The Void Wolf

It had been a month since Ira killed the Behemoth and the group of Higher Races. In that time, Lyra was found to be in a state of comatose and even with the healing of Valkyries she didn’t wake up immediately but after some time she showed signs of recovering.

Lyra opened her eyes and found she was inside of a tent. Memories began coming back to her in fragments and she vaguely recalled what happened. She climbed out of the bed and exited only to be met with the sight of a mountainous corpse that was being stripped away by the Dark Elves. Not too far from her were corpses of dragons that were placed in a huge pile that more Dark Elves were busy dismantling.

“So you’re awake.” Casey approached Lyra with no sign of hostility.

“...Are they all dead?” Lyra asked.

“Do you mean the rest of your group? If so, Ira killed all of them,” Casey answered.

Lyra sighed before she remembered something, “Where’s Ustia?”

“She didn’t appear with the others so I’m not sure.” Casey gestured for Lyra to follow as they moved through the encampment.

The other countries were under the impression that the Behemoth’s corpse would be split between them but the Valkyries weren’t of a similar mind. In their eyes, Ira killed it and just about everything else that appeared so they had no claim to it. Seeing as he was currently absent, they took it for themselves and planned on taking it back to the Dark Elf Empire where they would take up residence. It was hard for everyone else to swallow their greed but the Valkyries weren’t giving them a choice.

The Dark Elves were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with just the armor that could be made from Behemoth’s Leather and Dragon Scales. In addition to that, Charles was working on dangerous and experimental methods to increase their power. Plus, one couldn’t forget the inhuman training regiment that was the current standard. Lastly, they sat on a huge vein of Godsteel which produced powerful weapons even without someone having the divinity to properly wield them. With the Valkyries preparing to take up residence in the Underground City it was hard not to say that they were the strongest nation on the continent. It was hard to believe but the Dark Elf Empire which was the named as the weakest had its fortunes reversed.

Casey and Lyra eventually stopped and Lyra blinked rapidly in surprise. There was a little girl with pitch black hair, soft yellow eyes, and small dimples in her cheeks playing in the sand. Standing near her was Avery, she was practicing her swordsmanship with the Godsteel sword.

“Avery,” Casey called out.

Avery was about to sheathe her sword when she saw Lyra and a hostile intent appeared in her eyes. She took a step and a burst of flame propelled her forward before she stopped the sword at Lyra’s neck.

“Tell me why shouldn’t I kill you?” Avery asked coldly as heat began rising from her sword.

“Avery, you know very well what took place,” Casey stated clearly but she didn’t make any moves to disarm Avery.

“The fact that you weren’t in control of your own body has nothing to do with me. The reason Ira isn’t here is due to how easily Gicae controlled your mind.” Avery’s voice was laced with anger until a small hand tugged on the hem of her shirt.

“I’m hungry, Mum,” Raveria said cutely.

Raveria looked to be four or five years old which was truly frightening. She was speeding up her own aging process and it was unknown why. Avery guessed that Raveria might’ve thought being an adult was synonymous with being able to protect her family. She ate twice as much as usual and would use her abilities as much as she could in order to grow them. Still, Avery noticed that Raveria was troubled as the little girl would often randomly cry in total silence which made it clear she missed Ira.

Avery hesitated before sheathing her sword and picking Raveria up, “Come on.”

As they walked toward a tent, Lyra could see Avery feeding her daughter flames from the palm of her hand.

“His daughter?” Lyra finally asked.

“Yes. It’s only been a few months since she was born.” Casey responded as they continued moving.

Along the way, Casey filled her in on the little details such as Ira’s unknown whereabouts and his display of power. When they finally stopped, it was in front of the Behemoth’s body. Surprisingly, the more than half of the corpse was already bone. The most problematic area was the blood which was collected in hundreds of airtight metal barrels before Avery dried out the rest of the body with fire. From there, the Valkyries cut large sections of its skin off and they fell below where the Dark Elves would deal with them. The bones were no different and Lauren was getting used to the Blood Sword by cutting the huge bones. Occasionally, Avery would also join her and cleave through the skeletal remains of the Behemoth.

Lauren spotted them and flew down to meet with Lyra. She landed and wiped the sweat off of her brow before speaking, “Now that you’re awake, we could use your help with finding Ira.”

Lyra pondered for a moment before responding, “...There is an island far from this continent but it wouldn’t take long for you to fly to. It may be selfish of me but I would like you to search for Ustia once you arrive there. She can lead you to where we showed Ira the Storm Wall. It’s hard to tell it apart but there are a few landmarks which might help.”

Lauren and Casey shared a brief glance before the former nodded.

“I’ll be the one to go,” Lauren said.

…

Inside of Ira’s mind, there was a city, a city that didn’t make any sense. There were pathways that led to nowhere, houses stacked atop each in a spiral pattern, and sinkholes in the middle of walkways. Hundreds of people that looked like Ira traversed the crooked and nonsensical city with ease. Each one of them had a number on the back of their hands and they each had some destination.

In a large building with no doors or windows, a man sat in a large leather chair with his legs propped on a desk. He wore a long black fur coat and black pants but opted not to wear a shirt or a pair of shoes. It was none other than Ira and his number seemed to be six. Across from him sat two other Iras with another painting in the corner of the room.

“So? How is it?” Ira Six asked.

“It’s...as expected.There haven’t been many Iras who could refuse it.” One of them answered.

“Good. Then we’ll celebrate.” Ira Six reached out and a wooden box appeared out of thin air.

He placed it on the table and then opened it to exposed a box of muffins, sweet buns, and cookies.

“Hey, Seventy-two. Are you done with it yet?” Ira Six asked as they stuffed their mouths with pastries.

“Give me a fucking second.” Ira Seventy-Two waved his hand as he added a few final touches.

After a few moments, he sighed and took a step back. At once, all eyes in the room turned toward the painting and they all let out a sigh as if they were unworthy of seeing such a thing. It was a hyper-realistic portrait of a woman with raven-colored hair holding a black-haired young girl next to her, but the strangest part was the fact they were missing faces.

“Beautiful.” Ira Six and the other Iras used their imagination to fill in the missing face.

“Yep.” Ira Seventy-two nodded.

As Ira’s mind repaired itself...some parts of him were more combative due to his nature. So it was reasonable segments of his mind split into different parts on their own.

In the center of the city, there was an extremely large pit with hundreds of Iras gathered around it.

“Guys, just think rationally for a second!” An Ira tied to a pole shouted.

“He’s defective.” One of the Iras carrying him shook their head.

“Wait, no. Listen, if we just tried to solve this with logic and rationale we’d get further than we are now.” The rational Ira tried to explain.

“Tch. Throw him away before he breaks something.” They reached the edge of the pit and tossed Rational Ira in without a second thought. He fell into the endless darkness of the pit but then a pair of red eyes emerged and began to rise.

All of a sudden, a horned beast covered in black mist burst from the pit with open jaws and ate Rational Ira before falling back into the pit.

The Iras spectating sighed before going back to what they were doing while the ones who carried the victim were talking amongst themselves.

“What are they doing up there? I know they’re fixing Ira but they’re messing up and adding shit that doesn’t belong. Hell, they’re even fixing parts that were never broken.”

“Don’t ask me, we’re just supposed to remove the excess parts and mind our business.”

“Ha!” Someone laughed but everyone just looked at him strangely.

“You don’t get it? It’s–You said mind and we’re the mind so I just thought...You know because the funny part was…”

“...We get it,” An Ira said.

“Oh...Ok...Ehem.” He cleared his throat as they continued to stare at him.

“You sure he’s not defective?”

The Ira scratched his head awkwardly as he chuckled but their expressions didn’t change.

“Guys? You know I’m not defective, right?” He asked.

They formed a semi-circle around him and took a few steps as they closed him. Just when the tension rose to its maximum they burst out laughing.

“We’re just messing with you.” Ira patted him on the back.

“Ah! You guys are assholes.” Ira joined in on the laugh.

“Heads up, we got another one.” An Ira interrupted.

“I’m Ira, you’re Ira, we’re all Ira. Since we’re all the same person it must be hard to communicate right?” A young man who resembled Ira but was covered in spots of black mist was carried over to the disposal pit.

“What the hell are you talking about?” A different Ira asked.

“Nothing…” The Spotted Ira shook his head before continuing, “...By the way, have you guys seen...Avery?”

All of the Iras gathered around opened their eyes widely as if they couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth.

“Throw him in!” Someone shouted as they lifted him into the air.

“Wait! Guys!” The Spotted Ira cackled like a maniac as the desire for anarchy filled his eyes, “What about Raveria? Have you seen little Ria? I wonder how big she’s gotten. Just thinking about it makes me want to see them. Since I can’t I’ll just say their names. Raveria, Avery, Raveria, Avery, Raveria. I think I can make a catchy song out of it. Does anyone want to sing along?”

“Throw him now!” They carried the Spotted Ira to the edge and violently tossed him in.

“Aveeeery!” His voice echoed as he dropped into the pit below them.

Suddenly, the city began to shake heavily and a giant locked door appeared in the sky. Then, something began banging on the door as if it wanted to be released. The entire city went silent as something tried to force its way out of the iron door. Deformations resembling fists appeared on the metal and warped it but it remained steadfast under the assault. After a few minutes, the assault died down and the Ira’s were motionless.

“Hey! Don’t all of you have something to do?!” Ira One asked as he appeared in the sky next to the door.

He reached his hands out and grabbed the air before pulling it together in front of the door as if he was closing a curtain. Strangely enough, the fabric Ira’s mind contorted around the door and hidden it as if it didn’t exist.

The Iras went back to what they were doing as Ira One dropped his shoulders in exhaustion. Things were becoming more hectic and unstable as they continued to work on repairing what once was.