The Hammer and the Fly (5/5)

While Gayhal is tending to the freed children, and while the Arkin are venting their anger on what little is left of the cultists' remains, a sudden glow of Death Aura appears in the midst of the battlefield.

Everyone immediately stops what they're doing, and they nod in acknowledgment at the Death Reaper who is manifesting here.

One of the people closest to the arriving Reaper (a shiny god in glowing armor) looks at the Reaper's face and asks in puzzlement, "Aren't you the reaper for murdered souls? This is a battleground. Why are you here?"

Basti – the Reaper of Murder, puts his hands in his pockets, looks into the pit of smoldering ashes, and gestures to it in exasperation. "This wasn't a battle... it was a massacre."

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All of these events happened so quickly that Haalfrin isn't even done summoning his horde by the time his mission is completed.

In fact, Haalfrin only stops his summoning when he looks around and realizes, 'Oh crap. I don't have any more room to put these people.'

Everywhere the eye can see, the seas of endless sand are covered in the walking, breathing dead.

Right when he realizes this, he feels a magic burst emits from his mission scroll. He takes it out and sees that the face of his target is now greyed out, and a simple word is written over his portrait.

'Dead.'

Looking up at the horde of dead he's summoned, Haalfrin shrugs, 'I shouldn't be surprised. Yay for me. Well, time to go back, I guess.'

Out of courtesy, Haalfrin gives his summons a few minutes to wrap everything up. Then, he unsummons them all after thanking them for their service.

With all that out of the way, Haalfrin takes out the Death King's token, summons the Tree Crawler, and starts his journey back.

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All of this happened so quickly that the Death King and his court is still upset by the sudden summoning that took one of their members away.

Some of the Death gods are frozen in place, others are discussing what happened, while others have already left the courtroom to investigate what happened.

Before anything can be learned of Master Gayhal's disappearance, another portal opens up next to the Death King, and the god in question emerges through it again.

With Gayhal back where he disappeared from, there's dead silence for a moment.

In the end, the Lord of Death looks over to his friend. "… Gayhal? Where did you go?"

Master Gayhal scratches his head awkwardly and replies sheepishly, "Pardon the interruption. There was just a small disturbance that required my immediate attention."

"...."

"Let's get on with the meeting, right your majesty?" Gayhal adds encouragingly.

Without even waiting for a response, the old teacher readjusts his scholarly robes and goes back to the books he was reading before he was taken.

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A few days later, the Death King is sitting on his throne, fiddling with another scroll; on it is written the details of his next task for Haalfrin.

'Oh… I shouldn't be too eager to send the child off again. Once Freyya gets back, she'll probably be very angry if she realizes I've been an abusive employer to her husband.'

Of course, the King has very good reason to be afraid. Ever since Freyya comprehended Power, the King could sense that her strength outstripped even his own.

With his mind made up, the King hands the mission scroll to his steward and orders, "Take this to my desk and lock it in the top drawer."

'I have to stop fiddling with the thing. I won't be needing it for at least a few years, anyway.'

The trip itself to that far-out world would take about 3 months. Then, given how large that world is and how little mana there is there, it'll take several more months, or even years, to find the necromancer.

From what he's heard, that necromancer has his claws in every kingdom, and he's a slippery one with extremely potent anti-Scrying abilities. Why else would he be able to evade the eyes of the local god-queen living there?

Then, when Haalfrin finally tracks down the necromancer, the Death King anticipates that the battle will be difficult and drawn out. No doubt, his spirit will be injured from fighting a necromancer, and he'll need some time to recuperate in the Death Realm.

Other than the King's worries about Haalfrin, he has the matter of the mysterious summoning to think about.

For the past several days, the King's been receiving reports like mad...

"Countless powerhouses felt a summoning. The dead Elemental of a star almost left. The 7 horned dragon god and all his descendants all reported the summoning."

From what he's gathered, the King knows very well that every soul who has died in battle felt the calling.

In all honesty, if the summoning hadn't suddenly been halted midway through, the Death King expected about a tenth of all the residents of all the Death Realms would have all vacated immediately!

What's worse is that this tenth is usually the strongest and most battle-hardened portion of his subjects.

All in all, the only thing clear is that something VERY powerful had the influence to summon powerhouses from across the entire World Tree.

Nobody really got a good look at the face of the summoner either, but since the summoner only summoned dead people, the Death king has been getting letters from all sorts of gods from other departments begging him (or threatening him, if they were more powerful) to cough up the identity of the summoner.

After looking at thousands of letters piled in a corner of his office – all demanding the same thing, the Death King wants to scream in frustration and burn the lot of them!

This headache has been going on for about 3 months now. When will it end!?

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As the Death King is in the middle of twisting his heart in a knot over finding this mysterious "summoner, he hears a loud knock on his door.

"WHAT IS IT!?" the King demands with a little more aggression than he intended.

Without feeling intimidated, a voice speaks up on the other side of the door, "Oh, if you're busy, I can come back later…"

"HAALFRIN!? Aren't you supposed to be out on your mission?" the King demands as he flicks his finger. His office door swings open.

Taking the open door as an invitation, Haalfrin steps into the office and replies with an emotionless face, "I'm back."

Haalfrin walks further up and tosses his mission scroll on the King's desk. "Mission completed. What's the next mission?"

The Death King takes a deep, frustrated breath and asks calmly, "What? Did you just arrive there, turn around, and come straight back? It's only been 6 months."

"Kind of..." Haalfrin then puffed out his chest and tried hiding his smug face. "Yeah... A minute was all I needed. Heh, heh."

"Bull sh-" The King's voice cuts off when opens up the scroll... and he sees the necromancer's greyed-out portrait.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, the King asks slowly, "How did you do it?"

Haalfrin puts his hands in his pocket and replies happily, "Oh, I just summoned a couple of dead people, you see..."

"Wait," the King narrows his eyes, "you've opened your 7th name? You're a god now?"

"Yeah..., I actually unlocked it a while back while I was still alive, but Freyya mentioned that I should wait to be dead before I become a god, so I left by 7th Gate unopened until now."

The King leans over and rests his head on his propped-up palm wearily. "... This is all your fault, isn't it…?"

In a sudden burst of anger, the Death King brushes the top of his desk, sending a couple of letters flying at Haalfrin. "You summoned all those people!"

Haalfrin looks down and scratches his head, "Well, yeah, I figured it would be easier to find the target if-"

The death king cut him off as he sits back down wearily, "You have no idea how much chaos you caused. Please... don't do it again... At least not like that..."

After calming again down, the Death King looks at Haalfrin, "Well... I can certainly feel it – your Divinity" He narrows his eyes. "Now that you're stronger than me..."

Haalfrin stands up straight and offers a Brancotte solute (the only kind of solute he knows) "Of course, I'll continue being your soldier!"

The King subtly shakes his head, "You know, if you can summon literally anyone who died in battle, then you have access to countless people who could crush me like a bug. You could easily take my throne if you wanted to - even by force."

Haalfrin cocks his head to the side – puzzled. "...Why would I do that? I'm a soldier, not a king."

The man's answer catches the King off guard, and he pauses. Then, he gives a soft laugh, "I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else from you. Just... get out of here. And take this!"

He points to his cabinet and says, "In there is your next Mission Scroll. That one's going to be your last easy mission! After that, I'll try to find things only you could do! It's not a punishment if the tasks aren't as hard as possible!"

Haalfrin gives another solute. "Yes Sir!"

Pleased that he's gotten his next mission so quickly, Haalfrin grabs the scroll out of the cabinet and hastily leaves his Majesty's office.

Seeing the little troublemaker leaving again, the Death King rubs his temples and mumbles, "Well, I guess it's about time I answered all these letters."

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Of course, Haalfrin continues to summon various people to help him complete his missions, though he doesn't recklessly try to summon everyone he can anymore.

In fact, the Death King has to set a limit on his summons written at the bottom of each of his Mission Scrolls. He also has a ban list given to him of which souls he's not allowed to summon.

It won't do to have some important kings suddenly be whisked away to fight some battle on some faraway planet, right? Wouldn't that be way too chaotic?

And thus, after that day, Haalfrin gets a nickname among the society of gods; they called him the divine general - he, being the ONLY god who could willfully summon all the warriors of the past, no matter their status, strength, or age.