Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Once the battle was done, Kretos could feel his body aching all over. Once his muscles loosened up a bit the pain he felt was immense. He fell to the ground no longer able to move. This was a similar situation to when he fought Darius, but way worse. 

His consciousness drifted in and out as Kretos felt his body growing a bit cold. His breathing was becoming heavier as time went on. His mana was now fully drained and his wounds were no longer healing. 

If he were to die like this wouldn't it be so lame after what he said to Kir? He even told the old man not to worry, and that he would crush the heavens itself. Yet here he was laying on the ground unable to do anything. Even his eyes were shut tight but his other senses were still working properly. What made it worse than the time after he fought Darius was that this time he wasn't losing consciousness, he was still awake but unable to do anything. 

If an enemy were to come now Kretos wouldn't even be able to open his eyes, much less move. This feeling of helplessness was an irritating feeling. 

'Maybe dying after such a battle would count as my wish being fulfilled. I did use everything I had, and it was indeed a satisfying battle... Still, to die like this...'

Kretos didn't know what to feel in his current condition. Most beings would've at least felt fear if they were in a similar predicament, but Kretos just found it slightly annoying. 

'I don't even have the strength to bite my tongue and end it. Well, it's not like I would do that even if I could. Still, what am I supposed to do in this situation? I can't even sleep and it doesn't seem like I would die from my wounds. Based on the rate my mana is recovering it would take a week before I could move a bit. I might die from starvation before that...'

After thinking about that Kretos grew silent. It took around an hour of silence before Kretos felt irritated again.

"Aaaarrggghhhh!!! What the f*ck am I supposed to do now!" Kretos was so irritated at the moment. Usually, he was used to not moving when he was enhancing his mana since doing that takes a long time. But this time he wasn't even able to circulate his mana, he was doing absolutely nothing. When he tried to sleep he found out that he simply couldn't do it.

...

After raging for a little while more, Kretos's thoughts became silent again. Kretos had nothing else to do and he started thinking about the demon lords he had fought. 

'Demon Empress Nimune, although by herself she wasn't as strong as the other demon lords, alongside her army she could've been the demon lord closest to conquering the whole demon lands. She was also the one I'm most grateful to, she gave me a goal to strive for, not to mention all of her weapons and gold. Without that supply of weapons, I might not have beaten Kir.'

'Vampiric Lord Darius, that guy was pretty tricky to fight with. It was as if he could read my every move. If he was even slightly stronger physically I might have actually lost. That was a rather exciting battle.'

'Overlord of the sky Jiro, for some reason I can't remember much of my battle with him. It might be because he was not that memorable compared to the other demon lords.' 

'Demonic Fox Tsukiko, we didn't really fight but based on her illusion spell, she should be quite a versatile opponent.'

'Mighty Lord Kir, now that was an opponent. Powerful, fast, and his techniques were superb. He was the strongest I have ever faced. If it weren't for my absurd mana supply I wouldn't be able to do anything to him.' 

After Kretos was finished thinking about the demon lords, he found out that there was nothing more. He was once again getting bored and so he tried thinking about something else. 

'Now that I defeated the demon lords, I wonder what my next move would be. Demon Empress Nimune told me to unite the demon tribes, if I'm able to do that stronger opponents should come, most probably from the other races... But how am I suppose to unite the demon tribes?' 

Kretos thought about it for a while, but he couldn't think of an answer. All he knew from birth till now is how to kill his opponents, he had no idea about how to do other things, much less govern.

'Should I ask for help?... The only person I can think of that has experience in governing is Demonic Fox Tsukiko.' Kretos then remembered the childish expression on Tsukiko's face. That demon lord was older than him by a few centuries but she acted like she was younger. 

'She doesn't seem reliable at all. Well, if all else fails I can use force to subdue and unite every tribe.' While kretos was thinking about other ways to unite the demon tribes, he suddenly heard footsteps. They were rather light and they appeared out of nowhere. 

Kretos couldn't sense the other person's mana since he couldn't use mana sensing at the moment. The only things he could rely on were his sense of smell and sense of hearing. The footsteps were coming closer and closer to him, and once the person got near him, the person stopped. 

'Is this it? I can't even see the person who's going to end my life.' Kretos felt helpless and sad at the notion that he wasn't even able to appreciate his end properly, he couldn't even see his would-be killer. 

A few seconds had passed and the newcomer didn't do anything to Kretos, which confused him. What was the newcomer doing right now? When Kretos thought of that question, he suddenly felt that a massive hand had grabbed hold of him, picking him up. 

'Is this an Ogre?! Am I actually going to be eaten by an Ogre?!'

As Kretos was feeling worse and worse by the idea of being eaten by an Ogre, he felt a shift in the atmosphere. The feel of the wind and the smell of the surrounding area changed. 

"It's a good thing I found you before anyone else. You should thank me once you wake up." Kretos heard a familiar voice talking. This was the voice of the Demonic Fox Tsukiko. 

"Who would've thought that you could actually kill the old Lycan Kir. That guy was so strong, that he could defeat almost anyone in the demon lands without moving from his throne of stone. Yet you were not only able to keep up with him but actually kill him! You're so much stronger than I expected." 

Kretos was placed on the ground, he then felt small soft hands lifting his head. His head was then placed in a familiar soft cushion-like object. Kretos was able to quickly determine that the thing he was laying on was Tsukiko's thighs. 

"Look how helpless you are now, if I wanted to I could kill you easily." When Kretos heard this, he started emitting some killing intent. Tsukiko was shocked at first and then started giggling. 

"So you're still conscious even in this state. I really am amazed by how resilient you are. Though it is quite cute that you are emitting killing intent, even though you can't do anything at the moment... Don't worry I wasn't really going to kill you. I just said that I could. Besides if I wanted to kill you, I had many chances before but I never did do anything, so relax."

Even though Kretos heard what Tsukiko said, and it doesn't seem like she was lying, but even knowing that Kretos didn't let his guard down and continued to emit killing intent. When Tsukiko saw Kretos's reaction she couldn't help but sigh. 

"Hmm, you're such a worrywart... Oh wait, I think I have a spell that could help in this situation. Now that you're in this state, your mental barrier must also be down or at least weakened." After saying that Tsukiko placed her hand on Kretos's head and chanted a spell. 

'Do you hear me?' 

'What is this fox saying now, of course, I-' Kretos then realized that he heard Tsukiko's voice, not with his ears, but it echoed in his head. 

'It seems like it worked. So Kretos, we can now communicate with our thoughts.' 

'There's even a spell, like this?!'

'Of course, there are a lot of different spells. I know about a few thousand spells, and I'm sure that just scratching the surface. There are even some forbidden ones that can connect someone's soul with another person's.'

'Why would someone want to connect with another person's soul?'

'I don't know but the spell does exists... Wait that's not what I want to talk about, tell me how did you win against the old Lycan. I really can't imagine anyone beating that guy but you did it. So tell me how you did it!' 

Hearing the childish way of asking, Kretos sighed. Well, it's not like he has anything better to do at the moment. So Kretos began telling Tsukiko how the battle went down.