章 16: Chat with Freya (2)
Shoutout to my new patron:
Mitch Bloemer
You are a legend.
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I lay awake in the large queen sized bed as the sun peeked over the horizon. The sheets and mattress were so soft that it felt like I had laid upon a soft flowers scented cloud. It turned out there had been a large bedroom on the top floor, and Freya immediately claimed it and then 'convinced me to share it with her.
Hence why she was currently cocooned in the sheets next to me with my cape as an extra layer of warmth for her. When I asked why, she said that it was cold. I got confused for a little before remembering my new resistance to extreme temperatures.
There was a fireplace on the end of the room across from the foot of the bed. Offering to go light it up I tried to see if I could find some wood only for her to pull me into the bed and snuggle into my side.
She really was taking this whole husband thing very seriously. Well, I was happy.
I thought back to my stats sheet. When I had asked Nekros to create the 'Vanadis Odr' skill, I had intended for it to be a skill that would make my soul attractive to Freya and bind me to her as her Odr.
I had no idea the skill also gave me strengths in her divinity. Back home she was known as the goddess of love, war and beauty as well as wealth and fertility. She was also sometimes known as the goddess of the wind and sea. But what about the fire part?
I had no recollection of her being the goddess of fire at any point, not unless it was in a fictional show. But saying that my affinity for those elements were increased, what exactly did that mean?
Did it strengthen any of my spells that were built on those elements as a basis? Or did it mean something else?
Affinity usually means something innate. Something that comes about because of the nature of a person. Yggdrasil magic was not an innate thing as they were spells merely learnt. Yes, learned with extreme difficulty both in real life and in the game but nothing about it was innate.
Did the skill description mean that I had some sort of innate magic?
I'd been toying with this theory for a bit before I decided to just investigate it. I stood up and walked over to the balcony. Every time I cast magic, I felt an incredible pool of power suddenly trickle into my spells. That was my mana l was pretty sure.
I'm not going to refer to it as 'Mind'!
But...what if I could somehow draw out my mana without the use of magic? As if drawing out the magical energy itself but not in the form of a spell?
I held out a hand and tried. Closing my eyes, I tried to reach into the pool of magic inside me. I could feel it there, but for some reason I could not draw from it.
But I had read several scenarios like this. I brought forth the intent to cast a spell. And just like that, I felt a tiny stream of magical energy being drawn out of my pool. But I could tell that it was not enough to physically manifest outside my body.
I strengthened my intent to cast a spell, and the more I did it, the bigger the flow of magic became. But I did not say the spell out loud or in my head. It was easier to grasp onto that stream of magic than the entire pool.
Every time I stopped intending to cast the spell, the energy would draw itself back into the pool. If it was to close to the pool, I could not pull it back out. But if it was too far away to be drawn back quick enough, I could mentally grasp that stream of magic and keep it flowing.
I took a few dozen tries drawing out pure Mana, but when I did so a ball of...some kind of energy appeared in palm. It was potent, saturated magical energy, as if it was everything magical in it purest form and not certain bits picked out of its many components to make certain spells.
It shone light blue but inside the light was myriad of colours that changed at kaleidoscope speed. If it's hard to understand, imagine the time Arche used her talent to detect Ainz's magic. The storm of colourful energy she saw was what manifested in my palm.
I smiled as I thought of what I could do with this. I was holding a ball of pure energy in my palm. With this and enough practice, I could probably figure out how to perform a Kameha-
NO! As awesome that would be, for some reason the engrained cringe inside me fluttered at the thought of what people from my old world would say should they see me doing something like this knocked the idea out of my head.
Although I had to admit my intrigue was too great.
...
Maybe someday when I muster the courage. For now I had to see exactly what I could do with this thing.
Innate magic huh?
I envisioned fire, and I saw the energy in my palm shift as something filtered out of the energy ball back into my palm. I didn't feel whatever those components were go back into the mana pool. Instead they appeared to flow underneath my skin, as if ready to join back with the ball if I wanted it.
The ball of energy became a red flame. And somehow I felt the heat. But it was strange to explain. The heat was not something that made me afraid of touching it like something that could potentially harm me. Instead it felt like a heat that indicated how hot it was.
Would it burn hotter if I poured more power into it? I willed more mana to flow into the flame, and it turned from red to yellow-orange. The heat intensified. I smiled as my theory proved to be right. The mana acted as a fuel, and the more I of it I put into the flame, the hotter it would burn.
I poured a lot more into the flame, and it became white with a tinge of blue. I once read somewhere that blue flames were the hottest flames one could get. And pouring more mana into it, it indeed turned blue, The heat was so intense now, I saw the black stone of my balcony somehow becoming charred.
My curiosity got the better of me though and I poured even more power into it. the flame momentarily turned a violet-black before I was forced to stop the flow of power to it and make the flame die out as the stone railing suddenly began melting.
I had a panic attack as I feared Freya's reaction to the damage before I heaved in relief as a green light suddenly enveloped the damaged railing and turned it back to normal. Looks like the tower healed itself.
Although I can't be certain it was able to heal itself of all damage.
Then I suddenly realized something. If my affinities were fire, wind and water, could I not do other elements. I tried doing earth magic, but the energy ball just dissipated. I tried other things as well but to no luck.
Surprisingly I could do ice though. But ice was just another form of water so maybe that was why.
I then had an epiphany. A marvelous idea for aesthetics. I summoned forth as much energy as possible from my giant mana pool, and directed it to every area of skin all over my body.
My entire being was enveloped in a haze of those brilliant colours. They floated around in wavelike motions, akin to a rainbow coloured Dragonball aura. Annoyingly though, it blocked my sight as I had to see things through the wall of magical energy. The bright lights just distorted what I was looking at.
My control was not yet enough to remove a part of the aura from my eyes, but my inventive mind began running through the potential uses of this new technique. Would it operate as some kind of shield? Or did it increase the effectiveness of my senses? Now that I thought about it, I seemed to be more 'aware' of my surroundings. I could feel every dust particle on the floor, every fluctuation of air in the atmosphere around me.
Before I could experiment more, I heard the bed creak and looked behind to see Freya stretching while lying down. I powered down the aura and walked over to the bed, slipping in beneath the covers again. Her arms found their way around mine.
"Good morning my Odr."
"Good morning Freya. Sleep well?"
"Mhm." She replied closing her eyes.
"You wasted no time with this whole marriage arrangement thing didn't you?"
"As far as the Laws are concerned, we are husband and wife. Should we not act accordingly?"
"...Well I don't really see a problem with it. But I would still like to get to know you better."
"Then you'll have an excellent opportunity tonight."
I looked at her quizzically?
"What's so special about tonight?"
"There's a party being held at Ganesha's house. Usually Ottar would go with me to such occasions, but I suppose I'll take you today."
"Cool." I mumbled as I lay my head into the pillow. It was still early morning after all. Orario was only beginning to wake up.
"I don't have a proper outfit though." I said.
Freya opened her eyes and stared at me disapprovingly.
"Well that just won't do. I cannot have my husband go to such a setting and not be dressed appropriately."
"I'm all for dressing for occasion, but no way in hell am I wearing anything baubly. Those things make me shiver."
Freya thought for a bit and sighed.
"Just go out into town and get something smart. We'll be there for a while and you've got plenty of time."
"Sure."
I ran my fingers through her long silver hair. Her eyebrows perked at my actions.
"What are you doing?"
"How do you keep it so soft?"
"That's my natural hair."
"...Really?"
"Yes."
...
"Suuurrre." I drawled out.
She pouted and and sat up quickly leaning into my face.
"You don't believe me?"
"Oh, I believe you."
"I can tell when you're lying remember?"
"Then something must be wrong with those divine senses of yours."
"You!"
She pounced me and banged her fist on my chest. I couldn't even tell that she was doing it and turned my head to the side.
"Hey Freya?"
"What?" she said a little breathlessly, still frowning in anger.
"Do you think what I did was right yesterday? Getting my message across to them like that?"
Freya leaned her head on my chest and sighed a little before pausing, seemingly in thought.
"I will admit that my children are mostly of the spiteful type that would do anything to undermine someone who catches my attention. You will most definitely be the biggest target of that hatred yet, since I'm sure they know what we've been doing up here."
"You don't think they're going to try and get me back about it right?"
"Are you scared my big, strong Odr?"
"Yeah...for them. Because I gave a clear warning that if they rub me the wrong way, I'm going to splatter them across the walls of Orario. I don't back down on promises like that."
"Well if things do go that far, I give you permission to drive a few points home. Just reign yourself in enough so you don't kill them. I need them to keep the strength and balance of power in my Familia after all."
"I'm stronger than every adventurer in the world combined. I think just having me is enough to safeguard your high position and standing."
She flicked my my forehead.
"Perhaps, but regardless of that, there is always strength and advantage in numbers. And your skills are limited to fighting and killing monsters. I need other things besides those, so no massacring my children alright?"
"I'm hurt."
"No, you're just petty."
...
"Hey Freya?"
"What is it?!" she asked a little annoyedly as she'd put her head between my shoulder and chest to go back to sleep.
"Yesterday you referred to Nekros as a 'Transcendental'? What exactly did you mean by that?"
"That's not important." She said quietly.
"Tell me."
"No."
"Freya." I said sternly. She opened her eyes and looked at me a little alarmed at my change of tone. "If there is anyone who has a right to know whatever it is you're hiding about that term, it's me. He brought me here, and if there is something I'm supposed to know about him, then I recommend you say it now."
"Why are you so adamant on this?"
"Because he still talks to me."
Freya jerked her head up.
"How?!"
"In my dreams. Well...he's only done it once since he reincarnated me here. But he clearly still has the ability to communicate with me even though I'm here now. So if information that is being withheld from me turns out to be something dangerous, I can't watch myself around him. Understand?"
Freya pondered for a bit before relenting.
"Alright. But on one condition."
"What?"
"You tell me about your old world."
"Deal."
"Okay. A god's power is determined not by how much of it he has...well it does play a big part of it...but it's by how much Authority he can command. An entity can command greater Authority by two ways; one is by age and the other is by attaining a high rank either through certain ways or being 'born' into it.
Ouranos is considered more powerful than most others because he is a Primordial. He's more powerful because he's existed longer. So he can command greater authority than us because of his age.
Your friend Nekros however is on a whole other level."
"Explain it as simply as you can."
"How do I put it then? We gods are restricted to our world, our reality. We cannot go beyond a certain point and reach another world because our Authority is not enough to take us there. Not even Ouranos can do that.
A 'Transcendental' is a being who can exist outside of these Laws. And they command Authority that Ouranos can't even comprehend. Put it this way, if he wanted, Nekros could usurp ownership of this reality as well as all of it's Laws and reshape it to his liking on a simple whim.
And there would be nothing WE could do about it no matter how many of us there are."
"So how do you know about these things if you've never managed to go beyond the barriers of your world?"
"It's hard to explain to a mortal. It is our nature to 'know' these things. Teaches us our place in the universe I guess, no matter how powerful we are."
"And I'm guessing the other gods would be alarmed of my association with him because he could potentially snatch or destroy everything they've ever built in the blink of an eye?"
"Naming you his champion means you are of some importance to him. While I believe most would not dare act against you simply out of the fear of drawing the ire of a Transcendental, there are some who would seek to spite you or even get rid of you simply because you have such a powerful figure backing you."
She held my hand.
"Promise me you won't go picking unnecessary fights."
"I promise. Though if they pick a fight with me, I'm not going to sit there and take it."
"That's all I can ask from you. Now tell me about your world."
"Okay. Where to begin..."
The rest of the morning was spent in blissful happiness and peace.
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This story is currently five chapters ahead on my P@treon:
P@treon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi
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