NOVPUBStrax watched as the Elven Queen took the hesitant step towards the pillar of white light - a pure, vibrant column, pulsating with an almost living energy. The air around it seemed to vibrate, and an indescribable sense of time and space blurred around them.
She walked into the light, an intense glow engulfing her body little by little until, suddenly, everything around her exploded into absolute blindness.
The world disappeared.
An absolute silence, where not even the sound of her own breathing seemed to exist.
Then, slowly, a faint light began to emerge in the darkness, spreading out in gentle waves like a delicate awakening. Strax opened his eyes - not the tired, wounded eyes of before, but something new, crystal clear, almost as if he could see the very essence of the universe.
They were in another place. A realm that reminded him nothing of the physical world or the chaotic hells he knew. An ethereal, immaculate space where everything was white - pure white, infinite and silent.
Around them floated particles of light - tiny motes that danced like snowflakes suspended in the air, glowing with an almost sacred radiance.
Strax stared at the Queen, eyes wide with surprise.
"What... is that dust?" he asked, his voice still echoing as if to break the reverent silence.
She smiled, serene, as her own contours began to radiate a silvery glow, as if she herself were made of that same light.
"They are star flakes," she replied softly, "These grains of light... will yet give life to the spirits. They are seeds of rebirth, fragments of hope in the eternal void."
Strax paused, trying to absorb the weight of that revelation.
"So... we're in..." his voice faltered for a moment, "the Spirit Realm."
She nodded with a twinkle in her eyes, the kindest smile Strax had seen in ages.
"Yes," she said, "this is where everything begins and ends. Where souls seek rest and where the essence of existence is renewed. It is beautiful... and cruel."
The Queen's body seemed increasingly made of pure light, the aura emanating from her made the space around her pulsate in an almost musical rhythm.
Then, in a whisper charged with unexpected strength, she looked directly at Strax, the crystalline sincerity of her voice piercing the silence:
"I know it's too much to ask, but... take care of my daughter."
Strax felt something heavy press against his chest - it wasn't just a request, it was a legacy, an unspoken oath that crossed the boundaries of life and death.
She continued, with a delicate weakness, almost a whisper that seemed to break the very fabric of space:
"She's the hope I couldn't save... the light that can still shine when everything around crumbles. Protect her, even if it's your enemy who needs protecting."
Strax bowed his head, feeling the weight of that moment crush his shoulders like an invisible mountain. The immensity of the silence around him seemed to amplify every word, making the air almost unbreathable.
"You'll be able to protect her, after all... I'm going to revive you," said Strax, a faint smile crossing his lips for the first time in centuries. "You called me to this place just for that? To ask me for this favor?"
Frieren looked at him with a sad, sweet and at the same time painful smile that seemed to carry the weight of eons. "I'm sorry, Strax," she replied with a slight laugh, which sounded almost like a resigned sigh. "But it won't be possible to bring me back."
She continued, her voice now firm, carrying an immutable truth: "I lied to you. In fact, it's impossible. I used all my essence to support the Spirit King. If anyone tries to bring me back, it will only be to corrupt what's left - a bitter, empty shadow of everything I once was."
Strax felt a shiver run down his spine. Frieren continued, with a look that mixed tenderness and farewell: "That body that will be resurrected will not be me. It will be a cocoon of bitterness and despair, empty of the light that once shone in me. So don't waste your time trying to bring back what no longer exists."
She paused for a moment, looking at him with an almost maternal sincerity.
"Do what needs to be done. Live your life with your head held high, with the strength I could no longer sustain. Because, in the end, life is to be lived... even when hope seems to disappear."
Strax closed his eyes, feeling the weight of the farewell and the promise intertwine inside him. Silence resumed its place, but something in his heart lit a new flame - a silent promise of protection and redemption.
The Elven Queen smiled for the last time, her body beginning to dissolve into the surrounding light, becoming part of the very Spirit Realm she had loved so much and fought to save.
And Strax stood there, alone...
The silence around him seemed eternal, as if time had forgotten to move forward in that ethereal place. The stardust continued to float gently, each flake carrying echoes of what was to come - but for a moment, everything was suspended.
Until a slight ripple in the light before him intensified, like a beat in the very heart of the spirit world. And then Strax spoke - as calmly as one raises a sword before striking.
"Well... I believe you must be the true Spirit King."
The words seemed to provoke reality itself, and the light began to condense. An ethereal cluster began to spin in gentle spirals, pulling stardust around it as if it were weaving a body from the very essence of the world.
"Hm..." said a voice that seemed to resonate inside Strax's soul, deep and deep like the sound of ancient roots growing underground. "Who knew you'd find me so easily..."
The light turned one last time - and then stopped.
The being that appeared there was of a serene grandeur. Its body was not made of ordinary flesh - its skin was translucent, with veins of golden and blue energy running beneath the surface like rivers of contained power. His eyes shone like slowly spiraling galaxies, two cosmic orbs that seemed to see beyond time. Long, white hair floated in slow motion, as if submerged in eternity. His clothes seemed to be made of celestial fabric: white robes with gold details that pulsed with living symbols - runes that changed shape every second, as if telling the story of everything that ever existed.
"I am Kazzes," he declared, his voice as soft as it was inevitable. "King of Spirits."
Strax crossed his arms, staring at him without blinking.
"Quite different from that fake king I just destroyed," he commented, his voice laden with a slight tone of contempt.
Kazzes smiled - but it was a crooked smile, full of irony and shadow.
"That... was just the resentment of ancient spirits, embodied by the pain and abandonment of their ancestors." He turned slightly, observing the surrounding particles with reverence. "The echo of a past that has never been forgiven."
"Spirits don't like Artorias very much," he muttered afterwards, without turning around, as if speaking more to the wind than to Strax.
Strax snorted with an almost cynical smile, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Well... I can understand why. Having a sealed dimension, where time doesn't touch, where no one can escape or really die... must be a hell of a lot worse than the nine circles." He shrugged. "Being forgotten hurts. But to be remembered as a prison is unbearable."
Kazzes looked at him with a new gleam in his eyes - not of judgment, but of understanding. As if he were finally facing someone who knew the weight of carrying a kingdom on his back.
"Mankind has always wanted to forget the spirits," said the king calmly. "But the spirits... have never forgotten humanity. Nor their debts."
...
"So... what do we do now?" asked Scarlet, crossing her arms as she looked at Strax's unconscious body on the floor, lying amidst the glittering dust that still pulsed with the energy of the recently completed ritual.
Tiamat and Ouroboros were there too, standing beside her. But Scarlet didn't seem in the least concerned about Strax's condition. She knew that man - he was like a comet: intense, unpredictable, but impossible to destroy.
The problem at that moment wasn't the body on the ground.
It was what he had done.
"Our husband is completely insane," muttered Tiamat with an almost rehearsed calm, her golden eyes intently watching the newly revived group before them.
Ouroboros snorted, tossing his black hair back impatiently. "Lunatic. Total." He pointed to the air with an exasperated expression. "He's just created dragons. For real. Dragons. Do you have any idea of the magical and spiritual imbalance this could cause in the world? That's like... opening the gates of Eden and letting the demons in because ah, why not?"
Tiamat tilted her head with a slight smile. "I understand that resurrecting you was important. But did it have to be like this?" She looked down at the new group of women, now with fangs, soft scales, reptilian eyes and an ancient aura of power that bordered on the absurd. "Like dragons? Really?"
Scarlet let out a heavy sigh, as if she had foreseen this confusion.
It was only then that she turned completely around to face the real "problem": her daughters. Or rather... three almost identical versions of herself.
Scarlet's eyes widened. "What the fuck?"
In fact, Bellatrix, Daniela and Cassandra - recently resurrected and now draconic - bore an uncanny resemblance to Scarlet. Skin, eyes, facial structure... even the hair, everything seemed to have come from the same matrix.
"That's ridiculous. Have they become clones?" exclaimed Scarlet, pointing from one to the other.
Tiamat narrowed her eyes, trying to tell the difference. "Wait... which one of you is really Cassandra?" She looked closer. "No, calm down... is that Daniela? No, is that you? Or are you the other Bellatrix? And why are there two Cassandra's?"
Ouroboros let out a bitter laugh and slapped his hand to his forehead. "Damn it, Strax... look at the chaos you've created." He took a deep breath, then raised his hands in resignation. "Okay, listen up. If I were you, I'd use some of the mana you've received to remodel your bodies. If you want a personal touch, fine. But... honestly? Wait for the crazy guy over there to wake up." He pointed with his chin at the still slumped Strax. "When he comes back to his senses, he'll sort this mess out. It'll be easier for everyone."
Scarlet was still looking at the "copies" in silence, visibly disconcerted. "I don't want any redheads but me." She said suddenly. "Change the color of those hairs now!" 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
'Now that I can force them to do it, I can finally be my husband's only redhead!'
