Drakavar (2/2)

Once the Voice leaves, Haalfrin's mind continues watching the vision.

Next, he sees this strange dragon called Drakavar be utterly consumed with vengeance… and some rather disturbing images start flitting through Haalfrin's mind.

Here, he sees… Drakavar climbing the great world tree and ripping branches off – devouring countless worlds at a time.

Literal trillions of people are dying every second, yet the dragon doesn't seem to care.

Just as Haalfrin can no longer bear looking at this tragic scene, the vision shifts again.

---------------------

This time, Haalfrin sees his future self talking with a grey haired Felkin with 7 grey wings on her back and a blindfold over her eyes; beside her is a brown skinned man with a cleft lip that he somehow knows is the phoenix girl's husband.

The future Haalfrin grimly looks at the husband and wife, and he points to the black sky. "I know you two are related to Drakavar somehow. You had the guts to show up here when I'm trying to save the World Tree, so you'd better give me a good reason to not order my men to attack you right now!"

The future Haalfrin seems taller and more imposing than he does now; if the current Haalfrin had been standing in front of his future self and faced the brunt of his anger, even he would be quaking.

Sure enough, the grey haired phoenix and her human husband look nervously at each other as the Divine general glares at them.

While trying to ignore her discomfort, the grey haired Felkin shifts aside her wings and reveals a pair of small children who were hiding behind her before. Given the Felkin's 7 large wings, it was actually easy to keep them from view.

Looking closer at the two children, the Divine General Haalfrin sees an emaciated black haired Fox girl, as well as a sickly looking Wolf boy – both clearly Rehkin.

Most importantly, Haalfrin notices then that the fox girl has bright golden eyes identical to Drakavar's, while the Wolf boy has shining silver eyes.

Noting the general's scrutinizing stare, the grey haired phoenix explains, "This is Drakavar's foster daughter and son. There were a group of immoral gods who, after discovering that this boy and girl pair had powers similar to Drakavar's, kidnapped them."

"Great," the future Haalfrin shrugs, "So we just return the children and convince Drakavar to stop her pointless genocide. Why'd you come to me for that?"

The Felkin girl shuffles her feet and looks down. "Because… Drakavar currently thinks the children are dead, and she's has lost her mind with rage. We've tried talking to her, but the Ancestor Dragon can't seem to understand us anymore."

The future Haalfrin looks at the Fox girl again and sees that one of her arms is missing, while the Wolf boy is missing one of his bright glowing silver eyes. Even worse, both of their souls are clearly damaged too.

"So," the future Haalfrin calmly assesses, "I assume you want to bring the children before Drakavar and calm it's anger? These kids have obviously been tortured and maimed. Won't seeing them like this just piss her off more?"

The Felkin girl shakes head, "What choice do we have?"

There's a long pause, which is only interrupted by a deep tremor in the earth. "Drakavar has eaten her way near this world," the brown haired man remarks.

The future Haalfrin frowns even deeper, then relents, "Fine. I'll do what I can to delay the dragon – give you a chance to get the children healed properly. Hopefully, my army will have weakened the beast just enough so that it doesn't rip you apart before you get close."

The Felkin goddess bows her head again – this time apologetically, and she says, "I'm sorry that this is too much to ask of you…"

Future Haalfrin waves his hand dismissively, "There's no need to feel sorry for asking me to do my job. At least I'll know there's still some hope for the future."

Divine General Haalfrin then puts on his helmet, and takes one last look at the maimed Rehkin children the side of his eye. Nobody's quite sure what he's thinking.

Suddenly feeling a little emotional, the tall warrior god bends down and gives the little boy and girl a quick rub on the top of their short heads, which barely come up to his waist.

As the future Haalfrin turns to leave, the little Fox girl suddenly shoots her hand forward and grabs his hand. "Where are you going?" she asks with an insecure tone in her voice. Clearly, she's not a mage with unnatural youth; she's a genuine child.

"I'm going off to fight some baddies and protect your future," the tall warrior god replies.

"Are you coming back?" the Fox girl asks meaningfully. "I want you to protect us forever."

But why? "…Yeah," the future Haalfrin nods, though he's still a little confused by her sudden request. "I'm coming back. I'll make sure to fight lots more baddies for you next time."

Seeing the little girl make this request, the little Wolf Boy holds out his hand solemnly and says, "You have to promise us."

The future Haalfrin takes this as some childish wish, so he decides to humor them.

Taking the Wolf boy's hand, the future Haalfrin says, "Sure it's a promise."

"Promise me what?" the Wolf boy urges him. "Be more specific."

The future Haalfrin rolls his eyes at how difficult this kid is being. "Fine. I promise I'll protect you two in the future."

The Wolf boy – seemingly devoid of emotions, says matter of factly, "You have to promise to protect my future descendants too. Promise me now."

The Fox girl elbows the boy next to her. "You're only 8 right now. What's this talk about descendants?"

"Well," the Wolf boy shrugs, "he seems capable. The best time to rope him in is now."

The boy then turns to Haalfrin and smiles deviously, then clasps the Divine General's hands even tighter. "You are now bound by a promise to protect Rehkavar, Rehkawyn, all our respective descendants, as well as the World Tree on which we live. You can't escape your promise, for it's engraved in YOUR SOUL NOW…"

Right when the Wolf boy says that, Future Haalfrin's hands feel a brief burning sensation. Future Haalfirn, startled, rips his hand away in shock, then looks at the Grey Felkin in alarm. "What are these children?"

"Gods," she shrugs, "obviously."

"No, they can't be!" the Future Haalfrin gasps. "You have to have 7 Soul Gates open to be an immortal god! These kids are genuine children!"

The Felkin and her husband both look at each other, and she whispers, "Should we tell him?"

"Yeah," her brown skinned husband says, "We're asking him to do something really dangerous, so we owe him that much."

"Fine," the Felkin girls says as she turns to the Future Haalfrin, "These children, along with Drakavar, are special beings called Melka – "Mel", as in a portion of one whole, and "Ka", as in Infinity and All. Melka are splinters of the Universe's Soul – the Creator God's personal creations."

Seeing the Future Haalfrin muse about this, the Felkin shakes her head and urges him, "Please don't think about it too much. Just remember that these children, as well as Drakavar, are the Creator God's personal Creations; they're already Gods the moment they come to exist."

"Sure, sure," the Future Haalfrin concedes as he raises his hands up.

Realizing what truly happened now, Future Haalfrin turns to the Wolf boy and tussles his hair again. "That was naughty of you."

"We're sorry to ask this of you," the Felkin says softly. "We all know that Drakavar's too strong for any god to handle, and-"

Haalfrin abruptly holds his hand up. "It's fine," he stops her, "No need to make excuses for asking me to do my job."

Taking one last look at the children, Future Haalfrin really does feel some deep connection to them now. That Wolf boy really did make some unbreakable link between them.

"Whatever," he thinks, "I'm about to perish fighting Drakavar anyway, so this new binding power on my soul won't make any difference, right?"

As the warrior god is leaving – for real this time, the Felkin, her husband, and the 2 Melka children all bow to him. "THANK YOU!" the 2 children yell in chorus – as if they had rehearsed these words.

---------------------

The next part of the vision shows Future Haalfrin looking up at the gargantuan, golden eyed dragon. "My immortal life is finished now," he thinks and as the dragons maw wraps around another world – ready to devour them all whole.

As death closes in, Future Haalfrin thinks of those adorable Rehkin children. "Did the plan succeed? Is Drakavar weak enough for the children to get back? Was it all worth it?" Doubtful thoughts swirl in his mind and relentlessly eat him up.

Finally, he lets go of his worries, and he closes his eyes with peace in his soul.

He then closes his eyes and says to himself, "No matter. I'll never know the fate of the universe – if I ACTUALLY helped save the universe…, but I've done my part…"

He then looks over where he felt his connection to the Wolf boy. "I suppose I won't be able to keep that promise after all…"

Then, everything goes dark, and his memory fades.

---------------------

With a loud gasp, Haalfrin snaps out of the vision, still inside his soul realm, and as he awakens, he sees Fisco's soul beside him now. "You're here?"

"Of course I'm here," Fisco smiles. "Our Contract is complete, so we can enter each other's soul realms now."

Fisco looks at the floor with a pale face. "I think we've both seen something we shouldn't have seen."

Haalfrin frowns. "Yeah…"

Fisco then shakes his head, "Anyway, tell me about the practical use of your new Name power."

Even now, the knowledge of his new ability is already flowing into Haalfrin's mind. "So...," he says slowly while he concentrates, "I can seal off space within the range of my Death Aura?"

"Wait," Fisco frowns, "so you can make a spatial barrier with your Aura?" He laughs, "I know spatial barriers have given you a lot of trouble in the past, but I didn't know it would effect you so much that you can do it now with your soul?"

"No," Haalfrin shakes his head, "That's not it. My spatial barrier extends in a large dome around the largest edge my Aura can go. I can't change the border as I please, and it can only go away after my battle is over with. That's WAY too oddly specific."

"Yeah…," Fisco frowns even deeper, "I wonder way…"

"…Ah!" Haalfrin exclaims, "it makes sense now!"

"Wait…," Fisco says slowly, "So your ability activates when you enter a battle with someone, and it prevents either of you from leaving until one of you is dead?"

"Yeah…," Haalfrin shudders thinking about it.

They both know enough about how Fate works by now to know what just happened…

"When that boy made the promise with you," Fisco says slowly, "he literally engraved something into your soul; he gave you the ability to actually lock Drakavar in battle long enough to do distract it properly."

Indeed, now matter how talented or strong the future warrior god will be, even distracting Drakavar would be impossible without the ability to prevent her from leaving. She'd be FORCED to waste time and energy trying to track him down and kill him.

Haalfrin takes a deep breath. "I was definitely a god by the time that vision happened… So what kind of being can just change a god's powers so easily with a handshake?"

"Don't know," Fisco shrugs, "some higher being… but it's not for us to worry about right now."

Haalfrin nods. "Right."