One More Time: Rebirth

After killing the shadow of the demon lord of his previous world, Edge was about to continue onward when he suddenly heard someone clapping his hands. Edge quickly turned around and saw that no one was there, only the darkness. 

"That was some splendid resolve." A man appeared from within the darkness. The man was wearing normal light clothes and only had one piece of armor a pair of gauntlets, aside from those there was no visible weapon at all. 

Edge took a fighting stance as he felt that this person was extremely dangerous. Unlike those ghosts from his past that were trying to shake his resolve and make him acknowledge his sins, this one felt like he was about ready to fight. 

"Who are you, another demon from my past?" Edge asked making the man smile a very vicious smile. The smile was something Edge has seen before, it had the exact same vibe as Leonard's smile. After showing that smile the man disappeared from Edge's view. 

Edge quickly placed his sword behind him, and it was hit by a strong force. The mysterious man appeared behind Edge and punched forward aiming for Edge's face. 

After successfully blocking the punch, Edge was going to push the mysterious man backward but his instincts told him to back away. Edge followed his instincts and quickly stepped backward as a strong gust of wind blew past him. The mysterious man had kicked the space Edge was in. 

"Hahaha, as expected from a reincarnation of me." The mysterious man spoke as he laughed heartily. Edge was surprised by what the mysterious man said but he didn't lower his guard. 

"Your reincarnation?... Are you a past incarnation of mine?" Even though Edge already believed a bit of what the Elven Queen said, actually seeing one of his past incarnations with his own eyes was something else. 

"You got that right, I'm Hyouma Ryuuji nice to meet you!" After announcing his name Ryuuji once again disappeared from Edge's sight. Edge could not follow Ryuuji's movement with his eyes so he needed to quickly figure out a way to somehow get a read on Ryuuji's movements. 

Edge tried to see through Ryuuji's attack pattern, but he couldn't do it. The only thing he could do right now was to react to Ryuuji's movements as they were happening, but the difference in speed was simply too great. After a few seconds Edge was already kneeling on the floor full of bruises. 

"Well, that was rather disappoint-" Ryuuji couldn't finish what he was saying when he suddenly noticed that one of his fingers was cleanly sliced off. Seeing this made Ryuuji smile a very vicious smile.

Edge who was kneeling looked at Ryuuji and showed a similar smile. "What were you going to say?" 

"Hahaha! You're so much better than I expected brat! Leave it to one of my reincarnations to be able to go beyond my expectations." Ryuuji picked up the finger that was sliced off and reattached it to his hand. The moment his finger came into contact with his hand strings of mana sew it back. 

Seeing the way the finger reattach itself astonished Edge. 'So mana could be used like that as well.' Edge stood up using his sword as a cane. 

"Are you perhaps the so called first incarnation?" Hearing Edge's question Ryuuji looked at him dumbfounded. The silence in the cave lasted for a few seconds before Ryuuji started laughing heartily. He looked at Edge with a weird expression on his face as he gave an answer. 

"I'm not the first incarnation. If it was the first incarnation or the so called original facing you then this wouldn't be training, it would be a massacre. That guy even if he holds back, could easily slice celestial bodies. His weakest move is literally called [God Slayer], a sword slash that could effortlessly cut down deities on the planetary level."

Every word that came out of Ryuuji's mouth had stunned Edge. Not only were deities real, but his first incarnation was strong enough to kill them like they were nothing. As Edge was in a state of awe, Ryuuji continued to talk about the first incarnation. 

"Even among all of our other incarnations each of whom have been hailed as the strongest of their time, the original is by far the mightiest of us all. I nor any of the other incarnations are a match for him."

"Then among our incarnations how strong are you?"

"I want to say that I'm among the top ten, but the truth is I'm just upper middle." 

"How strong is that?" 

"We have reincarnated thousands of times already. Our current numbers are in the hundred thousandths. Among all of them, I'm in the top one thousand. Hey don't look at me like that, being in the top one thousand among our incarnations is impressive you know." 

Edge couldn't help but look a bit disappointed. He was actually beaten by an incarnation that was at the top one thousand. Didn't that mean that he was weaker than a thousand past incarnations? 

"I already said you shouldn't look down on being among the top one thousand. Our incarnations have fought dragons, deities, primordial beings, and even dimension destroyers. Even against those beings, we have always come out on top. There is only one being that could truly threaten us, the true enemy, the ORIGIN. Being among the top one thousand in that kind of group is amazing, you know." 

"The ORIGIN, who's that?" When Edge heard that there was a true enemy that even someone like the original incarnation has a problem dealing with, Edge grew curious. 

"That's not something you should know for now. Well, since you have already recovered a bit of your stamina, let's get back to our battle." Ryuuji changed the topic and no longer bothered talking with Edge as he suddenly pounced. 

Edge cast out all of his distracting thoughts and focused on the battle he was having. 

...

The two continued to battle for hours. Every time Edge grew tired the two would stop and after a short break, they would continue fighting again. This scene repeated itself dozens of times, and every time they restart the fight Edge was gradually able to last longer.