A cloying, almost overpowering presence seeped out of the Soul Prison, wrapping itself around Lenore and me, the two of us separate once more. The presence was faintly familiar and I intellectually knew it was the Nidhögg, free of its prison thanks to our efforts, but that knowledge and familiarity didn’t help too much. Every instinct in my body, every coherent thought, screamed a warning at me, quivering in fear of the incredibly powerful predator.

For a moment, I couldn’t even think, let alone breathe and only by closing my eyes, focusing inwards while the protective embrace of Sigmir wrapped around myself, emanating from the crystal set in my forehead, I could regain some measure of coherence. Forcing in a single breath with all my will, I pushed past the oppressive fear and overwhelming presence.

“Greetings, oh Dark One,” I greeted, my voice shaking and far from steady but at least I had managed to speak.

“Greetings, oh Ice Queen,” a voice replied, coming from all around me. There was amusement in that voice, but also a faint trace of gratitude and an underlying current of power.

“You have my gratitude and will be rewarded,” the voice continued, as I noticed a sensation intruding over my bond to Ylva, “But the details of your reward will have to wait. Your actions have not gone unnoticed and there are some who seek to strike against us, even now.”

I could feel the presence retreat, pausing for a moment as if considering where to go and suddenly, I felt a sense of pressure on the Astral Power Siphon we had used to infuse the Soul Prison. I had crafted enough constructs to realise that it was similar, only so much more powerful, to their attempts at infusing my constructs, only that the Nidhögg could do so without my consent. Given that I still wanted to work with it, I let my control over the Siphon fade, though I kept control over the Throne and Tower. These were mine and none would take them from me.

With my control over the Siphon fading, I could see a few tendrils of darkness coming from the crack in the Soul Prison, wrapping around the Siphon and infusing it, the previously silvery-blue crystal rapidly turning black. While the Siphon was infused with the Nidhögg’s presence, that presence around Lenore and me faded, allowing me to perceive the outside world once again and that was when I realised what the Nidhögg might have meant.

Cracking the Soul Prison had taken hours, all throughout the night and well into the day and from the sounds I could hear, the Frozen Citadel had been attacked some time around dawn. I could feel that some of my constructs had been destroyed and the outer wall breached, much to my annoyance. Heavily sitting down on my Throne, I spread my awareness outwards, taking in the state of my domain.

To my surprise, it wasn’t an elven, or even a Valkyrie, force that had broken into the citadel proper, but it was an incredibly diverse force, of pretty much every race I had heard about and some I had not. What’s more, there were both Daimons and Valkyries, the two races supposedly eternal enemies, and I could even see a Naga, despite being about as far from the sea as one could get.

Something wasn’t adding up and the only explanation my exhausted mind could come up with what that I wasn’t looking at a force of natives but a force of Travellers. How they had managed to get something like forty people to cooperate, travel into the depths of the Mountains of Ice and work together long enough to reach, and breach, my citadel was a complete mystery but somehow, they had done just that.

Despite my exhaustion, a grin started to spread across my face, genuine happiness at some Travellers challenging the defences I had set up. I was curious how they would fare, the whole thing an interesting, magical experiment, even as I felt the Nidhögg’s presence radiate outward, from the Siphon it had occupied.

It was much akin to a black sun rising, a palpable sense of power spread across the valley and the noon-sun high above suddenly didn’t seem to be quite as bright any longer. As if the world had put on a set of shades. If nothing else, the dark presence gave me an intense feeling of security, as if I was suddenly concealed from a dangerous foe that had been staring at me, allowing me to relax, protected by the powerful predator.

“This is different,” I mused, looking at the exhausted Lenore next to me. “What do you think just happened?”

“We are being shielded, it’s similar to the concealment you sometimes weave, only so much more,” she replied, sounding both awed and curiously relaxed, given that there still was a hostile force fighting the few Wargs and Nevermores we had in our citadel, a force that had just attacked another of the Ice Collosi I had created. It would take them hours, if not an entire day to climb to the top of my tower, but that didn’t mean I could just ignore them.

Or could I?

I considered for a moment, whether I should simply strike against them and likely annihilate them with the overwhelming might of the Nexus or if I should leave them be. In some ways, I wanted to leave them be, to let them enjoy their last hoorah, before I cut off their hope. At the end of the day, they had already lost, they just didn’t know yet. The Nidhögg was freed and while I had yet to get my rewards, the dark presence shrouding the valley as it drew Astral Power from the Nexus was my victory. I had managed the impossible, I had spat into the face of the Gods and that, alone, should give me some rewards.

But it wasn’t enough, not if I wanted to reunite with Sigmir.

The next step was to wait for the Heroes, before letting them fight me for a bit and, once I grew bored, I would disable them in proper Villain-fashion and allow them to watch me destroy the world. For that, I already had a few ideas, now that I didn’t need the power of the Nexus to weaken the Nidhögg’s Prison but I would have to discuss things with the Dragon at some point.

Amusingly, that meant, for now, I actually could relax, focus on regaining the strength I had spent to destroy the Soul Prison and wait until my intrepid challengers managed to reach the top of the tower if they ever managed. While the challenges I had set up were not impossible, they also weren’t trivial. Hopefully, it would make for good entertainment.

Sitting back on my throne, I let myself fall into a trance, my body completely relaxed, my mind immersed in the Astral River, the existence of the Black Sun above me allowing me to feel safe in a completely different manner the comfort provided by Sigmir had let me feel. It was a curious distinction, one that I couldn’t quite describe, maybe one was a personal connection and the other was one towards something greater. Just like some people were fiercely loyal to their nation of birth, taking pride in belonging to that nation and being sheltered by it, I could take refuge under the Black Sun projected by the Nidhögg.

“Some would call it Faith, my love,” Sigmir’s voice reminded me and, when I looked around, I realised I was once more lying on the familiar mountainside, with her holding me in her embrace from behind.

“Is it, though? I don’t believe in the Nidhögg, no more than I would believe in the ground beneath my feet. I feel and see the Nidhögg’s presence and the shelter it provides,” I replied, not quite sure if Faith was the right concept.

“You believe that the presence will shelter you. You feel that its presence is more comfortable than the light of Sunna. Yet, neither is a statement of true knowledge, is it? So, why not call it Faith?” she asked, making me humm in acknowledgement. Maybe I was believing in the Nidhögg, but given the circumstances, it was more akin to a belief of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Even if that wasn’t necessarily true, in my circumstances, I only needed the enemy of my enemy to be my enemy’s enemy. Though I wouldn’t say no to being allied with a gigantic, primordial dragon of Darkness, Death and Poison.

“Maybe I do believe. Just as I believe that we will reunite,” I smiled, letting my mind fade from her wonderful, soothing embrace and return to Mundus, leaving the dream we shared.

Looking around, I realised that only a few minutes had passed and now, the intruders had destroyed the Ice Colossus they had been fighting and were moving on to the Main Gates. Right into the Simulacrum, I had set to wait there.

With a grin on my face, I merged my mind into the frozen Figure, looking forward to give my visitors a more personal challenge.