Mana Farm (2/4)

Haalfrin groans on the ground and is already stirring awake; she mustn't have hit him hard enough. Whatever. She already has him subdued.

The dragon slayer opens his eyes and looks at the Queen… and the unnaturally calm look in his eyes is unnerving to the Queen. "Just get it over with, woman," he telepathically says to her. "It was a good fight."

He'd normally have spoken aloud, but they don't share the same language, and the Queen has already demonstrated that she's able to communicate directly through their spirits.

The Queen just shakes her head at this and wags her finger in front of his face. "You're forgetting your dragon friend. When he wakes up, I'll certainly die! I need you all to help me become stronger."

"Help you?" Haalfrin scoffs. "As if I'd help you."

"Whatever," she scoffs back. "Your consent isn't required."

She stands up and motions for her children to step forward.

Without a word, the Ants clench their jaws over Haalfrin's arms – right above the shoulder, and they attempt to bite down… but his arm is too tough for their jaws.

Feeling annoyed, but not surprised, the Queen frowns, then transforms into an Ant herself. With her mana enhanced jaws, she places her mouth right over Haalfrin's arm.

Realizing what she's trying to do, Haalfrin tries struggling, but the Queen has more limbs than him as well as a stronger body (with her huge mana pool to back up her body-reinforcement spell). With more limbs, she's easily able to hold the man down.

Then… one by one, the Queen snips off each of Haalfrin's limbs with her scissor-like jaws.

Haalfrin only gives a little grunt of pain; the only sign of his true feelings is the livid glare he's giving the Queen.

Once the man has had his legs and arms removed, the Queen leans down menacingly and says, "I know that your soldiers revive endlessly for some reason. What do they use to revive? Do they steal mana like me?"

There's no way Haalfrin is going to answer that, so he just turns his head away and purses his lips.

The Queen punches one of his bleeding stumps in frustration, then says with a calm mental voice, "I already know all the demons' revival happens around you, so when are your men going to come back? My ants are hungry."

Once she says this, Haalfrin immediately understands the Queen's purpose in keeping him alive; she's seeing the Arkin as an infinite source of mana.

If this Ant gets her way, she'd get to eat his army over and over again until she's stronger than a 6 horned dragon.

After putting the pieces together, Haalfrin laughs aloud with bellowing condescension, "Ha! As if I would summon them for you!" He turns his head up, exposing his neck arteries. "Just get it over with."

The Queen smirks and punches his stumps again – this time being sure to pinch a nerve.

This time, Haalfrin does let out a painful scream; there's no way he can pretend to be all right after THAT hit.

"You can't even hold a sword anymore, stupid human," the Queen says, "If you don't cooperate, then I'll make the rest of your long life as painful as possible."

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In the end, Haalfrin refuses to budge, and he is tortured relentlessly day and night.

All the while, Freyya is floating invisibly above the giant pit the Ant Queen had thrown her husband in, and she's watching the horde of Ants constantly tear bits of his flesh off and use magic to heal him up again.

Seeing the man she loves being so cruelly tortured, Freyya is understandably furious.

Just as she's about to jump down there and help her husband out, she looks to the side and sees Das floating above the plain too, just a few thousand feet from her. His arms are crossed, and he's looking down with worry in his eyes.

No doubt, Das is worried that with Haalfrin defeated, the Queen will kill her prisoner and deny the Decay god of his prize.

Suddenly, Das looks up, and his eyes meet Freyya's.

"Das…," Freyya speaks to her colleague's mind, "If I go down and rescue my husband, you won't say anything to the Death King, right?"

The old man across the way shrugs. "Don't you want him to get killed?"

"Pah!" Freyya spits with venom in her eyes. "This isn't a battle anymore. It's just plain torture! Stay out of the way, and don't tell on me!"

Das shakes his head. "I can't let you do that, Freyya. The Death King has gotten more strict with us lately. I'm afraid he's already watching us right now. Unless…"

The old man puts his finger on his lips and smiles at Freyya. "…Unless you've done something to Haalfrin's Fate. Why else would you be so sure that you can interfere with him without our boss's knowing?"

Freyya is starting to get a little nervous as Das keeps talking…

"…A Mantling Ritual, right?" Das smiles at Freyya. When he sees her eyes dialate, he knows that he guessed correctly.

"I was beginning to suspect what you were doing, girl," Das shakes his head with disappointment, "but if it's a Mantling Ritual, then you'd have to be Mantling a being greater than the Death King himself…"

Not wanting to give anything away, Freyya is doing her best to keep her face neutral in front of Das.

"Hmm…," Das muses aloud, "there aren't many beings greater than the Death King; there's the 100 dragon gods, Lessa and Mora… Felkawyn… I can't think of any others."

The god of Decay then looks down at Haalfrin. "If you're even willing to rescue Haalfrin despite the Mantling Ritual, then Haalfrin being captured and tortured must be going against the ritual and breaking it up."

Freyya knows that everything Das has said is completely correct – especially that last part.

You see, in order to tie Drakavar and the Ant Queen together in this Mantling Ritual, the Queen needs to behave like Drakavar and have similar traits.

Drakavar… she may go to war against the gods, but she doesn't torture them or devour them out of a lust for power; she tries destroying the universe because she's furious.

With the Ant Queen behaving so completely unlike Drakavar, Freyya's Mantling Ritual is on the verge of falling apart.

Seeing Freyya trying to hide her side glances at Haalfrin, as well as her twitching muscles which are ready to pounce, Das lets out a sigh. "Girl, don't even try it. You know that I'm stronger than you."

Freyya pulls her black hood up over her head, and a long silver spear materializes in her hands.

"So it's a fight then?" Das remarks. Instead of putting on battle armor and equipping a weapon, like Freyya is doing, Das straightens out his white gloves, and he curls his fingers into clenched fists.

Lowering himself into a battle stance, Das intends to fight Freyya bare handed.

With two Death gods facing off against each other, there's no more need for words.

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The Ant Queen is startled when a huge surge of Death Aura collects high above her head. If she had Death Affinity, like Haalfrin, she'd have seen two gods cloaked in black punching and slashing at each other with such speed that they'd appear to be black, misty blurs.

Alas, the Queen can only feel that great powers are in conflict right above her… and she can only wonder if she could take them on herself. At this stage of her life… probably not.

Haalfrin, on the other hand, is barely conscious at this moment, and he can barely feel his wife's tumultuous emotions as she's fighting her hardest.

"So those two blockheads finally decided to duke it out?" Haalfrin wonders. "Eh… I wish I could help her…"

He looks over at the Queen, who is trying to figure out what to do.

In the end, the Ant Queen has her children pick Haalfrin up and carry him into the Threshold; she wants her precious prize out of sight and out of mind of whoever is battling in her skies.

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Less than 10 minutes later, Freyya is laying in a crater – embedded in the ground and having a hard time breathing with her broken ribs.

Das is standing over her, and despite having just fought another Reaper, his black clothes and white gloves are still immaculately clean and unwrinkled. "Given up yet, girl?"

"G…go to h#ll…"

Das rolls his eyes. "Been there. Done that. Anyway, you're done, girl." He leans forward and slaps the head off of her body.

Since this isn't her true body (just an avatar), he knows this won't harm her. However, he doesn't want her avatar poking around here anymore and interfering where she shouldn't.

…Unbeknownst to him, Freyya's avatar DOESN'T go back to the Death Realm; instead, she uses her link with Haalfrin's soul (via their Contract) to send her consciousness into his soul Realm.