Freyd

"Morgiana," Freyd spoke, but with Ali's face and voice. "Listen to me. Hone your focus. Stay to the task at hand. See what they have become and do not trust them." "Thanks for the boost, my friend," he added, nodding to Hirru before resuming his assault. "No point in taking chances. Let's improve our odds a little bit, shall we?" The ribbons of infinite void wrapped around his hands dematerialized instantly, replaced by another set clad in an unnerving violet haze that trailed vaporous wisps behind it as it moved. The weapon's very nature seemed to be at odds with existence itsel

Listening to Hirru speak to Morgiana, Freyd could understand how it was that the vice-commander had come to the past decisions that had caused him so much grief. It was admirable that he made the effort to reach out to certain mobs as people. Few bothered with such effort, or were willing to consider doing so in the first place. Would that something could be done for Jathoom and Qarinah as well. The quest gave no real explanation for their demonic transformations, providing only the expectation that they be decimated. Such was the prize given to Cardinal's pawns. "I've got this. Let

"It's a shoreline, or a river bank if you prefer." Freyd added sarcastically while pointing at the soupy stillness the Stygian, that might as well have been made of pudding for all the flow the thing ever demonstrated. "Can't you tell?" His grin tried but failed to materialize. "Ugh... this sucks," he added, wiping the edges of his lips with the few parts of his right sleeve that weren't otherwise covered in collateral gunk from the battle. "Turning everything off just feels so much easier by comparison. How do people actually deal with all of this?" Coming from anyone else, it migh

"Predates my own, as well. I've been active since the 11th floor unlocked, but only fought on the front since the 18th. I didn't even go above the eleventh floor until then." "I'd love to hear those stories someday. History gives a lot of context that many of us prefer to overlook or forget. We have too many floors left to go to start losing our memories and forgetting the lessons paid for in blood." Though the words were dour, Freyd's tone was surprisingly optimistic. He'd always thought of himself as the sharp and bloodied tip of the spear, but recent events had forced him to reth

"WE'RE FIGHTING MARV?!" Freyd never managed to get in a response before Katoka tagged the mob so hard that it was sent careening along the shore, even through solid stone. "Wow... you really have come into your own. Nice hit." Watching the battered form of his first friend in Aincrad laying beaten and shattered amidst a pile of dregs and flotsam on the shore, a pang of something caught in his throat. He'd plowed through Marv before under such circumstances. Last time it had been a quartet of Marvs splintered and spawned from his own escaped gemini, hunting it through the

As the final blow was cocked and ready to release, a change came over Freyd's figure once more, his face still buried deep beneath the charcoal softness of the cowl. In one instant his clothing loosened into a cloak tinged crimson with blood, a glint of light reflecting on vitrous surfaces within. Then, shifting to patterned cerulean blue, his stature shrunk be speed increased to blazing intensity. In the same moment, locks of verdant hair flowed loose over pointed ears and the lilt of distant carefree laughter broke through the din of battle. Blazing fury of gold scented with honey, came

"ENOUGH!" Malevolence swelled and burst with dark power, sending Freyd flying like a rag doll and impaling him on a number of jagged crystals on the far side of the geode, broken during the course of their combat. Drawing all of its remaining vestiges together, Shadow pulled back to deliver its pounding strike, driving its giant fist into Freyd's face and burying him in a grave of razor blades. "Ha! Hahahaha! That's more like it!" Stupidly strutting around and thrusting his junk forward like some hormone addled adolescent, Shadow's pitfall had always been an over-abundance of ego. O

Like mirror images the two figures matched each other blow for blow, each kata predicted and paired by its counterpart with total perfection. "You can't win, Takeshi. You're only human. You will grow weak and tired. I am relentless. I AM INEVITAB--- Ackkk.... *cough*.... hurkkk.." "You talk too much," Freyd replied, having delivered a quick slash to the throat while his opponent drifted into the age old trap of monologuing. "And Takeshi is long gone." Confusion furrowed the figment's blazing eyes. Could it have misjudged or misread? What was this thing that it was actuall

Where only one was revealed, suddenly a dozen more sprang from the first. Freyd had used the very same trick to distract and confused, and wasn't fooled in the slightest. Despite their shifting forms, he found the target he sought and struck straight at the chest and heart. An equal number of Freyds appeared in silhouette all around as he matched figment for figment and turned the trick against its user. His blow met substance, where his opponent's went wide. The Whisper bore a Cheshire grin of satisfaction on his face as half the enemies shades disappeared with his blow. "So that'

All the while that Freyd and the disembodied voice had been speaking, Persi had been on the prowl. Her nose had an uncanny knack for finding and rooting out everything from field bosses, to dungeon bosses, and even raid bosses. This one was a special case, and she had encountered his scent before. Somehow, she sensed where the right swirl of vapours had gathered and pounced at the critical moment, denying Malevolence its ambush and driving its straight into Freyd waiting strike. The cloud lurched away, gathering into the form of a gangly, lanky boy, perhaps just a few years younger than Fr

"Change, you say?" The voice was masculine, but sounded hollow like it was being projected into the geode's void from elsewhere. "Oh, I know all about change. So many times have I changed myself, and all for the betterment of this world. And what have I gotten in return? Scorn. Hatred. Disdain. You're all too kind!" The speaker cackled madly, breaking pitch and sounding ominously familiar to Freyd. "So what are you supposed to be," Freyd taunted, "the thing Shadow shat out before he died? Are you the Sauron's anus of Malevolence, is that it? Because we've dealt with you before-

Two giant forms bearing horned heads and eyes like twin orbs of liquid fire stepped forth from the roiling mists. Each hefted a smoking battle axe in its hands, the haft of which alone was longer than Freyd was tall. If these were meant to be his champion friend, he could not make out the distinction. Too much detail was obscured. "Have you come to pay homage at the altar, pilgrim?" They spoke in unison, but with strangely calm reverence given their appearance. "Have you come to pay homage," They asked again, firmly and in a sterner tone this time. "Depends, I guess. Who w

The swarm fell upon him like a flood, gnashing and gnawing as it sought to grasp and weigh him down to drag him into its depths. 'So this is what it felt like,' he realized, fathoming for the first time what those outside the raid must have experienced. Countless mouths and claws ripped and tore at him, gouging flesh wherever they could find it, but to little actual avail. In the instant that he realized the absence of a serious threat, the ink turned itself back to vapour and dissipated, withdrawing to the outer portions of the chamber where it resisted the natural urge to fall. Shadows n

Expecting the surface to be dry and rough, Freyd was surprised to find it slick and inky instead, like a think, viscous soup that pulled at his fingertips like a current and scooped him up to bring along for the ride. Swirling lights dominated his vision, glaring and overwhelming his sensations, as if staring at the sun too long. When the field of dots and blemishes vanished, only a dim violet haze remained, like standing at the edge of a penumbra. This was a place between light and darkness, on the very edge of being shadow itself. Nothing moved or made any sounds. By what little he coul

"You know the danger. It must not be permitted to return." There was real passion in Orgoth's voice as he spoke, perhaps even a little fear. The champion had suffered untold horrors at the hands of the malevolent raid boss. Freyd knew very little of him prior to that point, but had heard he'd played a crucial role in allowing the frontliners to escape from the Labyrinth guardian battle. "We know the danger," Freyd rephrased. "It must not be permitted to return." Paroting the words, he couldn't help but think of how much functionality and control he'd gained over his own shadow since

"There is another matter we should discuss, if you will permit it." Orgoth's tone had become much more serious and quieted substantially, especially given his size. "Entering the Labyrinth still seems to bring with it some of his taint, for those of us sensitive to it. There is a ritual that can be performed to help cleanse you after your passage, but it is harrowing. I know that you touched a part of him, in the raid. It was part of what helped set me free. We both know the consequences, should any part of him still linger within us, or be allowed to escape the confines of the maze."

The sounds of metal grinding against metal and stone filled the air around them, coming from up ahead. Light streamed down the passageway framed by the form of a familiar, large minotaur standing guard. Not willing to look a gift... bull?... in the mouth, Freyd made his way promptly to the opening and nodded in thanks at Orgoth as he breached the threshold. "That didn't take long. Did you just run away from it?" The beast-man's eyes twinkled with jest. "No, I didn't just run away," Freyd snipped back at him jovially. "I had him in pieces within seconds. Have a bit of faith!"

Rounding another corner as they gave chase, Freyd jumped to perform a full parcour climb, bouncing back and forth from the adjacent walls to be left clinging between them thirty feet up when the hunters came after. Falling like a stone, he crashed right into the goblin and flattened him and his mount in a single blow, then rolled off to the side to break his fall. Beast and rider staggered, too dazed to figure out which way was up and were soon finished off for their trouble. Persi sat aloofly aside, grooming herself and admitting nothing about the skill which her lummox may or may not have

Another howl echoed off the impossibly high walls of the maze as a second rider whipped around the corner to spot the last dregs of its companions showering the floor at Freyd's feet. "Uh... would you believe that I found them like this?" He grinned and shrugged. They charged. Preferring confusion, Freyd did exactly the opposite to their expectations and ran straight towards them, screaming like a maniac as he did so. The warg seemed hesitant and momentarily lost its speed, long enough for Persi to streak past and scratch its nose. Yelping in surprise, it rear, allowing enough of an

Sidestepping by instinct, the massive mutt's maw snapped shut on nothing but air while Freyd kicked the nearest leg out from underneath it with a sickening crunch. Equally startled, the goblin rider on the warg's back flailed and failed to grip his saddle or the mangy beast's coarse fur and fell off to the side only the be crushed beneath his own mount's weight. A quick booted stomp made sure to finish the job, even as Freyd punched the teetering target in its nearest widened eye for its trouble, the bulk of its remaining form crumpling into glittery dust an instant later. "At least I k

He'd barely had time to regain his footing when the first of the howls started echoing off the walls. Wolves, wargs, or some other variety of canine threat was surely heading his way. Rushing for the door he'd where he'd first entered, he found nothing but smooth stone. "Yeah. That figures. The way in is never the way out." Crouching low and avoiding any more loss of time, Freyd darted along the shadowed wall in search of another exit. Soon enough, the baying of the hounds fell behind and he allowed himself a slower pace. There was no sense exhausting himself needlessly. As expec

Ricocheting off the wall opposite from which he'd just bounced, Freyd drove himself fist-first into the warden's back. A gigantic pulse of light and force erupted the moment the two made contact, throwing both combatants in opposite directions. Freyd slammed into the same wall from which he'd just launched himself, the wind leaving his lungs in a hurry. His target got the worst of it, the thing's torso have ruptured on the far side and sprayed its motes through a newly created hole in the labyrinth wall on the far side. The rest of the titan was already starting to decay, its core having b

Rolling to a stop against the far wall, Freyd instantly leapt into action by pouncing onto the thing's colossal arm and racing up towards its head. A satisfying grin spread across his face as he climbed and the screeching keening of his weapon split the silent gloom of the maze. A single passing swipe caught the juggernaut's head on its left side, smashing and eating it away including one of its eyes. A hand that might have been meant to grab him pawed at the missing portion of its skull instead, poking and prodding as it attempting to process why its vision was so suddenly impaired. F

All limbered and ready for a sprint, Freyd rushed in the moment the gates open only to run headlong into a wall of solid metal blocking his path. Tumbling sideways to avoid the worst of the impact, he rolled a few times before righting himself in a crouch and glancing up to figure out what he'd just run into. It was a giant metal humanoid, with veins of molten metal running between the titanium plates. "Wait. What? HERE!? But, I've barely set a foot inside!" Behind it, only visible for a moment as the entry doors shut to lock him in, a wide-eyed Orgoth stared, stupified at the

He'd deliberately avoided returning to floor 25 for some time after concluding the raid against Shadow. Its traumas were still too fresh in many ways. The din of pleas and cries still rang out in his mind many months later. Faces lost in a flood of inky blackness and the mocking voice of a deluded would-be god were its accompaniment. The Whisper's eyes still flinched when recalling Elora's face flashed by, only to be washed away with the others. But there was a mysterious mob within the maze that had been causing consternation. The few who still foolishly delved inside in search of loot