novelraw Chapter 269 269: Queen Benladra Is Back
Chapter 269 269: Queen Benladra Is Back
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The rest of House Frostbane returned to the Kingdom after a while. Once everyone had gathered, they made their way back to Frostbane, where they decided to discuss the future of the planet and what to do next.
When invited into the restored castle, the members of House Frostbane finally met and properly greeted Queen Benladra. She was incredibly happy that her son had made so many incredible friends.
"I am so happy my son has made so many great friends!" she said warmly. "Anastasia, I am truly glad you became my son's friend as well!"
"Ah, it is nothing, Your Highness. It was he who approached me and helped me grow this strong," Anastasia replied. "I am indebted to him."
"Timothy, you are a wonderful young man yourself!" Benladra continued. "I am grateful that you have chosen to follow my son."
"A-Ah, well, we started off on the wrong foot, but I think we turned out just fine," Timothy said. "Thank you for your recognition, Your Highness. My family will be honored."
"Agustina! I have heard about you. It is quite rare to see a child between an elf and a dwarf. I am... very sorry for what happened to your father," Benladra said gently. "I am happy you are thriving now, and that my son helped your territory in its dire times."
"It is an honor, Your Highness," Agustina replied, carrying herself like the young lady she was. "Thank you so much for inviting me here. I do not deserve such kind words."
"Selene, Melisa, both of you are wonderful children," Benladra said. "I am happy my son learned to be kinder after adopting you, and that you have grown into such fine young ladies. You both are wonderful representations of my people: diverse, strong, and never giving up. Seeing how he adopted you... well, you can also call me grandmother if you want."
"G-Grandmother?!" Melisa gasped.
"We didn't think of that! Wow!" Selene exclaimed, clearly delighted.
Benladra chuckled and turned her gaze to Mirai, whom she had already greeted before. "Mirai, my dear, you are like a daughter to me. You have grown into such a beautiful young lady. I... I never imagined my son would bring you outside and teach you about the world, but I suppose I have been surprised many times by what he has accomplished. I am happy you are here with us, and... that you have grown so much as well. I still remember when you were such a timid girl, afraid of touching anybody or even looking at them..."
"And... when you showed up, you were the first person to ever give me a hug..." Mirai smiled. She had already cried a lot, so no more tears fell, but strong emotion shone in her eyes. Her hands trembled as she felt overwhelmed by Benladra's presence. "You were the first person who showed me kindness and motherly warmth... so thank you, Your Highness."
"Oh, well, now that you are in that kind of relationship with my dear son, you could call me mother, right?" Benladra asked with a soft chuckle. "Are you two getting married? I cannot wait!"
"I... well, we have not discussed it completely yet, but it is something we have agreed on," Louis replied with a kind smile.
The person standing by his side felt slightly left out. He lowered his head without daring to speak. His presence seemed diminished, as if he wanted to be ignored and unseen, ashamed to intrude upon such a warm family moment, especially when he had never had anything like it himself.
"..."
"And you must be Zorba! Right? Come now, do not be shy, dear. Lift up that adorable face," Benladra said with a kind, motherly smile.
"A-Ah!" Zorba was taken aback. "I... Yes, that is my name, Your Highness. I am your son's bodyguard—erm, I am... well, I am his servant."
"I see!" Benladra nodded. "I can already tell you have had such a sad past, my dear." She cried softly as she held Zorba in her hands and kissed his face. "But it is fine now. It is fine! You are safe here, dear. We welcome you as a member of the Kingdom."
"Of course, Zorba has proven his loyalty," Gustaf nodded confidently. "He is a valuable ally."
"Yeah, there is no problem," said the King of Dragons. "I have noticed he has a great affinity with the Death Element. That is a one-in-a-trillion talent... Perhaps he could train under my wife, Hel, the Ruler of the Underworld Realm of Helheim. Perhaps you could even receive her blood... You would certainly make a fine death dragon."
"D-Dragon? Me?!" Zorba was shocked. "Really?!"
"Yes. In fact, most of House Frostbane could become dragons," the Dragon King said, rubbing his chin. "The more the merrier, as they say."
"Hmm, Dad, you are really obsessed with turning everyone into dragons, aren't you?" Benladra sighed, shaking her head. "Anyway! Let us move on, I suppose... Now that everyone has eaten and rested, let us talk about something more serious."
"Yeah," the Dragon King spoke, nodding. "And as I said earlier, we will be evacuating all the people from Earth to the Drakeheart Kingdom for the time being."
"T-The Drakeheart Kingdom?" Mirai gasped. "There is such a place?!"
"It is the Kingdom Father established fifty thousand years ago in the Continent of Jotunheim," Benladra explained. "It is the continent where giants and titans thrive the most and live alongside us dragons. Of course, the capital of Drakeheart is a massive metropolis with a population of over sixty million and still growing."
"S-Sixty million people?!" Everyone was shocked to hear such an enormous number.
"That is just the capital of one of the Kingdoms of Jotunheim... There are roughly nine more Kingdoms," the King explained. "I am the supreme king of this world, but I have allowed other people to build their own nations freely. I mostly oversee things from above, but I have let mortals do as they please, because it is far too annoying to take care of so many. Unless a catastrophic, world-ending event occurs, I usually do not bother."
"And that is exactly why I cannot agree with you, Father! You used to be such a magnanimous and kindhearted man, but you suddenly became incapable of caring!" Benladra said angrily.
"Benladra, beings like us with so much power have no right to constantly intervene in what mortals do," the King replied. "If we continuously attempt to control them, mortals will grow exhausted and eventually harbor deep resentment toward us. It is fine to champion and guide heroes from time to time, to offer wise counsel, and... maybe stop a war when it gets out of control. But caring about every single person in a world with billions? Even we gods cannot do such a thing."
Drake's point of view left everyone speechless, and the truth was, he was not wrong. Perhaps if Yggdrasil had remained the same size as before, he would have overseen things more carefully. But the world had grown and stretched so much that he could no longer oversee and control every single little detail.
"By manipulating Fate, I have created a long era of peace at least," the King said. "That is more than enough for now. Earth... I suppose you have grown so attached to it because it is incredibly small compared to our world, right? You can actually care about it, and I guess that is not wrong either..."
"I never thought about it that way..." Benladra slowly began to understand her father's perspective. "But if there is a child starving right now, wouldn't you descend to help them?"
"The world of Yggdrasil is vast, full of opportunities and resources," Drake smiled. "There are many heroes, adventurers, champions, and great rulers everywhere whom I have guided myself. I trust that they will not let a child starve."
"..." Benladra sighed and nodded silently.
It was the harsh truth.
Absolute surveillance meant absolute control, and absolute control came with the complete loss of freedom.
If mortals were not allowed to do what they wanted, there would be no freedom at all, whether for good or bad things.
Laws existed for rules and regulations, but even they could be twisted and used against one another. So the Dragon King simply let humans decide their own laws and stopped bothering with the rest.
He oversaw the great kings of every race, however, and held a council meeting every thousand years. He considered that more than enough.
"If I controlled the world completely, which I still could... there would be no more suffering, but then there would be no more joy either," Drake said. "It would be a world forever in stasis, and people would lose their desire to continue living and improving themselves... Only by facing hardships and suffering can we truly appreciate the good things in life."
"Father... I do not think that is true..." Benladra sighed.
"Yggdrasil is fine, Benladra," her father insisted. "And that is enough. Let us talk about Earth instead."
"But..." Benladra was perhaps too nice, too good, too kindhearted. Her kindness brought hope to people, but it could become a toxic trait if not handled correctly.
"Mother," Louis said in a deep, serious voice. "Grandfather is not wrong at all. Please, you have to understand and see the bigger picture. We are beings of immense power. To get involved in every single affair that mortals handle... it would only drive them mad, as they would no longer be able to experience life as they are meant to. We can teach them, protect them sometimes, and guide them, but... anything more than that is simply ridiculous. At the same time, we can concentrate on our own territory instead—Earth. We can protect it together."
"Haaa... it truly is complicated, isn't it?" Benladra sighed.
"There is nothing really complicated, Benladra. It is you who always torments herself with so many problems at once, things you simply should not care about," Gustaf said plainly. "As your father said, he is overseeing and protecting Yggdrasil, but being too involved for beings like us would only make mortals feel inferior and go mad."
"..." Benladra realized that her kindness had become excessive in certain areas. Her entire argument with her father about him becoming "lazy and uncaring" toward every intelligent living being in Yggdrasil now seemed completely foolish. "I am sorry, Father... I might have been wrong."
"Well, it is fine," Drake said. "Though it annoys me a little that you listen more to your husband than your own father, but... well, thank you, Gustaf. Thank you, Louis."
"I am glad we could finally talk her out of such insane ideals..." Gustaf sighed. "I believe she has been kind enough. More than that is excessive... Thus, evacuating the population from Earth is the only sane option for now. And that does not mean we will abandon the world, Benladra."
"We will save it, but by evacuating everyone, we can make sure they are safe," Louis added. "That is all, really. Plain and simple, Mother."
"...I understand. Very well, let us do that then," Benladra said. As the founder and queen of Frostbane and the Holy Dragon Mother Goddess of Earth, she ultimately had the final say in everything, as she was widely seen as the guardian and ruler of the planet.
"Good! We can finally move on," the Dragon King stood up with a wide smile. "Louis, help me out, will you? It should not take too long to teleport everyone. We will move them to Drakeheart, to a small town I have already built for them."
"But are you only going to teleport those in big cities? What about those living in small settlements?" Benladra asked.
"You will help with that. We will scan the planet, pick every soul belonging to a person, and teleport them. We will explain everything to them through telepathy," Drake said. "Alright, let us do this."
It took around half a day to complete. Louis, Drake, and Benladra worked together to mobilize every person from Earth to the safe area the Dragon King had prepared.
They were given all the necessary information and context through telepathy, helping them understand everything quickly.
At the same time, they were all granted access to Yggdrasil's updated Andromeda System, opening new paths for everyone to grow stronger.
Aside from that, Benladra, Louis, and Drake, with the help of many others, moved the people to their temporary settlements. With the assistance of hundreds working under Drake, the Earthlings were introduced to Yggdrasil and more.
Drake used his power to evolve every person so they would no longer die from Fantasium Poisoning, and he elevated their strength as well, mostly because there was no other choice. He did not overdo it, however, since this population would eventually be moved back to Earth.
For now, natives from Yggdrasil were allowed to visit the new settlement, but only under strict rules. Earthlings were not permitted to leave. The territories of the Kingdom of Frostbane, Camelot, Yamato, and Mesopotamia were all relocated into this settlement, forming a closed Fantasy Realm that held them all together. Louis merged them with the farmlands he had saved, allowing Timothy to finally reunite with his family and especially his dear sister.
Louis was still worried about the Dimensional Labyrinth. He watched it from the skies as the black hole relentlessly tried to devour the planet. Within the planet's core lay an incredibly powerful source of energy that could even rival Yggdrasil's greatest treasures. Drake had described it as a "True Planet Soul," something only Earth possessed.
The Dimensional Labyrinth did not merely want to absorb Earth. It desired to devour this Soul and gain even greater power.
At dinner in Frostbane Castle, Louis was told the truth about the Dimensional Labyrinth by his grandfather.
"In simple terms, the Dimensional Labyrinth is a powerful multidimensional organism," the King explained. "A living being."
"It is alive?!" Louis gasped. "So that is why it seems so gluttonous? But how... is this possible?"
"They existed before I was even born, or before Yggdrasil," Drake explained. "The Dimensional Labyrinth is just a name. These organisms... I learned about them when I sent an Avatar beyond the boundaries of this Reality and into others. I landed in a certain Dimension where beings that called themselves Traxians, made completely out of living crystals, lived."
"...What does that have to do with this?" Louis asked, confused.
"Have you ever heard something regarding... Fantasy as some kind of 'cancer' to this universe, Louis?" the King asked after drinking some wine.
"...!" Louis recalled the Fairy King always repeating that. "Maybe..."
"Fantasy, the Supernatural, and all things that rewrite the laws of physics were born from an Ancient Singularity created by the First Humans of Prime Earth," Drake explained. "From there, the first Traxian breached into our Dimension and was called the Scarlet Queen."
"...!" Louis vaguely recalled such a name, but the revelation was even more shocking. "Prime Earth?"
"The Earth you are living on, and the ones you have seen through Fantasy Fields, Realms, or the Labyrinth itself, are all parallels to the Prime Earth. They are failed attempts at recreating it by Oblivion," Drake explained. "The Earth you inhabit is the last one he has made, the newest, around the twenty-three-thousandth."
"?!" Everyone was left speechless, except for those who already knew the truth, such as Benladra and Gustaf.
"Now, what does this have to do with anything? The birth of Fantasy was through an accident," Drake continued. "The first contact with the Traxian that breached into our dimension did not go well for those scientists. It completely swallowed Prime Earth and began to consume all life, deeming humanity too dangerous because they had created the technology to open Quantum Gates capable of creating paths outside of Reality. She believed that if humanity had been allowed to thrive with such technology, they would eventually become Reality-conquering tyrants. She thought the human heart was simply too corrupted to ever be trusted with such power."
"..."
"Humanity, in their last hope, created Project Yggdrasil," Drake smiled. "The largest tree of this world... and the mother of Fantasy. They used the very components that made the Crimson Queen—her crystals, capable of altering and devouring matter—and transformed them into something that would aid humanity: the first Fantasy Tree. After managing to escape from Prime Earth, the first Fantasy Tree settled in the middle of the cosmos, absorbing radiation and materials for trillions of years until it grew large enough to begin its process of creation. While carrying humanity's wish for survival, their legacy, and everything else... the first glimpse of Fantasium was created, and unknowingly, the Fantasium Dimension was also born somewhere else within this vast Existence."
"S-So that is how Fantasium was born?" Mirai wondered.
"It is more complicated than that," Drake explained. "And I am not entirely sure how it all went exactly. I am only explaining what I heard from someone else... Anyway, Fantasium was a special type of 'energy' that held sentience on its own and was capable of altering the laws of physics based on the wielder's emotions, knowledge, and intent. It was the first ever Supernatural Molecule ever born. From there, Yggdrasil created her first two children: Ymir, the Father of Titans, and Tiamat, the Mother of Dragons. Together they built Yggdrasil's Nine Realms, and later the Aesir were also born, the ancestors of Yggdrasil's humans."
"There was a big war afterward and blah, blah, blah," Benladra said. "Let us skip the boring part, Dad. This is all just lame exposition."
"You missed the part where they summoned the Unique Skill Wielders, the first ones ever," Drake said. "Among them were... Pandemonium, Chaos, Oblivion, and Amaterasu. Does it ring any bells? Haha."
"T-They were summoned?" Mirai wondered. "W-Why? Wait, how?"
"The Aesir were at war against dragons and titans in an attempt to take the entire world for themselves," Benladra explained. "It luckily did not go as they planned. Though later we discovered most of it was orchestrated by Loki in his attempt to make all the gods kill each other and end up destroying the world, which almost happened. The First Four Unique Skill Wielders were born with incredible powers and were made to be the ultimate weapons of destruction that would turn the tables against the Aesir. Oblivion once served the Aesir, I believe. It was also because he was born that Souls were created in the world. Before him, every living being was soulless. Interesting, right?"
"H-Huh?" Louis was shocked. "He... created souls?! What?!"
"He is the strongest of the Four and the only one that remains as he was when summoned. The more time he spent living, the more his powers evolved endlessly," Drake said. "I once thought he was our ally, but I was wrong... I almost committed a terrible mistake by accepting his help, and only managed to escape his influence after I destroyed the power he gifted to me and, with Andromeda's help, remade it entirely."
"Oblivion... he is the one who has been aiming to kill me this entire time," Louis said. "Why... just why does he want that?!"
"We are not completely aware of that," Drake said. "We will need to discuss these things further... but you possess something he really wants."
"The Heart of Time, right?" Mirai wondered.
"..."
"Heart of Time? So that is the source of that power?" Drake wondered. "Huh... I did not explain everything completely, but you get the gist of it, right? Fantasy by itself is a cancerous power born from here as a last hope to remake humanity, which ended in the failure of the Aesir, who died along with the ancient dragons and titans, and almost destroyed Yggdrasil. This gave birth to the new Yggdrasil, where all realms merged and where the gods' corpses served as the building pillars."
"Woah, woah, that is a lot of important info!" Timothy said. "Your Highness, please do not explain it so casually..."
"Fine, we are doing this the slow way," the King sighed.
He spent the next hour explaining everything in fine detail until everyone finally understood better what he had said, from Fantasium's origins to how it correlated with what Louis had been experiencing. In that moment, Louis realized that what he had been suffering and the grudge Oblivion held against him were related to an ancient war—one in which he had not even been born yet.
"At some point there was a Prime Timeline? That is new," the Dragon King said, rubbing his chin. "And... you... you stopped him?! I... I have seen through many Timelines with my powers, but I guess I never really dug that deep, truth be told... but yes, there is something I noticed. A 'wound' across the Flow of Time that has always existed for as long as I can remember."
"Always?!" Louis asked.
"Yeah..." the Dragon King nodded. "Probably..."
"Probably that means that at some point Time itself was wounded and it led to this division of timelines?" Benladra wondered. "Haaa... well, what help is this going to give us anyway? It is not like knowing such a thing will help Louis."
"No, it would help, but you are not wrong, Mother. It is not like we can figure out the truth right now either," Louis said. "We will have to find out on our own once we confront him... and his dogs."
"...So we are really fighting Oblivion then?" Benladra wondered, remaining silent. "Is this... the correct thing to do, Father?"
"We have not even gotten the full gist of it all, but if that bastard will continue trying to kill my grandson, then there is no helping it," the Dragon King said. "Nonetheless, we will need a lot of preparations. Also... I suppose we can now talk about the Dimensional Labyrinth and the ancient species of multidimensional beings it belongs to. A species of beings so ancient that even the Traxians fear and worship them as gods, which I believe... might have been 'tamed' or 'enslaved' by Oblivion."
"W-What?" Louis asked. "What is it then, Grandfather?"
"They are merely called 'Precursors'," Drake explained. "In my brief visit to the Dimensions Beyond Reality, I was able to listen to some of the tales of the oldest Traxians and learned about the Precursors. Immensely ancient, primordial lifeforms that swallow dimensions within their vast stomachs to slowly digest them. In the process of digestion, the dimensions are melded into what you know as the Dimensional Labyrinth."
"Huh?!" Everyone was left speechless.
Louis had even explored that place more than once, and the Dimensional Rifts that always led to parts of it were also a thing!
"W-Wait, you mean that when I go inside there, this whole time we have been walking inside the stomach of another creature?!" Radiohead could hardly keep silent anymore, buzzing everywhere.
"That is correct, but remember, they are so immense that it is incredibly hard to even discern they are a living organism," the Dragon King said. "And the time they take to digest their food is... eons. It can take the birth and end of entire universes."
"To think such a being is trying to swallow Earth. Why?" Louis asked. "And what about the Dimensional Rifts?!"
"You can consider the rifts as enzymes it spreads over its food, which slowly expand and allow it to swallow its meal by infusing it with its energies," Drake explained. "From there, if it succeeds and the enzyme is not killed, that part of the world will turn into a Fantasy Field, already part of its stomach and in the process of digestion as matter slowly decays into cosmic and primordial energies it uses to exist."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone was left speechless after hearing the truth. This entire time they had been inside the process of being digested. To such a powerful and immense being as a Precursor, they were nothing but food. No matter how much they fought, it would eventually prove pointless.
"Why Earth?" Louis asked again.
"It is not just Earth. The Precursor has taken a liking to Fantasium and is devouring it greedily. Earth is only the appetizer. Its maws are rapidly spreading here, and into Spiritias and Zipangu," Drake said, drinking some more wine. "However... indeed, it takes a long time for it to fully swallow something and place it inside its stomach to begin its incredibly slow digestion... However, something—or someone—has stimulated the Precursor to do it quickly."
"What is the goal of this thing beyond eating?" Louis asked.
"Goal? I am not even sure if they have that much intelligence," Drake said. "They simply eat to live, the same way any other animal does. In such a context, can you really blame them? Of course it is still... a valuable part of the ecosystem of the Multiverse. As I have learned from the Traxian Elders, Precursors digest Worlds, Galaxies, Universes, and Dimensions as they grow older, and at the same time... well, they poop out new ones."
"What?" Benladra's eyebrows twitched. "T-They poop...?"
"We are all adults here. There is no need to act like it is something weird that what comes in through the mouth goes out from the other end, right?" the Dragon King sighed, shaking his head. "It is a natural process of nature."
"...I guess," Louis sighed. "So it devours matter and then transforms it into new matter, specifically astral objects and universes... to produce new ones. Almost like... like it is cleaning and creating new things for the universe? So strange, but... at the same time, it reminds me of the Venerable we slew with Mirai. Remember? The Gluttonous one."
"Oh yes, I remember that thing!" Mirai nodded. "It also could devour everything and then create a 'waste product' that would contain Fantasium."
"That is Oblivion's jaws. I did sense his death," Drake said. "He will likely find a new one soon. The same as his eyes—I bet he has already found a new candidate..."
"What?!" Louis and Mirai were left speechless, realizing that Oblivion might never have been greatly affected by their victory.
"The Venerables represent Oblivion's body parts, which he has spread across the Universe and the Timelines, most likely," Drake said. "His eyes and his mouths will not remain gone forever... but perhaps this is why it is important to strike back quickly."
"..."
"You were asking what Entities and Grievances are, right? And the Fantasium Dimension? Well, we do not know much about it, unfortunately," Drake said. "Years of investigating this thing and still nothing. The Fantasium Dimension was born when Fantasy was created, but that is about it."
"You never explored it?" Louis asked.
"No. Would you believe if I told you it is harder to locate than making a portal leading outside of this Reality?" the Dragon King sighed. "Absolutely nuts. It is as if it does not even work like the rest of the Universe or Reality. This Dimension has its own sentience, similar to Precursors... I have a theory though, one we made with my daughter Kate, your aunt... The moment Fantasy was born as an element, the Fantasium Dimension was birthed by our Universe, or perhaps the whole Reality we inhabit..."
"W-What do you mean, Your Majesty?" Mirai asked.
"...The Fantasium Dimension might be a young Precursor. Perhaps... even the child of the one devouring us." Drake's words lingered heavily in the air before he closed his eyes and smiled. "But we have talked enough and it has gotten quite late, right? We can continue discussing what we will do tomorrow. I am well aware you are all tired, and you too, my grandson. Rest in your home for now. Spend time with your family, your friends, and your girlfriend. Then, in a few more days, we can continue talking. You are all hereby invited to the Drakeheart Castle."
"What? But is this fine? Aren't we in a dire situation?" Louis asked. He did not want to admit how exhausted he felt, especially his soul.
"In Yggdrasil, time passes much faster than in the other worlds," the Dragon King said. "So worry not. We will explain things later. Rest, Louis. You have done enough. Earth, or at least its people, is safe."
"..." Louis remained silent for a moment but then nodded, deciding to take a break after everything. "You are... you are right. Thank you."
Since he had left the Dungeon, he had not taken any real rest, moving from one fight to another. The moment Louis walked back to his room, he collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep immediately.
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