A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Simultaneously, in another dimension, a woman lay on a bed, her eyes closed in apparent sleep. Long, light brown hair cascaded down her back, flanked by two prominent horns. Beneath these, long, furry ears protruded, twitching occasionally.

Suddenly, her eyes—a striking light brown—snapped open. "Eira!" she exclaimed, shooting upright in bed, her eyes wide with a dawning panic.

She clutched her head and groaned, her eyes clouded with confusion. "Argh, my head... Why did I wake up? It's too soon; I haven't fully recovered yet!"

Yet, as soon as she uttered the words, she remembered her exclamation from when she had woken up. "Wait…! Eira! Something's wrong!" she exclaimed again, in a panic.

She leapt from the bed, her towering height of over 2.2 meters (~7'2.5") lending her an imposing presence. As she moved, her disheveled attire hinted at the powerful physique beneath, each movement marked by an urgent grace. Her large horns and alert ears framed a face marked by determination and panic.

Her long, thin tail whipped behind her as she staggered to a console-like structure, its surface alive with glowing sigils.

Frantically manipulating the sigils, she soon cried out in frustration, "No! Why can't I make contact with Eira anymore? What happened at the harbinger's base?"

———————

At the same time, back in Eira's core room, the previously light brown connections were quickly being reformed, except this time, they were dark green.

At the same time, Erik's armor was flickering with light as Eira's core was slowly familiarizing itself with the new environment.

Erik looked a little confused at the difference in speed. Elora had previously put that green core into the armor and made it work within seconds, after all. "Why does it seem so slow compared to before?" he wondered curiously.

Elora eyed the flickering core, weariness etching her features. "Eira isn't merely a machine; she houses a mind, which is currently struggling to synchronize with a new home," she muttered, more to herself than to Erik. "Unlike my artificial core, which is merely an interface, devoid of such struggles."

A few moments later, Eira's core was still busy bonding with his armor but the core room they were in was already flashing a dark green, indicating that Elora's fake core had taken control of the structure they were in.

Now in full control of the structure, Elora and Erik both heaved sighs of relief

Elora's sigh was interrupted by a heavy yawn, however. After it was done, she blinked slowly, and mumbled, "Okay… I'll worry about all the functions of this place later… I need sleep."

But just as she prepared to merge with Erik's body for some well-deserved rest, a ripple coursed through the room, causing Elora's eyes to snap open in alarm.

———————

Back in the other dimension, the woman's cry was still echoing through her room, when contact with the harbinger's base was suddenly restored.

"W— What?" she blinked. "She's back!"

However, when she looked closer, she quickly noticed that everything had changed. "That… That's not Eira's mind, that's… an artificial core?!" she cried out, before activating another sigil and screaming into it, "Who the hell are you?! Where's my Eira?! And how did you get past the defenses?! "

———————

Elora cried out, clutching her head as a loud female voice boomed through her mind, igniting a splitting headache that felt as though it would tear her skull apart. Even Erik, connected by their link, heard a muffled version of that voice.

"Crap!" he exclaimed, "Is that Audumla?!" He quickly took Elora's small body in his hands and looked around cautiously for any changes.

Meanwhile, Elora quickly noticed that the owner of that voice possessed a soul vastly more powerful than her own, and it was quickly worming its way inside her. This caused her to continue screaming as pain wracked her mind, but she was too exhausted and in pain to do anything.

Erik noticed what was happening and quickly sat down in a lotus position before concentrating on his bond with Elora to help her resist whatever was happening. Stay tuned for updates on mvl

In less than a second he managed to force his own mind between that of Elora and the source of whatever this was, causing him to take on all the pain, but also allowing Elora to clear her mind.

Erik roared as pain now wracked his mind, but thanks to his protection, no more than a second after the voice first sounded, Elora managed to leverage her control of the structure into permanently severing any and all connections to the outside.

But, immediately after, she fainted from a mixture of exhaustion and pain.

———————

As the connection severed, Audumla's cry of rage echoed through the room. "Dammit! Who the hell is doing this? Who on Earth even has this capability?"

Audumla felt a surge of panic clutch her heart, memories of past losses flashing through her mind. Steeling herself, she muttered, 'No, not again. I won't let it end this way,' channeling her fear into a fierce resolve to rescue Eira.

She closed her eyes and focused on whatever information she was able to gather from the other side before the connection was closed. Almost immediately, her eyes flew open again as she growled, "A fairy?! Here?! How?!"

Quickly activating another sigil, a map of Earth was suddenly projected in front of her, with several glowing points of interest on it. She was only interested in one, however, and quickly zoomed in on the one far in the north, at the edge of Scandinavia.

As she zoomed closer, several much smaller lights started appearing all around the map, until she zoomed in close enough that only the far northern light and its empty surroundings were shown. "Nothing there now…" she mumbled furiously, "but that makes sense, what about the last few months?"

She manipulated the sigil again, and this time, six small lights suddenly appeared on the screen. Audumla opened her eyes wide, "There! And that is… the Harbinger?!" For a moment, she was stunned into silence, momentarily forgetting everything that happened, before a wide smile appeared on her face.

"It worked! He's back! That cranky old bastard did it!" she exclaimed, but quickly lost her enthusiasm and smile when she noticed one of the other lights, "And there's the fairy… Fuck! Don't tell me my harbinger has been enslaved?! What else can go wrong?!"

"Well, whatever!" she exclaimed, her fury undiminished, "I must save Eira and that fool of a harbinger! I may not know my exact location, but it's irrelevant. This world is small enough for me to reach my destination and return in less than a minute... surely they won't detect me so quickly?"

Despite her words, her voice was unsure. She knew it didn't work that way. Even a second outside would alert her enemies of her location. So a conflicted expression appeared on her face.

But in the end, she decided she didn't care. She shook her head, and mumbled, "No! It doesn't matter. I won't let Eira die! Not again! Even if I have to give up on Earth and the old man!"

She stormed off to the entrance of her dimension, but before she could leave, one of the sigils on the console made a noise, and she halted in her steps.