Das's Inheritance (1/2)
It's been several hours since the Death King wrote his decree giving his final verdict to Freyya and her Contractor – several hours, and he's still sitting on his throne, pensively staring off into space again.
Right now, he's thinking over those many years, where Das was trying to replace Haalfrin's Divinity with the Realm of Decay, whereas Freyya was trying to keep him on the path to being a Warrior god.
'You know, maybe you were right to hold onto Haalfrin's original divinity, Freyya? Maybe you were wrong…?'
The King looks down at one of his attendants, who is shuffling into the throne room with a stack full of papers. 'I don't even have to look at the servant's mind or read the papers in his hands. I already know what they are.'
He frowns, 'No doubt, those papers are all letters of complaint. Das just lost his Death Reaper Divinity, and the Death Realm is short a Reaper. Plus, I have Freyya's captured Divinity performing her tasks, though it's only about half as efficient without her conscious soul controlling it.'
Sure enough, when the Death King looks at the paper on the top of the stack, it has a heading that reads, "Supply of Death gods insufficient! Not enough manpower to pick up the souls of the aged!". The next paper reads, "Department of Fear complains that the Department of Reapers has taken all their death gods away."
Paper after paper is presented to the King, and all of them are his subjects whining about the lack of a Death Reaper.
Right now, there are countless souls currently stuck in the Mortal Realm, unable to reach the Death Realm. To alleviate this problem, the King had to order his subjects from other departments, as well as recruit common citizens, to travel to the Mortal Realm and pick up these souls on Das's and Freyya's behalf.
This, however, is not only less efficient than having Das around, but it also pulls away a lot of manpower from the other departments.
Just one day without Das is already causing this much chaos…
Seeing all these problems crop up, the Death King leans to the side and sighs, 'I guess I should've been prepared for this. I shouldn't have counted on Haalfrin being the next Reaper.'
Groaning in exhaustion, the Death King thinks, 'That means I'll have to find Yiirkavar again and ask him to go find the next god of Decay. There has to be SOME candidate with Death Affinity in a few million years, right?'
Except… finding Yiirkavar is extremely difficult. It's certainly possible, due to the God of Time traveling all over the place and visiting every corner of the Universe… but it's also annoying. That God is a slippery one.
The King then looks over at a letter, which is resting on his armchair. The letter is sealed with Das's emblem (a skull with a flower growing out of the empty eye socket), and the thing is addressed to Haalfrin.
'Well, no matter how angry I am at Haalfrin for not taking your place, I suppose I can fulfill your last wish.'
He strokes the letter absentmindedly as he looks up and down in the direction where he knows the imperial dungeon is. 'I'll hand your things off the way you wanted, even though you didn't get what you were after in the end."
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During the coming days prior to Freyya's punishment, Haalfrin spends all of his time wrapped up in his wife's arms. They're both locked up together, after all.
Considering that Freyya is about to receive the Death god's version of execution, the pair of them expected the mood between them to be somber and sad.
Yet, when they touch each other's spirits, they only feel peaceful acceptance.
And so, the day quietly arrives when Freyya is taken away and banished to the Mortal Realm without her powers and memories.
Haalfrin isn't allowed to come to see her "execution", but he can still feel the moment it happens just by sitting in a dark corner of his cell and feeling her Silver Spirit Thread turn back to gold – signaling that she's a living person once more.
'So… it's merely 10,000 tasks, right?' Haalfrin thinks. 'The King told me that Freyya's sentence can be shortened if I finish all these tasks early.'
He crosses his arms, taps his foot, and keeps his eyes fixed on the door. His face is still and stoic, yet his Spiritual Aura is leaking an impatient feeling.
'Just show up already and give me my first task! What are you waiting for!'
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Several days later, some of the Death King's servants show up and take Haalfrin away to another chamber.
Here, they perform some strange spells – mostly involving slapping countless shackles on him and chaining his body up tight.
Some of the chains have mana-sealing properties – imprisoning Haalfrin's ability to cast spells. Others imbue his body with paralysis magic upon activation. Others are even enchanted to send electric shocks through his nerves. Some of the more complex enchantments even cast powerful hypnosis on Haalfrin, forcing him to obey and serve.
Then, once his body is completely bound up with these countless artifacts, they seem to… melt into his skin, leaving black tattoos on his skin in the shape of shackles and chains.
In every true sense, Haalfrin has been completely turned into a slave.
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With his slavery bindings in place, Haalfrin is released from prison and allowed to roam "free again". He'll be carrying his prison with him now, so there's no point in keeping him stuffed in a cell anymore.
When Haalfrin walks out of the palace, he's personally escorted out by one of the Death King's attendants.
"Excuse me," Haalfrin asks the short, stout man, "Does his majesty have any orders for me yet?"
Tersely, the attendant says while not even looking at him, "His majesty is currently thinking of your first task."
Haalfrin almost thinks that this servant is done talking to him already, but the short man reaches into his vest pocket and pulls out a letter. He hands the thing to Haalfrin.
"His majesty ordered you to take this. He'll be giving you 3 days off to find your new home and get yourself situated there."
Without looking at the letter, the Arkin man tucks it in his pocket and obediently walks out the front gates of Narbenaul.
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Now that his escort is gone, Haalfrin is left alone. He takes this chance to take out the letter and have a look at it.
The first thing Haalfrin notices is the skull and flower emblem sealing the letter closed. 'Das?'
He flips the letter over and sees a date written on it. 'Eh…? This thing is dated about 5,000 years ago? Why?'
Feeling curious now, Haalfrin tears open the letter. It reads:
…
To Haalfrin,
You may have heard me mention several times that the god of Decay can't be a Death god forever. You've probably been under the impression that I was merely preparing for my retirement…, but that's not entirely the case.
Well, let's keep it a secret between you and I, but every Death god is destined to perish in a particular way. Freyya is destined to perish in a great battle, and I'm… Well, let's just say that I'm the only Death god that's not truly immortal. I actually have a definite time limit on my existence.
My health has been failing for the past 100,000 years or so, and I tried to keep it to myself. I figured it was much more productive to focus my energy on finding a successor.
Old people DO tend to start obsessing over the next generation - especially if they've accomplished great things or were Significant people. It's just a natural phase of getting old.
So, I found out about your existence – that a child with Death affinity was about to be born, I knew that I'd found someone with the potential to become a death god.
I didn't really know what kind of god you were going to be originally, but I'll admit something shameful. I did a Mantling ritual on you in order to steer your life on a different track. I wanted you to walk my same path and become the next god of Decay.
Heh… this may sound arrogant to say, but I've already drafted you this letter of inheritance WAY beforehand. I assume that if you're reading this, you've already become the god of Decay.
In this letter are the deeds to my land and property, as well as the secret contacts & relationships I've made for myself over the years. There are plenty of gods out there who are willing to be your friend now, once you've taken my place.
Since you're reading this, that means I'm gone already. I haven't found some secluded world to retire in. I'm GONE – dead – nonexistence – erased.
Please take care of Halam and Reyya – my two servants. I think I've introduced them to you.
Anyway, take care of them. Please don't dismiss them.
Sincerely, Dasraman Lareen – a dead man
…
Haalfrin reads over this letter, and he has to admit; it actually makes him a little emotional.
He suddenly looks up and remembers something that Freyya mentioned, just before they began the Mantling Ritual...
Back then, she was so frantic to begin the ritual because she was convinced that Das was trying to use his own ritual to absorb Haalfrin's soul.
But just by reading this letter… that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, it seems that Das was being truthful this entire time when he was talking about giving up his position to Haalfrin.
'Then again, Freyya's only proof of Das's vile intentions was finding a spell book in his office that talked about how to use Mantling Rituals to devour a lesser being's soul and become them.'
'Just because Das knew how to devour my soul, that doesn't mean he was planning on doing it.'
'Yup, Freyya must have misunderstood Das. He wasn't intending to absorb my soul or anything evil like that. He was just an old man worrying about the future.'
Haalfrin closes the letter, feeling very solemn.
Despite their not getting along, Das has always been a sort of grandpa figure to Haalfrin in a lot of ways. It's actually a little shocking to suddenly hear that the old god is gone forever – lost to the waters of oblivion.
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With a somber step to his gait, Haalfrin tucks the inheritance letter away and follows the address written on the back of the letter.
Of course, the address system in the Death King's realm is still a little confusing to Haalfrin, so he has to stop a passerby and ask her how the address system works here. She's a nice enough lady, so she patiently explains to Haalfrin what he needs to know.
With that sorted out, Haalfrin makes his way past one sky-high building after another.
After taking several teleportation points, he arrives at his destination after an hour.
When Haalfrin arrives, he's sort of surprised to see that there's an area of land that's not covered in buildings. Instead, this part of the land is a dense forest. There's even a gate around the entire forest – blocking it off from outsiders and marking Das's property boundaries.
'Wait, why am I surprised?' Haalfrin slaps his forehead in self-deprecation. 'Das brought me here before. He said that high-ranking gods like him get a lot of territory to themselves…'
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Haalfrin walks through the forest gate unobstructed, and he makes his way through the forest.
After walking a little way down the central path, he arrives at a lone cottage. The first person he notices is a young boy sweeping the bricked path leading into the house. When he looks to the side of the house, he sees a young girl uprooting some plants and moving them elsewhere in the quaint garden.
Seeing this armed warrior approaching them, the young boy scrambles to his feet and pulls out a knife at his hip. "Who are you!?" the boy demands with a threatening tone. "How did you get in here? The gate should be locked!"
Instead of answering, Haalfrin takes out Das's letter and holds it out to the boy. "Read it."
The boy carefully inches forward and snatches the letter from Haalfrin's hand. He backs away again and carefully reads it while keeping an eye on the stranger.
The servant's eyes only travel a little way down the page when he gets a lost, misty look in his eyes.
When he shows the letter to his sister, the girl actually starts crying. "M-master's… dead? I mean, he's gone? Why didn't he tell us?"
Haalfrin raises an eyebrow, "You just found out?"
The girl wipes her tears away, "Yeah… Master doesn't… didn't… like to talk much about his hardships. He'd only tell us the good parts of his day – never the bad."
Haalfrin extends a hand to her – offering a friendly greeting. "You must be Reyya, right? I'm Haalfrin."
Reyya clasps the heir's hand warmly, then backs away without a word. She can't think of anything to say to this man.
Halam, however, crosses his arms and asks in a subtly confrontational tone, "What are you going to do to this place – with us?"
"Don't worry. I won't be kicking you out or anything. I am actually thinking of having a training ground, though."
Seeing the alarmed looks on Das's two servants, Haalfrin quickly adds, "Oh, I'm not going to destroy the forest, if that's what you're wondering. However, there's plenty of room underground. We can also easily have Time Locked buildings above and use dimensional folding to hide them from view."
He pulls out the letter and points at the back. "I can see in the property rights documents, here at the back of this letter, that Das owned all the space up to ten miles above and below his property as well as as the land 10 miles in either direction of the 4th spatial dimension. That's plenty of room."
...