WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 21

“Roar!”

“Ah ha ha ha ha!”

“Roar!!!”

Girlish roars and peels of childish laughter echoed around the room as Kari and Siv played with Raul. Kari was crouched low and chasing after the little tyke, doing her best impression of a Demon Beast’s roar. Above them was Siv. She floated along silently, chasing Raul as well. She would occasionally swoop down and “attack” the little boy with tickles.

In her previous life, she had watched Eryk chase Kayli like this many times, and it often led to her berating him for acting so childish. Secretly, however, she had always enjoyed seeing him and Kayli playing. It soothed her heart. It brought warmth to her chest. She had often wondered what it would be like if she acted like this in Eryk’s place, but she’d never dared to. Eryk had been such a doting father. He’d given Kayli whatever she wanted.

Someone had to play the bad guy.

Raul ran around the couch, laughing all the while, but Kari did not follow him and leapt clean over the couch instead. She landed in front of Raul with a big grin on her face.

“Roar!!!”

She reached out, hands like grasping claws as Raul skidded to a stop. The little boy’s eyes had gone wide as he turned around and tried to run the other way. That was when Siv swooped down from above and landed in front of him. Now trapped, Raul couldn’t decide which way to run and attempted to dart around them, but they weren’t about to let that happen.

“Gotcha!”

Kari and Siv mercilessly tickled Raul, who's giggling increased in volume and intensity. He tried to struggle, but it was no use. Their tickling technique was ironclad. Kari was rather proud of her abilities. She had used this same technique on Eryk any number of times, and it was just like that old saying “like father, like son” said. They had the same weaknesses.

“Give up! I give up!” Raul squealed.

“Do you really give up?” asked Kari with a smile.

“Yes. I give up…” Raul said, only for Kari to notice the gleam in his eyes. He tried to make a break for it the moment they relented, to scramble away before they could realize he was playing them for fools, but how could Kari possibly let a child defeat her?

“Don’t think I don’t know you’re tricking me!”

“Waaaa!”

“Siv! Quick! Tickle him! Show no mercy!”

While Siv’s tickle technique was not as good as hers, she wasn’t bad either. She joined Kari in tickling Raul. His feet were particularly sensitive, but he was also very ticklish around his torso, so they were both able to tickle him mercilessly. They also didn’t stop even when he said he gave him. Kari knew better. She kept tickling him until he was too exhausted to move.

They had been playing like this for four days now, so about the same time Eryk, Fay, and Lin had left with the caravan to Stormhold. Kari wondered how they were doing. Had they arrived yet? Did they catch Dunherr and Unglück? She hoped they were okay and would come back soon.

After playing for several hours, Kari and Siv took Raul downstairs to the cafeteria so they could eat. The chef who cooked most of the meals was an old woman in her late seventies. She was a retired member of the Battling Valkyries and one of Alexis’ compatriots. They’d apparently been partners back when their sect was first starting out, but she had never moved past the Second State of Spiritualism, so she looked a lot older than Alexis.

They sat together at one of several tables and began eating. Quite a few members of the Battling Valkyries were also around since it was about time for lunch. The branch office was busier right now than usual because of the tournament and the fiascio following its cancellation. Alexis had ordered ten thousand members to remain here in case of an emergency situation. Most of them were, right now, patrolling the city to help the Midgard Spiritual Knights.

“Are you doing okay, Siv?” asked Kari.

Siv looked up from her meal, nodded, and said, “I am okay.”

“You’re sure?” Kari frowned and looked at the stack of plates next to the drakvar. “You aren’t eating as much as you normally do.”

Siv looked at her stack plates, which was about two times smaller than her usual stack. She normally ate at least forty servings every meal. She’d only been eating about twenty these past few days.

“I am fine,” she said again. “I just miss Eryk and Fay.”

Kari noticed Siv hadn’t mentioned Lin, but that was to be expected. Lin and Siv got along fine, and they never had any real problems with each other, but the people Siv was closest to was Eryk and Fay. If Lin was Kari’s little sister, then Siv was definitely Fay’s little sister.

Kari was about to comfort the girl, but Raul reached out and patted Siv’s arm.

“Don’t worry. Daddy and Mommy. Back soon,” he said in a serious voice.

Siv looked down at Raul, at Eryk’s and Fay’s son, and a soft smile blossomed on her face. It was a beautiful sight. The dragon girl was so petite and feminine, like a porcelain doll, so every gesture she made was breathtakingly innocent and pure.

It made watching her get fucked by Eryk all the more arousing to Kari.

“Yes, I’m sure they will be back soon,” Siv agreed.

While Kari was happy that Siv looked better, she wanted to pout. This had been her chance to make some inroads with Siv. She thought they could get a little closer. Not to say they weren’t close, but she always felt like there was some kind of distance, a gap between her and this quiet drakvar.

The door on the far side suddenly opened and Alexis walked in. She glanced around and locked eyes with Kari, then made her way over to them. All of her sect members greeted her with reverence, and she returned their greetings with an imperious nod, but most of her attention was fixated on Kari.

“I thought I might find you here,” Alexis said as she sat down on the opposite side of the table. “Has everything been to your liking so far? You three are not having any trouble now that the rest of your family is away?”

When Alexis appeared, Siv became quiet again. Kari almost sighed. Maybe the reason Siv wasn’t as close to her was because she constantly tried to push the drakvar into being more social? She thought it would do her some good to get the girl out of her comfort zone, but perhaps it was that very thing that kept them from being close. Neither Eryk or Fay ever tried to push the girl into doing something she didn’t want.

Kari always thought they were coddling Siv too much, but that might just be her own perceptions on the matter.

“Everything is fine. I don’t think any of us are having a problem,” Kari said with a smile.

She wasn’t completely honest, of course. There were a few problems at night. Raul would often wake up and cry when he realized Fay wasn’t there. Kari had spent those nights rocking him to sleep. She was very happy to have reached the Third State of Spiritualism, which gave her so much energy that she could go a few nights with little sleep.

Alexis didn’t look like she quite believed Kari, but she chose not to say anything. “That is good. Now, I wanted to talk to you about those inventions of yours.”

“Ah, you mean the ones we were going to use to catch Fritz?” asked Kari.

“Those are the ones,” Alexis said with a nod. “I believe they can be extremely useful and was hoping I could convince you to give me some.”

Kari tried to hide the sharp smile on her face, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded. Alexis suddenly looked wary. Oh, well.

“I certainly would not mind giving some to you, or even making more, but you should know those weren’t cheap to make,” Kari began. “If you want more, you’ll first need to supply the materials. It is also going to take a lot of time, so I’d like to be reimbursed for the work I’ll have to put in.”

Even though Kari did not consider herself a person of business, she was also not the kind of woman who would let an opportunity go to waste. She was more than willing to take advantage of her unique talent with Runes to get concessions from Alexis. She would even be willing to take advantage of the Midgard Spiritual Knights if the opportunity ever presented itself.

Alexis looked like she was beginning to regret opening her mouth. Kari knew, however, that this woman understood the benefits of her invention. She would capitulate. It was only a matter of time.

However, just as Alexis was about to open her mouth, the earth shook. The floorboards creaked, the chandeliers overhead jostled as sawdust fell from the ceiling. Everyone stood to their feet and exclaimed in shock.

“What is going on?!”

“An earthquake? We’ve never had one of these in Midgard.”

“That was no earthquake,” Alexis said as she stood up and rushed out of the room.

Kari had a bad feeling. She lifted Raul into her arms and hugged him to her chest as she and Siv followed Alexis. They traveled through the hall, burst into the main lobby, and ran outside.

The first thing she noticed upon exiting the building were all the people who had stopped what they were doing. After that, she noticed how everyone was pointing at something in the distance. Kari looked up and gasped when she saw smoke rising somewhere further in Midgard. Another loud rumbling sound shook the city, another stack of smoke began rising in the distance, and Kari realized with shock that what she felt was merely the aftermath of a massive explosion.

Alexis had already leapt onto the roof. Siv and Kari followed her and looked over to where the explosions were taking place.

“Those explosions came from one of the merchant squares,” Alexis mumbled. “That is one of the most populated areas within the city. Tens of thousands of people can be found there every day.”

Kari’s bad premonition became even stronger. She turned to Siv as she summoned two of the devices Alexis had been asking about just a few seconds ago. They looked like tiny buds or seeds, but they were made from a type of compound material. She didn’t know how it was made since the Dweorgs were the ones who created it. All she’d done was engrave the Runes into it.

“Siv, could you please go over and check things out? Let me know what you see.”

“Okay.”

Siv grabbed one of the buds and stuck it inside of her ear. The earbud was made from a material that adhered to any surface when Spiritual Power was released, so it didn’t fall out of Siv’s ear as she flapped her wings and took off. Kari propped Raul on her left hip as she inserted the other bud into her ear and channeled Spiritual Power into it.

“Big Sis? Smoke?” Raul asked.

“Yes, that is smoke,” Kari said with a tender smile. She didn’t want to worry Raul. She might not have given birth to him, but he was still her beloved son.

It was not long before Siv became a speck in the distance. Kari could see her by virtue of her incredible eyesight, which she enhanced with the light element. Siv flew back and forth a few times. It looked like she was observing the situation, but then something happened that shocked Kari. A massive spear made of darkness erupted from the ground and tried to skewer Siv! The attack was avoided, but Kari could not stop herself from feeling shocked.

After all, she’d seen attacks like that before.

“Siv! Siv! Are you okay?!” Kari called into her earbud.

“I-I’m okay,” Siv sounded shaken.

“What do you see? What happened?”

“There are… strange people down below. They aren’t human. They have green skin and red eyes… they look like those people who enslaved me.”

Kari sucked in a deep breath. It seemed their worst fears had come to life. The Sekbeist were invading Midgard, but what she didn’t understand was how they appeared.

“Come back quickly! Don’t put yourself in any more danger,” Kari said.

“I’m coming back now. Also, there is something else.”

“Something else?”

“Hmmm. Down below, there is a strange staff. This staff is releasing lots of Spiritual Power, and it is creating some kind of… gate? It looks like the Warp Gate you showed me. Those green people are pouring out of the gate.”

Kari closed her eyes as she absorbed this information. She even ignored Raul as he asked her what was wrong.

Some kind of object in the market square was being used to create a Warp Gate to transport Sekbeist into Midgard. How did it work? Where was the gate connected to? She didn’t know, but she now thought she understood why Fritz had been draining everyone of their Spiritual Power. It was so they could absorb the energy into this object and use it to create a Warp Gate inside of Midgard.

Just when this thought occurred to her, Kari once more cried out in shock when a beam of darkness shot up from the ground and attacked Siv. The drakvar was able to dodge, but then the beam exploded high above her head and turned into numerous projectiles that descended toward her. Siv was unable to dodge. She erected a wind barrier, which the projectiles slammed into, but just as it looked like she was safe, a figure shot toward her and slammed into the barrier. The barrier didn’t break, but Siv was sent flying.

“SIV!” Kari shouted in shock. Siv did not answer her. In a panic, Kari handed the confused Raul to Alexis. “Get my son somewhere safe! Then tell your people to protect the civilians! Inform the other sects about what’s happening! Tell them the Sekbeist are invading and they need to help out!”

“W-wait! What? Where are you going?!” asked Alexis, who no longer looked like she knew what was happening.

“I’m obviously going to help my sister,” Kari said as she quickly activated her Spiritual Aura, took it into herself, and then pushed her Spiritual Powers to the limit. She turned into an entity of light and flashed to where Siv was currently battling with not one but two unknown individuals.

There was no way Kari could allow these people to harm a member of her family.

***

Siv’s heart felt like it was leaping into her throat as she flew through the air at her fastest speed. She barely avoided the dark lance that the big man threw at her. It flew past her head and disappeared into the sky. Yet just when Siv thought she was safe, something powerful slammed into her back. She screamed as pain flooded her body, but she was not so weak that she couldn’t withstand this.

Flapping her wings, she twisted around and swung out her arm, launching a crescent shaped blade of wind at the person who had attacked her from behind. It was the other man. He looked more girly than the big man, but he seemed to be even stronger than the other one. When the wind blade reached him, he smacked it away like he was swatting at a fly.

“I never would have imagined there’d be a drakvar in Miðgarðr,” the girly man said. “Tell me, how did you get here? Were you able to somehow open a portal to Vindenket?”

“…”

“Are you not gonna talk?”

“Gya ha ha ha! This little drakvar looks like she’s too frightened to speak!”

The one who just spoke was the bigger man. He was a hulking brute with muscles bulging on his arms, legs, and chest. He had a thick neck and a bald head. His face was covered in scars.

Meanwhile, the other man had long black hair that went to his lower back and dark crimson eyes. His eyebrows were thin and refined. Siv often heard people say that Eryk looked a lot like a woman, but she thought this man before her looked even more like a woman.

Both individuals had gray skin and wore dark armor with odd geometric patterns etched into them, which caused her body to shiver. There was something ominous about their armor. She didn’t know what, but it felt dark, malicious somehow.

The pretty one tilted his head and seemed to consider the bigger one’s words.

“I suppose if she will not talk, we will just have to capture her and take her with us,” he said at last. “We have ways of making her talk.”

Siv bit her lip as fear flooded her body. She felt her entire body trying to shake. She was afraid. She hated fighting, and these people were the same kind of people who had attacked her home so long ago. They looked identical to those invaders who killed her father and forced her to flee to this realm.

“Gya ha ha ha! I’ve always wanted to fight a drakvar! Let me handle this little girl, Dunherr!”

“Very well. You can take care of her, Unglück. I’ll just stand back and watch for now.”

“Gya ha ha ha!”

Siv became alert when the one called Unglück shot forward. She flapped her wings and moved away, but he spun around and released another powerful lance of darkness. It swirled around his arm, elongated into a shaft, and the end sharpened into a fine point as he grabbed it and threw it at her. She could feel the wrongness from this weapon, which was why she didn’t try to block it. With another flap of her wings, she flew out of the way, then attempted to launch her own attack.

Biting her lower lip, Siv swung both arms out in a cross pattern, launching two crescent shaped wind blades that were several meters long. They slammed into Unglück, who had crossed his arms. The man grunted as he was pushed back. Siv thought her attack might have done some damage, but then the man roared and swung his arms wide. Each wind blade was knocked away and slammed into the ground.

Because of how much power she put into her wind blades, the attacks sliced the ground apart. No one was underneath them, fortunately, but one building had been sliced all the way through. It split in half.

“Damn. You drakvar pack some power into those tiny bodies, huh? Gya ha ha ha ha! This is great! I never got to fight your kind before!”

The man’s laugh was grating on Siv’s ears, but she didn’t say anything as she launched several more attacks. This time, she punched out with her left hand. Wind gathered along her fist and was released in a powerful burst. As it shot forward, the simple attack distorted the air and transformed into a dragon head that opened its mouth wide as though to swallow Unglück whole.

With another laugh, Unglück charged forward. Darkness gathered along his fist as he thrust it out. His fist slammed into her wind dragon. Darkness and wind exploded, churning the sky and creating cracks in the air. Siv had heard of those before. They were spatial cracks. It was something that happened when the power between two individuals was so intense their attacks broke the laws of the world. That was how her father described it.

It wasn’t long before Unglück’s attack overpowered her dragon. The darkness he used as a weapon seemed a bit more powerful than her wind. He flew toward her, a mad grin on his face that sent a thrill of fear up Siv’s spine, but she did not give in and merely opened her mouth.

Wind gathered inside of her mouth. It coalesced into a small sphere. Streamers of wind flew into her mouth, which she absorbed and added to her attack. The sphere tried to increase in power and became unstable, but Siv exerted her will over the sphere, compressing it whenever that happened.

Unglück was getting closer now, so close she could see the blackness surrounding his eyes. Unlike a human, this man did not have white around his irises. It was entirely black, which made him look even more terrifying. However, Siv kept compressing more and more wind into her attack, not allowing her fear to overpower her ability to think as she waited for this man to reach her.

Just when Unglück arrived and looked like he was about ready to smash her head with his fist, Siv unleashed the compressed sphere of wind. There was no way for him to dodge. The wind sphere slammed into his body with a hurricane-like force. Even Siv did not know how much power she had compressed into that attack.

Unglück released an ugly scream as he was sent flying back. Had he been a regular human, that attack would have blown his body to bits. Siv was sure of it because Eryk had complimented her on her power. Her husband said Siv’s raw power was the greatest among his wives. Whatever this man was, he was a lot sturdier than a human, and so instead of exploding, he flew into Midgard and crashed into the ground.

The wind sphere pushing against Unglück’s chest chose that moment to explode. A fierce storm of hurricane-like wind blades erupted from the sphere and engulfed the area around Unglück. Because wind was invisible, she could still see what was happening to Unglück, see how the wind blades were cutting into his body. Black blood exploded from his flesh and stained the ground, which was also being cut into by her wind attack.

Siv looked away. She couldn’t stand the sight of blood, no matter how many times she had seen it.

However, just as she looked away from Unglück, a powerful Spiritual Pressure pushed down on her body. Her sense of danger screamed at her.

She turned her head and found Dunherr was already right in front of her. When did he get there? How could he move so fast? She didn’t know, but she was already trying to back away from this man. Before she could get far, however, Dunherr threw out his fist, which exploded with dark energy that slammed into her.

Siv screamed. She thought she screamed. Everything was drowned out as pain unlike anything she’d felt ran rampant through her body. It felt like she was being melted, like something was eating away at her flesh. It hurt. It hurt so much that she wanted to cry, but she couldn’t cry, she couldn’t do anything but open her mouth and try to scream, though she soon realized the reason she couldn’t hear her own screams was not because she couldn’t scream, but because her throat had already grown so hoarse from screaming that she could no longer produce such sounds.

Darkness covered her like a wet blanket. She realized she must have blacked out. When she came to, the two people who she had been fighting were standing over her. She also realized that she was lying in a crater.

“Awww. Dammit, why’d you have to ruin my fun?” Unglück asked.

Dunherr snorted. “This is your fault for not being careful enough. Had you not been so careless, you would not have been hurt so badly.”

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud. What’s life without a little pain. Gya ha ha ha ha!”

“Just hurry up and kill her,” Dunherr said with a sigh. “We can’t have a drakvar running around. She’s too dangerous.”

Unglück didn’t say anything and just laughed as he walked over to her. Siv tried to move, to get up and scramble away, but her body was incapable of doing much more than squirming. Every inch of her body was in pain. It really did feel like something had eaten away at her flesh.

“Gya ha ha ha! Don’t be scared! I’m told death is a lot like sleeping.” Unglück grinned at her, but that grin absolutely terrified her. It was vicious and mocking. She hated it. “Now, time for you to go to sleep… permanently.”

Just as Unglück reached out with his hand, Dunherr suddenly screamed a warning. “Watch out!”

The warning came too late. A spear made of light flew out from somewhere and sliced right through Unglück’s arm, severing it at the elbow. Black blood splashed against Siv’s face as the gray-skinned man stumbled back, holding onto the severed stump of his arm and screaming in pain.

Dunherr quickly grabbed the man and jumped back as a figure suddenly flashed in front of Siv. She didn’t recognize the figure at first, for their entire body appeared to have been made from golden energy, and they gave off a divine feeling, but then the gold energy dissipated, and the familiar blonde hair of Kari appeared before her.

“Kari…” Siv muttered.

Kari didn’t turn around at first, keeping a wary eye on the two Sekbeist as she walked backward. When she reached Siv, she crouched down, lifted Siv into her arms, summoned several pills from her storage ring, and pressed them against Siv’s lips.

Recognizing them as Advanced Healing Pills, Siv didn’t hesitate to break through the outer shell with her teeth. Medicinal strength gushed down her throat. It tasted bad, but it wasn’t long after she swallowed the first pill that the pain in her body lessened. The pain stopped entirely after the second pill, and then her Spiritual Power recovered when she took the third pill.

“I’m so sorry,” Kari said as she fed Siv each pill, voice filled with remourse and anguish. “I should have been more careful. I should have gone with you.” Siv shook her head, but she didn’t say anything as the woman gave her one last pill. Kari bit her lip. “Can you stand?”

“I think so…”

Kari set Siv on her feet and made sure the injuries her sister had sustained were gone. Siv also looked at herself; the wounds covering her flesh had disappeared, replaced by milky white skin, and the bruises that had covered her body were no more. Not only had all of her wounds healed, but her reserves of Spiritual Power had also made a complete recovery.

Once Kari confirmed that Siv’s injuries were healed, she shifted her attention to the two men, glaring at the people who had dared to hurt her sister. Even Siv shivered when she saw that look despite not being the recipient.

Dunherr and Unglück were still standing about five meters away. Unglück was cradling his missing hand and viciously glaring at Kari, while Dunherr merely looked at her as though she was a curiosity. There was not an ounce of fear of nervousness on their faces.