Ekseltus paid no mind to Freya's wariness, instead responding in a calm tone: "My name is Ekseltus, and I am here to warn you that the seal of Yogg-Saron has a loophole."
Freya did not immediately answer.
She gazed at his five-colored scales, a harmony she had never conceived of.
"You are not a creation of the Titans," she said softly. "Nor are you one of the Dragon Aspects with whom we shared our power."
"No," Ekseltus admitted with a nod. "And this is irrelevant to my purpose here."
He paused for a moment before continuing:
"I only require a small amount of access."
Freya did not yield; instead, she took a step forward, and the flowers and plants at her feet grew, spreading towards Ekseltus's feet.
"Access? By what right do you seek access from a Titan Guardian?"
Her tone was still gentle, but it carried an unyielding firmness that brooked no intrusion.
This was not a test, but a sense of duty.
She was the Guardian of Life, stationed in Ulduar for tens of millions of years, never easily trusting any visitor, no matter how perfect he appeared.
"My intention is not to borrow power," Ekseltus's voice was clear and deep. "Only to prevent a mistake from recurring."
As he spoke, he raised a single claw, and a shadow surged in the void, a segment of a purple tentacle appearing out of thin air, hovering silently between them.
Although it had been completely purified and had entirely lost its void power, Freya recognized its origin at a glance.
"Yogg-Saron…" she murmured softly, a flicker of unease appearing in her eyes.
She instinctively extended her perception to investigate, and then her expression changed.
"It's a bit different," she said in a low voice. "Did you purify it?"
"It slipped out of its cage," Ekseltus did not name Tuke, simply stating briefly, "It transformed into a false god, intending to corrupt mortal minds, and nearly succeeded."
Freya remained silent for a long time.
She gazed at the tentacle, then at the unfamiliar yet non-hostile visitor before her, her expression gradually settling into one of pure scrutiny.
"You still don't want to tell me who you are?"
"I have already given my name," Ekseltus was unwilling to say more.
"But you haven't asked for my name," the Guardian of Life smiled, seemingly having made her own guess. "Since that is the case, I will show you."
Of course, she couldn't sense the anomaly in the seal.
If the Guardians could sense it, they would have dealt with it long ago.
This was what truly made her wary.
"Watch closely," she decided, gently raising her hand, and emerald green energy condensed into a light imprint at her fingertips.
"I cannot give you Titan access, but I can open up a view of the seal's internal records and structure."
"Tell me, where do you think the loophole is?"
Ekseltus looked at the emerald green spherical image before him and began to calculate. It was like a very complex math problem, requiring him to deduce the location of the loophole from the tiny ripples on the seal's surface.
By calling upon a portion of his main body's divine soul to assist in the calculation, he found the loophole in just five minutes.
"Here," Ekseltus pointed to a spot on the sphere.
Freya looked over at the sound.
This location was at a structural junction, neither on the main hall's ring road nor on the lowest level's chain seal of the prison, but instead in a ventilation shaft leading to the underground outside of Ulduar.
Her gaze froze instantly.
"…Impossible," she whispered. "That section of the passage was long ago designated as a Waste layer (discarded layer). In theory, it should have been demolished by the construction team long ago."
"Theory does not necessarily equal reality," Ekseltus's tone was indifferent. "And in reality, there indeed exists a gap here, too small for you to notice, but for Him, it was enough for a wisp of consciousness to escape."
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