? Aren't you the least bit shocked? I just told you that you have died." Valdel was finally able to say what he was truly feeling. Ever since he heard about Lisa's death, he had always blamed himself. He had comforted Lara about it, but the truth was he was more affected by Lisa's death than even Lara.

The truth was Valdel knew about Lisa's feelings for a long time now, but he did nothing about it. In fact, he was happy that she wasn't coming with them on their journey as she would have proven a distraction to the goal he wished to achieve.

Yet now he regretted everything. So hearing how calm Lisa was about her death was not something he expected. Valdel expected there to be shouting, more denial, and angry rants. Yet there was none of those, he wanted her to get angry at him, to blame him.

Seeing Valdel's downcasted expression, Lisa smiled and gently caressed his face.

"Even though you're different from the Valdel of this world, you still share the same base. Well, I guess if what you said was true then that Valdel was someone created by my ideal of you. I know what you're thinking right now, and of course, I could never blame you."

"But why? If I or any of the three of us wanted to, we could've brought you with us in our adventure, and then you wouldn't have died!" Lisa shook her head before she responded.

"Based on what I saw in my nightmares, and the vague memories I have of that world, I was too weak. Even if I joined you guys on your adventure it would not have made too much of a difference. I would've died in some other place, in another person's hands."

"Even so, I-" Valdel clenched his hands into a fist feeling extremely frustrated. It was at that moment he felt something warm and soft grab hold of his hands.

"It's alright Val, it's alright now. Everyone dies at some point, and as you can see that isn't an end, it's just the beginning of another adventure." Seeing the bright smile on Lisa's face, made Valdel feel a lot better.

"You have matured."

"Of course, I did. In this world, I have already experienced a lot. Not to mention I was one of the few people that Ren personally trained. Something like this isn't enough to faze me."

The two of them started to chuckle, and then Lisa's expression became serious. Lisa then took a step back and faced the other direction when she spoke.

"So tell me, Val, why are you here? If I'm truly dead and this is a world created to fulfill my wishes, to cleanse my soul, what are you a living person doing here?... I can already guess what you came here to do, but I want to hear it from your mouth."

"I've come to bring you back to the land of the living."

"I see, and of course, there is a price to be paid for doing that, right?"

"Yeah, a soul for a soul." When Lisa heard Valdel's answer she frowned.

"That really is like you to do that, sacrificing yourself for someone else. You know I won't ever choose to come back if you weren't there."

"I know, that is why I was going to force you back if need be. Yet now, I don't think I need to do that. It was just a selfish wish of mine, to bring you back. Yet after seeing all this, after hearing what you have to say, I don't think bringing you back would be the right thing to do."

"Then are you going to leave now?..."

"I don't know." After he said that Valdel sighed and the two became silent. Lisa looked at Valdel and hesitated for a bit before she spoke.

"Seeing you like this, so weak, so fragile, and full of hesitation. You're no longer the same Valdel I knew back in the village. I understand that you have done your best, and you might have already been beaten down quite a lot, and you have lost some people along the way, but for as much as you have lost I'm sure that you have saved many more. So please, don't show me such a weak Valdel."

"... You know to hit where it truly hurts."

"If you're already so tired, instead of me going back to the world of the living, why don't you stay here instead? You know this world might be as you say, a dream, but it's a wonderful dream. So how about dreaming the same dream as me? We could grow old here, together, and when it's time to cleanse our souls, the both of us could reincarnate together."

Valdel was quite shocked to hear, Lisa's proposal. Valdel then lowered his head hiding the expression he was making.

"You know what, that actually sounds like a nice idea... But-"

"There you go again hesitating! Fine then, we will settle this the old-fashioned way. We will settle this in the way Ren taught us." Hearing what Lisa said made Valdel mumble to himself as he chuckled.

"The way Ren taught us..." Valdel then lifted his head and looked at Lisa's eyes. "So a duel. The winner will make the loser do something he or she wishes."

"Right, so do you accept the challenge?"

"There's no need for that. Even without the duel, I will do as you say, Lisa. So what is it you want?" When Lisa heard Valdel's answer she was surprised. She then bit her lips and walked towards him. Once she was near enough, Lisa slapped Valdel in the face. The slap was so powerful that it actually blew Valdel into a nearby wall.

The slap hurt a lot, but it wasn't fatal or anything. Even so, Valdel was still rather shocked as to what happened. He then looked at Lisa and saw her teary-eyed. The wizened eyes she showed him were no longer there and were replaced with the familiar look Valdel remembered as he left her in the village.

"This isn't the Valdel that I know, you aren't the Valdel that I loved!" After shouting those words, Lisa left running. Valdel did not stand up and continued to look dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what just happened.