The Hammer and the Fly (3/5)
-Far away, on another world, among people completely unrelated to Haalfrin's quest-
Sticky with sweat and a body full of cuts and bruises, a young man is desperately putting all his remaining mana into his sword.
Behind the young warrior is a beautiful girl with a silver tiara atop her golden-haired head.
Instead of gratitude or a radiant smile upon meeting her lover again, the princess cries in sorrow, "No Rans! If you don't put any mana into defending yourself, then you'll die!"
Stoically, the young, attractive knight replies without turning around, "I have to do it, Princess! If I don't kill the dragon in this final strike, then you'll be taken captive again!"
With that, the knight charges ahead with a heroic scream and stabs the 2 horned dragon in its exposed scale, right over the heart...
The evil dragon doesn't go down without a fight – stubborn creatures, they are.
As the serpent writhes in its death throes, its screams of rage are laced with fire, and the knight is burnt so thoroughly that the only thing his lover will be able to bury is a pile of ashes.
Seeing the love of her life sacrifice himself for her, the golden-haired princess frantically grabs a fistful of his ashes and cries, "No NO! What's the point in escaping if you're not there with me? No RANS!"
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Immediately after dying, Sir Rans feels his soul floating in a strange, sleepy limbo... (Unlike Haalfrin, who has Death Affinity, Sir Rans isn't conscious right after dying.)
The dead warrior feels his mind slipping further into a fevered dream when he suddenly hears a call reverberate in his soul:
The voice in Rans's mind is so deep and powerful that he can't help but start to wake up…
By the time he opens his eyes, Sir Rans looks down at a portal beneath him… and he feels something immeasurably attractive pulling on his heart.
Something is telling the dead knight that his destiny lies beyond that gate...
Besides... killing bad guys is what he signed up for as a child when he joined his king's army... It's what he knows best.
Well, the king himself wasn't a great person, and Sir Rans was often ordered to do things he was uncomfortable with. However, the naïve wish to be someone's knight in shining armor has never left the man's heart.
Naturally, his Spirit can't say no to this call.
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Once Sir Rans willingly falls through the portal, the first thing he feels is the burning hot sand on his palms. Then, he sees his sharp shadow on the ground… and that shadow has 2 long, pointed ears stretching past his shoulders.
'What the…?'
Scrambling to his feet in shock, the knight looks around at the millions or billions of portals opening up all across the sky.
The first set of people who fall to his side who are a dozen men all dressed in black. They all have curved swords, daggers at their hips, and dart guns hidden in their sleeves.
Seeing these men land only a dozen feet from him, Sir Rans reels back in shock. "Weren't you assassins trying to kill me last year?!" He draws his sword. "How? I mean, are you here to finish the job?"
Gambin – the assassin's leader (a rather infamous person, back before he fell to the knight's blade), stands up, dusts the sand off his knees, and shrugs. "Well, the princess fell in love with you. We're truly sorry, but we were just trying to do our jobs. Sorry for trying to kill you."
He's apologizing? That cold-blooded killer?
"Wait, you weren't just a common murderer? You had a lot of wanted posters…?" Rans.
The assassin shrugs again, "Heh… yeah… We actually worked for the king. He didn't like you taking a fancy to his daughter."
"…"
Slowly, Sir Rans sheathes his sword again and mumbles, "... Well, it's all in the past. Let's..."
He's about to say, "Let's go find out where that voice came from," but he's suddenly interrupted by another obnoxious arrival.
Another portal opens up, and this time, a familiar 2-Horned dragon flies gracefully through the rupture in space. The serpent glances down, and he goes wide-eyed upon seeing Sir Rans.
"Ah! Human! I see you answered the call too, as expected. I'll be having a rematch with you!"
Before the dragon can start some unnecessary conflict…, he suddenly scuttles to the side meekly as a giant portal a thousand feet wide opens up a few thousand feet away. Slowly, the titanic head of an Elder Dragon slithers its way through.
"HOLY SH*T!" Rans, the assassins, and the dragon shrieks in terror. Back on their world, the strongest dragons around only had 2 horns. In fact, none of them ever knew that dragons could get this big.
As one, the king's assassins, the princess's knight, and the villainous 2-horned dragon all turn tail and flee in the same direction.
It's only after the unlikely band gets a safe distance away that they stop to recollect themselves. Due to them all being terrified over the same thing, they bond a little and soon agree to work together in their search.
Didn't the voice say to search for a necromancer named "Bal'Shazi"?
…What's a necromancer?
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All over the surface of this desert world, countless people with stories similar to Sir Rans appear.
They all suddenly hear a voice, and some desire in their spirit influences them to accept the call. They then emerge through the portal and have brief bouts of confusion as they see the familiar faces of the soldiers they, themselves, have killed in their lifetimes.
In one corner of the world, an Elder dragon emerges, accompanied by a host of white-winged Sylkin Angels, who all fell in battle to him during his final fight.
In another corner, a dozen gods fall through a portal and are greeted by their mortal enemies.
Somewhere else, a pack of thousands of pointy-eared people appears – all salivating grotesquely and crying out maniacally for blood.
(Of course, these were once soldiers who died in battle, but were eventually consumed by their feelings of anger.)
Dragons, mortals, mages, Ascendants, gods, elementals, forest spirits, angels, demons, faeries…
So long as you were once a living thing, and you've died in battle, then you've heard the call of the Death King's General.
And so, more and more figures drop continuously from the sky. In fact, so many answer Haalfrin's call that soon, the entire surface of that world is packed full of powerhouses of the past.
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While Haalfrin is basically doing the equivalent of using a planet-cracking bomb to kill a fly, the Death King is sitting on his throne, holding an audience with some of his subjects and completely oblivious to the kind of trouble that's about to come.
The first sign that something is wrong is when a portal suddenly opens up beneath one of the old gods standing at the King's right hand. The old man has a long, grey beard, and he has a scholarly air around him that breathes sophistication and intelligence. It's a fitting look for the Death King's childhood mentor.
Unfortunately, Master Gayhal was killed protecting his apprentice, the young Death King. Due to the old man's sacrifice, the Lord of the Death Realm has a permanent soft spot for him.
So, when the king's old mentor suddenly has a black and silver portal open up beneath him, the King is the first to leap to his feet and yank his friend away from it.
"WHO DARES!!" the King's infuriated roar vibrates and echoes in the vast hall.
Smiling nonchalantly, the old scholar pats the King's hands and chuckles, "It's fine, it's fine. I just received an unexpected invitation… Now, now, just because you've grown much stronger than me, that doesn't mean that I can't take care of myself."
Seeing that his old teacher is all right and hearing his words, the King sets the old man down again. "Are you going through?" the King asks.
"…" Master Gayhal pauses, then smiles happily, "Eh, looks like these old bones will see some exercise!"
The Death King sighs in frustration, "Yes, yes, but where are you going?!"
Instead of answering, the old wizard tips his pointed hat and remarks, "I'm sure it'll be an interesting story. I'll tell you when I return."
With that, he steps into the portal and disappears.
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-Back on Bal'shazi's world-
While all this chaos is happening, we see a skinny, brown-skinned woman clutching her 3 small children in fear as she sees countless figures descending from the sky.
"Mommy! Is it the end of the world!?" the eldest child – a young boy, asks in a shivering voice as he clutches his mother's knee.
The woman strokes her children's heads and says with sorrow in her voice, "Don't worry... We'll... we'll be meeting papa very soon."
She looks over at a shiny helmet and an old sword hanging on the wall. Ever since their youngest was born, her husband never came home from the war... The only thing she got back was his bloody helmet and his dented sword.
Just as this mother is reminiscing about her husband, another portal opens up in front of their door, and they hear a knock.
The second youngest child (a 3-year-old) tries going to the door to answer it, but the mother's hand shoots out and grabs the little girl by her tiny wrists and yanks her back. "NO Becki! It's dangerous!"
Another of her children ignores her, and he opened the door anyway...
Instead of seeing a monster on the other side, they only see a large pile of food and a bag full of... gold?!
The little boy looks closely at the figure fleeing away from their house, and he yelled out, "That man! He's wearing daddy's helmet!"
The eldest child perks up and yells, "Daddy! Daddy's there! I saw him through the window!"
Partly out of anger at her children's disobedience, and partly out of sorrow, the mother yanks her children back and growls, "Daddy's gone! Get back inside before you get hurt!"
On the way in, one of the children pauses to pick up the coins and food.
The mother, thinking that this strange gift is a curse of some kind, is about to throw it out. However, just before she tosses it out the door, she sees a small note tied to the purse string holding the golden coins.
It reads, "I'm sorry, Nemi. This is all I managed to earn since I've arrived on the other side. I hope the children are well."
The woman reads the note and bursts into tears.