Despair and Hope (4/10)
-The Present-
Freyya sees that her mana & Aura based attacks aren't working on Haalfrin, so she decides to get physical with him. With her dragon-like claws outstretched towards him, she flies in his direction.
The soldiers around Haalfrin immediately form ranks around him, and they slap the last of the Time Locking talismans onto their shields.
While hardly even noticing the soldiers, Freyya starts beating her wings and tearing through the wall of soldiers like a shredder tears through meat – regardless of their Time Locked equipment.
Knowing that keeping his soldiers here any longer is futile, Haalfrin directly unsummons what soldiers are left, and he pulls out Das's shield, which the old man had left behind before he perished.
Then, with the shield between himself and Freyya, Haalfrin releases the Time Lock spells on all the remaining armor – all of which are empty, now that Haalfrin unsummoned his soldiers.
Each suit of armor explodes so spectacularly that the night time side of the world lights up like daylight for a few, brief seconds.
Surprisingly, Das' shield proves to be sturdy enough to protect the human from the blast.
With Haalfrin huddled on the other side of the golden shield and his legs tucked in, the explosion knocks him away with so much force that most of his bones break instantly – even with his Dra powers strengthening his body.
Had it not been for his Dra Name strengthening his body, along with the huge amounts of Aura that he's siphoned from Freyya, then he'd have been smashed to dust just from the explosion's aftershock.
Since some law in Physics says, "Objects that are in motion stay in motion", Haalfrin flies off into space with no sign of stopping. With the way he's tumbling around and being disoriented, he quickly loses track of where his planet is anymore.
Suddenly feeling lost in this endless expanse, coupled with the weightless buoyance to his body and the sickening feeling of his body tumbling in place… Haalfrin has to admit that he's feeling genuinely scared right now.
Due to his affinity with the Death Element, the man hadn't been afraid of death in a very long time. However, being lost to space is an entirely different kind of horror to consider.
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Sensing their General's distress, a few of Haalfrin's soldiers summon themselves to his side. Since they don't come tumbling about like Haalfrin, they're able to guide him along so that he can use his power to orient himself correctly.
Just as he's done doing this, he sees Freyya in the distance actually overshoot him a few more times in her mad attempt to leap at him.
The Crow woman is flying several times faster than he is, but since he's a small, moving object, she has a hard time hitting him.
Even though she's missing him entirely, she's moving so fast that it looks like she's teleporting instead of flying. Then, she stops and leaps forward so quickly that the space ripples dangerously around her like a tsunami – potentially destroying anything too close.
Despite his wife having terrible aim, Haalfrin still knows that he doesn't have long to think of something else.
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-The Far Future-
During Drakavar's long hunt across the universe for the hiding gods and the armies of the Dead, it eventually comes Faylin's turn to be found.
Right now, Faylin is huddled behind a golden shield with a horn and hammer crest on it – the logo of the god of blacksmiths. Typically, only the highest of gods, like the Death King and Imho'Reeth, can afford such a powerful item. However… well… Let's just say that she didn't buy it. She "borrowed it without permission and never returned it".
This shield had protected Faylin countless times during her service to the Hall of Valor's, after its tenure in the Death Realm.
She'd actually become somewhat famous for never having her body destroyed in all her time serving, whereas her Arkin brethren would die and be remade countless times in a single battle - all due to her shield.
Fittingly, it's against the Goddess of Power that this shield protects Faylin for the final time.
When Drakavar slashes empty space, all the soldiers around her are being blown apart inside their Time Locked armor.
As the explosion hits Faylin, her shield blocks the brunt of the blow, though the huge force knocks her out of position, and she gets sent tumbling into space.
Without even having to look, Faylin knows that the Hungry Demon is coming for her next, so she uses old concealment techniques to retract her magical Aura back into her body in order to hide herself.
Then, she angles the shield and kicks it as hard as she can – leaping into space on her own while leaving the shiny, alluring shield behind to attract the Dragoness's attention.
After all, Drakavar is basically a rabid animal at this point; with her special eyes sensitive to mana, she's attracted to the things with the most mana in them.
Naturally, it's not hard to guess that a powerfully enchanted shield will be an attractive distraction.
Sure enough, Drakavar holds up a hand, and she begins artificially bending space/time.
Since bending of space is what makes gravity happen, Drakavar is effectively pointing her finger and making an insanely strong gravitational pull.
Faylin may have been shooting away from Drakavar "quickly" … but in the grand scale of the universe, she may as well have stayed put.
No matter how fast Faylin is flying into space, she's quickly pulled back by an invisible force, and gravity carries her closer and closer to the Devouring Demon.
Faylin looks behind her and sees the Demon ripping that precious shield apart with her teeth and swallowing the metal chunks. After the shield is gone, the monster turns her horned head around and fixes her golden eyes on the next snack.
As Faylin drifts closer and closer to Drakavar, she only looks helplessly at the open dragon's maw, staring back at her like a bottomless well, and she feels emptiness in her heart.
'Where's Fhulk?' Faylin thinks to herself listlessly. 'No doubt, he's somewhere with the rest of the Drakavar's horde – finishing off the rest of the untouched worlds and burning them.'
Indeed, after the Dragon Goddess issued that call at the beginning of this war, her husband seemed to have lost his mind. He abandoned their home and flew off to join the rest of the dragons in their mass hunt.
Ever since he left, Faylin never saw him again. She never even learned what happened to him.
And so, In Faylin's final moments before she's devoured, she wonders to herself, 'It would have been nice if we could perish together, like last time.'
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-The present-
As Freyya gets uncomfortably close to Haalfrin with her shots, Haalfrin starts instinctively doing a stalling tactic. Well, it's more of a distraction.
Knowing that Das's shield is next to useless to him now, Haalfrin tucks the shield beneath his feet, and he kicks off of it as hard as he can.
With him momentarily suppressing his Aura, Freyya will hopefully take the bait and go for the shield instead of him.
However, instead of chasing after the shield, Freyya points one finger forward. Somewhere in front of her finger, space suddenly starts to bend and warp around a single point, and a huge, gravitational pull starts pulling everything toward it.
Seeing gravity pulling centering around what looks like nothing, Haalfrin suddenly has a thought. 'Why isn't Freyya being pulled into her own spell? Doesn't Gravity affect everything around it in a giant sphere?'
He then remembers something that Master Kalastros had taught him, so long ago. Back when he was a mere apprentice, he learned many things about the world - especially biology and physics, as those fields of study are quite useful when casting spells.
At the time, Haalfrin hated studying those things, but he can't deny how useful this knowledge has been over the many years.
One thing Haalfrin remembers is that gravity is caused by space bending and warping. This warping is caused by things with a lot of energy – heavy things, like planets and stars. In other words, all Energy (Dravar) naturally bends space and causes gravity.
Drakavar, being the Goddess of Forces and Power, can naturally bend space at will and create any kind of gravity she wants, due to all Natural Energies existing within her.
[A/N: Visual Representation of Drakavar's spell in comment]
Under this logic… Drakavar (or a possessed Freyya) can stop herself from falling into her own Gravity Well by forcibly flattening the space in front of her - like a bulwark against an ocean wave.
'Under that logic… won't I be safe from her Gravity Well if I get behind her? The space behind her would be flat as well, due to the shield she's putting around herself.
And so, Haalfrin uses a large burst of mana to push himself to the side.
Due to the large gravity centered around Freyya's fingertip, Haalfrin flies in a large arc around her, and his trajectory suddenly straightens out when he drifts behind her, due to her gravity no longer working on him.
Unfortunately, his burst of mana is noticed by Freyya, and she turns her head toward him again.
She then extends her other hand and Creates another Gravity Well on her other side.
Haalfrin is completely caught by her grip, and he starts drifting towards her.
'Well, I guess I can't avoid a face-to-face fight anymore,' Haalfrin sighs.
Despite being caught, he smiles to himself, 'Well, since the mission was to make her waste a lot of mana and expend her strength, then I'd say this part of the operation is a success.'