Chapter 701: The Truth Behind the Abyss (1)

In a flash of crimson light, Audrey vanished .. leaving Frey completely alone.

What she did was supposed to be a warning... a desperate attempt to pull Frey out of the darkness and give him at least a glimpse of the hidden truths of the world he knew nothing about.

But the result was the opposite.

Her words didn’t guide him ..they shattered him.

"Agaroth kept me alive all this time because I’m the key to breaking his seal...

And Odin ..the most mysterious among the Great Ones ..is actually a catastrophe on the same level as the Demon King..."

Frey whispered slowly, sinking down onto the cold stone floor beneath him.

"Audrey... what exactly am I supposed to do with this?"

Audrey’s appearance... the way she spoke to him... the emotions reflected in her eyes—none of it belonged to someone meeting him for the first time.

They belonged to someone who knew him.

Someone who knew him deeply.

Without noticing, Frey touched his own lips, replaying the moment as he struggled to make sense of it.

Agaroth.

Odin.

Himself.

And Nameless.

There was a connection between these names ..a thread binding them all together, dragging them inevitably toward the same collision.

"I’ve only lived twice...

Once as Frey Starlight ..the life I live now...

And once as a normal human who knew nothing about this world...

So how does Audrey know me?"

"What am I missing about myself? What am I... exactly?"

Frey exhaled sharply, frustration and impatience tightening inside him.

His hand moved on its own, pulling out the cold black mask and placing it over his face.

"Answer me... Nameless."

The moment he spoke that name ..

Frey’s consciousness fell into darkness.

Down, down... into that familiar abyss where the campfire burned eternally.

His other selves ..fragments from different points of his life ..sat around the fire as always. Frey ignored them and walked deeper into the darkness, toward the deepest corner of that void.

His power had grown immensely since the fight with Wisker. And after absorbing Audrey’s aura, his connection with Nameless strengthened enough to push past the fog that once blocked him.

A few more steps ..

Then he stopped.

And looked down with a cold expression.

There he was.

The monster feared by countless demons.

Nameless sat on a simple chair, bare-chested, barefoot, head lowered. His long white hair mirrored Frey’s exactly, and his face was hidden behind the black metal mask.

Chains lay broken around him ..proof he had freed himself long ago.

Proof he could fight at any moment, take over Frey’s body whenever he wished.

And yet...

He did nothing.

He simply sat in silence, unmoving.

Frey clenched his jaw.

"How long do you plan to sit there?

How long will you keep refusing to move?"

He dropped to one knee, bringing himself to Nameless’s eye level .. not that Nameless bothered to look up.

"Here.

Try taking my body again.

I won’t resist this time."

Frey’s voice was deep and calm .. too calm.

"If it’s you, I’m sure you can handle everything.

You’re stronger than me.

You understand this world.

No one can manipulate you the way they manipulate me."

"So take it.

Take my body.

Do whatever you want with it.

Just promise me one thingn .. save a certain number of people.

Keep them alive."

A strained smile formed on Frey’s lips.

"It’s a good deal, right?

It shouldn’t be difficult for you."

Silence.

Nameless sat motionless.

Then .. slowly he raised his head, and his glowing violet eyes finally locked onto Frey.

Frey felt a chill run down his spine.

Then Nameless spoke a single word.

"No."

That was it.

One word.

Frey’s expression twisted with anger.

"No?

What do you mean no?!"

He tried to grab Nameless by the head, but an invisible force stopped him mid-movement.

Still, Frey roared:

"You and your followers forced me to become your vessel!

My life became hell because of you!

And when I finally offer it to a .. you refuse?!"

"Then tell me... what do you want?!"

His voice echoed through the void, shaking its walls.

"Answer me! nameless!"

And at last ..

Nameless moved.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

His voice was calm... too calm.

"I... don’t know."

Frey froze.

"...What?"

Nameless lifted his hands, staring at them in confusion, fingers trembling slightly.

His aura surged ..wild, unstable ..reminding Frey exactly who he was dealing with.

"I don’t know what’s happening to me.

I don’t know why I’m here.

Or what my purpose is."

The legendary king who felt nothing ..

The emotionless being who once viewed the world with perfect detachment ..

Now clenched his fists.

Hard.

Aura burst outward in a violent shockwave.

"I’ve never felt anything like this before...

These emotions..."

For the first time in his existence ..

Nameless was feeling.

And the strangest part?

These emotions weren’t his.

They belonged to Frey Starlight.

And somehow...

Somehow they were bleeding into Nameless.

In other words, Nameless began to experience exactly what Frey felt.

"When you suffer... I suffer.

When you grieve... your sorrow bleeds into me.

Your joy, your pain .. everything."

Nameless spoke in a heavy tone before exhaling quietly.

"I never realized emotions could be this... agonizing.

So loud, so unbearable. They truly are... a curse."

The word curse perfectly captured what Nameless saw in Frey’s suffering .. the essence of his human torment.

"You’ve been there... inside me all along."

Frey finally understood .. Nameless had been present from the very beginning, witnessing everything: the despair, the rage, the loss. He had lived through Frey’s memories as if they were his own.

Something changed within Nameless as a result.

Frey’s anguish .. something the emotionless king had never known .. awakened a foreign presence inside him.

Possessing emotions made Nameless recall his own deeds .. the bloodshed, the ruin, the countless lives he’d taken in his pursuit of knowledge and power.

He was no hero, nor a just ruler.

He was a monster .. one responsible for more deaths than even the Demon King himself.

"Are you... feeling guilt?"

Frey asked. Nameless fell silent for a moment before answering softly.

"I don’t know."

He couldn’t name what he was feeling, but it was something that had no place in the heart of a being like him.

Frey calmed himself, trying to understand.

"Earlier, you said you don’t know why you exist within me. What did you mean by that?"

If this was meant to be Nameless’s resurrection .. a process turning Frey into his vessel then his ignorance didn’t make sense. Frey suspected he was lying... but the mask had no reason to deceive him.

"I don’t know what Gehrman is trying to achieve .. or what his true goal is.

My current memories are limited to what lies inside the mask.

That’s why my existence itself is incomplete."