WIEDERGEBURT Act VI: Chapter 37

We set out early the next morning. It was not just me, Kari, and Siv who had set out, but Schnee, Fray, Chloe, Tora, and an entire army of Drakvar plus the Valkyries under Fray’s command.

The army that gathered in the morning light and standing just outside of Drakengard was massive, something beyond my imagination as I stood there with Fray, Schnee, and the others. It was so big that I could not see the back of the line. A sea of heads, horns, and wings extending beyond the event horizon.

Numerous noises penetrated the morning din. The shuffling and stomping of feet was mixed with tones of hushed conversation. With the wind element, I could have picked up on what everyone was saying, but I chose not to. What they said didn’t matter to me.

“My warriors!” Schnee suddenly shouted, and everyone went still. “Today is the day we march on Drachen Heimat! Our capital city has been overrun with the Sekbeist horde for far too long! We cannot let this atrocity stand! Here and now, we will take back what rightfully belongs to us!”

That morning, Schnee was dressed in resplendent silver armor edged with gold. The chest plate looked like it had been moulded to her small body, the gilded skirt clinked together as she moved, and her slender arms and legs were covered in gauntlets and greaves respectively. I hated to say she looked adorable because I knew that wasn’t what she was going for, but it was hard for me to see her any other way.

Her soldiers did not agree. As Schnee raised her fist into the air, they roared, a sound so loud it made my teeth rattle and the ground shake. The other Drakvar all thrust their hands into the air, following their queen’s actions.

Schnee was not the only one dressed for the occasion. Fray, Chloe, and Tora all wore armor that looked custom made for them. Siv and Kari also had armor made from the prismatic scales of a Greater Prismatic Wyrm. Even I was wearing armor.

With her army now riled and ready, Schnee ordered her men to begin their march. Of course, while I called it a march, it was not really. The Drakvar spread their wings and took to the skies. A few transformed into their magnificent and majestic dragon forms, but most of them remained human, or at least humanoid.

We carried no supplies with us. All of our supplies were stored in a separate dimension that had been created by the logistics team. It was apparently called a Shared Dimension, meaning it was created by a bunch of different people and could therefore be accessed by more than one person. Only the people involved in creating the dimension had access to it.

I flew into the sky with Kari, Siv, Tora, and Chloe at my side. We moved with Schnee, Fray, and seven of the Eight Heralds to the front of the army. Thus began our “march.”

Looking at the sky from so high up revealed about what I expected. Most of Vindenket was fairly inhospitable, made primarily of mountain ranges with little vegetation, but that wasn’t all this world had. I could see a few forests in the distance. There was also the farmlands we passed during our flight. A number of Drakvar farming and raising livestock looked up when we flew over them, and a few even released their own draconic roars.

Day soon turned to night, and still we flew on before night turned back to day. None of us were tired. Spiritualists who had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism could go for months without sleep. I’d once spent an entire year training instead of sleeping. And everyone here had not only reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism--many of them had reached the Fifth State or were close.

The Fifth State of Spiritualism granted an incredible increase in power, just like when someone reached the Fourth State. It was a quantitative leap in power. If I had to guess, I would say my Spiritual Power after mastering the Concepts of Life and Death had increased to ten times more than what it had been at only the Fourth State of Spiritualism.

Those who had reached the Fifth State of Spiritualism didn’t actually need to sleep. If we slept, it was for enjoyment and not because our bodies needed rest. I slept because it meant I could snuggle with my wives after a night of passionate sex. Few things brought me greater pleasure than feeling the naked bodies of my wives pressed against me.

In either event, we did not run into any trouble as we flew on. A few Demon Beasts had appeared, but most of them turned and fled when they came upon our army. It seemed not even vicious beasts were willing to tangle with an entire army of Drakvar.

It took the better part of a month to reach our destination, a valley set between two mountain ranges that was said to be less than a day’s travel from Drachen Hiemat. Green grass covered most of the valley. Several streams ran through it, fed by a series of waterfalls that let rain water down from the mountain tops. The familiar scent of vegetation hit my nose as we made camp.

“I want everyone to get ready!” Schnee gave commands that echoed across the valley. “Scouts, move ahead and make sure we haven’t been spotted. If we have, our plans may have to change. The rest of you, set up camp!”

Everyone worked with smooth efficiency, pitching tents, building firepits, and setting up grills and pots to prepare our meals. Barrels full of ale were brought out of dimensional storage. Ceramic mugs were passed full of the frothing liquid was passed around. I found myself sipping from a mug of my own as I sat with Kari, Siv, Tora, and Chloe.

“She’s impressive, isn’t she?” Chloe asked as she saw me looking at Schnee give commands. “You’d never think so from how small she is, but Lady Schnee is an incredible leader.”

“She is an amazing leader,” I agreed.

“I wish I could be like Momma,” Siv said, seeming in agreement.

She sounded morose, and I realized she was jealous of her own mother, so I pulled her into a shoulder embrace with my free hand--my real one--and kissed her horn.

“No, you don’t. I love you just as you are,” I said. “I don’t want you to change who you are for anything. Always be yourself, Siv.”

Siv perked up and leaned into me. She nodded against my shoulder, and I felt her cool horn graze my neck.

“Okay,” she said softly.

Tora grunted as she saw this, but she said nothing and took another long swig of her ale. Kari saw this and giggled into her drink. That, however, merely caused the crass woman to grace her with an angry glare.

The strong scent of spicy meat and stew soon filled the air. Someone came over to our group and handed us some plates and bowls, which we filled up with different cuts of meat and stew that looked like it didn’t have a single vegetable. I knew from living with Siv for so long that Drakvar were carnivores. They did not eat vegetables at all. Still, I wish they had something aside from just meat to compliment the strong flavor.

As we ate our fill, Schnee and Fray eventually walked up to us. Schnee gave her daughter a soft smile. Then she focused her attention on me.

“Once you have finished eating, please come with us. We will show you where to prepare the Death Array.”

“I understand.”

Giving Schnee a nod, I began eating a bit more quickly, finished my meal, and stood up with Kari and Siv--who was not needed for this but decided to come with us anyway.

We flew off to the north. The location was closer to Drachen Hiemat. It was located in a more desolate area, a flat plain with very little present save for rocks and gravel. As we set down, I knelt and pressed a hand to the dead earth, feeling the dried up sand between my fingers.

“This place used to be farmland,” Schnee said with a mixture of sadness and anger in her voice. “The Sekbeists are like a parasite. They latch onto the land and drain it dry, destroying the natural resources wherever they go.”

“I’ve seen them do something similar on Niðavellir,” I said, standing up. “Except it was much worse there.”

Schnee and even Fray blinked.

“They’ve… already taken Niðavellir?” Schnee asked in shock.

“That’s… I’m not sure.” I noticed their looks and shrugged. “This was… um… I am actually from the future. I about twelve years ago, so it is quite possible Niðavellir has not been taken over in this timeline, but I really don’t know.”

Neither of them said anything at first, and I could see the incredulity on Schnee’s face, though Fray merely looked thoughtful. It was clear what she was thinking. My presence here was a result of my father sending me into the future. Therefore, it was quite possible that the time energy he had used was still surrounding me to some degree, and it had played a role in allowing me to traverse time.

“Whatever the case, we will have to look into this. Ásgarðr no longer has a Warp Gate to Niðavellir. I have long suspected it was destroyed from the other side.” Fray paused. “If Niðavellir has indeed been taken over, then it bodes ill for us. The technology of the Warp Gates lies with the Dweorg.”

If the Sekbeists really had taken over Niðavellir, it meant they could potentially warp to any of the nine realms, including Miðgarðr, which the Guddomelig had long since done their best to protect. It was the home of the humans that the Sekbeist were after. They wanted to resurrect their overlord, and that meant traveling to Miðgarðr and releasing the Great Overlords of each realm from their seals.

“Let’s focus on the current task at hand,” Kari said. “Do you have the materials we need to draw the Death Array?”

“We do.”

Schnee gestured toward a Drakvar man who had come with them, and he nodded once before reaching out with his hand as though grasping at nothing. I was not shocked when his hand suddenly disappeared into a whirling black portal. He pulled it out a moment later, taking with him a large barrel. He did this several times. By the time he was finished, there were sixteen massive barrels sitting on the ground.

“Each barrel here contains eight thousand litres of Necropolis blood,” Schnee told Kari. “Necropolis are what you would call SS-Rank Demon Beasts. They have a powerful affinity for the Concept of Death, and therefore their blood makes the best catalyst for a rune array like this.”

Kari nodded once, looked at me, and said, “I’m going to need your help putting this down.”

“Just tell me what you need,” I said.

“Can I help?” asked Siv.

“Of course.” Kari reached out and caressed Siv’s head. “I will be relying on you too, just as I always have.”

Kari summoned a large sheet of parchment from her storage scroll, which turned out to be a schematic for the Death Array. I could not makes anything of it. The conjunction of runes were far too complex for me to understand. It looked like millions of smaller runes were drawn to form larger runes, which was then sealed within a circle to contain the power. When the Death Array was finished, it would have a total radius of 3.5 kilometers.

No wonder we needed so much blood.

***

The morning after everyone satiated themselves, Schnee led her army toward Drachen Hiemat, a looming castle town that no longer looked like it used to. As she stood at the front of her army and gazed upon her old home, she could not help but remember all the good times she’d spent there. Now it was nothing but a derelict ruin. The once shining spires of Drake Castle were dark and foreboding, and the surrounding town looked uncared for.

These Sekbeist were truly horrendous beasts.

“Commence long-range bombardment!” Schnee ordered her soldiers.

Krak, Yamata, and Yuelong barked out orders to their forces, who all raised their hands, roared, and released their Spiritual Power. Incredible fluctuations distorted the atmosphere as so many powerful Drakvar unleashed their full might and channeled it into their techniques. When the three Heralds joined them, the amount of powerful fluctuations increased several fold.

Large black holes appeared in the sky above as Yuelong channeled the Concept of Space to create portals. From within these portals came several streaks of light--at least, that was what they looked like until a closer look revealed that they were, in fact, meteors.

The meteors struck the outer wall of Drachen Hiemat and the surrounding buildings, destroying massive sections of the city. It pained Schnee to do this, but she needed more than anything to gain the Sekbeist’s attention. Big and flashy worked better than subtle.

Just as she suspected, a horde of Sekbeists emerged from the city. There was no telling how many there were, and she honestly didn’t care as she gave her soldiers the order to open fire. Elements and conceptual attacks blitzed by her and struck the frontline of the enemy army. Fire turned Sekbeists to ash, water and wind blades sliced them in half, lightning rained from the sky and decimated them, and beams of light swept through their forces and simply caused their bodies to disintegrate.

The slave caste were a weak race barely worth the time it took to kill them, but they were numerous, and that could prove problematic. Even though their forces had literally annihilated what must have been tens of thousands, the enemy army still appeared to be never ending. More Sekbeists swelled to take place of those who died.

And that was when they appeared.

The Sekbeist Lords.

One of them, a tall and lanky Sekbeist Lord with a missing horn, walked forward. He waved his thin arm and a cut appeared in the air. It was like a thin white line at first, but then it split open and revealed a vast expanse of space. Almost half of the attacks launched from her side flew into the spatial tear and vanished.

“That is Orgrul,” Schnee said as she turned to two of her commanders. “Commanders Ourobouros and Fafnir. Take him down.”

“Yes, my lady!”

The two commanders didn’t hesitate to push off the ground and flew toward their opponent, and they were not the only ones. Prisma and Ddrage flew into the sky toward Garekk. Both sides clashed, and the sudden eruption of power and concepts caused the realm to shake.

Battles between concept users were far more destructive than normal combat, especially if one side or both mastered a powerful combat based concept like death, dimension, or space. A mere wave of the hand can destroy armies. This was also why battles like this were taken further away from the main forces.

Ddrage used the Concept of Space to transport himself, Prisma, and their enemy someplace further away. Fafnir and Ourobouros did not have that luxury since neither of them mastered the concept of space. However, Ourobouros did have mastery over the Concept of Dimension, and he used that power now to create engulf their battlefield in a dimension of his own making. A large black ball encased the three fighters.

Their leader, Vlog, looked like he was going to make his way to her, but Sister Fray suddenly disappeared from Schnee’s side and appeared right before the leader of this horde. She raised her left hand, snapped her fingers, and the two vanished as if they had never existed. Schnee did not know where Fray had taken them, but a massive eruption of power that made even her tremble came from over a hundred kilometers away. She could even see the sky beyond the Drakvarian Mountain Range being torn asunder by spatial and dimensional tears as the black void flames howled and crashed against them.

“It seems I get to be the one who fights you,” a Sekbeist Lord said as he walked up to her. He licked his lips. “Lucky me. I have always wanted to taste your flesh.”

Like all Sekbeist Lords, this one looked almost human. He was tall and possessed masculine features like a strong jaw, a long nose, and sharp red eyes. Spiky white hair sat on his head as a single horn erupted from the center of his forehead. His muscular body flexed as he walked, but most of it was covered in void armor. He Concept of Negation surrounded him.

Schnee curled her lips in disdain. “If you believe you have the power to taste my flesh, then come and see what it gets you. I will stomp you into paste.”

As if to emphasize her point, Schnee stomped her foot on the ground, and a wave of spatial fluctuations spread from her foot like ripples on the surface of a lake. The world around them suddenly distorted. Then the area they stood was no longer the battlefield. It was an empty plain some fifty kilometers from their previous location.

Schnee took control over the two concepts she had mastered, space and life, and created a silver overlay on the armor she wore. It looked like a thin film. However, this film was merely two concepts condensed to a fine layer over her body.

Urag grinned. “It was so nice of you to prepare a battlefield for us. Now, time to enjoy that petite body of yours.”

Schnee did not respond to his provocation with words. She swept her hands forward, unleashing a spatial blade that he countered with a negation blade. The battle was on, and she had every intention of destroying this man like he and his ilk had destroyed her life that day decades ago when she lost her husband.

***

I stood within the center of a small circle. If I looked at where I stood from a bird’s eye view, I knew I would see that this spot was in the exact center of the Death Array, a complex rune array that relied on several million runes to create. Kari, Siv, and I had spent most of the night creating this array. Kari had even triple checked it before deciding it was perfect. Now we were just waiting to use it.

Kari and Siv were standing within their own circles, which were connected to mine through two lines of power made up of small runes so thin the line looked solid. I knew Kari was talented at Rune Writing. However, it seemed as if her talent for it had grown even greater during the four years we had been separated.

“They are coming,” Kari announced.

I looked up and found her staring into the distance, and further out was an army of Drakvar heading this way. I saw three of the Eight Heralds at the head of this tactical withdrawal. Krak, Yamata, and Yuelong wore grim expressions as they moved. The thirty thousand members of their army appeared to be feeling much the same.

Drakvar were a race with a lot of pride. I imagine being told to retreat rankled on them. However, it seemed the idea of disobeying their queen was even more unheard of.

As the army of Drakvar came closer, I finally spotted the army charging them from behind. They were probably a kilometer away from the Drakvar army. Ugly faces with green or white skin were just barely visible. I couldn’t even see the black of their eyes yet, but that would change soon.

“Are you ready, Siv?” I asked.

Siv nodded. “I am ready.”

It was easy to tell Siv was nervous by the way her tail was thumping against the ground like a rattle. I wished I could go over and comfort her. None of us could leave our respective circles, however. Doing so would mean deactivating the death array, which we could not under any circumstances do.

The front of the Drakvar army finally passed the border of the Death Array. I was able to sense them thanks to my connection to the array, and I was not the only one. Siv knelt down and pressed her hands on a small rune array that was connected to the larger array. Sweat trickled down her forehead and she bit her lip. When the last of our allies passed the Death Array borders, she fed her Spiritual Power into the runes.

It was always interesting to see the Concept of Space at work, especially when you were not on the receiving end of it. The warriors who had been surrounding us wavered like ghosts. Their bodies grew more translucent. Then they disappeared. While it seemed like they had simply been wiped out, the truth was they had been transported to another array several kilometers south of us.

At that moment, the Sekbeist army set their foot step on the Death Array, though they quickly slowed to a stop when they realized the army they had been chasing was no longer present.

A sizeable silence descended upon the plain as the Sekbeists looked around in confusion. None of them were Sekbeist Lords. There were only Grunts, Elites, Warlords, and Shamans. However, that did not mean they lacked intelligence. It must have been clear to them that the army they chased all this way had been transported somewhere else.

Finally, one of the Sekbeists noticed our presence and stepped forward. His massive frame was covered in bulging muscles. Legs with the same thickness as my torso flexed as he walked, a torso composed of veins and power rippled, and his thick arms swung as he pointed at me.

“You! Who are you? What happened to the army! Answer me now, and I will make your death painless!”

I did not know who this Warlord was, but it didn’t matter. I glanced at Siv. She caught my eye and nodded, then sent out a blade of wind that sliced clean through the Sekbeist Warlord’s neck. The head fell from the surprised creature’s shoulders. As the head rolled across the ground, the body tumbled down as well.

“If you want to know about the army that just disappeared, then I’m afraid you’re going to have to pry that knowledge from my mouth,” I said with a smile.

None of the Sekbeists did anything at first, but I knew them. While Sekbeist slaves were not stupid and some were even intelligent, most did not have much patience. People like Skygge had been exceptions rather than the rule. More than that, the Sekbeist did not take well to provocation.

Just as I suspected, the Sekbeist roared at my perceived challenge and threat, and then rushed forward heedless of the fact that they were stepping into the Death Array.

I detected the last Sekbeist stepping past the array’s outer limit and glanced at Kari. She was already kneeling and channeling her Spiritual Power into an array similar to the one Siv had, but this one was designed to work with the Concept of Time instead of Space.

A powerful blue glow lit up several runes within the array, and all the Sekbeist suddenly froze as if their bodies had been turned to stone. Even their facial features couldn’t changed. I looked at the Sekbeist nearest me and noticed how his face was still set in a snarl.

“It’s your turn… Eryk,” Kari said in a strained voice. “Be quick. I can’t… keep them locked in time… for long.”

“I know. Just leave the rest to me.”

I knelt like Siv and Kari had done and placed my hands over a rune array similar to the ones they had, then let my Spiritual Power flow through my body, into my hands, and fed it all to the Death Array. The small rune array under my palms lit up. The dark glow spread from the tiny runes under my hands to the rest of the array, moving slowly and filling every line of power and rune with a dark glow. The moment the last line of power became connected, the rune activated.

The Sekbeists could not scream. They were still trapped in Kari’s time lock. However, their bodies began shriveling up as black Spiritual Power invaded then through their every orifice. It traveled into their mouth, nose, ears, and even their poores.

These Sekbeist were not Lords; they were slaves. Members of the slave caste were not very powerful, and even those few who had touched the Concept of Negation could just barely wield it. In short, there was nothing they could do to defend against this. They died within seconds.

Kari gasped as she released her hold over the time lock. The runes she had been activating died down, and the corpses that were trapped within the time lock dropped, hit the ground, and crumbled apart. They turned into powder like cremated remains.

“Looks like… we did it,” I said as I surveyed the remains. I couldn’t see single Sekbeist remaining. “That was pretty crazy. This rune array of yours is pretty dangerous.”

“It is.” Kari stood up, legs shaking as she placed a hand to her chest. “I do not think we will get too much use out of it either. The prerequisites for using it are very circumstantial. I will probably lock this array away and never let it see the light of day again unless we really need it.”

“Good idea,” I said with a nod as Siv waved her hand and generated a gust of wind that blew away all the Sekbeists’ cremated remains. Our battle was over. Now we just needed to wait for Fray, Schnee, and the others to finish their fights. I hoped they would return safely.