Dragon Slayer

Freyya looks down at Haalfrin and hears him call her name out the moment after she steps into his view. She breathes heavily with disappointment. 'Not so easy, huh?'

Glancing down at the dead dragon, she sighs. 'At least you died content.' She kneels down and closes Dakka's eyes for him. 'Don't worry. I'm not fond of having a cult, and I think their practice of giving sacrifices to me IS barbaric…'

Still, seeing Dakka fight so hard for her makes the goddess feel a little touched. Knowing that it's what he wanted, Freyya nearly takes Dakka's soul for herself right there, but she barely holds herself back.

Dragon souls normally don't pass on into the Death Realm; instead, their souls remain in their bones. It would be inappropriate for her to take it without his parent's permission.

'Huh,' Freyya smirks, 'having Dakka's soul at Haalfrin's side would actually be really helpful for my Mantling Ritual.'

Once she leaves Dakka alone, she moves onto her primary job - picking up the souls of the slain.

Freyya holds up her black lantern and feels the 10s of thousands of souls within. 'So much death… by Dakka's hands. Indirectly, these people died because of my order.'

Glancing down to where she knows Frey is, Freyya gets a complicated look in her eyes. 'That child is a lot kinder than me. She'd probably be very angry that I caused all of this.'

Looking deeper into the lantern and feeling the souls writhing in fear within, Freyya tries to muster up the slightest bit of sympathy in her soul for the people that died… but she tears her eyes away from the lantern in disgust – not at them, but at herself.

Some people have that moment where they see others suffer – children die, starve, or be neglected – then these people suddenly realize that they can't make themselves care. This usually brings them a strange feeling where they want to feel guilty for their apathy, but they just can't.

To Freyya, this was that moment for her.

Letting out a breath, Freyya turns around and leaves this world with her cargo full of souls. 'See you soon, Haalfrin. You're not getting away next time.'

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"Is it… over?" calls out a woman's voice.

"I haven't heard any explosions in hours now. I think the battle's over."

Everyone turns to look at the warden for confirmation. He points to a few of his men and orders, "Go through the portal Haalfrin helped us finish, then go check on the situation up top. Come back within 5 minutes and tell us what it looks like up there."

When the dragon charged down and broke through the upper layers of the pit, the shockwave had knocked all the surveillance mirrors out of the sky, blinding the warden to the battle above.

This means the trip upstairs could be VERY dangerous, as they don't know what's up there.

When the guards go to use the teleport circle, they find that most of the linked destinations no longer work. The circles on the other end must have been destroyed.

After systematically going through the Floors from top to bottom, they finally have a match for Floor B11. They vanish up there, and aren't heard from again for nearly 10 minutes.

Just when the warden thinks his men have perished, they appear again through the portal with pale faces. "Sir. The battle's over. The dragon's dead, and the demon is barely alive."

"Is he conscious?"

"No."

"Good," the warden lets out a sigh. "Take us to him. Quick!"

After a short trip through the teleport gate and up the very tunnel Haalfrin carved on the way up, they arrive on the remains of Floor B10. Looking up and gawking at the giant hole in the ground, the warden and his men shudder in fear.

…Now they all know what the biggest explosion sound was…

The warden is shown to where the demon and the dragon lay next to each other.

Looking down at the tenacious demon, the warden lifts up his sword and mutters, "Sorry, but there isn't a prison in the world which can afford to keep you."

Just before the warden slams the blade into Haalfrin's heart, a little girl appears right behind him and grapples him from behind. She has her arm wrapped around the man's throat, and she's squeezing tightly.

Seeing the warden's men step forward menacingly with their swords drawn, the black-haired girl squeezes harder and mutters in soft voice. "Step back… or… he dies…"

The soldiers look at each other and back off a few steps.

"Sir Demon… is mine. Go away now," the girl announces. If she didn't sound like she's not used to speaking with strangers, she might have sounded more intimidating.

Looking at his men with bloodshot eyes, the warden grunts out, "Don't care about my life! Finish him NOW!"

Not used to panicky situations, Frey is unable to think of a spell in the heat of the moment. Fortunately, though, a few more hands jump out of the hole and use their magic to yank the weapons out of the guard's hands.

Frey turns around and sees several unknown mages in strange clothing. Frey herself may have never seen these 5 men and women…

"Get away from the boss," the woman in front threatens. "We've got you outnumbered."

Frey brightens up hearing this woman speak; it's aunty Dee! That must mean her companions behind her must be the other prisoners of Floor B33.

The warden sees the newcomers, and he sees that his men are closer to the Demon anyway. "DO IT!" he shouts out, "THEY'RE TOO FAR AWAY TO STOP YOU!"

The soldier leaning over Haalfrin with a spell in his hand looks around and considers the options while everyone looks at him anxiously.

Dee looks over at Frey and says, "Girl! Have you forgotten how to display your soul gate? Show them who'll win in a fight!"

"Ah!" Frey curses out before thinking of her Names. Slowly, glowing black lights draw themselves on the ground, and the shape of 6 soul gates layered on top of each other is on full display.

"6th Gate mage!" the warden cries out in shock. "A demi-god!"

Realizing just what this girl is, the warden finally loses all hope of winning a direct confrontation with the girl. 'However,' he thinks, 'the demi-god obviously cares about the demon, else she'd have just killed us all and be done with it. One of my men basically has a knife to the demon's throat, so we can use this to threaten our way out…'

However, before the warden can take advantage of this situation, his man atop Haalfrin puts his spell away and backs off. "Sorry, warden!" he bows his head apologetically, "the demi-god will kill you, then she'll everyone else if we harm this man."

Once the guards step away from Haalfrin, Dee considers just killing all the guards here and escaping… but she knows full well that the Pit is in an unknown location. With the long-range teleport gates out of commission, they might have to find their way back home from a VERY remote region of the world.

With so many unknowns, Dee discusses with her companions, and they choose to leave the guards be for now. Why kill them when they have the open air now? Being so far from Brancotte, it's not like the guards can do anything to them anymore.

Seeing the guards all back up warily and watch from a distance, Dee, Nella, Garr, Vic, and Talfon all sit on the ground around Frey, and they all take a good, long look at each other.

Nella reaches out and scratches Frey's head. "I was wondering how cute you'd look. I'm not disappointed." She then shakes her head. "What have you done to your hair girl!? Ugh. I'll help you clean it up later. We might have to cut it all off with all the knots you've got."

Frey shrugs, since her hair doesn't matter to her at all.

While the 6 mages all sit around Haalfrin, the warden knows he can forget about killing the demon. So, he stands back and orders, "Get the men. I want the survivors up and out of these ruins as fast as possible."

Since all the employees are teleported to the Pit via long range teleportation, no one here actually knows where they are. With all the long range teleport gates destroyed in the battle, the warden worries about how he's going to get all the survivors back home.

He then turns to some other soldiers and says, "Go down the mountains and try to find out where we are. Talk to the locals and see if we can get a path home."

Seeing all the Pit guards leaving her alone, Frey leans over Haalfrin's sleeping body and combs his hair. 'I was wondering what you looked like…'

She looks at Haalfrin's wounds and winces. 'Here. Let me take a look at those for you…'