REINCARNATION OF WAR

Shadows clung to the walls like living things. Behind him came footsteps, heavy, intentional, far too close. “Stop running, boy!” a voice barked, rough and cold. “You know what we want.”

Derick didn’t stop. Couldn’t. He threw a desperate glance over his shoulder. Three men in dark coats pushed through the rain, their faces obscured.

Their movements didn’t match normal human limits; they were too precise, too controlled, too fast.

Derick skidded around a corner, nearly slipping. “Why me?” he whispered through clenched teeth. “I didn’t do anything !”

The alley dead-ended. “No… no, no.” Derick spun in panic.

The men stepped into the narrow space, blocking the exit. Rain drummed onto metal dumpsters, echoing the growing dread in Derick’s chest.

The largest of the three cracked his knuckles. “You’ve been a nuisance,” he said, voice low. “Your family drew the wrong attention. Your existence is inconvenient.”

Derick lifted trembling hands. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just, I’m nobody.”

A cruel laugh echoed. “That’s the point. Nobodies disappear easily.”

The second man stepped forward, eyes glinting unnaturally under the streetlamp’s flickering light.

“Dominion?” Derick echoed. “Who are you people?”

“Doesn’t matter.” The leader reached inside his coat. “You won’t live long enough to complain.”

A blade gleamed silver. Derick froze. His mind threw flashes of fear, his brother Eli waiting at home, his unfinished life, the silent truth he always knew: no one would come looking for him.

“No,” Derick whispered. “Please”

“Hold still,” the man said.

He lunged. Derick’s scream was swallowed by thunder. The blade plunged into his stomach. Heat. Pain. Shock. The world spun as Derick collapsed onto the wet ground.

Rain mingled with his blood, spreading crimson rivers along the concrete. He gasped, choking on the metallic taste of death. The leader crouched beside him. “Nothing personal.”

Derick’s vision blurred. Footsteps faded. A distant roar thundered through the sky. Then, A sound unlike anything he’d ever heard whispered inside his skull. Do you wish to live?

Derick’s eyes widened. “What… what is…?”

Answer.

His body shook violently. Pain intensified, yet something else stirred beneath it. A pulse. A burn. A spark. Derick clenched his teeth. “I… I don’t want to die…”

The voice deepened, ancient and resonant. ''Then rise. Claim what is yours.''

Derick’s entire being ignited. His breath seized as his vision snapped into terrifying clarity. The world changed, darkness peeled back, revealing glowing lines inside every object, every shadow, every droplet of rain. A diagram of life itself.

“Wha- what’s happening to me?”

Inside his chest, a brilliant ember pulsed, The War Core.

A dormant spark of something divine. Something deadly. The assassins had barely reached the street when a tremor rippled through the alley. The leader halted. “What was that?”

A second tremor followed, stronger. As if something was awakening. The smallest of the three frowned. “He should be dying, not”

A violent shockwave burst from the alley, slamming them forward. “What !? Impossible!”

Thunder boomed overhead. Derick lay on his back, gasping as energy poured into his veins. Rain froze midair for a heartbeat, suspended in shimmering arcs.

His wound knit itself at frightening speed, glowing gold before fading to a faint scar. He sat up, trembling uncontrollably. “What… am I?”

His breaths were ragged, but he wasn’t dying, he felt stronger than ever, senses sharp and vibrant. Even the cold didn’t bite anymore. Footsteps returned.

The assassins stood at the alley’s entrance, weapons drawn, eyes wide. “You’re still alive?” the leader hissed. “No one survives a Dominion kill strike.”

Derick struggled to stand. “I… don’t know what you are. But stay away from me.”

The small assassin smirked. “The dear boy awakened. How adorable.”

“You think this is funny?” Derick shouted, voice cracking.

“Funny?” the man sneered. “It’s fascinating. The War Core only appears in one person every three thousand years.”

“War what?” Derick staggered back. “You’re talking nonsense”

“You felt it, didn’t you?” the leader growled. “The spark. Your body should’ve died, but something inside refused.”

Derick clenched his fists. “I don’t want any part of this!”

“You don’t have a choice,” the leader said. “Alive, you’re a threat. Awake, you’re a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

He lunged. But this time, Derick moved. Instinct, pure, unfamiliar instinct, guided him. He sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the blade, and thrust out his hand.

A golden pattern flickered across his palm. The assassin stopped abruptly, confusion twisting his features. “What,  what did you just ?”

Derick blinked. “I… I don’t know!”

He could see inside the man’s body, veins glowing like threads, bones shining faintly, a red core beating in the chest. Weak points illuminated like stars. “What… is this…?”

“DON’T LET HIM USE IT!” the smallest assassin roared.

They rushed him. Derick’s body reacted before his thoughts did. He pivoted, ducked, rolled, every movement perfectly timed, as if someone else controlled him.

The world slowed around him, every motion precise and predictable. “STOP DODGING!” one snapped in frustration.

“I don’t know how I’m doing this!” Derick cried.

Another blade thrust toward his throat. Derick’s hand shot up. He grabbed the attacker’s wrist. The moment he touched him, Energy flooded Derick’s vision.

He saw a single glowing point at the man’s elbow: critical stress point. Derick pressed it instinctively. A loud crack resounded.

The man screamed and dropped to his knees. Derick stumbled back in horror. “I didn’t mean, I didn’t !”

The leader snarled. “He activated Life-Pulse Vision! He’s already adapting too fast!”

“Kill him now!” the other shouted.

They attacked as one. Derick spun away, panic and adrenaline merging with something deeper, something ancient.

He slammed his palm against the wall. The impact sent a shockwave that blasted both assassins off their feet. “What are you!?” one shouted.

“I don’t know!” Derick yelled.

The leader staggered up. “You’re reborn. That’s what you are. The Dominion feared this day.”

Rain poured harder, but Derick barely noticed. The War Core pulsed again. A spark of lightning crackled faintly around his fingers. The leader froze. “No. Not thunder. Not already.”

“What does that mean?” Derick demanded.

“It means,” the man snarled, “you’re going to bring the world to ruin.”

He threw a small black vial onto the ground. Smoke exploded outward. Derick shielded his face, coughing. When the smoke cleared, the assassins were gone.

Only the echo of their threat remained. “You won’t live long, Warborn.”

Derick staggered backward until his back hit the wall. His breathing shook violently. He pressed a trembling hand to his stomach, no wound. Not even tenderness.

Everything hurt. Everything felt unreal. “What… what just happened to me?” he whispered.

But before he could make sense of anything, a soft voice echoed from the shadows behind him. “So…” the voice murmured. “You really awakened.”

Derick spun, heart pounding. A figure stepped forward from behind the dumpster, an older man with weather-beaten robes, hair tied back in a warrior’s knot, eyes sharp enough to cut steel.

Derick swallowed hard. “Who… who are you?”

The man stepped closer, gaze locked onto Derick’s chest. “I’ve been waiting for you, Derick Hayford,” he said quietly. “For a very long time.”

Derick froze. “You awakened the War Core tonight… but you have no idea what that means.”

The man’s expression darkened with warning, and fear. “Because now,” he continued, “every awakened hunter, every clan, and every assassin in the Veiled World will come for you.”

Derick’s voice trembled. “Why? What do they want from me?”

The man exhaled slowly. “They don’t want anything from you,” he said.

“They want to kill you before you remember… what you used to be.”

Thunder cracked in the sky. Derick felt the War Core pulse again. “What… what I used to be?” he asked.

The man’s eyes glowed with unspoken truth. “You,” he whispered, “were the God of War.”

And the night swallowed the world whole.