Soul of the Dragon Emperor Reincarnated to destroy

REINCARNATED TO DESTROY

Guards flew backward, weapons clattering from their hands. Lucas and Vivian ducked behind the platform.

When the light faded, James stood alone in the center of the arena. Every soldier had either fled or lay groaning on the ground. Tega wasn't moving.

Lucas emerged from behind the platform, face purple with rage. "You dare? You think one display of power makes you stronger than us?"

"I don't think." James's voice was cold. "I know."

Vivian grabbed Lucas's arm. "We need to retreat. Gather our forces."

"Retreat?" Lucas shook her off. "This is our city. Our nation. We don't retreat from a corpse that refuses to stay dead."

He raised his hands. Power gathered around him, darker than James's golden light. The Dragon Soul he'd stolen pulsed with malevolent energy, corrupted by twenty years of Lucas's cruelty.

Vivian joined him. Her power was ice-blue, forming crystalline patterns in the air. Together, their combined might dwarfed what James had displayed.

"You're strong," Lucas admitted. "But you're alone. And you're fighting two of us."

They attacked as one. Lucas's dark energy and Vivian's ice merged into a devastating combination technique. The arena floor exploded. Walls crumbled. The feast tables disintegrated.

James raised a barrier. The combined attack crashed against it, pushed him back ten feet. His boots carved trenches in the stone.

"You see?" Lucas laughed. "You have a fragment. We have mastery. This fight was over before it began."

James lowered his barrier. Blood dripped from his nose. The attack had hurt. They were right—their combined power outmatched his.

But they'd made one mistake.

They'd forgotten what Davis had taught Marcus. Strength wasn't everything.

"You're right," James said. "Together, you're stronger than me."

He vanished.

Lucas and Vivian spun, searching. James reappeared behind Vivian, moving with speed that made Tega's earlier display look sluggish.

"So I won't fight you together."

He struck Vivian's spine. Not hard enough to kill, but enough to disrupt her power flow. She gasped, collapsed.

Lucas roared, turning to defend his wife. That was the opening. James drove his palm into Lucas's solar plexus, channeling every bit of power he had into the strike.

Lucas flew across the arena, crashed through the far wall, disappeared into the darkness beyond.

Vivian tried to rise. James placed his hand on her shoulder. "Stay down."

She did.

James walked to where Lucas had fallen. The man lay in rubble, coughing blood, trying to stand. His stolen Dragon Soul flickered, unstable.

"Twenty years," James said. "You've ruled for twenty years. Collecting taxes from families who couldn't afford them. Executing people for sport. Turning Dragon Nation into everything Davis died trying to prevent."

Lucas spat blood. "Davis was weak. He cared about people. About honor. That's why he lost."

"He lost because you stabbed him in the back."

"Exactly." Lucas smiled through broken teeth. "We did what he couldn't. We took power. We kept it. And we would've ruled forever if you hadn't—" He stopped, eyes widening. "Wait. You're not just Davis's soul. You're his descendant. That boy, James. You're both."

"I am."

"Then you know what this means." Lucas laughed, a wet, horrible sound. "We killed your family. Your real family. Twenty years ago, while Davis was at the northern border defending Dragon Nation from raiders. We slaughtered his wife. His three children. Made it look like the raiders did it. Davis never knew. He died thinking his family was safe."

The words hit James like a physical blow. Davis's memories confirmed it. A wife he'd loved. Three children he'd adored. He'd left them in the capital, protected by trusted friends.

Protected by Lucas and Vivian.

And they'd murdered them all.

"Why?" The question tore from James's throat.

"Because Davis had everything." Lucas's smile widened. "Power. Respect. Love. We were nothing. His followers. His shadows. So we took it. We took everything."

Something inside James broke. Not the fragile thing that had shattered when he'd awakened the Dragon Soul. Something deeper. The last piece of mercy holding Davis's rage in check.

"You killed children." James's power ignited, golden light turning white-hot. "You killed children to steal power you were too weak to earn."

Lucas saw death coming. He tried to raise his hands, to defend himself.

Too slow.

James's strike caught him in the chest. Power exploded through Lucas's body, disintegrating him from the inside out. The stolen Dragon Soul tried to resist but it had no loyalty to Lucas. It recognized its true master.

Lucas died screaming. When James pulled his hand back, nothing remained but ash.

The arena had gone silent. Every survivor was watching. Even Vivian had stopped moving.

James turned toward her. She flinched.

"Please," Vivian said. "I have information. About your real family. About Davis's bloodline. Things you need to know."

"Tell me."

"Not here. Not like this." She looked at the ash that had been her husband. "Prison. Lock me away. I'll tell you everything. I swear it."

James studied her. Every instinct screamed to kill her like he'd killed Lucas. To end this. To have revenge.

But Davis's memories showed him the truth. Vivian hadn't been evil twenty years ago. She'd been weak. Jealous. And Lucas had exploited that weakness, twisted it, used it.

She deserved punishment. Not mercy.

"The Nine Nether God Prison," James said. "You'll spend the rest of your life there."

Vivian's face went pale. The Nine Nether God Prison was a legend, a place so terrible that death was considered preferable. "Please. Just kill me."

"No." James gestured. Guards who'd remained loyal appeared, seized Vivian. "Take her. Lock her in the deepest cell. No visitors. No escape."

They dragged her away. Her screams echoed through the arena.

James stood alone in the center of the destroyed feast hall. Bodies lay scattered. The platform where Lucas had sat was collapsed. Tega still wasn't moving.

He should feel something. Victory. Relief. Justice.

He felt empty.

Emily appeared at the arena entrance. Behind her, hundreds of citizens had gathered. Word had spread. The tyrant was dead. Dragon Nation was free.

"James?" Emily approached carefully. "Is it really over?"

He looked at his hands. Power still flickered there, golden and terrible. "I don't know."

"What happens now?"

"Now?" James looked at the crowd. People who'd lived in fear for twenty years. Who'd lost family to Lucas's executions. Who'd starved while Lucas feasted. "Now we rebuild."

His father pushed through the crowd, face streaked with tears. "Son. Is it really you?"

"It's me." James pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry. For everything. For scaring you. For almost dying. For all of it."

His father held him tight. "You're alive. That's all that matters."

Marcus appeared next, moving through the crowd with a warrior's grace. He stopped when he saw James, eyes widening.

"You did it," Marcus said. "Davis's soul. It awakened in you."

"It did."

"And Lucas?"

"Dead."

Marcus's face showed nothing. Then he smiled. "Good."

Tega groaned. James walked over to where the boy lay. Tega's eyes fluttered open, confused and afraid.

"Am I dead?" Tega asked.

"No."

"Why not? You killed my father."

"Your father murdered innocent people. Murdered children." James crouched beside him. "You're nineteen. Cruel and spoiled, but nineteen. You can change."

"I don't want to change."

"Then you'll die." James stood. "Your choice. Spend your life in prison, or help rebuild what your father destroyed. Decide in the morning."

He left Tega there and walked toward the crowd. They parted before him, faces showing awe and fear in equal measure.

"Dragon Nation is free," James announced. His voice carried, amplified by power he still didn't fully understand. "Lucas's rule is over. His corrupt officials will be tried. His unjust laws will be overturned. Anyone who suffered under his tyranny will be compensated."

The crowd erupted in cheers. People cried. Embraced. Some collapsed from relief.

Emily took his hand. "They're calling you the Dragon Emperor."

"I'm not an emperor."

"Tell them that."

James looked at the celebrating crowd. At his father, tears of joy streaming down his face. At Marcus, standing proud for the first time in twenty years. At Emily, bruised but alive.

He'd saved them. Saved Dragon Nation.

But the cost. Lucas's revelation echoed in his mind. Davis's real family, murdered. Three children whose names James now remembered from inherited memories. A wife whose face he could see clearly.

All dead because Lucas wanted power.

"James?" Emily squeezed his hand. "Are you alright?"

"No." He met her eyes. "But I will be. We all will be."

They left the arena together. Behind them, people were already tearing down Lucas's banners, replacing them with Dragon Nation's original flags. The ones Davis had fought under.

As they walked home through streets that suddenly felt lighter, safer, Emily spoke quietly.

"What Tega did to me. In the palace. Before I escaped." She paused. "He didn't finish. The guards came, said there was some emergency. They dragged him away and I ran."

James's jaw clenched. "Do you want me to—"

"No. Let him live. Like you said, he can change. And if he doesn't, prison will be punishment enough." She looked up at the stars. "It's over, isn't it? Really over?"

"Yes."

But even as he said it, James felt something wrong. A disturbance at the edge of his awareness. The Dragon Soul's heightened senses picking up on something distant but approaching.

He looked toward the eastern horizon. Nothing visible. But the wron gness intensified.

"James?" Emily noticed his expression. "What is it?"

"I don't know. Something's—"

The message arrived at dawn. A runner, exhausted and terrified, collapsed at James's door.

"The prison," the runner gasped. "The Nine Nether God Prison. There's been a breach."

James's blood went cold. "When?"

"Hours ago. We just discovered it. The guards are dead. The cell is empty." The runner looked up, face pale. "Vivian's escaped. And she left a message."

"What message?"

The runner handed him a blood-stained piece of paper.

James read it. Four words, written in Vivian's hand:

The game begins now.