The Returning Guardian (1/4)

Slowly, Freyya lowers her silver spear and unfastens the black lantern, which is tied onto the bit of the shaft near the blade.

This is her Soul-catching lantern – the tool handed out to every Death Reaper.

… Yet…, the lantern seems a little different today. Usually, the lantern is dead black with only a few silver sparkles twinkling inside – showing how much more can fit inside.

But right now, the Soul-catching lantern seems to have an entire starry sky trapped inside it, with silver flickering like stars.

'Funny…,' Freyya chuckles with a sinister laugh, 'this lantern is for taking dead souls AWAY from the mortal world…., but this time, I've brought them back.'

Ever since she'd conceived the idea of this Mantling Ritual, Freyya had been preparing for this day. One of the things she did was slowly and secretly gather this army together.

Her Soul Fragments would scatter to all the worlds after every battle… and with thousands of souls dying in each of her trips, she figured that the Death King wouldn't notice if she withheld a soul or two each time.

Of course, whenever she'd offer to claim a warrior's soul, she'd always erase his memories if he refused to fight her for. She couldn't have the Death King receiving news of her treachery, right?

With her Fragments visting billions of worlds…

Yeah. Her army of souls is quite large.

Other than these souls she's recruited, she also has the souls of her devotees from the Crow Clan. When she called on them earlier last week, all of them flocked to her house and willingly entered the lantern.

This is the first time their goddess has ever asked anything of them, so her request really got them all very excited.

'All right. It's time,' she thinks somberly as she opens the black lantern…

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First it was a trickle; then it was a flood. Like a dam that was broken, all the millions and billions of souls pour out of the lantern like a torrential flood.

All around Freyya, the ground withers to death from the thick Death Aura, and the sky turns dark.

With the Black Death Aura intermingled with the silver souls floating inside it, it looks like a silver sky is stretching across the ground like a blanket.

Within moments, ghostly hands reach out of the mist, and countless souls slowly take form.

The few dragons in her employment form up faster than the Crows & volunteers. After all, Dragons have more Fel than Arkin & Rehkin both, so they only took a few minutes to get meat back on their bones.

Rehkin, on the other hand, have less Fel than a normal human, so Freyya had to use special alchemical ingredients she brought with her to revive the Crow.

The first dragon to reform turns and seese Freyya – standing aloft on a large rock like a beacon of beauty – a picturesque statue.

Immediately, the 4-Horned dragon falls to the ground and presses his head on the ground. He starts breathing heavily, and his eyes glaze over.

If a dragon's skin were visible through the scales, then everyone would see the blush on his cheeks.

In the spur of the moment, Freyya puts her foot down on the dragon's snout, and the dragon shivers with joy.

Freyya doesn't understand how happy the dragon is, so she ignores him.

"Listen! All of you!" she commands to her growing army, which is slowly occupying the entire plane, "Das, the god-king, has angered me! He's trying to take what belongs to me! I want to teach him a lesson! I wanted some reliable people with me, and I thought of you!"

Most of the Crow cult members get really happy hearing this. Despite worshipping her all their lives, the Crow goddess has never once acknowledged them as her subordinates.

Many of these cultists had died with regret, since the object of their devotion never answered them. Even Dakka was like this, back before he died at Haalfrin's hands and found a new purpose.

"All right! Here's what you must do…."

…

Once Freyya is done giving them her orders, she takes her foot off the dragon's snout, and the scaley beast immediately up.

He turns to his companion (a dragon in humanoid form) and squeals in a hushed voice, "She... stepped on me. Her foot... was on my face!"

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Meanwhile, elsewhere in Lareen, Haalfrin is stooped over a Scrying mirror with Das at his side.

"Did you know about this?" Das growls at Haalfrin while gesturing on the mirror. Displayed in its glassy surface are images of a ghostly legion – forming up and marching on Lareen's capitol – Das's palace.

Haalfrin shakes his head, "No."

"What about Dakka and Fina?" Das asks, "Are they going to intervene?"

"I don't think they can," Haalfrin says, "Some of my soldiers are sending me some telepathic reports right now."

He closes his eyes and listens to their thoughts in his head before adding, "Yeah, it seems that Freyya's army has split in two. Right now, half is marching on Lareen, and the other half is securing the World Gate Dakka is fighting there now, but I don't know how well it's gone…"

Haalfrin suddenly flinches. "Oof. They just said that Freyya has… defeated him. Quite soundly, too."

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While Haalfrin is saying this, we see Dakka laying prone in the center of a large crater. His wounds may look serious, but they're closing quite rapidly.

As he lay there, Fina materializes with a teleport spell, and she stands over him with her arms propped on her hips. "Dear? You lost a little too quickly, didn't you? What's wrong with you? Aren't you a little embarrassed?"

Dakka's face goes red, and his face scrutches up, "Well I wasn't embarrassed… And I lost on purpose!!"

"You?" Fina raises an eyebrow. "You're the key cheats with magic when you're about to lose a board game. You're far too competitive to lose. What? Did you shove your head up your anus as well?"

Dakka's face turns even redder. "N-no! Freyya told me that she needs me to lose. She says that she's doing some Ritual to save Haalfrin."

Fina sighs, "Ah… Well, so long as you don't make a habit of losing, them I'm fine. I'd hate to think that a simple high ranked goddess was suddenly able to defeat you."

… They both go silent for a bit…

"Well?" Queen Fina asks, "Did that Crow ask anything else from you?"

[A/N: Image of map of adjacent words in comment]

Dakka nods, "She said that I need to keep special watch over my Gate. She said that Das is probably going to call in some allied gods to assist him soon enough."

There is, of course, at least 2 World Gates in every world. Why, then will there be no reinforcements coming from the second gate in Dralis? Why can any wandering gods only come from Dakka's World Gate beneath his palace?

The answer is simple.

Worlds and World Gates are sprawled out in long chains – all linking up in the vague shape of a tree.

Naturally, some worlds are near the trunk, while others are on twigs near the tip.

Arra and Dralis – Haalfrin's and Dakka's worlds – are both near the tip of one of the branches on the World Tree. There's only a few worlds further up than them, and none of those worlds have any gods on them.

There is, however, plenty of ambitious gods nearer the trunk – all of which are always trying to expand their territories.

Hence, if Das were to call on any gods to pincer Freyya from behind, they'd have to go through Dakka's World Gate first.

"All right," Fina sighs, "Get over there fast. I'd hate for a bunch of strange gods to trample all over my world."

Dakka nods and obediently gets back up. He dusts himself off and flies back to their palace.

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-The Far Future-

We see Drakavar flying above the World Tree, overlooking her handiwork with passive apathy in her eyes.

Right now, many of the previously green and fertile worlds have sinister, red lines of fire streaking their surface like scars. And the planets are ashen grey in the places where the fire has burned out.

'My dragons are doing their work, I suppose,' the Dragon Goddess thinks.

She then closes her eyes and speaks to her subjects again, "Has anyone found the children yet?"

'Not yet, your majesty…,' comes the husky voice of an ancient dragon. 'We've searched far and wide. We've burned every world that refused to aid us in our search. However, there are still countless worlds to search. At this rate, it'll take us nearly 10,000,000 years to sweep the entire World Tree.'

Drakavar's eyes shoot open, and she slaps the air in a fit of rage; the world before her immediately explodes into fine dust.

"GAAAAH!" the dragon roars at the empty, black night.

Listlessly, she swings her tail again and again – scattering the world's dust to the far reaches of space. "Why can't you take more than one hit!?" she shrieks at the destroyed world. "D*mn it!"

'How am I supposed to quell this anger if nothing resists me?' she curses in her mind.

Right now, her body is so full of adrenaline, yet there's nothing for her to spend her energy on. If she were to ever strike with her full strength, then she'd slap half the universe out of existence. That's a 50% chance that her treasures die!

Day by day, the dragoness grows more and more restless, yet she has to just… contain it all?! Hold back!? Withhold her strength and do nothing!?

The torture is so much that she feels her mind slipping away again…

… and she loses consciousness gain.

…

This time, when Drakavar awakens again, she finds that she's in her dragon form this time, and there's a red giant star in her mouth. There are no stars in view, so she assumes that she destroyed them all already.

"Bleh," she coughs in disdain as she spits the red star out of her mouth. "Red giants taste like an old man's wet fart."

'No! I can't lose control again!' Drakavar thinks in a panic. 'What if I accidentally hurt those cute little treasures!?'

She looks over the wreckage around her, and she feels like she's having a mental breakdown. 'Why… My temper didn't used to be this bad… What's happening to me?'

Unfortunately, Drakavar is a being driven by instinct, and people who act on their impulses rarely understand their own actions. Do first. Regret later.

Right now, the dragoness's instincts are telling her, ' if you're feeling stressed out or angry, then smash a few things and eat a bit of "comfort food". That'll make you feel better.'

…But no amount of food or wonton destruction can ever make her feel better.