"Dawn"

After coughing for a moment, she says, "Remember our wedding, and how I said that it was a Mantling ritual?"

"Yes, I remember. Our marriage ceremony was supposed to resemble the first and most Significant marriage."

"Indeed," she nods her head. "Since that marriage ended in eternal bliss, the ceremony itself offers some of that fate upon those who complete it correctly."

Haalfrin thinks for a moment about why she would bring it up… Oh, he can stab a guess. "You want to use a Mantling ritual to curse me to die?"

Freyya smiles awkwardly, "Frankly, this war was a Mantling Ritual too, but it fell apart for a few reasons. I was trying to Mantle you and the Queen to your future self and Drakavar. However, the Ritual was frail, since I didn't understand very much about Drakavar at the time, and I couldn't link you guys very well."

She looks down at this frustrating memory. "Then, Das came along and ruined it completely."

She then gives Haalfrin a thumbs up. "Don't worry, though. I've filled in the gaps of what I should've known about Drakavar, so the next Mantling Ritual I'll attempt, it'll work splendidly!"

"What was it you learned about Drakavar?" Haalfrin is really curious now."

"Hmmm… No. The event I'll be Mantling requires you to not know too much."

"Why?" Haalfrin really doesn't like answers being dangled in front of his nose."

To this, Freyya rolls her eyes. "Oh, the warrior you'll be Mantling didn't know what led up to his death, or what the result of his last battle was."

This, Haalfrin can understand. "I see. Nobody knows exactly when they're going to die," Haalfrin concedes.

"Yes, so if I tell you to do something, just trust me and do it."

"How long have you been doing this – preparing the ritual?" he asks.

"Oh… I've been preparing you for this ritual since the day we got married. Don't worry, you're doing splendidly."

"Wait, what? What did you do?"

"You've done most of it yourself, dear," she says. "Even though this Mantling didn't work, I've managed to rework it into the next Mantling."

Truly, this long and enteral war against a creature who escaped from the void is very similar to a war that the War god Haalfrin fights in the divine Realms. This will further strengthen the Fated bond between the two timelines.

"…Ok, I don't really get it. I'll just follow your lead from now on," Haalfrin says.

"Yes. You'll need to."

Before she gets to pouring herself another glass, she looks up and says, "Oh, by the way, did you get your Fel Name to do what you wanted it to?"

"Yes. I can now convert energy, including mana, directly into Death Aura."

"…Good. You're going to need that…"

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

While Haalfrin is diligently studying his Names, the Queen is alone in her chambers. All around her are arcane textbooks that she's using to further her combat skills. Even if the war is 'over', the Queen only considers this a temporary truce.

The woman is sitting on a chair – previously bare it was, but now there are fine silks and flowers draped over it, as well as many scented candles to light her gloomy room.

The only thing lessening the dampening chill in this room is the grey, somber light seeping through her window. With the mountain covering the Threshold gone, she at least gets some air in here.

Still, the wide windows are covered by thick velvet curtains, since looking at the gray sky just makes the Queen more depressed. Even more, the curtains are glued to the walls to keep any flickers of grey light from seeping into her room.

Sometimes, there are dirty clothes all over her room and stacked up piles of dirty dishes, but Dakka periodically sends some of the children Ants to clean his wife's room up.

While the Queen is studying and ignoring the growing mess around her, there's a soft knock on her door.

Not wanting to break her concentration, the Queen ignores the guest on the other side; she doesn't even look up.

When her guest isn't invited in, the door opens anyway, and one of the younger Ants peeks her head through. "Um… mother?"

"What is it?"

"Are you… OK? I feel like you're unhappy. Here. I'll get some light in for you. It's not good to be stuck in the dark all the time.

The young Ant moves to the curtains and was about to move them aside. "LEAVE THOSE BE!" the Queen snaps at the ant in her human form. "What's the point of a window with no sun to look at!? I'm sick of that disgusting grey sky! Just get out!"

The ant is a little shaken, her eyes dart around in fear.

'Why do these stupid little children always act surprised whenever they're openly disliked? No one is automatically liked by others; it's something you earn, right!? So, why do these stupid kids act like they're owed everyone's kindness!?'

Under the Queen's hostile gaze, the child moves away and softly shuts the door.

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

Once the Ant has left the Queen alone, she turns to her siblings beside her.

"Did Mom say she was going to play with us?" one of the others asks her.

"N-no. I don't think she likes us."

All the ants seemed disappointed at this, then they all turned away. "I guess we'll just play by ourselves then."

The first Ant is looking down thoughtful when she bumps into the sister in front of her. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry, Wina!" the girl apologizes. "You can go play by yourselves. I'm going to talk to Dad."

"What for?" Wina asks. "Oh, are you going to ask him to play with us too? It's always really fun when he lifts us high into the air."

"Not this time," the girl says. "Mom said something about a 'sun'. She sounded very depressed about this thing not being in the sky. I'm going to let dad know and see if he can fix it."

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

While the Ants are alerting their father about their mother's depression, the Queen is laying on her bed and telepathically sensing what all of her children are doing… and she's just as baffled as she always is.

All day, every day, the Ants either clean, draw useless things called "art", waste energy running around in strange games, or squander material by building things like "sculptures" and "board games".

Even wasting the energy to keep the Threshold immaculately clean is baffling to the Queen, since to her, it's fine so long as she can find what she's looking for. Who cares if the floor is dusty? That doesn't improve her combat abilities!

Sure, her Ants may be happy here, but she isn't.

It's getting harder to even grow stronger now, but with Dakka here, she's come to slowly feel that even getting stronger means nothing in front of this unstoppable behemoth.

The Queen rolls over on her bed. "There's nothing for me here," she thinks despondently.

She then turns her head and looked up at the sky fortress – the "Hall of Valor" as they liked to call it. Her fists slowly clench as more and more pessimistic thoughts start to surge within her.

'Maybe those people up there just agreed to this truce because they plan on keeping me here forever?' she thinks. 'I was planning on just waiting for Haalfrin to age to death, but I heard from Dakka that the man is basically immortal. Will I ever be able to leave? Probably not.'

The Queen then rushes to the window and tears the curtains open. She looks up at the grey sky. "I think I do have one desire of my own. I think I'd like to see the sun again."

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

Soon after the Queen's latest mental breakdown, Haalfrin hears word from Dakka that his wife desperately wants to see the sun, and that it may be the cure to her depression.

For the first time, Haalfrin actually understands the Queen perfectly on something. He, too, is going crazy from forgetting what the sun looks like.

So, in order to provide some semblance of sunlight to this place, Haalfrin orders Laura's research team to figure out how to at least make this grey battlefield look somewhat normal.

So, with expensive materials provided for by their patron Rehkin clans, they put together a large, clear crystal with enchantments etched onto it.

They then fly the crystal up into the sky, put some mounts around it made from mana conductive ore, and Time lock the mounts – holding the crystal in place.

Once the Crystal is where it needs to be, they activate the enchantments.

Suddenly, a blazing golden light illuminates the entire land. The light is so brilliant that even Haalfrin is blinded by it – much less, the Queen.

The man asks his wife, "Isn't it too bright? Is something wrong with it?"

However, she just replies, "That's actually dimmer than a sun is supposed to be."

"…Oh."

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

Once the golden light reaches far and wide across the land, there are varying reactions from the Ants.

Some of the Ants cower in fear, screaming about how the world is ending. Some just stand and gawk.

Others? They fall on their knees and look up at the "sun" reverently. Their eyes grow puffy and red, and long, fat tears streak down their cheeks.

It's as if some part of their souls were finally satisfied.

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

The Queen watches from one of her balconies; unlike her children, she was notified beforehand that the Arkin were putting up a fake sun.

Truth be told, the Queen was looking forward to this, since she remembers from Fina's complete memories that she really wanted to see the sun.

However, as soon as the golden light explodes across the land, the Queen feels… underwhelmed.

For a few moments, the Queen stands in shock – not at how beautiful the glowing crystal in the sky is, but at how little this moves her heart.

"Is that it? Psh!" she spits into a flowerpot beside her. "I'm going to bed. This was a waste of time."