In a flash of crimson light, Audrey vanished .. leaving Frey completely alone.
What she did was supposed to be a warning... a desperate attempt to pull Frey out of the darkness and give him at least a glimpse of the hidden truths of the world he knew nothing about.
But the result was the opposite.
Her words didn’t guide him ..they shattered him.
"Agaroth kept alive all this ti because I’m the key to breaking his seal...
And Odin ..the most mysterious among the Great Ones ..is actually a catastrophe on the sa level as the Demon King..."
Frey whispered slowly, sinking down onto the cold stone floor beneath him.
"Audrey... what exactly am I supposed to do with this?"
Audrey’s appearance... the way she spoke to him... the emotions reflected in her eyes—none of it belonged to soone eting him for the first ti.
They belonged to soone who knew him.
Soone who knew him deeply.
Without noticing, Frey touched his own lips, replaying the mont as he struggled to make sense of it.
Agaroth.
Odin.
Himself.
And Naless.
There was a connection between these nas ..a thread binding them all together, dragging them inevitably toward the sa collision.
"I’ve only lived twice...
Once as Frey Starlight ..the life I live now...
And once as a normal human who knew nothing about this world...
So how does Audrey know ?"
"What am I missing about myself? What am I... exactly?"
Frey exhaled sharply, frustration and impatience tightening inside him.
His hand moved on its own, pulling out the cold black mask and placing it over his face.
"Answer ... Naless."
The mont he spoke that na ..
Frey’s consciousness fell into darkness.
Down, down... into that familiar abyss where the campfire burned eternally.
His other selves ..fragnts from different points of his life ..sat around the fire as always. Frey ignored them and walked deeper into the darkness, toward the deepest corner of that void.
His power had grown imnsely since the fight with Wisker. And after absorbing Audrey’s aura, his connection with Naless strengthened enough to push past the fog that once blocked him.
A few more steps ..
Then he stopped.
And looked down with a cold expression.
There he was.
The monster feared by countless demons.
Naless sat on a simple chair, bare-chested, barefoot, head lowered. His long white hair mirrored Frey’s exactly, and his face was hidden behind the black tal mask.
Chains lay broken around him ..proof he had freed himself long ago.
Proof he could fight at any mont, take over Frey’s body whenever he wished.
And yet...
He did nothing.
He simply sat in silence, unmoving.
Frey clenched his jaw.
"How long do you plan to sit there?
How long will you keep refusing to move?"
He dropped to one knee, bringing himself to Naless’s eye level .. not that Naless bothered to look up.
"Here.
Try taking my body again.
I won’t resist this ti."
Frey’s voice was deep and calm .. too calm.
"If it’s you, I’m sure you can handle everything.
You’re stronger than .
You understand this world.
No one can manipulate you the way they manipulate ."
"So take it.
Take my body.
Do whatever you want with it.
Just promise one thingn .. save a certain number of people.
Keep them alive."
A strained smile ford on Frey’s lips.
"It’s a good deal, right?
It shouldn’t be difficult for you."
Silence.
Naless sat motionless.
Then .. slowly he raised his head, and his glowing violet eyes finally locked onto Frey.
Frey felt a chill run down his spine.
Then Naless spoke a single word.
"No."
That was it.
One word.
Frey’s expression twisted with anger.
"No?
What do you an no?!"
He tried to grab Naless by the head, but an invisible force stopped him mid-movent.
Still, Frey roared:
"You and your followers forced to beco your vessel!
My life beca hell because of you!
And when I finally offer it to a .. you refuse?!"
"Then tell ... what do you want?!"
His voice echoed through the void, shaking its walls.
"Answer ! naless!"
And at last ..
Naless moved.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
His voice was calm... too calm.
"I... don’t know."
Frey froze.
"...What?"
Naless lifted his hands, staring at them in confusion, fingers trembling slightly.
His aura surged ..wild, unstable ..reminding Frey exactly who he was dealing with.
"I don’t know what’s happening to .
I don’t know why I’m here.
Or what my purpose is."
The legendary king who felt nothing ..
The emotionless being who once viewed the world with perfect detachnt ..
Now clenched his fists.
Hard.
Aura burst outward in a violent shockwave.
"I’ve never felt anything like this before...
These emotions..."
For the first ti in his existence ..
Naless was feeling.
And the strangest part?
These emotions weren’t his.
They belonged to Frey Starlight.
And sohow...
Sohow they were bleeding into Naless.
In other words, Naless began to experience exactly what Frey felt.
"When you suffer... I suffer.
When you grieve... your sorrow bleeds into .
Your joy, your pain .. everything."
Naless spoke in a heavy tone before exhaling quietly.
"I never realized emotions could be this... agonizing.
So loud, so unbearable. They truly are... a curse."
The word curse perfectly captured what Naless saw in Frey’s suffering .. the essence of his human tornt.
"You’ve been there... inside all along."
Frey finally understood .. Naless had been present from the very beginning, witnessing everything: the despair, the rage, the loss. He had lived through Frey’s mories as if they were his own.
Sothing changed within Naless as a result.
Frey’s anguish .. sothing the emotionless king had never known .. awakened a foreign presence inside him.
Possessing emotions made Naless recall his own deeds .. the bloodshed, the ruin, the countless lives he’d taken in his pursuit of knowledge and power.
He was no hero, nor a just ruler.
He was a monster .. one responsible for more deaths than even the Demon King himself.
"Are you... feeling guilt?"
Frey asked. Naless fell silent for a mont before answering softly.
"I don’t know."
He couldn’t na what he was feeling, but it was sothing that had no place in the heart of a being like him.
Frey cald himself, trying to understand.
"Earlier, you said you don’t know why you exist within . What did you an by that?"
If this was ant to be Naless’s resurrection .. a process turning Frey into his vessel then his ignorance didn’t make sense. Frey suspected he was lying... but the mask had no reason to deceive him.
"I don’t know what Gehrman is trying to achieve .. or what his true goal is.
My current mories are limited to what lies inside the mask.
That’s why my existence itself is incomplete."
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