Chapter 55:Lífþrasir
"Where...is he?" Sasha said.
She looked down at the empty marble sarcophagus with shock. The body of her beloved brother in law had seemingly vanished into thin air. There wasn't a trace of there ever being a corpse in the now empty coffin.
"How is this possible?" Alex asked.
"Grave robbers?" Shion asked silently.
"No. This area is protected by my own magic." Mariel said. "No one should be able to see this tomb, and even if they did, I laid down several spells and traps in order to keep anyone away. None of those traps have gone off though."
"Then the only way is...necromancy." Sasha ominously replied.
"What's that?" Alex asked.
"The magical art of manipulating the dead." Mariel said. "But sister, it cannot be necromancy. The only mortals capable of using such magic are the void mage. And even then, it's so dangerous that most who have tried it have died themselves."
"We know who and where the void mages are, so it must be someone, or something, else." Sasha replied. "We must inform the council of this immediately."
"Surely there may be another reason behind this." Mariel said.
"Perhaps there is, elder sister." Sasha replied. "You may try to think of it on our way to the council."
Mariel, trying hard to think of any other possibilities, reluctantly nodded in agreement. As they made their way to the council's building, Alex became curious as to how his mother and aunt knew so much about the magic of the dead. However, they seemed to know what he wanted to ask, constantly interrupting him before he could ask that particular question.
They avoided it all the way to the council's office, which made Alex rather irritated, but he chose to put it off until later. As soon as the doors of the room opened, Mariel and Sasha stepped through them. The council members were surprised and worried at the same time.
The only times Mariel had ever been there either alone or with Sasha was to bring bad news, and this time was no different. Inside the massive room, Orlan, Helen, and Eres were discussing the war in the human world.
"If what the scouts have reported is true, we may have to-" Orlan said. He stopped speaking as he saw the group enter the room.
"Ah, Sasha...and Mariel." Helen said. "How nice it is to see you. And who may these young ones be."
"I am Alexandre." Alex said. "Mariel is my mother."
All the council members seemed surprised, but decided not to bring up his past out of respect.
"This is Shion." He continued. "She's my wife."
"What a beautiful young woman!" Eres said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"As fun as this is, I'm afraid we have troubling news." Sasha said. "Mariel's husband is missing from his grave. We suspect a necromancer."
"But the void mage are all on friendly terms and the only one to have been in this land long enough is Louise." Orlan said.
"I do not believe it is a void mage responsible." Sasha replied. "We'll have to investigate further, but be cautious."
"Thank you for informing us, Sasha. We will all have to discuss this very soon." Helen said.
"If that is all, we will be leaving." Mariel said. "Farewell."
After they walked out of the building, Mariel suddenly held Sasha's shoulder.
"What is it, elder sister?" Sasha asked.
"Be careful of them." Mariel said. "They are plotting something in the human world."
"Very well." Sasha said.
They all walked home quietly. When they finally reached Sasha's cabin. It was several hours after they returned that they noticed Hayai acting strangely about the mountain, which led to them calling back Saito and Louise.
In the present
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd rather we not talk about my father right now." Alex said after everything was explained.
"I understand." Louise said.
She looked back at Tempus with curiosity. The dragon, which was strangely allowing Louise's kids to play on it while it rested, opened its eye as if it knew Louise had questions for it.
"What question do you have, child?" She asked.
"Well...I want to know what you told Saito that made him so distressed." Louise said.
"He is your mate. Ask him yourself." The dragon replied.
"He is stubborn and will not tell me." Louise said.
"Wait for his fear to pass." The dragon replied, stretching its body. "I've seen that it will go away eventually."
"What is he afraid of?" Alex asked. "He's probably the most powerful person in the world."
"He is afraid of the beasts that live within him." She replied, lifting the children with its tails. "What I showed the boy has allowed him to understand their capabilities..."
"You make it sound like there's more than one." Louise said. "Only Gandalfr lives within him."
"Is that what he told you? While you were in his world, he came into contact with another." The dragon said, staring at him. "In fact, he is probably attempting to contact it again..."
In Saito's head
Saito woke up on the same beach from before, with its white sands stretching in both directions towards the horizon. The cold ocean beckoned for him to swim into it. The familiar sound of massive chains underwater filled his ears.
He jumped into the sea and swam downwards until, yet again, he reached the seemingly impenetrable barrier of cold water that stopped him before. This time, however, he kept on swimming, despite the considerable pain the cold water caused him.
As he swam deeper, the pale blue light from before became larger and larger. For what seemed like an eternity, he kept swimming. As he came close to losing consciousness, he hit a very cold and hard object.
At this depth, there was no light, so he couldn't quite see what he hit. Suddenly, he felt a rush of water as he was rapidly pushed up to the surface. He landed on the white sands of the beach. In front of him, a massive creature rose out of the ocean.
It seemed to be a serpent of some kind. Its head resembled that of a pit viper. It was a bright, almost fluorescent blue in coloration. It had a forked tongue which was a very deep purple color. Its eyes, which were angled forwards on its face, had bright red sclera with massive light blue irises which glowed brightly.
It was vastly larger than Gandalfr, its head alone being about 80% the size of his body. Saito could also see that its long, serpent-like body stretched beyond the horizon. It brought its massive head down to stare at him.
Gandalfr's advice echoed in his head. He made sure his hands were visible and his magic had no sense of malice. He also made sure his fangs and tail were visible to the serpent. After a few moments of observing him, it finally decided to speak.
"Filthy human, what do you want?" It said in a very feminine voice.
It was very lovely for Saito to hear, but he remembered that this creature was extremely dangerous.
"I-I'm the current Gandalfr. I was also Lífþrasir more than once, which I believe is why I can see you." Saito said.
"I see. You are certainly a strange looking human." She replied.
"I was given the powers of Gandalfr twice. The second time, I absorbed another Gandalfr and it changed me. I'm no longer human." He explained. "I know you were mistreated. I know you don't like humans. Trust me, it took a long time for me to get through to Gandalfr, but-"
"You've spoken to him?" She asked.
"Yes." Saito replied.
"I'm surprised he didn't kill you." She said.
"He wanted to, actually. But we're friends now." Saito replied.
"So what do you want from me?" She asked.
"I don't want anything from you, exactly." Saito said. "I spoke to Tempus about what happened though."
"Oh? Do you want revenge for what we did to that country?" She asked. "Mother created us for the purpose of destroying the humans. Do you hold a grudge?"
"No. It was your purpose. I just want to know if you regretted it after it was done." He asked.
"Regret? Perhaps. But my regret went away after I was sealed away in this place." She replied.
"Where are we anyway?" Saito asked.
"As of right now, we are on the shores of the ancient land that I helped destroy." She said. "Although it is not technically where I am sealed."
"Where are you sealed?" He asked.
"In a different world than where I was created." She replied. "Once the men of this world saw me, they were convinced the end of the world had come. With their feeble understanding of the world, they were convinced that I was long, that I could encompass the planet. They're constant meddling bothered me, so I lay at the bottom of the ocean, hoping that I would eventually become a simple myth."
"That story sounds familiar. How come you're so large?" Saito asked.
"I am very old and had a long time to grow." She said.
"I see. I have one more question." Saito said. "The chains underneath the water, what are they for?"
"They bind me to this place in the world." She replied with a bit of hate in her voice. "I will never swim freely as long as they are here."
"That's terrible." He said, sadly. "You know, you're a lot less hostile than Gandalfr made you out to be."
"I've been alone for more than one thousand years. Any company is welcome at this point." She replied.
"I see. Thank you for talking to me. My name is Saito." He said.
"And my name is Lífþrasir. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, filthy human." She replied, although she seemed to call him a filthy human more jovially this time.
Saito smiled and soon, woke up. Everyone in the room immediately stared at him, making him feel very self conscious.
"What's wrong?" He said.
"Nothing is wrong." Louise said, although she wasn't convincing. "We should return to Japan."
"You're probably right." Saito replied.
He got up and stretched his limbs while Louise opened the world door to Japan. As they walked through the world door, they waved goodbye to their friends. As the door closed, Saito looked at Tempus, who also stared back at him before the door finally shut.
Author's Notes:
Hey everyone! Okay okay, proceed to yell at me for being gone for 4(?) months. I just could not fit in time to write. I'm really sorry, but I'm back. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I promise, it won't take me months to post the next chapter. See you next time!
