Mana Farm (1/4)
Far below the Hall of Valor, an injured man stumbles through the bottom of a small ravine. Every so often, he peers up at the castle in the sky with a look of frustration.
Haalfrin was actually quite fond of that Castle; it's been his home for most of his waking memory, and having it suddenly taken away from him is a huge emotional blow to him.
"I'll be back for you…," he solemnly swears. If one were to see him when he said this, they wouldn't be quite sure if he's talking about the castle itself, or his wife who still lives inside. Maybe he's talking about both?
Before Haalfrin really has the chance to think of a plan to retake his home, he sees Ants spread out across the land. By now, he's well familiar with the reason for this seemingly nonsensical action.
If it were before, spreading her Ants out so much would lessen how effective her Captain Ants are. However, with more space between them all, they can cover more ground as they search for him. Plus, they won't lose as many soldiers in case the demons suddenly attack again, since large explosions would kill fewer Ants.
Despite how large the available battlefield is, Haalfrin knows that with the Ants spreading out, he'll soon have nowhere to hide. Once a single Ant gets close to him, he also knows that she'll turn into the Queen and attack him.
Obviously, the only place he can go now is up.
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A minute later, Haalfrin is wearing his full suit of armor again, and some of the Wills are holding him aloft in the air. His arms are crossed, and he looks intently down at the blanket of Ants stretching across the entire land.
At least when he's up this high, the Ants will be unable to see him. This will give him plenty of time to think of something…
Of course, Haalfrin doesn't summon any of the Arkin for now, since the Arkin have powerful mana signitures the Queen can sense easily; he, on the other hand, derives his power from Death Aura, which means that his magical Aura perfectly blends in with the dead environment.
"Hmm…," he thinks, "I have to sleep SOMETIME, but without the Arkin here, or walls to protect me, I'll be far more vulnerable. Plus, unlike last time I was on the run and without a castle, the Queen is actively hunting me down instead of complacently poking around. I'll be found, sooner or later."
What about Dakka? That man has already grown his 6th Horn, and Haalfrin can tell that his power far outstrips both Haalfrin's AND the Queen's power. Freyya herself confirmed that 6-Horned Elder Dragons are about as strong as high ranked gods, like the Death King himself.
Needless to say, Haalfrin only needs to stall for time until Dakka wakes up and takes care of the Queen.
Still… It's kind of a pity that after all this time, Dakka would end the war for good on his own. After so many Ants have been slain over these many years, Haalfrin had grown so powerful that he's pretty sure that nobody other than a high ranked god could kill him. If the Queen falls, then there will be NOBODY who can slay him in battle.
Still, Haalfrin can't exactly let the Queen win either; with how powerful SHE is, she'd eat Freyya's home world dry.
"I'm not THAT heartless," he thinks with a chuckle. "Well, if Dakka does wake up and kill the Queen, I can just request another duel from him. I doubt Lord Fheldin could kill me at this point either, so it'll have to be Dakka…"
"Well, whatever. I can fly faster than the Queen, and with me up here, I'm effectively safe from the her. All I really have to do is wait around until Dakka wakes up…"
Haalfrin doesn't even get to finish his thought before his eyes go wide.
"What the…?" What's going on with the Hall of Valor?
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-several hours earlier-
"Mommy! Can you come play hide and seek with us?" one of the younger-looking Ants chirps happily. Draped over the little girl is an oversized coat she'd looted from one of the rooms. (In all honestly, despite the coat being uncomfortably large on the girl, she's just happy to have found clothes.)
"DON'T INTERUPT ME!" the Queen screams at the child.
The girl is frozen in shock at her mother's pure anger. Because she doesn't move out of the way fast enough, the Queen backslaps the girl and knocks her hard on the ground.
Perhaps the Queen hit the child too hard, but the little Ant girl doesn't get back up.
Not bothering to wonder whether the Ant child is dead or not, the Queen turns around and gets back to fiddling with the controls in the Nexus room, where the sky keep's master Key used to be… before she set off a large explosion just outside the room.
Despite every piece of equipment being burnt to ashes, the underlying enchantments and spells throughout the fortress remain behind; it's just the mechanism to control them which was destroyed.
The Queen desperately wants to use the defenses and spells built into here, which is why she's fiddling with the enchantments and furious at anyone who breaks her concentration.
Because the Queen has had the Threshold's Master Key for thousands of years, she's had enough time to study it and learn how the things work.
Assuming that the Valor Hall's Master Key works in a similar fashion, the Queen at least has something to start with.
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After several hours of tinkering, the Queen at least figures out the most basic of functions in the fortress; or at least, she thinks she does.
As the Queen is messing with the enchantments, she suddenly hears a series of loud explosions coming from outside the fortress. "AH! What did I do?"
She checks with her children stationed under the fortress, and she confirms that she just made the mana cannons fire.
"Ah! I did that. I'll do more of that. Yes."
After only a few more minutes, she figures out how to aim the cannons AND fire them.
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-back to the present-
And so, with the Queen having figured out how to manipulate both the Valor Hall's AND the Threshold cannons, she suddenly has a great way of hitting Haalfrin, even when he's in the air.
Since there are no clouds in the sky, Haalfrin isn't exactly able to hide without using spells.
He tries using an optical illusion spell to hide his presence, but the Queen already knows where to look, and she's already learned how to see past this particular type of spell.
With the Queen knowing where he is, Haalfrin is naturally shocked to feel both fortresses hum brightly with energy.
This is the only warning he gets before countless flashes of light start sparkling on the 2 fortress, following by thunderbolts howling through the sky towards him, as well as streaks of fire painting the grey sky red.
"SH#T!"
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Because the Queen could never figure out how to turn on the surveillance spells the same way she did for the cannons, you'd think that she's unable to aim properly at Haalfrin from all the way inside the Valor Hall's enchantment nexus.
However, the Queen has thousands of her children perched atop the walls, acting as her eyes.
And so, the cannon shots from the 2 fortresses shoot so relentlessly at Haalfrin that no matter how good he is at dodging, he knows he can't do it indefinitely. The second he stops using his own flight magic to so much as sleep, the Wills carrying him will no longer be able to fly fast enough to dodge.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Haalfrin knows that he has to get to the control room and finish what the Queen had started several hours ago; he has to destroy the Valor Hall's enchantment nexus for good.
"…the Queen is probably IN the control room right now…" Haalfrin realizes that he won't be able to do much if his assumption is correct.
"Well, if the Queen IS waiting for me, I can just hide in the many Valor Hall rooms. The place is built like the basement maze anyway, so it's my best bet in avoiding her.
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Obviously, Haalfrin is correct when he guessed that the Queen is waiting for him in the control room. Luckily, he had sent ahead a small scrying spell to poke around the corner and check before he just waltzed in there.
Unfortunately for him, the Queen's children have already spotted him, and they're chasing him through the halls even now.
Under other circumstances, Haalfrin would've just killed every Ant in his way, but after realizing that any of these Ants can turn into the Queen at any second, he's a lot more cautious.
So, he chooses to stay far away from them instead and run away after he sees a group of them round a corner.
Well, he realizes that he'll never get anywhere if he doesn't kill Ants, since he DOES need Death Aura, so he usually tries to send a few test shots of mana bolts at the Ants – hoping to kill them from a distance and see if any of them are the Queen in disguise.
The best plan as it is, Haalfrin knows that the Queen is slowly surrounding him. With the absurd size of her army, she doesn't even have to know the Valor Hall's layout; she just has to have her children spread out and find every unoccupied space.
Once the Queen is sure that her prey can't escape anymore without running into her child soldiers, she finally revives into one of them.
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Just as Haalfrin expected, one of the Ants suddenly glows thick with mana as it launches an attack too large for any Captain Ant to accomplish.
Still, no matter how much he was anticipating the attack, the Queen is an expert ambusher after all these years spent fighting; she could FEEL the place that her prey was paying the least attention to, and she revives from there.
After her first attack, the human barely dodges, but after the second attack, he's knocked out of the air.
The Queen then uses the moment when he's disoriented to use strong telekinesis magic to hold him down.
Feeling that her prey has been caught, she wants to gloat and click her tongue with triumph, but she'd be far too mad at herself if she grew lax and let him get away.
So, before the man can even think of anything to do, the Queen lunges forward with her fist outstretched and…
…Just before she's able to completely subdue the man, he pivots around and kicks with his left foot at the Queen. The tips of his steel tipped boots connect with her chest.
Sure, she's blown to pieces, but she revives into an Ant right next to Haalfrin in the blink of an eye, and she's right on top of him again.
This time, she punches his head so hard that he's knocked unconscious.
Ever so cautiously, the Queen leans forward… "Still breathing… Good. I need him alive."
She then flips the man over and slaps a pair of mana-sealing cuffs on his wrist.
Wait… why didn't she kill him?