Beginning the Ritual (1/5)

After they part ways, Haalfrin goes back to Valor Hall, and he locks himself tightly in his office. Whatever is written in Freyya's notebook, he doesn't want anyone to use a scrying spell to take a peek.

Once he's secure and alone, he cracks open the pages and reads through the details of the Mantling Ritual.

…

... It seems that he has already completed the first step in the Mantling without him even realizing it.

As it turns out, the "Haalfrin" of the future ends up expanding his Valor Hall to include every soul who falls in battle. He then spends countless years training up the armies of the dead – waiting for the last battle with Drakavar.

'…And I've already done that,' Haalfrin realizes with a smile. 'On a smaller scale, of course, but it still works.'

…

The next part of the notebook reads, "I'm going to have to personally descend to this world - not just one of my avatars. I'll use my real body in the process."

Haalfrin raises an eyebrow at this. 'Isn't that a little risky?' he wonders. 'Did she mention that the Death King viciously punishes any Death god who does this?' No. That's far too risky.'

'I mean,' he thinks, 'I remember Freyya mentioning that the Death King doesn't let any Death gods travel the World Tree and into the Mortal Realm with their true bodies. No doubt, the Death King will know the moment she leaves the Death Realm.'

'What's the punishment for coming to the Mortal Realm?' he looks up and wonders. 'It can't be execution, right? That kind of punishment is a little redundant to a Death god. So… imprisonment?'

'Whatever the case may be, I wish Freyya were here, so I could talk her out of it.'

Alas, the only thing Haalfrin has to argue with is a lifeless notebook.

In the end, the only consolation Haalfrin has is that they're Mantling Drakavar herself. Being an Elder God – and the strongest one, to boot, they may just get really lucky, and the Death King won't actually catch her.

Haalfrin sits down and flips through the rest of the notebook… and it details some rather… peculiar things that they must do – exact lines he must say, clothes he must wear, and even strategies he must use when conducting the upcoming war.

Yup. In this Mantling, Freyya herself will be playing the part of Drakavar, and that means that she's going to start a war… and Haalfrin is going to have to fight her.

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-The Present-

Freyya is in her usual position in her house right now – propped up in a pile of blankets, and dressed in her comfortable nightwear. Her room is just as messy as it was when Haalfrin visited her last…, which means that even the pigs and flies would refuse to live here.

Despite it being early in the morning (when she is usually sleeping in), her eyes are wide awake, and she's staring up at the ceiling. With how excited she's feeling, there's no way she can actually fall asleep.

Finally, just as her body is unwillingly pulling her to the Realm of Dreams, a small, golden wisp shoots down from the ceiling and burrows into her heart.

Another one of her Soul Fragments has returned. Better yet, this is the Fragment that she's been waiting for!

'Finally!' she thinks excitedly as she shoots to her feet.

Receiving the memories of that fragment, Freyya sees flashes of her conversation with Haalfrin pass through her mind. She knows that she's delivered the notebook to him and gotten the signal to begin the Ritual.

'Gotta be quick. Gotta be quick…,' she thinks as she runs around, puts on a change of clothes and collects her travel gear.

Just to be sure that she's not caught by her King IMMEDIATELY, she opens the stockpile of enchanted items that she's been hoarding for the past few millennia – a box full of enchanted bracelets and rings, which are all bespelled to hide her location.

She barely gets to slap on her silver armor before she's out the door.

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

-The Far Future-

Far, far away, on a world whose location in space is unknown, we see a tall, lanky figure pacing back and forth atop a stone tower.

Her legs are covered in thick black scales, and her sharp talons scrape painfully on the stone tiles as she walks – leaving long, jagged scars on the floor.

Behind her is a long, whiplike tail, which is perked in the air behind her head and dangling a little in front of her face.

With 7 pitch black horns atop her head arrayed in the perfect image of a jagged grown, she looked imposing and regal.

Though, despite her ethereal beauty in her golden eyes and pasty white skin, the lower half of her face is covered by a scarf that looks out of place, compared to the rest of her body.

With her hands behind her back, This woman stares at the sky and squints her shining eyes. "Hmm… You've trapped me here long enough, Mora!" she calls to the sky. " Yes! I know you're there! Aren't you going to say hello?"

... Only silence...

'Of course, that b*stard's not going to answer me...,' she thinks with slight disappointment.

After tricking her into this pocket dimension and trapping her here, there's no way he'd risk reaching his mind into this place, lest he create an opening for her to escape.

Indeed, being in such a small dimension – no bigger than a single planet, her powers are significantly reduced. Since her powers are proportional to the universe she's occupying, putting her in a smaller universe is the only possible way to make her weak enough to be contained - to be imprisoned.

To top it off, Mora was so paranoid about any stray gods accidentally finding her prison and cracking it open by mistake. So, he placed this pocket universe far away from the World Tree, in a place where nobody would ever find her.

Of course, this pocket world still has people on it, so Drakavar was sure to conquer them and whip them into shape a little…

'Still, my place is up there,' she thinks while looking at the empty, black sky. 'I miss seeing the stars.'

Indeed, with this pocket universe only including a single solar system, the only star in the sky is a lone sun.

How drab.

'Well, it's boring here. Mind as well try something new…'

Drakavar carefully flies up into the sky and looks both ways. She then slows down to a still hover, and she carefully looks at a crack in the sky.

Before this world was yanked off the world tree, this little crack used to be a World Gate. Now, it's just a little sliver that only has the empty Void on the other side – the Realm of Nowhere, to be exact.

Many times, Drakavar has considered just throwing herself into this portal and seeing where she ends up… but every time, she backs down.

After all, she knows very well that she won't recover her full strength until she reaches the broad universe again. She'll still be quite weak in the Realm of Nowhere – especially when that place is entirely occupied by Yiir energy – the opposite of Dra.

'If I'm so weak, Mora won't have any trouble snagging me like a runaway puppy and putting me back in my kennel. How annoying.'

Suddenly, Drakavar's lips curl up into a smile, revealing her sinister fangs. 'Good thing I've made a new discovery recently…'

She looks down and mumbles, "I'll just have to go see Mora's other prisoner. I think he may be able to help me leave this stupid prison…"

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

-The Present-

Freyya certainly had to be very careful with the way she looks when she leaves her house. Her avatars are always manifested from her own self-image, meaning that they're all clean, beautiful, and stylishly dressed.

Frankly, everyone can easily tell Freyya apart from her Avatars, since the avatars look like noble war-maidens, while the goddess herself looks like something a rat dragged in and barfed on.

With her armor straightened out and shiny, Freyya flies across the Death Realm to visit her next destination.

As she flies across the landscape in her true body, she feels… a surreal sense of excitement. She's spent tens of thousands of years planning for this day and plotting for Haalfrin's soul… but finally getting up and carrying it out feels like some sort of fever dream.

What's even more… is that Freyya is getting the feeling that the plan this time will actually work.

Despite stealing from the Death King a few times, Freyya still gets butterflies in her stomach when she's about to break a rule… and the rule she's about to break is a hundred times more serious than stealing a few Death Keys!

'Is it exhilarating? YES!' she thinks giddily, 'I mean, I'm about to cosplay as one of the nastiest villains in the entire history of the World Tree.'

After all, the few times Drakavar showed up in the distant past, the great serpent was nicknamed "Elshirothe" - the Archdemon of destruction. "Rothe" is a title given to one who is the ultimate enemy of the heavens.

The only other "Rothe" in history was "Asharrothe" - the Archdemon of Corruption.

'Kind of fitting, when you think about it,' Freyya wonders. 'The Archdemon of Corruption created evil in the universe, and the Archdemon of Destruction will end the universe.'

Fate works in dualities like this sometimes.

'Well, before I head to the Mortal Realm, I'll need to pick up something from one of my colleagues. Without it, I won't be able to complete the Ritual. In fact, I won't be able to get to Haalfrin's world before getting caught.'