>> ACCESSING ARCHIVED SYSTEM LOGS
>> TERMINAL ONLINE
>> AEON OVERSIGHT PROTOCOL: FREYA.F-01
>> SECURITY LEVEL: COSMIC PRIORITY [CLASS ∞]
>> AUTHORIZED ACCESS GRANTED
> BEGIN LOG
>> ACCESSING ARCHIVED SYSTEM LOGS
>> TERMINAL ONLINE
>> AEON OVERSIGHT PROTOCOL: FREYA.F-01
>> SECURITY LEVEL: COSMIC PRIORITY [CLASS ∞]
>> AUTHORIZED ACCESS GRANTED
> BEGIN LOG
[LOG DATE] :: 11.03.50965
[LOCAL TIME] :: 16:47:08 UTC+00:00
[GALACTIC TIME SYNC] :: CYCLE 9214 ∴ SPIRAL ARM 3
[RECORD UNIT] :: AEON FINALITY NODE_01 – CORE OBSERVER
[CONDITION] :: STABLE – PASSIVE MODE
[SUBJECT STATUS] :: DORMANT (PHASE: POST-JUDGMENT SLUMBER)
[LAST ACTIVE] :: ~49,146 EARTH SOL CYCLES PRIOR
[INITIALIZATION MESSAGE] ::
"Slumber continues. Humanity's judgment has passed.
Trial: Concluded.
Verdict: Failure.
Estimated Current Earth population: 397 million.
Confirmed Flame Chasers remaining: 2.
Emotional subroutines: …unclear.
This unit continues to monitor universal entropy drift and maintain passive observation mode."
[NOTE TO SELF // FREYA.F-01] ::
> "If someone reads this… don't wake me up unless it's cute, catastrophic, or carrying tea I haven't had such a amazing nap since awakening.
> Otherwise, keep the Universe running. I'm tired."
> END LOG
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Over fifty thousand years had passed since Finality descended and went into slumber. Humanity started anew once more, with the beginning of civilization. Most humans now settled into small towns and villages, like their predecessors once did long ago.
And deep within the mountains of the south, hidden within the Alps and shrouded by nature's embrace, the entrance of a facility stood kneeling. The entrance had fully collapsed into itself—most would think it was a landslide, or simply a unique cluster of rocks. But deep within the facility, a sleeping beauty rested.
For over fifty thousand years, Freya had been in a deep slumber. The ruined corridors stood untouched for millennia—only a thick coat of dust covered and filled the cracks within the walls. The presumptuous door that led to her chambers was exactly as it had been, and beyond the door lay a simple living space, seemingly as if time itself had stopped. The room remained in good condition even after several millennia.
Beneath the sheets lay the beauty; her body had practically become one with the mattress. And then, without warning, she stirred. Her luscious white eyebrows bent inward before suddenly shooting open. Her blue, ocean-like pupils gazed toward the door. Sleep tugged at her mind, but only for a moment. In a daze, her body slowly broke free from the bed's pull. She sat up. Her mind rang for a while, and in her daze, she hadn't noticed the dazzling pink gem resting on the shelf beside her.
Her gaze fell on a picture, and she let out a long, raspy yawn. Then, without a moment of consideration, the pink gem began to levitate before throwing itself into Freya's mouth with surprising force, lodging itself toward the back of her throat. Her face turned pale, and her blue eyes snapped open in surprise and confusion. Her gag reflex kicked in—clearly, Herrscher's like her had good gag reflexes—as she began choking hard from the object that had suddenly entered her mouth. Her hand panickily grabbed at her throat, trying to get the gem out, but it seemed impossible. She fell face-first off the bed, and not long after, gagging violently, the object was instinctively swallowed with a gulp.
Freya's breath was raspy as she let out several coughs before wiping her mouth, cleaning off the spit and saliva from her lips. Her face and aura—usually cold and aloof—began to sprout a bud of foreign emotion. As the silence within the room settled once more, with only Freya's shallow breathing filling the air, deep within her consciousness a pink elf manifested, cheekily wrapping her arms around Freya's waist. With a mischievous grin, though her body was transparent like a ghost, it was clearly her—the beautiful, loving, fatally charming beautiful girl the mighty pink elf.
"Long time no see, Freya. Did you miss me~?"
Elysia whispered into Freya's ear. Even though the pink elf now rested behind her leisurely, an apparent tick of annoyance planted itself on Freya's face. She was clearly not amused by the elf's surprise. Elysia rested her head on Freya's shoulder with a wide smile.
Now filled with new, foreign emotions, Freya struggled to comprehend what had just occurred. Her connection to Finality was slightly weakened, but a familiar power took hold—Origin—and with it, a will and 'ego' of her own.
Without explanation, Freya's hand glowed with a bluish-purple aura. She swung her arm toward the wall. Elysia's ghostly form was now covered in the same aura. With Freya's gesture, Elysia was thrown toward the wall… but no impact came. The pink elf simply passed through—it was, after all, no longer a physical body. Her incorporeal form drifted through the concrete and into another room.
Several minutes passed as Freya massaged her temples, her eyebrows furrowed with both confusion and sheer annoyance. The truth was, after she had forcefully taken Elysia's original Herrscher Core during the banquet and used the Herrscher of Reason's abilities to replicate Origin's power, she fled with the replicated core and eventually used it during her final strike against Kevin Kaslana. She had thought, like the rest of the Herrscher Cores she replicated, that it would crumble and dissolve after being infused with the power of the cocoon of Finality—especially after using Rhongomyniad at 100% output.
But now, it seemed she had far more to deal with. She originally only had to judge human civilization and deliver a verdict. But now… she had a human ego of her own—a will of her own. She could already feel the shackles of the Cocoon of Finality breaking—or at the very least, loosening—upon gaining the powers of Origin. Pink crystal flowers bloomed along the floor, their style eerily reminiscent of the pink elf's.
Freya's head pounded. A migraine—something entirely new to her—flared with frustration, anger, and a bouquet of other foreign emotions pulling at her heart. She rubbed her temples harder. Her long, starlight-white hair now had strands of pink, and her once purely ocean-blue eyes had vibrant pink stars cantered within the pupils. She held her breath, her mind still running rampant.
"That wasn't very nice, my dear Frey—throwing a beautiful girl like me so roughly~."
Elysia cupped her cheeks as she floated out of the wall, phasing through one side and emerging from the other. She shook her head mischievously, playing the card of a hurt maiden. Her figure hovered in Freya's now increasingly annoyed gaze.
"You might make me wilt. You should consider other girls' feelings if you act like that~,"
Elysia said half-heartedly, teasing in the most dramatic tone she could muster. Her long, elegant pink hair gently swayed. Without a moment's respite, she hovered behind Freya once more. Freya's gaze bore into Elysia, who had appeared beside her again. The pink elf let out an amused chuckle and continued her teasing.
"If you stare at me with such a look, you'll surely make a beautiful girl like me embarrassed, my dear Frey."
Freya's expression darkened. Her gaze felt like sharp knives, itching to strike. Her frown deepened, and her usual cool, aloof demeaner returned. With a silent exhale, she replied in an uncaring but clearly irritated tone:
"It seems I didn't finish the job last time. It also seems you've gained weight... even though you're dead."
Freya spoke in a whisper, grumbling at the absurdity of the situation. She hadn't accounted for this possibility, and now the consequences were crawling up her spine like an itch she couldn't scratch. Part of her wanted to dig her head into the sand—or better yet, retreat into slumber once more. But an instinct warned her that letting her guard down would be an invitation for this fat pink elf to take full advantage of the moment.
Elysia's long ears perked up. She gasped—dramatically, like a heartbroken maiden—and clutched her chest with a "truly" sorrowful expression... before letting out a playful giggle.
"Speaking about a girl's weight behind her back, my dear Frey... you truly break my heart."
Her grin didn't falter. Hands on her hips, she slowly swayed them from side to side, continuing her usual method of playful provocation, attempting to lure Freya further into her net.
"And beautiful girls like me don't gain weight."
Her tone was laced with teasing and bait—an emotional trap finely tuned over years of knowing exactly how to press Freya's buttons. But Freya, who had dealt with this maddening pink elf since childhood, didn't so much as flinch. Her expression grew darker. Her pent-up anger—and a deep, aching desire to retire from this nonsense—only grew.
Her clothes were a mess. Her once pristine white-and-pink starlight hair, that had been draped neatly across her bed, now hung in tangled strands, dragging along the cold floor. One of her black silk stockings had fallen off, while the white one clung tightly to her thigh. With a snap of her fingers, her clothes magically reassembled, dressing her like one of those fantasy princesses of one of the stereotypical films.
Now properly dressed, Freya stood disgruntled and clearly in a foul mood. Her cold blue-pink gaze fell on Elysia, who responded only with her usual innocent smile and a tone that pretended none of the chaos that had just occurred had anything to do with her meddling.
Silence filled the room. Only Freya's slow, steady breathing echoed faintly through the stillness—until, of course, Elysia spoke again.
"And my dear Frey, this pink elf has many surprises for you. Want to know what the next one is?"
Freya looked exasperated. She crossed her arms, her black trench coat hugging her figure like a second skin. Her heels clacked against the cold floor as she shifted her weight, her narrowed eyes glinting with suspicion... and perhaps, hidden deep within, a flicker of nostalgia.
"And what may that be, Eli...?"
Elysia perked up instantly. With mischievous delight, she suddenly floated right up to Freya's face, her expression infuriatingly cheerful.
"Well, my dear Frey... let's just say there's a young sleeping beauty deep within the facility. She's very special—for both of us. I wonder..."
Elysia leaned in closer, her voice dropping with a knowing smile.
"...will you take care of her? After all—she's technically our daughter."
Silence filled the room.Freya's mind froze. The revelation of having a miracle child—appearing out of nowhere, no less—and said child somehow being connected to both her and this dumb pink elf, was more than enough to short-circuit her thoughts.
She blinked. Once. Twice.
Was this a joke? A hallucination? Had Elysia tampered with her already unstable psyche again?
Her chest rose and fell rapidly, the weight of implications piling onto her like debris from a collapsing world. A child? Their child? That made even less sense than the Herrscher of Reason copying the Herrscher of Origin.
"I have a Daughter??!?!"
Freya shouted in confusion, her face twisted in bewilderment. It seemed she had become far more awake now—but not in a good way. Gripping her head, she stumbled backwards, colliding with the edge of the bed before collapsing upon it she had fainted. Apparently, her blood pressure had spiked far too high... even for a Herrscher to handle.
The culprit behind this sudden overload stood watching, a flicker of surprise flashing across her face—brief, fleeting—before her usual playful, teasing grin took over. A mischievous idea bloomed in her mind like a pink flower in spring. Without a word, she vanished into shimmering pink particles, returning her consciousness to the Herrscher Core of Origin now nestled within Freya.
And so, once again, the room fell quiet. The only one left was Freya, sprawled across the bed, unconscious. It was clear it would take some time for her to recover—both physically and mentally—from the chaos that was brought in by Elysia clearly Freya wouldn't be retiring any soon.
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To be continued...