Ravens of Eternity

415 Death & Darkness, Pt The southern end of the wraparound screen split into two small portions and slid to the side. That allowed the Orsethii and her bodyguards into Thanatos’ bridge unimpeded. They walked in with authority as though they were inside their own ship.

Trailing behind them were Azrael and Raijin, who glanced around at the massive bridge surrounding them. They were somewhat in awe over it – they had never seen a bridge quite that large and imposing.

More than that, the room was also incredibly dark, and was just as gloomy and shadowy as the rest of the ship itself. In fact, the only thing that actually lit the bridge was the wraparound screen itself.

On it were live feeds of every ship in Orsethii’s fleet. No doubt massive guns were pointed in their direction as well.

In the very middle of the bridge was Freya, as always. Sitting stoically next to her was Amarok, whose wagging tail brushed the floor more and more the closer Raijin and Azrael approached.

And off to the side appeared to be a heap of scales and bone, which Orsethii first thought was a corpse. But then it stirred slightly and groaned.

Azrael instinctively drew out her medgun and went towards the heap, but Freya stopped her with an open palm.

“Leave the senator alone,” she said. “He’s in atonement.”

Azrael looked down at what used to be senator Konleth. The man actually had been reduced to mere scales and bones. He looked so emaciated and weak that she doubted he could even stand.

.....

More than that, it almost seemed like if she touched him, he would crumble into dust.

“Stop me,” she told Freya.

She then walked around her, went to Konleth, and knelt down by his side. She began to scan him almost immediately after.

Freya decided to ignore it. The longer Konleth was alive, the better. It would give him more time to think about his past actions, and more time to die.

She turned towards Orsethii, though her expression remained relatively flat.

“So, you wanted to see me,” she said. “Well, here I am.”

“Here you are,” Orsethii echoed back.

She took a look around the bridge, at its emptiness.

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“Do you enjoy this place?” she asked Freya. “I ask ‘coz this is where you’re gonna die. May as well like your tomb and all that.”

“It’s as good a place as any,” Freya replied. “But the real question is: do you?”

Orsethii harrumphed, then shook off her officer’s coat. Underneath was her basic sleeveless tunic, which showed off her muscled body. And the numerous scars on her arms.

Then she began to circle Freya.

And Freya circled back in response.

As the two faced off against each other, the others gathered around Azrael and Konleth, though they kept their eyes on the combatants.

“I could’ve had them erased, you know,” Orsethii said. “The scars. The ones you left me. But I didn’t. I kept each and every one as a reminder of how you destroyed me. Right where everyone could see. I vowed then to even the score, to cover you with scars, to bleed you dry.”

“And now look at you,” Freya taunted. “All grown up.”

Orsethii harrumphed yet again, loudly.

“I’ll admit, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have come to understand my blood,” she said. “The Blood of the Ancestors. You beat me into the ground because you understood yours. Well now I’ve become one with mine. And now that we’re on even footing, we’ll see whose blood is superior.”

This time it was Freya’s turn to scoff.

“I can’t believe you went through all this trouble over something so small, so petty,” she said. “But so be it.”

Both of them unleashed their energies, and allowed their bodies to bathe in it. Freya with her Ascendant Form, and Orsethii with her Ancestral Blood. Their overwhelming energies flowed through their veins and empowered them from the tiniest molecule on up.

The two of them reinforced their bones, tightened their muscles, hardened their skin and scales. More than that, they sharpened their focus, and quickened their minds.

Those around them could feel the tension in the air. It had turned sharp and heavy at the same time. The two drogar soldiers found it harder to breathe, and stumbled slightly as the atmosphere shifted.

Orsethii reached behind her back and slowly drew out her beltknife. Its blade gleamed from the light of the screen that surrounded all of them. Not only that, but Orsethii’s fleet was reflected on its surface.

“Draw your blade,” she told Freya.

But Freya did no such thing and instead shook her head.

“It’ll only get in my way,” she replied. “Just come at me. Meet oblivion.”

Orsethii could only take so much of Freya’s taunts and charged towards her with blinding speed. Waves of energy peeled off the drogar, which struck those watching from the sidelines. Konleth was pushed over from his side onto his back, an act which caused him some degree of suffering.

But only Azrael paid attention to his sobs and cries and injected him with her most potent painkillers.

Certainly, Orsethii’s bodyguards were in absolute awe at what they were seeing. They wowed audibly at their dreadmother, having never seen her like that before. Hell, they had never seen anyone do anything that powerful in their entire lives.

Sure, they knew that she was a Reborn, and already stood above them physically, mentally, and so on. But they had no idea just how much. It dawned on them that she in her uniform was equally as dangerous as them in their power armor.

No, she was far more dangerous than them. Combined.

Orsethii stepped in from the flank and threw a devastating straight left with absolute speed and power. Although Freya easily spun out of the way, the force of the blow continued past Orsethii’s fist. A wave of power swept past and smashed into a section of the wraparound screen in the distance and shattered it.

Cracks spread like a web around the point of impact, as though Orsethii had struck it herself.

The drogar continued her assault, and swung at Freya over and over again. She alternated between her fist, her blade, her knee, her tail, everything. Orsethii threw everything she had at her opponent.

But no matter what, Freya evaded or parried or sidestepped every single blow without fail.

“Typical,” Orsethii taunted. “All you do is run, run, run, just like long ago.”

“In due time, you’ll do the same,” Freya replied. “Only it’ll be bleed, bleed, bleed.”

The two of them breathed heavily as their bodies and blood warmed up. Orsethii more than Freya – she allowed her anger to slowly overtake her senses. It made her faster and faster with every moment that passed.

And every time she missed or was blocked, even more fuel was poured onto the fire.

“Are you gonna attack or what?” the drogar screamed. “I’m tired of this heaven-scarred dance!”

Freya instantly switched her footwork in response, and half-spun in the opposite direction. This allowed her to throw Orsethii’s balance for just a moment, long enough for her to grab her wrist and twist it. In that moment, she pulled the beltknife out of the drogar’s hand.

Then she did a full-spin back in the other direction, and with a decisive motion sunk Orsethii’s beltknife into her own shoulder.

Orsethii yelped in pain, kicked Freya hard, then leapt backwards at the same time.

Both of them gave each other space as the drogar she slid the blade out of her shoulder, slowly. The drogar breathed in and out deeply as she stitched her wound shut with an infusion of Ancestral Blood energies.

Fury pumped through her veins at yet another stinging humiliation, on every level.

With a guttural scream, Orsethii launched forward yet again. This time, she used her anger to fuel her further, to push her body far beyond what it could. She needed that rush, that boost, that surge to power past her opponent’s guard.

Just like back then, but with far more control and precision.

She rushed Freya and launched into another reckless attack. First she swiped across her face with her blade, then thrust a knee into her chest, then swung a left jab, then an underhand, upward stab. She pushed against her opponent’s defenses faster and faster, harder and harder until she finally broke through.

It took swipe after lunge after strike before Orsethii finally connected. Another heavy straight left powered through Freya’s weakened parry, and struck her squarely on her chest.

At the same time, Orsethii poured everything she had through her body. She summed up every bit of excess energy she could, and pushed it all through her fist.

Then released it all into Freya.

The force of it flung the human far to the other side of the bridge, and slammed her into the screens. The impact shattered them all around her body.

More than that, the strength of Orsethii’s blow cracked her sternum on impact. And when she hit the reinforced screens themselves, cracked half of her ribs.

The whole ship seemed to shake and shiver right at that moment.

Freya fell down on the floor with a WHUMPH, even as Orsethii panted heavily from the exertion.

“Get up, Ra’ventrii,” she said in between breaths. “We’re not done yet. I’m not done with you, not by a long shot.”

Freya chuckled lightly, which echoed all around the bridge itself. She groaned as she picked herself up off the ground, clutching her chest all the way. She felt her sternum slide around ever so slightly, as the cracked bone rubbed up against each other.

“Isn’t this nostalgic,” she muttered.

At the same time, she poured the energies of Ascendant Form through herself. She quickly reset any broken bones, and fused them back together. More than that, she stitched back any lacerated muscle, and drew away any internal bleeding.

Finally, she calmed her nerves and dampened her pain receptors.

But that wasn’t all that happened. Because she was still telepathically linked to Thanatos, the bridge around her began to right itself. Whatever dents and scratches they caused eventually disappeared as the ship’s repair module went into overdrive.

Trillions of nanites poured into the bridge and fixed every little thing that was even slightly damaged.

Even more impressively, every crack and chip and break scattered around the wraparound screen began to recede. Whatever damage it suffered eventually vanished over the course of a few seconds.

The sight of it completely astounded Orsethii – it was certainly something she had witnessed before. Ships doing their repairs was something almost everyone had seen. But to see it happen so fast, and so precisely – that was something no-one had seen.

The repair modules on any ship didn’t have the ability to do something like that, simply because they didn’t have all the right raw materials to do so. Only fully equipped repair facilities could restore things like new. Or with this speed.

“You said you wanted me dead, because of the last time we met,” Freya said as she stitched her body back together. “Back then, I was young, stupid, and soft. Obviously. That version of me spared you, kept you alive, even if you think it like some kind of insult or slight.

“And perhaps you think that coming here and challenging me somehow corrects that insult. As though killing me would validate who you are. Thing is, you’re too late. That version of me’s already dead. And the only thing that’s left is me.”