Mana Farm (3/4)

While Haalfrin lays "unconscious" in a dungeon prepared by the Queen, his mind is in his soul realm, talking with all the Wills and Arkin inside as they try to think of what to do about their dire situation.

In the middle of his war council, Haalfrin feels Freyya's presence almost immediately after she entered his Soul Realm.

Haalfrin is about to stop the discussion to check on Freyya; he HAD just seen her fighting earlier, and he's worried about how it went for her.

However, Freyya shushes him in his mind and says, "Just keep talking to your people. I'm fine. I'll just listen in for now."

She does sound tired, though, but Haalfrin chooses to not press the issue; she clearly doesn't want to talk about it.

So, Haalfrin nods in her direction, then responds to a question one of his generals had posed to him.

"That's the point," Haalfrin says, "The only thing we can do is find a way to stall out just long enough for Dakka to wake up."

One of the other generals crosses his arms and frowns. "I still don't feel good about feeding the Queen more and more mana. She's already out of control, as it is."

"That's true," Haalfrin nods. "While you are all helping to stall for time, I'll use this chance to train my Names up. I still have my Dra and Fel Names left to Advance, so…"

"Shouldn't you try getting your 7th Name instead?" Kaalhyme asks. "You'd be far more useful if you just became a god already."

Freyya takes this opportunity to step in. "I'm afraid that won't be the best solution in the long run," she says.

Seeing that she's got everyone's attention, Freyya feels a little nervous at first; she doesn't like people looking at her.

Still, she's gotten somewhat used to people's gazes over the years spent here, so she's at least able to talk clearly.

"When a person gets their Ar Name – their 7th Name," she explains, "their powers are multiplied and they achieve their final status in the universe. The more refined your soul is being before you do this, then the more exaggerated your Ar name – your divinity – will be…"

She looks at all the generals in the eyes this time, and she says, "The Ant Queen is only a 5th Gate mage right now, and she's still defeated Haalfrin AND all of you. Haalfrin getting his 7th Name may make him more powerful NOW, but the Queen has more room to grow than he does; when SHE gets her 7th Name, her abilities will far outstrip his."

"Ah…," Kaalhyme nods. "So if Haalfrin doesn't want to fall behind, he has to Advance all of his Names BEFORE he becomes a god."

"Exactly."

All the generals turn to Haalfrin, and one of them asks. "So Commander… which Name are you going to Advance this time?"

"I'm thinking the Dra Name," Haalfrin says. "The Fel Name seems to be coming a lot harder than the Dra Name, so I figured I can just work on it last."

Satisfied at where the conversation is going, Freyya walks up to Haalfrin and presses something in his open palm. "Take this stone."

"What is it?" Haalfrin asks. "You don't give presents very often unless it's food."

Freyya looks away shyly, then says softly. "I enchanted it to help mitigate your pain. Use it when the Queen's treatment becomes too unbearable.

Haalfrin takes her gift and expresses his gratitude… but as he pockets it, he's thinking, "If being under heavy pressure makes advancing the Names easier, then I'll try not to use it."

Of course, he won't tell Freyya that.

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After Freyya leaves, Haalfrin continues talking with his generals. "Anyway, we need to stall for Dakka to awaken from his slumber."

"But how?" Kalastros asks. "If we don't give the Queen what she wants by reviving ourselves and letting us be eaten, then she'll just kill you, be over with it, then go out into the world to wreak havoc again. We can't let this happen!"

"Yes," another Arkin adds. "We'll have to let ourselves be summoned over and over again. We can let the Queen have our flesh… but we…"

The man is interrupted when a single word whispers in their ears. "Wwwwhhhhyyyy.....?" comes a chorus of faint voices from up above.

Haalfrin and the Arkin both are startled by the sudden voices. They all look up and see the swarm of Rehkin Wills lingering above them.

"Oh?" Haalfrin smiles wryly, "You guys have tried for so long to pretend like we don't exist, so why do you choose to speak NOW?"

The Rehkin Wills Haalfrin is talking about are the Wills that the Threshold had slain in battle during Haalfrin's 100 year long service to Fisco.

These Rehkin Wills are mostly Hawk souls (as they were the tribe most hostile to the humans), but there is a splattering of other souls too, like serpent, wolf, eagle, and boar souls.

One of the Hawk Wills materializes into an ethereal version of himself in life – a short, brown haired man with long braids and large brown and white wings on his back.

The Hawk man looks over at Haalfrin and says, "My comrades and I have been watching you all argue, and we've seen what's been going on outside. We would like to participate in your war now. Rather, we'd like to fight FOR you."

"Oh?" one of the Threshold officers asks, "what changed your mind? Weren't you all freaking out before about how you hated us ever since we beat you in battle all those years ago? How do we know you're not trying to sabotage us?"

Frankly, most of the Threshold generals want to laugh out loud after receiving this sudden offer, but they restrain themselves. What if the Rehkin are being genuine right now? What if they offend their potential allies by laughing at their act of "good will"?

The Hawk don't seem angered by the ex-human's doubt – probably because he was expecting it.

So, instead of trying to argue, the Hawk's representative sits down on an empty chair and says, "We know that the Ant Queen and her swarm don't care about the balance between all the other races."

Some of the Wolf Rehkin materialize behind the Hawk, and one of them adds, "We still don't like you all, but we have descendants still in the mortal world. It would be an honor to help protect my people, even if it means fighting under you… at least for a while."

Perhaps the Rehkin's stubborn hearts have finally been softened after they saw how these Arkin are willing to let themselves be freely devoured over and over again out of concern for a world that isn't even theirs.

I mean… sure, these Rehkin are pretty hateful towards humans, but even they aren't that stubborn about their prejudices; there's no way they wouldn't feel touched.

Another Rehkin materializes behind the wolf and the Hawk, and he adds his two cents. "Dragon Slayer. If you die now, then the Queen will escape. She's scared of the 6 horned dragon hibernating in your castle, and she's scared of the Lord Fheldin, who still protects our world. She'll desperately try to massacre as many tribes and clans as possible in her frenzy to devour. All of our clans would be in danger once again."

"If we have to give the Queen what she wants, then we'll volunteer to be revived by you, then used as food for the Queen, until Dakka awakens and revives himself."

Maybe it's because the Rehkin have hopped aboard their sinking boat, but despite the dire situation they're all in, the people here are feeling optimistic about their plans.

And so, with light hearts, Haalfrin, his Arkin generals, and the Rehkin clan representatives sit together and discuss exactly how they're going to stall for time…

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Once Haalfrin is done counseling with his people, he "wakes up", and he "finally cracks". He tells the Ants to call for their Queen, since he has finally "given in".

The Queen shows up and stands in front of Haalfrin's cell. She folds her arms and asks in a confrontational voice, "You finally ready to talk? Tell me what you must do in order to revive your undead soldiers."

So, Haalfrin "obediently opens up", and he explains, "My Arkin need Death Energy to regenerate. That's partly why my forces have been so keen on killing your Ants; we need it to revive our people."

This, of course, is a lie. Arkin passively regenerate their bodies because they don't have "Fel" anymore – being dead and all. Being without the ability to "change", the universe will automatically revert them to the same state they've always been – able-bodied.

Haalfrin told the Queen this lie because he doesn't want her to think that the "demons" can come back for free; if they DID come back for free, she'd end up making him summon far more of his comrades to be sacrificed than is necessary.

He doesn't want the Queen to get more powerful than she should, now does he? With this lie, he'll have the excuse to limit the amount of Arkin he summons.

To Haalfrin's relief, the Queen nods her head in understanding. Apparently, she believes him.

You see, the Queen had always known that her enemy collects the black mist that comes off of her children's bodies when they die; she also has always known about it being used to make her enemy stronger.

Seeing as how her enemy seems talkative right now, the Queen presses her foot down and says, "Now tell me more about these demons."

She'd certainly captured the Arkin many times and tortured them for information over the years, but she figures that Haalfrin knows some special things about them.

Sensing another opportunity to tell a strategic lie, Haalfrin opens his mouth and explains, "the 'demons' you're talking about are called 'Arkin'. They're a race of evolved humans…"

He stops when the Queen steps on one of his bloody stumps. "I already knew that. Tell me something else."

"Well," Haalfrin says through gritted, bloody teeth, "I'm what you'd call a necromancer. I have connections with the spirits of the dead, and I'm able to summon them from the Death Realm."

"Necromancer?" the Queen looks up. Some of the Spell Books she'd found in the Threshold talked about necromancers. "Don't those dark wizards have ways of binding their spirits to their will?"

The Queen smiles thinking about this. "Good. When you summon your 'Arkin', I want you to force them to obediently submit to my Ants. I don't want my children to have to struggle trying to catch and eat them."

Of course, by labelling himself as a 'necromancer', Haalfrin falsely put the Queen under the assumption that he has any control over the Arkin once he summons them. They can even choose to refuse his call, for crying out loud; he's DEFINITELY not a necromancer in the classic sense.

As for the reason Haalfrin initially chose to make this lie, he was trying to make her believe that he can control his soldiers, just as she can control her Ants.

Truth be told, if the Queen knew that Haalfrin has no say over what his soldiers do, she'd probably just do away with him right then and there. Why would these soldiers willingly subject themselves to being eaten? Obviously, they'd only do this if they're up to something!

So, this lie was entirely necessary for Haalfrin's survival. Who knows? Maybe his soldiers will find some opening to rescue him if the Queen thinks that they can't disobey him?

Seeing the Queen mull over what he just "confessed" to her about himself being an Arkin, and about him needing Death Aura to summon them… Haalfrin sees a sense of acceptance sink into her Spirit.

When he sees this, he knows he succeeded.

The Queen, in turn, is seeing her enemy limbless and obedient on the ground, and she feels satisfied. Feeling that she's (probably) won, she tells him, "Good. Now summon your army now. I want them docile, you understand?"

She puts her foot down on his chest. "If they act out of line once, I'll crush your heart with my foot and eat your corpse personally."

Haalfrin looks down with "defeat" in his eyes, and he says somberly, "Fine. I'll summon my army… but a fair warning. Since your ants are no longer dying in masse, I can't summon the entire army over and over again. There's not enough Death Energy for that."

Suddenly, the Queen curses in her heart for losing her mana reading pendent. If she still had that, she'd be able to keep checking to see how much Death Aura her enemy consumes when he summons his horde once.

Now? Now she's blind to this. She's going to have to trust that he's summoning as many Demons as he says he can summon.

The most she can do about this is keep the man honest with a bit of torture…