WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 22

Kari had never been in a standoff before. Most of her battles always started off the same way they began, frantic and fast-paced, or they finished within a split second. Before she and her sisters had reached the Third State of Spiritualism, many of their enemies had seemed extremely strong. After they reached they reached the Third State, all of their enemies had seemed very weak.

Now she was about to fight two opponents whose powers seemed to exceed hers by a large margin, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Her body shivered as she gazed into the eyes of the man called Dunherr. His crimson eyes surrounded by black were calm and placid, like an ancient well, but that just made her all the more wary of him. That look in his eyes said she wasn’t even worth his time. Just a minor curiosity.

“I never imagined there would still be humans who possessed the light element,” Dunherr said at last, head tilting. “Tell me, human child, are you by chance related to Baldr?”

“Who?” asked Kari, frowning.

Dunherr shook his head. “Nevermind. I am sure you have no idea who I am talking about. Even if you were related to Baldr, it would not matter.”

Kari ran a quick search of her memory to see if the name belonged to someone she knew, or someone she’d heard of, but there was nothing within her memory of someone named Baldr.

She shook her head.

“Siv,” Kari said. “I hate to ask this of you, but can you still fight?”

Siv’s body tensed when she asked that question, but the drakvar forced herself to relax and took several deep breaths. It looked to Kari like Siv was trying to remain calm in the face of danger. Her sister never did well when confronted with violence.

“I can… still fight,” Siv said, though she sounded reluctant.

Kari pushed aside her guilt and said, “In that case, I would like you to finish off Unglück.”

“Unglück?” Siv worried her lower lip. “You don’t want me to fight… Dunherr?”

Kari shook her head. “Unglück is currently injured, so it shouldn’t take as long for you to finish him off. I will hold off Dunherr until you are done. Just try to be quick please. I won’t be able to hold him off for long.”

Dunherr was obviously the more powerful of the two. It was blatantly obvious to Kari that she did not stand a chance in a fight against him, but she also understood that when it came to tactics, the safest way was to kill the weakest link first. Once Siv fought and finished off Unglück, she could join back up with Kari. Then their battle would be two on one instead of two one on one fights.

Siv thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “I will fight Unglück. Then I will hurry back to you.”

“Thanks,” Kari said with a smile toward her sister.

The two of them walked out of the crater and stopped when they were about five meters away from Dunherr and Unglück. Neither Sekbeist had moved. From up close, Kari could see they looked almost human if she discounted their gray skin and the horns on their heads. They didn’t look at all like the Sekbeists she knew.

“Are you two Sekbeist?” asked Kari. She didn’t expect an answer, so she became surprised when she ended up getting one.

“Gya ha ha ha ha ha! Sekbeist?! You think we’re Sekbeist?!” Unglück held a hand to his belly and laughed so hard and so loud that the sound echoed across the city. “That’s a good one! That’s rich! I guess these humans really are ignorant! Gya ha ha ha!”

Dunherr smiled at Kari, but it was a mocking smile. “While I suppose if you want to get technical, we are indeed Sekbeist, we are at the same time not. The creatures you call Sekbeist are merely genetically modified slaves whom we employ in combat. They are the lowest caste among our armies.”

Not Sekbeist? Then what about that power they were wielding? And what did “genetically modified” mean?

“Then… how come your power is like those of the Sekbeist Warlords and Shamans I’ve fought before?” asked Kari.

“Oh? I am surprised you know about those terms. Now I see. It seems you have encountered Sekbeists numerous times before. That is the only explanation for why you know of them.” Dunherr studied Kari as if he was seeing her in a new light. He withdrew his hands into his sleeves and nodded once. “I suppose you deserve an answer, and we have the time. Consider this a gift from me.”

Kari’s nose twitched at the condescending tone in Dunherr’s voice, but she didn’t say anything. It sounded like he was about to tell her something she and Eryk desperately needed to know about their enemies.

“The term ‘Sekbeist’ is one that had been given to us long before we came to this world. I suppose it is an apt enough name. We are a very warlike race. However, the ones you have termed Sekbeist are not the same as us. They are of the Slave Caste. Unglück and I are of the Lord Caste. Lords are basically the rulers of the Sekbeist. We’re not numerous like those of the Slave Caste, but each of us is far more powerful than an entire battalion of slaves.” Dunherr paused long enough to give them a self-deprecating smile. “Of course, Unglück and myself are among the weaker Lords. That is why we ended up in the smallest realm of your world.”

While she didn’t outwardly react to this man’s words, she was secretly astonished. All this time, she and the others had been categorizing the Sekbeists into the classification of Grunt, Elite, Shaman, Beast, and Warlord. They had all assumed Warlords were the most powerful Sekbeists after the Sekbeist Overlord. Never could she have imagined there was an entirely different classification, or that the Sekbeist she and Eryk had been fighting for so many decades were just slaves.

“Does that answer your question?” asked Dunherr.

“It does, thanks.”

Kari smiled before her eyes hardened. She extended her hand, gathering Spiritual Power into her palm. An orb of light appeared, which she clenched her hand around, though it only seemed to disappear for a second before extending out of both ends of her palm. The bottom end turned into a twin-pronged blade with serrated edges. The top turned into a serrated blade with a vaguely leaf-like shape.

“Now, Siv!” Kari shouted.

Even though Siv detested combat, she did not hesitate to open her mouth and unleash a powerful dragon’s roar. This roar echoed across all of Midgard. At the same time, a fierce burst of wind shot from her mouth and slammed into Unglück, who was completely unprepared for the sudden attack and sent flying backward. With a mighty flap of her wings, Siv flew after him.

Dunherr took a step forward like he was going to stop her, but Kari used the Flash Step to appear right in front of him. The Sekbeist Lord’s eyes widened as he moved backward. She swung the ranseur of light at him in a powerful arc that sliced into his clothes but didn’t damage his body. He looked down at the neat slit running across his shirt. Then he looked back up at Kari.

Except Kari wasn’t there.

Reacting with reflexes that astounded Kari, Dunherr turned around and raised a hand as she descended from the sky. Darkness gathered within his hand and transformed into a dark sword. It was a massive weapon similar to the claymore’s Erica favored, but this was nearly three times thicker and possessed jagged edges that looked like they were designed to tear apart flesh. As she descended, Kari swung her ranseur as Dunherr raised his dark claymore.

Light and darkness clashed. Spiritual Power burst apart between them as the two elements eroded each other, twisting and turning and causing distortions and spatial cracks in the air. Kari’s light began dissipating, but she quickly pushed more Spiritual Power into her ransuer.

Kari gritted her teeth as the muscles in her arms and core strained. The ground underneath Dunherr’s feet cracked, causing the man to lose his balance, but he didn’t panic. Before she could press her advantage, the man disappeared into a shadow on the ground. He appeared again standing several meters to her left, underneath a half-destroyed balcony.

“You are quite the impressive specimen,” Dunherr complimented. “It is rare to meet a human who has your power.”

Kari snorted as she spun the ranseur around in her hands, adopting a simple but solid battle stance with her left foot forward, right leg bent at an angle, and the leaf-shaped tip pointed squarely at her enemy.

“If you think I am powerful, then you should meet my husband and sisters. They are many times more powerful than me.”

“So they have reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism then? Or could it be they have gone even beyond the Fourth State?”

“Beyond?”

Kari must have given away her confusion because the expression on Dunherr’s face suddenly turned mocking. “I see. You don’t know about the other states. Well, far be it for me to enlighten you. I believe I have already given you enough knowledge, and it isn’t like you’re going to be able to use that knowledge anyway. The dead have no use for such things. Now, let us continue.”

Dunherr stomped on the ground. Kari’s eyes flashed as shock rushed through her body. Dark streams of miasma erupted from the ground all around her, morphing into spear-tipped tendrils that curved in and shot toward her. She gnashed her teeth together and spun around in a circle, swinging her ranseur.

While darkness eroded light, light similarly cut through darkness. Her powerful weapon was something she had created by compressing millions of light particles into a shape she was familiar with. This attack, powerful though it may have been, was darkness spread out across a larger volume of space.

Kari’s ranseur tore through the dark tendrils like they were made of paper.

But Kari realized she could not celebrate her success.

Because appearing right in front of her eyes was none other than Dunherr, his massive dark claymore already raised above his head, swinging down to slice her in half.

With a shout, Kari leapt back and thrust her ranseur at the dark weapon as it descended. A powerful explosion tore through the street they were standing on, upending stone, decimating buildings, and creating fierce gale winds and spatial tears. Their clash was so powerful that if anyone had been in the vicinity, they would have died instantly, blood spewing from their orifices as their internal organs ruptured.

Unfortunately, in this clash, Kari found that she was in the weaker position.

With blood gushing from her mouth, Kari was launched backward, though she managed to flip around and right herself. Crouched down, she wiped the blood running down her lip and glared fiercely at Dunherr.

Her enemy merely smiled.

***

Commander Ashten wanted desperately to lead the charge into Midgard and rescue the civilians, but he knew that his purpose was to remain in the makeshift garrison they had set up inside of the Midgard Spiritual Knight’s first floor lobby. From there, he could receive reports from people coming in and hand out orders for them to relay to his forces currently in Midgard. Sadly, they did not possess a means of long range communication right now. Speaker systems like the one in the arena had a limit that could not be exceeded.

“Ashten!”

Upon hearing the familiar voice calling his name, Commander Ashten looked up from the table upon which a detailed map of Midgard was drawn. The person who was coming over to him was Rainere. Trailing behind the sect leader for the Paladin Sect was none other than Alexis of the Battling Valkyries. There were several other women with her. All of them were young members of the Battling Valkyries. For some reason, they were pressing a hand to their ears and looked like they were talking to themselves.

“What’s the situation look like?” asked Commander Ashten.

“It’s chaos,” Rainere said immediately. “Midgard is currently being overrun by a strange race of humanoid enemies. Alexis here says these are the Sekbeist that Eryk was talking about.”

Commander Ashten turned to Alexis as the woman stepped forward. Her eyes were cold and sharp like a pair of drawn swords.

“You know what is going on, I take it?” Commander Ashten asked.

Alexis nodded. “Someone within the city created a portal similar to our Warp Gates, which is what allowed the Sekbeist to enter the city and begin attacking everyone.”

“What could they want?” Rainere wondered out loud.

Alexis shook her head. “I do not know what their purpose is, but I don’t think they are attacking for no reason. In either event, I came here to deliver something to you.”

After saying those words, Alexis reached into a pouch at her hip and pulled out a fairly large bag, which she set on the table. Commander Ashten frowned as the woman pulled out what looked like a small seed with an unusual shape.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Kari calls them ‘communicators,’” Alexis said before going on to explain their purpose. “You stick these in your ear, and you can communicate with the corresponding communicator. Each communicator is connected to only one other communicator, so you will need to have multiple people working together to create a network, but this should make it easier for you to give orders. However, there are only a thousand of them right now, so make sure you use them wisely.”

Commander Ashten didn’t let Alexis see how stunned he was as he grabbed the little seed-shaped device and studied it. Only now, as he was looking at it more closely, could he see the numerous Runes inscribed onto its surface. They were so intricate and detailed. Nothing he’d ever seen before could compare except maybe the Warp Gates themselves.

“Lady Alexis,” one of the Battling Valkyries suddenly said. “Karen and her squadron are currently protecting a group of civilians who were being pursued, but they are outnumbered.”

“Where are they located?” asked Alexis.

“They are south of where the portal appeared.”

Alexis pondered for a moment, then turned to another of her sect members. “Jannice, have Monnica head in Karen’s direction and give them some support.”

“Yes, Lady Alexis.”

As the one Alexis called Jannice began seemingly talking to herself, Commander Ashten once more looked at the device in his hands. A single moment passed. After that, he turned to the members of his sect who were still inside and issued orders.

“I want you all to grab a communicator and deliver them to my generals. Alexander, go find Deterion and have his battalion leaders equip these communicators. Strider, you’ll find Kroak and have him do the same. Kannah, give Maria Flamme as many of these as you possible can. Lisander and Mav, I want you both to find Lilac and Nam. Give them these communicators.”

The people he gave orders to all saluted, took several dozen communicators, and rushed out of the building so they could deliver them to the generals in question.

Once the men and women he ordered left, Commander Ashten turned to Alexis once again. “You said these Sekbeist arrived through a portal, right? Can you show me where this portal is?”

Alexis nodded as she walked around the table to stand on the opposite side of Commander Ashten. She placed her hands flat on the surface, leaned over, and narrowed her eyes. After another moment, she jabbed her finger at a specific section of the city. Commander Ashten realized it was one of the most populous free markets in Midgard.

“It opened up somewhere around here,” she said.

Commander Ashten nodded before looking at Rainere. “Can I count on you and your sect to travel there and check things out? I’d go there myself, but I need to remain here and command the troops.”

Rainere nodded. “Just leave this matter to me.”

“I am going as well,” Alexis said in a voice that left no room for discussion. “Kari asked me to find out how the portal was opened.”

Rainere didn’t say anything, but he shrugged as if to say “suit yourself” and turned around to begin leaving. Alexis quickly caught up with him. However, before either of them could make it outside, the entire building shook fiercely as though something had struck it. Alexis, Rainere, the people around them, and even Commander Ashten were jostled so bad they fell to the ground. Commander Ashten became especially shocked when a large crack appeared along the wall, traveled down, and spread across the floor.

“What is going on?!”

“Did something just hit us?!”

Fearing the worst, Commander Ashten scrambled to his feet and dashed outside with Alexis and Rainere. The moment they appeared, the three of them were buffeted by even more fierce explosions. Incredible gale winds slammed into them. Bursts of air pressed them into the ground. Even releasing his Spiritual Power to counteract the effects did very little to help.

“What… is going on?!” Rainere demanded to know.

Commander Ashten wanted to know the same thing.

“Above us! Look up!” Alexis shouted.

Commander Ashten did as instructed and looked up, but the moment he did, his pupils became the size of pinpricks as he stared at the impossible scene before him.

“Is that a dragon?!” he demanded of no one in particular.

***

There were many benefits to having a human form. Opposable thumbs for one. Siv liked having hands that could easily grasp objects without accidentally crushing them. She also believed the human shape was very beautiful, very appealing. While she never said it out loud, she could spend hours just looking at Eryk, admiring him.

He was a very beautiful man.

However, as a drakvar, there were many limitations to her human form. The biggest limitation was the fact that she couldn’t bring her full power to bear.

Siv spun around and lashed out with her tail. Her opponent was several meters away, but a powerful explosion of wind rushed from her tail and raced toward Unglück. She expected her attack to send him flying. However, despite only having one hand, the man did not back down and did not fly off. He raised his hand and brought it down.

Darkness congealed on his hand and formed a blade that sliced through her wind attack. It looked like he had been able to destroy her powerful attack with ease. He was even laughing.

“Gya ha ha ha! Is that all you have?! I guess you drakvar really are pathetic! Gya ha ha ha!”

Siv did not like fighting, but she disliked someone laughing at her even more.

She raised her hands above her head and gathered a massive amount of wind together, transforming it into a several meter in diameter sphere. The powerful winds within were not only compressed to an astonishing degree but rotating at a velocity so high the air visibly distorted. Thousands of wind blades spun around inside of the sphere, which she tossed at Unglück.

While her attack was powerful, Unglück did not appear to put this power into his eyes as he charged forward. His body became encased in darkness. His figure disappeared entirely as he transformed into a dark monster with glowing red eyes. Even though he was several dozen meters away, Siv could feel the malevolent Spiritual Pressure he exuded. It caused a shiver to run down her spine.

Unglück slammed head first into the wind sphere. Like a balloon being struck, the sphere bulged on one side and caved on the other seconds before bursting apart. Numerous powerful wind blades few everywhere. Some merely flew into the sky and disappeared, but several struck the ground, splitting buildings in half, cracking apart the roads. They caused a lot of damage to the city.

While Siv was not shocked that Unglück had destroyed her attack, she was still unable to react in time as he appeared before her and slammed his head into her stomach. She screamed as the horns on his head punctured her skin. Her scream was lost of the wind, however, as the incredible force of his attack blasted her backward.

Siv felt like she had swallowed her tongue as she slammed back first into the obsidian tower. Cracks spread from where she impacted, traveling across the building. It was perhaps a testament to how sturdy this tower was that it didn’t collapse.

Just as Siv was about to pull herself free, Unglück appeared before her and thrust out his hand. She gagged as he slammed his hand into her throat and pinned her to the tower. A twisted smile split his face in half. It was an ugly smile. It reminded her of the smile those people who attacked her home and forced her to flee had worn.

She hated it.

She hated it so much.

Siv reached out and gripped his hands, blood oozing from Unglück’s forearms as her sharp nails dug into his flesh. She tried to remove his hand from her neck. He didn’t budge. Even when Siv used all of her strength in this form, he didn’t move. He was like an unmovable mountain.

“Look at you,” Unglück said, chuckling as he tightened his grip. Her throat felt like it was being crushed. She gagged as drool ran down her mouth and onto his hand. “Everyone always told me about how powerful you drakvar are. I used to be so jealous of those other Lords who kept bragging about how they got to battle and slay such powerful creatures, while I was stuck here in the human realm… but now that I have fought you myself, I have to admit I’m disappointed. You’re not all that powerful.”

Siv did not like fighting. She did not like violence. Violence ravaged her home. It forced her to flee. It killed her father. That was why she always shied away from it. Even when Eryk and the others had been fighting against the Sekbeist Invasion back in Nevaria, she hadn’t used her full powers because she disliked fighting and violence.

Now she had no choice.

She did not like violence.

But she hated the idea of not being able to return to Eryk’s side even more.

With a mighty roar, Siv clawed at Unglück’s face, dragging her five sharp nails from the top of his face to the bottom. Her enemy screamed as he let go of her throat and pressed his hands to the torn flesh of his face. Through the gaps between his fingers, he glared at Siv.

She glared right back.

Up until this point, Siv had always held herself back. Even when she transformed into her dragon form, she never went all out, but now she did.

Spiritual Power erupted from her body. The force slammed into the tower behind her and caused more cracks to appear. Powerful storm winds swept through Midgard and gathered around Siv as her body grew bigger, as scales spread across her skin, and as her limbs elongated and grew more muscular. Her tail increased in both length and girth. Her face ceased to look human and transformed into a large reptilian muzzle with massive teeth the size of a human’s torso. Her hands turned into sharp claws with three talons. What appeared before Unglück no longer resembled a human.

It was a twenty-five meter long dragon.

It was a drakvar.

“Gya ha ha ha! So this is what you really look like,” Unglück said with a tremble in his voice. “You’re really… quite the monster! Gya ha ha ha!”

Siv opened her snarling muzzle and spoke in a deep, grating voice that contained only a hint of femininity. “The only monster here is you.”

And then she unleashed her attack.

Siv was a wind drakvar. She had absolute control over the wind. She understood it in ways no one else except maybe another wind drakvar could, and that was also why she could control every aspect of the wind to create whatever she wanted.

With her mighty wings flapping, the first thing Siv did was gather the wind around Unglück and lock him in place. He only seemed to realize what was happening after his body became immobilized. Unglück struggled and strained against her bonds, but while wind was invisible, it was not so easily broken. Even as his muscles bulged, even as veins popped out on his forehead, and even as blood leaked from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears, his body remained incapable of moving.

Siv opened her mouth and gathered more wind. Swirling eddies that distorted the atmosphere coalesced inside her mouth, forming a sphere about three times the size of a human head. Whenever the sphere expanded, she would compress the wind and gather more. She did this several times. By the time she had gathered what she deemed enough, so much wind had been compressed that the sphere had gained color.

It was now a white ball.

It took less than a single second to form.

“Gya ha ha ha… that is an awful lot of wind.” Unglück licked his dry lips as his eyes nervously flitted about. “Are you sure you want to unleash that here? You might damage more of the city. Who knows how many people you will kill with that.”

Had someone else spoken those words, Siv might have been inclined to believe them, but she knew better than to trust the words of a Sekbeist Lord. They were the enemy. He was clearly trying to trick her.

Besides, her control over wind wasn’t so weak.

Before the man could say another word, Siv launched the ball of wind, which flew so fast it released a powerful sound wave as it broke the sound barrier. Unglück only had enough time to scream in shock before the wind sphere hit him.

It was all over after that.

The wind sphere, after striking Unglück, tore his body apart and expanded quickly. The Sekbeist Lord disappeared as his body was engulfed by the compressed cutting blades. Siv flapped her wings and floated in place as the sphere grew to seven times its previous size, making it around the same size of three adult human men. However, while the sphere contained an incredibly destructive force, that force did not move beyond the sphere. It was like a self-contained ball of pure annihilation.

Seconds ticked by before the sphere ran out of Spiritual Power. The wind dissipated and returned to normal. The fierce howling that Siv had been ignoring vanished.

Unglück was gone. His body had been completely annihilated.

With her opponent finished, Siv did not wait around and instead oriented herself toward where she could sense Kari. With a flap of her wings, she blasted off in that direction.

Her sister’s aura was flickering dangerously. She feared that if she didn’t arrive soon, Kari would be finished.