WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 41

Several kilometers from the battle, Fray floated in the air with Hilda, Medusa, Raul, and several others. They were all watching the battle, hidden away within a separate dimension courtesy of Fray.

“It doesn’t look like they are doing very well,” Hilda muttered.

“On the contrary. They are doing an extraordinary job,” Fray rebutted, waving her finger back and forth as though chiding the woman. “When the Nine Great Overlords fought against the Sekbeist Overlord five thousand years ago, they were just barely able to keep up with him. His power was such that they were only able to survive by sealing him inside of themselves. Those seven are fighting him to a standstill. They aren’t winning, but they aren’t losing either.”

At that moment, the Sekbeist Overlord had split himself into seven separate versions of himself and was fighting each person in one on one combat. Fray could tell that made things more difficult for the seven. The Sekbeist Overlord’s power had not waned despite being split seven ways. On the other hand, Eryk and his wives could only use one concept each at any given time, and they could not use the same concept one of the others was using.

“It is odd that his power is not waning.” Fray cupped a hand to her chin. “I have seen similar techniques before, but they always came with a price. In most cases, when a person split their body in two, the amount of Spiritual Power they had was only equal to half of what that person has. If split seven ways, each copy should only have one-seventh of the power that the original possesses.”

“What does that mean?” asked Medusa.

Fray looked at her. “It means the Sekbeist Overlord has a trump card up his sleeves that none of us know about… and victory or defeat may hinge upon them figuring out what that card is.”

***

The numerous battles that had taken place between us and the Sekbeist Overlord copies had come to a head, and now myself and my six wives were standing back to back in a circle, eyeing what was now nine copies. Nine. We were now outnumbered. If that wasn’t bad enough, then making matters worse was the fact that all nine Sekbeist Overlords possessed the same strength as the original.

In other words, the battle had turned against us.

“I’m not sure what we should do now,” I admitted. “Anyone have any ideas?”

No one said anything at first, but then Lin spoke suddenly. “This princess thinks she knows what is going on here.”

“Let’s fucking here it then,” Tora grunted.

“This is not the Sekbeist Overlord’s main body,” Lin announced. “These are all copies. If we want to kill the Sekbeist Overlord, we need to find the main body and destroy it.”

“And where is the main body?” Chloe asked.

Lin paused for a moment, hesitating because she knew how important this was. If she was wrong, it will have meant we wasted our time.

“This princess believes… that he has traveled into the void,” she said at last. “When the Sekbeist Overlord fought the Nine Great Overlords, his real body was split apart and sealed away. To avoid having that happen again, he has hidden his main body inside of the void and his merely sending Spiritual Power through it to create these copies. That is also why he has an unlimited amount of power at his disposal.”

“And what is the void?” asked Fay. “Isn’t that just the Concept of Negation?”

Lin shook her head. “The Void is a plain of total and complete emptiness. It is the beginning and the ending. All worlds were born from the void and all worlds will eventually be consumed by the void.”

“Great. So he’s hidden himself in some fucking empty realm or whatever. Now that we fucking know this, what are we supposed to do about it?” asked Tora.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” Lin said seriously. “Travel to the void and defeat his main body.”

That sounded like a dangerous proposition since we knew nothing about the void. Could we even survive there? However, it wasn’t like we had any other options either. This might be the only thing we could do.

“Can you take us there?” I asked.

“Leave everything to this princess. She’ll get us into the void.” Lin thumped her chest. “Just make sure you protect this princess while she creates the portal.”

“Guess that means some of us will be fighting two-on-one battles,” I said.

Lin moved into the middle of our formation, and the six of us closed around the woman to protect her. That was the moment the Sekbeist Overlords crashed into us. It seemed our enemy was impatient to finish us off, though I didn’t think he knew what we were doing yet.

“You have no hope of defeating me.”

“It is useless to even try.”

“Just give up.”

All the Sekbeist Overlords spoke together as if they had one mind, which was disconcerting, but I tried not to let it bother me as I engaged two of the nine. One of them came in with a claw swipe, which I redirected with a burst of life energy. The attack burned. I ignored it and healed my body as I slammed a fist into his gut, staggering him back, before ducking low to avoid a punch and kicking the other Sekbeist Overlord’s feet out from under him.

The Sekbeist Overlord leapt over my attack and landed on my leg. I bit back a scream as my bones broke. Using the water element to heal my wounds, I drew in Spiritual Power from the earth, rose up, and crossed my arms. My second foe’s punch nearly knocked me off my feet, but I latched myself to the earth. Gritting my teeth against the seering pain as my arms were burned away, I grabbed the Sekbeist Overlord’s fist forward, raised my left hand, and slammed my elbow into his joint. A loud snap echoed around me.

My attack was enough to force one of the two back, but I couldn’t follow through because the second one was attacking again, and I found myself once more playing defensively as I used the water element to heal my badly destroyed arms. I was honestly lucky. Had that removed my arms, I would have needed to use the Concept of Creation to remake them, but Tora was currently using that as she battled one of the Sekbeist Overlord copies.

“It’s ready!” Lin suddenly shouted. “Everyone! Get over here!”

I knocked the Sekbeist Overlord in front of me back and quickly scrambled toward Lin, who was releasing a dark, vapor-like miasma from her every pore. It looked… hideous to be honest. But none of us let ourselves be bothered as we closed the distance around er. The moment we did, the black miasma swirled around all of us and created a funnel.

“NO!”

All nine of the Sekbeist Overlords widened their eyes and rushed forward at the same time, but they were a second too late. The last thing I saw was nine ferociously snarling faces before we were being yanked through a tunnel of pure darkness.

“Everyone! Create armor around yourselves with the Concept of Negation and keep a tight hold on each other!” Lin said as she reached out and grabbed my hand. “Don’t let go of each other no matter what! If you do, you might wind up being swallowed by the void!”

I gripped Lin’s hand and grabbed the hand of whoever was next to me. I couldn’t see anything, but the softness and callouses along the palm let me know this was probably Kari.

Traveling through this strange tunnel was different than any form of travel I had experienced. It felt a lot like I was being squeezed through a tube. My body felt like it was being stretched thin.

I didn’t know how long this lasted, but we were eventually ejected from tunnel. I discovered that I could see again. All seven of us were holding onto each other as we floated through a vast space of… nothing. There was absolutely nothing here. It was just an empty void.

“Where will we find the Sekbeist Overlord?” I asked.

“He’s over there,” Lin said, pointing to something in the distance. “He’s at the very heart of the void.”

I couldn’t tell where the heart of the void was because there was absolutely nothing here and it all just seemed to stretch out endlessly to me, but we flew to where Lin pointed, and there we found a man. He looked much different from the one who attacked us.

That other person had looked like the paintings I had seen of Wodan but with ashen colored skin. This man had the same ashen skin, but his body was much smaller, much more slender. He had long black hair, red eyes, and red symbols swirling around his body. The symbols never remained the same. They kept changing like they were alive. Covering his body were simple black pants and a sleeveless training shirt.

“I cannot believe you managed to come here,” he said with a scowl. “This is not a realm that just anyone can travel to. It requires complete mastery of the Concept of Negation, so how did you all get here?”

“Hm hm hm.” Lin chuckled. “This princess is shocked you haven’t realized it yet. We’ve already mastered the Concept of Negation. This princess’ predecessor learned how to use it, and he bestowed that power upon this princess. She mastered the concept during our training.”

“So I see,” the Sekbeist Overlord muttered with a scowl. He chopped his hand through the air, creating a thin seem, then pulled out what appeared to be a pure black sword with a single edge. “It does not matter if you have mastered the Concept of Negation. You might have been able to reach this place, but you do not have the many millennia of experience that I do. I’ll crush you all here and now. And then I will consume your planet.”

“Not gonna happen,” I said.

All seven of us rushed toward the Sekbeist Overlord, who flew backward as he created a shield that we all slammed into. Lin screamed a warcry as she coated her tail in negative energy and shattered the shield. It looked like the Concept of Negation was the only power we could use here.

I created a ruler as I flew forward and sliced at the Sekbeist Overlord. He blocked my attack with his sword, then smoothly redirected the ruler over his head and tried to cut into me. His weapon was blocked by Kari’s ransuer. Then he was sent backward when Fay pummeled him with her fists. Before he could recover, Siv flew in from the left and rammed into him with her head. He screamed in shock and pain when his body was perforated by her horns.

“DAMN YOU!”

He raised the sword above his head and tried to impale Siv through her back, but Chloe prevented that, locking her blade against his and pushing him away. Blood poured from his wound as the horns were jerked free. The wound was not healing, which I took to mean he could not heal himself in the void. That also meant we could not heal either.

We would need to be careful.

The Sekbeist Overlord was given no time to recover as Lin and Tora double-teamed him. Lin had made a pair of whips and Tora was swinging around an axe that was bigger than her. The Sekbeist Overlord tried to block the axe with his sword, but Lin coiled her whips around his arm and yanked. He was knocked off balance. The axe came crashing down, and he only just dodged by rolling his body out of the way.

I blasted forward, curving around Tora and Lin before spinning around and lashing out with a kick that forced the Sekbeist Overlord back. Kari then flew down from above and tried to impale him with her ranseur, but a black shield appeared above his head, stopping her attack. I thought he might be distracted and stepped forward. He wasn’t. A loud shrieking sound echoed around us my ruler struck against his sword. Our weapons locked as we leaned in and gritted our teeth.

“Just because I am outnumbered doesn’t mean I am disadvantaged, boy! You cannot beat me!”

“Just because you have more experience than us doesn’t mean you’ll win,” I snapped back. “Get bent.”

At that moment, I leapt back. The Sekbeist Overlord’s eyes widened as he stumbled forward—right into Chloe’s waiting sword. I thought this for sure would do him in, but another shield appeared in front of him. Chloe slammed her sword against the shield. Her weapon shattered. Then Chloe was forced back when the shield disappeared and the Sekbeist Overlord tried to remove her head.

That was when Siv appeared. She had been sneaking up behind him while we kept him distracted. He didn’t even notice her until she slammed her tail into his back. An agonized scream tore from his lips. I was pretty sure that attack had broken his spine, though he was still standing upright.

Kari and Chloe rushed forward at that moment and thrust out their weapons, breaking through his conceptualized armor and piercing his chest. He grunted and tried to attack them, but they let go of their weapons and leapt back, just in time to let Fay rush in and slam her fist into his face. As he staggered back, Tora slammed her axe into his body, shattering what remained of his armor, then Lin wrapped her whips around him, pulling them tight and leaving him unable to defend himself as I rushed in.

I felt only a moment of resistance as I slid my ruler through his neck, severing his head from his shoulders. Turning, I watched as head and body floated in the void. Oddly enough, the man was not dead yet.

“You fucking… damn you! Damn all of you!” the head screamed. It was very odd. I’d never seen someone survive being decapitated like that. I was pretty sure even I would die if that happened. “If I’m going to die like this, then I am going to take all of you with me!!!”

I didn’t know what he meant by that, but then the void began shaking. A tremulous vibration spread through my body. It was enough to make me feel like I was being shaken apart, like the molecules that made up my body were becoming unstable.

“What the fuck is going on?!” shouted Tora.

“He’s trying to destabilize the void!” Lin screamed back. “He’s going to make this entire place compress in on itself!”

“What should we do?” asked Kari, looking toward Lin.

“We get out of here, that’s what!” Lin held out her hands, gritted her teeth, and created a swirling black tunnel. “Grab hold of this princess’ tail and don’t let go no matter what!”

We all latched onto Lin’s tail as she shot through the tunnel. Even though we were doing our best to escape, the tunnel seemed to be coming apart at the seems. I could see nothing but the cracks that were appearing along the tunnel’s surface, and it looked like the end was growing smaller.

“This is going to be close,” Lin shouted. “Hang on, everyone!”

***

Fray became worried when Eryk and the others vanished. She didn’t know what had happened, but it seemed to her like they had been transported somewhere else, or maybe even erased from existence. That would have been horrible.

Yet before her worry could truly set in, the Sekbeist Overlord copies that were in the shape of her father all vanished, disappearing like wisps of black smoke. She didn’t know what that meant.

“Did they… defeat him?” asked the confused Hilda. “What is going on?”

“I do not know.” Fray shrugged and shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Father… Mother…” Raul muttered before he flew forward.

“Wait, Raul!” Medusa and Hilda shouted at the same time, then eyed each other before flying after their grandson.

“There goes the wife and her rival,” Dante muttered as he looked at his two brothers. “Let’s go after them, shall we?”

“Might as well,” Rainer said.

Fray agreed with them and quickly flew over to where Raul, Hilda, and Medusa were. She was followed by the others who had come to see the fight. They all landed on the ground that had been the battlefield between Eryk, his wives, and the Sekbeist Overlord. Pure destruction was all they saw everywhere around them. The earth had been ruptured, the ground blackened as though scorched, and there was no sign of Eryk and his wives anywhere.

Raul stood in the exact spot where Eryk and his wives had been. He turned around and looked at Fray.

“Can you figure out what happened to them?” he asked.

Fray’s lips trembled for a moment before she strengthened her resolve. “I wish I could, but I do not understand anything about the Concept of Negation. It is… a forbidden concept. Has been ever since the Sekbeist Overlord and his minions appeared. I’m afraid I can’t tell what happened to them. If they were somehow transported somewhere else or…”

She trailed off. There was no need to mention that they might have been erased, though if that was the case, she was sure the Sekbeist Overlord would have still been here.

Raul’s eyes misted over for only a moment before he took in a deep breath. “I’m sure Mother and Father are still alive. They must be.”

No one said anything to dispute him, though they didn’t agree with him either. Fray looked kindly at the boy. She wished she could comfort him, but doing so might make him think she believed they were dead, and Fray desperately wished to believe her nephew was alive.

“Raul—”

Hilda began before her lips stopped moving. She, Raul, Medusa, Fray, and everyone else were also stunned into complete silence as a swirling mass of darkness suddenly appeared before them. While everyone there was surprised, they were all Spiritualists of great power. They leapt back and moved into combat stances. Fray removed her sword from its sheath and held it in a two-handed grip. Spiritual Power surged from her body as she prepared to use one of the three concepts she mastered.

Everyone was tense like bowstrings drawn taut.

They all waited on baited breath.

“Waaaaaah!!!”

“Doof!”

“Ooof!”

“Ouch…”

Fray was once again stunned when seven people were violently disgorged from the swirling darkness. Lin came out first, but following behind her was Eryk, Kari, Fay, Siv, Tora, and Chloe. They all landed on the poor Lamia’s back.

“Get… off!” Lin grunted as she tried to move without success. “You people… are so heavy!”

“Sorry,” Eryk apologized. As the second person to have been shot from the tunnel, he was also close to the bottom. “I’d move if I could, but…”

“Whatever! Just give off this princess right now! Do you want to crush her?! Want to turn her into a princess pancake?!”

All the tension that had been surrounding them disappeared. Fray could only shake her head as the adrenaline left her. She sheathed her sword as the group untangled themselves and stood up.

Raul took one step forward, then slammed into the group, surprising them all. His hug had mostly captured Eryk and Fay, though Siv had been between them and was drawn into the hug. The other escaped by virtue of his arms not being big enough to wrap around them all.

“Welcome back, Mother, Father, Big Sis, Aunty Lin, Little Sis… um…”

Raul stepped back and looked at Tora and Chloe, an embarrassed blush spreading across his cheeks.

“What should I call you two?”

Chloe smiled and clasped her hands together. “You may just call me Chloe.”

“Tora is fine,” Tora grunted. “I don’t need some title of fucking endearment.”

“Don’t swear in front of my son please,” Fay grumbled as she ran a hand through her hair.

Mastering her emotions, Fray stepped forward, mindful of the cracks and blackened earth, and smiled at the group.

“Welcome back, all of you,” she greeted.

“It’s good to be back,” Eryk said with a smile.