[SP-F4] To Still A Simmering Heart <<Absolute Zero>>

Freyd · October 26, 2020

Darkness and cold. He needed both at the moment and to help him retreat from their opposites. Freyd had enjoyed his time spent in camaraderie with friends and strangers alike, but they came at the cost of focus. He would need that focus now, more than ever, to protect and see them through Whatever ominous doom was coming.

Dusk was beautiful on floor four. It was pleasant to watch the last few rays of light shining brilliantly over the frozen landscape. This would be a night hunt. The colossal Avalanche, otherwise known as the titan 'Absolute Zero', had somehow escaped his notice. It was a glaring gap in his schedule, and the perfect place to begin his... correction. Inner balance needed to be restored, if her were to be capable of acting in a manner that proved necessary.

Why did he always see those faces now, when he closed his eyes. They were the faces of friends, allies, and even enemies. He needed to consolidate and sort all of the data he'd absorbed. Adapting to new processes tied up too many resources. Those same resources that would soon be needed elsewhere.

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1510/1510 | EN:163/163 | DMG:25 | MIT:59 | EVA:4 | ACC:4 | VAMP OFF:151 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | LD:8 | Antidote 2/2 | BH:81

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Name: Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows
Level: 74
HP: 1510/1510 (+120)
EN: 163/163

Stats:
Damage: 20(+3+2)
Mitigation: 79 (-30+10)
Evasion: 2 (+2)
Accuracy: 4
BH:75 (+6)
VAMP OFF:151
HLY:6
FLN:6
LD:5 (+3)
Prosperity: 2

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Samael's Pride (T3-2HSS, VO 1, HOLY 1, FLN 1)
Armor: Skirmisher's Garb (T3 LA, MIT 2, EVA 1)
Misc: Night Shades (T3-Trinket, ACC 3)

Skills:
2H Straight Sword [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 5]
Searching [Rank 4]
Battle Healing [Rank 5]
Parry [Obtained]
Energist [Obtained]
Charge [Rank 5]
Extended Mod Limit R3 [Obtained]
Hiding [Rank 3]

Extra Skills:
Disguise
Familiar Mastery: Fighter 3
Survival

Mods:
Precision
Finesse - Rank 3
LA Athletics
Ferocity
LA Sprint and Acrobatics
Night Vision
Vengeful Riposte

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystals*5
Concentrated Joy (T3 Vitality 2)*3
Missing You (Instant T3 HP Recovery)*2
Fruit-Infused Tea (T3 HP Recovery)*5
Imugi's Inspiration (T3 Mass HP Recovery)*5
Mega-Duper... Sauce (Antidote 3)*5
Grave Injustice (T3-2HSS, ACC 1, Keen 1, Abs. ACC)*1

Housing Buffs:
Rested: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
Clean: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 20% (rounded down)
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Item Stash: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
Delicious: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed.
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Skylight (Searching): +1 Rank to the Searching skill.
Angler: +1 material gained when fishing
Advanced Training: +2 SP to a thread. Limit one use per month [0/1]
~~Multipurpose: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll~~
Decor [Potted Tanabata Bamboo Tree]: This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.

Guild Hall Buffs:
Lucrative: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters receive +1 crafting attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters receive +2 crafting attempts per day.
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild:
Kumatetsu Statue: +1 Base Damage for a thread

Wedding Ring: n/a

Freyd · October 26, 2020

The mobile glacier he sought was both magnificent and daunting in its size and power. It was like an iceberg with legs, wandering the open ice fields, glowing like a giant beacon in the night. Excellent. Drawing Samael's Pride, Freyd focused and committed himself to the blade. Its core roiled with raging darkness and destruction seeking each and every opportunity to be unleashed, while its shell was a strange amalgam of holy energy. Together, they appeared to be a simple tarnished silver blade. The truth was far more complicated. He dwelled on the same edge, in the same precarious balance, as the weapon he wielded. Too much light, and he smothered his effectiveness. Too much darkness, and he became an obstacle to his own purpose. That purpose was to press relentlessly forward and overcome any obstacles by any means necessary.

The immense block of ice before him would be no different.

Freyd activates Vengeful Riposte (-5 EN)

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1510/1510 | EN:163/163 | DMG:25 | MIT:59 | EVA:4 | ACC:4 | VAMP OFF:151 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | LD:8 | Antidote 2/2 | BH:81 | VENGEFUL

Freyd · October 26, 2020

And then, as was inevitably his way, everything went to pot. Approaching from the side, he'd expected to catch the monster from its blind spot. Instead, it dropped a massive pile of snow from its foot as it walked, which landed right on top of him just as he was about to strike. The blade clinked harmlessly off the thing's icy hide, but the impact did not go unnoticed. All moisture vanished from the air as the creature's ire gathered. A massive foot nearly stomped Freyd flat an instant later.

Why do all of my fights seem to start this way?

The impact had raised a cloud of soft powder that provided camouflage enough to conceal his immediate escape. Cresting a nearby ridge gave him enough of a vantage to properly see how big a threat he'd squared off against. Judging from the pair of angry, giant, black orbs glaring back at him, it didn't appreciate his intentions.

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Freyd · October 26, 2020

His advantage lost, Freyd sought to recover the initiative by means of sheer audacity. He charged the iceberg head-on, plunging his tarnished blade into one of the sunken socket that passed for its eyes. Darkness flared from its encapsulating casing as the blade struck home and unleashed the fury contained within. Avalanche shook, shuddered, then raged at the insolence and daring of such a strike. One of its great, icy mitten-like hand reaching up to smash the cur who'd inflicted it. The blade spun back and deflected the blow, along with the blast of algid air that accompanied it, giving Freyd a moment to drop and slide along its ragged torso to the ground. The blade had also bitten deep into the thing's hand, though not nearly as badly as its eye.

The titan's health had dropped to just a smidge above yellow. Not bad for a first hit. Now he just had to keep it up.

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Freyd · October 26, 2020

Avalanche was flustered by the tiny black thing's agility. How could it still move so quickly, despite the aura it kept about itself? Even falling snowflakes knew to pause and bow before its magnificence. And now, here was some miniscule upstart, feigning to think himself a match for his frozen glory?! Hatred poured out of the Avalanche like a wave that snapped everything within a hundred feet into stillness and silence, except Freyd. Protected by his preparations, he remained free, which outraged the iceberg all the more. Reaching upward, it slammed a massive, mighty fist into the ground with a force that cratered the surface and send shockwaves rolling over the surrounding landscape, and then it howled. As it lifted its icy fist, a small, battered figure came up with it, clinging to the sword he'd just plunged into the appendage that had sought to crush him. Brilliant light surged from the point of impact and fractured the titan's fingers, shattering them and dropping the Whisper back to the ground.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: corrected roll IDs.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

Landing softly in the gentle cradle of a snow drift, Freyd instantly regained his footing. Absolute Zero was still roaring above, it giant maw turned upward to the sky to better vent its anger and leaving its chest completely exposed. Dancing up the thing's ice, fallen fingers Freyd's feet barely left each one before it vanished into whirling white shards. It gave him just enough stepping stones to launch himself into the air and plunge his weapon into the creatures heart, once more unleashing the dark, furious shadow within. A spiderweb of black veins spread instantly outward from the point of impact, tearing the Avalanche apart from the inside first and creating a hollow void within that seemed to touch something Freyd could only describe as 'wrong.'

The titan fell backward, Freyd clinging to his blade for purchase as he was carried with it. The entire iceberg collapsed inward the moment it struck the ground and a flash of darkness engulfed the Whisper as he seemingly fell through it. Rough, dry dirt caught him as he landed. Moisture was heavy in the air around him. The place was dark, but hints of phosphorescent light glimmered in the distance. A handy mod allowed his vision to adapt mere moments later.

"What the...? Where am I?!"

[Note: Freyd falls through a glitch in Absolute Zero's dissolution and ends up in the underdark on floor 23]

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Freyd · October 26, 2020

His opportunity for assessment was forcefully denied an instant later when a literal avalanche came pouring through the same glitch through which Freyd had just passed. A tidal wave of snow and ice instantly filled the basin-like cavern, drowning him under its crushing weight.

Dig. Dig now. DIG OUT NOW!

His hands were moving as best they could given the crushing weight bearing down on him. There was nowhere to move to. The heavy mass on top of him felt solid without pocket or void to press against.

Seriously? I'm going out like this?!

Wriggling as best he could, Freyd managed to clear a small clear space around his arms and legs, but it wasn't enough.

"Panicking won't help," he told himself, calming a rising sense of dread. He closed his eyes and let his analytical self take over. It's entire purpose was to survive. That was when he first felt it - a rumbling. Something was moving nearby... above? No. Below. He'd barely determine the direction when the mass of snow and ice around him surged and rose. He cleared the surface a moment later, riding on the back of what seemed like a lesser version of the monster he'd just defeated. More eruptions nearby warned of additional, similar foes. Not waiting to be overwhelmed again, Freyd called his sword to hand and attacked.

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Freyd · October 26, 2020

This was it - the feeling... no... the absence of feeling he'd been hoping to find. It cam with a keen sense of awareness and clarity, a profound rational drive and methodology that could drive him through any combat and against any odds. The animated fragment of Absolute Zero's corpse beneath his feet was the first to fall. No less menacing than their parent, they were at least marginally less potent. That didn't matter. What did was that they could be cut and laid low. Surrendering to those mechanical instincts, Freyd allowed himself to sink into his tactical mode, where all other consideration fell to the wayside, regardless of morals or consequences. This was a state of pure purpose-driven resolve focused entirely on one thing: kill the other guys, by any means necessary, before they kill me. The sound of chopping snow and ice filled his ears as he imagined himself as some kind of carving machine making its way through an obstinate snow bank.

End the threat first. Everything else comes after.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

More and more of these ice behemoths rose from the field of the shattered ice corpse, as if Avalanche were attempting to reincarnate itself in a series of unsuccessful spurts and starts. Every time another arm, leg or head emerged Freyd was there to cut it back down. It looked strangely like a too-tall crowd trying to stand up through a razor-sharp ceiling fan, only to be obliterated and cast back down again.

The freezing temperature of the ice clashed against the moderated heat of the caverns and a low fog started to condense over the battlefield. Soon, the icy fragments looked more like slick, slush-covered statues rising from some sinister, bubbling bog, spraying streams of soggy goo as they sauntered around in search of a ghostly enemy.

Freyd made use of the cover and his smaller size. He looked like the black back of some aquatic predator leaving a swirling wake as he moved, with a fin of silver that carved through anything unfortunate enough to find its way into his path.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

A lone fragment remained by the edge of the growing pond. It splashed about noisily as it sought some bearings from its surroundings. The mob appeared disoriented, lost without the familiarity of its regular floor. The comparison of a fish out of water seemed strangely apt, despite the thing literally being made of water. The slightest provocation was all that was needed to shatter the unfortunate creature, but more had already risen in the growing foggy lake and could be heard stomping and shambling in his direction.

Freyd didn't even consider retreat. He was committed to defeating his foe. Nothing else seemed to register with him, despite not knowing where he was or whether he could even escape. Such details had been analyzed and classified as lacking sufficient relevance to the task at hand. These things had to fall, and that was all that mattered. It was precisely what he'd come here searching to reconnect with and hone.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

More emerged from the chilled cloud only to find a hungry blade waiting for them, though the slippery ground reduced his efficiency more than he would have liked. The fragments flailed blindly and swarmed across the field like disorganized rabble. Without organization and coordination, they were ineffective. It was a lesson he shunted away for later consideration. The guild might have use of such tactics, one day. It was still too soon. Most were still too green. More practice was required.

Practice, just like this. Freyd's sword strikes were both relentlessly methodical, yet also randomly patterned. He executed his strikes with unpredictable precision. It was the lesson learned from Uso-Tsuki, and he intended to put it to good use. These mobs just happened to be more test subjects available for training purposes. He quiet thanked them for their utility and sacrifice, yet cut them down just the same. They were in his way.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: corrected roll IDs.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

A rhythm was building as he danced between his enemies, pulling forward distant memories of days spent on an ice rink with stick in hand and friends cheering and jeering at each other. There was warmth and pain in equal measure, concealed within those long-buried thoughts. The incident had happened only a few years later. It had changed everything. Freyd's fury blazed as the speed and power behind his strike increased. Samael's Pride flared with both light and darkness as both sides fought for ascendance and release within the caverns of melting ice and snow. To an outside observer, it would appear as if angels and demons were warring in the fog, neither side managing to gain an upper hand, but wreaking vast devastation as they went. The lumbering humanoid-shaped fragments dwindled in number as the silent song continued, its cadence barely above a whisper in the dire roiling dark.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

The sound of crinkling, cracking and then shattering ice filled the improvised melting hall as more fragments fell to his advance. In the past, blood would have been pulsing through his head as he loosed control over his inner rage and let it wash over and out from himself. But he had mastered that darkness, at great cost. And he knew, now, that such costs were rarely borne solely by the person who would gain the benefit. Mari, ChaseR, even Raidou and the rest of Firm Anima would bear the costs of his actions and decisions. That was the potential price of the promise he had made. He had to make peace with that reality, in full, before he could press on. There could be no half-measures in the face of opposition or rejection. Everything was governed by purpose and intent. It was all about the goal. The rest was just nuance and calculus.

Surrender, deceit, manipulation, and all the other tools of statecraft were as legitimate in such endeavors, like the defeat of Cardinal and Akihiko Kayaba. He knew that his true test would come in the form of a choice. Would he willingly pay the cost in the most precious of currencies - the lives of others? Such are the true demands of leadership - the true price. And so he knew, in that instance, that he would have no choice but to be ready, in case no one else was. Raidou already thought he would be, now he needed to ask himself.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 26, 2020

His thoughts drifted into a stray daydream-like state as he continued to battle in the fog. His avatar body knew what to do, by now, with minimal required attention. He saw the faces of his comrades and imagined a pendulum swinging over them with joy at one end and the static certainly of oblivion at the other. Once triggered, the pendulum would invariably swing to the other pole, unless obstructed. His thoughts wandered farther, picturing the fair faces of other players he had fostered and mentored, seemingly by accident. Katoka, Charlarr, Enryu, Orvilla, Vie, Ruler, Eruda and also... her.

When had he chosen to adopt that role? Was he even conscious of it? It had just seemed to evolve out of pragmatism: those with greater experience trained those with less. Others had shared the same blessing with him, and he was grateful. But the strong rarely fall first. He saw the breadth, ambition and insight of Raidou's plan: elevate those closest to you and leave others in their place. He was sure that his friend would elevate them all, if he could. In Freyd's mind, that only made everyone pawns again.

Another wave of algid pawns fell before him. Only one group remained. The game neared its end.

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Freyd · October 27, 2020

The clash of steel and ice rang in his ears as solid water shrapnel exploded all around him. The last of the frozen fragments had gathered around him and were making their final play to pound him out of existence. It wasn't really going so well, for them. Freyd rushed them before they could close and trap him between them, bursting through their wasted, melting ranks trailing great streams of water tinged with the blessing of holy wrath.

You're distracting yourself. Face the question. You cannot be ready until you do.

He closed his eyes, letting his knees deliberately buckle beneath him and dropping his head down just below the swipe of a large icy hand ending in razor-sharp crystalline fingers. Memories of warm fingertips, the scent of mint and the press of exhaustion on an aching shoulder flooded his mind, as did thoughts of a near-forgotten cape and the image of a copper rose.

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Freyd · October 27, 2020

A wave of... something... swept through him starting in his chest. It ached, in throbbing pangs, but felt distantly familiar. Had he experienced this before? Bitter realization followed the pain. Feelings he never knew he had, and could not afford to have, had found their way into his heart. Why? How? Emotions did not rely on such metrics. They simply were.

Our truest sacrifices are rarely borne by ourselves alone, if by us at all.

Rolling forward to avoid another strike, Freyd brought up Samael's Pride to slice another fragment clean in half. Shards of bitter stinging ice transformed into a mist of brilliant, beautiful snowflakes that dissipated silently into the misty fog as they fell. Anger was driving his actions and needed to be curbed, less he lose his edge or misdirect it. That was ChaseR's folly, and he'd be damned before he gave in to the same blind grip of passion.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 27, 2020

Freyd stared at the last fragment as it shambled towards him, barely twenty feet away in the foggy dark. One arm was already severed and it was limping slowly in its approach, fixated on attacking him despite the imminent demise towards which such a course of action inexorably led. It could do nothing else.

Despite the stabbing pain of the realization, Freyd knew that the same was true of himself. There was really only one choice open to him. He gripped the hilt of his blade so tightly that the metal squealed in protest. To have come so far, and to choose to deny the very thing his heart had longed for his entire life. It was the tragedy of devotion to an absolute ideal. The blade cut deep, biting to the very core of the last vestige of the avalanche, releasing the titan's chilling final breath. The burst-drive gust washed over him, and he closed his eyes as if embracing the dark and cold to still the fledgling warmth inside.

A fallen proc.

How appropriate.

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Edited October 28, 2020 by Arabelle
note: added loot roll ID/results.

Freyd · October 27, 2020

Freyd stood still and silently in the fog and blackness of the Underdark, the quiet clinking, crackling and sizzling of still melting ice surrounding him. He was soaked. Going a dozen rounds with several packs of melting ice elementals will tend to do that sort of thing. Symbolically, the water felt like some form of ablution, draining away emotional ties and the liabilities that came with them.

"I should be collapsing to his knees and wailing in anguish right now." His voice was flat, and barely above a whisper as he spoke. "It's what any 'normal' person would do."

"You've placed that weakness behind you." A voice echoed from behind him. He knew it well. It was his own. "They don't need you to be such a person. There are plenty of others who can serve their fellows with empathy, kindness and caring. But there are few with the will to do what must be done, regardless of the cost. Many will hate you for it, and call you a monster. They won't want to understand, because it feels wrong to them."

The rage and malice he'd come to expect from his Gemini was gone. It spoke to him as his equal and other self now, without edge or accusation, like a conscience without a conscience or a being of pure rational thought. This was him at peace with himself in the aftermath of the war they had already fought? The moment carried an unexpected serenity and comfort.

Freyd · October 27, 2020

Freyd reached up and touched his face. The titan's death gasp had frozen most of the water that clung to his forward half, including two rivulets that trailed down from the outer edges of his eyes. He plucked both from his face. It was an odd sensation to hold his frozen tears in his hands and feel nothing. A deep breath soothed and cleansed his soul. The frozen, icicle-like segments in his hand vanished to his inventory just as quickly.

"It's better this way."

"No. It isn't." Freyd replied. "But it may be the best and only way."

Sloshing out of the knee deep water, he soon found his bearings and made for the dark elf stronghold of Kalanaes. These lands were become painfully familiar. All of Aincrad would, in time. That was what had made this necessary. The drive necessary to see this game through to its end could not fall to the predations of time or fatigues of the spirit. Someone required the will to ensure that their banner remained standing until the very end, and made whatever choices were required to get it there.

Freyd · October 27, 2020

[Note: Jump forward to several days later, back on floor 13]

Having returned to Angel's Point, Freyd found himself one evening atop one of the few remaining balconies in the ruins of the monastery to which his home and shop were attached. The landscape beyond the walls was blighted and foul, extending to Aincrad's very edge, barely visible in the distance. He sat on the crenulations and watched the sun rise, coffee cup in hand and a small carafe at his side for refills. Today, he would sit and watch its passing. He needed the reminder that all things that begin must, invariably end.

His guise had changed, or more accurately been voluntarily dismissed. Gone were all veneers and pretense. He needed this for him, to guide him into the future and remind him that the sun still felt warm on his face when you've given yourself to a life in shadows. He would cherish that light and hope, locking it away inside. Maybe, one day, it could come out again.

****

Thread Summary:

6 SP (1 page, +1 event, +4 quest)

79823*Col (400 + loot + 2,500 quest)

28*T3 Materials

Zero Degree Icicle (T2 2HSS ACC 1, Freeze 1)

T3 Perfect Weapon #175384a
T3 Perfect Weapon #175384b
T3 Perfect Weapon #175384c
T3 Perfect Armor/Shield 175388a
T3 Perfect Trinket #175388b
T3 Rare Trinket #175389a
T3 Perfect Weapon #175391a
T3 Perfect Weapon #175391b
T3 Perfect Weapon #175391c
T3 Perfect Consumable #175401a
T3 Perfect Consumable #175401b
T3 Perfect Armor/Shield #175401c
T3 Perfect Armor/Shield #175401d
T3 Rare Trinket #175405a
T3 Perfect Armor/Shield #175408a
T3 Perfect Weapon #175408b
T3 Rare Armor/Shield #175409a
T3 Perfect Trinket #175429a
T3 Perfect Weapon #175429b
T3 Perfect Trinket #175430a
T3 Perfect Weapon #175430b
T3 Rare Trinket #175431a
T3 Rare Trinket #175433a

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[SP-F4] To Still A Simmering Heart <<Absolute Zero>>

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