To the Surface (2/2)
Ranging from dangerous to hopeless looking, all these men reel back in shock at seeing a lone girl appear in the rear of their cell. They had seen this mage briefly teleport in their room twice before, and everyone in the cells have heard the commotion of the guards running about and the surveillance mirrors being torn from the ceiling.
You'd think these men with large and muscular prison bodies would try to act tough to this little girl… but if you think that, then you're stupid. None of the prisoners on this floor are mages… unlike their uninvited guest. They're certainly free to find trouble with the "child" at their own peril.
Frey looks around at the men, and she can smell the fear on them as their eyes meet hers. She walks to the front of the cell and looks through the bars at the other prisoners in the cells from across the way.
She knows there are still guards posted at the entrance to the hallway lined with cells, and she's worried the prisoners are all going to shout loudly and alert the guards.
So, she points to the prisoners across the way. Once they all look at her pointing, she slowly puts a finger over her lips, then traces that finger over her throat in a cutting motion. "If you talk, I'll kill you."
The prisoners all nod their heads and look away.
Finally having some room to breathe, Frey sits back and thinks about what she's going to do.
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Only a few minutes pass before a black form appears above Frey. The girl looks up and sees a woman with Crow wings only she can see. The other inmates just get a chill down their spines, though they don't know why.
Frey looks up and recognizes the Crow goddess. After all these years, the Crow goddess has never come to speak to her, unlike the other Death Reapers. So, seeing the Divine being her parents worshiped floating right before her very eyes, Frey gets a little emotional. She bows her head gets on her knees.
"Oh, get up!" Freyya says impatiently, "It's weird seeing you do that."
"W-what can I do for you?" Frey asks spiritually. She doesn't want to open her mouth and talk in front of these inmates; their staring is uncomfortable enough as it is, so she doesn't want them to hear her talk to empty air either.
Freyya sighs, "There are enchantments draining away the ambient Death Aura, so I don't have time. Don't ask questions and just let me talk."
The Crow goddess sets on the ground next to the little child who was named after her. "Haalfrin and I have shared our Yiir Names with each other. He thinks sharing the Name only makes us share our fate and meet each other unexpectedly… but there's something neither of you know."
Freyya puts her hand over her heart. "As the more powerful of the two, I'm able to channel his powers through my own soul." She looks at Frey below her. "As my future successor, you also have the same Names as myself. This means you're able to use his Yiir Name as well... through me."
Hearing this, Frey brightens, though she doesn't dare express herself. The goddess DID say she doesn't have much time to talk.
Freyya then puts her hand on Frey's forehead and inserts knowledge directly into her skull. "You'll need to know how to channel his Name through your soul, so I'll just show you how directly."
Once the little girl has the necessary knowledge, Freyya leaves some parting words. "Reach up with Haalfrin's Death Aura. You're a lot higher up than him right now, so you should be able to reach the surface, unlike him. Be quick about it!"
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Ever since Frey disappeared, Haalfrin was left in shock. She never bothered to tell him what she was doing, and he was left to wonder if she chose to escape on her own.
As Haalfrin is pacing back and forth, worrying about the little girl's safety, he thinks, 'I've seen the little baby grow up. I've taught her everything I know. I've consoled the child when she cried, I've kept her fed, and I've put up with her childish antics. I'm basically her dad at this point.'
Thinking this, he looks up and wonders, 'Why would I be angry that she chose to leave? All children eventually leave their parents. Still…' He looks up anxiously, 'I hope she's safe. When she's that far up, there's nothing I can do to protect her anymore.'
Is this what parents feel when they see their children leave home for the first time?
It's a little odd, realizing that he's grown attached to a person once again.
Still, he may not know HOW she disappeared, but he does assume correctly that it was because of one of her Names. Both of them haven't told each other about most of their Names, so they each can do things the other doesn't know about.
If she has a lot more up her sleeve than he thinks she does, then she might just be all right.
…Just as he's thinking this, Haalfrin stumbles back in shock and lands on a chair wearily. "What the-"
He looks inside his soul realm and sees a second Soul Gate open up in his Soul Realm. He's so dizzy with weakness that he can't even count the number of circles on this foreign Gate, but the thing is massive and black (contrasted with his smaller, white Gate).
Then, he feels all his Death Aura being sucked into the black gate and disappearing. Having his soul realm emptied out feels a lot like having someone sucking the blood right out of your veins; it's "unpleasant" when put nicely and "body-horror" when put honestly.
"What's happening?" he cries out in a panic. All these centuries of hard work collecting Aura… Is it all gone?
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While Haalfrin is panicking, Frey is holding up her hand and concentrating on the explosion of Death Aura that's erupting from her soul. In her soul realm is a white gate spewing out Aura, and there's more of it than she knows what to do with.
"Ah! I'll just point it up and hope I have enough!" she cries out loud (startling the other prisoners).
Logically speaking, Frey has nothing to worry about. Haalfrin was able to reach Floor 9 with this much Aura, so Frey, with the same amount of Aura, would be able to reach thousands of feet well above the surface.
Even still, in the girl's panic, she just extends the Aura as high as she can without regard.
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At that moment, the warden up above is busy conducting the search remotely and arranging for more guards to go down to Floor 9. 'If this mage is an intruder,' she thinks, 'then is she here to free a prisoner on Floor 9? I thought the Pit was supposed to be a secret location? How did someone find this place?'
While she's brewing up potential conspiracies in her mind, Warden Prella feels a slight chill down her spine at first… then a feeling of abject terror enveloping her entire tower. She falls to the ground, shrieking incoherently.
On the ground, she's consumed by a primal fear of a greater intensity than she had ever faced before. "The demon!" she coughs out desperately, "It must be the demon! He's still ALIVE!!!??? Of course he's alive. Ahaha!"
Perhaps the warden has gone a little crazy.
With this thought, Prella has a whole new understanding of the commotion on Floor 9. 'Is that his doing! NO! I must stop this at all costs!'
She picks up another medallion off the wall. "SEND EVERYONE YOU'VE GOT TO FLOOR 9 NOW!"
A moment later, Prella goes to a larger, more ornate mirror, and she activates the enchantment on it. In the next second, a blurry image is conjured on the surface, and it gradually sharpens to a more clear picture.
On the mirror is the picture of the current Brancotte emperor – now looking very old and frail compared to before. "What is it?" the old man croaks out, "I hope it isn't bad news again."
Instead of reassuring him, the warden starts crying out, "Get me out of here! I'll go back to the front lines - whatever you want! I just can't be stationed near this monster anymore! I'm going to die!"
Without waiting for an answer, Prella runs away from the mirror without turning it off. She feels downstairs and packs a few necessities for her long travel away from the pit.
… And on the wall is the image of an old man looking around the warden's room with a lost expression.
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It only takes less than a minute before Freyya returns to the young girl, who is still hiding in a cramped cell; the only difference is that now, all her cellmates are on the floor - either unconscious or dead from the Aura explosion earlier.
What? It was her first time directing Aura, so she couldn't control its direction at first.
Looking at the dead bodies around the young girl, Freyya sighs, "Anyway, I know where we are now. Get back down to Haalfrin and tell him to get ready for his escape. Dakka's on the other side of the world right now, so it'll take him a few days to get here."
Frey gives a little solute (the way Sir demon taught her), and Freyya disappears from this world.
Frey then looks down and extends the Aura all the way down as far as she can. She's able to reach Floor B32 again, and she uses her advanced Yiir Name to spiritually slip into the column of Aura. She then slides further and further down through the rock until she reaches her destination.
Once she sets foot on the familiar stone floor again, she uses the technique Freyya taught her to give all the Aura in her soul back to Haalfrin.
…A few moments later, a burst of Aura comes up from the Floor below, and Frey hears a frantic spiritual voice call out, "Frey! Why did you come back!? Are you safe!"
Hearing that Sir Demon asked about her safety first before anything else, Frey smiles with pure satisfaction in her eyes. "Yes, I'm alright. Ok, listen. I recently Advanced one of my Names, and it let me travel through Aura…"
Frey then continues to tell Haalfrin the whole story without deviation… except for two tiny details.
For some reason, Frey is reluctant to tell Haalfrin that she knows his Yiir Name now; he's warned her so many times how private that information is, after all.
The other thing she lied about was the time frame on when she got that particular power to travel through Aura. She's been able to travel through Aura and escape for a while now, but she feels guilty about keeping it from Haalfrin. Instead, she tells him that she "just got it".
Once Haalfrin hears that Freyya has finally managed to see the outside and that Dakka is on his way, Haalfrin gets excited. 'Is it finally time?' he thinks in excitement.
Yes. Yes it is.