A Shot at Freedeom

Haalfrin snaps awake from his memory. 'Yes,' the boy realizes, 'One of my Names is advancing… I can't let this opportunity go!'

So, the mage takes a quick look at his soul, and he sees that his Yiir (Fate) name is glowing brighter with a green hue.

Haalfrin rereads his Yiir Name, and the words remain the same… However, some of the visions that came with them change a little, and new knowledge pours into his mind about his Name power.

'So my comprehension of the Yiir name became greater,' Haalfrin confirms after studying the Name for a while, 'and the power inside it became stronger…Hm… Not only am I able to collect Death Aura inside my soul, but I'm also able to move it around and manipulate it's shape…'

Before, whenever Haalfrin released his Death Aura, it always radiated out of him in all directions – aimlessly reaching out into space like a huge bubble.

Now that he's advanced his Yiir Name… he can direct it – condense it in places and even reach further with it by changing the shape.

'This'll be useful…,' Haalfrin smirks with a cold glint in his eyes.

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Soon after Haalfrin advanced his Yiir Name, Haalfrin doesn't wait long before making his first escape attempt in years.

Patiently, the prisoner waits for the new feeding servant to come into his cell with the ground up meat and potato soup.

The second the servant's foot crosses the door's threshold, Haalfrin explodes out with his Death Aura, and instead of radiating out of him like usual, it shapes itself like a long, pointy tendril, and it shoots towards the servant like an invisible spear of death.

With his Aura condensed so tightly, this attack has Death Aura as thick as the Death Realm itself.

... And Haalfrin KNOWS that Aura can have serious effects other than simple fear if it's thick enough. For example, if he hadn't had the godly phoenix (Felkala's) feather with him to keep him alive, the death realm's aura would've made his body rot away, as every one of his cells age and die individually.

As for the new feeding servant… he's not so lucky as Haalfrin was back then; he has no magic artifact to save him from fatally Rick Aura.

Before the serving boy can even blink, he feels like his heart is being gripped by an invisible hand, and he immediately drops to the ground, gasping for air. The boy barely has time to craw out of the cell before twitching his last and passing away.

What Haalfrin doesn't know is that guards follow all the feeding servants around… which is why their reaction is always so fast whenever Haalfrin tries something.

Thus, just like all the other times Haalfrin has tried escaping, one of the guards in the hallway sees the poor boy die, and he draws his sword angrily, while the other guard bends down and checks the boy, confirming he's dead.

Both guards don't have time to do anything else, as they too feel an invisible force grip their hearts and squeeze.

The first guard is more stalwart than his companion, so he survives just long enough to run to the cell entrance. What he sees inside shakes away the remaining strength in his heart, and he reels back in terror.

What the torchlight in the hall should have illuminated in the cell is only black – blacker than a bottomless well. It's as if a black curtain is draped over the door, though in reality, there's no curtain; there's only a thick Aura that Haalfrin is too excited to control properly.

Out of the black void that is Haalfirn's cell, the guard hears the voice of a feral beast growl out, "Out. OUT! I'LL KILL YOU!!"

With these words, the Death Aura grows even sharper, and the guard too can no longer bear it… and he falls to the ground - twitching, then lifeless - just like the servant boy.

…Unfortunately for Haalfrin, the guard managed to shatter the alarm crystal that all prison personnel keep around their necks.

Within a half a minute, guards are swarming down towards Haalfrin's cell with swords drawn and grim looks on their faces.

By the time the guards get down, Haalfrin had already remotely gripped the fallen guard's sword and instructed one of his stronger Wills to get inside.

When the guards came in, Haalfrin gestures with his eyes towards the guards, and the possessed sword shoots out and impales another guard through the neck – freeing another weapon.

Indeed, Haalfrin had noticed that all the guards have had some strange enchantments put on their weapons that won't let his Wills possess them, so long as the guards are alive to maintain the spell. Probably some "anti-Haalfrin" measures the prison keepers put in place when they brought him here.

No matter. Haalfrin only needs to kill the guards to free up bodies for his Wills.

Pretty soon, all the common guards are dead, and Haalfrin's rescue force is equipped with 8 floating sword Wills. Unfortunately, none of the guards possess spare weapons, like daggers – likely another anti-Haalfrin measure.

"Well," Haalfrin mutters excitedly, "at least all the guards had shields on them. That makes 16 Wills with bodies now."

Haalfrin then looks over at the squad of floating weapons, squirms his toes in agitation, then commands aloud. "Now… free me!"

…As for how they're supposed to free him, Haalfrin has no idea. All these years have slipped away, and he still has never had a good look at his cell, nor at the enchantments keeping him in place.

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A middle aged woman stands in her office when she hears another alarm.

She rolls her eyes, expecting to look at the surveillance mirrors and see that the common prisoners in the upper levels had gotten into another brawl again. The upper levels are where all the non-mages are kept, after all, so it's not a big deal if something goes wrong there.

On top of that, the Pit accepts prisoners from all around the world. Because of this, they're always short on room… and since they don't have too much space for unimportant prisoners, they they just stuff all the weak ones together and call it good.

…The only downside is that the prisoners shank each other a lot…

The prison warden groans at having her breakfast interrupted, but she still gets up and looks at the enchanted map on the wall first. She then searches for what looks like a small animation of a fire, only to find it…

"All the way in the lower levels!?" she drops her tea and sputters out. That's where the top security prisoners are kept!

The warden rushes over to the mirror on another wall, and she puts her finger on the reflective surface and traces her finger over it – drawing out a floor number and a location code.

The mirror goes hazy, and she sees the scene of Haalfrin's cell. The first thing she beholds is what looks like a dozen weapons floating in the air of their own accord and banging against the detention boulder futilely.

The young-looking prisoner inside is looking up at the weapons – completely blind to the fact that there's an enchanted rope atop the boulder that multiplies the boulder's weight and durability. Other than that, there's another rope that's SUPPOSED to be restricting his magic.

Truthfully, the warden doesn't have a report on Haalfrin handy, but if she had his personal information in front of her, she'd have known that he has powers he can use without casting spells.

She then looks down the hall and sees a dozen guards lying dead in and just outside his cell.

Her face grows dark as she looks back over to the floating weapons. "How is he able to use magic right now? Well, at least he can't see the enchantments on top of the boulder, else he'd just escape.

The warden then picks up a far speak medallion, then says, "Officer Jenkins! I want you to turn on the sleep enchantment inside cell 53 on Basement floor 33."

She sits back down in her chair as she watches the mirror reflect an image of the prisoner's eyes droop down, then his head finally bow in slumber.

With the prisoner out of commission, the warden fully expects to see all the floating weapons fall to the ground… which never happens, by the way.

Getting a bad feeling in her gut, the warden picks up her far speak medallion again and calls out, "Officer Jenkins! Also, you need to send a platoon of mages down to cell 53, basement floor 33. Have them all unarmed with weapons or magic staffs, since the prisoner seems to be able to animate weapons… even while he's not conscious."

This time, the warden doesn't even dare to sit down as she watches the floating weapons anxiously for any developments.

Watching these things, the warden guesses they seem to have a mind of their own as they seems to be free of the prisoner's control, as he had fallen unconscious.

Then, she watches as some of the weapons dart out of the room and zip around the bottom floor, exploring the place. Others start looking around the cell, inspecting every corner.

One of the floating weapons notices the enchanted ropes atop the boulder, and it rushes up and severs them both in a single swipe.

Another sword Will floats up and notices the surveillance enchantments in all corners of the room. It turns to the other weapons, and they wiggle in the air at each other, as if they're in deep communication.

As one, all the weapons shoot to all corners of the room and smash a few key tiles. Then, the warden's surveillance mirror suddenly flashes and goes black.

Sweating a little now, the warden picks up the far-speak medallion for a third time. "Officer Jenkins?"

"WHAT!?" the officer finally replies.

"… Hurry there NOW!" the warden raises her voice. "I lost the surveillance enchantments down there, so I'm completely blind."

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After a minute or so, some of the exploring weapon Wills come across a company of mages sweeping the halls.

Without really thinking, some of these Wills rush forward and are immediately defeated, as all the incoming mages had their 2nd Gates open; two of them even have their 3rd gates open!

The only remaining Will backs up cautiously, then flies back the other direction – hopefully to distract the guards and draw them away.

Unfortunately, the guards all know exactly where they're going, so they ignore the fleeing shield.

Because of their spiritual link, all the other Wills on Floor 33 know about the incoming danger, so they all form up and prepare for battle – hoping dearly that Haalfrin would wake up and help them out with his new, overpowered ability to attack effectively with Aura.

When the mage guards come to the cell, all the shield Wills form a blockade at the door, and the sword Wills would poke through the cracks and stab at whoever comes too close.

These Wills have no physical arms and hands holding them, so there's really no indication where they're about to swing. This makes them very hard to defend against for a normal person.

So, as the sword Wills chaotically stab out, they occasionally hit the mage's vital spots – sometimes killing them, but more often than not, the mage's protective spells and enchanted armor protect them instead.

A minute after this little siege, Haalfrin finally wakes up, and he sees his Wills battling the guards outside. He also feels that the enchantment on the boulder is gone… and he mentally pats his Wills on the back. 'You're all so dependable,' he thinks in his heart. The thousands of Wills in his soul twitch in his heart with what Haalfrin assumes is happiness.

In the next moment, Haalfrin's eyes zero in on the mages outside, knowing that now's the best chance to escape.