The Returning Guardian (3/4)
-The Present-
While the dead are invading Lareen, Das is busy making calls to various gods he knows – preferably, ones who are near his world.
However, even the ones who've promised to come all send him panicked messages, saying that there's this crazy strong Elder Dragon that's butchering them and sending the rest running.
Feeling like a vein is popping out, Das sends a message to Dakka:
"DAKAAA! Now isn't the time! Those gods trying to cross over are trying to help me defeat Freyya! They're NOT trying to invade your lands!" (- this time)
'No can do, old man,' Dakka replies, 'Arra is MY world. I've already sworn that no foreign gods will ever step foot on my property. I don't care if they're coming to assist you. What if they step on something and ruin my wife's garden? She'll yell at me…'
Das breathes in deeply and slowly to calm himself down. Without bothering to reply to Dakka again, he cuts off the connection to that stupid lizard.
Hardly pausing to catch his breath, Das walks over to desk and casts a spell on one of the drawers. This spell switched the space inside the drawer with another, hidden space.
This, of course, is where Das keeps the things that he'd prefer be kept hidden.
Reaching inside, Das rummages around the secret drawer for a minute before he fishes out a black and silver medallion. This thing has a piece of a Death Key inside it, and it allows him to communite to the Death Realm while he's in the mortal world.
Anything even remotely related to Death Keys is strictly prohibited in the Death Realm, but it's a bit of an open secret among the Death King's court that the 5 Reapers are allowed to carry these medallions around.
After all, they, more than anyone, has to spend a lot of time in the Mortal Realm. Isn't it too much to expect them to not even be able to communicate to the Death Realm?
The second Das calls for the other Death Reaper, his voice reaches across the Realm's boundary, and a large, illusory image of a hunch-backed man appears in Das's room.
"Jenri!" Das calls into the medallion, "how are you doing? Is your head OK?"
The death reaper on the other side has bandages over one of his eye and the top of his skull. He also has a neck brace.
Jenri scowls sourly at Das's question, "I told you it was an accident!" Cough. Jenri is still unwilling to tell anyone of how Freyya utterly humiliated him when she visited his house…
"Anyway," Jenri continues, "some of our people found the Death King stranded in space after a couple days, and we've gotten him back. He said that he felt Freyya leave our world with her real body."
Das smiles and says, "Yup. She came here briefly. She released a large army of the dead on this world, then she disappeared. I'm afraid I don't know where she is at the moment."
Jenri raises an eyebrow, "Oh? I heard that Senior sister Freyya came to your little… retirement world. I also heard that she's causing a lot of trouble there… but releasing an army? The King's going to be furious."
The Reaper of Misfortune looks around instinctively to make sure that he's not being spied on by a Scrying spell. He then leans in and whispers, "The King wants to know if he needs to go to your world."
Das looks up and thinks pensively. "Hmm… I think that it's more effective for him to blockade the Death Realm. If he comes here, then Freyya might get up to something else."
"You sure?" Jenri asks in confusion, "She may be hiding in your world."
"I'm more than enough to take care of her," Das says. "Plus I'm beginning to doubt that she's here.
"Are you sure she's gone?" Jenri asks in a worried tone, "She's more clever than you give her credit for."
Das straightens his back, "Of course she's not here! If she WAS here, her armies wouldn't be struggling at the world gate; she'd have blasted right through. In fact, she wouldn't need an army. Honestly though, at most, one of her little avatars is here."
Jenri sighs, "Very well. I'll tell the King that he's better off searching elsewhere."
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In a faraway battlefield, there are hordes of Arkin, Rehkin, Drakin… and even a spattering of Sylkin (a strange race that's never been seen in either world before) – all battling endlessly with a swarm of lifeless war golems.
The plains around Lareen are spattered with the blood of the Dead, yet their bodies always turn into black mist, and they reconstitute themselves within an hour.
The golems, on the other hand, have their broken metal and stone parts strewn all over the battlefield. To tell the truth, nearly half of the golems on this field are all scavenging drones – bringing the parts of the broken golems so that they can be rebuilt.
Still, the longevity of Lareen's armies completely depends on their scavenging drones and the pooled resources among society's wealthy. They can certainly hold on, but there'll come a point when they'll capitulate, and be unable to sustain the war any longer.
The Dead, on the other hand, ALWAYS revive, since you can't kill what's already dead. The only thing they need is time.
Even still, Freyya's army has a very big weakness. Her forces are full of archaic mages and old fashioned soldiers with swords and shields, while Lareen's forces are far more technologically advanced.
So, more often then not, the Death Realm forces lack the same explosive power as their enemies, so they often get wiped out. Sometimes, it even appears as if the Dead army is about to be repelled through the world Gate.
However, every time the army of the dead is about to be wiped out for good, and before the Death Aura that's reviving them is expunged from this world, there is always one particular warrior who steps up and wipes out just enough golems to give the Dead room to revive themselves.
Yes, chief among this invading army of the dead is a mysterious warrior dressed in black armor and a helm completely covering his face.
No one really knows who he is; all they know is that he's one of the leaders in the army.
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- The Far Future -
After day of Bleeding Skies, a truly apocalyptic scene unfolds across the World Tree.
Gods and dragons fight each other across all the worlds of Igdris, and the corpses of the fallen plummet down and crush the mountains flat beneath them.
Every movement of the army of Elder Dragons covers the land with the oceans – drowning out countless cities in massive floods, and every swipe of their tails rips tectonic plates from their place.
The worlds cry out in pain, and the stars cry out in mourning as their children worlds are dying.
As the war rages on, it appears at first that the gods are at an advantage. Many of the higher ranked gods have more explosive spells than the dragons… yet the dragons are able to revive each other through the bones of the fallen.
No matter how many times the dragons are beaten back, the serpents of destructing beat against the gods' fortifications in wave after relentless wave.
Sometimes, it appears as if the dragons are about to be pushed back, but whenever victory is near for the gods, one particular warrior among the dragons shows up.
The warrior's face and torso is completely bandaged to hide their features, yet the bandages can't hide the red scales that are visible beneath.
Everyone knows that only the Hal'Nithkin and female dragons can have red scales. Everybody was hoping that it was just a dragoness, but when this warrior swings his dragonbone sword, galaxies are torn asunder, and cosmos is rearranged.
Indeed. Only one of Drakavar's Bloodchosen is capable of such a feat.
Realizing that there is still a Bloodchosen Warrior still left alive, everybody devolves into a panic.
Still, the threat isn't so bad that they have to flee the World Tree just yet. They can still fight. However, with a Bloodchosen on the battlefield, things have become much more precarious.
Among these dragon warriors, there is one warrior with her face bandaged up completely. Everywhere she goes, battles are turned against the gods, and tragedy follows.
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-The Present-
After the war golems are defeated, Freyya's cult manages to get through the world gate completely.
As the army finally catches their breath, they all look at the full plated warrior and hold him high up in the sky in celebration.
One of the dragons picks the black armored warrior up and inspects him, "I've never seen you in the Death Realm before…"
"Ah! WHO CARES!" another dragon next to him slaps him on the back with his tail, "This person's our hero! The real champion of the Crow Goddess!"
The dragon then bends down and pushes an eye up to the black knight, "Who are you, anyway? Can we see beneath that helmet?"
The black knight… just turns around and leaves – completely ignoring them.
If it had been anyone else who ignored them so rudely, this pair of dragons would've used them as a toothpick. Ignoring someone when you're weak is just rude, but ignoring them when you're strong is just bad#ss!
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As the cult of the war goddess marches through the streets of Lareen's captitol, the heralds in front of her army are all showcasing large crystals that are transmitting Freyya's voice over and over again.
In a loud, booming voice the Crow Goddess's recorded voice echoes in the streets, "Our grudge is with the god-king, and anyone who doesn't resist will be ignored!"
As it turns out, telling the Lareen commoners this is pretty pointless.
After all, none of these civilians – even the mages – actually know how to fight; war golems had done their fighting for so many generations now that the courage for battle had been lost to this world. After so many years of peace, they had never faced such peril before! Why would they fight when there's probably someone more competent ready to step up and defend them?
So naturally, everyone stays inside their houses and, with shaking knees, pretend like there's nothing going on outside.
And thus, we see black knight adjusting his black helm as he marches among the army at the front. The man's armor and sinister Aura is intimidating enough that his image will be used as the image used to symbolize the Dead armies, when Lareen eventually writes this down in their History Books.
There, a grand, black armored war hero with a seemingly invincible track record.
Where else would he be at the front? He IS a "war hero", so all the dragons bullied the rest of the army into letting him be in front.
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- The Far Future -
Right now, the mysterious, faceless Bloodchosen warrior is flapping his wings and keeping up the rest of the army of dragons.
The lone Halnithkin – the last of his kind, looks down towards the heart of the World Tree – all the way at the base of the trunk.
No normal god is allowed to go down the trunk of the tree, since that's where the Death Realm lies. Some information from Lady Drakavar also told them that Mora's home is even further below the Death Realm.
The red scaled Halnithkin narrows his blazing yellow eyes as he looks down the tree. 'I can feel it,' he thinks, 'Mora has shown up and taken the children… Where else would he take them but his own home?'
The Bloodchosen Champion then points further down the trunk of the tree. "FASTER!" he shouts at the flock of Elder Dragons, who are struggling to keep up with him, "Her majesty's treasures are that way!"
Behind this red scaled Champion is an army consisting of thousands of 7 horned dragons, trillions of 6-Horned dragons, and so many 5-Horned dragons that the Champion doesn't even bother to count them.
And when this horde of dragons hear the Bloodchosen's words, they take is as Drakavar's own words, and they all roar together in excitement.
Their roar is so violently powerful that the space around them shakes so violently that it can even be heard in empty space, where there is no air.
(Author's Note: Yes, hearing things in space is an actual thing. When two Neutron Stars slam into each other, their gravity ripples space so violently that it would vibrate your eardrums – making you hear a sound.)
Hearing that all the dragons are pumped up for a great battle, the Hal-nithkin warrior gives a wide, toothy smirk that only villains can give. 'Hmm. I've got a surprise for you all…'