Freyd

Big feels go with this one. 1. Applying Free Skill Respec from Paragon level 25. 2. Applying Cluster of Stars [ID 202751b] to change Samael’s Pride from handwraps to Katana, then appl Nametag [202753b] to change Samael’s Pride description from: Samael’s Pride (T4 Demonic Weapon (MA, Crafted) – Fallen 2, Holy 2) Acquisition ID [167646c] | Roll ID: 168850, 168851, 168852 Between all good and evil, or light and dark, there is a line drawn by the pride of Samael, the fallen angel. It is a line from which said pride fervently hungers to stray and yet paradoxically seeks to sus

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"Thank you sensei." Freyd's usually casual and flippant demeanor always made it more poignant when he chose to be formal. There was weight behind the words, conveying unspoken gratitude for far more than the lessons they had shared. "But, I worry that you might be substituting one type of pain for another," he added, glancing in the direction of the missing sword. She'd know what he meant without the need to make it any more blatant. "And you never answered my earlier question about your past." It was a statement of observation, intended only to provoke more introspection on he

Freyd waited patiently, watching Katoka make her way to the change rooms from the corner of his eyes. Sitting patiently, he turned his gaze back towards the troublesome blade that seemed so bothersome to his adopted sibling. Its features were unchanged. Though no smith, he'd forged its amalgam in ways no steelmonger ever could, wielding the mystic essence inherent to such items as only appraisers could. It was like playing with the soulstuff of items, yet remained relatively unknown given its recent addition as a game feature. "What if I messed something up? Could it be taunting its

Freyd just blinked, dumbfounded at finding himself in the same situation in as many days, both times with Morningstar stumbling into the scene in a similar fashion. "Are you stalking me or something?!" Said in jest, it was nonetheless weirdly coincidental to run into each other twice in as many days in precisely the same place and equal manner. Freyd nearly jumped onto the ceiling, or would have if one existed, at the sound of Acanthus' voice prodding at him from behind. "Who the... you know Omen? And when the heck did you get all growed up?! You were still wearing sharkskin diaper

"Oh good! You're here. Glad you got my message." Freyd walked and talked, snaring Morningstar by the shoulder and guiding him towards the edge of the village, making shit up as he went along. "Look, there's a thing needs doing and it involves hunting down the only reason anyone comes to this godforsaken floor. Ki'Raion's the key, so we've got to take him down ASAP, capiche?" It was pure bullshit, but the Whisper had a talent for spinning a tale that even Morningstar might believe, and the two of them had lived through enough craziness that it was all perfectly plausible. Who neede

The other nearest gemini, her shape solidifying into that of KnightessCiela wailed in anguish as Icingdeath took her partner away. Two other shadowy silhouettes gathered around her, the tips of her fingers clawing against some sort of invisible field that prevented her from reaching either Wulfrin. The one on his knees glanced at her lovingly before collapsing into a pile of fine crystalline dust that was instantly swept up in a gust of wind. Ciela's wails were drowned out by another round of booming thunder, drawing eyes upward as if the sky might choose to fall. And then, nothing. Lo

The gathered gemini stood still and silent, watching their brother suffer the ignominy of defeat, crumpling to his knees with a large chunk of his avatar skin ruptured. Cubic globs of pixelated orange core material bled through, trailing like droplets down on the ground, where they vanished on contact. "Hnng..." One hand reached for the ground to steady itself, its sword fallen unattended too far out of reach in the opposite direction. "I yield!" Wincing at the words more than the injury, Wulfrin could feel his own wounded pride in the thing's eyes, berating itself for having fai

"You're back! Did you find what you were looking for? Ki'Raion is a blessing upon this land..." "Yeah... about that. He kinda died, mysteriously... and very suddenly... before we found anything. So, no, not so much luck on the whole 'go find me some kamalata olives' thing. I still don't really know what she needs them for." "Oh, dear..." The old woman's eyes widened at the prospect that something could slay the legendary mob, dashing her hopes and reason for living. "But... uh... fear not! The beast is resilient and will surely return. I'll gather heroes and set out in s

"How should I know?!" Freyd pinched the bridge of his nose, as people were wont to do in times of stress, though it seemed to offer little reprieve. "Look, she sent me out for olives. Kalamata olives, specifically." "Did you try Olympus? They have a much better climate for that sort of thing." Dark bags under the Whisper's eyes suggested he had. The twitch in their corners confirmed it. "Yes. I tried there. And I agree, they have a better climate in all respects. They all sent me here. You could even argue that they have a climate, whereas this place has... gloom.

"Two days? How lost were you planning to get?" Before Freyd could press further, a gaggle of other players had gathered. All but one rather glaring exception were already familiar to him. The fact that NIGHT was creeping up on him from behind made him instantly tense that things were about to go sideways. Koga's less than sneaky sneaking, by comparison, was confounded by his endlessly grumbling stomach. You'd think he might have been Crozeph in disguise, but no. Freyd had already checked. One eye on their surroundings, another on Pin, whose name only became known once the party

Katoka collapsed in his arms, tears streaming down her face as her breathing heaved and grew increasingly ragged. Freyd had never witnessed a panic attack before, and the outpouring of raw emotion caught him off guard. Catching the smaller, slender woman, he was instantly surprised by how heavy someone could be when their body became dead weight, threatening to throw him off balance and topple him over as well. Muscles honed in this very dojo clenched and steadied them both, striving to provide both physical and emotional support for his friend. Their landing was rougher than expected, but

"You seem uncertain, Wulfrin. As you should be." It was his own doppel who spoke once more, having recovered from his staggering blow, yet slow to rise. "You're doing everything to sound confident, but what grounds that faith? What you've been told? By whom? What wise, insightful sage granted you the wisdom of unassailable truth? My progenitor?" Its cackling laugh chilled even Icingdeath to its core. The honest truth was that everything the players of Aincrad believed was either told to them by Kayaba or assumed based on evidence so perforated it could challenge Swiss cheese. "No

Holding a raid prep meeting with a wedding backdrop wasn't exactly standard, but what did that even mean anymore? Still fully frocked, wearing a sleek black cassock he hadn't pulled from inventory since his first tier days, Freyd looked as he had in his earliest adventuring. If he was lucky, no one would even recognize his old duds. Officiating for Wulfrin and KnightessCiela had been unexpected, especially with the added duties of sharing what he, Morningstar, Mina and Hirru had encountered in the Fire Woods. The labyrinth guardian has been felled, long may his antlers reign. Frontliners h

A high pitch shriek tugged viciously at his heartstrings, its tone and timbre all too familiar, yet never heard quite so disturbingly clad with despair. "HOW COULD YOU!?" Ciela cried out from the sidelines, her figure wreathed in shadow. Stepping a foot into the clearing, some invisible tentacles of force forbade her from interfering - perhaps the system itself? Certain that it was just another gemini's trick, Wulfrin might have disregarded the forbidden mob, save for the image he saw through the limned frame of her figure. There, his love, curled over a fallen figure - himself -

Returning to the quaint little shop, shortly after receiving notice that his order was complete, Freyd thanked Nymoria for making its preparation such a priority. "I wasn't expecting you to drop everything to get it done so quickly! Still, I'm certain the recipient will appreciate it greatly." Chuckling slightly at the item's form and intent, he struggled to determine how exactly it would help anyone get lucky. Maybe it was powered by absurdist irony? The craftswoman made no bones about its shaping, and he wasn't about to pry. Some things simply were, and that was good enough. A sim

"You asked for it," Freyd replied nonchalantly to Katoka's complaint. "And remember the source. It's probably going to poke and prod you relentlessly, if I did my job right." His wry grin left enough doubt that he might have attempted to infuse the blade with his own brand of mischief, planting the possibility like a seed that might someday bear fruit. Speaking of which, flowers and vegetables alike rained down upon them from the stands, the type varying in accordance with the bets of the crowd. Making his way to the exit, Freyd had no more love for an audience than NIGHT, and sought her

"Hrmmm. I see." The shadowed figure seemed pensive, almost regretful as the player declared his intent. Lightning crackled in the air, blinding in its contrast to the stifling oppression of the jungle floor. An echo in the flash screamed of danger, but too late. A slick slither of shattered fractals tinkled down the front of his armor, spilling like pixelated blood from a fresh slice cut clean and deep across his throat. He hadn't even seen his other self move, yet there it stood bearing a sword mirroring Icingdeath's shape without bearing any of its substance. It was pure shadow, l

Freyd had watched the two players struggle, playful banter bolstering them to a point, but the weariness of a tedious quest were clearly taking their toll. Tending his antique kitsch fishing rod, complete with green mallard head grip, he found himself daydreaming nostalgic, remembering old conversations and promises made. One in particular, always stuck out. Sighing as he stood, the fish teasing him by darting to the surface the moment he stepped away, he approached the pair casually. His dark travelling garb gave him the appearance of a seasoned player, though he bore no obvious signs of a

"Ah, so this is where you setup camp." Dressed in unusually casual clothing, comprised of dark slacks and a a dull blue Henley reminiscent of an Autumn storm, Freyd was most certainly out of uniform. It was actually throwing people off, as he strode around town, none of them capable of fathoming the notion that he could be anything save edgelord. Things were changing, which made discovery of Nymoria's shop a happy coincidence. "I'm helping out a few players, getting them geared for a variety of quests and other content. You know how it is. One of them could definitely use a little ex

"GAH! Even Avalanche doesn't make this much racket!" Bracing himself as best he could within the constrained crevice, Freyd weathered the walking earthquake. Waiting until the titantic body shiver simmered, he then turned and pressed is hand in search of a weak point anywhere in the mob's massive stony surface. "Here! A fissure... well, maybe just more of a stress fracture, but it's something to work with." Repeated strikes, like performing kata in the guild dojo after hours when no one else would bother him, Freyd slammed his fist repeatedly into the target. "Goddamn. It's like Th

"Boastful," it replied as he asserted his growing strength. The mob seemed neither frightened, nor impressed, yet was not taunting him either. It knew his capabilities as well as he did - one of the few creatures in Aincrad to fully appreciated the scale of its enemies' strength. "You speak of the girls? Ah. Then our motives have been misunderstood. How typical." False Wulfrin stepped out from behind the trees, its hands out in the open, left index finger extended and pointing at the ground. Seeing that it wielded no weapon. A sword still safely stowed in its scabbard, he allowed

Freyd listened as Xlearsight described a rather morose world view; one he used to share to considerable extent. "Nah, man. You gotta ask yourself: can't it be both? 'Journey through the Death Gauntlet' also has a certain ring to it, yanno? Besides, our options are rather limited, and we don't always get to pick our own road in life. Sometimes it's just thrust upon us because we're all too damned lazy, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Harsh, perhaps, but Freyd dealt with danger in an overly pragmatic way. Sugar coating wasn't a luxury they could afford. "Like it or not

Thwacking the lone remaining fossil in its gills with the butt end of the fishing rod, the poor, beleaguered creature deemed it a mercy and croaked a final time, spilling its crystalline guts all over the murky swamp waters. A slurping sound accompanied the parting of Freyd's boot from same said muck, whipping around to catch the ominously named Lurker in the ribs producing a horrible crunching sound. The mob folded sideways, into itself, most of its avatar having crumpled under the impact. *BURP* "Really? That's all you have to say, after all that?" Rolling his eyes as he deli

Concealing a modestly prideful smile at Wulfrin's praise for his blade, Freyd knew full well the weapon's potency. The swordsman bore it well as he faced off against their opponents, flaying the one that had gotten by him. Ciela bore the brunt of the next wave with ease, in her usual, casual style. Thankful for his cowl, a tiny chuckle still eeked out at her comment about hearing good things. Few in Aincrad hadn't heard of the Red Wanderer, one way or another. Sparing his old friend a grim grin, the Whisper darted for the shadows, opposite the main and heavily fortified tower entrance. S