WIEDERGEBURT Act VI: Chapter 40

Klaue was a real piece of work. He knew Fray would refuse the moment he said that, which was exactly why he said it. He wanted her to refuse. That way he could defeat her, rape her, and claim it was because she resisted. I knew that. And I was pretty sure Fray knew that too.

Fray responded just like I thought she would; her hand was already up and a large spear made of black and white spatial/dimension energy was hurtling toward the smugly grinning Klaue. Just before the attack could hit him, several of his men stepped in front of him. The spear slammed into a barrier that formed out of the glowing runes on their armor. It tried to penetrate the barrier, hissing and crackling, but it eventually ran out of Spiritual Power and dispersed.

“How do you like the latest armor my men are using?” asked Klaue, completely unconcerned behind his wall of meat shields. “It was made by Brokkr and the runes were crafted by Eitri. They are the best blacksmith and rune masters in all of Ásgarðr. I dare say they are even better than the Dweorgs.”

I wanted to snort since I highly doubted anyone could be a better craftsman or rune master than the Dweorgs--save maybe my wife. The armor the Dweorgs had worn when we marched on Hovebrann had been just as impressive as the Northern Divisions, but it had been made from subpar materials. I could only imagine what the Dweorgs could do if they had the proper materials to truly craft armor and weapons.

“You stole those from Brokkr and Eitri,” Fray accused.

“Stole is such a harsh word.” Klaue grinned. “I took this armor off their hands so they can better serve their realm. They should be honored to know their armor is being used to protect Gudeverdenen.”

“Protect?” Fray snorted derisively. “You protect nothing. You are disgusting man-whore no women would want, and so you force yourself on any woman you take a fancy to. Your own son was the result of brutally raping and murdering a woman after she gave you what you wanted. People like you are the reason Gudeverdenen has fallen so far. We used to be a realm of prosperity and glory, but thanks to you and your ilk, we’ve become a den of debauchery and filth.”

Fray’s words were harsh and perfectly delivered. She knew just the right words to enrage Klaue, whose face had become puce. There was even a vein throbbing on his forehead.

“I am going to enjoy stuffing that mouth of yours with my cock,” he snarled, finally letting his true desires show.

“Hmph. If you manage to succeed, you’ll regret it when I bite it off,” Fray responded.

With tensions rising, I looked at Siv and Kari by my side. While Siv merely scooted closer, Kari nodded at me as if reading my mind, and began circulating Spiritual Power into the ground. I followed suit. We were only going to get one shot at this. We had to make it count.

“If that is how you want to do things, then fine,” Klaue grated before shouting at his men. “Men! Fray Vanir and her ilk are traitors to Ásgarðr! Murder them all, but feel free to enjoy yourselves before you do!”

That he actually added something like “enjoy yourselves” was disgusting, but I put that out of my mind. His men weren’t bothering to use Spiritual Techniques. They were so intent on “enjoying themselves” that they had opted to charge headlong at us. That actually worked out perfectly.

The ground disappeared before the men could come within ten meters of our group. While all Guddomelig had the power to fly, it still required concentration, and we had not given them any time to focus. They fell into the pit that suddenly opened underneath them. As the group fell down the pit I created, Kari closed the pit, burying them alive. Even if they had runes that would protect them from being crushed, without oxygen, they would die anyway.

Of course, we had only killed maybe a hundred of them. There was still nine hundred people left.

“Everyone! Head south!” I shouted as I stomped on the ground and erected a wall between me and the largest group of enemy Spiritualists. The last I saw before it rose was Klaue’s shocked face. Once the wall had formed, Kari used Rune Writing to enchant the wall with several run arrays. I wasn’t sure what they did beyond reinforcing the wall, but we hoped it would give us enough time to escape.

“Let us go!” Fray shouted in agreement.

Fray led the charge into the enemies that were surrounding the south side of our little tree house. Since it was already clear that Spiritual Techniques would not work, she unsheathed the sword around her waist and fought the enemy up close. It was an impressive sight. A single swing from her sword packed enough raw power that several people were blasted off their feet. Sadly, the runes glowed vibrantly on their armor, protecting them from receiving an injury.

At least now we had a clear path.

The other Valkyries charged through the gap Fray’s attack created and began fighting with equal ferocity. They worked in units of three--one for attack, one for defense, and one to heal the other two if they got injured.

I watched as one woman slammed a warhammer over the head of an enemy. The attack might not have hurt him, but he was smashed into the ground all the same. Then another enemy came in to stab her, but he was blocked by a woman bearing a shield, though she ended up taking an injury when the one on the ground stabbed her Achilles heel. It was healed, however, by the last woman.

I fought beside Kari, Siv, Tora, and Chloe. My body was covered in black and white Life-Death Armor. The death energy kept attacks from killing me, while the life energy charged my body with the vivaciousness of life.

Several attacks struck my body. A sword pierced my chest. An axe slammed into me from the left. However, none of them actually did much, and I did not hesitate to retaliate. Kari used Rune Writing to create counter runes that caused theirs to temporarily deactivate, and I struck them with my Dragon’s Tail Ruler. One lost his head. The other was bisected.

Siv was right up front with me, her hands and arms transformed into those of a dragon. They looked disproportionately large on her petite body, but she swung them around with complete ease, smacking men away from her like they weighed nothing at all. Her attacks still didn’t cause any damage. However, Kari would occasionally shift over to Siv’s side and create counter runes that deactivated their enemies’s armor.

Tora and Chloe took up the rear.

Chloe was like a work of art as she spun her spear layered with death energy. She thrust the weapon forward, her attack aimed at man’s chest. If it wasn’t for his rune armor, the attack would have penetrated his body with ease, but he was instead sent flying as she released all the power she’d been using. It burt out of the weapon like a funnel and sent him hurtling away.

Beside her, Tora worked more methodically as she hacked, slashed, and kicked her opponents. One man tried to attack with an overhand slash. She blocked it, diverted his weapon into the ground, and then stomped on his knee. There was no Spiritual Power used in her technique. The sheer brute force of her attack broke the ball joint, and the man went down, screaming in agony as his knee bent in ways it wasn’t supposed to.

There were less men guarding the south side than any other side. My guess was they didn’t have as much time to get in position, or maybe they didn’t have enough people. Either way, that was why I had selected it as the place where we would break through.

Once we broke through the enemy lines, Kari, Siv, and I spun around, stomped hard on the ground, and created a massive tidal wave of earth. The men about to chase us disappeared as they were buried under several tons of rubble. They would survive. Those runes on their armor would make sure of that. However, this would give us more time to escape.

We quickly caught up with Fray, Tora, Chloe, and the Valkyries and raced through the forest. The world passed by in blurs of green and brown. We crossed the paths of several Demon Beasts, but none of them bothered to hinder our passage. Even they were smart enough not to mess with such a large group.

Fray finally called us to stop after what felt like a day of running. None of the Valkyries were tired, but we also didn’t know where we were, whether or not we had lost our enemies, or anything really. We needed to get our bearings.

“How many did we lose?” asked Fray.

“Ten, My Lady,” Chloe said without inflection. “Doria, Gretel, Halle, Karin, Ulshira, Mavis, Malory, Alexia, Lilt, and Lirile lost their lives when we were breaking through enemy lines.”

I was surprised Chloe had enough sense during the battle to pay attention, but then I remembered one of the concepts she had mastered was death. She probably felt it when they lost their lives.

Fray closed her eyes as pain appeared on her face. No one said anything to comfort her. Words would not bring the dead back to life, and losing people underneath you was a burden those in command had no choice but to bear. She opened her eyes a second later. The pain was gone and now only steel remained.

“First things first, we must find a place to hide for now, somewhere no one will find us.” She turned to me, Kari, and Siv. “Can you three build us a base? I would prefer one that is underground. I’d also like it if you could somehow create a base that will hide our presence from the Northern Division.”

“Just leave that to us,” I said.

“Good.” Fray nodded at us and turned to the others. “While they do that, let’s set up a basic perimeter and some runes that will alert us to the presence of any intruders.”

Like an experienced commander, Fray began giving orders to the Valkyries, while I joined Kari and Siv in creating a base.

The first thing we did was hollow out another tree, but we only hollowed out the base of the trunk. We weren’t going to build up this time. I placed my hand on the ground and began carving through the earth, creating a set of stairs that led down. I wasn’t sure how deep we should go, so I stopped when I determined the base was fifty meters below ground.

Kari and Siv followed me.

While Kari’s finger glowed a brilliant white as she used Rune Writing to carve runes into the surface of the stone, Siv helped me expand the underground base. Once more, I had to estimate how big we should make the base. Our main room, which I dubbed the lobby, was a wide space that could fit about twice as many people as we had. I created chairs, tables, and couches out of earth. Meanwhile, Siv set about digging out a tunnel into the wall.

It took quite a while, but we eventually built what I deemed a suitable base. The lobby was the main room. There were two hallways branching off in opposite directions. One led to the Valkyries bedrooms and a communal bath we had created with a combination of the earth and water elements and runes. The other hallway led to mine, Kari’s, and Siv’s private bedroom and bathroom. I wanted us to be further away just in case we decided to have sex.

Fray came down with the Valkyries once I came back up and declared we were finished. She seemed pretty impressed by what we had done, though it wasn’t like this underground base contained much. We didn’t bother decorating it.

“I’ve resealed the entrance,” I told Fray after giving her a tour. “Having a door inside of a tree is too obvious. There are air vents located above us so we don’t run out of oxygen. I’ve also created several hidden exits that we can use if we need to get out or make a quick escape. Each exit is collapsable as well. If the Northern Division ever invades, we can collapse the caves on them by activating the runes Kari carved into the walls.”

“This is very impressive for something that only took a few hours to create.” Fray marveled at everything I showed her.

I shrugged. “I’ve had to survive on my own in the wilderness for a number of years, so I got used to creating quick and easy bases that I could hide in.”

Fray gave me a compassionate look, and I was sure she was thinking about the time she found me, but I wasn’t just talking about that. When Kari died in my past life, I had lived on my own, creating safe places to sleep so I wouldn’t be eaten by Demon Beasts. I probably had a decade or two of experience surviving in the wilderness.

Chloe came up to us as we were talking, curtsied to Fray, and said, “everyone has settled in as well as they can. The, uh, beds are a little hard, but I am planning to take a hunting party to gather materials so we can sleep more comfortably.”

“Please keep an eye out for the Northern Division when you leave. I don’t think they will find us yet, but I have no doubt Klaue has already set up a search party,” Fray said.

“Yes, My Lady,” Chloe said before marching off.

“What do you think Klaue will do now that he has lost us?” I asked.

Fray pondered this for a moment as she took a seat on an earth bench, seemingly not bothered by how hard it was. I stood and waited for her answer.

“He will likely send a squadron of his men to Ásgarðr and gather reinforcements. After that, he will set up a net. He knows we can’t have gone far, and he’ll use the net to keep us from escaping,” she answered at last.

“In that case, I am going to head out with Kari and Siv,” I said.

“Where are you going?” asked Fray, her brow furrowed.

I grinned at her. “I’m going on a hunt.”

***

While I had mastered the Concept of Life, there were still limits to what I could do. My ability to sense life was limited to a fifty kilometer radius from myself, and the further something was from me, the harder it was to manipulate.

I had created several clay dolls disguised and sent them off. They were not the humanoid ones I had created and spoken to while struggling to survive when I first came here. These ones were shaped like animals--snakes, lizards, birds, and rabbits. Even if someone on the enemy side had mastered the Concept of Life, I was confident these wouldn’t be spotted.

The Concept of Life allowed more than just animating the inanimate; since they were given life by my Spiritual Power, I was linked to their senses. I saw what they saw, smelled what they smelled, and felt what they felt. Of course, I could only do this because I had given them nerves. Optics nerves. Olfactory senses. Nerve endings. While I rarely used dolls for anymore, I had done a lot of experimenting with them.

“How long will it take you to find the squadron that was sent to Ásgarðr?” asked Kari.

Our group of three was sitting on a large branch some one hundred meters off the ground. I had carved a small burrow into the tree. It was just big enough for the three of us to sit together comfortably.

“Well… we’ve already been at it for a day,” I said, tilting my head. “I suppose it depends on whether or not they have already reached Ásgarðr, but I doubt they have. We were originally on the outer edge of Ironwood Forest. Ásgarðr is about two thousand kilometers southwest of our previous location, and even the fastest Guddomelig can only travel about fifty kilometers per hour. They will also have to rest eventually, even if they don’t need sleep.”

“They are slower than Drakvar,” Siv murmured.

“Yes. Guddomelig might have a better grasp of high level concepts, but Drakvar are definitely faster and better at traveling long distances,” I agreed.

As we talked, something pricked at the edge of my awareness, and I blinked when my vision was overlapped with someone else’s. I immediately recognized what I was seeing. It was something one of my puppets was seeing. Several men dressed in resplendent silver armor were fighting against a Three-Headed Winged Bull.

“Get ready to move, you two.” I stood up and held out my hands. “I’ve found them.”

***

“Don’t just attack from the front! Flank it on the sides and attack from its blind spot!”

Amund ordered his men around as he stood in the back, not taking part in the action but watching instead. Why should he get his hands dirty when he had other people who could do all the dirty work for him? That was how he always thought.

His squadron of twelve did as they were ordered, even though a few of them looked like they wanted to murder him in his sleep. Not that he cared what they thought. The Northern Division was filled with low-lifes, thugs, and rapists. Amund himself was no saint. He’d originally been a member of the Blitz Division led by Tor, but he was kicked out after raping the daughter of a store clerk he fancied.

Even without his help, they did eventually manage to kill the Demon Beast. None of them were happy that he hadn’t done anything, however.

“Next time we run into one of those bastards, you should fight it by yourself while we watch from the sidelines,” one of his men said.

“Hmph. I’m the captain of this squad, which means I am allowed to give whatever orders suit me. If you don’t like the fact that I am captain and therefore make the rules, you can post a complaint with Klaue. I’ll warn you that nothing will come of it, though,” Amund said with scorn.

All of his men grumbled, but it wasn’t like they could disagree. Amund was one of those people most would call a suckup. He was a brown noser through and through, sucking up to the person he deemed the most powerful in his mind. Klaue was, to him, the embodiment of power--a man who took what he wanted, when he wanted it, and never cared about the thoughts of others. Amund wanted to be just like that.

So he sucked up.

He gave the man presents.

He gave Klaue women.

And that got him in the good graces of Klaue, who presented him with his captaincy as a reward. This was just his desserts.

“Let’s keep moving. I’d like to reach Ásgarðr within the next few days,” Amund said.

His squadron complained but got in formation. It was a diamond formation with Amund at the front, his healers in the middle, his tanks surrounding them, and the two long-range attackers acting as the rearguard. A formation like this was standard for travel. The healers were protected, his eyes in the back could respond to threats before they could, and the people who could really take punishment were protecting the healers.

They traveled for several hours, then stopped when it was time to break. Amund ordered two of his men to set up a perimeter. Alexi and Adel grumbled and complained, but they had still gone off to patrol the vicinity while the others sat around and snacked on dried meat.

“Where are you going, Dani?” asked Amund when he saw one of his men stand up.

“To take a leak.” Dani rolled his eyes. “Wanna come with me, Captain? Hold my hand?”

Amund bristled. “Not necessary. Hurry up and piss.”

“Yessir,” Dani said in a lazy drawl before he disappeared behind a tree.

The two men he sent on patrol came back and reported nothing out of the ordinary. They stayed where they were for maybe fifteen minutes, waiting for Dani to comeback so they could get a move on.

He didn’t return.

“Oh, for the love of--you. Go and see what’s taking Dani so long,” Amund ordered one of his men.

The man grumbled, got up, and ambled around the large tree that Dani disappeared from. Amund and the others waited for his return with Dani. They waited, and waited, and waited. Amund eventually grew sick and tired of waiting, ordered everyone to follow him, and went around the tree to see if he could find his two subordinates.

But when he and his quad traveled behind the tree, they found nothing.

Nothing but a small bloodstain on the ground.

***

“Ha… ha… I don’t get paid enough for this!”

Two days had passed since Dani and Edmund disappeared, and during that time, his squadron had been on high-alert. They no longer took breaks. Instead, they just traveled to Ásgarðr as fast as their flight could carry them.

Unfortunately, even moving as swiftly as possible was not enough.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

It all started when they had been traveling swiftly and their two long-range supporters had been swallowed up by the earth. A giant set of jaws had grown from the ground, bit down on them, and dragged them kicking and screaming into the ground. Their runes should have protected them. They didn’t. For whatever reason, the runes had fizzled out the moment the earthen jaws bit down on them.

They started to panic after that.

Since the moment they lost their supporters, Amund’s squad had done nothing but run. He longer longer even knew if he was heading in the right direction anymore. He just knew they needed to run away, to get away from whatever was chasing them.

Whatever was after them did not reveal itself. He assumed it was one of those people under Lady Fray’s command, those ones who could control the earth, but they never showed, and when he tried to force them, all he got for his trouble was another of his soldiers dying.

Since they seemed to control the earth, he had them take to the skies, flying through the trees, so high in the air the ground could not reach them. He assumed they would be safe. He assumed whoever was attacking could do nothing.

He assumed wrong.

After they took to the skies, several invisible blades had sliced into his squadron. Just like last time, their runes failed to activate, and they were cut in half. Three of his men were killed before they could even respond. Of course, even after tightening formation, they found no one around. He was not a superstitious man, but it was almost like they were being attacked by vengeful spirits.

His men were picked off one by one after that. First, his healers were killed. One lost his head to a spatial blade, while the other was pulled into the earth when multiple earthan hands sprang from the ground and dragged his body down. The rest of his men had died in various, gruesome, horrifying ways.

Until he was all that was left.

“Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck! What is going on?! Who is attacking me?!”

No one answered his question, but he thought he heard laughter. When he spun to where he thought the source had come from, however, all he saw was a tree.

“Damn it! Damn it! Come out! Come out and face me, you coward!”

Amund screamed defiantly as he raised his voice to the heavens, but he knew this shout was of fear. He was terrified. He wanted to go home, wanted to crawl into his bed, pull up the covers, and never leave.

“If that is what you want, I would be more than happy to reveal myself,” someone said from behind him.

Amund turned around, more out of instinct than anything else, but then the world seemed to flipflop. Everything rolled around, and he suddenly found himself staring at a headless body. Whose body was it? He didn’t know. He didn’t know, but it looked like--

***

I sighed as I stared at the headless corpse at my feet. Tapping the ground, I watched as a hole opened underneath both head and body, then manipulated the earth to bury both. The gravel was smoothed over. It was like no one had died there.

“I think that’s the last of them.” I turned around to my companions. “Nice job, you two, especially you, Kari. Siv and I would have never been able to take out those people if you didn’t learn how to Rune Write from a distance.”

“You’re welcome,” Kari said.

“Anyway, let’s get back to Fray,” I continued. “I’m sure she’s worried sick by now.”

“Probably,” Kari agreed. “Do you remember where we were going?”

“I’m sure I can find my way,” I said.

“In other words, you don’t know.”

“…”

“You don’t know how to get back, do you?”

“…”

“He got lost like this when he first rescued me as well.”

“Did he really? Eryk, you didn’t tell me you got lost when you rescued Siv. That’s funny.”

“Will both of you stop talking?! I’m not gonna get lost!”

Despite my words to the contrary, we did in fact end up losing our way. It took four extra days to return to base. My wives were never going to let me live this down.