>Unknown Labyrinth - Floor Unknown
The silence was unbearable.
Every step Noct and his team took sent cracks of soundless pressure through the frost-laced air, like their very presence defied the will of the entity that ruled this floor. Noct's hand gripped the hilt of Twice, his breath condensing in slow, visible waves that seemed to hang too long in the dead air.
Mia crept alongside him, daggers drawn and movements fluid, her sharp eyes scanning every crystalline edge. Ellen flanked the opposite side, her sword already humming faintly from stored momentum, whispering with potential energy. They all felt it—the oppressive stillness, the quiet that clawed at their thoughts.
And then, it moved.
The Silencer glided from the shadows, its form gaunt and cloaked in frost-draped robes that didn't so much move as they drifted unnaturally. Noct raised a hand instinctively, and yet no words came. No sound escaped his lips.
The Eternal Frost had begun.
Rime bloomed outwards from the Silencer's path, freezing the stone beneath their feet and coating their weapons with fine layers of hoarfrost. Ellen stepped forward to strike but staggered mid-charge as her feet stuck slightly to the floor. Mia tried to warn her, but no voice emerged.
The wave of stillness dampened more than noise. It smothered intent.
Mia spun in, trying to strike from the side, but the Silencer vanished—Soundless Step. Her daggers cut only air, and in the same moment, spectral frost-chains erupted from the ground, latching onto her limbs and dragging her to one knee. Her eyes widened in panic as the chains pulsed, draining her aether.
Noct's eyes narrowed.
Twice flickered with echoing sorrow. The blade hissed into his hand as a second version mirrored itself from his shadow.
The pain of the past year, the weight of abandonment, loss, and suffering fed the sword's core.
And it grew stronger.
The new copy shimmered with faint static grief, its edges sharper, the weight perfectly honed. Noct dashed forward, each blink skipping physics, each motion a defiance of the stillness. The Silencer turned to intercept, lifting an arm, and unleashed Void Howl.
There was no sound.
But the agony was immediate.
A scream not heard but felt, a rending hallucination that made Noct stagger mid-stride. Memories not his own burned into his skull—a cathedral of ice, voices dying one by one, the First Voice silenced forever.
Ellen moved next.
A burst of motion down the cleared center-line. Her ability, Severance Drive, built power with every meter covered. The longer she ran straight, the more devastating her swing. She blurred forward and brought her blade down on the Silencer's back, shattering the outer frost layer.
The creature didn't cry out. It couldn't.
But it turned.
Chains lashed out again, but Mia was ready this time. With a burst of speed, she flanked and tore through the ghostly bindings on her limbs, using momentum to drive one dagger into the Silencer's chest—only for her blade to phase through.
Mirage.
The real Silencer was behind Noct.
It raised its hands.
Frost erupted.
But Twice was faster.
The grief-forged blade shattered the frost on contact and cleaved upward. The copy struck the entity's arm, and the original sliced through its midsection with a reverse arc. The Silencer recoiled, part of its robes torn and unraveling into icy motes.
Noct didn't stop.
Twice pulsed again, creating yet another blade—he threw it. The third sword pierced the creature's chest and pulsed, humming with a new ability: Resonance Collapse. A skill spontaneously created by the sword to counter stillness with harmonic destabilization.
The Silencer faltered.
Its aura cracked.
Chains shattered.
The room trembled with echoes of sound returning—first a low hiss, then a rushing wave of ambience as their own footsteps and heartbeats flooded back into perception. The Eternal Frost receded.
The Silencer disintegrated into a flurry of frozen runes, vanishing with one final, soundless sigh.
The boss had been defeated.