Despair and Hope (10/10)
-The Present-
The second Freyya appears behind Haalfrin, the man barely has time to swing his sword before he's knocked off his feet by a palm strike, though he manages to stumble forward and catch himself from falling.
Just as Haalfrin manages to turn around, he doesn't even get to catch a brief glimpse of Freyya's face before he feels something explode in his chest.
Haalfrin looks down in shock at a long, silver shaft poking out of his chest. Feeling that his stomach has been partially grazed by the blow, he curls his spine over painfully and vomits on the floor.
The armored man is so dizzy that he's about to fall over…, but Freyya catches him when he was about to hit the ground.
"F-f-Freyya!" Haalfrin stutters as he stands there with his arms draped over his wife's shoulders.
Instead of finishing him off, Freyya reaches her hand up and pats the man on the head. "Shh… I'm here, dear."
"I-I feel cold."
Slowly and tenderly, Freyya lowers Haalfrin down to the ground on a kneeling position, and she wraps her arms around him in a tight hug, "Here. You always said I had a warm body."
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-The Far Future-
As Haalfrin lay bleeding out with the broken branch impaling him through the chest, Freyya – the Reaper of Defeated Warriors, appears at his side and kneels down next to him. Haalfrin turns his head over and first notices the tears in her eyes.
"I'm here," she says in a soft voice. She leans in and hugs him tightly, "Here. You must be cold."
With strength unbecoming of a man who is about to perish, Haalfrin's hands shoot up and grab his wife's shoulders. "Please… Tell me… I would like to know… if we win."
Freyya shakes her head, "Not now! I have to keep you alive…!" She places her hands over his destroyed heart, and she starts using her magic to manually move his blood around his body, since his destroyed heart can no longer do that.
"It's useless," Haalfrin mutters, "This is a branch… of the world tree. There's enough Life force left in this thing… to kill a Death god like… me…"
Haalfrin's grip on his wife's shoulder's tightens, "So… before I bleed out, tell me… Do we win the battle? You've… spoken with… Yiirkavar before… right? He knows the future… right?"
Freyya doesn't know exactly to say how to answer her husband; Yiirkavar is the God of Possibilities and Luck, and he's told her many times that they Universe MAY be saved, though the possibility is slim.
And so, not knowing how else to console her husband, she leans over and whispers in his ears, "Imagine this. I see a great white phoenix unfurling its wings, and the wings are so big that it can rival Drakavar in size. The White Phoenix is just as beautiful and majestic as the Black Dragon is ugly and tyrannical.
"I see the World Tree standing tall and proud once again. All Worlds on its branches are lush with life again, and children are playing in the streets, hardly remembering the destruction at all… for it came and went so suddenly to them that it was all just a bad dream."
Haalfrin's grip tightens again, "But… What about us? Where… are we… in the future?"
"Since Rehkawyn has claimed your soul as his own, you'll be reborn as one of his own descendants, and you'll stand as an unbreakable pillar for your new family."
"…Where will you be?" Haalfrin asks with a weakening voice.
Freyya leans over and presses her forehead against his. "We're bound by Fate, dear, so we'll always find each other again. We're bound by Heart and Body, so we'll only belong to each other forever. I'll be at you side once again… assuming we can finish the fight properly."
Peacefully, Haalfrin's grip on her shoulder loosens, and he slowly let out his last breath, "That's… good enough… then…"
Despite Drakavar's slaughter still going on around them, everything feels perfectly still to Freyya; it's like the only thing in the Universe is herself and her husband.
After having their Fates bound by Contract, the End of one means the End of the other.
And so, unmoving and silent, Freyya stays in her kneeling posture, bows her head, and breathes no more.
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-The Present-
Only after his breathing had faded does Freyya loosen her tight hug.
Out of respect for her husband, she guides his body to kneel on the ground with his head bowed gracefully in death. 'I don't want to see him sprawled on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. I'd hate to see him looking like a corpse.'
With her husband's body being stiff and still, Freyya steps back and takes a moment to stand there peacefully in the cold breeze of this barren world.
After a brief moment, Freyya takes reaches out to some Spirit Threads, which are stretching into the distance. With these Threads, she gives her subordinates, who are holed up in defensible positions against the remnants of Lareen's forces, an order.
"It's done," she tells them in a soft, subdued tone, "Get back into your Lanterns and be ready for me to pick you up."
Just as she gives the order, Freyya looks down at Haalfrin's body and sees his spirit slowly emerging from his body.
'That's weird,' she wonders absentmindedly, 'Despite claiming him at last and reuniting with him, I feel… like something terrible just happened.'
A hollow sense of loss invades her heart, and she subconsciously feels her husband's final Ending in the far future…
… And that hurt.
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Haalfrin's spirit gradually emerges from his body, and his spirit drifts toward Freyya – silently nudging the black lantern on her hip, as if to say, "Let me in, already!"
However, before Freyya can comply, Haalfrin's Spirit materializes into a new body… except this new "him" has long, pointed ears stretching past his shoulders.
Without waiting for anything else, Haalfrin and Freyya fall on each other's arms and hug. "Is it over now?" he asks.
As if responding to his question, the Black Scale on Freyya's heart suddenly detaches from her body and clatters to the ground.
With this source of power no longer sustaining her body, bloody cracks spread all over Freyya's skin, and most of her bones are instantly broken due to the abuse she's given them over the past few hours.
Worst of all, finite beings like her aren't meant to Comprehend the True Names of an Infinite Being like Drakavar.
So, the full weight of Knowing Drakavar's Names suddenly weighs so heavily on her soul that she's nearly driven insane. Reeling in shock, Freyya falls to the ground, curls in a ball, and starts shivering and convulsing.
"FREYYA!" Haalfrin, along with all the Arkin who are standing around, run forward and start pouring healing magic into their patron goddess.
Kneeling over his critically injured wife, Haalfrin gets teary eyed for the first time in many years.
"Freyya!" he growls, "you're a goddess, right? Aren't you going to be all right? You were supposed to be representing Drakavar in the ritual, so there's no way you would die, right?"
Freyya rolls her head up to look at him, and she smiles through gritted teeth. "Silly. The ritual is over now…, I think? You're dead."
The Crow woman reaches a hand up and touches Haalfrin's cheek, "Why do you look so sad? You finally got to have the warrior's death you always wanted. Now you can be with your family again."
"Idiot. You're my family too."
"Heh…," Freyya chuckles, "I'm a Death goddess… At worst, I'll be unconscious for a while; this won't… destroy me…"
Haalfrin frowns, reaches a hand forward, and pinches her nose.
"OW!" she screeches on the floor, "Why'd… you do that?!"
"Freyya… oh Freyya…," Haalfrin shakes his head, "You're a little silly sometimes. Did I ever tell you that? Do you really think your husband would enjoy seeing your body broken and in pain like this?"
Freyya takes a deep breath, and doesn't immediately respond.
Ever so slowly, Freyya closes her eyes and loses consciousness.