Deus Ex Fina (1/2)

Just when Haalfrin is about to give up on spreading his influence in this world and content himself with the 5 Clans who've joined him… he suddenly receives an unexpected visitor.

"Dakka!" Haalfrin calls, "I thought you'd have come to visit months ago. Where've you been this whole time?"

There, the 6-Horned dragon is standing on the balcony to his office, and the man is actually wearing clothes, instead of the usual covering of dragon scale plates.

Just looking at Dakka… something feels different about him. Before, Dakka was like a giant dog. He was big and he could tear your throat out..., but he felt like the kind of puppy you could leave your children alone with.

Now… the air around the Elder Dragon feels dangerous, commanding, and threatening.

What changed?

Feeling a little apprehensive, Haalfrin walks forward and extends his hands for a handshake. "What's up?"

"Stop being so stiff, bro!" Dakka laughs. The dragon suddenly bends down, picks Haalfrin up, and crushes him against his chest in a bear hug.

"BLEEEHH!" Haalfrin wheezes in pain. All the air is crushed out of his lungs, so he can't scream in protest. Instead, he can only flail his legs and tap angrily on Dakka's arm with his hands.

"Haha!" Dakka laughs as he puts Haalfrin down. "It's been a while, bro!"

"Yeah… it has…," Haalfrin wheezes – catching his breath. "Any…way… What do you want? Whatever it is, you didn't have to almost kill me."

"It's nothing!" Dakka beams. "Wait, I mean, I wanted to invite you to Lord Fheldin's – I mean – my palace. Grandfather left me the palace and let me take over! Isn't that amazing!? That means we still get to be neighbors!"

"Where's Lord Fheldin now?" Haalfrin asks.

"He… retired…," Dakka replies with an audible pause. "Anyway! All the other Clans are coming to my home to congratulate me and Fina!"

Dakka looks down and rubs his nose smugly, "Heh. The clan Matriarchs themselves are showing up."

"Yeah," Haalfrin nods, "No doubt, they feel a little anxious now that another dragon has suddenly taken over."

Fheldin was a fairly benign ruler, and the Clans all felt safe and secure living "in the shadow of his mountain", as the saying goes.

However, none of them know Dakka at all. For all they know, he could be a homicidal maniac prone to kidnapping their daughters and burning their cities down. Dragons like that aren't exactly uncommon.

"Anyway, you wanna come?" Dakka asks. The tip of his tail is curling back and forth like a cat's.

"Sure. When's this meeting happening?"

"…In a year… but you should just come now! We'll have plenty of time to hang out in the meantime!" Dakka insists.

"Why?"

Dakka looks down and sighs. "Once I've officially taken up my duties, I won't be able to leave my palace very often. The other World Gate is deep beneath the palace, and I need to guard it against invading forces in the next world over. Plus, I hear you've taken up guarding THIS Gate. We both won't be able to see each other too often."

Each world has 2 World Gates (rarely, they'll have 3), and those 2 gates tend to be exactly on opposite ends of the world.

"I see," Haalfrin nods. "Well, we'd mind as well go."

Wasting a year isn't that big of a deal, right?

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After leaving Kaalhyme in charge of the Valor Hall, Haalfrin packs his space bag full of clothes, weapons, and other miscellaneous things before he leaps on Dakka's back and leaves with the dragon.

Due to how fast this dragon can travel, Dakka flies back to his home in less than a minute. More than likely, Dakka only chose to fly this slow because he didn't want to mess up the atmosphere TOO much.

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Once they arrive at the palace, Haalfrin is surprised at how… deserted the place feels. Before, there were dozens of dragons in every nook and cranny. Even most of the servants are gone.

Instead of servants, Haalfrin actually sees countless, identical copies of Queen Fina roaming the halls and cleaning the place up.

"Dakka?" Haalfrin says as he points at the Ant Queen's clones, "I thought her clones were made from her fragmented soul? I thought her soul was healed? Shouldn't she be unable to use that power anymore?"

"Not really," Dakka shrugs. "See? Look." He steps forward and pinches one of the smaller Ants. The young girl doesn't even react to Dakka's pinch – no flinch or annoyed hiss; she doesn't even try to retreat. Instead, the Ant keeps a placid face, and she continues on her way.

"That's odd," Haalfrin mumbles. "I didn't sense any fluctuations in her spirit.

"That's because these Ants don't have souls," Dakka explains. "My wife told me that these clones are extensions of her Will now. Nothing else."

After all, how could these clones have souls if Queen Fina herself has all the Fragments within herself now?

What Fina never told Dakka is that after her soul was healed, she actually no longer has a limit on the number of Ant clones she can summon. Before, her max army size was capped at 10 million because she had 10 million Soul Fragments.

Now, her clone army is dependent on the size of her Spirit, and how many Threads she can manage to split away from her Spirit.

… With her Spiritual strength scaling directly with Dakka's might as a dragon (thanks to Felkawyn's modification to her soul)… even Fina doesn't know how many clones she can make. More than likely, she'll never know.

"Anyway," Dakka rumbles, "Let's go. I want to show you the other World Gate. After that… Well..., this palace is huge. I'll think of something.

In truth, nobody but Fheldin himself had seen the entire palace before. There were even huge sections that only the lord of Arra knew about.

Frankly, realizing how much of his palace is unexplored, Dakka's inner child has reawakened. He wants to explore the entire place with his friend.

"Fine. Lead the way."

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And so, for the next several months, Haalfrin follows his friend around. Despite being bored of seeing similar hallways over and over again, he humors his friend and keeps quiet about his restless feelings. It would be awfully callous to crash Dakka's excitement.

In the evenings, Haalfrin, Dakka, and Fina all sit alone at a dining table. Apparently, after Fina's Fragments all joined together, she instantly became an amazing cook, so some of her clones made the food, while others served it to them.

… After all, during the peaceful sections of the Eternal War, many of her Fragments had busied themselves learning various skills – masonry, farming, cleaning, cooking, etc. Once all the Fragments joined together again, Fina herself gained all the things that her "children" had learned over the years.

The sheer versatility of Fina's skillset now is so extraordinary that they never eat the same meal twice. More than that, being an expert in practically any field you can think of, she always has something interesting to add to a conversation.

Most of all… just looking into the Queen's eyes makes Haalfrin feel intimidated on an existential level. Being in the presence of a dragon who can crush your body is one thing. All Dakka can do is take your life.

But Fina? Haalfrin gets the feeling that this woman is far more threatening in some ways… The worst part is, is that he can't quite put a thumb on why she's so dangerous. He can't exactly feel a strong Aura coming from her.

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After several months, the Clan Matriarchs and their escorts start to show up in droves. Of course, the closer Clans didn't have to travel across continents, so they arrive several months early.

The more distant clans (like the ones near Haalfrin's World Gate) still have thousands more miles to travel.

Still, once the first Matriarchs start to trickle in, Fina insists that they accompany her, Dakka, and Haalfrin on their daily meals.

Dakka wanted to protest, "But that's our private time with brother Haalfrin!"

"You can travel the world in under a minute!" Fina crosses her arms sternly. "You can visit your friend anytime you want!" She then points to the first set of carriages parked inside the palace's entrance. "Those Matriarchs are our people now. We can't leave them alone and isolated in their guest rooms."

She also adds, "We'll show them the full extent of our hospitality, and they'll eat with us like old friends. We can't have the Clans all thinking that we're stuck-up prats. We have to let them know that the Clans are on our minds."

Dakka looks down and sighs. "You're right..." He turns to Haalfrin. "You don't mind, right?"

"No?" Haalfrin tilts his head to the side. "You and your wife are the King and Queen of this world now. You have to get used to making concessions like this."

"…All right…"

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It doesn't take long for the Matriarchs to practically fall in love with Queen Fina. Haalfrin isn't quite sure what the Ant is doing, but everyone just seems to trust her meeting her for the first time.

... And, by extension, the Matriarchs come to trust Dakka as well. If the Queen is this gracious, then the King is probably fine too.

Whenever the Queen walks into the room, all the other Rehkin surround her and make sure to include her in the conversation.

Whenever any of them have something interesting to say, they always say it with their feet angled towards her – universal body language for extreme respect. It's as if SOME part of their body has to be facing her.

What's more, Fina doesn't even have to suppress them directly with her Spirit to show how powerful she is. The fact alone that she has thousands of her own clones acting as guards, cleaners, and maid-servants… all at the same time…

Nobody had ever heard of Spirit Magic that potent before. Everyone can't help but be wary of Dakka and Fina.

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By the time the last of the Clans arrive, Haalfrin had already been in this palace for an entire year. So far, he's received no word of anyone making trouble for his Arkin, so he's not in a hurry to go back.

Frankly, Haalfrin was expecting the Clan meeting to start immediately once the last Clan arrived. After all, the last time he came to an Inter-Clan meeting, Fheldin started the meeting that very afternoon and kicked them out the next morning. It's almost as if he was in a hurry to get rid of them.

However, days go by, then weeks, yet there's no meeting.

Every afternoon, Dakka comes to Haalfrin and complains, "I keep trying to get Fina to start the meeting already. I'm tired of all these people crowding my house and taking up space!"

The claustrophobic feeling of having outsiders in his home was so bad that the first thing he did after taking over is throw all his siblings through the World Gate and dismiss all the servants. Having a bunch of rowdy animal people running around and all but peeing on the walls is seriously getting on his nerves.

What's worse, is Fina is actually encouraging them to treat this place like their home! She even holds daily feasts for all the Rehkin! Not only are they eating through their stored supply of food, but they're also making a downright mess of the place.

"You forget that she's a Spirit Mage, more than anything else," Haalfrin reminds Dakka. "She's making connections with these people. Just let her do her thing."

Dakka takes a deep breath. "Fine, but… I'll stay in my room. The smell here is getting to me."

"All right, bro," Haalfrin says as he pats Dakka on the shoulder. "Take it easy."