Again
Freud has regretted only one action. That he was unable to end the Black mage. But now he is willing to become the martyr for his friends this time around.
Freud wakes up. He is not old and dying in the bed, coughing with his hurting chest and his body aching from the exposure to time magic. He is on his old desk and he looks around. It's the day before the battle with the Black mage. For three hours Freud sobs and laughs, and mixing the two until it bloomed into beautiful hysteria. He had gone back in time. He had gone back in time and left his deathbed to change the past. He was given a second chance. He talks to Afrien and cries.
He has been talking to a block of ice that held the sleeping shell of Afrien, muttering words and holding conversations without reply. Talking to Afrien, thrumming in energy and power overwhelms him in boundless joy. Their connection is vibrant and fierce, and Freud feels the warm reassuring pressure of Afrien's mind with his own. It had been a linear and flat nonexistent burden, cold and empty when he was sealed. Now that Afrien breathed and spoke with him Freud was overjoyed.
Afrien sensed the change, the shift in Freud, his maturity and the desperation a drowning man would have but he does not comment on it. Not now when the final battle draws near.
Last minute, he creates a curse, so potent, so deadly that he feels the cold dark lure of power even from the freshly written seals on the paper. He stares, eye wide into the paper and imprints the entire thing inside his head with a vengeance filled with a thousand years of hate. The Black mage may have been sealed away in the past timeline, but Freud would not accept such loss again. Freud is ready.
He relays the plan to Afrien, who objects against it until and in rage he nearly burns his alcove and destroys half of the woods they were residing in. Freud does his best to reign in his fiery rage and soothe his hot undercurrent of determination and betrayal. Through his bond he clams his heart superficially, avoiding the cold icy hate at his actions, or to be actions.
Even then Afrien stands with Freud, because he too understands what Freud is aiming for. Freud feels nostalgia as they rehearse the plan on Lumiere before they run off. Freud drinks in their determined youthful faces. Hints of fear and worry, but Freud reaches out and encourages their bravery and captures their fears. Mercedes, Freud sees her, and she is as beautiful as ever. Her elfin face, her bright blue eyes, and long golden curls. Her haughty but caring gaze, her long silken hair, her face warms his old wearied heart.
Phantom with his mischievous smiles and shifty gazes makes Freud's heart ache. His deep purple eyes and yellow hair with a charming and handsome face. Behind the sarcastic facade was a deep melancholy man who was drowning in sorrow and fear of abandonment. And even deeper nestled unbridled thirst for revenge. Aran with her stoic face and her stolid replies brought a calm in Freud. With her icy blue eyes and long white hair tied back into a ponytail. She carries a polearm wielded with iron and gold. A tall and imposing figure that held a soft gentleness and childish wishes that the warrior she had to be hardened away. She was reliable and held hidden wisdom.
Luminous the misguided and stern magician. His bright blue eyes and silvery hair. A fellow partner who worked with him and understood magic like him. He was a helpful face that helped expound on a thesis or helped with a diagram with his extensive knowledge of light magic. Freud had found himself missing his strict and fussy help in the lab as he tested magic.
Eunwol. . . .Freud now remembered him. The memories came like a torrent of water. Washing away the fuzzy sense of forgetting Freud had since the day the Balck mage was sealed. He knew who Eunwol was, the gentle and hopeless assassin who had reformed to save the world along with Freud. Eunwol's dark hair and grey eyes. Eunwol was a treasured friend, soft and quiet in the background but his strength was not soft. It was quick quiet and deadly.
Everything went the way it did the first time around. A demon sent in a letter, which they had received and rushed in to attack. Mercedes and Freud was the front guard who paved their battlefield in. However, this time Freud did not give his all and pretended to be injured. They fell and in came Eunwol and Luminous. Afrien did the brunt of his work and then fell into a slumbering state to prepare strength for the upcoming ritual Freud was planning to do.
Freud told them to change their plans and attack the Black mage, that he had another plan for the seals. Afrien weakly pulsed through their contract for him not to do it.
"Hurry! Try and weaken him even more, I have another plan with the seals!" shouted Freud, trying to make his voice sound even more hoarse.
"Are you sure?!" hissed Luminous as he directed a large ray of light magic at the Black mage.
"Trust in me." Freud told them, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. Revulsion filled his stomach. Eunwol gave him a small nod and Luminous made a tsking noise and they both went off.
Luminous's powers were strong and seemed to counteract the Black mage's own. Light and dark magic did cancel each other out. Shade tried his best at fighting, but being a close combat brawler, it was almost impossible to help Luminous. Instead he was helping Luminous deftly avoid any chains that appeared to close and push him away from the bursts of energy that was casted. Freud watched and watched.
Finally, with a desperate burst of energy, the Black mage slammed dark lighting across the hall. Luminous and Freud casted their own shields. Luminous's shattered almost instantly under the strong attack. Freud's managed to hold up three strikes before it shattered.
Pain and electricity arched through his memories. It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts It hurts! Freud screamed as electricity coursed through his small fragile body. His heart almost stopped along with the pain, his own shrill screams intertwining with the thunderous dragon roar that Afrien felt. Then it stopped. Afrien's mind was instantly against his, assuaging the pain and taking a great load of the hurt into his own body. Freud thanked him indefinitely before standing up, his legs twitching and refusing to work right. Sadly, the magical currents throughout his body were messed up, ravaged by the magical lightening.
While not in bad condition, it would be dangerous to try anything with his currents out of balance by this much. Yet Freud had to. If he didn't, this timeline would be like the last. Electricity was still jolting through his body, and like a little lamb he stood shakily and weakly, boosted only by minimal magic and leaning heavily against his staff he stood.
Luminous was still on the floor, as his body twitched and occasional grunts of pain. Eunwol was panting heavily as he was trying to crawl standing up. Freud gave him a small smile. Eunwol had a pair of beautiful eyes. While they were almost a blank grey, Freud could see the hidden violet color blooming beneath the irises. Freud mouthed to him, watch over them, my friend.
End of Part One.
The next will be Part Two with author's notes.