WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 24

The first thing I did after swatting aside the beam of darkness was to look at Kari and Raul. My son was not injured, but Kari had suffered from numerous injuries. Her blue and white blouse was torn, cuts littered her body, and her face was pale, and there was a growing bruise on her body, showing that she had suffered internal injuries.

I went up to Kari and placed my hand on her back, quickly channeling the water element through her, healing the wounds that could both be seen and not seen. Pale skin reknit so not even a scar was shown. She had suffered a ruptured kidney and there was blood welling up in her lungs from where it had been punctured. I healed both of them.

A loud roar of pain, a cry of agony, tore through my soul and caused my head to snap in the direction of the battle. Siv had just been struck by some kind of powerful energy lance that stabbed through her front leg. I knew how hard her scales were, so for something to pierce her body like that meant it had to be incredibly strong.

“Kari, please take Raul and leave this place,” I ordered.

“Don’t worry.” Kari stood up and lifted Raul with her. “We’re already gone.”

“Daddy?” Raul said, tears in his eyes.

I smiled. “Don’t worry. Dad is just going to kick some bad guy butt.”

Raul didn’t say anything, but he gave me a firm nod, as if to say he believed I could do just that.

I watched them leave. It made me relieved to see that Kari didn’t argue with me. The Kari in my previous life would have rather died fighting by my side than leave me under any circumstances. It was hypocritical. She would rather die with me, but when I wanted to die with her, she asked me to live on.

At that moment, Siv had already fallen to the floor and her body was rapidly shrinking. The scales withdrew, the horns became smaller, and her limbs and face turned human. Now lying on the ground, whimpering in fear and pain, Siv looked nothing like the ferocious dragon she had been.

The demonic entity she was fighting also shrank. His limbs grew thin as he went from a seven meter monstrosity to a barely 1.5 meter male with gray skin and feminine features. While he looked to be in better shape than Siv, it was clear he hadn’t gotten off lightly. Blood stained his body and ran down his mouth. He was hunched over and breathing hard, but despite that, there was a triumphant smile on his face.

I was going to wipe it off him.

Before the man could even take one step to Siv, I appeared right in front of him. The man’s eyes widened. I could see his pupils dilating as he suddenly realized a person was standing right in front of him.

I did not give him a chance to defend himself.

Without warning, before he could so much as lift a hand, I struck him in the chest with a lightning infused palm. Blue arcs of lightning slammed into his body and penetrated his flesh. At the same time, his body flew through the air faster than Empress Hilda using her infamous light technique.

The man who’d been fighting Siv disappeared in the distance, but his mark could still be traced. A long trench spread across the ground, nearly a dozen meters wide and two kilometers long. Every building that had been standing in the way of his flight was gone. Furthermore, pale arcs of lightning continued to zip through the air.

I ignored the man in favor of Siv. Kneeling, I gently lifted the petite woman into my arms.

Siv was still conscious, glimmering green eyes looking at me with tears. I wiped the tears away and tenderly stroked her face, even as I channeled water through her body, mending the broken bones, the tears in her skin, the internal injuries, and the rips on her wings.

“I… even though I was scared, I didn’t let Kari fight alone,” Siv said, her voice soft.

“I know. You did such a great job,” I whispered. “I’m so proud of you.”

Siv had lost a lot of Spiritual Power, which meant simply healing her injuries wasn’t enough. I summoned several alchemy pills from storage. They were all Rejuvenation Pills, three in total. I popped them into my mouth, broke the outer shell, and pressed my mouth to Siv’s. Since she was still weak even though I had healed her injuries, I fed her the medicinal liquid mouth to mouth. Siv didn’t seem to mind either way. She placed a hand on the back of my neck and urged me closer as she swallowed the medicinal liquid.

We couldn’t remain kissing forever. Our situation didn’t allow it. I broke off our kiss, and while Siv looked a little displeased, she still allowed me to help her stand.

“Go back to Kari and Raul,” I said softly.

Siv nodded and didn’t say anything else as she flapped her wings and took off, flying low to the ground.

The gentle smile I had been wearing for Siv’s sake left my face the moment she disappeared. I turned around and gazed at the trench I had created. Lightning covered my body as my Spiritual Power surged.

Then I was standing in front of the man who nearly killed my wives and child.

I recognized the man currently lying on the ground, bound by my lightning, his body spasming as he was periodically shocked. It was Dunherr. The leader of Thor’s Hammer. However, he looked different from the description Commander Ashten had given me. The outline of his face looked the same, but his skin was gray, his eyes were blood red, and there was a single horn protruding from his forehead.

“You…” he rasped. “How… did you get here… so fast?”

He tried to sit up, but I walked over, pressed my foot on his chest, and pushed him into the ground. He struggled. Maybe if he hadn’t fought against Kari and Siv, he would have been able to escape, maybe even defeat me in single combat. However, his battle against my wives had zapped most of his energy.

Meanwhile, I had barely lost any Spiritual Power getting here.

“I am the one asking the questions here,” I said. “What exactly are you? Your powers are clearly those of a Sekbeist, but you don’t look like any Sekbeist I’ve ever seen.”

“Heh. That blonde woman… asked the same question.”

At the mention of “that blonde woman,” I understood he meant Kari. My anger surged. Without waiting to hear if he would say something else, I took control over his bloodstream with the water element and heated it up, making his blood literally boil and cook his organs.

Dunherr screamed. His scream echoed across the cityscape. I let him scream for a second longer before I healed him using the same water element that injured him.

“Did you know the human body is made up of sixty percent water?” I asked like I was making idle conversation. “I know you aren’t human, but your general makeup is more or less the same. Your blood, organs, skin, muscles, and even your bones have a lot of water in their composition. As someone who has reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism with the water element, I am more than capable of cooking you from the inside out. Now tell me what I want to know.”

Dunherr’s ashen skin became even more pale. I think was finally beginning to realize what kind of predicament he was in.

Had he been at full strength, he would have been able to resist my attacks. His own Spiritual Power would have protected him from my attempts at torturing him. That was not possible right now. His Spiritual Power had been exhausted during his fights, while I was still at full strength.

“Those… the Sekbeist you are talking about… are just slaves… they are merely… our servants…”

“Our?” I asked.

“The Sekbeist Lords,” Dunherr answered, wetting his lips. “We are the rulers of all Sekbeists.”

“And all Sekbeist Lords look like you?” I questioned further. “Gray skin, horn on your head, red eyes?”

“There are some… variations,” Dunherr admitted. “But we all have gray skin, horns, and red eyes.”

So all this time, the Sekbeists we had been fighting were only slaves? What kind of joke was that? The Grunts, the Elites, the Warlords, the Shamans… all of them had caused me no end of problems in my previous life and this life. Hearing that they were just slaves turned my blood cold. It made me realize there were beings far more dangerous than the ones I had fought.

“Tell me… what is the Void?” I asked.

“It is the concept of nothingness. Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. The Void is a phenomenal existence, an emptiness that contains everything and nothing at the same time.”

I frowned and ground my heel into his chest. “But what is it?”

It was clear to me that he didn’t want to let me know, but from the way his shaken eyes looked at my foot, he was aware of what awaited him should he say nothing. I could make his blood boil again, turn his own organs against him, make his bones snap like brittle twigs by reducing the water they contained… and then I could heal him and do it all over again.

“The Void is… a higher level concept,” he finally said. “Those who have touched the Void are people who have reached the Fifth State of Spiritualism. They are people who understand that there are higher concepts in this universe. People who have touched the Void have the power to consume other powers and create attacks that negate other concepts.”

A higher level concept. The Fifth State of Spiritualism. These were things I had never heard of before, but maybe that was simply because no one I knew from either my previous life or this one knew about them.

The dweorgs were not Spiritualists but craftsmen and Rune Masters. They did not understand Spiritualism. They were also the only race from a higher realm that I had met.

I thought my way through his words, coming to a few conclusions on my own based on what he said.

“You have only recently touched the Void, haven’t you?” I asked. Dunherr’s eyes widened seconds before he turned his head, but it was too late by then. “You don’t have to hide it. If you had really reached the Fifth State of Spiritualism, Siv and Kari would not have survived a battle against you. This also why the Sekbeists I have fought so far can only use darkness elemental attacks, but the knowledge I discovered about Sekbeists talks about them using the Void.”

Now that I was thinking on it, the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain and Ask had also used the Void. However, their control over it had been limited. I wasn’t sure what that meant yet.

“What else do you want to know?” Dunherr asked, spitting at me.

“How many more Sekbeist Lords are there on Miðgarðr?”

“As far as I know, me, Unglück, and Fritz are the only ones here.”

“As far as you know?”

“I’m telling the truth!”

“Fine. Then tell me something else.” I leaned in close, putting more weight on my foot and causing Dunherr to groan in discomfort. “What is your purpose in coming here? Why are you people constantly trying to open Warp Gates to the other realms?”

“Isn’t that… obvious?” Dunherr rasped. “During the war against the nine realms, the great races combined their strength with the dweorg’s Runes and sealed off each realm from each other, isolating and turning them into separate entities that could only be accessed through their special Warp Gates. To connect two realms together, we either have to open the Warp Gates located in the ruins scattered across Miðgarðr, or we have to create our own Warp Gate.”

I found myself nodding at this man’s words. Everything he said made sense. However, now I had another question.

“What’s so special about Miðgarðr?” I asked. “It seems to me like you guys have taken a special interest in this realm in particular, but from what I understand, not only is Miðgarðr the weakest of the nine realms, it is also the smallest. What’s here that your species is so interested in?”

The moment I asked these words, Dunherr clammed up. I frowned when he didn’t speak. With an application of Spiritual Power, I began boiling his insides again, causing his blood to run rampant through his body. Dunherr screamed and thrashed in pain. Blood poured from his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. His skin turned blistering red.

But he didn’t tell me anything.

“Even if I suffer a thousand times worse, I won’t tell you this! I won’t!”

I debated whether or not he was telling the truth. People often acted strong until you broke them. I was certain I could break this man eventually… but it would probably require months of torture, maybe even years. If I held him prisoner for that long, there was also a chance he could escape. Then I would have a new nightmare on my hands.

“Fine. If you refuse to say anything, you can just die,” I said.

I thought about the different methods I could use to kill him. If I really wanted to, I could make is death painful. I could make him suffer so much he would beg me to kill him. A part of me wanted him to suffer, wanted to see him screaming and crying and begging for death. I wanted him to feel the same pain my wives felt when they were fighting him. My mind was filled with all the horrendous ways I could end his life.

I sighed.

Channeling the lightning and water elements into Dunherr’s body, I turned all his blood into water and fried his heart with lightning. His death was instantaneous. The moment it happened, his body seemed to sag and stopped moving. His eyes were still wide open, face still screaming in pain.

I turned around and took toward the sky. The battle was not over yet.

***

The site of the portal was covered in more blood and bodies than any other.

Surrounding the portal were several men and women from the Battling Valkyries, Paladin Sect, and Midgard Spiritual Knights. Alexis, Rainere, and Commander Ashten were also present. However, none of them could get close to the portal.

The portal did not look like the Warp Gates that allowed sects to travel to and from their main headquarters. A rod sticking in the ground seemed to be the centerpiece for it. The tip of the rod had a black jewel that was glowing with an ominous light. Surrounding the rod on the ground were strange symbols that appeared to have been burned into the stone surface. Situated just above the rod was the portal itself, a swirling black mass of energy that disgorged Sekbeists every second.

It was impossible to get near the portal not only because too many Sekbeists were coming out from it, but also because a strange barrier appeared to have been set up around it. Anything could come out of the barrier. However, no matter how hard any of them tried, they could not go in.

Because that was the case, Commander Ashten had them cordon off this section of the city and escort all the civilians to safety. Now the several tens of thousands strong group had simply decided to defend this area with everything they had until a solution could be found. Unfortunately, none of them could of anything to resolve this problem.

“Damn it. I really want to know what this barrier is and where that Warp Gate leads to,” Alexis said as she swung her twin swords, glowing with lightning, and sliced through a Sekbeist with impunity.

Several more of the monsters came at her with enraged shrieks, but Alexis released several bursts of lightning from her swords. Each chain of lightning struck a Sekbeist, blew out of its back, struck another Sekbeist, and then continued on to create a chain. All the Sekbeist who were attached to that chain died as their insides were fried with lightning.

“It’s impossible to know without traveling through the portal,” Rainere said. “But do you really want to go through it when there’s clearly an entire army of these monsters on the other side?”

Rainere wielded his battleaxe with surprising grace as he slaughtered Sekbeists left and ride. His axe was coated with a layer of wind, which had been compressed and sharpened to a fine point. This allowed him to cut through anything with ease. He didn’t even feel resistance as he sliced bodies in half.

“Of course not,” Alexis said as she sidestepped a reckless attack from a Sekbeist, then swung her left sword and removed her enemy’s head from their shoulders. The head tumbled. The body kept moving, however, as if it had not realized it was no longer alive, before stumbling to the ground seconds later. “However, I would like to know where the hell this thing goes.”

“I do not believe it matters. What’s more important is figuring out a way to close this portal,” said Commander Ashten.

At that moment, Commander Ashten was proving why he was in charge of the Midgard Spiritual Knight. He wielded a single broadsword like it was an extension of his own body. The broadsword was lit up with a brilliant red light. Heat waves distorted the area around his sword as he cleaved through a Sekbeist with a single swing, separating its legs from its torso. Then he spun around and swung, unleashing a crescent wave of bright blue flames that had been condensed into a blade. It sliced into ten Sekbeists standing several meters out, cutting them in half and killing them instantly.

“Do you have any ideas to shut this portal then?” asked Alexis.

“Of course I don’t,” Commander Ashten said with a scowl.

They were in a tricky situation. While the area around this portal had been blocked off, they wouldn’t be able to hold this position forever. Their forces would eventually tire out. As of now, it seemed like the only thing they could do was maintain their current course and hope the forces on the other side of this portal would be exhausted before they ran out of Spiritual Power.

“The Alchemist Association and Healers Sect is here!” a shout went up.

Alexis and the others turned to find the familiar white robes of the Alchemist Association and the brown robes of the Healers Sect traveling down the road in the distance. Before anyone even had time to wonder what they were doing here, the Alchemist Association members began handing out pills, while the Healers Sect members began using their water elements to heal everyone.

“It looks like the Alchemist Association and Healers Sect realized we would need backup,” Rainere observed.

“The other sects should also be doing their part,” Alexis said with a scowl.

“Many of them are,” Commander Ashten informed Alexis. “I’ve received reports that the Knightly Sect, Divine Sword Sect, Brawler Sect, Poison Sect, and even the Beast Tamer Sect have joined my battalions in helping fend off these Sekbeist creatures.”

Alexis didn’t say anything, but she at least appeared somewhat mollified.

A strange crackling noise made everyone turn to the portal, which was suddenly surging with powerful energy. Black arcs of power erupted from the swirling mass. Alexis, Rainere, and Commander Ashten prepared themselves for whatever was about to come out. This was far different from what normally happened when a wave of Sekbeist emerged from it. Alexis couldn’t say what was going to come out, but a chill ran down her spine as she readied her twin swords.

“It looks like a big one is coming!” Rainere suddenly shouted as a massive foot emerged from the portal.

The foot was followed by a leg, the calf of which was easily two times larger than Alexis was tall and covered in muscle. The first foot was followed by a second. Then a torso emerged, every bit as muscled as the legs, and it was followed by arms and a head. A beast had emerged from the portal. It was massive, looming over them like a giant Demon Beast. Glowing red eyes surrounded by black sclera glared down at them, lips twisting into a grin and revealing sharp upper and lower tusk-like teeth.

“So this is Miðgarðr? Hmph. The pathetic realm of the humans. Hear me, measly humans, this day shall mark the end of your reign as a species! I am the Warlord, Doolfang! And I am here to annihilate all of you!”

Alexis had no idea what this creature was, whether it was a Sekbeist or something else, but she prepared herself to fight all the same.

The Warlord named Doolfang extended his hand as though grasping something invisible. Alexis and her compatriots became shocked when a massive sword of darkness appeared. It was a jagged blade of about five meters in length. Not only did it look vicious, but it gave off an aura that caused many of the surrounding Spiritualists to take a step back.

“Heh heh. Are you pathetic humans ready to be slaughtered like pigs?” asked Doolfang as he took a step forward and raised the sword in his hand.

Just as Alexis was getting ready to enter the Third State of Spiritualism to deal with this monster, a brilliant flash of light blinded her. A loud scream of agony echoed through the air. Several other people were screaming in surprise, though it seemed more because they’d been robbed of their vision than pain.

When her vision cleared, Alexis blinked several times to remove the spots from her eyes, and then she looked at Doolfang.

She needed to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.

Doolfang was standing in the same position he had before, but now there was a gaping hole that went all the way through his chest. Alexis could see out the other side. Such a wound should have been gushing blood and organs, but it looked like whatever had blasted that hole had also cauterized the wound. Doolfang remained standing there for several more seconds. Then his arm dropped to his side, the sword disappeared, and he fell backwards, hitting the ground with an earth-shaking thud.

“What… just happened?” asked Rainere.

That was what Alexis wanted to know as well.

As if to answer her question, a figure descended from the sky. She immediately recognized the man. How could she not when he had been staying with her Battling Valkyries for several days now?

“Eryk?” Alexis asked. “What are you doing here? I thought you went to Stormhold.”

“I did,” Eryk said as he landed on the ground. “However, Dunherr and Unglück weren’t there when we arrived. I realized they were already in Midgard and flew here as fast as I could.”

Alexis didn’t know what to say. He flew here? From Stormhold to Midgard? She could fly, of course, but it required way too much Spiritual Power to maintain flight for more than a few minutes. Just what kind of monster was this man?

She wanted to say something, to question him further, but something about his presence just then set her on edge. He wasn’t doing anything strange. He was just standing there and gazing at the portal, and yet there was this odd but invisible pressure that made her feel like a mountain was slowly crushing her body.

“Hmm… this portal is using Runes,” Eryk muttered. “I can’t read them.”

“None of us can read them,” Commander Ashten said. “We’ve even tried bringing members of the Runology Sect and the Spiritualism Research Sect, but they can’t read them either.”

Eryk gave a non committal nod before, just like he’d arrived, he vanished. It was so fast that Alexis wondered if maybe she’d been hallucinating.

“Anybody else… a little shocked by what just happened?” asked Rainere.

“I know I’m surprised,” Alexis muttered softly, gazing at the spot Eryk had been standing. “Erica told me she saw him kill an S-rank Demon Beast in less than ten moves, but this is beyond even that. Just who is this man? How can anyone be so powerful?”

None of them had an answer for her.