WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 20

I was back in Alexis’ office, sitting on a couch alongside my wives, Alexis, and Erica. Raul was sitting on the floor and drawing something on a sheet of parchment. I didn’t know what he was drawing, but it was probably squiggles that only my wives would be able to figure out. For some reason, I could never tell what he was drawing…

“It looks like we’re going to have our work cut out for us,” I said at last.

“I take it the results of the meeting were not to your liking?” asked Alexis. “You should know that you’re being given a great deal of trust. Shouldn’t you be honored?”

“I suppose I am, but this also means I’m going to have more work.” I tugged at my bangs. “That said, I can understand why they would do this to me. I doubt there’s anyone else in the Northern Plains who can fight Dunherr and Unglück if they really are Sekbeist who have reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism.”

“What were the results of the meeting?” asked Fay.

“I’ve been put in charge of storming the stronghold for Thor’s Hammer,” I explained. “That is the sect Fritz was in. I believe the sect leader and vice sect leader are Sekbeist disguised as people like Fritz had been. If my assumption is correct, those two have also reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism, which means we’re the only ones who can fight against them and have any hope of victory.”

“Which explains why you’ve been put in charge,” Fay said with a nod. “Are you not happy about that?”

I wasn’t quite able to contain my grimace. “I’m not unhappy about it, but I also have so much on my plate right now that I’m a little worried about being overwhelmed.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” Kari said at last. “You might not like it, but we managed to get some great concessions out of this.”

“What kind of concessions?” asked Fay.

Kari held up her left hand and began ticking things off her list. “Well, the first concession is that our sect application is going to be processed more quickly. We won’t even have to wait a week before the Nevarian Braves becomes an officially recognized sect of the Northern Plains. We’re also going to be given a branch office and the Council of Six has agreed to help us build a Warp Gate that will connect our headquarters in Nevaria to the branch office here. They’ve also agreed to task the Monster Tamers Sect with finding S-rank Demon Beasts for us. Of course, we are also getting paid to do this.”

“How much are we getting paid?” asked Fay.

Kari’s smile widened as she said, “Fourteen million valis.”

“That is a lot,” Fay breathed out. “Those are some pretty good concessions.”

“Kari is the one who convinced them all to give us these concessions,” I said.

“You should have seen Big Sister,” Lin chimed in. “She was awesome. Whenever one of those old guys at the meeting tried to convince her to lower the price our assistance would cost, she reminded them that no one else had the power to contend with those two. She didn’t back down for even a second and forced them into conceding to her demands.”

“That sounds a lot like Kari,” Fay admitted.

Kari huffed and crossed her arms. “Why does the way you say that make it sound like you weren’t complimenting me?”

“Must be your imagination,” Fay said with a smile.

While my wives talked, Raul finished his drawing. Looking proud, he stood up and waddled over to me and Fay. We were sitting together. Fay was on my left and Kari was on my right. Siv was sitting on another couch with Lin. Meanwhile, Alexis sat on a chair and Erica stood behind her like a loyal guard. She sort of reminded me of Valence when he was acting as Empress Hilda’s bodyguard.

“Daddy! Mommy! Look! Drawing!”

Raul displayed the drawing to me, which once more looked a lot like squiggles that I could not for the life of me make sense of. Was this another drawing of us? I thought the longer squiggle might be Lin since he had been drawing us the last time, but when I asked him, Raul shook his head.

“Big sword! Beat bad guy!” he said.

“Uh-huh…”

Fay smiled at me like she found my inability to figure out what my son had drawn was amusing. “Eryk, that is obviously you fighting against a bunch of bad guys with your ruler.”

“It is?” I looked at Raul. “That’s me fighting bad guys?”

“Yeah! Daddy. Big sword fights bad guys.”

Hmm… now that he was saying it, I think I could kinda see it. That long squiggle must have been the ruler, which I still sometimes used during practice. Raul had seen me sparring Fay with it enough times to know what it looked like. There were several other squiggles that I guessed were bad guys squaring off against me.

“Why are the bad guys red?” I asked.

“They’re bloody,” Raul answered.

Ah. So they were bleeding because I was beating them. Well, that made sense, though I wasn’t sure how I felt about my son creating such a violent drawing.

“This princess could make a much better drawing,” Lin mumbled as she crossed her arms and pouted. It seemed she was still sore about Raul not letting her teach him how to draw properly.

Because it was getting late, our group adjourned to the cafeteria, where we all ate a meal of mixed foods. There were gyros. That was pork that had been cooked on a vertical rotisserie. I wasn’t sure what the meat had been seasoned with, but it had a very strong scent and an even bolder flavor. We were also given a type of flat bread called pita and a yogurt based sauce to put on it that was very thick. Some of the other dishes were falafel and salad.

During our meal, I explained what was going to happen in regards to Thor’s Hammer. The operation would begin tomorrow. I’d be working with the Battling Valkyries and Paladin Sect to storm the place where Dunherr and Unglück were supposed to be located.

Because there were two of them and both were supposedly at the Fourth State of Spiritualism, Fay and Lin would be going with me. Kari and Siv would stay with Raul.

“Hmmm… I suppose I’m not exactly strong enough to be of much assistance in that regard,” Kari admitted with a somewhat brittle smile.

“You will be once we find an S-rank Demon Beast with a light affinity… but for right now, I’ll be counting on you to look after our son,” I said.

While Kari never complained about her lack of power, I could tell there were times, like right now, when she disliked how she was much weaker than everyone else. She was the only person in our family who had yet to reach the Fourth State of Spiritualism.

States of Spiritualism was a lot more than just a small increase in power. Each State increased someone’s overall power exponentially. At the First State, people needed to have enough Spiritual Power to produce a Spiritual Aura. At the Second State, they needed to have enough control to take that Spiritual Aura into themselves and enhance their bodies. The Third State was about increasing the amount of Spiritual Power someone had and increasing their understanding of their element, which allowed a Spiritualist to transform their body into that element. They could also use Spiritual Techniques without the need to dance in order to shape their techniques. And finally, there was the Fourth State, which increased a person’s Spiritual Power about four or five times and allowed them to absorb and control their element in its natural state.

The difference between someone who was at the Third State and someone who was at the Fourth State was like night and day, heaven and earth. You simply couldn’t compare the two.

Later that night, I found myself lying in bed, unable to sleep. I couldn’t toss or turn because my body was pinned to the bed by four other bodies. Kari was hugging my left arm tightly to her chest. On my other side was Fay, who also had a firm grasp of my arm as she drooled lightly on my shoulder. Siv was spooning with Fay, while Lin was sprawled across the three of us like an extra blanket.

“What’s wrong?” Kari suddenly asked.

“Can’t sleep,” I said.

“You’re thinking too much.” Kari shifted a little, propped herself up on her elbow, and looked at me. There was a gentle glimmer in her eyes. “You do this whenever you are worried about something. Your become so overwhelmed with thoughts and worries that you can’t help but keep thinking even when you should be sleeping.”

“You know me too well,” I said with a sigh. “I was thinking about Thor’s Hammer.”

Kari didn’t say anything at first, but she knew what I was talking about. It wasn’t tomorrow’s mission.

“Thor’s Hammer did not exist when we came here last time,” she said carefully.

“I wonder about that,” I mumbled. Staring at the ceiling, I tried to get my thoughts in order. “We were in our mid or late twenties when we arrived in the Northern Plains in our past lives. Right now, I’m only twenty-three, and you’re only twenty-two. We’ve arrived several years early. Maybe Thor’s Hammer was a group that had existed before we arrived, but there’s also a lot about this situation that doesn’t make sense.”

“The tournament,” Kari began.

“Right.” I nodded. “The tournament to decide who among the numerous sects would become the last member of the Six Great Sects and join them on the Council of Six. According to our past, the victor of that tournament was Erica and the Battling Valkyries… but if Fritz had been a part of that tournament, then there’s no way Erica could have won, especially since the Erica from our previous life hadn’t reached the Third State of Spiritualism.”

In our previous life, Erica had reached the Third State of Spiritualism several years into the Sekbeist Invasion, when the war had been reaching what could have been considered its peak. That was about two dozen or so years from now. Erica had been in… I want to say her forties when she reached that state.

If Fritz had joined the tournament last time, there was no way Erica could have won. None. So what happened in the past? How had Erica become the victor of the Council of Six Selection Tournament last time? And what happened to Thor’s Hammer?

These thoughts kept swirling around in my head like a circle, making it impossible for me to sleep, keeping my mind so active I couldn’t even think of going to bed. Not even the warmth of my wives could help me right now.

“Does it matter?” Kari suddenly asked.

“Huh?”

I felt a warm hand caress my face, and I turned my head to find Kari smiling at me as she tenderly stroked my cheek. Her hand was so soft. I could not help but want to close my eyes and lean into her hand, to take comfort from her touch.

“The past is the past,” Kari said. “Whatever happened in the past doesn’t affect our present. Maybe Thor’s Hammer existed in the past, and something happened that made them vanish. Maybe they didn’t exist in our past life, but something in our current life that we aren’t aware of changed and so they are here now. Whatever the case is, it doesn’t change the fact that we have to deal with them, right?”

“Yes… you are right,” I said at last, smiling as I reached out and placed my hand over hers. “Thank you. It seems like I’m always relying on you to put my matters into perspective for me.”

“Isn’t that what wives are for?” Kari leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine, then pulled back and rested her head on my shoulder. She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to me. “Now get some sleep. You have an important mission tomorrow.”

“Yeah…”

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and slowly slipped off, my mind no longer plagued by thoughts of the past.

***

Early the next morning, I left the Battling Valkyries branch office alongside Lin, Fay, Erica, and group of about two dozen Batling Valkyrie members.

We were traveling via wagon. There were about ten wagons in total. Lin, Fay, Erica, and myself were located in one wagon, which was being driven by Karen. Unlike the one that took us to the meeting the previous day, this one possessed a tarp because it was meant for long distance travel. Our caravan journeyed through the early morning streets of Midgard toward the massive gates that would allow us to move outside.

I’d thought about using our wagon with the Giga Monster, but we’d vetoed the idea since there was no need to bring out what had essentially become our second home for this mission.

When our group reached the gate, we found another large group waiting for us. Sixteen wagons were gathered together just outside the gate, off to the side so they wouldn’t block traffic leading into and out of Midgard, and I found Rainere and Tungsten standing before the group. They were talking about something, but they stopped as I hopped out of the wagon with Erica. Fay and Lin stayed inside.

“Rainere. Tungsten,” I greeted.

“Eryk.” Rainere grinned at me and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Since I won’t be going on this quest, I want you to take my second in command with you. Tungsten isn’t quite as powerful as Erica, having only reached the Second State of Spiritualism, but he’s a great leader and a capable warrior. That said, he also lacks experience, so I’d like you to show him the ropes.”

Tungsten had been another good friend in my previous life. We had fought many battles side by side, shed blood together, and protected the people of the Northern Plains. He had also been there with me, Kari, and Erica when we’d been sent to Niðavellir. Like with Erica, I planned on helping him reach the Third and Fourth States of Spiritualism, but that wouldn’t happen until after we’d taken care of Thor’s Hammer.

“It’s great to be working with you,” I said to Tungsten, extending my hand.

He looked at the hand for a moment before slowly reaching out and clasping it. “You as well. I look forward to working with you.”

Because we were short on time, we broke up here. Tungsten ordered his group to load up and join ours. I, on the other hand, went back to my wagon with Erica. The two of us sat down in the wagon and Erica ordered Karen to begin moving the vehicle.

Karen had recovered nicely after Fritz was killed. It didn’t look like what happened had any serious impact on her mentality or training, which was good. Sometimes a situation like that, which put an intense strain on the mind, could leave a sequelae that affected a person’s cultivation. It was like a psychological block that prevented them from reaching the higher states of Spiritualism.

“Where is Thor’s Hammer located?” I asked as our large caravan of twenty-six wagons set off.

This wagon did not have any benches, but I think that worked just fine. I sat on the ground with Lin and Fay on either side of me. Lin’s long tail extended all the way to the entrance and was covered in a quilted blanket, which kept the morning chill from seeping into her. Even with the blanket covering her, she still acted sluggish, leaning her head on my shoulder as she cuddled against me and dozed off. On the other hand, Fay was wide awake.

“The city is called Stormhold.” Erica reached over to a small basket and pulled out a scroll, which she spread across the floor to reveal a map. “It’s well-known for having thunderstorms year round. It is located right here… next to Tempest Mountain.”

Erica dragged her finger across the map, traveling south from Midgard before reaching a large mountain that was located just a few dozen kilometers from the mountain range that blocked off the Northern Plains from the Rotfang Forest. She tapped the mountain several times.

“This mountain is incredibly dangerous,” Erica continued. “I’m told there’s a Demon Beast up top who controls the weather to constantly produce thunderstorms. I do not know if there is any truth to that. No one has ever seen the Demon Beast in question, and the fact that the city has not been destroyed suggests its just a rumor. However, several people do die each year from being struck by lightning.”

It was enough to make me wonder why some people were dumb enough to build a city in such a dangerous location, but I guess no one had ever accused humans of being smart. We’ve always tried to contend with nature rather than live alongside it.

“This is good for us,” Fay said, smiling slightly. “Eryk’s two most powerful elements are lightning and water. If Stormhold has constant thunderstorms year round, then it means he will have an unlimited supply of power.”

“Is that… how the Fourth State of Spiritualism works?” asked a suddenly interested Erica.

“The Fourth State of Spiritualism allows someone to absorb and control their elemental affinity in its natural state,” I explained. “If there is a thunderstorm, I can absorb the water and lightning from that storm to replenish my own reserves of Spiritual Power. I can also take direct control of the storm and use it to attack.”

“I see.” Erica shuddered a little. “That sounds a bit frightening.” She suddenly smiled. “It makes me glad you are on our side.”

“Me too.” I smiled back.

***

It took one week to reach Stormhold. I could have arrived faster if I’d just flown there, but since I didn’t know what to expect, I decided to travel alongside Erica, Tungsten, and the others. I was also in charge of this mission. It wasn’t like I could just leave them to go off on my own.

During that time, Fay, Lin, and I got to know Erica a little better. She was different from the Erica I remembered.

The Erica in my past had been a supremely confident woman who was capable and strong, but this Erica was still a tad immature and unsure of herself. I had noticed that during our travels to Midgard. However, I had not paid as much attention because Kari took up most of Erica’s attention.

I think the reason for this different was due primarily to her age and life experience. The Erica we met in my past life had been at least a decade older than the one in this life. A lot can change in a decade, and the attitude and personality of a person is often made from an accumulation of their life experiences, meaning the many moments that made Erica into the woman I knew from my past hadn’t happened to this one yet.

While Erica was indeed a different person than I remembered, she still had enough of her past self’s personality traits that I could tell they were the same person. The smile she wore was the same, her romantic side was the same, and she still had a good deal of confidence in herself. She also had the same attraction to feminine beauty that I remembered from my past life.

Not only did I spend more time with Erica, but I also made sure to speak with Tungsten on several occasions when our caravan stopped to rest for the night. Tungsten was much the same as I remembered. Like Erica, he lacked the experience and therefore the confidence of his past self, but he was still gruff and somewhat taciturn. He still hated unnecessary dialogue and only said enough to be understood.

It was good to know some things hadn’t changed.

The weather grew worse when we were about two days away from Stormhold. Storm clouds appeared overhead, dark and black and ominous, crackling with lightning. Sometimes it would rain. During those times, everyone in our caravan would close the tarps and hunker down inside to wait out the storm. We were fortunate that it didn’t rain much. Our group was only forced to stop twice during our journey.

Stormhold was a castle town. It was a large settlement that was built adjacent to a castle. In this case, the castle was nestled up against Tempest Mountain. The castle town was surrounded by a large rampart, a river flowed along a channel just outside of it, and the buildings were all made from stone and featured a large metal rod on top of them.

I was standing on a large hill overlooking the city with Fay, Lin, Erica, and Tungsten. Lin was shivering a little. A fierce wind was blowing, causing a chill to seep into her bones. I was lucky in that cold weather didn’t effect me thanks to my elements. Fay and Erica were also able to regulate their temperature using the fire element. Tungsten didn’t look cold either, but I was certain he was faking it. That taciturn nature of his made for a great poker face.

“It’s so cold,” Lin muttered with chattering teeth. “Let’s go back in the wagon.”

“In a minute,” I said. “Erica, what are those metal rods for?”

“They are called lightning rods,” Erica explained. “My understanding is that they are used to divert lightning harmlessly into the ground.”

“Ah.”

I understood the concept there. Lightning was incredibly destructive and could damage structures made from materials like masonry, wood, stone, and steel. This was because the huge currents and voltages involved could heat materials to an extremely high temperature. I’d seen lightning superheat stone to the point where it started forest fires during my time in the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

Metal was a great conductor, especially copper and aluminum. The lightning rod was located on top of the building and a long wire connected the rod on top to a rod buried in the ground. Lightning would be attracted to the metal rod, strike it, and the current would travel through the rod, down the wire, and into the ground, where it would harmlessly dissipate.

Of course, most of my attention was not focused on the lightning rods, but on the city itself.

“Erica, how many people would say you live in Stormhold?” I asked.

While Fay and Lin both tensed at the tone in my voice, Erica didn’t seem to hear the tension as she answered me. “The last survey taken stated Stormhold had a population of two hundred-thousand.”

I nodded before ordering everyone back into the wagons.

Stormhold was only a few kilometers away now, so it didn’t take more than twenty minutes to reach the castle town. I had our wagons all stop outside, ordered everyone to unload, and had us travel the rest of the way on foot. Our destination was the castle nestled against the mountain. According to Erica’s information, that castle was the home of Thor’s Hammer.

The moment we arrived at the castle town, everyone seemed to notice that something was wrong. No one was there to greet us. In most towns with a rampart, there would always be guards at the gate, but there were none here.

“This is odd,” Erica muttered. “Where are the guards?”

“Not here,” I said.

“That is very negligent of them,” Tungsten muttered. “You’d think Thor’s Hammer would have members guarding the gate so they could alert their leaders for when we arrived.”

“Darling…” Lin mumbled.

“Yes,” I said to her unanswered question. “This town is completely empty.”

Erica looked at me sharply. “What do you mean ‘empty?’”

“You’ll see,” I said as I walked up to the rampart’s gate.

This castle town only had a single entrance. The gate was about six meters tall and made from iron. Because both Nevaria and Midgard had larger gates than this, it wasn’t very imposing, but the black iron certainly possessed a somewhat intimidating hair. A large hammer with a lightning bolt was located on the front.

I raised a fist and channeled my Spiritual Power, generating a mass amount of lightning into my entire arm, causing it to spark and flare. Then I struck the gate. A loud squealing sound forced everyone else to cover their ears, but I did not move as the entire gate became warped and distorted before, like metal that had been superheated than chilled, the entire object obstructing our path exploded into numerous fragments.

I turned back and looked at the people behind me. Minus Erica, Fay, and Lin, everyone else was gawking, but I didn’t care.

“Let’s go,” I ordered.

I led the way into the castle town. The moment we entered the castle town, all of us were forced to stop. Even I sucked in a breath.

While I knew there was no one on the other side because I could not sense any presences when I used Spiritual Perception on that hill, I had assumed that meant there was simply no one within the city. What I did not expect was to find numerous corpses. They were strewn randomly about the street. Some looked like they had been running away from something, but there were also people who appeared to have just given up. You could generally tell whether someone tried to run or not by how mangled the corpse was. All of the corpses were dried up and shriveled… just like Rinne’s corpse.

“What… happened here?” asked Erica in a choked voice.

“This is awful,” Tungsten muttered. Even his taciturn nature could not remain unaffected from the sight.

The others were even worse off. Some of the Spiritualists, upon seeing what happened to the people here, regurgitated the remainder of that morning’s breakfast. Even those who were able to contain their food still had a green face.

“Eryk,” Fay began. “These people…”

“Yes. Everyone here was killed by someone using Spiritual Drain,” I said. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, hardening myself for what was to come. “Let’s keep moving.”

Our group moved silently through the castle town and eventually reached the castle and Tempest Mountain. While the castle could not even compare to the mountain, which looked majestic and intimidating as its peak disappeared into the black clouds above, it was still a very powerful structure. It had been made from large stones and was surrounded by another rampart. Towers located on either side of the door looked two times bigger than the gateway into the castle town.

I did not hesitate to call upon the lightning. I raised my hand and channeled my Spiritual Power into the storm clouds above us, taking control of the lightning within. A powerful bolt shot from the ground and slammed into the gate, destroying it with ease. I did not worry about the flying debris, creating a shield from the water element as I walked past the now destroyed gate and into the castle’s courtyard.

There was no one present in the courtyard, so I had everyone keep moving, all the way to the gate, which I once again blasted open with lightning.

Just like the exterior, there was no one inside the castle. We entered the large entrance hall to find that it was completely empty. However, unlike the city, which contained the shriveled corpses of people who had been killed by someone draining them of their Spiritual Power, there was no one here. It was completely empty.

“Search the castle!” I ordered. “Search everywhere and report back to me, Erica, or Tungsten if you find anything!”

Everyone split up into groups of three and began searching the castle. Tungsten and Erica went off with their own groups, leaving me with Fay and Lin.

We searched the castle like everyone else and eventually ended up standing inside of what I guessed was a throne room, or maybe a meeting hall. It was a large chamber with columns lined up on either side of the room. One of the columns had been destroyed. At the very end of the room was a dais, upon which a stone throne sat.

“It looks like no one is here,” Fay muttered. “Could it be they realized we were coming and decided to abandon this place?”

“It is quite possible,” I said. “Lin? Did you find anything?”

Lin shook her head. “This princess has found nothing. Even when she uses her earth element, this princess cannot detect any signs of life outside of the people who came with us.”

So this castle had indeed been abandoned, but now I had to wonder where everyone went.

As I questioned myself, Erica and Tungsten walked into the room with several others. From the serious expressions they wore, I knew that whatever they had to say would not be pleasant.

“We need you to come with us,” Erica said. “There’s something I think you’ll want to see.”

None of us knew what Erica and Tungsten wanted to show us, but Fay, Lin, and I followed them as they led us into a room on the top floor of the castle. I recognized this place as a Warp Room. It was almost completely empty of anything and everything, except for the very center of the room, where a Warp Gate stood—or where a Warp Gate once stood. The current Warp Gate was nothing more than rubble.

“Warp Gates are incredibly durable,” I said in a soft voice. “It is impossible for one to be destroyed unless someone uses an overwhelming amount of Spiritual Power to destroy it.”

“In other words, someone destroyed this Warp Gate on purpose?” Erica asked. Her voice was calm, like she’d already reached this conclusion herself and merely wanted someone else to confirm it.

“Yes.”

“But why would they go out of their way to destroy the Warp Gate?” asked Tungsten. “There doesn’t seem to be much of a point in doing such a thing.”

There was indeed not much point in destroying this Warp Gate—at least, there was not one that I could think of. Unless…

“Was the Warp Gate deactivated after the tournament?” I asked.

“It was,” Tungsten confirmed. “I hear the Midgard Spiritual Knights deactivated the Warp Gate on the same day we left.”

We left about one week ago, which means the Warp Gate had been deactivated for an entire week. However, what if Dunherr and Unglück used the Warp Gate before it was deactivated? What they if they had already anticipated this would happen, snuck into Midgard, and destroyed the Warp Gate on this side to prevent us from being able to leave? A chill ran down my spine as I felt a sudden and horrifying premonition.

“Eryk?! Where are you going?!” Erica shouted at me as I bolted out of the room.

I didn’t bother racing down to the first floor and instead destroyed the nearest wall with lightning. A couple of people who’d been walking out of a room screamed in surprise when I flashed by them, but I had no time to apologize as I leapt out of the hole I’d made. My Spiritual Power flared to life and allowed me to fly into the air. After flying higher into the sky, I oriented myself toward the north and took off.

My destination was Midgard.

I just hoped I wasn’t too late.