Chapter 64

DISCLAIMER: I ONLY OWN THIS STORY, NOT THE GAME. IF YOU ACCUSE ME OF COMMITING A CRIME REGARDING THE GAME, IFRIT WILL APPEAR IN FRONT OF YOU AND GIVE YOU A PURGATORIO.

I don't know about heaven, but I can tell you one thing, it would be a long road out of hell.

Anonymous

At the same time with the previous chapter, inside Geffen Tower…

Have you ever wondered about one thing that would frighten most of us? Have you ever thought about one thing that would trembles our inner hearts if we fall into it? It's…darkness. Darkness, commonly related to something evil, something eerie, something scary. Darkness is a term used for such creatures like demon, devil, and ghouls. Whenever you hear darkness, you will remember no good things. You will remember no lights, no hopes, no kindnesses, and no lives. Have you ever wondered what if everything you see, or to be more precise, the only thing you can see is darkness? No lights, no colors, no patterns, only darkness, a world where you cannot see anything, not even the smallest of things. Darkness will take lights from you and then leave you forever in the everlasting abyss. But rest assured, inside that darkness, you would hear voices, source unknown, though.

"I KNOW YOU. I KNOW WHO YOU REALLY ARE. YOU FORGOT YOU TRUESELF, BUT I DIDN'T. UPON SEEING YOU, I KNEW IT WAS YOU. I ONLY NEED SOMETHING TO REASSURE MYSELF. AND NOW, I'M SURE OF IT. IT WAS YOU; I KNOW WHO YOU REALLY ARE".

Upon entering the landmark of Geffen, some voices have wandered in the mind of the soul linker. Something from nowhere whispers on her ears, forcing her to recall what has happened before the Fall of Rachel, a tragedy which took not only million of lives, but also confide her forever without any shred of lights to see until now. The voice was cold, and somehow feels scary. Frea enters the Geffen Tower upon chasing Count Dracula, leader of Elysion Guild, one of the highest rank darkness monsters, known for his ability to manipulate shadows.

His soul presence was massive, as expected from a guild leader; it wouldn't be so hard to find her using the soul linker's ability to track souls. Even the presences of the bats surrounding him were not a hindrance. The soul linker stops chasing the blood sucking creature when she feels his soul presence stays in a certain point. Pulling out her Mighty Staff, Frea uses it to touch the ground, trying to figure out what kind of place she's in.

"Welcome to my residence, soul linker" Dracula greets the white haired lady, "It didn't take a long time for you to find me here. Quite impressive, but also quite expected for a soul linker, I presume". Frea doesn't have the mood to reply, she is keener on finishing her business as soon as possible. She doesn't like being inside the mysterious tower longer than she already has, but she got no choice after all.

"I'm not here to have a chat. Let's finish this fight, Count Dracula" Frea hastily replies, much to the amusement of the blood sucking creature.

"Why rushing things? You're in a hurry? Does this place make you feel uncomfortable? How about a game, then? If you hit me once, you can ask any question and I will answer it. If I hit you once, then you will answer one question from me" The Elysion Guild leader slowly responds, smiling. "It's on!!" Putting an annoyed face, the soul linker created two with Esma, showing its holy element. Wasting no time, she throws the esma as Dracula blocks it using his bats as his shield. Dracula proceeds to form a dozen spears from the shadows surrounding him, and throws them to the soul linker. Frea, anticipating the attack, creates a dozen of holy esma and throws them to protect herself as the two magic collides. The sound of the spears hitting the esma and dropping to the floor echoed inside the whole tower, proving how dangerous both attacks are if they were to hit their oppositions.

Frea quickly dashes and jumps toward Count Dracula, throwing some kicks only to be blocked using the bats. Dracula uses another bats attack to counter, but using the blue esma, Frea hits the ground as the impact freezes the bats. She finishes them off after throwing six lightning esmas, but Dracula escapes the attack by flying into the air and creates a black metal ball using the shadows below him. The count throws it after a second as Frea uses another holy esmas to fend the attack off, eliminating both magic as they collide and also creating some smokes in the floor. Using the smokes to cover herself, Frea speeds up and quickly appears before Dracula, kicks him right on the face and forcefully knocked him down to the ground.

"Gotcha!" Frea mutters seeing the Dracula slowly rises. But with a smile on his face, he states, "I have never thought you would force me down using my own counterattack. You have planned the smokes as the result of the collision, haven't you?".

"Correct" A short but sharp respond from the soul linker, "I can't see a thing, but I ain't dumb. You shouldn't have underestimated me". The count slowly shakes his head, "I didn't underestimate you at all. I'm aware enough that Esma has an incredibly strong power, being a soul magic. One hit would cost you your life, why would I underestimate such threat, lady? As I promised before, you can ask one question".

"I CAN HEAR YOU; I CAN HEAR YOUR HEART BEATING. I CAN HEAR YOUR EYES BLINKING. I CAN HEAR EVERY DRIP OF SWEAT RUNNING ACROSS YOUR SKIN. EVERY INCH OF YOUR BODY, I CAN HEAR IT. AND I KNOW YOU LISTENED TO ME, SO NOW, LISTEN WELL AND LISTEN CAREFULLY".

Another deep intimidating voice whispering on her ears, echoing inside her mind inside the everlasting darkness, her everlasting darkness, makes her afraid. Afraid of something she could not see, but could see her in return. Those thoughts are more than enough to intimidate her, never before she felt this afraid inside her own darkness.

One could wonder how much she wants to ask Count Dracula what was that voice, from whom it came, because she knew maybe that would free her from her fear and curiosity, but she also knows priority comes up first. "Where is The Prophecy of Eisenheim?" Frea beats her own fear and asks the main reason why she and her comrades were here in the first place.

The Count puts another little smile on his lips and answers, "How unfortunate, we have searched the prophecy for these last three years but we haven't even found a page of it". "Lies!!" Frea shouts, not wanting to accept her effort to put her own fear aside comes to vain, "Tell me where it is!!! You promised!!!".

"There is no need to let your anger got the best of you, lady" Dracula politely replies, "I would not lie, especially not to my own words. Besides, what makes you feel so uncomfortable, lady? A little whispering voices inside your ears, perhaps?".

Frea raised her eyebrows as the expression of her own surprise, "You…knew? You also…listened?".

"Of course" The blood sucking count calmly answers, "Geffen Tower is my area, my residence. I would know everything comes here, in and out, visible and not". Frea couldn't help but feel more afraid than she already has, more so after another whispers come to her.

"YOU'RE SCARED OF ME, AREN'T YOU? WHAT MAKES A ONCE TRANCEDENTAL BEING LIKE YOU FEAR SMALL VOICES? IF YOU HAPPEN TO NOT KNOWING THE ANSWER, LET ME ENLIGHT YOU. IT'S BECAUSE YOU LOWER YOURSELF WITH A LOWLIFE BEING CALLED HUMANS. GRADUALLY, SLOW BUT SURE, YOU HAVE BECOME ONE OF THEM".

"Transcendental? What…I…I don't get it" Frea tells herself as if she is trying to respond to the voices when she slowly trembles. Upon seeing the intimidated Frea, Dracula sees this as a chance to unleash another attack and creates a black sphere from both his hands. "Night Garden" He whispers as the black sphere explodes, not into a fire explosion, but into a shadow explosion, covered the whole area with darkness and confides both himself and the soul linker inside the land of darkness.

The soul linker suddenly feels that she cannot feel any soul presence. "What? What is happening? What did you do to this place?!" The soul linker demands an explanation from the count, but she got, "No hits means no answers", as her answer.

Before knowing how to react, Frea could feel a cold hard material hits her stomach and throws her away crashing into certain thick object, perhaps a wall. "Aaaaaaaahh!!! Aaaah!! Akh…" Frea cries the pain, grabbing her stomach, realizing maybe one or two of her ribs has been broken because of the attack. Blood drips from her mouth as she crawls in pain, hearing another voices inside her ears.

"AS I THOUGT, LOWERING YOURSELF WITH 'HUMANS' AND GIVING YOUR HEART TO A WORTHLESS SCUM, YOU HAVE BECOME NOTHING BUT SHAME FOR OUR RACE. YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT WITH YOUR MAN. YOU BOTH DISGUST ME TO ITS FULLEST".

The count approaches the crawling soul linker. Using his index finger, he touches the blood and licks it, feeling the sensation much to his own sick pleasure. "Quite tasty, as expected from the blood of a beauty. I believe this means I have the right to ask a question, yes?" The voice of the count flies inside the dark territory before arriving on Frea's ears, "How does it feel being a weak human, Freyja? Tell me your honest opinion".

"Freyja?" Frea tries to rise, "Who…did you call…Freyja? That's not my name".

"Oh, that's your real name alright. Have you really forgotten? Didn't the voice tell you more than enough?" Dracula continues much to the confusion of the soul linker. "I'm not Freyja, you must have mistook me for someone else" Frea insist, but the voice doesn't agree with her.

"DID THE PLEASURE HE GIVE YOU WHEN YOU AND HIM BECOME ONE REALLY CONFIDE YOU IN FOOLISHNESS, FREYJA? CAN YOU IMAGINE YOU DEGRADE YOURSELF WITH REALIZING IT? DO YOU KNOW WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, FREYJA?".

"You're wrong, I'm not Freyja. I'm…." Suddenly, something stops Frea from continue arguing. Something inside her head is returning as she looks down to the floor. Her memory is returning….

"I don't understand why he excommunicated me!! What did I do?!!"

The sound of a man wailing for an explanation flies inside her head, as more and more memories pops out,

"This war is unavoidable. We either live through it or die through it"

And next, the sound of someone with a deep calm voice coming out, somehow, he seems in a deep pain.

"You will have to choose side!!! You either pick me or Odin, Freyja!!!"

For a moment, nothing but silence touches the night garden. Even Count Dracula does not feel like doing anything to attack the soul linker, until suddenly he listens to the white haired woman muttering, "I remember it now". Dracula carefully listens when she continues, "Ragnarok, Loki, Odin. I remember it now". Finally chinning up, Frea says,

"I remember it now. I'm…Freyja"

"You finally remembered" Dracula slowly speaks in a delightful tone, "Then that means you can answer my question". Frea, although she knew she could not see a thing, focusing her blind eyes on Dracula, staring right on him. "I knew now" She whispers, "This night garden you created erases my ability to feel soul presence. But that does not mean I cannot do anything".

Suddenly, inside the dark garden, a glimmer of white light could be seen sparkling glamorously, catching the attention of the count, "Oh, interesting. You found out about this spell that was good. But you forgot one thing; you don't know where I am. I don't know what you are going to do, but your attack would be absurd if you don't even know where you are aiming it".

"I don't need to know where you are" Frea replies with a smile, "This attack doesn't need me knowing where you are. This attack will find you". The lights slowly turns into a flower, made of lights, shining inside the darkness of the tower. "Acacia" Frea whispers as the flower explodes and turning into lights of sepal.

CRAAAAAAANK!!!!

"It cannot be…she turns the form of her esmas into sepals and spread them all around the garden?" Dracula told himself as a dozen sepals hit him and destroys the night garden, turning the area back into what it normally was, filling it with glimmers of lights in the process.

"Guakh!!" Dracula fell down to one knee as Frea slowly stares at him. She couldn't see him, but Dracula feels the opposite. The count feels as if she sees right into him. "Dracula" Frea slowly says, "Being a weak human feels good. Because now, I live with the only man I have ever loved. And trust me, it feels great".

"I see" Dracula responds with a smile as his body slowly turning into a dust, "Then I wish you the best of luck on finding The Prophecy of Eisenheim". Upon listening him, Frea couldn't help but chuckles, "Hmph, thanks".

"Oh, and one last thing" The count wants to say his last words before vanishing, "He knew. And he will find you". With that, Count Dracula vanishes into dusts, ending the battle with the victory for the soul linker.

"I remember it now. I gave my power for the sake of The Arunfeltz continent and became a human" Frea said to herself as she slowly walks outside the tower, "Elraven…how will you react to this?".

But before she gets outside, the voice whispers one last statement to her,

"THIS MEANS, I WILL DESTROY YOU. I WILL FIND YOU, AND THEN I WILL GIVE YOU THE WRATH OF HELL FOR YOUR SIN LOWERING THE NAME OF GODS. IF YOU REGAIN YOUR EYESIGTH, I GUARANTEE YOU, THE LAST THING YOU WILL EVER SEE IS MY HANDS TAKING YOUR LIVES OUT. AND I WILL DO THE SAME THING WITH YOUR LOVER".

Inside the Glast Heim Monarch, Ifrit could be seen looking at Frea using a red sphere on his left hand, "I WILL DESTROY YOU. PREPARE YOURSELF, FOR THE EMBODIMENT OF HELL WILL COME TO YOU AND MAKE YOU PAY!!!!".

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Well, that's it for this chapter. Since in the last two chapters (especially in the last chapter), the actions were already taken, I used this chapter to explain Frea's true identity and the upcoming 'larger than life' threat she (and Elraven of course) would face, The Fire God of Midgard, The Embodiment of Hell, the primary antagonist of this story, Ifrit.

Hope you enjoy this chapter, c u next chap!!! (^^)