Ravens of Eternity

464 Elysian Dreams

Freya’s eyes flickered open in the darkness as she let out a soft groan. As her mind spun back into consciousness, she realized that she was laying down awkwardly, and inside a small compartment of some sort.

The air seemed thick and dry and somewhat dusty, though what concerned her most was that something extremely heavy seemed to press down on her. She tried to move her arms and legs, but found that they were pinned down by whatever was on top of her.

She poured the energies of Ascendant Form through her body, then pushed aside the large slab of granite stone that was on top of her. The slab hit the stone floor with a KRAK, and broke into large chunks all around the floor.

Those pieces settled themselves around the broken and cracked ground even as Freya pushed herself out of the small crater she was just in.

Her mind spun wildly as she attempted to get a hold of herself, but the dizziness won over her. She ultimately stumbled back down to all fours, unable to keep herself upright.

Both her mind and body ached, as though she had been struck by tens of thousands of needles, from every direction. On top of that, every fiber of her being felt as though she was on fire, or at least had just finished burning.

Every millimeter of her literally felt as though it had been torn apart and put back together. It was to the point that the skin on her face bristled as the wind brushed against it.

It seemed to her that she had just gone through every punishment and torture all at once, but somehow had weathered it. Somehow made it through some severe pain, and survived.

Freya did her best to shake away the pain – she had survived all sorts of things throughout her long life, and this was just one of many. But still, it all felt a little… out of place.

.....

As her vision came back into focus, she looked down at the broken stone slab that was previously on top of her. She simply couldn’t understand just how something like that caused so much pain. In fact, she knew there was no way it did that.

She glanced down at her own body, specifically at the black leather armor she was wearing. It clearly did little to protect her from any actual damage – portions of it had been torn and ripped off. If anything, her own body was more resilient than any armor she could possibly wear.

More to the point, her own body seemed completely undamaged. Her skin was still as tough as ever, and her bones were harder than steel. She couldn’t help but wonder where all that pain had come from…

As the world spun back into place, a familiar voice shot out in her direction.

“Hey sleepyhead!” said the voice. “Get up already! I can’t exactly keep fighting this thing on my own!”

Freya’s eyes shot wide open as recognition swept through her. It coursed through her like a flame, and caused her heart to practically leap out of her chest.

She immediately hopped up without any consideration for her condition, and immediately looked in the direction where the voice came.

There, in the temple courtyard just ahead of her, a slender silver-haired person in a flowing, all-white cloth outfit leapt and evaded expertly as a massive minotaur charged right after hir. Whatever pain she was feeling simply melted away at the sight.

It was quickly replaced by a deep contentment, as though some unseen puzzle piece had finally fallen into its rightful place, and all became well again.

“Lucifer!” Freya shouted out. “Y-you’re alive!”

“Did this Mino really hit you that hard?!” Lucifer shouted back. “Of course I’m alive! And if you don’t hurry up, it’s gonna smack me into a wall like it did with you! I’m definitely not a fan of that!”

Freya let out a soft groan as she rotated her shoulder – there was a sharp pain in there, but nothing she couldn’t ease out.

“You look like you’re doing just fine,” she quickly teased.

“Not for long if you don’t hurry up!” Lucifer complained. “You’re the Shadowblade and I’m the Psymage, remember?! You’re the one who’s supposed to be in this thing’s face while I hit it from a distance! This current scenario reaaaallly isn’t working for me.”

Freya watched as the massive 3 meter tall minotaur chased after Lucifer. Its thick muscles rippled with power as it swung a massive labrys around. Its double headed axe cleaved through the numerous granite pillars standing in the temple courtyard as though they were made of paper.

All the while, Lucifer ducked and wove and leapt out of its way frantically.

Although things seemed dire, Freya was extremely glad to see Lucifer. It felt as though she hadn’t seen hir in so long, for some reason.

“Calm down,” she told hir. “It’s not like that thing could even touch you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly keen on getting thrown into a wall for funsies, alright?” Lucifer retorted. “That’s your thing, not mine.”

The minotaur swung its axe with a powerful overhand swing that smashed into the cobblestone ground and flung stone shards in every direction. Although Lucifer easily hopped out of the way, the shock waves from the impact was powerful enough to push hir backward an extra few meters.

On top of it, the axe embedded itself halfway into the ground. It was so deep that when the minotaur tugged on it, chunks of cobble and soil came up with it.

The minotaur reared back in absolute frustration, and roared into the air. In doing so, waves of raw strength emanated from its lungs, and pushed at everything all around it. Some of the nearby pillars toppled over from the act.

Then with bright red eyes that were brimming with anger, it lowered its horned head and charged Lucifer with everything it had. It closed the distance between the two of them in a fraction of a second, and blew apart any pillars that stood in its way.

Alarm swept through Freya instantly, and instinctively reached down to her sword belt and drew out her gladius. She once again poured every bit of her Ascendant Form energies into her muscles and shot forward in the blink of an eye.

With an expert swing, Freya intercepted the minotaur only a few meters away from Lucifer, and sliced its neck open. She skidded to a halt over a dozen meters away, and turned to look just as her partner ran by her side.

Both watched as blood immediately spurted out from the minotaur’s wound, though it took a moment after for it to realize it had even been hurt. It stumbled before crashing headlong into a pillar, then further into the ground as pain swept over it momentarily.

It gurgled and groaned as it picked itself back up, then slammed its axe into the ground out of sheer anger. Blood poured out of its neck, even as it turned towards the two of them. The anger it exuded was so palpable that both felt it press down on them.

The minotaur quickly snatched its axe back up from the ground and reared back with one arm. And with a heavy grunt, it flung it at the two of them with everything it had. The labrys spun powerfully through the air in the blink of an eye.

It crossed the distance so fast that neither of them were able to evade it in time – Freya was forced to hop forward and literally parry it.

There was a resounding CLANG as she swung her blade up to block it.

Both she and the axe were flung in different directions from the blow. The axe itself flew up and back towards where it came from, then fell back down and embedded itself deeply into the cobble. Freya however was thrown back a dozen meters with such force that her gladius was knocked right out of her hand.

It spun out into the air, then clattered on the cobblestone at the same time she landed on her side with a painful WHUMPH.

Lucifer sped to her side and helped her pick herself up off the ground. She groaned with pain as she clutched her ribs.

“Mighta broke something parrying that attack,” she growled.

“Well, stitch yourself up a bit,” Lucifer replied. “Lemme handle it for a second.”

While Freya got down to her knees to recover, Lucifer stepped forward protectively.

Hir hands waved in the air as ze directed psionic energies using hir True Harmony. Ze easily picked up the few dozen broken pillars and pillars that laid all around the temple grounds with a single thought. Then, with a sweeping gesture, flung all of them at the minotaur at the same time.

They slammed into it one right after another relentlessly. Each struck the minotaur with such force that it spat blood and was knocked around violently. It tried to block any incoming pillars with its forearms, but couldn’t simply keep up. The constant hammering only wore its defenses down further and further.

More than that, the pillars themselves crumbled and broke with each impact and scattered into rubble across the cobble. It stumbled around as its hooves struggled to find even purchase, even as it tried its best to stay on its feet.

While Lucifer hammered it with a rain of stone, Freya fused her broken rib back into place. But she didn’t hesitate to act the moment she was done with it.

“I’m going in,” she shouted out to Lucifer. “Make sure to gimme a window, alright!”

“Hey, who the hell do you think you’re talking to?” ze replied with a grin.

She poured all her energy into her muscles and sped away. But she didn’t head towards the minotaur. Instead, she ran back to where her gladius fell, and snapped it back up quickly.

Then she stopped near a pillar and drew out her second gladius with her other hand as she stared at the minotaur and chanted in the air. The chant itself was brief, and near-silent. A simple mantra for the Shadowblade.

In the same moment she finished her chant, she leapt into the pillar’s shadow…

…And emerged over a dozen meters away, just above the minotaur itself.

Lucifer halted hir attack as Freya dropped down onto the minotaur blade-first, where she sunk both her gladii cleanly and neatly into its back. As though they belonged there the entire time.

Her viciously-sharp blades cut through skin and muscle and bone with incredible ease and pierced right into its heart, which killed it nearly instantly. Then she pushed off its back and leapt away as blood spurted out from its two deep wounds.

The minotaur’s gaze turned distant, then completely blanked out as it toppled down onto the cobblestone face first. The ground shook wildly from the fall, which caused a damaged pillar to break completely. Its top half fell down and broke into a million pieces as the minotaur itself breathed its last.

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