Left. Right. Up. Down. Kick. Punch. Claws. Honestly, at that moment, having divine reconstruction felt more like a bane than a boon. Freya's expression bore no signs of hesitation or the intent to stop.
The eyes filled with fiery rage and bloodlust. All this raw aggression she had bottled up inside herself. As I was being ripped apart to shreds, I wondered how much strength did this girl possessed to hold even a single remnant of sanity.
Yes. I was being ripped apart. My body split in half from down the waist. Both of arms, torn from the sides one by one. I was in tremendous pain. While I'd like to believe divine reconstruction had enhanced my pain tolerance as well, my senses at the moment seemed to disagree.
It felt like hell.
It hurts. It hurts so much. I wanted a break. I wanted her to stop. Just a moment. Just give me a moment of peace. Is this even working? With every blow, I wondered if I was helping her—or just breaking myself for nothing. But then I saw it. The flicker of hesitation in her eyes, buried deep beneath the rage.
Maybe... just maybe, there was hope.
Freya froze mid-swing, her chest heaving as if she were struggling to catch her breath. For a moment, her fiery eyes dimmed, replaced by something softer—confusion? Pain? Or something else?
I got just enough time to move myself away from her. I now had the break I so much wished for. She would lunge at me once again any moment now. I braced myself to bear the onslaught once again, but then—
"Eiiiirriiiikkkk..." Freya called, prolonging my name to extents I didn't know were possible.
"Eiiiiiiiirrrrrriiiiiiiiiikkkkkkkkkkkkkk!" She called again, elongating my name till her voice began hoarse.
"EIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!" She shrieked. A blood-curdling shriek. I didn't notice, but this was the very first time Freya had said something during our battle. As this sudden change in her behaviour started his residence in my mind, I noticed something else. Her expression; it had changed. No. Not just her expression, she, herself, had changed.
The horns, they had receded. In the stead of the large antlers, diminutive protrusions. They were small enough to just poke out of her now midnight hue hair.
Still unkept.
Still disturbed.
The distorted deer skull had disappeared. Freya's face, now clear in sight, conveyed an unfamiliar emotion, something which I couldn't pinpoint.
Tears.
Tears and their marks were clearly visible on her face.
"Eirik!" Bierra called from inside my head.
"Been a while since I heard your voice." I pointed out.
"Your sense of humour is messed up." She stated.
"Hey! Dont' you know what I went through right now? I have every right to be messed up-"
I couldn't even complete my sentence yet again.
Gurgle.
A guttural gurgle.
There was no doubt about it. It was coming from Freya.
"Right. This might not be the best time to joke around. What's up with her?" I said to Bierra.
"The face of rage, it has resolved." Bierra said in a hesitant tone.
"All that for one face. 7 billion more to go!" I said, trying to sound energetic.
A triumphant moment, I thought. I have finally dealt with all the rage she had bottled up inside her. I planned to use her frustration to continue the fight, but it seemed I didn't need to. Perhaps the residual feelings she had kept hidden would automatically do that for me.
I felt relieved.
It was short-lived, though.
"Eirik. I think-" Bierra started.
"Yeah. What's up? I don't have to move, right?" I replied, stating the obvious. I was the punching bag, after all.
"No. It's Freya. I want you to be careful." Bierra warned.
I didn't get the leisure to answer.
Dead trees sprouted from the icy floor, shattering the ever so hard ice of Nifelheim. They constricted around my limbs, my torso followed soon, and I was trapped. My head barely given the space to breathe. Then she began her walk.
The demon had now turned into a witch.
From autumn demon to a witch of autumn.
"Why?" Freya called out.
I was confused. Why would she ask me that?
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION DAMMIT, WHYYYYYYYYY!!!!!" Her shriek was painful. The pitch made my ears bleed. Though they healed a second later, the pain I felt for that split second was numbing, to say the least.
Freya, now at an arm's distance from me, looked me straight in the eye. The eyes, they felt hollow. They had lost their hazel hue.
White.
All I saw was the opaque whiteness of the sclera.
Her teeth were sharp and pointy, with rows filling her mouth.
She really looked like the Ruler of Decay; one of her names.
Freya shrieked again at point blank.
"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
My ears burst. My eyes popped off. My skin on my forehead stripped itself off me in reaction to the force. Such was the strength a simple shrieked from her possessed. I was blinded. I skinned.
My sight didn't return immediately. My skin didn't heal immediately. It should have been there and then only that I should have realised my mistake. Something was wrong. When my sight returned, all I saw were rows of razer sharp teeth ready to mince my head at any moment. She had opened her mouth to inhumane proportions. I was trapped!
All of a sudden, I felt a chilly sensation near my still constructed foot.
Ice! I thought.
It rose to my legs, then my torso shattering the dead trees holding me as captive. I felt to the icy floor as Freya closed her mouth.
"Run!" Bierra commanded through telepathy.
The sense of urgency in her command was understood well by my body, and I dashed away.
"Change in the plan. We will trap Freya here!" Bierra commanded as I ran.
"What do you mean?" She sounded nonsensical.
"Have you not realised yet?!" Bierra sounded hysterical.
"Huh? I'm sorry but I have no clue what your are talking about!" I tripped.
As I squirmed around the icy floor, I noticed what I had tripped on, a hand. A decaying hand protruding out of the ice. I would have called it dead, but it was moving. The hand, it was moving. I could hear Bierra calling out my name.
The very next moment, a dozen of hands tore through icy floor and grabbed onto my limbs. They had a grasp stronger than humans, but weaker than the dead trees.
Panic. Confusion.
They took hold of me. I was able to break away from them. I was sweating profusely now.
"Hey Bierra. The heck is going on?" I asked as caught my breath.
"Finally, you listened! Get out of that lecture hall! We can't save Freya!" Bierra screamed in panic.
The hands. They were not just hands anymore. Full grown limbs, shoulder followed by the torso and finally legs climbed out of the ground, breaking through the hard ice like it wasn't even there.
They were zombies.
Queen of Decay and Keeper of Lost Souls.
Freya was coming at me with the herd.
"YOU'RE NOT LEAVING!!!" She shrieked in a guttural manner.
"What has happened? Why do I have to leave?!" I called to Bierra.
"Your healing! Haven't you noticed? It can't handle Freya now. We have no choice but to leave her!" Bierra screamed, if you could technically scream through telepathy, that is.
The zombies rushed. Their decaying organs fell through their abdomen, making the already slippery even more of nightmare to move around.
I jumped around, trying my best to avoid any bites. My healing has gotten weak? How did that happen?
No. It wasn't that my healing had gone weak, it was Freya's power. My body was just not able to keep up and if that were the case, then I really was powerless in this situation. I had no option but to leave Freya here.
"How long?" I asked Bierra.
"What do you mean?" She asked, knowing exactly what I meant.
"How long till I can try again to save Freya?" I asked explicitly.
No response came.
"Figured that much out." I sighed.
The situation had turned for the worst. From saving Freya, it had turned into my own struggle for survival. On top of it, there were seven billion more of such faces I had to deal with. I truly was playing a losing game here.
And when it seemed like all was lost, that I had hit the rock bottom, I came face to face with the abysmal dread I had challenged. I had dared to look at abyss and now the abyss stared back at me.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST LEAVE AWAY AFTER PUSHING ME SO FAR." The witch cried.
I was pushed into the abyss I had dared to look into. The realisation of it was hard-hitting. The emotion.
The face.
The expression.
The form that Freya now wore was—
Anguish.
The herd of zombies stopped at their place.
"Eirik? Eirik! Eirik!" Bierra called out repeatedly.
I could hear her, but I couldn't muster the energy to respond to her. My vision began to shake. Freya walked out of the herd in her witch form as she made her way to me. She looked unrushed. She was unrushed. She must have had realised what I did. There was no reason now to be in a hurry.
It wasn't my vision that was shaking, but my whole body was. I had made a grave mistake. An oversight so big it was now going to cost me my life. As Freya came closer and closer, my head began to spin. I could feel vomit in my mouth; I was having a breakdown. All the while, Bierra tried her best in her abilities to snap me out of my trance.
An ice wall. Maybe a thousand spikes in Freya's path. She stopped at none. And nothing stopped my restlessness. Freya had reached me. Bierra cried and screamed in my head, but I couldn't do anything. After all, I was to pay the price for my mistake now.
Narcissist. That I was.
Some wannabe hero. That I was.
What a terrible role to play, I thought to myself. I was definitely not suited for the position.
My legs gave out. Freya lifted my face up through her fingernail.
Her face.
Her expression.
Now I could pin it out. It was anguish. Tears still held residence in her eyes. A break down of hers as well. Each and every nook and crevice of her conveyed the pain and torment she held in within herself. The fear she hid in within her. The disappointment she hid in within her towards me.
How could her very saviour, or at least wannabe saviour didn't notice something so trivial?
Amidst all the saving Freya business, I had failed to consider one thing; the most important of all.
"Did I ever ask if you were okay with it?" I said.
"Did you ever ask if I was okay with it?" Freya said.
Our voices layered on one another and concluded on the same note, simultaneously.
And in that moment, I realized—I wasn't her savior. I was her tormentor.