The Bleeding Skies (1/4)
Once Freyya sets down on the surface of Haalfrin's world (Dralis is the official name of the world, if she recalls it correctly), she stretches her arms and does a few practice swings with her spear.
Due to her excitement, a little bit of her mana accidentally leaks out, and one of the nearby mountains is perfectly split in half.
"Ah. I forgot to sharpen the blade on the way up here," is all she has to say about what she just did.
The Death Reaper then pulls out her Mantling notebook, which has the next stage of the plan written on it…
'OK! First things first! I have to go visit Haalfrin.' She looks over in Haalfrin's direction; the Spiritual connection between them is pulling her by the soul, so she doesn't really have to do anything to know where he is.
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Meanwhile, Das is still hurling uncontrollably through space, with no signs of being able to stop.
This entire time, Das is desperately thinking, 'I don't know what she did to me… but she can't get rid of me this easily, right?'
Sure, she didn't "beat him", but all of his strength won't mean much if he's unable to return to her world.
After several minutes of experimenting, Das realizes that there's nothing wrong with his soul and that his magic works just fine. The problem is that the ambient mana in the universe isn't responding to him; it's like the ambient mana has a Will, and it's refusing to listen to him.
'Well, there's no point in trying to figure out what Freyya did to me. It's better to think of a way to get back.'
In the end, Das has to destroy his own, current body and move his spirit back to his world. He can use his properties as a Death god to regenerate his body again and continue fighting.
And so, Das pulls out a knife and plunges it into his own throat - no magic required.
…
The next moment, Das finds his spirit floating in black space… To his delight, he realizes that the restrictive properties of Freyya's "spell" doesn't work on him anymore, now that he's just a spirit!
Angrily, Das floats his ethereal self back to the planet. There, he spends several minutes reconstituting his body again.
Unfortunately, because Das's powers as a Death Reaper is basically gone by now, the process of reviving is extremely painful, and he's greatly weakened in the aftermath.
Despite being weakened, Das is confident that he can defeat Freyya again. 'I don't know how you managed to get this far away without being caught by the Death king, but my fate with the boy is too strong. I'll find you before you can make a move!'
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-The Far Future-
After breaking back into the wider universe, Drakavar spends several days stretching her wings and flying around the World Tree. The tree itself is quite beautiful, but Drakavar is far more concerned with how powerful she feels again.
After flying around for a bit, Drakavar squints her golden eyes and notices something strange. "What are those tiny metal caterpillars?" she wonders aloud. "It looks like they're crawling on the tree.
Out of child-like curiosity, the dragoness descends and flies next to one of the "caterpillars". Despite that thing traveling faster than light (by cleverly using spatial magic to shorten the space in front of it), Drakavar very easily keeps up with it – flying parallel to it.
'Huh. It looks like some sort of vehicle on a rail,' she thinks to herself. 'Oh look, there's somebody gawking at me.' She looks into one of the windows and sees a child propped up on his knees and staring at her with his mouth hanging open.
"Oh, hi!" Drakavar waves enthusiastically at the boy.
The boy slowly raises a hand and waves back with a confused look on his face.
No doubt, this boy is going to tell his parents about how some strange dragon lady was flying impossibly faster than their tree crawler… No doubt, nobody is going to believe him.
Either way, Drakavar couldn't care less. With her curiosity satiated, she spreads her wings and instantly slows down to a halt.
… Then… she just stands there, on some random branch of the World Tree – sniffing the air and turning her head passively.
'Why am I feeling annoyed?' Drakavar wonders. 'What's this strange feeling I'm getting?'
She stands there for several minutes, thinking about the strange scent in the air. She stands there for so long that the shock wave from her superluminal flight passes by her – ripping off chunks of the "indestructible" world tree, and upending countless kilometers of railing from the bark.
Well, traveling faster than light breaks physics in a rather catastrophic way...
...
If one were to stand on a planet and throw a rock faster than light, then the air that the rock passes through would get torn apart so violently that the atoms cease to exist. The energy from the air exploding would then rip apart the air around it in the same way, causing a chain explosion that would completely annihilate the entire world. The only reason the chain explosion would stop is when there's no more material to burn through.
...The reason why Drakavar's reckless flying speed doesn't destroy the entire realm is merely because this Realm is owned by another Elder Goddess; the World Tree and even the air here is quite hardy.
Even though Drakavar doesn't accidentally destroy the world tree by flying so fast, the explosion she causes is still large enough to reach several of the neighboring World Tree branches...
(Incidentally, several different tree crawlers get caught in the explosion, and the passengers all die horrible deaths. Drakavar neither knows about this nor would she particularly care, even if she knew.)
...
Just as the white-hot explosion passes her by, the old dragon suddenly lights up with a bright smile. "Oh! I know!" She points to somewhere up the World Tree. "I sense… a pair of Gods… just like me!?"
Suddenly, the dragoness growls, "Mora! How dare he make more Kindred Gods after he messed up with me!?"
'Is Mora trying to replace me? Is he trying to make beings that are actually strong enough to restrain me?'
Just thinking about this possibility makes her body glow white hot in anger.
"Heh…," she hisses while she looks up at the sky. 'Haha. If I eat some of his best creations, that'll make him mad! Heh heh.'
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Somewhere, deep beneath the World Tree, is a strange realm that's encased in perpetual night. The night sky is divided up into three distinct rivers of stars – one river having silver stars, one having gold, and another having bronze.
Gravity doesn't seem to work properly in this Realm, either – evidenced by the huge chunks of land scattered about and floating. It's like a giant scooped up huge chunks out of the earth and set them floating in outer space - all giant islands floating in a void.
On many of these floating islands are flat plains full of simple gardens – all containing species of plants that are either extinct or haven't evolved in nature yet. Some of the plants are even things the Creator God himself chose to keep for himself and not create in the wider universe.
The outer islands are all containing various projects that the Creator god is working on, yet it's the center islands that contain his various houses. Each house is uniquely built and arranged in unintuitive ways. It's like these houses aren't for living, but merely to showcase a child's imagination.
Finally, on the central island, is a large palace that's more akin to a temple in design.
Right now, a lone man is walking through the central gate. The man has long, pointed ears stretching past his shoulders, and he has a long, black tail perked up behind him and waving like a cat. His eyes are shining a bright silver, and his skin is an ashen grey.
It was just another boring day – walking his gardens and getting new ideas for his next creations.
He's about to go into his workshop to work out the final details of his latest thought-project when he suddenly gets a dreadful premonition in his heart.
In alarm, the Creator God, Mora, looks up and almost immediately realizes what's wrong.
'Drakavar's here… How'd she escape!?' Mora's palms get sweaty, and he quickens his pace. 'She's going to mess up my garden again!'
Just then, Mora recalls the new Elder Gods that he just finished making, and he nearly collapses out of fright.
'She's on the same World Tree they are!' he thinks in a panic. 'She's going to find them!'
It's one thing for Drakavar to eat a normal god… but eating an Elder God? That's a disaster waiting to happen!
Besides, Mora loves his Kindred Gods like they're his own children - hence, his insistence on calling them "Kindred Gods" instead of "Elder Gods".
If Drakavar (his eldest "daughter") were to eat two of the youngest Kindred Gods (his two youngest "children")… then wouldn't that be too sad?
"Absolutely not! I have to stop her!"
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-The Present-
Right now, Haalfrin is sitting alone in the woods. As per Freyya's instructions, he's left his weapons and armor behind. He's even sealed away most of his power.
Indeed, it's important for the Mantling Ritual that Freyya finds him when he's otherwise helpless. It won't do if he's at his full potential, and thus, able to put up a fight (not that he could put up much of a fight against her true body).
Patiently, Haalfrin watches and waits. He's been here for several days – neglecting even to eat, yet Freyya hasn't shown up yet.
Just when Haalfrin is starting to wonder if something bad happened to her, he feels a powerful presence descend from the sky. He looks away once, and when he turns his head back again, Freyya is there.
Tacitly, Freyya steps forward with killing intent in her Aura, and Haalfrin lowers himself into a battle stance.
Before Haalfrin can launch his attack, Freyya runs up and hugs him tightly.
'What the-?" Haalfrin blurts out.
Ignoring him, Freyya hovers in the air and whispers in his ears, "Did I ever tell you that you're the most handsome when you're practicing your sword?"
Haalfrin steps back, deeply unsettled, and growls, "Freyya? Is now the time?" 'I thought you'd skip to the part where you kill me, for a second?'
Ignoring him, Freyya holds out her hand, forces him to his knees, then slings him over her shoulder. "Now IS the time!"
'Time for what?'