Demon Lord's Reincarnation

It has been a few days and a child was staying beside Ren's unconscious body. The child sighed in relief as he felt the changes within Ren. 

"Who knew this sh*tty artifact had this kind of compensation!" 

Alphonso shouted as his body reverted back to when he was a ten year old, this was the price to pay for using the clock. He had used the clock before but the time he rewound was only a few minutes or so, which is why he never noticed the compensation. This was the longest he has ever used it and he finally witnessed what the compensation of using the artifact was.

"It's a good thing he's about to wake up, cause if this continued and if I revert back into an infant I won't be able to do anything."

...

While Alphonso was complaining about his new body, Ren woke up in a familiar place. He had thoroughly regained his memories and not only the memories he had before he reincarnated into Ren, no he had gained more. The memories that Tsukiko erased had returned to him. 

'Silly fox, why did you once again take all the pain away?... You should have allowed me to remember so that I could grow...' Kretos who had regained all the memories he had lost felt an intense pain in his heart. Now that he had a better understanding of his feelings, he could finally understand a bit of why he is in pain back then. 

'The heroes I fought had used this pain to their advantage. If they could do it why can't I?... Besides unlike Lisa, you should still be out there somewhere.' Ren remembered that scene when he woke up without his memories of Tsukiko. The only body that was there was of the hero, and there were no signs of her being there. 

Still, there was also a chance that Tsukiko destroyed her own body to make sure that Kretos wouldn't see it. Aside from that, there were many other possibilities about why Tsukiko's body wasn't there, but Ren decided to believe that she was somehow able to survive.

"You're finally able to come back here." As he was contemplating at a corner, Ren heard a familiar voice and turned around.

"It's been a while, Leo." 

"Yeah, it has been some time. Who would've expected that the ORIGIN would have interfered like that so early in the game."

"What was the point of messing with my memories? Even though the ORIGIN did say that this was to even out the odds, it doesn't make too much sense since I regained my memories after a few months. Nothing major happened and I actually feel a lot stronger than before I lost my memories. I actually think I'm nearing the strength I had as demon lord Kretos." 

"Oh right, that's what we've been discussing here while you were gone. Ever since our last encounter with the ORIGIN, we had been trying to figure out what he wanted to accomplish."

"So what did you figure out?" 

"The ORIGIN didn't mess with your memories he messed with our soul." Another familiar voice spoke. 

"Hey, I was the one who was going to say that, Edge." Leo looked at the newcomer. Edge shrugged his shoulders. 

"It doesn't matter who tells him, besides it's always you who speaks to those that enter our realm. Who was the one that decided you're to be the gatekeeper?"

"Oh, those sound like fighting words." Leo smiled a vicious smile as he summoned his beloved weapons Chaos and Serenity. 

"Well, everything might sound like fighting words to the people in this place." Edge smiled a similar vicious smile as he summoned his own weapon.

"This would be our ten-thousandth battle, right? Two thousand wins, four thousand draws, and four thousand losses for me." Leo spoke as his fighting spirit was on the rise. 

"You already know that I'm superior but you keep on challenging me." Edge took a fighting stance.

"You, on other hand, should also know that none of us here will ever stop to take the challenge. We might have that ranking now, and we might all be improving, but who said that I can't catch up and beat you. I already won two thousand times, just need to win two thousand more to even the score." 

As Leo and Edge were about ready to do battle, Ren stood in between them. 

"Though I hate to get in between you two, I kinda want to hear what you were about to tell me. So can you guys have this battle after explaining what's going on?" 

Hearing what Ren said the two quickly cooled down and unsummoned their weapons. Leo and Edge looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders while sighing at the exact same time. 

"Fine, so like I said before the ORIGIN didn't mess with your memories but with our soul. The moment he knocked you out the link between us was severed for a moment. It was just a single second, but it made a mess of your memories."

"Okay so he messed with my soul and not my memories, but that still doesn't answer why he did it?"

"Didn't you say that you've suddenly gained more power compared to before you lost your memories? That was because of what the ORIGIN did. He actually healed our dying soul, he fixed it. You now have the full perks of having the strongest mortal soul. Simply by existing, you will grow stronger, simply going about your day and your mana will increase."

Ren was surprised to hear Edge's explanation as to why he had suddenly grown more powerful. He had many theories as to why he had this sudden growth, but the truth was different than he expected. It took Ren a minute to fully grasp what Edge had said. Ren then looked at Edge his expression was that of utter confusion.

"Why, what's the point?"

"We actually had a very great debate about the reason the ORIGIN did all of these things. So after a very physical debate, we all realized something. We misunderstood what the ORIGIN meant when he said he wanted to even out the playing field. When he said those words he made it sound like he was helping those that killed your childhood friend Lisa. It was like he was saying that he would even out the playing field for our enemies. But we were wrong to think that. Remember what he said before you lost your memory."

Ren recalled that fight as if it just happened recently. He remembered the exact words the ORIGIN said to him. 

"I don't know what the others in your soul said about me, but I truly only wish for balance and order. Even though your current self is truly weak, against the others it is truly unfair. I want to even out the playing field. So for now since you don't want to listen to me, I'm going to take you out of the game for a while. That's what That ORIGIN said, what about it?" 

"Yes, when the ORIGIN said that it wanted to even out the playing field he was talking about us. The ORIGIN restored our soul to its peak state so that our upcoming battle with him will be fair. I think the ORIGIN can feel it as well, our final battle against him is nearing."

"I see... But even if I go beyond the power I had in the past, I can't see myself winning against that." Ren remembered his battle against the ORIGIN. He was beaten without being able to even graze the ORIGIN. Even his past incarnations who were stronger than him couldn't do it.

"Don't worry about it now. All you need to do is grow stronger. Now that our soul is back at full capacity you'll get stronger faster. You even have the advantage of having the chance to gain all of our abilities, so I'm sure we'll be able to do something when the time comes. Despite us saying that the final battle is near, it's not going to be tomorrow or sometime soon. You still have a few years to grow in power. Also, even if you know you will lose it's not like you're not going to fight, right?" Leo responded as his smile grew even wider. 

Hearing what Leo said Ren couldn't help but smile that vicious smile the three of them were showing at the same time. It was always fun talking to Leo, Edge, and all his past incarnations they were different from him, but they were also the same. They could understand each other in a way no other being can.

"Of course, I'll fight. Even if I don't grow stronger than I am now, I will still fight. What's there to fear? It's just a fight with our very soul on the line." The three then started to laugh heartily. After a good laugh, Leo spoke. 

"Now that you know what to do, how about waking up now?"

...

Ren slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was a child around ten years old sitting at his bedside. At first, Ren wondered who the kid was, and where Alphonso disappeared to. But after feeling the mana fluctuation the child was emitting Kretos looked at the child, stunned. 

"... Alphonso, is that you?" 

"About time you woke up," Alphonso responded sounding annoyed as he snatched the clock from Ren's hands. Alphonso turned around his back facing Ren. 

"If you woke up a few days later, I might have turned into a baby." Even though Alphonso sounded annoyed he had a smile on his face.