Chapter 7:
Frieren would grant Aura this; she was clever in her cruelty.
The first wave that attacked her were the thralls that were still alive. Aura was preserving the undead under her spell- the ones that would be more acceptable targets.
An arrow whistled past her ear as she leaned to the side, and then she floated upwards to avoid the swords and spears of the warriors that came close.
Aura could command their bodies, but all of them were still aware. Could still speak for themselves.
“Help us!”
“I don't want to do this! I’m sorry!”
“Don’t let her get to the rest of the town! Kill us if you have to!”
“Please; please dont kill me!”
“Kill the demon and the spell breaks!”
Their voices rolled over one another, drowning each other out. The one, universal constant however, was their fear. Their desperation. It made it a bit harder to focus, but hard didn’t mean impossible.
“Zurückhalten.”
Blue, pantomime chains rose up from the ground, coiling themselves around the archers - the most dangerous - and the heavily armored warriors. Peasants and civilians could still move, but they were objectively less of an issue.
The spell wasn’t incredibly taxing to cast, but maintaining it for too long would put a strain on her mana reserves. Reserves she would need to maintain above a certain threshold to not fall victim to Aura’s Scales of Judgement.
Just then, she sensed Fern’s Mana. Her apprentice was already engaged in combat, along with several others she was unfamiliar with.
Aura smirked. “It seems Lügner will be dealing with your party shortly.”
“No,” Frieren answered. “My party will win; just as it was eighty years ago.”
The reminder of her defeat wiped the smirk off of Aura’s face, before it returned with a cruel twist. “Himmel is dead and rotting in the ground. You have no one here, and these new vagrants are not him.”
The sage of destruction stretched out her hand, the scales dangling from it. “Kill her.”
The undead in her army: warriors, archers, and mages, all answered her command without hesitation, joining the still unrestrained peasants and the mob of flesh between Aura and Frieren.
The odd mage or two cast steps of light and glyphs for the warriors to reach her. The archers nocked arrows into their bows, and some of the warriors hurled javelins or even rocks as hulking suits of armor raced up the steps of light to close the distance.
Frieren moved through the air, darting and weaving between projectiles. Her defensive spells cast aside bolts of magic thrown her way, and simple dispelling magics undid the glyphs that gave the warrior constructs the reach to get to her; a conjured wind spell threw aside the arrows before they could even come close.
Then, she heard a scream. Her attention switched to the still soul bound humans beneath her, and she saw that an old man had been shot through the shoulder by one of the arrows Frieren had cast aside.
Careless of her. She couldn’t repeat the mistake.
She caught Aura’s smirk, realizing she had a new weapon in her arsenal.
The archers nocked back their arrows and this time, moved their aim towards the exposed backs of the living thralls.
“Don’t!” Graf Granat - or at least the man she assumed to be Graf Granat, given Aura was keeping him by her side - shouted. “You wretched-”
Whatever he was going to say wasn’t done by the time the arrows let loose, a dozen projectiles whistling through the air-
‘Heben.’
A wall of mud and dirt was hewn up from the ground below, a slab of muck and sludge that took the arrows and left them stuck fast in the dripping mess.
Her barriers flared, once more throwing aside a magical onslaught from Aura’s bound mages as they attempted to capitalize on the momentary distraction as she danced between more thrown javelins.
Then, the elf descended, swooping down with all the speed she had to get within striking distance.
Aura reeled, surprised before a wall of steel and iron was between the Sage and the Slayer.
But Aura wasn’t her target- the mages were.
Her small frame ducked under blades, weaving itself between armored bodies like a needle through cloth, dispelled defensive magics, and struck.
“lösen.”
The mass of armor, cloth, and staff fell, like a puppet with its strings cut, the binding of the scales undone in just a moment.
Two more mages left.
The rest of Aura's army tried to attack again, but she slipped back into the sky. Her army did not move cohesively, not truly. It wasn’t ‘teamwork’, per se. It was more like a limb, an extension of her will, but it only reacted to broad commands: to nudges in thought and direction. They moved at the same time, but not ‘together.’
Powerful… but clumsy. Slow.
Then Frieren sensed Aura’s Demons die.
One, by one, by one. Like candles blown out in the night. Their Mana’s vanished, leaving only Fern’s, and the unique signature of Atreus…
But no- there was something else there too. Something… old.
Either way, Aura also sensed it, and Frieren could see the demon beginning to consider her options.
She’d retreated before, she wouldn't be above doing it again.
Only- Frieren’s eyes darted towards Graf Granat, still bound at Aura’s side.
This time, if she escaped, the damage she’d do - even if only causing the fall of Granat by proxy - would be measured in thousands of lives.
Frieren’s ears twitched ever so slightly, sensing that strange power. Just a ghost of it in the air, drawing closer. Not Fern, or Atreus. Kratos, then.
Aura didn’t seem aware; not yet anyway. “Lügner is dead,” Frieren said. “The results are the same.”
Aura’s pride rankled. Then, her smile returned. “Yes. The same. Much like you. You haven’t changed a bit from when I last saw you. Your Mana is still just as weak. Skilled, but frail.”
The elf’s eyes narrowed, wondering if now is when the Demon would make her move.
Aura’s brow knit together, sneering. “Kill yourselves.”
The living victims screamed in horror, even as they moved to carry out the abrupt command. Blades rose to their own throats, rocks rose up to bash their own heads in. Some even ran to the nearest wall to beat their heads against it.
“Zurückhalten.”
The chains came again, now for all of them. All three hundred and twenty four victims found themselves bound and coiled tightly by ethereal links of unbreakable iron.
So many. It did noticeably strain her Mana- perhaps that would be enough.
Aura smirked, triumph in her eyes. “My my, so heroic,” she crowed. “How long can you keep it u-”
There was a thunderous beat of footsteps, and Aura’s question died on her tongue as a pale giant crashed out of a side alleyway at tremendous speed, roaring with axe in hand.
Her wall of iron armors and warriors tried to intercept.
It didn’t matter.
Punching, chopping, or just battering his way through them, Kratos was a human explosive, tearing armored forms apart with just his bare hands.
Aura cursed, and for a moment, Frieren was genuinely concerned that Aura would move to control the behemoth of a warrior; it was unlikely Kratos had more Mana than Aura, and it was just as uncertain whether or not Frieren herself could overcome the Warrior’s unknown capabilities.
But then, Kratos pulled free two burning blades, and Frieren beheld the instant, raw, unbridled panic that filled the Sage of Destruction.
Whatever she sensed in those weapons, it terrified her.
Without another moment's thought, Aura turned her eyes towards the elf.
“Auserlese!”
The scales answered.
—
Kratos’ fist crashed against the iron plate, the whole suit crumpling beneath his bare fist. The construct flew into more of its fellows, bowling them over like dry tinder- but even so, an undead wall of steel was still between him and his target.
And then he sensed something.
Magic.
It had been quite a long time since the stink of soul manipulation wafted through his senses, but he felt it now.
He turned towards the creature with purple hair standing across from the small one called Frieren. Their souls, tethered to each, were being drawn out of them, and placed upon a set of scales.
It reminded him vaguely of the tales concerning one of the Gods of the Egyptians: Anubis. How he would weigh the souls of the dead.
Kratos’ first instinct was to destroy the scales. Whatever magic they wove should cease once they were destroyed, but, with the small one’s Soul already extracted, he couldn’t be certain it wouldn’t kill her as well.
The two souls were placed upon the scale, and the creature’s soul was heavier.
“Good… Good! Kill that… whatever he is!”
The creature’s tone of voice was harried, almost out of breath. Kratos could recognize fear when he saw it, and it was afraid.
The army of iron and metal began to ready itself to fight him again. But the two souls were still upon the scales..
“You still haven't figured it out?”
“What are you-” The creatures paused, eyes turning back to the scales, which were beginning to tip in the opposite direction.
“You’re a demon that’s been training, and honing her mana, for five hundred years-”
The iron warriors stopped, going still as the scales fully began to tilt. Kratos felt a shift in the air, his hackles rising as magic and pressure tingled across his flesh.
He saw the mute horror taking hold of the female creature’s eyes, her fear becoming far more acute and palpable than the blind panic she’d held when she gazed upon him.
“But I… am a mage that’s lived for over a thousand.”
The pale one’s hair was caught in a strange breeze. Her power swelled, all of it coming to the fore as the scales fully tilted in the small one's favor - and the creature went slack, like a puppet.
“Aura.”
Kratos didn’t understand, but the cold gaze of the elf as she turned away from her prey conveyed the message easily enough.
“Kill yourself.”(X)(X)(X)
And so Aura meets a similar end, only this time, with more witnesses and a bit more collateral- with some fun ripple effects coming in the next chapter (which should be coming in by this sunday)
For this fight, I wanted to keep the tone of the anime, and not go too crazy/over the top, we know that Frieren can throw down but she seems to favor keeping things low key as much as possible for several reasons.
I had a lot of ideas for ways the situation could escalate but when I sat down to write it none of it really fit her or felt right. And anything I put infront of Kratos with the exception of 2 very specific demons that are nowhere near this place are just gonna fall over so I didn't even want to pretend anything here could slow him down (that's not foreshadowing)
Also, also- I would like to commission a cover piece for this fic. If anyone knows or is an artist taking commissions, hit me up :)