Drakavar (1/2)
Immediately once the world gate is closed, Fisco looks behind at the stone wall that's been built over what used to be the World Gate; with the stone being Time locked, it's effectively sealed away now.
As Fisco stops to look at the seal, he feels heavy regret weighing him down. Slowly, he closes his eyes as he feels… something tug on his soul?
Out of curiosity, Fisco sits down and lets his mind enter his Soul Realm.
There, he sees a thin thread coming out of his Dra & Yiir Names. That much is the same as last time – the time he and Haalfrin shared those two Names with each other.
However… something is changing.
In alarm, Fisco looks up at the copy of Haalfrin's soul gate in the sky, and he feels the man's white Soul Gate start to shake.
Finally, after the white Gate is done quaking, he sees another circle draw itself around the Gate as Haalfrin's 6th Gate manifests.
"Heh," Fisco grins, "so he finally got his Syl Name? It's about time!"
Without delaying any longer, Fisco closes his eyes and thinks, "It's about time to finish up that Contract… Hopefully, this Contract can help HIM survive."
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Far away in the dark Threshold, Haalfrin feels something going on in his soul realm. Ignoring the horde of Ants ravenously trying to eat him, Haalfrin gives another order to his Wills. "Protect me for a minute or two while I get my Syl Name! …Wait…"
Just then, Haalfrin remembers that the Queen is waiting for him to grow tired just outside the room; if he enters his Soul Realm now, she'll tear through his Wills and devour him. After all, one is completely immobile while they're in their Soul Realm, and the Queen would recognize his sudden weakness.
"Belay that order, Kaalhyme!" Haalfrin growls while searching for an exit. "We need to find a place that's hidden from the Queen for now!"
Frantically, Haalfrin searches everywhere… but he has nowhere to go. The World Gate room IS supposed to be the easiest to defend; thus, there's only one entrance into this place.
"No…," Haalfrin thinks, "There's another exit."
Without hesitation, Haalfrin looks to the World Gate and dives into it.
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Haalfrin knows full well that it's impossible for mere mortals to completely shut down a World Gate. Freyya had even told him that the World Gates are a natural consequence of a planet being connected to the World Tree. The only way to close a World Gate (as far as Freyya knows) is to cut a planet off from the Igdris Tree and for it to die and fall to the Death Realm.
Thus, Haalfrin knows that when Fisco was talking about sealing off the World Gate, he was talking about covering it with a stone wall and Time Locking it.
Hence, Haalfrin is still free to fly through the World Gate. He may even emerge on the other side, though he'd have an unbreakable wall preventing him from stepping completely out of the portal.
Haalfrin also remembers that his first trip through the World Gate took him several hours of flying through this crack in space. According to Freyya, planets are impossibly far away from each other in physical space; though the World Gates may shorten the travel distance, they can't completely negate it.
Because Haalfrin knows all of this about the World Gate, he realizes this is the perfect place to check out his Names in peace. After all, even if the Queen chooses to chase him into the Gate, she won't be able to catch up to him very easily.
So, Haalfrin gives one last sarcastic nod at the Queen's forces and leaps into the Gate.
"Oi!" Dakka roars telepathically, "Where're you going without me!?"
He leaps in after his friend at the last second.
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"Hmm…," the Queen clicks, "he really left. AFTER HIM!"
What alarms the Queen is that when the front row of Ants jump through the World Gate, she feels her connection to them be cut off.
…Suddenly, the Queen becomes afraid of entering the strange doorway.
Looking behind her at where the army of dragons must be waiting to eat her, she grinds her teeth and hisses, "I have to go! That's what I came here for!"
Cautiously, the Queen edges her toes over to the World Gate before she grabs a few of her bodyguards and jumps through.
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"WEEEEEEE!" several Ants click in chorus as they fly through the spatial tunnel. "Mommy! Look! We're flying!"
"Shut it!" the Queen hisses angrily. "Don't get distracted!"
In reality, the Queen is trying to hide her nervousness from her children by acting angry. Really. She can't understand how they can get so excited in this situation.
The moment the Queen and her children leapt through the Gate, they were enveloped by a brilliant green light. Their bodies suddenly became weightless, and all their organs seemed to be mushed to one side as they were catapulted through space at high speeds.
Once they got a high enough momentum, flying no longer hurt. In fact, the Queen was able to concentrate enough to notice the beautiful glowing orbs scattered around the "walls of the tunnel".
While her children are busy gawking at the beautiful sight and enjoying the feeling of being able to tumble about weightlessly, the Queen is actually wondering, "What are these glowing orbs everywhere? Are they crystals?"
No, they're not crystals. What the Queen is seeing are stars. After all, the spatial tunnel travels through deep space.
Several minutes turn into several hours, and the Queen is starting to get nervous. "Stop playing around. I have a feeling we're coming to the tunnel's exit."
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While the Queen and her select children are hurdling through space after him, Haalfrin relaxes his body and lets his mind enter his Soul Realm.
He immediately looks up and saw the 2 soul gates in the sky; Freyya's Gate is high up in the sky with 7 circles, while Fisco's is in between the two with 4 circles.
Haalfrin then watches as the threads connecting his soul with Fisco's are being tugged on. "You can't wait to finish that Contract, eh?"
The moment he comes through, he touches the smaller grey Soul Gate below his, and his mind touches Fisco's.
"Haalfrin!?" Fisco's voice calls, "You're still alive!? Never mind. Of course you're alive."
"Yes, I know," Haalfrin rolls his eyes, "Hurry up, please. I have the feeling that the Queen is right behind me, and I don't know if she can speed herself up somehow."
"Sure," Fisco agrees, "We both know what to do."
Without any more useless chatter, Fisco starts reading aloud his Syl Name. Haalfrin enters a vision of sorts when he sees it, though what he sees is simplistic compared to what's written in Freyya's Names; he just sees a few moments of his life detailing how Fisco serves himself and those close to him.
After Fisco finishes sharing his Syl Name with Haalfrin, the dragon slayer quickly notes it in his mind, then says, "Ok. I haven't looked at my Syl Name yet, so let's just look at it together really quick."
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Once Haalfrin looks up at his glowing Syl Rune in the sky, his body falters, and he enters another vision…
In this vision, Haalfrin sees more images of his death… though since he's not a god yet, he the details are blurry, as usual.
What he can still make out are hazy images of a giant black dragon with 7 horns and glowing golden eyes. Some part of his mind instinctually knows what this creature is called. "Drakavar…"
"Wait," Haalfrin thinks as he's watching the vision pass by, "What does 'Drakavar' mean?"
He doesn't even have to think about it; some part of him already knows what the translation is supposed to be. "Dravar is Force. Dravar is Power. Dravar is Dominion. Ka is Supremacy. Ka is Greatest. Ka is Infinite. Drakavar is the Great Tyrant – the Supreme Force – the Infinite Power."
Another rational part of his brain freaks out at this, and he thinks, "Am I supposed to know who Drakavar is? I have the feeling I'm not supposed to know that. Why would my Syl Name help me understand the meaning of this word? I'm never going to be the strongest person in the universe, right?"
"Something's not right…"
Just when he thinks this, Haalfrin feels several eyes fix on him – as if some greater being is becoming aware of him.
As Haalfrin feels the eyes stare at him longer, he feels… a brilliant golden light illuminating his soul.
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"Haalfrin!" Fisco freaks out while he's watching the man open his Syl Gate, "Where's all this golden light coming from!?"
Suddenly, it's not just Haalfrin's soul – Fisco's soul is also quaking, as if some outside force is threatening to tear them both apart.
Just as Fisco is about to try something drastic to save them both, everything goes quiet, and the golden light enveloping both of their souls becomes restrained… yet none of its potency has been diminished – just controlled.
"Yo…," a gruff, woman's voice speaks in ancient Draconic, "Who had the courage to try touching my Name? Was it the Starchildren again?"
Fisco feels a little silly talking to a stranger while he's in his own Soul Realm, since all logic says that nobody should be able to intrude here.
Still, Fisco gets on his knees and instinctually bows…
… For some reason, the moment his knees hit the floor, he no longer feels silly or even afraid; he feels at peace. It's as if kneeling to this voice is the most natural thing to do.
Whatever it is, the very act of him kneeling seems to have appeased the strange voice's anger. "Hmph. Just a few mortals."
Without even bothering to ask Fisco for the truth, a force grips Fisco and holds him to the ground.
Something in this woman's Aura seems to have touched Fisco, and he senses the Tyrant's will. So, without being asked, he opens his mouth and he starts explaining, "I'm waiting for my friend to finish opening his Syl Gate so that we can finish making our Soul Contract. I'm not sure what happened, but a golden light started shining, then I heard your voice."
Oddly, the draconic voice doesn't even try questioning the truth of his claim. This is certainly because she knows no one can be disobedient to her while being effected by her Aura.
"Mmm…," the dragon woman's voice goes quiet as she completely loses interest in Fisco.
Then, her Aura's force fixes on Haalfrin…
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As Haalfrin's mind is swimming further through the vision, he sees… giant golden eyes akin to twin suns open up in the depths of space. Great black wings unfurl, and so large are they that the sky is completely covered, and noonday becomes like a starless night.
Haalfrin watches as the black beast lifts up its head and roars in agony as it stomps the landscape flat – crushing countless gods and giants beneath its feet.
"Agony?" Haalfrin wonders, "It doesn't look hurt."
"…Exactly…," whispers a woman's voice into Haalfrin's mind.
"Bleh!" Haalfrin yelps. Having someone directly talk to him so suddenly nearly jolts him out of the vision.
"Hmm…," the strange woman's voice purrs in his mind, "I don't look hurt here, so why am I crying?"
"Crying?" Haalfrin asks the woman. "I see no tears."
"Eh," the woman shrugs, "I usually like to pretend the gods don't exist, so if I'm stomping them flat and breathing black smoke, then I must be so furious. I wouldn't be that mad unless something precious was taken from me."
"…What?" Haalfrin is truly confused.
"Listen, kid," the voice lectures, "Anger and sadness are closely related. They both happen because your soul has been wounded. The only difference between the two is that Anger has a target to vent your frustrations on, and sadness is empty and directionless. That's why vengeful people become despondent and depressed once they've vented their hate."
"Ah…"
"…You're awfully calm for a mortal," the voice remarks.
"I'm seeing a vision," Haalfrin calmly says, "so your voice is probably just part of the vision."
"… Sure. I'll let you believe that." The Voice doesn't doesn't seem to care that he's misunderstanding something.
Both Haalfrin and the mysterious golden entity both watch the black dragon continue to massacre the army for a few more minutes, when the golden voice suddenly grunts, "Eh. If I'm in a battle, then I already know how it ends; I win, obviously."
Suddenly losing interest, the voice sighs, "I'm bored now. Good bye, human."
The moment the voice leaves Haalfrin's mind and soul, he feels… something taken from him.
In alarm, Haalfrin feels his soul around to check for damages. In the end, the only thing that's different is that he can no longer recall what "Drakavar" means.