WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 2

I woke up to a weight on my chest and two sets of eyes staring into mine. One of them was a vivacious blue so deep the endless sky could never compare, while the other was vibrant emerald with black slits running through their centers instead of rounded pupils. Of course, the two staring at me was Kari and Siv.

Their eyes were asking me, “Care to explain what this is about?”

I looked down.

Like I expected, Tora was sleeping on my chest.

I looked back up at Kari and Siv. I could feel sweat breaking out on my skin.

“I can explain this…” I began, trailing off as I realized I wasn’t sure what to say. This had never happened before.

Last night, Tora had cried herself to sleep in my arms. I had carried the girl to her room and attempted to leave after putting her to bed, but she’d latched onto me and wouldn’t let go. This normally wasn’t a problem. I had experience with clingy woman via Lin and her snake hugs, but Tora was impressive. She’d used the Concept of Creation to somehow prevent me from leaving. It was like… like she’d manipulated the biological functions in my body that provided locomotion.

I only knew a little about the Concept of Creation. It was said to be the most powerful concept because you could literally create anything with it, but I think it had an even greater range of application. If you could create something, then surely you could also manipulate that which already existed. In which case, it would be very easy to manipulate a person’s body like she had done last night.

And to think Tora had done it subconsciously.

What a terrifying woman.

Of course, the real problem was my wives.

Kari and Siv stared at me for several moments longer, and I could have sworn I’d lost buckets of water sweating under their gaze. Then they smiled. They were very mischievous smiles.

“We know,” Kari confessed with a giggle. “We heard Tora crying last night.”

“So… you know what happened?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh.” I breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned. “Wait. That means you were messing with me just now!”

“Of course.” Kari’s smile grew brighter by several decibels. “You can’t expect me to miss out on such prime material. Consider this payback for when we first met.”

Back when she and I first met, I teased Kari to the point where she ran out of the library in embarrassment. That must be what she was talking about.

So this was what people meant when they said women were great at holding a grudge.

***

The days passed by at a crawl. Seven days was not a long time—certainly, the four years I’d spent wandering Ironwood Forest were much longer. However, the seven days spent waiting for the master smiths to forge the key that would open the Warp Gate to Miðgarðr felt like decades compared to then. Every day was agonizing as the hours slowly ticked by.

To pass the time, I trained myself harder than I ever had before, sparring with Kari, Siv, Chloe, and Tora. I fought and fought and fought, and when one of the girls grew exhausted, I fought someone else. Even Chloe found herself unable to continue with my hellacious training.

I knew I should stop. I knew I needed rest. But sparring like this, refining my skills and understanding over the Concepts of Life and Death, was the only thing I could do to avoid thinking about how slowly time was passing.

While my understanding over the Concept of Life had not gotten anywhere, I did gain a greater understanding of Death thanks to Chloe. She was also a master of death. It was one of the three concepts she had mastered along with space and time.

I was not the only one who improved. Kari’s understanding over the Concept of Time increased by leaps and bounds. The woman might not have Fay’s martial prowess, but she was a genius when it came to anything academic, and understanding the concepts was a truly academic pursuit. She had also continued to hone her mastery of runes. I was certain the only person alive now who could outdo her in runes was Hriedmar.

Siv’s abilities were also taking dramatic leaps. She was not a genius like Kari, but what she lacked in understanding, she made up for with determination. Siv did not want to be left behind. She wanted to become the strongest Drakvar in all nine realms, to gain the power she needed to protect everything she loved. This gave her the determination to increase her understanding over the Concept of Space, which gave her a significant boost in power.

One thing I was beginning to realize was that achieving greater understanding of concepts did was give a qualitative leap in strength. It wasn’t the same as reaching the Fourth State of Spiritualism, which increased a Spiritualist’s power by nearly ten times. Instead, it was more like a refining of Spiritual Power, like polishing a diamond of its rough edges.

Like this, the days passed until it was time to leave for Miðgarðr.

***

I had not been back to the room with the Warp Gate since Hriedmar and the Zehn Todesharr traveled through it. It looked a lot different now that it wasn’t filled with enemies. The large room could probably fit a couple hundred people inside. And in the center of this room, was the intricately crafted Warp Gate, which looked like a mirror image of the Warp Gate back in Nevaria.

Fray was standing with us alongside one-thousand Valkyries. This was the most she could afford to take with us. We weren’t even sure if the gate would remain open long enough to let everyone pass through.

She wasn’t alone. Tor and Sif were present to see us off.

“I don’t need to tell you how dangerous this is, Sister,” Tor said as he placed his hands on Fray’s shoulders.

“You don’t. I know what we are up against. However, this is not something we can afford to ignore,” Fray said.

“I know.” Tor stepped away from Fray and walked up to me. “Take care of yourself, Eryk!”

I grunted as Tor slapped me on the back several times. As always, the force of his shoulder slaps was so strong that I nearly fell on my face.

“I’ll do my best,” I said wryly.

Kari and Siv giggled at my predicament.

“And you, Siv. Be sure to stay safe!” Tor boomed.

“Eek! Er. Ah. I mean yes!” Siv said.

I almost shook my head. Tor had a thing for petite women. His wife Sif was around the same height and proportions as Siv. I thought maybe it was just a coincidence at first, but it turned out the leader of the God Race was just into smaller women.

While we were going through that little moment, Fray was patting a tearful Sif on the head like an exasperated older sister.

“Please be safe, Sister!”

“I will. You have my word.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Hrm. I’ll hold you to that. If you don’t come back, I’ll resurrect your spirit and bind you to my armor.”

“That sounds very unpleasant, so please don’t.”

It was an interesting conversation, to say the least.

“Are you three ready?” Fray asked us as we stood before the Warp Gate.

“I am,” I said.

“Me too,” Kari added.

Siv just nodded.

Tora and Chloe were standing beside us. Chloe was still dressed as a maid, which I thought was odd, but none of the other Valkyries seemed bothered by this. I wondered if maybe they were used to her eccentricities. I was fairly certain Chloe had a maid fetish.

Unlike the maid, Tora was decked out in streamlined silver armor. The armor was crafted from a type of rare Demon Beast called a Sky Drake. It was a Demon Beast that had a wind affinity. This particular armor was made from a Sky Drake that also understood the Concept of Life, which meant the armor was filled with the vivacity of life itself. Runes covered much of the surface. They provided further protection.

I must admit that Tora made a striking figure as she stood beside us, a sword at her waist, armor covering her body, both protecting her and revealing the splendid lines of her magnificent figure.

“Okay. Since you three are ready, let us begin,” Fray said.

She was also wearing armor this time. She was dressed in what appeared to be an upgraded version of Valkyrie armor. It was both revealing but also provided protection in all the areas that mattered. The breastplate didn’t cover her stomach, but it did protect her chest. Gauntlets, greaves, and pauldrons helped fill in the gaps. She even had a pleated skirt that looked like it was made from the hide of a Demon Beast.

Held in her right hand was the Warp Gate key, which looked less like a key and more like a tiny obelisk.

She walked over to the Warp Gate and inserted the key into a pedetal. A soft click was followed by another as Fray turned the key. The pedestal lit up with glowing runes, which spread across the ground, connected to the Warp Gate, and continued on until even the Warp Gate was covered in glowing symbols.

I would have called the sight beautiful, but I could say nothing as a low thrum echoed around the chamber. Sparks flew from the pedestal. Fray grimaced as the key the blacksmith’s had forged shattered. However, a gate suddenly opened in the archway. Inky blackness undulated like a writhing mass of tentacles. It looked highly unstable.

“Everyone! Rush through!” Fray commanded.

Kari, Siv, and I were at the front, and so we raced through the Warp Gate, holding hands. It was a good thing we had grabbed onto each other. The moment the Warp Gate appeared, an incredible force tore into us, threatening to rip us away from each other.

“Eryk!!!” Kari and Siv screamed my name.

I gritted my teeth and pulled them to me. There was no way I would lose them again, not after what happened last time.

Kari and Siv clung to me as we hurtled through the dimensional gate. I could see nothing but darkness surrounding us all sides. It looked like we were flying through a tunnel at high speeds. Yet even as we flew, white cracks began appearing on the surface. Brilliant white light filled my eyes, then turned into a prism of colors that clashed against the darkness of the tunnel. The sight was so dizzying that I felt sick looking at it, so I closed my eyes and prayed to all nine realms that this terrible experience would be over with soon.

And then it was over.

I felt an incredible heat slam into me from all sides as myself, Kari, and Siv struck something hard. Sand kicked up all around us. I coughed and sputtered alongside my wives as it got in our eyes, mouths, and ears. This was the most unpleasant feeling I’d experienced in quite a while.

I manipulated the earth around us so we could stand up.

“Are you two okay?” I asked.

“We are fine,” Kari answered for them both. “However, it seems we are nowhere near Nevaria.”

I turned my head in every direction and saw nothing but sand, sand, and more sand. The heat from the sun baked my body. I manipulated the water element to cool myself down. It was an instinctive reaction. Most of my attention was focused on our surroundings.

“Is this the Endless Desert?” I asked.

“Seems like it,” Kari said.

I took a deep breath. “It looks like the Warp Gate was so unstable it broke before we could reach our destination. I’m certain the others have also been scattered across Miðgarðr, which means we’ll need to find them eventually. For now, let’s try and find a city so we can orient ourselves.”

“That’s about all we can do right now.” Kari patted the dust from her outfit.

“Let’s take to the sky,” Siv suggest before, with a mighty flap of her wings that kicked up sand, she flew into the air.

Kari and I shared an amused smile before following her.

***

Raul stared at the blowing sand and dust from his perch. He was standing on one of the tallest points of Queen Medusa’s palace, looking out at the desert as the winds buffeted his scarlet hair.

He currently was not on duty. Raul often came to this spot when he wasn’t on duty, training, or helping his mother refine alchemy pills. He liked it up here. It was quiet, peaceful, and the heat didn’t bother him since he could just manipulate the water and wind elements to remain cool.

Father…

Whenever Raul was alone, his thoughts often turned to his father. Eight years had passed since his father, Big Sister Kari, and Smol Sister Siv vanished without a single trace. They had fought against a man called the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm and disappeared. No one knew what happened to them. Many people believed they were dead. Only Mom and Aunty Lin believed they were still alive.

Raul also believed they were alive.

However…

Where are you, Father? When will you come back? We need you so badly right now. I need you. Mom needs you. Aunty Lin needs you. So please… please return home.

Raul sighed as these thoughts flew through his head and vanished like one of the Endless Desert’s breezes.

“I thought I’d find you here,” a voice said behind him.

Raul turned just head head to look at the Lamia slithering up to him. It was a woman with dark skin, a pointed shin, shallow cheeks, and a flat nose. She was dressed in leather armor covered in runes and a sarong that covered her nether regions. Raul remembered how, when he first met this woman, he’d been shocked to silence by her nudity.

Then again, all the Lamia had been naked when he first met them.

“Aliya, did you need something?” he asked.

Aliya shook her head and smiled, which managed to soften the harshness of her features. While she wasn’t the prettiest Lamia he knew (that title belonged to Aunty Lin and Queen Medusa), she looked much better when she was smiling.

“I do not need anything. I just thought you might like some company,” she said.

“Oh. I’m fine.” Raul shook his head and tried to smile at her.

“You are a terrible liar, you know.” Aliya was now standing beside Raul. The smile had not left as she gazed down at him like a fond older sister. “Whenever you are worried, you come up here to think.” She paused as her eyes became even gentler. “You are thinking about your father, right?”

Unable to withstand her gaze, Raul turned around. “Do you think Father, Big Sis, and Little Sis are dead?”

Aliya did not say anything at first. There was conflict on her face. Of course, she probably assumed they were dead like everyone else. It had been eight years since the three of them had been seen. If they were still alive, then surely they would have come back by now. That was what everyone else told him.

Raul looked at the people down below, at the mixture of Lamia, humans, and beastfolk. This place had once belonged exclusively to the Lamia, but now there were thousands of others mixing in. Light skinned people like Raul mingled with dark-skinned humans and Lamia. Everyone was working together, shoring up their defenses, transporting food and water, and bonding over the hardships they were all facing.

Adversity often had an odd way of bringing people together, Raul reflected.

“It is hard to say,” Aliya confessed at last, shrugging. “Your father and his two wives are incredibly powerful. They are stronger than anyone I have ever met. One of them is even a Drakvar. I do not believe they would be defeated by just anyone. However, it has been eight years… why have they not returned? Where are they? I cannot believe a man like Eryk would vanish without a trace like this if he was still alive.”

Raul’s shoulders slumped little by little as the woman continued talking. He was perfectly aware of how logical and sound her argument was. There was little he could do to dispute them.

“And yet…” Aliya began.

Raul perked up. “And yet?”

“And yet Princess Lin believes they are alive, and I believe in Princess Lin,” Aliya said with a smile. “If she believes they are still alive, then I will believe what she believes. What you believe,” she added in a softer voice.

“Thank you,” Raul said, his voice choked with emotion.

Aliya just smiled at him before they both turned to look at the sandstorm that continued to swirl around the city like an endless tornado.

***

The scent of medicinal ingredients filled the air. Numerous scents mixed together. The smell of thousand year fern mixed with Sand Crawler blood. Thousand year ginseng combined with Desert Skunk to create an oddly pleasant perfume. Fay took this scent in with little more than a gentle whiff as she continued working, watching the ingredients as they floated in front of her with a keen eye.

Fay no longer needed an alchemy set to refine alchemy pills.

It was something she had discovered a few years after Eryk, Kari, and Siv vanished. She’d been trying to create a more efficient way of refining alchemy pills. At the time, she had wondered if using an alchemy set was really necessary. What was an alchemy set anyway? It was a set of beakers, flasks, and a cauldron meant to hold ingredients while they were being refined. But what if she could do all of that with her Spiritual Power alone? What if she cut out the middle man, as it were. Fay had set about experimenting, combining Spiritualism with Alchemy to eventually create this refining method.

She called it the Spiritual Cauldron Refining Method.

No one else could use this method aside from her right now. She was teaching her son, and he was close to learning this ability, but her two apprentices lacked the Spiritual Power needed to use it. From what she’d seen, mastering the Spiritual Cauldron Refining Method required complete mastery over all seven elements.

The water and earth elements allowed her to quantify the ingredients.

The wind element let her contain the ingredients.

The fire, light, and darkness elements allowed her to refine the ingredients under a variety of different temperatures.

By combining all seven elements together, Fay had created a unique alchemy refining method that only a few people would probably ever be able to use. She smiled at the thought of teaching Eryk this method when he returned from wherever he had been sent to.

Fay watched the ingredients hovering around her, reaching out with her perceptions and the elements to figure out the correct temperature needed to refine each ingredient. Different ingredients required different methods and temperatures to properly refine. It normally took guesswork to find the proper procedure, but Fay could skip that method entirely. Watching and waiting, Fay knew exactly when all of the ingredients had been refined.

She clenched her hand into a fist.

The thousands of different ingredients that had been floating around her suddenly flew together. It seemed like they would slam into each other, but Fay controlled each separate ingredient perfectly so they merged without incident, and then used her Spiritual Power to compress all those ingredients into a tiny pill form.

She held out her hand.

The pill landed gently on her palm.

It was about the size of a marble, its edges perfectly smooth, its color reminiscent to the sands of the Endless Desert. This was an original pill she had created using her understanding of the earth element. She called it Mud Pill. While it sounded disgusting, it was a pill that could allow someone who had the earth element to break through to the Fourth State of Spiritualism. She’d already made several of these pills for the Lamia and humans of the Endless Desert. It was thanks to her pills that Queen Medusa, the Lamia Council, King Menes, and many others had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism for their elements.

“All done,” she said with a smile.

She put her pill away and began stretching—when a knock sounded at her door.

“Master? It’s Sana and Lilac,” a voice said from the other side.

“Come in,” Fay called out.

The door opened and two people walked inside. One of them was an olive-skinned beauty with purple eyes, while the other was an albino with skin whiter than fresh snow, red eyes, and pure white hair. They were dressed in the traditional robes of an Alchemist Grandmaster. Fay thought the white and gold looked good on them.

Sana and Lilac had long since outgrown calling her “big sister.” Now they called her “Master.” She personally did not think it was a step up, but they had been calling her that for several years now, and she had given up on making them change.

“Is there something wrong?” asked Fay.

Sana shook her head. “Nothing is wrong, but it’s time for the meeting.”

“We came to get you,” Lilac added.

“Ah. I’d forgotten all about that,” Fay confessed with a sigh.

She was so busy refining alchemy pills these days that the only time she ever got outside was when she wanted to train with her son and some of the other Spiritualists. She also went to these meetings, but they only happened once every seven days. It was a basic meeting in which the leaders of this group went over various reports, settled disputes, and passed laws to help the many displaced peoples integrate better.

“Give me a moment to clean everything up,” Fay said.

“Allow us to help,” Sana replied.

“We’ll have this place cleaned in no time!” Lilac added.

Fay smiled and allowed the two women to help her. The room she used to refine her alchemy was not messy by any means, but there was a lot of residue from the various ingredients. Refining without an alchemy set was much faster but always left residue behind. That residue was the useless parts of the ingredients that added nothing to the pill. This was also one of the reasons she refined without an alchemy set. Sure, it made a bit of a mess, but her pills were far purer than anyone else’s because they contained none of the impurities.

Once her room was cleaned up, she left with Sana and Lilac, traveling through the palace until they reached a pair of double-doors guarded by a human and a Lamia. It looked like the guard today was the quiet Earland and a Lamia whose name Fay didn’t know. She nodded at her brother-in-law as she stepped through the open doors and into the meeting hall.

This meeting hall used to be the throne room, but Queen Medusa had decided there was no point in having a throne room since she was no longer the queen—at least, in name. She was still considered the ruler of all Lamia, but there were several people now with them who possessed the same or even greater power than herself. Those people were King Menes, Qawuin, Ashten, and Alexis Mutig. Each person here had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism for two or more elements, meaning they were the strongest people in their group.

Her son had also three elements, but he was considered too young to worry about leading their people.

“You are late,” Medusa said with a sigh.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to clean the mess I’d made before coming here,” Fay said as she stepped up to the round table and took her seat. Sana and Lilac took a place on either side of Fay’s seat. Their presence did draw a few eyes to them, but they studiously ignored the looks from Ashten, Alexis, and King Menes.

Queen Medusa sighed. “It is fine. This queen knows how meticulous you are.”

“Now that Fay is here, I believe we can begin the meeting,” Ashten said, coughing into his hand. “King Menes? Is there anything to report?”

King Menes straightened in his seat. Despite looking like the oldest among them, he still had the presence of a ruler that perfectly matched the snake queen.

“The Sekbeists still has not discovered our location thanks to the Lamia’s unique sand manipulation abilities. However, they continue to scour the desert in search of us and other survivors. We have helped another hundred survivors cross the desert and are in the process of getting them settled in.”

“What about our food supplies?” asked Queen Medusa. “How are they?”

Everyone looked at Qawuin, who sat with his shoulders squared and looked ahead. His demeanor reminded Fay very much of a soldier… which he was now that she thought of it. She’d nearly forgotten that he used to be a soldier under King Menes before their world had been turned upside.

“Our stocks of food are holding for the moment. We have Lady Fay to thank for that. It is thanks to her knowledge of ingredients that our crop yield has been as good as it is. With our current supply and the careful breeding of animals, we can still consider ourselves self-sufficient.” He paused here, then sighed. “Saying that, the journey to our farms is still dangerous even with the sandstorms. I do not know how long it will fool the Sekbeists.”

The sandstorm was created from two dozen Lamia and humans combining the earth and wind elements. It did not keep people from moving inside of it. However, it did make sighting anything within the sandstorm impossible. What made this sandstorm the perfect camouflage was its size. It covered a one thousand square kilometer radius, making it the largest sandstorm to date.

“Have the Sekbeist tried to breech the sandstorm lately?” asked Ashten.

“They have,” Alexis said. She was in charge of their defenses. “About three days ago, a battalion of five thousand Grunts and maybe two-hundred Elites and Warlords charged into the sandstorm. We killed them, of course. There hasn’t been a large force attempting to enter again. However, there have been several smaller forces coming and going. We assume they are trying to discover the location of this city without being seen.”

“And you are certain your squads have killed all of them?” asked Queen Medusa.

Alexis shrugged. “As certain as I can be.”

Fay listened to everyone talk without speaking. She was only on this council because of her power. As the only person currently present who had mastered every single element, she was the strongest person there. Only one person could match her right now.

Speaking of…

“Has Lin still not come out of closed-door training?” asked Fay.

“She has not,” Queen Medusa stated with a sight. “This queen is worried for her daughter. It has been one year since she traveled into the heart of the palace to train… but there is little to be done. We cannot interrupt Lin unless we want to run the risk of damaging her cultivation.”

Fay bit her lower lip. One year ago, Lin had declared that she needed to get stronger and ordered her mother to open the lowest levels of the palace for her. Queen Medusa would have denied anyone else, but not only was Lin her daughter, she was the only person aside from Fay who had mastered every element.

Only Queen Medusa knew what truly lied behind the door that led into the deepest parts of the palace. There was something sealed inside of the room down there. Queen Medusa did not know exactly what it was, but according to a legend passed down from mother to daughter among her family, there was a Drakvar who had committed a great tab boo and was punished by being sealed away for all eternity. The story went that the Lamia people were actually this Drakvar’s creation.

“Does anyone else have anything to add to this meeting?” asked Ashten. No one said anything. “In that case—”

“Whoa! Fay! Your chest! Your chest is glowing!”

As Fay was thinking about Lin, Alexis suddenly started shouting and pointing at her. Fay looked down. Her chest was indeed glowing. She blinked several times, at a loss for words, but then her eyes widened as she loosened her armor, clothes, and pulled them back to look at her chest.

These runes, which had been silent and only let her know that Eryk was still alive, were now glowing a bright blue. What did this mean? Fay did not dare to hope, but a theory quickly formed in her mind. However, before she could give voice to his joyful thought, shouting could be heard from beyond the door.

“You cannot be here! There is a meeting going on!”

“I don’t care! Get out of my way!”

The angry voice arguing with Earland on the other end sounded familiar. Fay turned around as the doors were slammed open and Zane stumbled into the room. He was breathing heavily, nostrils flaring, face dark red. He looked like he’d run from one end of the Endless Desert to the other without stopping.

“What is the meaning of this?” demanded King Menes.

Qawuin raised his hand to calm the king and peered at Zane, who looked ten seconds away from passing out. Only now did Fay notice that he had received extensive injuries. His left shoulder and right face were showing bone and muscle. He must have been in excruciating pain, but he still he stood and marched over to the table under the eyes of every leader present.

“I… have urgent news,” he exclaimed.

“What is it?” asked Qawuin.

“It’s the Sekbeists!” he gasped. “A large army, the largest we’ve ever seen, is marching toward the city!”