The Contest Begins (2)

Of course, since the 2 of them are without Contractors, Freyya and Das are naturally the weakest of the Reapers.

Thinking about that mortal again and flipping onto her back again in exhaustion, Freyya sighs. "Well, that mortal already belongs to Das apparently, so it looks like I'm about to be the only death god without a Contractor."

She shows she's about to be left behind even further, but she has already accepted her fate, though it still leaves a heavy feeling in her heart. The other death gods (besides Das) always like to pretend she didn't exist – finding her unlikable and gloomy at best.

...At least, Freyya's always believed they look at her like this; it's why she doesn't like to be around people.

"If I remain weak like this… I won't have to deal with them as often, I guess… Hooray… I suppose… Yeah…"

After finally forcing herself to accept reality, she curled her legs up. "Oh well." She shrugs it away. "I've already accepted my fate. That soul doesn't belong to me after all. Guess I'll have to wait another half a million years for another suitable Contract to come along."

Just as she was about to drift off to sleep, a thought comes to her. "WAIT!" She bolts upright again.

She pauses for a second and uses one of her powers. One of her Named abilities lets her perfectly remember what all her soul fragments experienced before, and with this ability, she spends some time perfectly recalling the events of that day between herself, Das, and that human.

After a few moments, she throws her blankets aside, shoots onto her feet, and yells out, "THAT THIEF!!!"

Indeed, she's sure now that the human really was dead when she found him. "After Das showed up, the old snake must have used his powerful magic to bring the human back to life - all in order to deny me from claiming that soul!"

She kicks her blankets aside in anger and screeches out, "That old cockroach! He's trying to take that Contract for himself! It belongs to me!"

Without another word to herself, she quickly changes into some outside attire, pulls out her dusty silver spear, cleans herself up a little, combs her hair… and does a few other things.

"Goodness, I'm a mess." Being alone all the time, she never takes care of herself… just like how Das accused her earlier of doing.

After finally feeling ready to go outside, she pauses when she almost leaves the door. "Wait… I haven't seen the outside in thousands of years…"

Suddenly feeling severe anxiety, Freyya quickly sits back down in her little nest of blankets and separates one of her soul fragments from herself.

The flicker of silver flame hovers in front of her, and she points in the direction of the Death King's palace. "Go quickly!" The flame shoots out through her wall and disappeared.

As her soul fragment gets further away from her, it gradually reforms into a cleaner, more pristine version of herself – decked out in beautiful clothes and an imposing appearance.

"Ah. Much faster than fixing myself up," she notes smugly.

Her fragment wears a thick frown. "I'm going to go have a chat with the Death King and force him to give me justice!! How dare that old man steal from me!!??"

We see Das & Freyya standing with their hands behind their backs before an imposing, but sickly-looking man on a large wooden chair inlaid with gems and silver threads woven into carved recesses in the wood. There is no crown atop his head; it's resting casually on his desk instead.

The King slams a gavel onto the desk in front of him and growls, "We've already gone through the records, and we've talked to the diviners! The human named Haalfrin is fated to die of old age!"

Before Freyya can protest, the king silences her with an upheld hand. "… and yes, we've seen the evidence you've presented. Das did, indeed, interfere and bring the mortal named Haalfrin back to life."

The King looks away and continues organizing the papers on his desk while he keeps speaking. "So, I've acknowledged that both of you have a claim on this mortal... which is why I won't be interfering at all in this matter."

Freyya keeps her head faced rigidly towards the King, but she glanced her eyes towards Das. "Does that mean," she asks cautiously, "that I can do anything I want to take the human, and you won't do anything about it?"

Das leans over and looks at her with his eyebrows raised. Freyya turns away, looking uncomfortable. "What?" she says defensively, "The mortal's soul is still up for grabs since he hasn't died yet…"

The King briefly looks up and says, "Yes, if he dies in a battle, then he'll go to Freyya, but if he survives and dies peacefully of old age, he'll go to Das."

Freyya grows a large smile. "Aaanything?"

The king lets out a frustrated breath and says, "Now Freyya… when I said I wouldn't interfere, that doesn't mean I'll allow you all to break the rules. Us Death gods aren't supposed to interfere directly with the matters of the living world. You know that's not our territory, and it's not a good idea to assert our presence directly on another god's territory."

"If I find out that ANY of you," the King adds in a harsher tone, "descends there and directly hurts him, then you'll face punishment! Freyya! You're absolutely not allowed to kill him directly! In fact, don't do anything!" The King then turns to Das. "And Das! If I find out you used your powers to instantly age him to death, I'll have your hide!"

Das looks at Freyya and points, "My lord... We -"

"There's no debate on this! Case dismissed!" The King then waves his hand, and both Reapers are forcibly teleported out of his office.

As the King gets back to his paperwork, he looks out the window and has a foreboding feeling in his heart. "I hope those two don't cause trouble at all…"

Of course… powerful, high-ranking gods like the Death King don't have "bad feelings" without a good reason.