Ajax thought that he was dead, but he found himself kneeling down on the ground. He found himself looking at an earthen wall kneeling down in a barely lit area.
As he breathed in, he smells the damp mud and noticed that he was wet and covered in grime. It was like he was in a cave or mine. A second later, he realized his body was hurting and felt frail and weak. He felt a buzzing noise in his ears and his head felt light. He could hear someone yelling, but couldn't understand it properly. It was like a mix of multiple languages which were known to him.
He remembered being beaten on his stomach and kicked on his chest. The pain was still there but it was different. His knees hurt mildly and he was able to move them. It was like he wasn't shot in the knees by a bullet but the mild pain of falling on his knees. The chest hurt a lot more than expected. As he looked down, he found a knife with a black blade and black handle stabbed in his chest. It missed his heart but it still hurt a lot, he slowly lifted his hands and placed them on the blade handle to pull it out.
As he tried to pull the blade, he realized that he was much weaker than he assumed. It was not just him being tired but he noticed that even his muscles and hands were much smaller. In shock, he looked clearly and tried to get up when stumbled and yelped in pain.
"Aaah," yelled Ajax as he managed to pull the blade a bit out of his chest. His voice sounded weird and childish to him which confusing him a lot. His eyes began to adapt to the darkness as he noticed that he was wearing a loose shirt and trousers with a dark armor with an ancient design on it. He also wore a gilded necklace with blood red spear shaped pendant.
As he touched the pendant, he experienced an energy flowing through his hands into his body, the noise in his ears subsided and he was suddenly able to pull the blade easily out of his chest and held it ready to fight. As a trained agent, it was his instinct to prepare to fight when he received any injury. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching him and slowly turned around to see a masked man dressed completely in black leather suit from head-to-toe walking towards him.
As the pendant touch his knife wound it suddenly fused and merged into the wound, closing it. He stopped bleeding and a pendant began to send waves of energy into his body. It was similar to drinking the vials they used to get from the altar that MI8 used to call "the source". It made him feel like his strength increased tens of times. The yelling that he kept hearing suddenly started to make sense as felt like he was able to comprehend the language suddenly.
"Run away, brother!" yelled a woman who was a few meters ahead of him. She wore a white dress and black chest plate and was slightly taller than him. She held a thin black saber and was trying to hold her own against another masked man. It was clear that the masked men were attempting to kill him and the woman.
"Run, brother. Don't fight. Uncle Bhairav will come as long we survive for a few seconds," she yelled as she tried to block the second masked man from approaching him. He looked at the woman and then, at the masked man who continued to approach him with a clear intent to kill.
"I don't care but I can only make sense of it if I live," thought Ajax.
"Little prince," yelled the masked man as held his sword up to slash at Ajax. "I got no idea how you survived after I crippled your mana core, especially a dark attributed one like yours, but you have no chance of ".
Ajax didn't wait to hear the man out. As he came within a distance of 2 meters, Ajax made a quick sprint and jump to reach him and with a quick move, cut the man's throat just beneath his mask. It was so quick and fast that even the man didn't realize till could sudden not speak any longer.
The ringing sound of the saber striking the ground as the man dropped it to clutch his throat caused the other two people to look towards him. They both stood in shock as the masked man fell down dead. Before the woman could react, she saw a knife came flying and burrowed itself into the head of the second man killing him instantly.
"Brother," muttered the woman in a hushed tone. She couldn't believe that her younger brother who was only thirteen could dispose of two assassins so quickly. She began to fear that there was someone else alongside them.
Ajax who just killed the two assassins bent down to take their weapons, when he suddenly felt mind numbing pain in his head before he could get a hold of those weapons. It felt like his brain was about to burst out of his skull. He shouted out in pain like he was being burned and fainted falling on the ground.
"Brother! Brother!" he could feel the woman yelling as she held him but he could not respond. He could do nothing but began to shake and jerk as he lost his consciousness again. The next time he woke up, he found himself and the woman being carried by a large man on his shoulders as he was running. He immediately thought that he was captured again but looking at the woman who seemed to be fine, he understood that the main was not an enemy. A second later, he again lost his consciousness again.
This time he began to see a lot of things. It was like a lucid dream in which he could hear and feel everything. He began to see himself as a child playing with two people and a girl whom he called Jwala. Then it moved to another scene where he was learning to wield a sword and so on. Suddenly, the thoughts changed to his memories on earth. After a few jumps, he realized that these were all his memories not just some dreams. The level of detail and knowledge he kept gaining was far too much for it to be just some random dreams. He had realized that this was his life. He had reincarnated.
As he gained the memories, he realized that the woman in the cave was his sister Jwala and the man who carried him was his mother's brother, 'Bhairav'. Along with the memories, he soon felt began to feel the emotions towards them all.
He realized his current situation and his place in this world where magic and monsters seem to be common place. There were a lot of differences between his past life and present. Even the days were longer and took about 30 hours per day instead of the 24 he knew, but it wasn't a problem as everyone adapted to it. The most significant aspect was that now, he was born into power as a kid, unlike his past life where he earned power and fame through his work.
He was born as the second child of king Varas Darkhan and his wife, Gayatri. Funnily enough, even in this life, he was given the same name, Ajaatashatru. Varas was the king of the border kingdom of Andar, which held the eastern border of the human territories safe from the ancient forest which was the haven of beasts.
Varas Darkhan was the warrior king and his entire kingdom mostly derived their sustenance due to the constant conflicts with the ancient forest. He was more of warrior than an administrator and spent most of his time at the border or leading expeditions into the ancient forest. He was also known as the strongest swordsmen of the Darkhan empire of which Andar was a part.
His last expedition happened two years ago and he was considered missing since then. Though he was missing no one dared to have any political or ruling ideas towards the kingdom of Andar as Varas was the 1st child of the emperor of the Darkhan empire. Gayatri ruled in his stead and no one said anything. This was the case till Varas's younger brother, Vikram saw Gayatri and began to lust after her. Soon, he attempted to woo her and upon rejection, decided to take the Andar kingdom from her and force her to be with him.
Thus, he bribed, threatened and did whatever was required to gain political power inside the capital of Andar and attempted coup to displace her from the throne. He was successful, but during the coup Vikram realized that forcing Gayatri wasn't that simple a task.
Gayatri was famous as a healer and was known to save many lives of the people who were injured at the border. But it was during the coup that Vikram and other nobles of the kingdom realized that Gayatri was no weaker than Varas. She held back all their force single handedly with her spell craft allowing her children to escape, before she flew away herself.
Before the escape, she gave the pendant to Ajax asking him to keep it safe. After that he and Jwala, ran away from the capital towards the border. In this world, it is always best to go to serve at the border if anyone want to avoid any sort of political enemies or stronger power. This is because the borders are governed by the human council. Their duty was considered sacred and the even the emperor couldn't misuse his power to hurt a soldier that fought against the forces of ancient forest. Even an emperor would have to fear execution if he was found to hurt the human forces at the border.
Of course, such powers as the empire could negotiate for a single person, but as long as the person vows to serve in the border all his life, he and his family would be guaranteed a safe home there. He believed that his uncle, Bhairav would choose the same option to save Jwala and him. After experiencing all the memories of his uncle, the fact that Bhairav would be forced to put himself in a voluntary lifelong service which is almost as bad an exile angered Ajax to his core. It reminded him of his own life where he was branded a traitor. His rage consumed him as he thought of the similarities in his two lives and in that pain, he woke up.
When he woke up, he found himself in the lying on a mattress on a wooden bed in a stone room. His chest, head and legs were bandaged with a white cloth. The room was clean with a wood panelled window. There were a couple of leather chairs and a small wooden table holding with a glass and jug full of water on it. There was also a wet white cloth which looked like it he been used to cool down his fever.
Realizing that he sat up and found a young maid hiding behind a chair. It looked like she was afraid of him.
"Did I shout in my sleep?" he asked.
The girl who was about 4 feet tall peeked from behind the chair and shyly nodded in agreement. "I have definitely frightened the little girl," thought Ajax shaking his head.
"Whose place is this? Where are we?" he asked the maid who immediately got up opened the door and ran out.
"Did frighten the girl that bad?" he thought as checked his body and began to examine his wounds. After a preliminary inspection, he decided that he was good enough to move around. He opened the window and found that he was in some kind of city made of stone. The window was about 40 feet above the ground.
"Not on the ground floor," he muttered as he looked around planning for a path of escape in case he needed to run. Though, the sun was down, the place was illuminated, making it much easier for him to escape if he required to do so.
He took a couple of minutes observing the place before he decided to get out of the room and check. As he opened the door, he found himself facing a giant of a man in shining red armor outside the room. He was at least seven feet tall, his chest about 3 feet wide, covered from top to bottom with armor. Ajax felt that the man's armor itself would be much heavier than him.
"You are able to move around," said the man as he moved into the room. He removed his helmet and put it down on table which began to creak under the helmet's weight. He had shoulder length blond hair, big wide eyes, a big hawk like nose, thin lips, a strong rectangular jaw with a burly handle bar moustache that gave him a matured look. He looked towards Ajax, checked his wounds and made a deep sigh.
"I am general Krev Dustblade of the Lasco fort of the border and Bhairav left you in my care," he said. "I am friend of your father and from today, you are one of the new recruits to the border force. Brairav and Jwala left and it has been announced that you have already been stabbed in your chest. No one knows if you are dead or alive and there is a bounty on you."
"Did Vikram," started Ajax, but before he could continue, Krev interrupted him.
"Your uncle, Vikram is the current king of Andar and the emperor accepted him. You don't need to worry about your safety. It has been about 5 weeks since they left you with me. About two months since the coup. For everyone else, you are my nephew. I can't call you, your actual name. So, choose something."
"Ajax. Call me Ajax Dustblade."
"Good. Stay here for now. Tomorrow, I will smuggle you to the gate and you will enter after registering yourself as my nephew. You have a week to stay here. After that you will join the new recruits training. Am I clear?"
"Yes," said Ajax. He felt it weird that the general behaved with him in such a distant manner especially when he introduced himself as his father's friend.
"Your sister and uncle, they are on the run and it is quite easy to identify them. You are still growing and have chance to stay here. Especially with your hair having changed to red brown color after you lost your core. Don't expect anything from me. You won't be provided any special benefits. In your situation, it would only hamper your growth and put you in suspicion. Eat well and stay sharp," said Krev as he took back his helmet and walked out.