Reincarnated As a Fallen Hero: Volume 1

The first thing Adrian Vale noticed was that the rain had stopped.

It was a strangely insignificant thought.

He couldn't feel the pavement beneath his shoes anymore. He couldn't hear the traffic that had filled the city only moments ago. He couldn't even feel the cold air against his skin.

The world had simply...

Gone quiet.

Yet his mind clung to that one useless observation with the stubbornness of a drowning man holding onto a piece of driftwood.

The rain had stopped.

A second ago, it had been hammering against the windshield, turning the city lights into long, blurry streaks of red and white.

He remembered the wet road.

The intersection.

Headlights approaching too quickly.

Someone screaming.

Then—

A sound like thunder being ripped in half.

And nothing.

Adrian opened his eyes.

Above him stretched a sky he had never seen before.

Violet clouds drifted slowly across an enormous silver moon, its surface scarred with patterns that looked almost like continents. Thin ribbons of pale light moved between the clouds, twisting through the atmosphere as if something enormous were swimming above the world.

Adrian stared.

He blinked.

He stared again.

"...Huh."

That was the best his brain could come up with.

He slowly pushed himself upright.

The ground beneath him was soft.

Grass shimmered faintly beneath the moonlight, each blade carrying a tiny silver glow. Around him stood trees so enormous that their trunks looked like towers, their branches disappearing somewhere into the darkness above.

Adrian looked down at himself.

Dark jacket.

Black shirt.

Jeans.

Shoes still damp from the rain.

He checked his arms.

His chest.

His legs.

Nothing.

No blood.

No broken bones.

No mysterious glowing tattoo.

No sword.

No wings.

No fucking idea what was happening.

Adrian stood.

"Okay."

He looked at the moon.

"Either I'm dead..."

His eyes slowly moved across the impossible landscape.

"...or somebody's about to make me fight a dragon."

He waited.

Nothing happened.

Adrian sighed.

"Honestly, both options suck."

He turned slowly.

There was no road.

No car.

No city.

No people.

Nothing familiar.

Only an endless forest stretching in every direction.

Then he saw something between the trees.

Lights.

Thousands of them.

Far beyond the forest, across a valley so enormous that the mountains on the opposite side seemed to touch the sky, a city climbed the side of a black mountain.

Adrian stopped breathing.

The city was enormous.

Walls of dark stone surrounded it, rising higher than some of the buildings he could see inside. Towering structures pierced the night sky, connected by enormous bridges glowing with blue-white light.

Something resembling a river of light flowed through the center of the city.

Airships drifted above the rooftops.

Adrian stared.

For several seconds, he said nothing.

Then he looked down at his shoes.

Then back at the city.

"Yep."

He nodded.

"I'm dead."

A pause.

"Or Ohio got significantly worse."

A bell rang.

Once.

The sound rolled through the forest.

The leaves trembled.

Adrian froze.

A second bell followed.

Then a third.

By the seventh, the distant city had begun to glow.

Windows illuminated themselves one after another, spreading across the mountainside in enormous waves.

Then came the horns.

Deep.

Ancient.

Military.

Adrian's smile disappeared.

"Oh, come on."

Something moved between the trees.

One shadow.

Then another.

Then dozens.

Figures emerged from the darkness wearing long black coats reinforced with polished metal. Pale masks covered their faces, each marked with strange symbols that glowed faintly blue.

Every one of them carried a weapon.

Adrian slowly raised his hands.

"Before anybody does anything stupid, I'd like to officially announce that I have absolutely no idea what's going on."

Silence.

He swallowed.

"Also, I'm Canadian."

He wasn't.

He had no idea why he'd said it.

Apparently, panic had started affecting his nationality.

A woman stepped through the soldiers.

She looked around Adrian's age.

Silver hair fell over one shoulder, contrasting sharply against the black cloak wrapped around her body. A sword hung at her waist.

Her face was calm.

Controlled.

The kind of expression belonging to someone who was used to giving orders and watching people obey them.

Then she saw Adrian.

The calm vanished.

Her golden eyes widened.

She took a small step backward.

"No."

Adrian frowned.

"That's usually not how introductions start."

"You weren't supposed to come."

Adrian pointed at himself.

"Me?"

She didn't answer.

"Because, just for the record, I wasn't planning on coming either."

Her gaze remained fixed on him.

One of the masked soldiers stepped forward.

"Commander, should we restrain him?"

Her hand immediately rose.

"Don't."

The soldier stopped.

Adrian looked between them.

"Great."

He lowered his hands slightly.

"We're already at the 'restrain him' stage. That's encouraging."

The woman approached.

Her eyes moved over his clothes.

His face.

His hands.

Then his eyes.

She looked almost frightened.

"What is your name?"

"Adrian."

"Adrian what?"

"Vale."

The woman stopped.

For half a second, she didn't breathe.

Adrian noticed.

"You know that name."

"No."

She answered far too quickly.

"You definitely know that name."

"I said no."

"You said it like someone who just got caught stealing food at three in the morning."

The soldiers exchanged confused looks.

Adrian sighed.

"Never mind."

The woman took a slow breath.

"My name is Seraphine."

"Okay."

"You are in the Kingdom of Asteria."

"Okay."

"You crossed the Boundary."

"Okay."

"You are the first human to cross it in two hundred years."

Adrian nodded.

"Okay."

Seraphine stared at him.

Adrian stared back.

"...Is there a part where somebody explains what any of that means?"

"No."

Adrian's face went blank.

"Fantastic."

A roar erupted somewhere deep within the forest.

Every soldier turned.

Seraphine's hand snapped toward her sword.

"How many?"

One of the soldiers listened.

"At least one."

The trees shook.

Another roar.

Closer.

The soldiers drew their weapons.

Adrian slowly backed away.

"So, just checking..."

Nobody looked at him.

"...is this one of those worlds where the giant monster kills the random guy first?"

Seraphine finally looked at him.

"Yes."

"Great."

She pointed toward the city.

"Run."

Adrian ran.

He had never run so fast in his life.

Branches whipped against his face as Seraphine moved ahead of him with impossible speed.

Behind them came the sound of trees being torn apart.

Adrian glanced over his shoulder.

Instant regret.

Something enormous moved between the trees.

It was taller than a house.

Four arms.

A body covered in black armor-like plates.

And a head that looked disturbingly human—

if a human skull had been split vertically down the middle to create a second mouth.

Adrian's legs nearly gave out.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

"Keep running!"

"THAT WASN'T AN ANSWER!"

The creature roared.

Adrian screamed.

The creature roared again.

Adrian screamed louder.

"WHY ARE WE BOTH DOING THAT?!"

For the first time, Seraphine's composure cracked.

Her shoulders shook.

Was she—

Laughing?

An explosion tore through the forest.

Blue fire slammed into the creature.

It staggered backward.

Several soldiers rushed past Adrian, their weapons glowing with blue light.

Adrian stopped.

"...Oh."

One soldier leapt thirty feet into the air.

His sword flashed.

He drove it straight through the creature's shoulder.

Adrian stared.

"...Magic."

He looked at his hands.

Nothing.

He snapped his fingers.

Nothing.

He snapped them again.

Still nothing.

"Come on."

Nothing.

"Please?"

Still nothing.

Seraphine grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away.

"Stop."

"I was checking."

"You were snapping your fingers."

"I've seen movies."

"This is not a movie."

"That's exactly what someone in a movie would say."

She stared at him.

Adrian decided silence was probably healthier.

They finally reached the edge of the forest.

The city stretched before them.

For the first time since waking, Adrian forgot to be afraid.

It was beautiful.

Ancient towers pierced the sky.

Bridges of glowing stone connected buildings hundreds of feet above the streets.

Airships drifted between towers, their hulls covered in unfamiliar symbols.

Thousands of people moved beneath magical lamps.

A civilization.

A real one.

Not a dream.

Not a hallucination.

A world.

And somehow—

Adrian was standing inside it.

Seraphine watched him.

"The last person from your world stood there too."

Adrian looked at her.

"Who?"

"The Hero."

Adrian's expression changed.

"The Hero?"

"He arrived two hundred years ago."

"What happened to him?"

Seraphine looked toward the city.

"He saved Asteria."

Adrian nodded.

"Okay."

"He became its king."

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"Okay. That's actually a pretty good ending."

"He ruled for eighty-three years."

"Still sounds pretty good."

"He was beloved."

"Even better."

"He died peacefully."

Adrian smiled.

"So why do you look like you're about to tell me he ate children?"

Seraphine's expression didn't change.

"He didn't die."

Adrian's smile vanished.

"What?"

"The man buried beneath the royal palace..."

She looked at him.

"...is not the Hero."

The wind seemed to disappear.

Adrian swallowed.

"Then where is he?"

"We don't know."

Seraphine stepped closer.

"No one knows where the Hero went."

Adrian looked toward the city.

"And you think I know?"

"No."

She studied his face.

"I think he knows you."

Adrian's stomach tightened.

Before he could respond—

His pocket vibrated.

He froze.

Slowly, Adrian reached inside his jacket.

His phone.

His actual phone.

The same phone he'd been carrying before the accident.

He pulled it out.

The screen was glowing.

No signal.

No Wi-Fi.

No battery percentage.

Only one message.

WELCOME BACK, ADRIAN VALE.

Adrian stopped breathing.

Seraphine stepped backward.

Her face had gone pale.

Another message appeared.

THIS TIME, DON'T TRUST SERAPHINE.

Adrian slowly turned toward her.

She stared at the screen.

Neither of them spoke.

The phone vibrated again.

A third message appeared.

AND WHATEVER YOU DO...

Adrian's grip tightened.

One final line appeared.

DON'T LET HER REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE.

Seraphine's golden eyes widened.

"Adrian..."

He looked at her.

"What?"

She wasn't looking at the phone anymore.

She was looking at him.

Not with fear.

Not exactly.

Something deeper.

Something that looked painfully close to recognition.

Her lips parted.

And then she whispered a name.

Not Adrian.

A different name.

One he had never heard before.

Yet the moment she said it—

His heart stopped.

The world around him blurred.

Something moved inside his head.

A memory.

No.

Not a memory.

A life.

Flashes tore through his mind.

A burning city.

A sword covered in blood.

A crown lying broken in the snow.

Thousands of people screaming his name.

Seraphine—

crying.

Someone kneeling before him.

Someone begging him to stop.

And finally—

a blackened battlefield beneath a blood-red moon.

A man standing alone among the dead.

Adrian gasped.

The vision vanished.

He stumbled backward.

Seraphine caught his arm.

"Adrian!"

He ripped himself away.

"What the hell was that?"

She didn't answer.

Her eyes were filled with tears.

"You really don't remember."

Adrian stared at her.

"Remember what?"

She looked at him like she was looking at a ghost.

Then she whispered the name again.

This time, Adrian heard the voice beneath it.

The voice buried somewhere inside himself.

The voice of someone who had lived before him.

Someone who had died before him.

Someone who had once ruled this world.

Someone who had once saved it.

And someone who had eventually—

destroyed it.

Adrian's phone screen flickered.

A final message appeared.

REINCARNATION COMPLETE.

His blood ran cold.

Then another line appeared.

WELCOME BACK, FALLEN HERO.