Despair and Hope (5/10)
-The Far Future-
General Haalfrin, still undisturbed in his section of space, feels his soldiers being devoured by Drakavar, one by one.
He knows that the mission is to spread out and stall for time, but it really doesn't feel good to have to hide in a hole while his soldiers are being picked off.
Sensing his General's displeasure, Captain Kaalhyme walks up to him, straightens his back, and asks, "Are you worried about the soldiers?"
"… No. Since we're trying to exhaust Drakavar of mana, I'd say we're doing pretty well."
Haalfrin puts his hands behind his back and said evenly, "Laura, the Queen Fina, Faylin… all the others… they fought well. I'm proud of them. That's all."
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-The Present-
Snapping out of his thoughts, Haalfrin remembers his current situation. 'My body's broken up, and I no longer have any decoys… I'm caught in her Gravity Well, and I have no way of escaping. Plus, she's looking over here, and I'm pretty sure she notices me.'
'Well,' he thinks as he summons a necrocrystal blade, 'let's get up and personal now.'
Haalfrin tenses his muscles and waits patiently as he's dragged towards the possessed Crow.
He's watching and waiting tensely for the moment he gets within striking distance of the Crow.
Yet, when they come closer, Freyya attacks first, due to her spear having superior reach.
The goddess does a side swipe with her spear, and Haalfrin manages to lunge forward at the last second. He's not close enough to hit her with his sword, but he manages to make sure her spear hits him with the shaft instead of the sharp blade.
With a loud thud and breaking bones, Freyya's spear slams into Haalfrin's left ribs – the part just beneath the armpit.
Before Freyya can pull her spear away, Haalfrin quickly wraps his left arm around her spear and locks his body onto it.
When Freyya swings her spear again, he uses the momentum of her swing to spin himself around.
As his body pivots, he extends a leg and swings it around like an arching blade.
In the split second that his foot is swinging, he focuses all of his body Reinforcement magic onto his leg.
Still, despite his best attempt, Freyya turns her head to the side with lightning fast reflexes and catches his boot with her teeth.
Apparently, the Black Scale had changed her body so much that she can unhinge her jaw like a dragon now.
The goddess immediately bites down and crushes through his boot.
If Haalfrin's legs had been made of flesh and blood, he'd have lost his left foot right there. However, his 4 limbs are entirely made of manifested Death Energy. That energy is ethereal and magical by nature.
The Death Aura in Haalfrin's leg immediately pulls itself out of the Crow's mouth and quickly reshapes itself into several smaller, black tendrils.
Two of the tendrils grip Freyya's neck and squeeze tightly in an attempt to suffocate her.
However, the moment his Death Energy wraps around her throat, a coat of black scales grows out on neck, and her skin suddenly becomes so hard that she remains completely unharmed.
Freyya may not have been hurt from Haalfrin's attack, but she's still not happy.
Growling like an animal, she then swings her arm and grabs his black arm, yanking him closer and opening her fanged mouth wide.
Just when she's about to bite his neck in half, Haalfrin notices that that her skin that's touching the Black Scale on her chest is cracking and bleeding. It's like the Scale is eating away at her body.
Seeing this weak point, Haalfrin immediately swings his necrocrystal blade around, and in the same breath, he stabs the scale.
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-The Far Future-
After many more gods and soldiers are eaten by Drakavar, Captain Fisco is the next of Haalfrin's close associates to go.
The moment Drakavar grips Fisco's extended arm, his arm morphs into the purest Death aura – a thing he's able to do, due to the shared Yiir Name he has with Haalfrin.
Forming a sharp blade, the Death Aura shoots out and stabs Drakavar right in the open wound on her chest, where her Soul Stone once was.
His necrocrystal blade stabs all the way through her open torso – only stopping once it hits the scales on her back.
Taking a wound like this from a normal blade would've killed anyone, let alone, a blade of Necrocrystal. Yet, Drakavar is an inherently immortal being, and the powers of Death and necrocrystal can't harm her.
Other than being stabbed in the heart, Drakavar hardly flinches as she snaps off both his arms and eats him whole in one bite.
Only once the pesky bug is gone does the Demon pull the blade out, which releases a torrent of her black blood into space.
The Dragoness's vision briefly goes dark and blurry, and she feels her remaining mana constantly leaking out of her various wounds.
She's been chasing these gods across the universe for how many years now, and not once has any of her wounds closed up.
Of course, Drakavar had woken up from insanity long ago by now, but at this point, there's no point at all in her stopping the hunt.
Still, every time she finds another batch of prey and eats them, Drakavar sometimes questions what she's doing – what she's done.
'Was I wrong to tear out my soul stone…? No. I still thought my 2 Treasures were still alive at the time. If the gods had my children and sensed my coming, they'd have fled far beyond my reach, taking my children with them.'
She then looks down at her empty chest. 'Sacrifices must be made sometimes. Even if my sacrifice was pointless in the end… It doesn't really matter.'
The Dragoness shakes her head, 'Well, whatever. It's not the first time the universe has been destroyed. As everything came from nothing, let it all return to nothing.'
'This disgusting universe isn't worth keeping.'
Drakavar then rolls her eyes, 'It's not as if Mora won't remake it the exact same thing next time. He's done it a dozen times before.'
Suddenly, Drakavar's golden eyes brighten, and she gets an idea. 'That's right! If everything is destroyed, then all of Creation will fall back into the Void. Mora will have everything he needs to recreate the Universe! That means my two little babies can be remade!'
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With a new sense of purpose, Drakavar suddenly lets herself fall back into the higher plane, where Igdris once reigned – the Realm of Everywhere.
Briefly, the Dragon of Power looks at some of the holes she made in the barren plains, back when she first went on her rampage.
Of course, Drakavar was unconscious at the time – back when she destroyed the World Tree. However, when she looks at the damage this Realm has suffered, Drakavar just assumes that she's responsible for it all; who else is powerful enough to cause this much destruction?
Still, Drakavar flies over one of the holes she's made, and she looks down to the bottom of them.
There, deep, deep beneath the endless planes, the roots of the World Tree extend down and drop off into an Endless Void.
This isn't a Void like the Realm of Nowhere; things can exist in Nowhere; they just don't have a place.
But the Void beneath the World Tree? That's a version of the Void called "The Realm of Nothing." It's a place in a perpetual state of Uncreation.
Ironically, Mora can only harness his full powers of Creation in this Void, since new things can only be born in a place where there is Nothing.
Gazing down at the Realm of Nothing, Drakavar thinks to herself, 'So… to destroy what's left of the Universe, all I have to do is knock the barren plains back into Nothing?'
Drakavar briefly looks over her wounds again. 'Hmm… Well, I don't know if I'll be able to do it anymore without my Soul Stone. I'll probably be destroyed in the process, but I suppose it doesn't matter.'
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-The Present-
When Haalfrin's attack on Freyya's neck does nothing, his arm that's being gripped by Freyya suddenly morphs shape and grows a large shield around his forearm - blocking Freyya's teeth from piercing his neck.
With Freyya's view being blocked by the wall of Death Aura in front of her, and the flesh in her teeth suddenly turning ethereal and slipping out of her mouth, Haalfrin yanks his neck back and forms another necrocrystal sword with his other hand – stabbing the dragon scale on her heart in the same motion.
The scale itself is undamaged, but the cursed thing is pushed painfully into her skin – breaking her sternum in the process.
Freyya howls and reels back in pain. Haalfrin uses this chance to prepare a teleportation spell.
The spell itself takes a few seconds to cast, and Haalfrin only manages to do it because Freyya is possessed by a rabid, mindless Will that doesn't really pay attention to anything.
Like a thing consumed by its own instincts, Freyya stops in her attack and lets herself heal – all while looking at Haalfrin with livid eyes.