The Hammer and the Fly (1/5)
After Haalfrin recovers his 7th Name, he immediately hears a furious pounding on Freyya's door. Extending his Spirit Magic to feel who this guest is, he senses a familiar aura exuding Threads of anger and frustration.
'What's the Death King's steward doing here?' Haalfrin wonders. 'They said that I'd have a few days off. What's he angry for?
Feeling a little anxious, Haalfrin shoots to his feet and speed walks over to the door.
Swinging the trap door open, Haalfrin looks up at the steward's face, which is so red that he looks like he's about to burst a vein.
"Haalfrin! We've been looking for you for several days now!" the steward all but yells at him. "WHERE WERE YOU!?"
Haalfrin looks down in confusion. "What're you talking about? You promised me 3 days off. I've been here, cleaning up my wife's house."
"Three days?" the man snorts. "It's been 6 days!" He looks down and sighs. "Well, what matters is that you didn't run away."
Unceremoniously, the short steward takes out a scroll and hands it to Haalfrin. The first thing Haalfrin notices is the Death King's seal, which is the emblem of a skull resting on top of a crown. 'My orders? Good.'
With his task done, the steward immediately pulls out a mat with a teleportation circle written on it, and after running his mana through it, a portal opens up on top of the mat.
After the steward falls through the portal, the enchanted map curls itself up neatly and follows him through at the last second, before the portal itself closes.
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After arriving back at the Death King's palace, the steward immediately climbs the tower of Narbenaul and reports personally to his king.
Any news regarding a god-candidate is to be kept confidential, after all, so there's no way Haalfrin's orders would go through the public courier system. The only person issuing orders or receiving these reports would be his majesty himself.
Knocking respectfully on the office door, the steward walks in and bows his head to his King. "Lady Freyya's Contractor has received his orders, and he's on his way."
The King hears the news, and he puts down his work for a moment. Instead of answering or acknowledging his steward, the King stares off into the corner, deep in thought.
Seeing the way his King is reacting, the servant looks down awkwardly. There's a question threatening to escape his lips, yet he doesn't know if it's appropriate to ask…
Suddenly, the King looks down and casts his eyes on his short, balding steward. "If you have something to say, just say it."
The steward clears his throat before asking, "Sire... why did it take so long to choose a task for the boy?"
The king stares off into space. "Well... he's a 6th circle mage with powers written in his Names."
The steward flinches in shock, "So…, you mean he's actually a god-candidate?!"
"Well, yes...," the King shrugs, "but he's displayed powers beyond what a normal god candidate should be capable of. While Freyya was possessed by Elshirothe's shadow, he still managed to seriously injure her."
He then turns in his chair and looks out the window. "I wanted to find an opponent for him that was about equal to his strength. A 7th gate mage should do. Of course, a god would be too much, so I chose a simple Ascendant."
(Ascendants are the names of mages who've gotten their 7th Name while not being god-candidates. They still gain powers far beyond that of a typical mage, though they can't compete with a god.)
The king slowly turns to the steward and says, "Go get the healers ready. I expect Haalfrin will be coming back severely injured. Also, his trip is going to be long and hard, so prepare him food for when he returns."
The Death King then continues looking out the window while he resumes his pensive pose. He slowly folds his arms. 'Hm... I hope I didn't make things too hard for you. Maybe... an Ascendant is too much...?'
'Best not to worry about it. Best to get back to work.'
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While the Death King's steward is reporting to his master, Haalfrin is carefully reading over the scroll with his orders.
Apparently, he's to go to a faraway world and slay an Ascendant necromancer that's recently risen to prominence.
On the back of the scroll is a portrait of his target, as well as some basic information, such as his name, the address of his world, and his last seen location on that world.
Haalfrin looks down and fiddles with the skull-shaped pendant in his hands. This thing was hidden in the scroll and wedged inside the curled-up page.
'This thing is the King's token?'
'All right. I can't lose this. Without this, I'd have to take public transportation, and that can easily take many times longer.'
'The sooner I can get these 10,000 tasks done, then the sooner I can free Freyya.'
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Almost eagerly, Haalfrin activates the silver-skull token, and he's once again pulled into that strange 4th Dimension – the Realm of Everywhere, where the World Tree is planted.
Now that he's not being dragged around by the Death King, Haalfrin actually notices something he hadn't seen last time he was on this thing.
There, at the front of the Crawler, is a more ornate version of the Death King's emblem.
A silver skull is carved on the front of the black Tree Crawler, and the skull has silver flames in the sockets; the carved flames are even enchanted to flicker like a real fire. At the base of the skull is carved a plain, silver crown.
'The dead king? The symbol is simple and to the point. I like it.'
He hops in the Crawler and closes the door behind him.
'Now… I've been reading up on how to use these Crawlers… So I just have to put in the name of the world I'm traveling to on this panel here?'
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As the days pass in dreary travel, Haalfrin looks out the window and sees that the Tree Crawler is climbing up and up the tree - up to the outermost branches. By far, this is going to be his longest trip on a Crawler yet.
His bones ache just thinking about it – being cooped up for so long in a confined area with no escape…
During the long trip, he passes the time by reading more books from the Library of Alsha. He has plenty of things he's still curious about, and this is the perfect time to satiate his curiosity.
(One of the things he learns is that the World Tree constantly feeds on the ambient mana that seeps down from Drakavar's Soul Realm, which is symbolized by the blazing sun which illuminates Everywhere.
(The outermost branches soak up all the mana, and the energy is pulled down toward the heart of the Tree.
(Because of this, the outermost worlds are actually quite barren of mana, and they have a harder time sustaining life – ironic, considering that they lie closest to Drakavar's Realm – the source of magic.)
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After getting to a twig nearly at the very tip of the tree, Haalfrin is finally let off from the Tree Crawler. Eager to stretch his legs and get off this thing, the Arkin man scrambles out and practically dives into the glowing fruit in front of him.
Upon touching the fruit, Haalfrin slips back into the 3rd dimension, and he arrives in this new world.
...
Right now, Haalfrin is emerging from a World Gate thousands of feet in the air, and the first thing he's greeted by is the hot, baking air. He'd be immediately soaked in sweat, but the roaring wind he's falling through is cooling him down.
'Wow… the books didn't lie when they said the outer planets aren't hospitable.'
From this great height, Haalfrin doesn't see a single speck of green. There are only rolling seas of scorched, yellow sand.
Without trees, water, or rainclouds of any sort, Haalfrin struggles to understand how anyone can even live here."
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As the Arkin god falls, he briefly thinks to himself, 'I wonder if body reinforcement could break my fall? Just to make the test valid, I won't use my Dra Name. Even if I go *splat*… well… I'm already dead, so I'll just regenerate.'
And so, he toughens up his body and crashes into the ground, kicking up a small crater of soft sand. 'That... didn't hurt at all.' He gets up and dusts himself off. 'Oh, I forgot. I'm a god now.'
Feeling a little embarrassed and secretly glad no one was here to judge him, he squints at the harsh sunlight and scans the landscape around him.
'Where would I even find anyone here? If there are any cities with locals I could talk to, they'd have to be hundreds of miles away. The problem is that I don't know which direction to start searching.'
Feeling a little perturbed, the Arkin unfurls his mission scroll again and studies the portrait on the back, which depicts his target.
The necromancer in question is a black-skinned man who stands about 6 and a half feet tall. His skinny frame and gaunt face actually make him look like a villain.
'Wait, he has black skin?' Haalfrin wonders curiously. 'I didn't know humans came in that color. I mean, I know Freyya has darker skin, but I thought that's just because she's a Rehkin, not a human.'
Another thought crosses his mind, and he immediately looks down in shame. 'I forgot... the Kareen have dark skin too. How could I forget...?' It's a little startling to realize that after all this time, he's all but forgotten the very people for whom he started his life's journey.
Funny how that works.
'Anyway, I want to get on to my next task as soon as possible, and I don't want to spend years just searching for one man on such a big world.'
'Hm... I'll need some hands to help.'
With this thought in mind, he then clasps his hands together and reaches deep within his soul...