Rite of Surrogation (4/4)
Soon enough, they arrive at the Death Realm's Capitol – a city called 'Narbenaul', which roughly translates to 'Tower of Black and Silver'.
And the city's name is quite literal. At the center of the sprawling city is a tower piercing 3 miles into the sky. The entire thing is embellished with silver, and it reeks a strong Aura that makes Haalfrin feel subdued and instills the desire to be obedient in his mind.
Of course, by the time they roll up through the tower's front gate and enter the palace, Freyya has already woken up, though she's still ill enough to need help walking.
Seeing his wife wobbling on her chicken-thin legs, Haalfrin steps forward and tries to pick her up in a princess-carry, but Freyya lightly slaps his head and hisses in embarrassment, "Shh! There's people watching!" She looks around. "Just carry me on your back instead; it's less humiliating that way."
Of course, there are special levitating chairs (for the sick or handicapped) she could've taken, but she chooses not to tell Haalfrin about that; being held feels nice too.
"Haha fine," Haalfrin laughs at her strange antics. He steps to the parked Tree Crawler, and he bends over – offering his back to her.
---------------------
As Haalfrin and Freyya walk through the gates behind the Death King, the chains on their legs and arms clatter and jingle noisily. This doesn't bother Haalfrin, though, since he's gotten used to wearing them over the last few weeks.
Looking up at the blue sky, Haalfrin closes his eyes and breathes in the thick Death Aura permeating the atmosphere.
'Huh,' he thinks, 'The Death Aura in the air isn't as dense as the Aura in my soul, though there's a lot more of it.'
'…Yeah, that makes sense. My Aura is concentrated in the tiny container of my soul, while all the Aura of this Realm is spread out through an entire plane.'
He smiles, 'With the abundance of Aura here and my ability to absorb Death Aura into my soul, getting stronger is going to be quite effortless here. I can already feel his strength rising.'
With his thoughts on the land's Death Aura concluded, he looks up at the sky and is actually surprised at what he sees.
Up there, in the sky, the sun isn't the typical yellow. Instead, it's a soft, silver color - giving the impression of moonlight, but much brighter. It also doesn't sting eyes when he looks directly at the sun; in fact, the experience is quite soothing.
The pale silver glow of the sun gives the snow around him a sickly, ghostly ambience to it, and when reflected on the tall buildings surrounding the capitol, the entire place feels like it's occupied by ghosts.
Haalfrin chuckles at this thought, 'Haha. That's not wrong.'
---------------------
Freyya sees Haalfrin marveling at the buildings and landscape all around them, and she gets a little excited.
She was in complete awe when she saw the Death Realm for the first time, and she can't wait to share this experience with her husband.
So, she points up and one of the buildings and starts blabbering off excitedly, "You see those buildings? You see the rings of doors near the base? There's actually dimensional folding magic on there, on all those doors. There's several differing buildings all stacked up in the same place. You see how each building is lined with entrances all side by side? Depending on which door you go through, you'll actually enter an entirely different building."
Haalfrin vividly remembers hearing Das explain about this technology before. Freyya thinks that she's teaching him something new… but she's not.
Not wanting to crash her mood or make her feel disappointed, Haalfrin plays along, "Yeah…! That's one way to save space!"
"Well, yeah!" Freyya says a little too loudly in his ear, "We need those enchantments to save space! There's so many dead people that there wouldn't be enough room on all the death worlds to house all these people. Even then, buying land is extremely expensive. Here. Let's go to my house."
"Wait, your house!" Haalfrin suddenly blurts out.
"Yeah! There's a world gate right next to Narbenaul that leads to my current world. Coincidentally, the World Gate exits out about 100 miles away from my house. We could be there in about 20 minutes.
Before Haalfrin can walk away with Freyya on his back, the Death King suddenly grabs his shoulder and orders sternly, "Hold it. You're both under arrest right now. You can't leave."
Freyya looks down in embarrassment. "Right…"
The death king had been friendly with her so far, so she'd forgotten for a moment.
---------------------
[A/N: Image of Narbenaul and Imperial Dungeon in comment]
Upon entering the Tower of Black and Silver, Haalfrin and Freyya are both taken to the palace dungeon.
Unbefitting the name "dungeon", the King's prison is high up the tower, and it can even be seen from the outside.
Well, to be clear, there are several branch towers around Narbenaul – none of which Haalfrin knows the use of. With all the towers having a peculiarly pointed shape, the entire palace looks like a forest of needles stabbing the sky.
As for the Imperial prison, it's a small side tower that's floating high up in the air, beside the main tower of Narbenaul.
After they get inside the prison, Haalfrin notices that the entire tower is completely hollow inside. All the cells appear to be little black shards, floating above a bottomless chasm with levitation magic.
The entire prison is chilly, dark an unwelcoming – a fitting atmosphere for a dungeon.
Once they're shown to their cells, Haalfrin thinks happily, 'At least they were considerate enough to put us in the same cell.'
---------------------
Over the next few days, the pair of husband and wife aren't in the mood for talking. Haalfrin just spends most of his time nursing his wife back to health and keeping her warm.
Only a few days pass, and Haalfrin is starting to wonder when they're going to be taken out to face their judgment. 'I'd hate to wait centuries just to get a court hearing…'
Luckily, only a week slips by when a messenger arrives with a silver tray; on the tray is a small paper.
The courier stands in front of their cell door, and he tears the paper in half.
Destroying the paper must have been the catalyst to cast the spell enchanted on it, for the moment the two severed pieces fall to the ground, they instantly burn to ash, and a burst of mana seeps out of the ashes.
The mana rises in the air, and the illusory form of the Death King appears in their cell. Right now, the King is sitting on his throne, and he's dressed in a black robe, and he's wearing a silver crown.
Before, the King felt a little intimidating and scary, but he didn't look regal. 'Well, he looks regal now…,' Haalfrin thinks, 'like a proper king.'
The image of the King leans forward on his throne and declares to them…
…
"The goddess of Defeat, Freyya, is charged with the crime of disobeying the Death King's border treaty, murder of a 3-Horned Elemental, murder of one or more mortals, and unlawfully raising an army."
"Her sentence will henceforth be to live as a magicless mortal for 100,000 years, 100,000 years of exile from the Death Realm, and 100,000 years of a Cursed Fate. Misfortune and misery will be your only companions."
"Haalfrin, the goddess of Defeats chosen Contractor, has invoked the Rite of Surrogation…"
…
When the King says this, Freyya swings her head around and shoots a glare at Haalfrin.
"…What?" Haalfrin laughs. "Did you expect any less?"
Freyya rolls her eyes, "Fine. Let's quit talking. The King's message is still talking."
The illusory Death King drones on:
…
"…The Goddess of Defeat and her chosen Contractor will split the punishment in the following way."
"Haalfrin will complete 10,000 tasks for the Death King without pay or any other form of compensation. He'll be completely beholden to the Death King, and he'll be without freedom."
"Goddess Freyya will still serve 100,000 years of exile, and she'll still have her memories and powers temporarily suppressed. However, her Fate will no longer be cursed, and she'll be allowed to find happiness."
The image of the King turns his head to look at Haalfrin as he finishes up his declaration.
"So Haalfrin… get to it!"
…
Hearing the order, Haalfrin instinctively straightens his back, solutes, and says respectfully, "I'll accept your order!"
Freyya curls over laughing hearing this. "Haalfrin... he can't hear you. It's a pre-recorded message."
Haalfrin bows his head, and his face goes red. "...Right…"