WIEDERGEBURT Act VI: Chapter 41

Klaue stood inside of the tree house that had been abandoned by Fray and her ilk, having taken it for himself after they escaped. He was hunched over a map of Ironwood Forest. The map was spread over a table. With his hands pressed firmly on the tabletop, fingers splayed, he looked over the map with a frustrated grimace.

“An entire month… a whole fucking month, and I still haven’t found them! What in the nine realms are my men doing?!”

This past month had been the worst.

First, he let Fray and those blasted Valkyries escaped. He didn’t think this was his fault and personally blamed it on those damn brats who surprised him with their earth manipulation--Eryk and those two women who were with him, the Drakvar and the human. When he caught them, he was going to break those bitches and turn them into his cumsluts. He would make sure to do this in front of Eryk. It would be suitable punishment for humiliating him.

After Fray and the others escaped, he had sent his men out in a net formation to find them. Yet no matter how much the net closed, he couldn’t find a single person, not hide nor hair of them. It was like they had completely disappeared from the face of the earth.

If that were all of his problems, Klaue might have considered himself lucky, but on top of not being able to find Fray and her fellow bitches, all the men he sent to gather reinforcements had not returned with reinforcements--or at all. It should not have taken more than three days to reach Ásgarðr. That meant it should have taken seven days to return. Three days to get there, one to gather reinforcements, and three to get back. When seven days had passed and his men never returned, he sent another squadron.

They never returned either.

It was now one month, and he had sent a total of six squads. He assumed someone was picking off his soldiers and sent three squadrons last time. His men were strong, had the best equipment available, and were well-coordinated. With so many of his men on the job, they would surely get it done.

Except they didn’t.

No one had returned.

After that last squadron of three vanished and never returned, more of his men began disappearing. It was sometimes in ones and twos. A few men would go off to relieve themselves and never come back. However, sometimes an entire squadron would disappear. He’d lost a total of ten squads in half as many days.

He had brought one battalion with him. A battalion was composed of one thousand soldiers, four companies of two hundred and fifty men, which was further divided into twelve platoons each consisting of fourteen squads of six. He’d currently lost sixteen squads, meaning over one platoon had been decimated, and he didn’t have anything to show for it.

Reaching up, Klaue gripped his hair and pulled on it, snarling as he glared at the map like all this was its fault. He was at his wits end. What should have been a simple fucking mission to secure that bitch had turned into a nightmare!

“My Lord! I have a… are you okay, My Lord?”

Klaue whirled on the man who had intruded into his thoughts, his very glare sending the man staggering back. The soldier was young and fresh-faced. A total greenhorn. That was why Klaue kept him as an aid and messenger, because he would be totally useless in real combat right now until he gained more experience.

“I am fine. What is your report?” Klaue asked, visibly shuddering as he calmed down.

“My Lord! We have located Lady Fray!”

“Lady Fray?” Klaue raised an eyebrow.

The young man flushed. “Er… I mean, we have discovered the traitor, Fray.”

Klaue nodded and spoke in a deliberately slow tone to this young man. “I understand that it might be hard to think of her as a traitor, but do not forget that this bitch has refused to come with us and instead resists us. Our new regime cannot allow someone of her caliber to begin a rebellion.”

“I understand, My Lord.”

“You had better. Now, what was this about Fray?”

“My Lord, we have discovered her attempting to run east. We assume she is trying to reach Fehltgarde.”

Klaue looked down at his map, placed a finger on it, and drew his finger east across the map. It only showed Ironwood Forest and none of the surrounding area, but he had been around for a long time. He knew there were villages, towns, and even a few cities outside of Ásgarðr, though most of them had been lost to the overwhelming numbers of the Sekbeist. Fehltgarde was one of the few larger cities that remained.

“Fehltgarde is over six thousand kilometers from Ironwood Forest. Even if they are traveling with a company of one hundred Valkyries, the journey would still be filled with peril. Are you sure that is where they are traveling?” he asked the young man.

“All we really know is they have been spotted traveling east,” his aide said.

“Hmmm…” He thought for a long moment before making his decision. “Very well. It looks like they have finally decided to make a break for it. Tell Gerard to take three companies and give chase. Capture them. Since they have given us so much trouble, it’s only right and just that we take their chastity as recompense.” He paused and remembered something. “Oh, but leave the one called Eryk and his two bitches for me. They are not to be sullied.”

“Yes, My Lord!”

The young man left to relay his orders to one of his commanders. He turned back to the map and frowned at it. Was Fray really trying to reach Fehltgarde? Despite himself, he could not help but feel like there was something odd about her sudden movement after an entire month of remaining still.

He shook his head and snarled. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll capture that bitch, and I will pry every fucking secret out of that mouth of hers as I ravage her.”

Klaue put his concerns out of his mind and instead imagined what he would do when he finally had that cunt in his grasp. Yes, he was going to have so much fun with her.

***

Fray traveled at the head of her Valkyries. Running alongside her were two squad captains who had proven themselves in combat many times and done a great job organizing her forces during these trying times--Lana and Kayla. While she would have preferred relying on Chloe, that woman was dedicating her time to Eryk. She didn’t blame the woman. And these two were plenty talented.

“My Lady, our scouts report that Klaue has taken the bait,” Lana said suddenly, cocking her head to the side. Fray could just barely make out the small device in her ear. It looked like a black rock, but it was smooth to the couch and covered in runes.

“How many took the bait?” she asked.

“It looks like… three companies are chasing us.”

“Three whole companies?” Fray furrowed her brow. “I had been hoping they would send more, but I guess Klaue doesn’t think he needs to send all his men.”

Eryk, Kari, and Siv had killed ninety-six of Klaue’s soldiers, which meant there were only one hundred and fifty-four guarding Klaue right now. That was still more than she wanted. It would be hard to kill Klaue when so many men were guarding him.

“It seems this is the best we can do,” Fray said at last. “Let’s force them to keep giving chase. We will make our stand just inside of Gebirge Pass. Are the traps set?”

“Yes, My Lady,” Kayla said. “Gertrude and Ingraine have set the traps. All that’s left is to reach Gebirge Pass, wait for Klaue’s forces to reach us, and activate them.”

“Good. Then let us keep going.”

Fray and her company continued traveling, and Fray received constant updates on Klaue’s forces via Lana. The device in her ear was a “communicator” made by Kari. It was linked to a corresponding communicator, which allowed her and the person wearing the other one to speak. It was an ingenious device. She was shocked that no one had ever thought to create one until now.

Klaue’s forces were keeping up with her own, but they were not gaining on her either. Their group was too large to travel fast. Fray and her group could have lost them at this point. Doing so would have ruined their purpose, however, and so Fray had them all travel at a speed that Klaue’s forces could keep up with.

They eventually burst out of the forest, crossed a river, and soon found themselves running across a vast expanse of barren ground. Very little existed in this area. There was lifeless gravel and maybe a few shrubs. Just a few dozen kilometers out were the Gebrige Mountains, a vast mountain range that was at least a thousand kilometers across and curved around the Ironwood Forest like a crescent moon.

The Gebrige Mountains was home to many powerful Demon Beasts with powerful earth and fire affinities. Her people used to hunt Flame Salamanders and Metallic Earth Golems, but they had not been able to do so for over several hundred years. Even now, the Sekbeist had bases stationed inside the mountain.

“They are coming,” Lana shouted.

Fray turned just her head as she kept running and saw three companies worth of soldiers rush out of the forest and cross the river.

Now that they were traveling across an open space, Klaue’s forces would be able to travel faster. It would only be a matter of time before they caught up.

“Increase your speed!” Fray ordered.

Putting action into word, Fray pumped her body with Spiritual Power. Enhancing one’s body was a fundamental skill of Spiritualism. Guddomelig were naturals at it, and some like her could even use concepts to increase their physical prowess. When she used the concept of space, her body was capable of tearing through spaces. Of course, the best concepts to use for body enhancement were life and creation.

With their bodies enhanced, she and her Valkyries blitzed across the desert, setting a hellacious pace that kicked up dust in their wake. The enemy saw this and increased their own speed. However, they were still just a little slower. That armor of their gave them incredible protection, but it slowed their movement.

Gebrige Pass soon loomed ahead of them. It was not massive like Drachen Pass, in which Lindwurm Fortress sat, but the precipitous cliffs were over a thousand meters tall and the pass was at least twenty meters across. The afternoon sun blazed overhead as she and her Valkyries charged into the pass. They ran for nearly a kilometer before abruptly stopping and turning around to face their incoming adversaries. Fray made sure she was standing in the middle of the rune array that had been drawn into the ground prior to their arrival.

They didn’t have to wait long.

Klaue’s soldiers all slowed to a stop when they were less than fifty meters away. They didn’t get closer. Most of them seemed wary of getting too close. If Fray had to guess, she would have said they were nervous because of how many people Eryk and his wives had killed during the past month. The thought made her want to giggle.

“Finally decided to stop running, have you?” a man asked as he walked to stand before the other soldiers.

He was a big man with a lot of hair on his head, face, and probably his chest and back too. She was reminded of a bear. Not only was he covered in hair, but his body was massive, easily twice her height. Like the rest of these soldiers, his body was covered in brilliant armor.

“I felt like this place was good enough to become your graves,” Fray said with a smile.

“Tch! I can see why Lord Klaue gets so upset when he talks about you. Fucking bitch. I’m gonna enjoy putting you in your place.”

His words made her smile widen. “My place is standing over your corpse.”

She couldn’t remember who this man was, though she was sure they had been introduced during military functions at some point in time. It wasn’t like his name mattered. The men in the Northern Division were all the same--thieves, murderers, and rapists every one of them. Klaue drew like minded people to him. The only reason the Northern Division hadn’t been demolished was because they couldn’t afford to fight with each other.

Fat lot of good that did.

Tor should have known people like this would eventually caused problems and put them down like rabid dogs.

“Get them!” the man ordered. “Remember to take them alive if you can! A corpse is no fun to fuck! Capture the traitor Fray! You can rough her up, but she is not to be fucked! We’re saving her for Lord Klaue!”

Klaue’s men charged toward her and her Valkyries. A few began flying, but most ran. The ones who tried to fly over them were forced to stop when several of her Valkyries flew up and halted their flight. Flying was faster, so it meant they had reached her forces sooner. Fray paid them no attention as she waited until Klaue’s men were within range of her trap.

Then she knelt down, pressed her hands against the rune array, and channeled her Spiritual Power.

The runes underneath her lit up. Lines of power traveled across the ground, spreading across the pass, along the floor, up the cliff walls. They went passed Klaue and his forces, extending for a kilometer before stopping.

“What is this?!” the commander shout. His eyes widened. “Everyone! Take to the sky--!”

That was the last thing he was able to say as the ground beneath him crumbled into a pitch black chasm, as the cliff walls on either side fell inward. His eyes locked with Fray’s. She smiled at him before he and his forces were struck by the collapsing cliffs and sent into the deep chasm.

Dust was kicked up and clogged the air, but Fray used the Concept of Space to simply send it all away, revealing a flat bed of earth and a pass that was now sixty meters wide instead of twenty. However, only the section where Klaue’s men had been was wide. The area just in front of her remained the same, creating a highly unusual shape.

“That was easier than it should have been,” Fray said as she looked up at the sky.

“Lady Kari is truly a frightening individual,” Lana agreed, her eyes wide. “I don’t think anyone else could have created such a devious method for defeating so many soldiers.”

“What should we do now?” asked Kayla.

“Now?” Fray tilted her head back down to look at her subordinates. “Now we wait for Eryk, Kari, Siv, Tora, and Chloe to arrive with Klaue’s head.”

***

There were still quite a few people patrolling Klaue’s makeshift base of operations. I had been hoping Klaue would keep only a token force to guard him and sent most of his men after Fray and her group. I should have expected he’d keep at least one company with him. We were fortunate more than a third of that company had already been slain by us.

“There are still quite a few people,” Kari muttered.

Our group was hidden on a branch high above Klaue’s base. I was using the Concept of Life to mask our presence, blending our very existence into the life force around us. To anyone searching for us, it would feel like we were just another part of the tree, though this was but a fragile illusion at best. It would shatter once someone looked at us.

“Maybe we should create another distraction?” suggest Chloe.

“Or you could just let me go down there and fuck them all up,” Tora announced, her voice a hushed whisper that did nothing to mask her excitement.

Siv remained silent as she crouched at my side, eyes locked with me as I looked at the soldiers patrolling the perimeter. There were over a hundred at least. If these people were regular humans, that would have been fine. We could have killed them easy, but every one of those soldiers was a Guddomelig who had mastered at least one high level concept and had excellent armor, meaning they would be difficult to kill without Kari’s counter runes.

“Kari,” I said at last. “I want you to lead Siv, Chloe, and Tora on an assault on their perimeter. Grab their attention, then fight a tactical battle. Use ambushes, hit and run tactics, and anything else you can think of to whittle their forces down without putting you four at risk.”

“It will be impossible to completely avoid danger,” she said at length.

“I know. Just do your best.”

I never liked sending my wives out to battle, but I knew they disliked me fighting just as much, and I trusted them to remain alive and safe. Our bonds had been forged on trust. I believed that even when up against overwhelming odds, they would be able to emerge from this fight victorious.

The four women with me soon disappeared. I sat with my back against the tree trunk and wrapped my body in life energy, blending completely into the tree. My breathing slowed, my heartbeat all but disappeared, and I became one with the tree.

I did not have to wait long for the distraction to begin; a massive explosion tore apart the ground and sent dozens of soldiers flying. All of them were burnt to a crisp. Their blackened corpses had steam rising from them.

The shock the remaining soldiers must have felt was obvious on their faces. I doubt they realized the reason those runes failed to protect their comrades was because Kari could deactivate them with her own counter runes.

At that moment, Kari, Siv, Chloe, and Tora rushed into the clearing and attacked. Only the people Kari killed died, but the others were able to send a large number of men flying into trees, the ground, and into the air.

“There’s intruders! Intruders are attacking!”

“It’s just four of them! Hurry up and kill them!”

“They’re running!”

“Don’t let them get away!”

I stood up and watched as Kari, Siv, Chloe, and Tora raced away from the soldiers, who chased after them. More and more soldiers began to give chase. I waited for a moment, then merged with the tree and began moving. I traveled through the tree without hindrance, shifting from one tree to another through the branches, until I reached the one Klaue was hiding in. It was the previous tree we had used as our temporary shelter.

“What the fuck is happening out there?!”

Klaue was on the first floor, shouting a young man down, screeching with spittle flying. The vitriol in his voice made the young man tremble.

“M-My Lord, a group of women is attacking us,” the young man said. “We have identified two of them as Chloe and Tora. The other two are the human woman and Drakvar who were with Eryk Vanir. They took off the moment we began to attack. Our forces are currently giving chase.”

“Then where the fuck is that blasted brat, Eryk?! I don’t believe he would let his women attack us and not come himself! He must be here somewhere! Find him!”

As the two were arguing, I decided to reveal myself in as spectacular a fashion as I could manage. I took control of the tree. My will bended the tree’s will, and I created a mass of hands that emerged from the ground, grabbed onto the young man, and pulled him down.

“What the--M-My Lord! Help me! It-it’s dragging me down! W-what is this?! My Lord! MY LOOORRRR--”

The man’s screams were abruptly silenced as wood traveled down his throat, clogging his ability to speak. His runes flared, but I wasn’t attacking him. I was merely dragging him down. He soon disappeared within the tree under the shocked eyes of Klaue.

That was when I emerged.

“Hello, Commander,” I said.

“You!” Klaue pointed a trembling finger at me, his face a burning scarlet. “I should have known you would come here! I am going to enjoy ripping you to shreds!”

“What a coincidence,” I said with a cold smile. “I was thinking about how much I was going to enjoy killing you as well.”

Klaue erupted with Spiritual Power. The runes on his armor lit up as he covered his body with a layer of death energy. The tree were standing inside rapidly withered and died, and I realized he was using the Concept of Death to suck up all the tree’s life force, reinforcing his own power with it. I frowned and created armor over my clothes.

It was not I who attacked first, but Klaue. A battle axe appeared from within a dimensional space in his hands, and he swung it with such force that the air was cut. A black crescent shot through the air. I knew better than to let such an attack hit, and sank into the ground, let it pass overhead, and reemerged right in front of Klaue.

My opponent proved his experience by swinging his axe in an overhead strike the moment I appeared. His attack would have split me down the middle, but I stepped aside and struck his blade with my palm. My Life-Death Armor fluctuated. I grimaced and retracted my hand, creating a Dragon’s Tail Ruler from the ground around me and swinging it from my hip to my shoulder.

Klaue brought his axe back around in a swing.

His axe sliced through my ruler with ease.

There were runes glowing on the surface.

“Did you really think defeating me would be that easy?!” asked Klaue with a snarl. “Did you think I stole all those armor and weapons for no fucking reason? Your pathetic self-made weapons cannot possibly compare to a rune weapon forged by the greatest blacksmith and rune master Ásgarðr has to offer! Now die!!!”

I leapt back and flinched when I felt a sharp sting travel down my chest as Klaue’s axe cut through my conceptual armor and into my flesh. No blood welled up. When I looked down, I saw that the skin around my cut was black and dry like a rotting corpse. That axe of his was able to no only cut through my armor, but it negated the concepts I used.

Now I understood why Klaue was so certain of his weapons.

I channeled the water element and Concept of Life into my wound, healing it up in less than a tenth of a second. Klaue was already swinging his weapon. I was no longer interested in letting myself get hit. Shuffling backwards along the forest floor, I avoided his swings by the narrowest margins.

The distant rumble of explosions let me know my wives, Chloe, and Tora were still causing a distraction. I knew I needed to end this battle fast. Just as the thought crossed my mind, however, Klaue disappeared through a dimensional gate.

I ducked as an axe passed over my head. Placing one hand on the ground, I lifted my legs and slammed them into Klaue’s chest. The runes on his armor flared. However, the strength in my legs was such that he was blasted off the ground.

Turning, I slammed my palms onto the ground and channeled Spiritual Power through the trees, which immediately came to life. Massive branches swung toward Klaue, who roared and launched several dimensional blades at the tree branches. Even though they were nearly ten meters thick, the branches were cut through like wheat, falling to the ground with a loud crash. The branches had served their purpose though.

They distracted Klaue long enough for me to attack.

He didn’t even see me when I appeared above him, hands clasped together and raised above my head. I brought my hands down like a hammer. They slammed into Klaue’s head and sent him crashing into the ground. I landed next to the crater his body formed, stomped on the ground, and buried him underneath several tons of rubble--or so I thought before I sensed a dimensional gate open behind me.

“Hrrk!!”

While I was able to avoid having my spinal chord severed, I was not able to completely avoid being hurt. Pain lanced my back as Klaue cleaved into my flesh. I quickly channeled water and life into my injury, healing up, but the phantom pain distracted me long enough that Klaue was able to step through a gate that opened right next to me.

A game of cat and mouse had begun, and I was the mouse. It was a harsh realization. Klaue might not be the strongest Guddomelig, but he still had years of experience over me, and he had completely mastered the Concepts of Dimension and Death. I had underestimated him because of how easily Fray defeated him last time, but I was not Fray. I did not have her incredible power.

The only reason I had not died so far was because of my complete mastery over the seven elements. They might be weaker than high level concepts, but that didn’t mean they weren’t powerful. I used the light element to enhance my vision, the lightning element to increase my reflexes, the earth element to harden my defenses, the water element to heal whatever damage was inflicted upon me, and the fire element to give my attacks explosive power. Meanwhile, the darkness element let me travel through the shadows. It helped me avoid Klaue’s overpowered attacks.

Yet even though I was avoiding death, I was not making any progress. My attacks could not penetrate his armor. And I was not as good as Kari at runes. I could not create counter runes to destroy his armor.

Something was eventually going to break.

And that something ended up being me.

Klaue swung his axe once more, and I leapt back to dodge it, but then I felt a shift behind me. The axe head had disappeared into a portal. I spun to avoid the attack I knew was coming, and I was partially successful. Partially. A hiss of pain escaped my mouth as black steam rose from the wound in my thigh. It looked like that attack had cut all the way through to the bone. I was unable to remain standing and fell to the ground.

That was when Klaue appeared above me, axe raised, ready to be brought down on my head.

“This is the end!!” he shouted.

At that moment, the runes on his armor flared, sputtered, and went out. Before he could notice what happened, I created a spear of pure death energy, compressed it to a fine point, and thrust it forward. Seconds before he could bring his weapon down. The spear went through his armor, now nothing more than a very sturdy lump of steel, punched through his chest, and erupted from his back. Klaue stared at the spear traveling through him like he couldn’t believe it. I used his shock to create another spear, which I swung at his neck. His head was severed from his shoulders.

The now headless body remained standing for a moment. It teetered one way, then another as the axe fell from its hands, and then toppled forward. I rolled out of the way before it could fall on me. When I was about to stand up, a hand appeared in front of me, soft, feminine, and delicate.

“Need some help?”

I looked past the and and into the smiling face of Kari. She looked amused. I smiled and reached out, allowing her to pull me up.

“What are you doing here? Where are the others?”

“Hiding,” Kari answered. “We killed about sixty of their men, then went into hiding in the underground network you created before we enacted this plan. I figured you might need some help, so I snuck over.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the help,” I said.

Kari beamed at me. “You’re most welcome.”

There were still some enemies, about eighty in total, but Kari and I joined up with Siv, Tora, and Chloe. Then the five of us proceeded to kill the rest of Klaue’s men before we headed in the direction Fray and the Valkyries went. We needed to meet up with them and plan our next step.