The Spirit World

Haalfrin steps back from the Queen's corpse and drops his bloody dagger on the ground. He plops his butt on the ground and bows his head – letting the abundant Death Aura get sucked into his skin passively.

Once the black mist clears away, Haalfrin sees countless Ants climbing out of their burrows that the Queen had hid them in.

Without exception, all of the Ants lift their heads to the sky and screech in a sort of pain that can only come from the soul – all before falling to the ground as lifeless corpses.

Seeing all of the children's bodies littering the ground, Haalfrin takes a deep breath and tries suppressing his complicated feelings.

Sure, these Ants were technically his enemies, but he also spent hundreds of years watching them live peacefully and happily.

Haalfrin then clutches his heart, and he peers into his Soul Realm. He has a feeling that he's not going to like what he was about to see.

There, Haalfrin sees the Queen's Will appear in his Soul… What marks her Will as different than all the others is that hers is, by far, the most massive Will he's seen yet.

Upon looking closer at her Will, it seems like there are millions of smaller fragments making it up – all squirming in pain and trying to rip themselves away. The only reason all of the fragments don't fly apart is because the largest fragment is forcing them all to stay together.

Haalfrin thinks about using his Advanced Reh Name to at least try communicating with some of these Fragments… but he gets the feeling that he shouldn't do it. With all of these Fragments being able to somewhat think for themselves, trying to talk to this Will is like exposing your thoughts to millions of things at once.

Needless to say, Haalfrin is halfway sure that he'd be driven mad the second he tries touching his Spirit to this Will. So, he tactfully leaves it alone.

Freyya, however, has no such problem – being a goddess with a huge spirit. She pops into his Soul Realm and immediately reaches out with her spirit to touch the Queen's Will.

When she does, a frown creeps up on Freyya's face, and sadness seeps into her eyes.

"What do you feel?" Haalfrin asks while gesturing with his head to the Queen's Will.

"I feel… madness, rage, sadness, fear… but also joy."

"That sounds complicated," Haalfrin sighs. "I can't imagine feeling so many things at once. It must be because the Queen's soul is split up so much."

"It could be because the Queen is a girl," Freyya suggests. "Girls ARE able to feel more things at once than boys can."

"…Huh?"

As if wanting to distract herself from what she felt from the Queen, Freyya gets to explaining things to Haalfrin. "Yeah. Male souls tend to have a stronger Dra – a stronger body. Female souls usually have stronger Reh – stronger spirits. That's why dudes usually have stronger Elemental magic, while women have stronger Spirit magic."

"Can't say I've really noticed," Haalfrin shrugs.

"Haven't you noticed that most Rehkin deities are women?" Freyya smiles. "What about their clan leaders? Most of them are headed by matriarchs. Plus, aren't most soldiers you've seen men? Isn't there a reason why kingdoms only conscript men? Isn't that because men are more useful in a direct battle?"

"All right, all right!" Haalfrin laughs. "I admit defeat! I just don't really pay attention to stuff like that. What kind of bored b#stard would waste their time counting how many men or women are in a certain position?"

While Haalfrin and Freyya got to talking, the Queen's will suddenly turns red and begins shuddering. The power emanating from this Will becomes so strong that Haalfrin feels like his spirit is being attacked.

"Get out of here now!" Freyya yells at Haalfrin. "Something's wrong with this Will!"

Haalfrin knows that Freyya (being primarily a Spirit Mage) will be absolutely safe. So, he doesn't even think twice before exiting his Soul Realm and leaving all of this to his wife.

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'Where am I?' mutters a sleepy woman's voice. Before even opening her eyes, she feels water on her skin enveloping her entire body.

However, this doesn't feel like normal water. Her spirit also feels countless emotions floating in this 'water'. These countless voices in the water would've felt maddening and loud to her if it weren't for a mellow, peaceful emotion overwhelming all the other voices in its sheer magnitude.

To her, it's as if the world itself is a spirit, and all the other voices are merely insignificant specks compared to it.

After all, the surface of the earth may appear chaotic and full of life - blanketed wit lush green forests and diverse lands. But when looking from the heavens, the earth is only mellow and softly murmuring untold dreams.

This is what it feels like to the woman floating in this strange, spiritual water.

Then, the lady opens her eyes, and she's shocked at what she sees.

First, the woman sees that the 'water' is blood red, despite not having the texture of blood. It's as if the spirits floating beside her are bleeding their anger and regret at having just died – contaminating the pristine water around them with their filthy feelings.

Looking closer at these spirits, the woman hears them clamoring chaotically. Some are screeching about how they'll get revenge, while others are softly calling unknown names.

Wait… names? "What's my name again?"

As the woman thinks about this studiously, she floats further and further into the blood-red water… she only stops when she hits a blinding white barrier.

Directly below her, the woman watches the most beautiful thing she's ever seen before. It's a sparkling white bird with 7 wings and blazing bronze eyes.

"Ah yes…" the bird speaks into her mind. "Another fragment came down." It gestures with its head to the girl. "Come on through and join the rest of your soul."

The girl has a feeling that something good will happen if she obeys. Plus, that birdy is so cute that she MUST touch its feathers!

Giggling with excitement, the girl reaches her hand through the barrier, and the moment she does, an ethereal figure identical to herself materializes in front of her and helps to pull her through.

As the girl floats down to join her countless 'sisters', the white bird looks at her with pity and mutters, "It must have been painful to have your soul ripped into so many pieces. I apologize for what Kala did to you. That thing can be very cruel."

The phoenix called 'Felkawyn' looks up and wonders aloud, "I wonder when the main fragment will come down. I can't begin the process until they're all here."

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The Queen is well aware that she's merely a floating spirit in the True Spirit Realm.

When Haalfrin had died for himself, back when he was just a mortal, he was hardly able to control himself. So, he floated helplessly down to Felkawyn.

The Queen, however, has a VERY strong Will, so she's able to float freely in the Spirit Realm and even force herself up and away from where all the other spirits are sinking.

Frankly, the Queen had thought the Spirit Realm is completely made up of a bottomless ocean of Spirit Water; she didn't expect it to have a surface.

The moment her head pushes through the Spirit Water's surface, she looks around in a rare moment of wonder.

There, on the far horizon, is a blazing golden sun peeking through a mantle of silver-grey clouds.

Surprisingly, there are also many spirits in sight up here. Even more surprisingly, all of these spirits are standing on the water's surface as if it's solid ground.

Nearest to the Queen is Dakka's spirit, who is searching aimlessly with a distressed look. "Fina! Fina!" his spirit is calling.

"I'm here, Dakka!" the Queen cries out. She tries pushing her spirit all the way out of the water; she wants to stand on the surface like Dakka's spirit.

However, the Queen finds that even when she lifts her spirit up, her feet are unable to stand on the water, like what Dakka and the other living spirits are doing. Soon enough, she flops back into the water.

Feeling frustrated, the Queen swims over to Dakka's spirit, and she grabs his ankle from beneath him. "I'm here!" she repeats again.

Instead of answering her, Dakka keeps walking around and calling, "Fina! Where are you!"

"QUIT IGNORING ME, STUPID LIZARD!" the Queen roars before trying to hit Dakka's ankles.

Alas, what the Queen is seeing is merely Dakka's spirit. Here, in the Spirit Realm, one's Spirit is seen and felt as plainly as a living person, yet it's their Will that moves them.

Right now, Dakka is wanting to find Fina, so looking for her is the only thing his Spirit can do in this Realm. He can't bend down and talk to her, nor can he help her completely out of the Spirit Water.

The Queen must be realizing this too, so she finally gives up on talking to Dakka.

Looking around again, the Queen also sees familiar faces – the closest of which is Haalfrin's spirit. From what she can see, her hated enemy's spirit is just following Dakka around and repeatedly saying stuff like, "Are you all right?", "You OK, dude?" and "Get yourself together, man! Everything's going to be OK!"

A little further from Haalfrin are countless semi-familiar faces – all of them are the Arkin soldiers she'd spent so long fighting. Most of them are acting confused, some are celebrating, and some look depressed.

Indeed, the Spirit Realm is a mystical place. The more closely connected you are to something, the closer it'll appear to you in this Realm.

Evidently, out of everyone in her life, Dakka is the deepest in her heart, followed by Haalfrin, then all his soldiers.

While the Queen is pondering these things, she hears soft, wet footsteps, and she sees gentle ripples extend out from behind her.

"WHO'S THERE!?" the Queen shouts in a panic as she swivels her head around in the water.

There, she sees a face that she had almost forgotten by now. It's a short, brown-skinned woman with her black hair tied in a ponytail. On her lower back are two feathery, black wings.

The goddess walks over to her on the water's surface, and she squats down – peering at the Queen's face. "Ah," her soft voice echoes in her mind. "I've been looking for you."