WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 39

Gorrick stood with his arms crossed as he tapped his foot against the ground and watched Hriedmar undo the seal one line at a time. The rune array on this moon was massive, complex, and beyond anything he could understand. How this little bug could comprehend it was beyond him.

He turned his head and looked at the room they were standing in. It was an expansive space with little inside save the crystal coffin situation on a dais in the very center and the complicated rune array. The rune array covered every centimeter of space inside this room, traveling from the crystal coffin in a concentric circle and expanding outward. It traveled up the walls and the ceiling.

“How long is this going to take?” asked Gorrick with a sigh.

“We need to be patient,” Leblos said.

“But it’s been almost a month since we started undoing this seal. It never took this long to break the other seals.”

“The other seals were not as complicated as this.” Leblos made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “When we arrived on this forsaken prison, the entire surface was covered in runes, but now it is just this one room. We are making great headway. It won’t be long before our lord is free.”

“I wish that stupid Dwoerg would hurry it up,” Unglau said before Gorrick could.

Leblos sighed. “You two should be more like Wutend.”

Gorrick and Unglau looked at Wutend, who was leaning against the wall, arms cross and eyes closed. He looked like he was sleeping, though he probably wasn’t.

Gorrick grunted and turned away.

“Wutend has a lot more patience than I do.”

“Then you should learn from him and gain some patience.”

“Fuck that.”

Gorrick had never been known for his patience. Whenever he had nothing to do or was forced to wait for something, he would normally find something to occupy himself with. Now that he was thinking about it, his love for enslaving people and forcing them to fight each other to the death had probably come from his need to quell his boredom somehow.

As these thoughts and more occurred to him, the rune array that sealed their lord was slowly being undone. Hriedmar used his skills at Rune Writing to create counter runes that caused the others to evaporate. He was using that infamous axe of his, the one that originally belonged to the Great Overlord of the Second Realm. Gorrick didn’t know how it worked. The only thing that mattered to him was that it worked.

When the last of the runes was close to evaporating, Wutend’s eyes snapped open. He picked up the chalice sitting on the ground and wandered over to the crystal coffin. Gorrick followed the man with his eyes, arms still crossed, and when Wutend arrived in front of the crystal coffin, he held out the chalice.

“My Lord! Though it took many eons, we have come! At last we have come! Your essence has been retrieved from those who stole it from you, and we have punished the sinners harshly for their transgressions! Come! Be revived and lead us to glory once more!”

“Do you really need to say something so embarrassing?” Gorrick muttered. “It’s not like those lines do anything. You’re not a wizard, damn it.”

Wutend ignored Gorrick as he held out the chalice. Spiritual Power flowed through his body and into the chalice, which glowed a dark purple, becoming brighter and brighter. Soon the contents inside the chalice began bubbling. Then it burst out, an intense and overwhelming Spiritual Power that pushed against them all. Gorrick grunted as his knees threatened to buckle. He’d forgotten what being in his lord’s presence felt like. Hriedmar was already laid out.

“NOW!”

The shout captured his attention, causing him to look at the entrance where several women were rushing forward. He was prepared to fight them, but then they vanished, and he only realized where they’d gone after looking back at Hriedmar—or where he had been. He wasn’t there anymore. The woman were gone as well.

“Those bitches took our slave,” Gorrick said with a growl.

“Do not trouble yourself,” Wutend said, face splitting into a dark smile. “It doesn’t matter what they do. They will soon become fodder to feed our army just like all the others who came before them.”

“True enough,” Gorrick admitted.

At that moment, all the Spiritual Power floating through the air gathered around the crystal coffin, which now had cracks running through it. The cracks widened. A shattering sound echoed around them, mere moments later, the crystal coffin exploded. Shards and fragments flew in every direction. They slammed into the purple Spiritual Power and were destroyed.

The man who had been sealed inside of the coffin was lifted off the ground as the Spiritual Power enclosed around him. All of that unrepressed power soon flowed inside of him, traveling into his pores, his mouth, his ears. It disappeared inside of him, leaving nothing but a hazy purple overlay. His eyes opened. Dark beams of light blasted from his eyes, cutting through the ground, traveling up the wall, and tearing through the ceiling.

The moon shuddered violently.

Gorrick grimaced and stepped aside as a chunk of stone fell from the ceiling. It crashed into the spot he’d been standing and broke apart.

The Spiritual Pressure that had been pushing down on them didn’t disappear, but the Spiritual Power that had been flowing around them did. Gorrick turned back to the man. He was an old-looking coot, with a long beard, an eyepatch covering his right eye, and a body covered in flowing gray robes. He looked like one of those old granfatherly types. His beard was also quite thick and unruly.

Yet even as he stared, the man began to change. His skin became dark gray, his beard grew shorter until it was little more than a goatee, and his body became younger. The wrinkles on his face vanished. His robes exploded to reveal powerful muscles covered in dark red symbols. Such a sight only lasted for a moment before the dark purple overlay covering his body transformed into armor. Pauldrons covered in spikes settled on his shoulders, a chest plate of gleaming obsidian appeared around his torso, then the Spiritual Power wove together around his arms and legs, forming gauntlets and greaves.

The man opened his eyes again. No beams shot from them. His red eyes were surrounded by blackness. This unfathomable darkness was far different from Gorrick’s own eyes. They were like pure voids of nothingness, blackholes that would eventually consume the world.

“My lord!” Unglau cried out as he fell onto his knees and bowed his head. Tears were pouring down his eyes. “How I’ve longed for your return! We are yours to command once more! What is your bidding?”

Unglau had always been the most devoted of the Zehn Todesharr. The man had cried when their lord was split into eight and sealed away. Gorrick did not have the same devotion as his compatriot, but he still felt a sense of awe whenever he stood in their lord’s presence. They all did, which was why they dropped to their knees, bowed their heads, and waited for their leader to say something.

“Hmmmm,” a low, drawn out breath emerged from the man, and when he finally spoke, his voice was a deep, baritone rumble. “This body… is very different from my previous body.”

“It is the body of Wodan, Lord,” Wutend explained. “The Eight Great Overlords split your body into eight pieces and sealed a piece inside of themselves. Wodan had sealed away your Spiritual Core.”

“Yes, I know,”the Sekbeist Overlord said impatiently. “I am well aware of what has been happening. All the memories from the Overlords have flown into me. I know what is going on.” He chuckled. It was a dark sound that rattled Gorrick’s bones. “Those fools thought they could seal me away, but now they are gone, and I am stronger than ever. Come, you four. It is time to once more show this world what true fear is.”

Gorrick and the others bowed their heads once, then stood back up. A dark grin spread across his face as his lord, his god, lifted a single hand into the air and began channeling his Spiritual Power. It was time to once more wreak havoc on not only this pathetic world but the entire galaxy at large.

***

Fray stood in the middle of an open plain. A cool wind rustled her clothing and hair, which she had tied behind her head in a bun so it wouldn’t get in her way.

She did not wear a helmet, but she had donned the rest of her armor, a chest plate, gauntlets, and greaves that were all covered in runes. There was no telling if these runes would even help her. Could they hold up against the incredible might of the Sekbeist Overlord? She didn’t think they could, but she felt better with them on, and thus she wore them proudly.

All around her, men and women were kneeling inside of circles surrounded by runes. They looked like they were praying, though she knew the truth. Maybe some of them were praying, deep within their hearts, but what they were truly doing was channeling their Spiritual Power into the rune array that surrounded.

The rune array which she stood in the center of.

Fray did not know how this array worked, but she understood what it did. She could feel the Spiritual Power flowing into her, strengthening her, reinforcing her own Spiritual Power. It was quite an unusual feeling. She’d never felt more powerful before. Her body was overflowing with it. She felt like she could take on an entire army.

High above her, the blood red moon was slowly dissolving. It looked like something was corroding it, eating away at it little by little.

As the moon dissolved, a vast and mighty Spiritual Pressure swept over them all, making it feel like gravity had increased several hundred fold. Fray grunted but held her ground. Some of those in the circle wavered as well, but they all struggled to remain conscious and continued channeling Spiritual Power into her. Before long, the runes written in the ground began flowing toward her. They covered her body in symbols that resembled chains that wrapped around her arms, legs, and chest, trapping the Spiritual Power inside of her.

The moon chose that moment to disappear. The prison had been destroyed.

Fray took a deep breath as something descended from the sky. She rose to meet it.

There were five people flying over to her, and while she recognized those who belonged to the Zehn Todesharr, it took her a moment to recognize the person they were following. Tears sprang to her eyes when she saw who it was. Wodan. Her father. Or that was what she thought at first before the realization set in. This man’s skin was ashen, his beard trimmed, and his eyes the color of blood. That body might have belonged to her father at one point, but that was no longer the case now.

“Sekbeist Overlord,” Fray said, her voice booming and powerful. “I knew you would be revived eventually.”

“Oh?” The Sekbeist Overlord stopped flying. His four subordinates also stopped. “So you knew I would come back? Does that mean you are here to offer yourself to me? Or are you here to plead for your pathetic life?”

“Neither.” Fray’s voice was flat. “I am here to kill you.”

Her words caused a reaction from the four remaining members of the Zehn Todesharr, who cackled like she said something hilarious. Well, Gorrick was cackling. Unglau looked like he had swallowed something sour, while Wutend and Leblos merely shook their heads. Perhaps they did not believe she had what it took to win.

The Sekbeist Overlord did not speak for a moment, but when he did, the tone in his voice was supremely arrogant. “You do not have what it takes to kill me. I’ll admit, you have far more Spiritual Power than anyone else I have met on this pathetic planet. Even the Eight Great Overlords would not be your match… but that’s it. You are neither the strongest person I have fought nor the most dangerous. Compared to the one I seek to overthrow, you are nothing.”

“That may be, but we won’t know if I can’t kill you until I try,” Fray said, grabbing the sword at her waist and removing it from its sheath. The hissing of steel on steel echoed around them. It sounded abnormally loud for such a soft noise.

“Hmph. Very well. If you think you have what it takes to kill me, then give it your best shot. I will crush everything you throw at me. Then I will make you suffer. I will make you suffer so terribly you’ll be calling me daddy by the time everything is said and done.”

Fray snorted at the arrogant words, but she knew they were not without merit. Her hair was standing on end just by being near him. The power overflowing from his body was vastly superior to her own Spiritual Power, which had been bolstered by several tens of thousands of Spiritualists.

But that didn’t mean she would give up.

She and the Sekbeist Overlord stared at each other for all of one second, and then they each attacked. Fray thrust out her sword. A beam that compressed time, space, and dimension into a single strike like a beam flew from her weapon and slammed into a void of pure nothingness. Ripples appeared between them. There was no sound as the two attacks clashed, but the world was becoming eroded as her three concepts clashed against the Sekbeist Overlord’s one.

And then the two attacks swirled together and vanished.

“Huh. So it seems you do have quite the bit of power to you,” the Sekbeist Overlord said. “A woman who has mastered three separate concepts to such a degree is a rare find even in the rest of the universe. I’ll tell you what. I won’t kill you. Instead, I will break you and turn you into my slave. I believe I can put your powers to better use than you ever could. You should be honored. It’s not often I take such an interest in someone else.”

Fray snorted. “The only thing I feel at such an offer is disgust. I’ll kill myself before I let you enslave me.”

The Sekbeist Overlord smiled. It was cruel, filled with malice, and absolutely heartbreaking to see on the face of her father.

“You say that now, but wait until you have become mine. As my slave, you will feel nothing but endless pleasure.”

“I doubt that.”

Since her first attack hadn’t worked, Fray decided there was no sense in holding back. She released everything she had, spread her arms wide, and enveloped the area surrounding them within her sphere of influence.

The world became distorted. The sky vanished, the planet beneath them disappeared, and the four members of the Zehn Todesharr who had been watching in the distance disappeared as well. Spatial distortions and dimensional rifts began appearing and disappearing at random. A nebula flew by on Fray’s left. Several stars went nova, a few contracted, and even more were born in the distance.

“How cute. I hope you don’t think you can defeat me by creating your own boundary field,” the Sekbeist Overlord said.

“I don’t,” Fray replied. “But I can certainly injure you.”

“Maybe. That remains to be seen.” The Sekbeist Overlord raised a single hand and gestured for her. “Come. Show me what kind of powers you possess.”

Fray did exactly that. She appeared before him like a phantom, swinging the sword in her hand like she wanted to hewn him in two. He raised a hand and blocked the attack—or so it seemed at first. Fray’s sword phased through his arm and struck his body as she manipulated the space around it. A loud clang rang out as her weapon struck his chest plate, and while the attack didn’t cut through his negation armor, it did send him rocketing backward.

The Sekbeist Overlord flew through space, crashing into stars, nebulae, and planets alike. None of them exploded like Fray expected them to. Dark Spiritual Power flowed around the Sekbeist Overlord, consuming everything that came into contact with him. Stars vanished. Planets disappeared. Even the blackholes were erased by his ability to negate everything.

Fray raised her hand and summoned a meteor shower to rain destruction upon the Sekbeist Overlord. Each meteor that struck his body disappeared just like everything else. It seemed like nothing could harm this man.

“I hope that is not all you have,” the Sekbeist Overlord said with a dark grin as he appeared before her. “I’ll find myself highly disappointed if it is. I might even change my mind about making you my slave.”

“There is far more where that came from!” Fray shouted.

She attacked him again. This time when she swung her blade, Fray manipulated the time surrounding his arm, just his arm, freezing it in place. She then overlayed her sword with a dimensional blade, compressed it into a fine point, and sliced straight through his forearm.

Fray backed away, breathing heavily as she stared at the severed forearm as it floated between them. The Sekbeist Overlord looked at severed arm, then at her, and then back at his arm once more. Finally, he grinned.

“Not bad. You managed to wound me. Few people are capable of doing that,” the Sekbeist Overlord nodded with approval as he grabbed his arm. He seemed far too calm for Fray’s taste, and she soon found out why when the arm on his grasp suddenly vanished, turning into dark particles of power that flowed around the severed stump.

Her eyes widened as his arm regrew.

“What…?”

“Are you really so surprised?” A dark chuckle escaped the Sekbeist Overlord. “You surely know of the battle between myself and the Eight Overlords. No matter how many times they cut me apart, no matter what kind of damage they did to my body, I always healed. You people don’t seem to realize what the Concept of Negation is. It is the absence of everything. There was nothing in the beginning. This universe used to be a vast void of nothingness. As one who has mastered this concept, I have become a being of nothing, a negative being who travels from planet to planet, realm to realm, galaxy to galaxy, consuming life and bringing this universe one step closer to absolute nothingness.”

Fray felt her entire body shudder from this man’s words and the strange pressure emitting from his body. Her heart quivered.

“In short,”the Sekbeist Overlord continued, “I am the beginning of the end for all life in this universe.”

Fray felt panic. Absolute terror. The Sekbeist Overlord began flowing with a dark power that consumed her boundary field, eating away at it. This field was something she had created by expending more than half her Spiritual Power. It was one of the ultimate techniques within her arsenal and something no one else had ever escaped from, and yet this creature was destroying it so easily. What’s more, his words were the stuff of nightmares. She couldn’t understand it. She couldn’t fathom it. Just what was this monster before her? The beginning of the end? A being of nothingness? Was that why he was so powerful? Was the Concept of Negation more powerful than even the Concept of Creation? Fray was terrified to find out the answer.

“Well, that was fun,” the Sekbeist Overlord said. “But I think it is time we ended this. I have already grown bored.”

Trying to overcome her panic, Fray prepared herself for his attack, but even she could do nothing when he blasted forward, split into four mirror images, and attacked her from several different angles. Blood burst from her nose as a fist broke it. A knee to her gut folded Fray over like a broken chair. The third mirror image appeared in front of her, spun around, and knocked her head back with a sharp snap kick. Stars exploded in her vision as she flew backward.

She didn’t fly far.

The Sekbeist Overlord appeared above her. He grabbed her arm, and she bit back a scream as it was yanked from her socket, though even her yelp was lost to the wind as slammed into her with a drop kick.

Fray flew into the ground. Pain wracked her body as she rolled onto her stomach and coughed out blood. She stood warily to her feet, then leapt backward as something powerful struck the earth. A surprised scream escaped her mouth as she flew through the air, but she managed to flip around and land on her feet.

Looking around as dust covered the area, she found that she was standing in the middle of a large crater. She hoped this wasn’t where her companions had been. For a moment, she feared the worst, but then she felt the Spiritual Power from those who were part of Kari’s rune array flowing into her, making her sigh in relief.

“Oh? I’m surprised. I did not expect you to be able to dodge that. It seems you still have some spunk left in you.” The dust blew away to reveal the Sekbeist Overlord, completely unharmed. He was grinning at her. “Maybe I will take you as my slave after all.”

Fray grimaced but kept her eyes on the Sekbeist Overlord. She tried to still her breathing and keep calm, telling herself over and over that she was not here to win. She didn’t need to beat him. All she needed to do was hold on until Eryk, Kari, Fay, Siv, Lin, Tora, and Chloe emerged from their training. That was it. She could do that.

She would do that.

“You are welcome to try,” Fray said, regaining her ability to speak. “But I don’t think you have what it takes to handle me.”

“Ha ha ha! It seems your wit has returned. Very well. Let’s see if I can handle you or not.”

The Sekbeist Overlord raised his hand and several hundred black spheres appeared around Fray. A shiver ran down her spine, a warning of imminent danger. Fray quickly vanished within a dimensional portal as the Sekbeist Overlord closed his hand into a fist. The spheres quickly converged on her previous location and erased everything there, from the oxygen molecules to the particles of dust. When the Sekbeist Overlord realized he had missed, he dismissed the attack.

Fray didn’t know what scared her more; this man’s power or his control?

“You cannot hide from me, you know?” The Sekbeist Overlord turned in her general direction. “Hiding within a separate space will not help you.”

Fray quickly left the space she had been hiding in and moved away—just in time to avoid being killed by a beam of nothingness that tore into the ground and erased it.

Gritting her teeth so hard she tasted blood, Fray spun around and created a shield that compressed time, space, and dimension into a thin barrier that looked like a black dimensional rift with a smattering of stars. Seconds later, that barrier shattered when a black sphere of darkness slammed into it. The sphere was like a black hole as it sucked the shattered fragments up and continued toward her. She leapt away, dodging it, only to find herself running head first into the Sekbeist Overlord.

“You should pay more attention to your surroundings.”

Fray cried out when the Sekbeist Overlord slammed his fist into her chest. The armor she had been wearing shattered like it wasn’t even there. She struck the ground, rolled, and tried to flip back onto her feet despite the pain coarsing through her, but her foe once more seemed to appear before her like a phantom. He lashed out with a kick that struck the underside of her chin.

Darkness filled her vision. It was only for a moment. Then she found herself blinking as she stared at the sky. Fay needed a moment to realize she was lying on her back. She was about to stand up, but then a foot slammed into her chest, pushing her down and making her cry out as a heel ground against her.

“Haaa… this was an amusing diversion,” the Sekbeist Overlord said as he grinned down at her. “You’re pretty interesting. That technique of yours, the one that allows your followers to share Spiritual Power with you, is quite the technique. Though it means nothing in the end. That power isn’t yours. I thought during our battle that you were strong, but it seems you’re actually quite weak. That is unfortunate. Still, you are decently powerful for someone from such a remote planet. I won’t make you my slave, but I will use you as a sacrifice to grow my army.”

Fray gasped as blood filled her lungs and mouth. She grabbed the man’s leg and tried to remove it, but he was far too strong. Even with Spiritual Power continuing to flow into her, she could not seem to move his foot.

That was when she realized the truth.

“My… followers…” she gasped.

The Sekbeist Overlord’s dark cackling raised the hair on her arms and neck. “You noticed your Spiritual Powers are waning. I’m sure Leblos, Gorrick, Wutend, and Unglau are taking care of your followers as we speak. They grow bored when they have nothing to do, you see.”

It was something Fray hadn’t thought about, but now her enemy had brought it up, she realized how foolish she had been not to consider the Zehn Todesharr in their plans. She had only focused on the Sekbeist Overlord. He was the greatest threat, true, but he wasn’t the only threat, and now she was paying the price for her hubris.

“Okay. It is time for you to die now,” he said, reaching out with his hand. He removed his foot, but Fray could not escape before he grabbed her face and lifted her into the air. Her feet dangled as she grabbed his arm and struggled to break free. That stopped when he squeezed so hard she thought her face might crack like an egg. “Stop struggling. I don’t plan to kill you yet. Unfortunately, creating creatures from nothing is not something the Concept of Negation is meant to do. Creating negative beings requires a complex ritual, so you’ll live for awhile yet. Hmm. But I should definitely render you unconscious. It would be a pain if I had to keep my eyes on you.”

Fray was already prepared to give up as she listened to this man speak. It really was impossible to beat him. If she had not listened to Eryk, if she had gone after the Zehn Todesharr before they could break the seal, then perhaps she could have avoided all of this.

I can’t believe… this is how my life and life of my people ends…

Just as she gave into that defeatist thought, the Sekbeist Overlord screamed in surprise and let go of her. She fell to the ground with a thump. Her butt jolted, but she ignored the almost gentle pain and looked up as someone stepped in front of her. She could see nothing but the back of his blue and black jacket and long green hair, but she didn’t need to see anything else.

Before she could say anything, a loud sound like something breaking the sound barrier forced her to look at the Sekbeist Overlord. Another figure had appeared before him. This one was a blonde woman. Her dress was cut just above her knees, and she was wearing crystalline white armor that looked pristine and ethereal. She had once seen her father and Tor wear similar armor, though their designs were a bit more imposing. This armor looked regal and fit the young woman wearing it perfectly.

Spinning in the woman’s hand was a ransuer. She thrust the weapon at the Sekbeist Overlord, who blocked the attack with a hand covered in darkness. The two attacks clashed. To Fray’s surprise, it was the Sekbeist Overlord who was pushed back. He stumbled, and the woman used that moment to swing her ranseur again, the blade slicing through black armor like it was butter.

“Gurk!” The Sekbeist Overlord stumbled back, placed a hand against his chest, and switched his glare from the woman to the man and back again. “Interlopers! How dare you interfere with my activities!”

The man standing protectively in front of Fray snorted, then turned away and faced her, turning his back on the Sekbeist Overlord like the man wasn’t worth his time. He held out his hand to Fray. The smile on his face was easy-going and relaxed, like he hadn’t just intervened when she was about to be killed.

“Are you okay, Fray?” he asked.

“Eryk,” Fray groaned as she grabbed his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “You’re late.”

“Sorry. We got… held up.”

There was something about the way he said “held up” that made her wonder just what he had been doing, but she didn’t get the chance to ask before something began flowing into her. Fray gasped as her body became invigorated. The wounds she had suffered healed as if they never happened, and even the Spiritual Power she had lost came back.

“This should be enough to compensate you,” he said. “Thank you for holding out for so long. Please leave the rest to us.”

“Okay,” Fray agreed immediately. She couldn’t say anything else. Eryk sounded so confident, so sure of himself, that she could not help but feel like everything would be fine if she left it to him. What happened to him during his time in closed-door training?

Yet even as she easily agreed to leave everything to him, she noticed something.

“Where are the rest of your wives?”

Eryk’s smile turned into a grin. “We noticed the Zehn Todesharr were harassing your people, so they are taking care of them for you.”

“Oh,” was all she could say.

“Now, you might want to get away from here,” Eryk continued. “This place is about to get… messy.”

Fray nodded and quickly began flying away. The Sekbeist Overlord roared and sent a barrage of black missiles that curved through the air to attack her. Kari appeared between Fray and the missiles. She swung her ransuer with ease, cutting through air and space alike. The dark missiles were split apart and vanished.

She’s… using the Concept of Creation!

Fray continued to fly away, but in her heart, she couldn’t stop herself from feeling awe at how easily Kari wielded what many in her realm considered to be the greatest of the seven concepts. She spared one last glance toward Eryk as he stood before the Sekbeist Overlord. Hope blossomed within her breast. Perhaps he really could defeat this monstrous creature.

***

I felt oddly calm as I stood before the Sekbeist Overlord, the creature who was responsible for all the suffering I’d gone through now that I thought back on it. The Demon Beast Invasion of Nevaria had been a plot perpetuated by the Great Overlord of the First Realm, Ask, who had been possessed by the Sekbeist Overlord’s hand, which had been sealed inside of him. Kari and Kayli had been killed by the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm, who had the Sekbeist Overlord’s mind sealed away. Both of them were a part of this man. It would not be a stretch to say that all my pain and suffering could be traced back to him.

“You… I remember you,” the Sekbeist Overlord snarled. “You are that brat who kept interfering with my plans to revive.”

“Are you referring to when you possessed Ask and Weib?” I shrugged. “Don’t tell me you’re surprised.”

The Sekbeist Overlord snorted. “Hmph. I am not surprised that you interfered with my plans. I’m more surprised that you were able to succeed. Were it not for my creations’ resourceful cunning, I daresay I would have never been revived thanks to you.”

I stored away that knowledge that the Zehn Todesharr, who were directly responsible for this monster’s revival, were considered mere “creations” for later thought. It seemed the Sekbeist Lords were not so different from the Sekbeist Slaves they ordered around.

“I would have been much happier if you never revived, but I think I always knew it would happen eventually. I knew that one day, I would stand here in front of you, that I would stand in your way,” I said.

Fray was already gone now, and Kari flew back to the ground and joined me. The Sekbeist Overlord glanced at the woman. From how his eyes widened in recognition, I could only guess he remembered her from my previous life.

“So you knew this day would come, did you?” The Sekbeist Overlord scoffed as he held out his hand. Darkness coalesced in his palm and formed the shape of a black sword with jagged edges. He swung the weapon once, cutting through this world and its laws as easily as cutting through tofu. “It does not matter. You are strong. I can feel the Spiritual Power flowing through you, but I can sense that you are sharing that power with six others, including the girl beside you. Such a feeble method of increasing ones power will not be enough to defeat me.”

“We shall see,” I said.