WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 48

Bjark did not know how many days they had been locked in this dungeon. It was buried deep beneath the surface, where no sunlight shone, and they were never let outside. Because of that, it was impossible to tell the time. The only thing he knew was that they were being given at least two meals a day. However, after so many days locked up like this, one day blurred into another until they were impossible to distinguish.

A loud scraping sound suddenly began echoing through the dungeon, causing him and several others to turn their head. Ingrid, sitting beside him, grimaced.

“Can you stop that?” she asked.

“Why does it matter if I do it or not?” asked the man. “I’m not botherin’ no one.”

The man who had spoken would have been handsome if he wasn’t so dirty. His sandy blond hair and blue eyes complimented his boyish features, but everything was marred by layers of dirt and sweat. Matters of aesthetics were not helped by his ragged and smelly clothes. None of them had been able to bathe or change outfits since being brought down here.

“You’re bothering me.” Ingrid glared at him. “And I would appreciate it if you stopped.”

“Oh, so I’m bothering you, huh? Then I’d like to ask that you stop grumbling about the food. That bothers me.”

“You’re just being obstinate because you don’t want to stop with that damn scraping!” Ingrid stood to her feet. “What in the nine realms are you even doing anyway? Do you think anyone else appreciates that noise you’re making? They don’t!”

“It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter!” The young man shot to his feet and glared back at Ingrid. “Who cares if it bothers you?! We’re stuck in this forsaken prison in case you haven’t noticed! We’ll probably be here for the rest of our lives! I can’t stand it! I need to do something or I’ll go insane!”

“Then do something that doesn’t bother others!”

Bjark stood up and stepped between these two. Ingrid had been getting more and more aggravated as the days passed, and he knew all too well what kind of damage this woman could cause if her temper reached a limit. Most people had never seen her temper because she had a militaristic code of conduct. She was normally well-behaved. However, as someone who had worked with her for over a decade, before they even joined the Nevarian Braves, he knew better than anyone what she was capable of.

He still shuddered upon remembering when she broke every bone in his body just because he irritated her.

Yet just as Bjark was about to try and settle both of them down, a loud rumbling shook the entire prison. He stumbled into the surprised Ingrid. Had it been someone else, they might have been knocked over, but she was a strong woman. Reaching out with a single hand, she pushed him away from her as though he weighed less than a feather.

“What was that?!” she shouted, looking up as dust fell from the ceiling.

“Don’t know,” Bjark muttered even as another loud rumble shook the room they were in.

This room was very large. It had to be to accomodate so many people. A large set of bars blocked off the area they were in from the entrance. Bjark remembered how they had tried to break through the bars with Spiritualism once, but they were made from a material that could absorb Spiritual Power to a certain extent. Maybe Eryk or his wives could have destroyed it, but no one else could.

The warden who was tasked with guarding them also looked startled, standing up from his seat and running over to the door. He unlocked it and rushed up the stairs. The sound of his footsteps was overpowered by the rumbling sounds.

“Are those… explosions?” asked Ingrid.

Bjark cocked his head to the side before nodding. “Sounds like it.”

Everyone waited in tense silence, their expressions showcasing their nerves. A cold sweat ran down Bjark’s back. Even Ingrid looked like she was standing on pins and needles.

The sound of explosions suddenly went silent, but that only caused everyone to hold their breaths. Footsteps soon echoed down to them. There were several sets of them. Bjark and Ingrid moved closer together as if they were getting ready to fight. However, when four figures emerged from the doorway, their expressions became shocked.

“Geirolf?! Catalyna?! Mykkel?! Earland?!”

Several people shouted the names of the people who had arrived, dressed in armor enchanted with runes. Bjark almost felt like crying as the four came over to the bars. Geirolf had a key in his hand, which he didn’t hesitate to use to unlock their jail cell.

“I know it’s late, but we’ve come to rescue all of you,” Geirolf said.

“Man, you are a sight for sore eyes.” Ingrid giggled as she stepped out. “I could kiss you right now.”

“Please don’t.” Geirolf blushed. “My wife would kill me.”

“I wouldn’t kill you,” Catalyna said with a frown. Then she smiled. “I would just make sure you could never cheat on me again.”

“Somehow, that sounds worse,” Geirolf said with a shudder.

Mykkel and Earland shared a look that all but said they thought their youngest brother was whipped. Bjark agreed with them, though he also kept his silence. There were just some things a man couldn’t say to another man… and now clearly wasn’t the time.

With Geirolf and Catalyna in the lead, Bjark, Ingrid, and the others traveled up the stairs. The stairs were small and cramped, so they could only travel one at a time, but all of them eventually entered a large hallway that was a lot more spacious, allowing them to spread out. Several dead Spiritualists were lying on the ground.

“Can you explain what’s going on?” asked Bjark. “I’m guessing the situation’s changed if you’re coming to rescue us.”

“It has,” Catalyna said with a bright smile.

Bjark, Ingrid, and the other Spiritualists looked curiously at the woman, but she was not the one who answered.

Geirolf was. It was just three simple words, but each word had a profound impact that rallied their spirits. What were the words?

“Eryk has returned.”

***

My first goal was to lead Gudbrand and the other elders out of Neveria, but that was a lot easier said than done.

Heat rising from below made him grimace. An updraft of intense flames roared from the ground, transforming and twisting into the shape of a dragon. The dragon’s mouth was wide open as if to take a bite out of me.

I channeled water into my left hand, condensed it into a blade, and swung my hand down once the fire dragon reached me. The dragon was split down the middle.

As the two dragon halves flew off in separate directions, I looked at the ground below. Gudbrand was chasing after me. His expression was incensed. His face was boiling red like a lobster and veins were pulsing on his forehead and arms. The knowledge that I had killed his son and daughter left him in a state of absolute rage.

Traveling behind him were the six elders. The one I had slammed with a bolt of lightning was there as well. However, his robes and hood had been completely torn apart, revealing a relatively young-looking face. He looked a lot like Gudbrand, enough that I could see the family resemblance, but he appeared maybe two or three years younger. That meant he had reached the Third State of Spiritualism at a fairly young age.

“GET BACK HERE! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!”

Gudbrand screamed so loud I thought he might scream himself hoarse. He was also the one who had released the fire dragon.

I turned around in mid-flight and gave the man my coldest smile. The more enraged I could make him, the harder it would be for him to think, and the easier it would be for me to take him out of Nevaria.

“If you want to kill me, then you’ll have to prove you have the ability,” I laughed at him. This, of course, only served to further drown the man in anger.

Gudbrand screamed as wings of fire erupted from his back. He burst from the ground like a bolt fired from a crossbow, charging straight at me. Behind him, the six elders also created wings of fire and flew after him. The elder whose face I could see was grimacing, black and burnt. He clearly knew better than to underestimate me, but I hoped he wouldn’t be a problem to my plans.

Chuckling loud enough that Gudbrand could hear it, I sped up again, traveling high into the sky above Nevaria. Many of the citizens who were outside at the time were pointing at us. I wondered what they were thinking as they watched the chase in the skies.

Gudbrand was not satisfied just chasing me. With sonorous screams of rage, he swiped his hands through the air, launching condensed blades of fire. The heat was incredible. Even though I was layering myself with water, I could still feel the heat on my back, though it only felt warm to me. The fact that I could feel anything meant it was intense enough to melt most metals.

I spun through the air, releasing several water blades to meet Gudbrand’s fire blades. He had shot sixteen, so I also fired sixteen. The blades met in the air between us. A powerful explosion of fire and water erupted, producing steam that billowed across the sky. It wasn’t enough to create a smoke screen though.

During my clash with Gudbrand, two of the six elders had flown up, another two down, and the last two held back. The hoods had flown off their faces by now. They didn’t bother putting them back up, their grim expressions clearly visible.

Most of the elders looked old. Four of the six had faces lined with wrinkles and sagging jowls. However, the woman of the group still retained her youth. If I didn’t know she was an elder, I would have suspected her of being in her mid to late-twenties. She looked very similar to Sigrid with a few distinct differences like a longer nose and dark blue eyes as opposed to ice blue.

The four attacking elders held out their hands and created a tiny sphere of flames, though it did not stay long. The sphere soon increased from the size of a palm to the size of a human head. I thought they might grow larger, but each sphere merely increased in brightness. Intense billows and heat distortions appeared around each sphere of flame, showing me how hot these flames were.

Then they were launched at me.

“Tch!”

Clicking my tongue, I used the Flash Step Version 3: Illusion Step. It was a technique that relied on the Third State of Spiritualism and used the water element, similar to the Lightning Step. This one used mist to create an illusion of me. Then while I used the Flash Step to get out of the way, everyone attacked the illusion, thinking it was me.

The fire spheres of fire struck the mist illusion and exploded. The detonation was so powerful the elders and Gudbrand were pushed back.

“Did you get him?” asked Gudbrand.

My laughter echoed from above them. “What do you think?!”

The elders and Gudbrand looked up just as I descended from the sky, swooping down toward the nearest elder. It was one of the older men. I grabbed his face before he could react and fired several blades of water at point blank. Blood exploded from his face, producing a light red mist.

“Gunnleif!!!”

The other five elders attacked me quickly. Fire seared my back and forced me to let go of the elder so I could dodge. The elder—Gunnleif, I guess—was not dead, but his face now had several bloody cuts all over it. I hadn’t been able to channel enough Spiritual Power into my attacks to kill him. How unfortunate.

Ascending higher into the sky, I avoided the fire attacks sent at me and began traveling toward the Demon Beast Mountain Range again. I couldn’t use my strongest attacks in the city. If I didn’t get these people out of Nevaria, killing them would be four times harder.

“He’s trying to lead us away from Nevaria! Surround him!”

However, it seemed one of the elders had wizened up and realized what I wanted to do. They spread out as I flew through the air and launched fire attacks from above and below. Fire dragons, fire bolts, and other fire attacks flew at me. Most of their attacks were not aimed at me but at where I would be. They were trying to corral me away from the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

As if it would be that simple.

I coated my entire body in a condensed layer of water and plowed right into their attacks, steam erupting everywhere as the water I used to protect my body evaporated. I pulled more moisture from the atmosphere and used it to increase my defense. With a grunt, I withstood another bombardment of fire attacks, which struck me from the above and below. Even though I had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism, I didn’t have much water to work with right now. My defenses were a little flimsy.

Growling as I realized I was getting further from the Demon Beast Mountain Range, I once more rotated my body. Strings of water gathered around me and transformed into powerful whips. I used them to lash at the fire attacks, cutting them in half. Heat and steam rose all over me. Sweat burst on my forehead as my breathing grew heavy.

Biting my lower lip until blood welled up inside of me, I stopped trying to fly toward the Demon Beast Mountain Range, changed direction in midair, and flew straight at Gudbrand chasing after me from behind.

The man’s eyes widened when he realized I was coming for him. He didn’t let his surprise stop him from acting. Strands of fire like streamers erupted from his hands and flew toward me, but I had already put up a defensive barrier of water around myself and merely charged into the flames. The eruption of steam created a smoke screen this time. I burst from the billowing steam cloud and slammed into Gudbrand, twisting my body around and striking his face with the heel of my left foot.

I didn’t hold back. My attack slammed into him so hard the sound echoed across the sky. Gudbrand was launched away, blood flying from his now broken nose. Had he not reached the Third State of Spiritualism, this attack would have undoubtedly crushed his face. I was a little disappointed it didn’t. That said, I hadn’t been expecting it to.

“He stopped moving! Now is our chance!”

The elders swooped down and surrounded me, wings of fire billowing from their backs, contrasting with the coldness in their eyes. They had me hemmed in. Four were surrounding me on the north, south, east, and west, while the other two were above and below me. If I moved in any direction, at least two of them would be able to attack me.

“You have nowhere to run now!” Gunnleif shouted. “You cannot escape!”

I laughed at the man. “Who said I wanted to escape?! All I’m trying to do is stall for time!”

“What?!” the woman shouted.

I grinned at the woman. “Haven’t you been wondering about why I even bothered revealing myself to you people in such a grandiose manner? Did it never occur to you that maybe I hadn’t come here alone?”

A tense silence settled over the elders as each of them looked at each other. I could have used this chance to escape, but these people were not rookies who would let themselves be deceived so easily. I was sure they’d attack the moment I showed signs of attempting to flee. While I didn’t think they could kill me, I needed time to gather moisture from the air and replenish my shield.

At this moment, a grim and haggard Gudbrand flew back over to our group, his expression twisted with anger, grief, and disbelief.

“Elders, it seems that brat isn’t lying. Hilda Astralia has appeared in Nevaria. She and her husbands have already rallied the Nevarian Spiritualists and Imperial Royal Guard and are fighting against our Drage Family and the people allied with us.”

The youngest man among the elders sucked in a deep breath. What was his name again? Guthhere?

“I see. I see.” Guthhere’s expression darkened as he glared at me. “So you had already joined up with Hilda and planned all this. You were nothing but a distraction. Very good. You have truly fooled us. But it doesn’t matter. Once we kill you, we will deal with Hilda and her husbands. They might even already be dead. We still have our generals.”

“You overestimate your generals and yourselves,” I said with a grim smile. “There’s no way you could kill me, and there is no way your generals could kill Hilda.”

At this moment, I decided to reveal the trump card I’d been holding back this entire time.

Lightning and water exploded from my body as I channeled the two elements I was most familiar with. The two elements became compressed inside of me, mixing together and flowing through my Spiritual Pathways like a hurricane. Such incredible rampant energy would have destroyed my body if it wasn’t so sturdy. As the two elements mixed together, my body underwent a transformation.

The elders and Gudbrand all stared at me in shock, their eyes wide, but I was not focused on them. I raised my hands and looked at them. Nothing appeared to have changed on the outside. My body still looked the same as it always had, but the inside of my body was a completely different story.

To those who were sensitive to Spiritual Power, it would have felt like my Spiritual Power had completely disappeared. That wasn’t the case, however. My Spiritual Power was still present, but it had been compressed inside of my body to the highest degree. The lightning and water elements that I was most familiar with had become a part of my very being.

This was my perfected lightning-water body.

“You elders are quite lucky. I had been planning on saving this ability for the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain,” I murmured, looking at the people surrounding me. Everyone, including Gudbrand, flinched when they noticed my eyes, which I knew from experience were no longer green. They had turned completely white, but swirling motes of water and bolts of lightning writhed inside of each pupil.

“It doesn’t matter what powers you attempt to use,” Guthhere blustered. “Whatever tricks you have up your sleeves are useless here. We have you outnumbered.”

I grinned darkly at the man. “You say that like being outnumbered means something to me. Let me tell you something, I have been faced with overwhelming odds before, by creatures far more powerful than you. I didn’t back down then. I won’t back down now.”

In my previous life, I had fought against six elemental birds of incredible power. Each of those birds had far more Spiritual Power than these seven humans. Even though I was not strong back then I was now, I had still managed to kill several of them before the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain attacked me. Compared to those creatures, what were a couple of old men and women who had only reached the Third State of Spiritualism?

***

The Nevarian Spiritualists and Imperial Royal Guards rallied under the command of Dante, Reiner, Valence, and Hilda. All those who remained loyal to the empress had been exalted when she and her husbands suddenly appeared before them. With these four leading them, the two forces had begun their counterattack.

Fights had broken out all over Nevaria. Hilda did her best to keep the fights quarantined. She diverted at least half the forces loyal to her into protecting the civilians, escorting those trapped in the battle zones outside and then cordoning off each battlefield. She put Catherina and Stelys in charge of keeping the civilians from getting caught up in the fighting. This did put her forces in a slightly disadvantageous position. However, to her, nothing was more important than protecting those who could not protect themselves.

Of course, while it was important to defeat the traitors who had supported the Drage Family and protect the civilians, the most important task for Hilda and her husbands was defeating the four generals.

Each of the four generals were powerful on their own. It was more than having reached the Third State of Spiritualism. Their powers exceeded the strength of Hilda’s three husbands. Dante and Reiner had only reached the Third State of Spiritualism within the last four months. They still hadn’t gotten used to their newfound power. Valence had it easier since he had reached the Third State earlier this year. Even so, the four generals had apparently reached the Third State of Spiritualism several years ago. They understood their own strength better than her husbands did.

That was why Hilda had decided to fight two of them by herself.

She stood before two burly men with blond hair, blue eyes, and rune-enchanted armor. The one on the left had longer hair that went down to his shoulders. The right one had short hair and a scar traveling down his left eye.

“You think you can take on the two of us by yourself? Your arrogance knows no bounds, Hilda!” the left one shouted.

Hilda smiled. “You think so? I believe it is you two who are arrogant. Guunhere. Gunther. The two of you believe that since you have also reached the Third State of Spiritualism that our powers are equal, but you couldn’t be more wrong.” Creating a sword made of light, Hilda gestured for the two of them with a “come hither” motion. “Come, let me show you the error of your ways.”

Guunhere and Gunther roared in anger as they swung their weapons. Guunhere wielded a warhammer, while Gunther was holding a claymore. The two weapons burst into flames, the runes carved into their surface glowing brightly. When the warhammer struck the ground, a massive wave of flame exploded from it, traveling across the ground and turning everything into glass. A blade of fire erupted from the sword at the same time, cutting through the glass as it sailed toward Hilda.

Of course, Hilda had no intention of meeting these attacks head on.

Light gathered around her feet before she disappeared, using a technique that was very similar to Eryk’s Flash Step. She called it Light Movement. It was the act of channeling the light element to only her feet and using the power of light to speed across space at light speed. This was something she had created after learning the theory behind Eryk’s Flash Step.

She really would have to thank him for the idea some time.

Appearing above the duo, Hilda swung her light sword, which erupted with a beam of light. Because light traveled too fast for the human eye to follow, neither Guunhere nor Gunther were able to react quickly enough to dodge. The light beam cut into their bodies. Not even the runes on their armor were strong enough to protect them. Blood erupted from their chests as a line was carved into them, causing them to stagger.

Sadly, her attack was not strong enough to actually cut them in half.

“You cunt! I’m going to murder you!” Gunther shouted as he raised claymore and swung at her. A wave of flames spewed from the sword, but Hilda had already vanished from where she’d been standing. The flames swept over the spot and struck a wall, detonating with enough force to create a fierce wind that blew in all directions.

Hilda already realized that if she wanted to kill these two, she would need to close the distance. She appeared right next to Guunhere and swung her light sword. Sadly, he saw her attack and swung the warhammer in his hand, striking her sword and shattering it. Light swords were quite fragile, and she had yet to perfect creating weapons from her element.

Using the Light Step to avoid Gunther’s attack from behind, Hilda did not travel far, but instead reappeared within his guard. Gunther’s eyes widened. However, he didn’t have time to block her as Hilda thrust out both palms. Light erupted from her hands and slammed into Gunther, who screamed in shock and pain as he was blasted away. His body struck a building several meters away and exploded through the wall.

“Damn it!” Guunhere shouted as he raised the hammer above his head. The veins in his arms bulged as he swung the hammer down with all the strength he possessed, but Hilda did not meet his attack head on. She was not his match in pure brute strength.

Another use of the Light Step brought her away from Guunhere. His hammer struck the ground she’d been standing on. The ground cratered, cracks spreading along the surface as flames erupted from each crack. Guunhere snarled when he realized he had missed.

Hilda appeared only a few meters away, held out her left hand, and created a powerful looking lance with a triangle-shaped blade. She did not hesitate to throw this weapon at Guunhere with all her strength. Her hope was to take him out before Gunther recovered, but that hope was sadly dashed when the person in question leapt out from the building. He rushed in front of Guunhere and swung his claymore, unleashing a powerful wave of flames that struck her light lance and caused it to explode.

“Hmph. It looks like you two are more trouble than you’re worth,” Hilda said with narrowed eyes.

“We should be the one saying that.” Guunhere placed his hammer against his shoulder and glared at her. “I never realized you were this powerful. However, it doesn’t matter. Even if you are stronger than us individually, you cannot defeat us both at the same time.”

“We shall see,” Hilda said.

The battle renewed, and Hilda discovered that these two were not just powerful but also worked well together. One attacked and one defended, and they could seamlessly switch between attack and defense. This made it hard for her to take them by surprise because one of them was always waiting to defend against her attacks. It didn’t help that both of them were already aware of her speed.

Appearing next to Guunhere, Hilda tried to impale him with her sword, but she was forced to defend herself instead when Gunther unleashed a powerful fire blade attack. She gritted her teeth as her feet slid across the ground after intercepting the attack with her sword. Because everything had been turned to glass, she stumbled and nearly fell. Only slamming her left foot into the glass, shattering it, allowed her to regain her footing and shove the fire blade away from her.

“You can’t defeat us,” Gunther said.

“Just give up,” Guunhere added. “We’ll make your death painless if you do.”

Hilda was breathing heavily by this point, her chest and shoulders heaving. She couldn’t tell how long this battle had been going on for. All she knew was the exhaustion she felt permeating her bones. Even so, she still managed to smile.

“You are right. I am not powerful enough to defeat you both at the same time.” Her smile widened when she saw two people appearing behind Gunther and Guunhere. “But who said it was my intention to fight you two by myself?”

Guunere and Gunther froze at those words, but before they could truly figure out what they meant, the two of them were attacked from behind. A broadsword coated in lightning erupted from Gunther’s back and out his chest. On his right, Guunhere found two glaives covered in wind-natured Spiritual Power stabbing him in the back.

“I knew there was no way I could defeat you both in a two on one battle,” Hilda said as she walked forward. “So I decided to make a bet. I bet that Dante and Reiner could defeat one of your generals before you two could defeat me, and then they could come to my assistance and finish you off after I exhausted you.”

Guunhere and Gunther looked at her, their eyes expressing their unwillingness, their anger and regret. They opened their mouths. However, no words emerged, just blood.

At that moment, Dante and Reiner removed their weapons from the two, who stumbled forward before falling face first onto the ground. Gunther had a large hole going straight through his back, but Guunhere had two holes in his back. Both attacks were fatal. But to make sure they died, Dante and Reiner slashed into the back of their necks.

Hilda watched as the two died, then sighed in relief as she directed a smile toward the pair.

“Thank you for your assistance.”

“No problem, my darling wife,” Dante said with a grin.

“We should help Valence now,” Reiner added. “He’s fighting one of the generals on his own.”

“You are right,” Hilda agreed.

Just before the three of them could set off, a loud detonation of air and sound shattered the atmosphere. It was so loud that Hilda, Dante, and Reiner had to cover their ears. Hilda looked into the sky, toward the source of the sound, and found a single figure locked in brutal combat with seven other people.

Of course, the one fighting against the six elders and Gudbrand was none other than Eryk Veiger.