New Names

As Haalfrin carefully studies the 2 glowing Runes in the sky of his Soul Realm, his mind is drawn into another vision of his future.

In this vision, he sees himself in a large hall in the snowy mountains. At the head of the hall is a plain stone throne with a middle-aged version of himself sitting atop it. At his sides are some pointy-eared soldiers in black and red armor. The future him seems to be talking to these pointy-eared people, but the vision doesn't give him their voices, so he's only left to wonder what they're saying.

Then, the images all around him darken and blur as the scenery changes. Now, he sees his future self training alongside his men and keeping them all in line.

Time seems to zip past again as the sun in the sky moves at the sky so fast that it blurs into a single silver streak of light… for this sun isn't golden colored at all; it's silver (meaning this is in the Death Realm).

So much time passes that Haalfrin sees the mountains change around the stone fortress like the waves of the sea... but the army of pointy-eared men is still training in the fields, in the halls, and in the mountains.

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Haalfrin is suddenly thrown out of the vision, and he looks down at his Soul Realm's barren ground. It always happens so subtly, but Haalfrin finds that the information on his new Name power is already in his mind.

As always, getting the details of his new power feels more like recalling a distant memory than it does learning something new.

So, Haalfrin glances up and "recalls" what his new Fel (Change) Name does.

"Hmm…," Haalfrin murmurs pensively, "This Name has the power to transform Death Aura into mana."

Haalfrin grins at this. 'I already have a lot of Death Aura in my soul, so I'll have a pool of mana to draw from! With this, I can escape!'

The excited prisoner tries for a moment to use his magic, but then he remembers in sad detail. 'Oh yeah. I can't use my magic if I'm unable to move in the first place. Ugh... I'll have to figure something else out.'

Still, this is a valuable step forward. Indeed, the only way to escape this hell hole is to get stronger and get more Powers from my Names, since my Names are the only thing that can't be restrained with any spell or enchantment.

Then, Haalfrin moves onto his other Name, which is still shining brightly.

He looks into the Rune in the sky, hoping he'll find a more immediately useful power. As he does so, he's drawn into another vision.

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Unlike the other visions he's had, which creep slowly into his mind, this one has a violent explosion of images that assault his mind all at once.

There's so much to see, so Haalfrin misses quite a bit… but he does catch images of countless gods strewn about the empty void…, like grains of dust floating on a breeze.

Below the gods' corpses is a giant planet split down the middle, with an enormous claw right below it - as if frozen in time the moment after it hewed the world in half.

The Haalfrin of the future sees as all of his men are being wiped out by a force they can't see… and he watches as a giant golden eye with a black slit for a pupil. The eye slowly opens, and the golden light shines so brightly that it resembles a sun being unveiled. No. This slitted eye is even brighter and more golden than the sun.

The future Haalfrin holds up his sword and shield at the massive creature and shouts, "DRAKAVAR! Are you such a coward that you'll turn down a challenge from a puny god like me?!"

In reality, the great black beast wasn't ignoring him. Instead, it didn't even notice him; he was too tiny.

As the future Haalfrin charges at the beast, Drakavar swipes a claw at him, and the puny warrior god is sent off into the distance – only stopping when he lands… on something long and sharp.

Haalfrin strains his mind as he tried looking further into the vision, but he only sees that his future self was bleeding out… Presumably, he was launched into space, then lands on something large and pointy.

In a panic, Haalfrin quickly wills his mind to fall deeper into the vision. This time, he falls deep enough in the vision to connect with his future self's thoughts.

'Drakavar...,' the future Haalfrin thinks, 'I've trained all my life hoping to defeat you – to stop the terrible visions I've been seeing. We never really stood a chance, though… But if I could do it all again, I would.'

The future him then gives a sarcastic smile. 'Well, being killed by the eldest and strongest of all Creations… that's not a bad way to go out…'

He feels at peace thinking this as he closes his eyes. 'Yes, it was all worth it…'

In the end, Haalfrin's sad reality is that he spent almost his entire existence obsessing over Drakavar, only for his climactic battle to end in a whisper.

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Haalfrin snaps awake in a cold sweat. His limbs are stiff, and his arms and legs are subtly shaking in fear.

When he saw those golden eyes looking at him in the vision… he had the strong feeling that the being called Drakavar wasn't looking at all the other gods… but it was looking at HIM – the strange onlooker from the past.

In the far future, when Haalfrin talks with Freyya about this strange feeling, she DOES confirm that only the Creator God, Mora, is powerful enough to be aware whenever someone touches a piece of his timeline.

That's why trying to scry his future is strictly prohibited in the gods' society; the moment someone tries to look at him, he'll look back.

So, after hearing that Drakavar can do the same thing, Freyya's face will betray how disturbed she is - no matter how she tries to hide it from Haalfrin.

But never mind that. Haalfrin also feels a little strange; he DID just witness his own demise - even after it was confirmed he was a god at the time.

Frankly, if Haalfrin had seen his own obliteration earlier in life, he'd have been disturbed. However, his mental fortitude and his apathy about death are strong enough to keep that part of his mind calm.

'Now that I think about it… the idea of being slain by such a majestic creature was exciting. What an honor!'

Still, Haalfrin noticed that his future self has pointed ears too - just like the rest of his army.

During his trip in the Death realm, Haalfrin remembers Das telling him that only dead people have pointed ears.

'That makes sense, though,' Haalfrin concedes.'"I WILL become a Death god of some sort, given my affinity with Death. You also can't become a Death god unless you're dead.'

Sadly, this means that this wasn't a vision of his departure from his mortality, but his destruction in the afterlife… This means that he still doesn't know how he dies…

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After sorting his emotions out, Haalfrin closes his eyes and "recalls" the details of his new Dra (Body) Name.

'Ha…,' Haalfrin learns, 'My New Dra Name lets me use Death Aura to fortify my body. It's like a body reinforcement spell that doesn't care about multiplying my natural strength… but only how much Aura I have.'

Indeed, a mage can only strengthen his body so much with a spell, since he can only hold so much mana in his soul. Haalfrin, on the other hand, has no limit on how much Death Aura he can store away.

Haalfrin feels his heart quicken, and he gives a short smile. 'That's a little too much, right? Theoretically, I could have infinite strength…'

The prisoner looks up and shudders. 'If I have infinite growth like this now, and I spend millions of years training and growing in the death realm… Yet I still get thrown around like trash by Drakavar… That's kinda scary. No wonder the gods look like they're losing in that battle.'

Haalfrin then looks up at the Wills training by absorbing the Death Aura, and he feels regret surge up so high that he chokes on it. "Oi! You up there!" he calls out, "I kinda need that now… So get out of the Aura."

He knows he needs to start saving the stuff up for his Dra Name. So he can't have all these Wills gobbling up his reserves right now!

Haalfrin is a little worried that the Wills will be too excited about getting stronger to leave the Aura clouds, but they obediently drift down to the ground and stop their training.

One of the Wills – Kalastros's Will – drifts over to Haalfrin and nestles against his open palm.

"You're curious why I had you stop?" Haalfrin asks.

The Will bobs up and down in a nod.

"Well," Haalfrin explains, "My new Names require me to save up my Death Aura, so I can't have you all taking up my reserves anymore."

Kalastros freezes in midair, thinks for a bit, then starts radiating a thick black Aura in response.

"…Oh," Haalfrin smiles in surprise, "So the Death Aura isn't disappearing, huh?"

Haalfrin's heart finally relaxes, and he realizes something. "This means that I'm not actually losing Death Aura at all from my soul when the Wills take it, since the Wills are tied to my soul anyway. It's like how a king isn't really losing power when he gives land and resources to loyal vassals. In the end, those resources will come back to fight for him when he needs it."

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After Haalfrin leaves his soul realm, he wakes up again… and he feels a strange, loose feeling all around him.

'Ah,' Haalfrin realizes. 'With the discovery of 2 new Names, I've shrunk again… Since the jailers had to carve my boulder larger as I grew into an adult again… that means there's a lot of moving room now that I'm a 'child' again.'

On top of that, mages are known to practically inhale any nearby mana when their souls expand.

With the discovery of 2 Names at the same time, the thirst for mana was so explosive that Haalfrin's soul had ripped the mana straight out of the enchantments in his cell. Haalfrin can tell because he can actually feel the mana all around him again – a sensation he's all but forgotten ever since he was put here.

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There's a loud alarm sound that shrieks out in a small, but tidy-looking room, and the prison warden sits up from her bed, groaning painfully. She looks much the same as she did last time we saw her, except for a few extra wrinkles on her face.

She's normally cranky when she wakes up, but since she knows this MIGHT be an emergency, she climbs out of bed and goes to check the map again.

"Ah!" she shrieks and punches the wall. Luckily, she didn't have body-strengthening magic active right now, else she'd have smashed right through the wall. "It's HIM again!"

She fiddles with her surveillance mirror again, and she looks at the last image seen in Haalrin's cell… and she's left confused. All she sees is a bright white light flash from the prisoner's body, a pulse of mana, then all the enchantments in his cell going blank.

The prisoner shouldn't be able to use spells, so how did he do it? Rather, what happened?

Still remembering the terror she felt when she met him, she desperately doesn't want to see what happens if that monster escapes.

Before, Officer Jenkins was in charge of basement floor 33, but he's since been promoted… so she makes sure to grab another Far speak medallion. "Officer Huber! There's a disturbance in cell 53. The prisoner might be trying to escape now. Also, he's that special case you were taught about in your officer training class, so make sure the guards don't bring any weapons with them when they go down to subdue him."

"Yes Ma'am!"