Beginning the Ritual (5/5)

By the time they get to their first stop, it's time for this random phoenix to get off the Crawler.

However, when the lady realizes that her bags are missing, she screeches in fury, "SOMEONE STOLE MY BAGS!"

Freyya tries her best to ignore the annoying lady, but this phoenix girl starts bothering all the other guests and asking them if they have her bag.

When the Yiirkin shuttle driver tries telling the lady to get off the Crawler (seeing as how they need to get moving, and she's holding them up), the lady shrieks at him in some nonsensical language that Freyya doesn't care about.

No doubt, the lady is demanding compensation or something.

… Freyya clearly saw that the Felkin lady forgot her bags at the docking station… but she doesn't feel like butting in on this dispute.

Seeing the pretty "peacock" screeching off at the poor shuttle driver, Freyya puts her face in her hands and groans mentally, 'Oh, I hate public transportation; people are so stupid.'

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The rest of the shuttle ride is largely uneventful. Other than catching up on some books she's been meaning to read, the only thing Freyya does is look out the window and gaze at the billions and trillions of little worlds zooming by her view.

After a few hours of sitting down patiently, the shuttle comes to another stop.

After all, they've just come to a crossroads in the tree where there's a portion that branches off.

The ticket in Freyya's hand rewrites itself, and it tells her that she needs to get off this crawler and hop on another shuttle, which is going up another side branch.

Once Freyya gets off and finds her home on another waiting bench, she looks up the Crawler schedule and finds out that she'll need to sit here for another hour before her next ride shows up.

Getting a bad feeling, Freyya pulls one of the Yiirkyn aside and shows him her Destination number, "How many more stops am I going to need to take to get here?"

The Yiirkyn lady pulls out a device and punches in the number she gave her. After looking at it carefully, she says, "302 more stops, madam."

Freyya nearly loses her will to live right then and there. She just wants to crawl back into her bed and shut all the windows and curtains and pretend like the outside world doesn't exist.

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After Freyya finally gets to her destination several weeks later, she's looking emotionally battered and completely exhausted.

However, instead of giving up and wasting away on the floor, she gets up and throws her bags off the shuttle energetically. "Free... I'm free!" she shouts at the uncaring sky.

She then flops onto the ground like a dead fish and goes silent.

Frankly, her trip could've been a lot shorter and simpler. Being a high-ranked goddess, she has her own, private VIP shuttle that'll take her directly to her destination with no stops required. She could've gotten to Haalfrin's world in merely a few days, rather than a few weeks.

However, if she'd taken the VIP Crawler, then it would've been easily tracked by the Death King. However, since she took public transportation under an alias, then he'll have a harder time tracking her…

… Right?

Finally being at the correct world, Freyya shuffles over toward the fruit dangling from the World Tree.

Instead of getting closer to the fruit, the thing just seems like it's getting bigger and bigger. It's as if this palm-sized thing were infinitely big, rather than a thing she could fit in her mouth.

As the fruit becomes bigger, a world seems to be slipping out of space in front of her, and the World Tree around her slips away completely. This happens until she's surrounded by black space and glittering stars with the fruit seeming to loom larger and larger.

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-The Far Future-

There is a lone, black dragon flying through the empty, uncreated Void. When she reaches the end of her long journey, she is stopped by an infinitely large, white, spherical barrier. When she touches it, she feels a foreign will trying to expel her.

'Serpent! You're not welcome here!' screeches a woman's voice into her mind.

"Excuse me?" Drakavar calmly replies. After making such a long and unrewarding trip through a boring Void, the dragoness is understandably feeling wound up and hungry.

Perhaps the person behind this annoying voice will make a healthy snack?

"Igdris, is that you?" Drakavar calls out, "Why don't you come out here and talk to me face to face?" She smiles wide and bares her fangs. "You'll at least be able to fit between the gaps of my teeth, so I suppose I don't even need to open wide when I eat you."

There is no answer from the one called "Igdris".

Drakavar narrows her eyes. "You're just a stupid tree spirit. Step aside, or I'll eat you."

'… You're not going to hurt my World Tree, are you?' Igdris asks in a low, fearful voice.

"If you step aside now and part the veil, then... I won't?" Drakavar shrugs.

'…That sounded like a question…,' the Tree Spirit remarks in a displeased tone.

"That's because I don't know if I'll eat your fruits and destroy your tree. I change my mind all the time, and I don't like making false promises," Drakavar says with a stone-cold face. "If you step aside and let me in, then I'll at least keep your obedience in mind if I'm ever tempted to destroy your Tree."

'…I can't let you in,' Igdris mumbles fearfully. 'I have my orders from Mora.'

"You're working for him now?!" Drakavar hisses. "DIE THEN!"

'NOOO!' Igdris cries, but it's too late.

The Goddess of Power has already plunged her hand into the white barrier and forcefully ripped it open.

If the World Tree's spirit doesn't want the Void to seep into her realm and devour it, then she'll have to devote all of her time and energy to keeping the hole plugged.

In the meantime, Drakavar can just stroll in uncontested.

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-The Present-

Once Freyya is about to slip into the world completely, she feels a terrifying presence appear before her – floating between herself and the world beneath her.

"Das! Step aside. My business is not with you!" Freyya announces coldly. She's already unstrapping her spear from her back since she already knows how Das is going to answer.

Right now, Das is dressed up in red monk robes and holding a quarterstaff in one hand.

Instead of answering her command, he instead remarks casually, "After seeing you so upset earlier, I suspected you would come here in person, Freyya. Turn back now, and I won't tell the King that you've broken the rules."

Freyya's eyes twitch. 'A little late for that,' she thinks painfully.

"We all know that gods as powerful as us aren't allowed in a mortal world!" This time, Das appeals to her morality. "Don't put all these mortals in danger!"

"Oh? What about you then?" Freyya asks while wagging a finger at him. "Under that logic, you can't be here…! This IS your true body! I can sense it!"

Das puts a hand over his heart and smiles, "I'm just a small god-king. Remember? Only Death gods aren't allowed in the Mortal Realm…"

"Bull sh#t!" Freyya curses, "I can feel the thick Death Aura on you right now!"

Das waves his hand dismissively, then points down to the world floating below them. "Eh. It's fine as long as I don't wear this divinity downstairs."

Freyya readies her spear, "Anyway, I'm going through, and you can't stop me." She circulates her mana into her body and gets into a battle stance.

Seeing that his junior is trying to fight him yet again, Das rolls his eyes, "Come on! We're both wearing our True bodies, so you have no special advantage here. Turn back! I've beaten you every time we've come for a fight! Give up! Don't embarrass yourself!"

Judging by the way Das is circulating the mana in his body, it doesn't seem like he's taking a threat from Freyya very seriously. His spell patterns appear relaxed and methodical. It's like he's done this a thousand times before.

"Last chance?" Das says slowly.

No reply.

Without another word, Das lunges forward so quickly that space contorts around him.

Given that he's more talented at spatial manipulation than Freyya is, going in fast like this has always been too much for Freyya to dodge. Every time he's fought her in the past, she's always taken significant damage in the first exchange of blows because of this.

However, the moment Das swings forward… and before even Freyya can realize what's going on…

… the Black Scale, which is tied on a string around Freyya's neck, suddenly bursts forth with incredible power.

This black energy fills Freyya's body and mind so completely that when Das comes down and swings at her, his quarterstaff bounces harmlessly off her chest.

Her body has become so heavy that she doesn't even budge from the blow, despite being in space and having no traction to keep her still.

"What th-" Before Das can pull away, or even blurt out his surprise, the black scale pulses with power, and Das is sent careening into space.

When the man tries righting himself by bouncing back with his power… his magic doesn't seem to respond to him.

After all, "Dravar" is the Forces of Nature – pure heat and energy, and Drakavar is the goddess of this.

Naturally, if the black scale wills it, then Das won't be able to use physical force in any of his spells.

He won't be able to strengthen his body, hurl himself through the air, launch any fireballs, or do anything else that affects the physical plane.

Because objects in motion stay in motion when no outside force is affecting it, and because Das is unable to use his magic to slow himself down…

… he'll have to watch helplessly and do nothing… as he hurls endlessly through space and disappears from view.

From Freyya's point of view, Das launches himself so quickly that she can't react. Then, his staff bounces off of her. Then, for some reason, he just... disappears.

Before she can even turn around, the god of Decay is already gone.

"Where'd he go?" she wonders aloud. She readies her spear and vigilantly waits for several seconds for the guy to appear again.

When Das doesn't come back, Freyya mumbles, "Well, that's weird."

She turns around and descends to Haalfrin's world – relatively uncontested.