Refragmentz: Souls of Memory

Chapter 2- Hero Record

A blue window flickered in front of my eyes.

Everyone in this world had a system. Every child received one at the age of ten, and a knight's whole life was measured by the numbers inside it. I looked at mine and almost laughed.

[Name: Chase Ardent]

[Class: Knight]

[Level: 9]

HP: 140/310 MP: 12/12

Body Str-21 Dex-18 Agi-17 Vit-19

Skills Basic Slash Lv.3 Shield Guard Lv.2

"So this is what I have to work with," I muttered. "A knight barely above a recruit."

But I remembered another window. A different one, which I had carried through a whole lifetime of war. The title had been written at the very top in letters of gold.

Hero.

I did not think about it. I only spoke one line to the system, the way I had done ten thousand times before.

"Override. Restore the Hero's Record."

The window froze. Then it shook violently, and the blue light turned gold.

[Previous record detected: Hero Chase.]

[Override accepted.]

The old skills poured in one after another, and my heart began to race. [Radiant Sword Arts Lv.MAX]. [Sacred Judgment Lv.MAX]. [Chains of Oath Lv.MAX]. [Hero's Will Lv.MAX]. Everything I had earned in my first life was back.

But when I looked at the numbers beneath them, my smile faded. The stats had not changed at all. Str-21. Dex-18. The skills of a hero were now sitting inside the body of a weak young knight.

"Of course," I whispered. "The gods gave me a second life. They never promised to give me back my strength."

Then one more line appeared at the bottom of the window.

[New passive skill acquired: Heartbound Resonance.]

[Condition: The beloved soul is nearby.]

[Effect: All stats increased by 100%.]

I stared at it. Then I slowly looked down at the woman who was still trapped in my arms.

Vexa glared back at me, her face flushed with anger and confusion. "Why are you staring at me like that, human? Let me go!"

So that was it. The power I had felt did not come from me. It came from her. The moment she stood beside me, the numbers inside my body multiplied, and a hero's skills could finally be used again. If she stepped away, I would go back to being a weak knight with a broken chest.

"I am sorry," I said quietly. "I cannot let you go yet."

"What?"

I raised my free hand. "Chains of Oath."

Rings of golden light rose from the ground and wrapped gently around her wrists. They did not burn her. They did not even tighten. They simply held her in place beside a broken boulder, exactly one step away from me.

"You cannot hurt me with those," Vexa hissed, "and you cannot hold me forever."

"I do not want to hurt you," I said. "Not ever. Just stay there for a moment. Please."

I stood up. My wounds were already closed, and my hand did not shake as I picked up Captain Orrin's fallen sword. Then I turned toward the ridge, where hundreds of demons had gathered in silence.

"Commander Vexa has been captured!" an ogre bellowed. His voice was full of rage. "Kill the human! Kill him now!"

The ogres charged first. They were huge things in black iron, each one three times my height, and the ground shook under their feet. In my first life, I would have met them with a smile. In this life, I only felt one thing as I raised my sword.

Anger.

"That was Captain Orrin," I said, as the first ogre came into range. "Radiant Sword Arts, First Form. Dawn Cleave."

A crescent of white light split the ogre from shoulder to hip. He fell without a sound.

"That was Tomas." The second ogre's head left his shoulders. "That was Dorian." The third was cut in half at the waist. I did not stop, and I did not count. I only said the names of the men who had died on this ridge, and with each name another demon fell.

Some archers on the cliff fired a volley of black arrows. I raised my hand. "Sacred Judgment."

Pillars of light came down from the sky like spears, and every arrow burned to ash in the air. Then the pillars struck the cliff itself, and the archers disappeared in a blaze of white.

The demons had stopped charging. Some were backing away. Some had dropped their weapons altogether. The wave of black iron that had crushed my squad in minutes was now breaking against one lone knight.

One demon was braver than the rest. He was a tall officer in a horned helmet, carrying a spiked mace. He ran straight at me and screamed, "Impossible! You are only a level nine!"

He was right, of course. On my own, I was nothing. But I felt the warmth beside me, and my numbers had doubled. For a hero's skills, that was enough.

I stepped aside from his mace and drove the sword through his chest.

"That," I said softly, "was for all of them."

He fell. Behind him, the last demon soldiers turned and ran down the slope. The ridge was silent, except for the sound of the wind and my own breathing.

Then I heard a small voice behind me.

"Who... are you?"

I turned around. Vexa was still sitting beside the boulder, bound in light. She was no longer glaring at me. She was staring at me with wide eyes, as if I were something she had never seen before.

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, the sky above the ridge darkened. A black banner unfurled across the clouds, and a cold voice echoed over the battlefield.

"Vexa," it said. "Why is the Crimson Executioner on her knees before a human?"