—Cole POV—
Looking down at his chest in shock, Callon watched blood start to spray out of the wound as I pulled my hand back. Purposefully not cauterizing the wound, he understood that I was not bluffing. Observing him closely for a moment, I watch his mind alternate between telling me everything to save his life and keeping his mouth shut to remain loyal to Eredin.
“Wait a moment!!”, Callon shrieked as his will to live won out, “I…I will tell you whatever you want, just do not let me die in this horrid place!! My ancestors will berate me for dying this way when I see them in the afterlife!”
“I am honestly surprised you think I will let you go to the afterlife after breaking his soul.”, I stated with a smirk, “Once I get what I want out of you, you are going to be just a head in a jar for the rest of time. You can talk all you want to a few other people I have in jars as well.”
“Wait wait wait!!!!”, he screamed, “Do not desecrate my body like that!!”
“That is the thing, to the victor goes the spoils as they say.”, I chuckled as I moved my right hand over his mouth, “Gentlemen, if you are a bit squeamish, I suggest walking outside the vault for a moment. Necromancy can get quite messy if you know what I mean.”
Taking the hint to clear out of the room, they shut the door a bit and hung back outside. Pulling a razor-sharp blade out of my storage, Callon began thrashing around violently trying to escape. Knowing that my restraints would not break under his level of strength, I froze his mouth shut and then slowly enchanted the blade with several Preservation Spells. Once I had everything prepped for my work, I gave him a sadistic smile.
“See you when you wake up in an hour or so.”, I said like this was a normal routine.
Weakly trying to scream out for aid, Callon slowly faded into unconsciousness as he passed out from blood loss. Cleanly removing his head from his shoulders, I placed a talisman on his forehead before setting him in a large, glass jar in my storage. Filling it with a concoction of fluids to preserve and maintain the head, I then sealed the jar and scribed a magic rune on the lid.
‘Alright, he should reanimate in about an hour now and he will be unable to use magic because of the rune on the lid.’, I thought double-checking things, ‘Now comes the difficult part of telling Aultcray’s family the news…’
—Melromarc Castle—
Bringing Mirellia and her daughters together, I explained what happened in Faubrey and informed them of Aultcray’s condition. As expected, Mirellia and Melty were devastated to hear that Aultcray was dying and there was nothing that could be done to save him. Telling them what his final request was, I initially expected Malty to be overjoyed and relieved but she was not.
“He…he said that?”, Malty said tearing up, “After everything I did…killing my brother…lying to him…and even trying to kill Melty…he still loved me enough to give me part of his soul. Why!? He should hate me and despise me for everything I did!!”
“We never said we hated or despised you!”, Mirellia snapped pulling Malty into a hug, “Your father and I are devastated that you became someone we did not know anymore. When we said making the decision to kill you hurt us deeply, we truly meant that from the bottom of our hearts. I carried you for nine months and your father doted on you from the moment you were born. No matter how busy he was, he always made time to play with you and even slept in your nursery when you were sick.”
“But I…I…”, Malty tried to argue as she started to cry.
Leaving them to talk and mourn Aultcray, I quietly excused myself and left the Royal Bedroom. Closing the door behind me, I ordered the guards to not let anyone disturb them under any circumstances. Acknowledging my orders, they posted up on each side of the door and stood there in silence. Heading straight to the War Room after that, I had several people waiting for me there to discuss our next move.
“Thank you all for coming here on short notice.”, I said as I entered the room, “A new issue has arisen and we will need to deal with it swiftly to avoid future issues. In case you have not heard, King Aultcray’s soul has been permanently damaged. At the current rate of decay, he will expire in about four days time and there is nothing we can do to save him.”
“I still cannot believe those Wild Hunt people took over Faubrey so easily.”, Renjo remarked still in disbelief, “The public nor the nobility had any idea their King died, or that their entire government was being run by otherworldly invaders. We were lucky to find this out now, otherwise, our nations could have been attacked while our main forces were away.”
“I agree with you there, but it is upsetting that this information came at such a steep cost.”, L’Arc stated gripping his weapon tightly, “So what exactly is the big concern here? It sounds like the enemy was driven away, and I am certain our world has not been visited by them.”
“That is not the problem here, given their arrival time…I think the Wave did not happen here because of the Wild Hunt.”, I informed everyone, “They came to this universe because they detected me reopening Ciri’s portal, and mistook it as her arriving here. There is a chance that instead of arriving on this world, the Wave Organization’s destabilization of the World Barrier caused the Wild Hunt to arrive on their world instead of this one.”
Agreeing with my assessment, it was the only logical explanation for many things concerning anomalies. First, the scheduled Wave in the archipelago did not happen as scheduled which was unheard of. Second, there had not been any recent countdowns on any of the Dragon Hourglasses which had never happened before. Last and most importantly, Medea had not been influencing Malty at all for some time. Given our prior interactions, I expected her to pull out all the stops to persuade us not to attack her but she has remained radio silent.
“Moving on, since we do not have concrete evidence of whether or not they are still intact…I will be heading over to that world myself. The tools the Wave Organization used to control and create Waves cannot fall into the Wild Hunt’s hands. They already weaponized the White Frost so letting them add another attack method cannot be allowed to happen.”, I stated, “While I am away, I need the Archangels, Sins, and Commandments to be on standby. All of you will be the first line of defense while I focus on securing their research notes and equipment.”
“Sounds simple enough.”, Zeldris accepted, “Other than the White Frost and Soul Stealing Magic, is there anything else we should watch for?”
“Considering they have killed countless deities, according to my prisoner, nothing is off the table at this point.”, I answered him, “Merlin’s Absolute Cancel will be invaluable to all of you, make sure you protect her properly Escanor.”
“Was there ever any doubt?”, he chuckled with a proud smile, “No one shall reach Merlin under my watch.”
Giving the groups thirty minutes to prepare, all of the allied nations went on high alert and were made aware of what was happening. As it was on short notice, most focused on deploying troops around high-value targets and population centers. Once everyone was comfortable with their preparations, I took the plunge and moved to Medea’s world.
—Medea’s World—
Stepping out into an icy wasteland, my suspicions of what had occurred were immediately confirmed. Using magic to scan the snow beneath my feet, I discovered that the snow was over thirty feet deep and there was an entire city below me. Crushed under the weight of the snow, anyone who may have survived the initial freeze here died a very painful death.
‘Fortunately, my Ice Conduit powers appear to keep the icy wind at bay.’, I thought looking around my surroundings for landmarks, ‘Now where is the base I am looking for.’
The information I had from the two deities was quite limited as they rarely left the base. During the few times they did leave, they were more focused on getting laid than they were on their surroundings which made this very difficult. Determining that I was not in the right area, I turned into lightning and began racing across the sky looking for particular landmarks or signs of life.
—Cole POV—
Looking down at his chest in shock, Callon watched blood start to spray out of the wound as I pulled my hand back. Purposefully not cauterizing the wound, he understood that I was not bluffing. Observing him closely for a moment, I watch his mind alternate between telling me everything to save his life and keeping his mouth shut to remain loyal to Eredin.
“Wait a moment!!”, Callon shrieked as his will to live won out, “I…I will tell you whatever you want, just do not let me die in this horrid place!! My ancestors will berate me for dying this way when I see them in the afterlife!”
“I am honestly surprised you think I will let you go to the afterlife after breaking his soul.”, I stated with a smirk, “Once I get what I want out of you, you are going to be just a head in a jar for the rest of time. You can talk all you want to a few other people I have in jars as well.”
“Wait wait wait!!!!”, he screamed, “Do not desecrate my body like that!!”
“That is the thing, to the victor goes the spoils as they say.”, I chuckled as I moved my right hand over his mouth, “Gentlemen, if you are a bit squeamish, I suggest walking outside the vault for a moment. Necromancy can get quite messy if you know what I mean.”
Taking the hint to clear out of the room, they shut the door a bit and hung back outside. Pulling a razor-sharp blade out of my storage, Callon began thrashing around violently trying to escape. Knowing that my restraints would not break under his level of strength, I froze his mouth shut and then slowly enchanted the blade with several Preservation Spells. Once I had everything prepped for my work, I gave him a sadistic smile.
“See you when you wake up in an hour or so.”, I said like this was a normal routine.
Weakly trying to scream out for aid, Callon slowly faded into unconsciousness as he passed out from blood loss. Cleanly removing his head from his shoulders, I placed a talisman on his forehead before setting him in a large, glass jar in my storage. Filling it with a concoction of fluids to preserve and maintain the head, I then sealed the jar and scribed a magic rune on the lid.
‘Alright, he should reanimate in about an hour now and he will be unable to use magic because of the rune on the lid.’, I thought double-checking things, ‘Now comes the difficult part of telling Aultcray’s family the news…’
—Melromarc Castle—
Bringing Mirellia and her daughters together, I explained what happened in Faubrey and informed them of Aultcray’s condition. As expected, Mirellia and Melty were devastated to hear that Aultcray was dying and there was nothing that could be done to save him. Telling them what his final request was, I initially expected Malty to be overjoyed and relieved but she was not.
“He…he said that?”, Malty said tearing up, “After everything I did…killing my brother…lying to him…and even trying to kill Melty…he still loved me enough to give me part of his soul. Why!? He should hate me and despise me for everything I did!!”
“We never said we hated or despised you!”, Mirellia snapped pulling Malty into a hug, “Your father and I are devastated that you became someone we did not know anymore. When we said making the decision to kill you hurt us deeply, we truly meant that from the bottom of our hearts. I carried you for nine months and your father doted on you from the moment you were born. No matter how busy he was, he always made time to play with you and even slept in your nursery when you were sick.”
“But I…I…”, Malty tried to argue as she started to cry.
Leaving them to talk and mourn Aultcray, I quietly excused myself and left the Royal Bedroom. Closing the door behind me, I ordered the guards to not let anyone disturb them under any circumstances. Acknowledging my orders, they posted up on each side of the door and stood there in silence. Heading straight to the War Room after that, I had several people waiting for me there to discuss our next move.
“Thank you all for coming here on short notice.”, I said as I entered the room, “A new issue has arisen and we will need to deal with it swiftly to avoid future issues. In case you have not heard, King Aultcray’s soul has been permanently damaged. At the current rate of decay, he will expire in about four days time and there is nothing we can do to save him.”
“I still cannot believe those Wild Hunt people took over Faubrey so easily.”, Renjo remarked still in disbelief, “The public nor the nobility had any idea their King died, or that their entire government was being run by otherworldly invaders. We were lucky to find this out now, otherwise, our nations could have been attacked while our main forces were away.”
“I agree with you there, but it is upsetting that this information came at such a steep cost.”, L’Arc stated gripping his weapon tightly, “So what exactly is the big concern here? It sounds like the enemy was driven away, and I am certain our world has not been visited by them.”
“That is not the problem here, given their arrival time…I think the Wave did not happen here because of the Wild Hunt.”, I informed everyone, “They came to this universe because they detected me reopening Ciri’s portal, and mistook it as her arriving here. There is a chance that instead of arriving on this world, the Wave Organization’s destabilization of the World Barrier caused the Wild Hunt to arrive on their world instead of this one.”
Agreeing with my assessment, it was the only logical explanation for many things concerning anomalies. First, the scheduled Wave in the archipelago did not happen as scheduled which was unheard of. Second, there had not been any recent countdowns on any of the Dragon Hourglasses which had never happened before. Last and most importantly, Medea had not been influencing Malty at all for some time. Given our prior interactions, I expected her to pull out all the stops to persuade us not to attack her but she has remained radio silent.
“Moving on, since we do not have concrete evidence of whether or not they are still intact…I will be heading over to that world myself. The tools the Wave Organization used to control and create Waves cannot fall into the Wild Hunt’s hands. They already weaponized the White Frost so letting them add another attack method cannot be allowed to happen.”, I stated, “While I am away, I need the Archangels, Sins, and Commandments to be on standby. All of you will be the first line of defense while I focus on securing their research notes and equipment.”
“Sounds simple enough.”, Zeldris accepted, “Other than the White Frost and Soul Stealing Magic, is there anything else we should watch for?”
“Considering they have killed countless deities, according to my prisoner, nothing is off the table at this point.”, I answered him, “Merlin’s Absolute Cancel will be invaluable to all of you, make sure you protect her properly Escanor.”
“Was there ever any doubt?”, he chuckled with a proud smile, “No one shall reach Merlin under my watch.”
Giving the groups thirty minutes to prepare, all of the allied nations went on high alert and were made aware of what was happening. As it was on short notice, most focused on deploying troops around high-value targets and population centers. Once everyone was comfortable with their preparations, I took the plunge and moved to Medea’s world.
—Medea’s World—
Stepping out into an icy wasteland, my suspicions of what had occurred were immediately confirmed. Using magic to scan the snow beneath my feet, I discovered that the snow was over thirty feet deep and there was an entire city below me. Crushed under the weight of the snow, anyone who may have survived the initial freeze here died a very painful death.
‘Fortunately, my Ice Conduit powers appear to keep the icy wind at bay.’, I thought looking around my surroundings for landmarks, ‘Now where is the base I am looking for.’
The information I had from the two deities was quite limited as they rarely left the base. During the few times they did leave, they were more focused on getting laid than they were on their surroundings which made this very difficult. Determining that I was not in the right area, I turned into lightning and began racing across the sky looking for particular landmarks or signs of life.
