The horses came close to where we were before finally stopping. They came much closer than I would have expected, but thankfully for my ears, they slowed as they neared Juniper, his men, and I. That made the noise far less overwhelming. And it allowed me to confirm that I could hear animals. That I could understand them.
As soon as the horses stopped the men mounted on them began to dismount. I wanted to approach the horses, but I barely managed to restrain myself. The men began to speak to each other, Juniper and his guards, and the once mounted warriors who were now close by.
Only one horse trotted close to me. Unsurprisingly, it was the warrior who held the spear. He led his horse almost all the way to where I stood. When he reached me he slowed his horse to a complete stop.
"You must be master Marcos." He stated, simply. There was confidence in his voice and an edge of curiosity. He held his spear firmly and he wore a helm that covered most of his face, but didn't cover his eyes. His eyes were thin, but they held a pride I recognized. And intelligence.
"My name is Miguel. I am one of the many guards assigned to you. Your honor guard, so to speak. Unfortunately, we weren't able to deploy in time to catch you. That said... I can see that your enemies were no match for you." He remarked, studying the scene that surrounded me. I chuckled in response to his words.
I walked over to the man and as I did he dismounted the horse in one fluid motion. He was speedy. He walked over to me and extended a hand, so as to greet me properly. I returned the gesture, curious as to what this would make the man do. He smiled and pulled me into a warm and surprising embrace.
I felt his muscles against his armor. He was fit, and I knew that he was a career soldier. He had the air of one, and the respect for customs that one would have had. I sensed his respect for me increase as he felt my own muscles. I took this time to pause for a moment and think of what to say next. It took me only a moment to come up with something I felt would be suitable.
"I am not only a hero, I am a warrior as well. A soldier. My raw skills my pale in comparison to that of a modern soldier such as yourself, but my power and speed are more than enough to handle foes such as those." I told the man, speaking suavely. As I spoke I sensed his estimation of me changing, improving, and then my final remark about how my own skill would be eclipsed by his own, and I felt his sense of self increase.
Miguel was a warrior, not a politician, so of course, such words would affect his heart. He released me from his embrace and smiled at me, before gesturing at me with a full fist over his heart, something I instinctively assumed was a salute of some sort.
"Master Marcos, I apologize for our lateness in coming to your aid, and I swear to you that we shall not fall you again. I shall work to ensure that we meet your high estimation of our skills, and protect you from all manner of dangers." The warrior told me, pride and patriotism visible in his gaze and his voice alike.
I looked at the man as stoically as I could for a moment, knowing that this would meet his expectations for the moment. And then I smiled, and I felt him fill with happiness. I could sense him feeling as though we had a kinship, which was convenient for me and it ensured that he would serve me and protect me. A not small part of me wondered how much protection I'd actually need, but I knew better than to act cocky given my newness to this area.
"Thank you Miguel." I told the man, as I began to feel something within me change yet again. Miguel's gesture towards me had been seen and my acceptance of it had been seen as well. That caused his allies to believe in me, to a lesser extent than he did, which in turn was something that strengthened my powers.
Defeating my enemies and gaining followers increases my own powers. And just now I had done both. By doing both I was almost certainly experiencing at least a tiny growth spur as far as my powers went. That said, if I wanted to confirm my powers I'd probably be best served by waiting for a private chance to explore them, rather than trying something publicly and failing, which would be embarrassing and potentially set me back with regards to gaining followers.
The next few minutes were spent waiting for a few more people to arrive. In time a number of people had arrived where we were, and Miguel told me that it was safe for us to continue our journey. He also told me not to be worried about my own skill in battle, and he explained that some people believed that a "Reborn hero" like me could regain their memories and skills from their past lives if they meditated and sought methods to remember the people they had once been.
We continued our journey deeper into the colony and would arrive at the citadel perhaps a quarter of an hour after we began the journey. We went on a search for more nearly invisible men and found none, which was the primary reason why we took so long. During the time that we were securing our home against foreign raiders I felt my senses continue to expand.
It was a strange feeling, consciously aware that your perceptiveness was actively increasing felt disconcerting. I could hear all manner of sounds watch my own vision sharpen and increase in range, and even my sense of touch became more sensitive. And it was only the first time such a thing would happen today.
The rest of the day passed by quickly. We arrived at the citadel, a full-on medieval almost Spanish military fortress, complete with a local town where citizens lived. I met soldiers of all sorts, and their families, and was hailed as a hero who had both just arrived in this place and already saved lives by taking on the locals myself and defeating them before they could harm anyone. I also met leaders, militaristic ones and non-militaristic ones alike.
The news of my victory, minor as it was, was enough to boost my powers. I felt even my casual speed begin to increase, as well as my strength and endurance, which manifested in the form of my muscles increasing in thickness and my height increasing just a little bit.
It was only when night fell that I was taken back to my home and swiftly introduced to my servants, who had been spending the day tending to various tasks throughout the property such as cleaning it and beginning to build housing for themselves near it. On the way back I also got to see efforts underway to go ahead and build roads and homes in the area surrounding my property.
The first moment of peace that I had gotten since I awoke earlier today was when I was by myself and it was late at night. A large, full moon hung over the mansion that was supposedly now my home, and from the roof of my property, I gazed at it curiously.
I was almost completely by myself, as a pair of guards guarded the door to the roof and I felt their eyes on me as I gazed up the large celestial object which, if not for the strangeness of the day, could have tricked me into thinking that I was still on Earth.
The moon hung over the ocean, and I remembered that supposedly at least, I could actually fly. So far I hadn't flown, but I childishly reached my hand out towards the moon and I smiled, as I imagined lifting off from the ground. At first, nothing happened.
And then nothing happened. For several moments I merely gazed at the moon and grasped at it like a child would have. It was almost a minute after I reached out to the moon that I, half-jokingly, stood on the tips of my toes, allowing the back of my feet to get up off of my roof, that I almost immediately lifted slightly off of the floor altogether.
I went up off of the floor of my roof by just a few centimeters, but I distinctly felt my feet leave the floor altogether and I began to laugh. I turned back and smiled at my guards as I began to slowly move in the air and test how I felt moving around weightlessly. I even flew up into the air, extending my hand out in the direction I moved in, so as to guide my body.
My guards, two of the many stationed throughout my home, almost ran towards me, looking on in shock as they watched me fly. I could see their facial muscles stretched in surprise, even if their helmets covered their mouths, as they didn't cover the cheeks or nose of the guards. They were designed in a way that I thought was odd, showing their noses and cheeks, as well as their eyes, but no other parts of their faces.
"Flying is awesome..." I muttered, quietly, far too quietly to be heard by my guards. Flying, as I swiftly found, was also easy, as I could control my positioning naturally and with little more than thoughts. I wasn't practicing my speed, not yet anyway, but I did practice my ease in the air.
I spun around in the air and practiced doing things as challenging as flips, before deciding to truly test my powers. My guards watched, still awed by the sight of me in the air. I looked at them and began to shout.
"I'll be right back! I just wanna test something!" I shouted, and I felt their sheer surprise before I closed my eyes and began to speed up my mind.
I had already mastered the strange art of slowing myself down enough to "allow" the world to move at a meaningful rate around me, and speeding myself up to my true speed was just as easy as slowing down was. When I opened my eyes they were frozen, and the world was silent around me. I was now in my true-speed state, but on a subconscious level, I knew that I was actually faster than I had been before. The world was more frozen now than it had been when I first entered this strange state of existence.
"Now this is power..." I uttered as I gazed at the frozen guards, and then turned around and shot towards the citadel. I arrived there, even in my own perception, in an instant. The distance between my home and the citadel was not a lot, but being able to reach it in an instant with my true speed meant that I was beyond speed.
The ability to travel entire kilometers in a unit of time that was smaller than even a nanosecond meant that my speed dwarfed the speed of sound. And this wasn't an accurate measurement of my speed, as I did this with no difficulty. I gazed off in the distance, but not at the ocean. I looked inland and began to grin. I zipped forward and effortlessly found myself hurtling through the air, towards the interior of the continent.
The area just beyond my home was only loosely populated by the Verdadians. I knew, due in part to conversations I had had with Juniper and other local leaders, that in time that would change, but for now I was living near the outskirts of our territory, and that meant that when I zoomed by my home I was entering wild, rural, lands.
The area beneath me was grassy and fertile, and as I zoomed over it I studied it and got to see all sorts of animals. It took me mere moments, even in my perception of time, to reach a thick river filled with clear and beautiful freshwater. As I zipped by it, I began to see clouds of smoke in the distance and I oriented myself towards them with ease before taking off to investigate them. It was about time that I go and learn about the locals.