Death Key
"Sorry… sir?" a man says worriedly to the man at the long end of the table.
"Pardon me," the Death King says takes a deep breath and snaps back to attention. "I was just blanking out."
"This is unusual," one of his other court officials remarks. "You never get tired, so you're probably not feeling well. Should we cancel the meeting?"
"No, no," the king waves his hand. "Keep talking. I swear that what you were talking about wasn't boring." Realizing what he just said sounded passive aggressively insulting, he quickly adds, "I was just feeling a large movement of Death Aura, and I'm afraid another demonic dragon went on a rampage."
One of the officials takes his hat off and nods solemnly. "Your majesty, I'm very grateful I could never become a Death Reaper. At least I get breaks from my job."
A lot of the other death deities share a small laugh before they keep talking about business… all but the Death King himself.
Frowning and resting his chin on one hand, he looks at the sky – the very direction he knows the world of Ara is. "What in the world is going on in your world, Freyya? Did you do something drastic while Haalfrin is visiting?"
It HAS been a (relatively) long time since Freyya and Das started vying for Haalfrin's soul. Out of those two Death Reapers, the Death King never once felt like he had to worry about Das doing something stupid; the Reaper of time has always been a methodical, patient man, and a man who knows his limits. (That's why Haalfrin hardly ever hears from Das.)
Freyya, on the other hand, is much younger, more impulsive, and more passionate. Yes, despite her despondent and constantly bored expression, she's one of the most passionate people the Death King knows of.
Because of her strong emotions and little thought for the future, the Death King feels he should be worrying about her doing something drastic to claim Haalfrin's soul.
In all honesty, he wouldn't put it past her to blatantly break one of his rules if she felt she had a chance of getting away with it.
Thus, when the Death King feels a massive amount of Death Aura gathering on her birth world, the Death King is getting a little nervous; the only reason for that much Aura to be there is if an entire world was slaughtered, or if a Death god personally descended in their true form.
Curling his fist, the Death King glares dangerously at Ara. "You better not have done something you shouldn't have," he thinks. "Otherwise…"
---------------------
Right after his meeting, the Death King leaves straight away to his office. Once he gets there, he pulls out a clairvoyance mirror.
After a few minutes trying to scry the location of the Death Aura, the only thing he sees is a black dome several miles wide. As for what's inside the dome? He can't tell.
Even after the King exhausts some of his more advanced methods, he's still unable to see through the Dome made from Haalfrin's Syl Name.
Feeling alarmed now, the Death King finally calls up some of his subordinates to his office, and he issues an order. "Go to the world Ara and investigate the growing mass of Death Aura."
Indeed, death gods usually have some means of traveling through Death Aura. Since the mysterious black done is made from Aura, a death god would (probably) be able to go in and out.
The Death King would go himself, but he doesn't have time to make the trip, since he's obviously preoccupied with running the kingdom.
So, the King sends for a pair of lower ranked gods to his office.
---------------------
Minutes later, two gods walk into the King's office. They're both pale skinned and have blonde hair, and they have nearly identical features.
These are Reri and Raru, and they're fraternal twins (obviously fraternal, since they're not the same gender). Reri is the goddess of Peace, and Raru is the god of Vengeance – two very different consequences of Death.
Though these two may be Death gods, they're only minor deities – especially compared to big shots like the Death Reapers and the Death King.
Hardly looking at the two minor deities, the King slides a parchment with orders written on it. "You know why I called you here," he says. "Your orders will require you to leave the Death Realm.
Indeed, given how thick their ambient Death Aura is, it's dangerous for a Death god to visit the mortal realm – dangerous for the mortals, anyway.
Thus, all the Death gods have a seal placed on them personally by the Death King that prevents them from leaving with their True bodies. Because of this, he had to call them here personally so that he could temporarily take the seal off.
"Yes sire," the twins bow before accepting his orders. "We understand."
---------------------
Once they arrive at their destination, Reri and Raru fly across the world while trying to keep their abundant Death Aura tucked away in their souls. At last, they come across a thick black dome that even their senses can't penetrate.
"What do you think this is about?" Reri says to her companion as they stare at the black barrier.
"Maybe some ambitious necromancer is trying to make a Death Key?" Raru suggests to his sister.
"If there is one," Reri replies, "then we'll need to put a stop to it." She frowns. "Though with this much Death Aura, there must be a very powerful necromancer inside. Let's be careful."
Normally, only Death gods are able to freely travel between the living and Death Realms – not even other gods can cross the borders!
However, Death Keys are taboo objects that grant free access to both realms to the wielder. These things aren't illegal just because it's dangerous to let the Death Realm's Aura contaminate the living world… but they're also illegal because they require a massive amount of Death Aura to be present in the mortal realm.
Naturally, the only way to get that much Death Aura at the same place is if countless people die at the same time. Of course, any villain willing to kill that many people should be caught and punished!
As for the reason why Reri and Raru are thinking that this is the site of a Death Key's creation, it's because necromancers will often place barriers over their sacrificial location in order to condense the Death Aura and trap it.
If the Death Aura is denser, then fewer sacrifices will have to be given to make the Death Key.
"Hmm…," Raru says as he draws his sword, "Let's find some other way inside the barrier. For some reason, I can't just waltz inside."
---------------------
The reason why Reri and Raru were unable to enter the barrier is because the Death Aura making the barrier is so chaotic that their Essence is nearly swept away the moment they touch it.
Thus, the twin gods spend several days trying to slowly inch their way into the barrier… until they make it inside at last.
After they stumble through, the look down and see a single mountain. Given that there's withered grass and rotten trees covering the mountain, Reri and Raru can easily tell that this place was once a lush forest, before the Death Aura overtook the land.
This is the real reason why the dead must not linger among the living. Death Aura is poisonous when it gets thick enough!
"Let's head down there," Reri points her staff downwards. "I can feel many souls there… And I smell blood."
As they fly down, the twin gods suddenly feel an immense pressure on their souls. Looking up in alarm, they see a lone woman with large black feathered wings on her back. The Crow goddess is looking down at them with folded arms and an unfriendly look in her eye.
"What are you doing here!?" the higher goddess says in a tone that won't take "no" for an answer. "Did Das pull some strings again!? Did he tell you to interfere!?"
Reri bows her head first, and she blurts out, "No, Ma'am! The Death King told us to investigate here."
Freyya rolls her eyes. "I don't care. Just go back and tell the King that you found nothing."
Raru looks up and frowns. "No. We're under orders, which means we can't leave until we have an answer. Do you want us to tell the king that you're hiding something?"
Still, despite having the Death King's beginning, it's still best to be cautious, because Freyya is so completely apathetic about society's opinion of her that she's willing to seriously hurt people who cross her the wrong way.
There's nothing more unnerving than having a goddess like Freyya hold a grudge.
Knowing this, Reri and Raru let out the breathes they were holding when the Crow goddess backs away and says, "Fine… But if you directly interfere with anything, then I'll make you suffer for it. I'll be watching you."
Reri and Raru cautiously glance up at the unmoving Crow goddess as they slowly drift down – afraid she'll suddenly make an attack.
Once they're a good distance away, Reri whispers in her brother's ear, "Don't you feel it? There's something else mixed in with this Death Aura."
"Yeah…," Raru whispers grimly. "I can feel a thick Yiir. I recognize the pattern it's being weaved in. Someone is doing a Mantling Ritual right now."
"Obviously, this is the Crow goddess's doing," Reri adds.
Raru nods. "I agree." He looks into the tunnel leading into the mountain as they set their feet on the ground. "We'll need to find out as much as we can about what's going on inside. Once we report back, the Death King will be able to find out what event she's Mantling. At that point, it's none of our concern whether or not Freyya's plan is a danger at all. It's the Death King's concern."
And so, the twin gods head deeper into the mountain. Just to be sure they won't be spotted by anything less than another god, they both cloak themselves in concealment spells as they go in.
---------------------
"What's this?!" Reri exclaims while resisting the urge to throw up.
There, they see a cavern just large enough to fit a 5 horned dragon. In the middle of the cavern is a giant floating fortress.
What's truly sickening about the fortress is that it appears to be leaking some sort of faintly glowing blood. Given that these 2 gods are very adept Spirit Mages, they can also feel the cries of anguish and hatred resonating in the Death Aura filling the place.
"There," Raru points to the fortress. "I feel it coming from inside."
"Are these bugs?" Reri finally vomits. "Why are there so many bugs crawling in that city? So gross."
And so, the 2 gods float towards the floor of the city, and they notice where all the Ants are steadily flowing into. "There. I see an entrance to the lower floors," Raru points out.
Once they go inside, Raru points to one of the forks in the hall. "I sense 2 different sources of Significance. Those are probably the two things the Crow goddess is using for her ritual. I'll go to the one further down, and you can go to the other one. Sounds good?"
"Sounds good."
---------------------
Given the spectral form Reri has taken, she ghosts through the hordes of Ants who are crawling through the tunnels. Every now and then, she sees armies of floating weapons forming thick wall formations and engaging the Ants.
"Must be Wills," she thinks, "though how are the Wills moving on their own? Wills aren't supposed to have intelligence." A mystery indeed.
As if she barely remembered, Reri pulls out a notepad and starts jotting down her observations.
"Hmm…," she writes down, "I can sense several million Ants. At the rate they're getting killed off, it'll take… another week for them to be finished off. That is, unless the Ants finish strange Will weapons off first."
(Obviously, Reri doesn't know that the Ants are being revived.)
She slams her book shut with her fingers, and she walks down the hall. "Let's find that center of the Mantling Ritual." She looks around with confusion. "Where am I supposed to go again? Was it right or left?"
To her embarrassment, it takes her a few hours to realize that the hallways are have spatial tunneling enchantments to make the halls connect with other passages in ways that otherwise wouldn't make sense.
What's annoying about this is that since she can only tell which direction her destination is, she'll be unable to find it without trying to make her way through this stupid maze.
Out of irritation, the girl tries blasting the walls apart so that she can make a straight shot to her destination.
…To her surprise, the maze walls don't budge an inch. It's like her attack got completely soaked into the stone.
"Uuuuh…," she rolls her eyes, "This'll take a while.