"Where is Uriah Narco?"
There was no answer given in response to Kirst Elthirst's question from Raylam Priest Academy's section but a few seconds after he had asked the question, someone slowly walked through the corridor entrance on the opposite side of the field to Kirst's front. Kirst took the chance to cancel his Blood Lord spell and vaporize the staircase that he had created while he eyed the entrant. Kirst easily recognized the silver haired man that was currently focused on removing some lint from his sweater as he walked towards the center of the field.
This person had very pale-white skin, a head full of short but flowing silver hair, glowing blue eyes, sharp eyebrows and seemed to at least be in his mid-twenties. He wore a pair of fitting, dark-blue jeans pants, a pair of black and blue sneakers and a thick, black parka sweater. Kirst eventually remarked loudly:
"Uriah Narco, could you be any cooler?"
Kirst didn't show it but he was internally annoyed with Uriah's relaxed and carefree entrance; it made his own show of power look like a joke:
(I cast Blood Lord to create those blood stairs and directed my question so grandly at Raylam Priest Academy's section so that I could intimidate Uriah Narco before the battle begun but look at him now. He slowly walked onto the field without a care in the world, didn't even glance at my staircase made of blood and hasn't even looked at me once. He is too arrogant, just too 'cool'.)
Hearing Kirst's question, Uriah finally looked away from his sweater and replied with a half oblivious expression:
"Oh, I thought that you were trying to make the audience laugh before the battle began and I felt that I should take the opportunity to clean my sweater a little."
Both of Kirst's eyes opened wide and then began to twitch in response to hearing Uriah's words.
(That bastard just basically called me a clown. He, he, he. I like talented people but he is asking for it...)
The spectators laughed after witnessing Uriah's entrance, then the brief verbal exchange between Uriah and Kirst and finally Kirst's face after Uriah mocked him. The spectators discussed:
"Kirst Elthirst is the son of a very influential elder within the royal family and is someone highly valued by his teachers because of his strength and potential."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. All that is great but in a battle, fists don't consider your pedigree before your face is smashed in. What do we really know about Kirst's full power? Based on how Uriah Narco dealt with Victoria Nelson in the last round, if Kirst doesn't come correct, he is done."
"Why are you so worried about Kirst not being able to perform well? He may not have showed much of his power so far but surely his reputation isn't just sweet smelling fart."
"You don't get it. Too many times I've witnessed that many of these privileged 'aristocrats' are just hyped up by boot lickers and that the ones with the most lavish reputations are just paper tigers."
"Well, Kirst openly specializes in blood path so he should not be a paper tiger."
"Right, it is not easy to go about in society while being a Blood Magician."
"Ha! That's laughable. Kirst is practically royalty. Even if he practices the pernicious blood path, the royal family will protect him from any negative pressure that results."
...
Blood path had a generally bad reputation and was hated in most cultures on Grand Earth. That was because blood path was very well suited for combat, to a terrifying degree, and in the past, there were many infamous Magicians that created artificial seas of blood using other people as the base. For that reason, although it was not illegal to practise blood path, there was strong societal pressure to shun those that did.
That being said, most strong and influential organizations discreetly nurtured Blood Magicians or at least had blood path methods. That was because blood path was just too useful when fighting for and keeping resources. In the Magician world, obtaining and protecting resources was usually paramount and no amount of moral outcry was going to change that.
Back on the field, Uriah soon stood about twenty meters away from Kirst, near the field center. At that time, both Apprentice Magicians eyed each other with curious gazes, not knowing what to really expect from the other besides what little they saw during their opponent's battle royal match and their brief one-on-one battle that followed. Kirst thought:
(I saw Uriah overwhelm Victoria Nelson in a manner that surprised me because his dominance was almost solely based on the quality of his magic power. His ice path powers are not typical, that is for sure, and I suspect that he has talents...troublesome talents...)
Uriah also mused:
(Kirst Elthirst. This guy is basically royalty and has a lot of resources at his disposal. Sigh, when will I be that wealthy? Well, at least after I beat him, I should be closer to obtaining some wealth. Kirst is a blood path Magician and they have a bad reputation for being strong; that little showcase earlier probably indicates that their reputation is not just useless talk. I've come too far in the last few years to lose out to someone who has had it easy. I will win!)
Ralph sensed that both competitors were eager to begin and so he gave his command:
"Begin the match!"
Neither Kirst nor Uriah hesitated in casting their first spells:
(Blood Lord)
(Influence Of Absolute Zero)
Blue, cold winds were immediately generated around Uriah and blew away from him in all directions; the temperature of the surroundings dropped noticeably as a result. When the cold wind was about to blow over Kirst's position, he laughed and then the moisture within the air directly in front of him condensed into blood and solidified into the shape of a wide, towering shield within moments.
Kirst grabbed the shield by its two vertically positioned handles at its center and braced himself and the shield. The cold wind then blew against and around the blood shield, most of it never coming into contact with Kirst himself. The front of the shield quickly developed signs of freezing as blue frost began to gradually spread across it.
Once the blue, cold winds had past, Kirst nonchalantly threw the towering shield aside because it was too heavy for him to wield indefinitely. Kirst then clenched his right hand and blood condensed within his right grip, solidifying in order to take on the shape of a common tree axe.
Following that, blood was quickly condensed in large amounts, about three feet behind Kirst and three meters above the ground, following which, it poured down heavily unto the ground, dying the grass red and soaking the ground as a shallow pool began to form around Kirst. Kirst rested the blood axe on his right shoulder and spoke to Uriah seriously:
"I hope that you're ready for this."
Uriah said nothing and simply waved his right hand at Kirst.
(Ice Barrage)
Blue ice was immediately generated one foot in front of Uriah and shot out towards Kirst in the form of a gradually rising slope. The ice had rose four meters above the ground by the time that it crossed the twenty-meter distance between Uriah and Kirst within almost three seconds. The ice was about to crash into Kirst but he resolved three spells before it did:
(Blood Wave)
(Blood Debt)
(Blood Lust)
The shallow blood pool at Kirst's feet suddenly rose up, raising Kirst along with it in order to form an eight-meter-high, two-meter-wide wave that rushed over the incoming blue ice to move towards Uriah. Uriah took an unconscious step back with his right leg when he saw the blood wave suddenly appear.
Before he decided on his next course of action, he quickly noticed faint blood stains develop on his parka sweater and pants, followed by which, he suddenly sensed magic energy being drained from his mindscape. Uriah then focused his attention on his magic energy reserves for a few moments and soon realized that since Kirst's blood wave appeared, he had lost over 500 magical units of magic energy. Uriah was alarmed:
(What is this situation? The sudden blood stains and then my unexpected loss of magic energy...these events must have something to do with Kirst's methods. I can perfectly calculate my magic energy expenditure while using my own spells so I know that my loss of magic energy just now was unnatural. Hmph!)
By the time that Uriah finished his thought, Kirst's blood wave loomed over him and seemed about to crash down onto him while Kirst himself raised his blood axe, ready to chop at Uriah the moment that Uriah was within his reach. Uriah was ready to deal with Kirst, though.
(Absolute Freeze, Persistent Influence)
Uriah's body suddenly released a cloud of magic energy exhaust in an instant and his glowing blue eyes glimmered for a moment. Before Kirst was able to crash down onto Uriah using his blood wave, Kirst felt a startling drop in the surrounding temperature, which had already been significantly decreased since the start of the battle. Moments after that, just as the blood wave had moved down by several meters and his blood axe was almost within reach of Uriah, Kirst's vision became completely filled with blue ice.
FFFFFAAAAFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAFFFFFFFFAAAAA...
The sound of blue ice spreading could be heard as a large glacier was created on the field within moments, which not only froze over Kirst's blood wave, but Kirst was also caught by the ice and encased within the glacier. The glacier rose up to well over thirty meters above ground and covered the ground at a radius of about forty meters. The temperature within the surroundings had dropped well below zero degrees Celsius at that point and blue frost began spreading over Uriah's jacket, soon covering the blood stains previously made by Kirst's methods.
Uriah breathed in and then out deeply while observing the large glacier in front of himself; his breath was made visible under the influence of the surrounding cold.
Within Richter Order Academy's section, Nick had already stored his tablet computer into his space band as soon as the match had started and so he watched Uriah's and Kirst's battle intently. He mused:
(I'm very interested in this match because of both Uriah and Kirst. Uriah's magic power is phenomenal and I can tell that it is not only as a result of his high quality spells, he also seems to be well trained in terms of the control of his magic power. He froze Kirst and all of the latter's blood magic power within seconds before Kirst managed to crash into him. Kirst himself is a member of the royal family like Desmond and cultivates blood path. Since I know that the royal family is supposed to be the strongest magical organization within the country, I want to see what results their resources can produce in the form of one of their own.)
Patrice cast her Deductive Thoughts spell and her eyes glowed purple as a result. Soon, she muttered aloud:
"That Kirst fellow is getting ready to make another move."
The other spectators began noticing a surge in blood path magic power that filled the atmosphere with the faint smell of iron. They discussed:
"Kirst isn't done yet."
"God, it's cold. The arena is restricting most of the temperature reducing effects of Uriah Narco's spells that occur beyond the field but we are still being made to feel some of the cold. I would not want to be in Kirst's place."
"I thought that Kirst's blood path methods were supposed to be powerful? I haven't seen him do anything noteworthy so far. Is blood path really as dangerous as people say?"
"Look! The glacier is turning red."
...
Uriah also quickly noticed the surge in blood magic power using his advanced magic sense. Within a few seconds, the upper half of the glacier developed a blood red hue and blood began being condensed around the glacier at a startling pace using the moisture within the atmosphere. Soon, the glacier was soaked in blood and the blood continued to flow onto the field and spread outwards all around the glacier.
Uriah's shoes soon became stained with blood as it flowed below and past him. An ominous feeling arose within Uriah and he began preparing for the worst.
Seconds later, the glacier became blood-red in its entirety and then gradually melted into actual blood. Uriah already sensed the loss of his control of the magic power imbued within the glacier, so he knew that it was no longer really made up of ice and there was nothing that he could do about that. He mused:
(Kirst turned my ice into blood? Refining my magic power like that means that his spells are not inferior to mine. My absolute cold inheritance was given to me by my grandfather and has been developed all the way up to the rank 8 standard, so it's not typical for someone to refine my methods' effects using their own magic power...)
Uriah then cast Freezing White Mist while the blood at his feet quickly rose to about half-a-foot above ground due to the melting 'blood glacier'. White mist that brought about a harsh cold then appeared all over the field due to Freezing White Mist's effect. Uriah stood firmly as the temperature within the surroundings decreased even further due the influence of his white mist. He noticed at this time that despite the currently freezing ambient temperatures, the blood on the field continue to flow freely.
(The ambient temperature has long since fallen below the freezing point of blood. Even if this blood was created by Kirst's magic power, it should not be flowing so unrestrained since the freezing cold was brought about by my own magic power unless he is facilitating the current happenings using an active method. Keeping so much blood flowing while mitigating the effects of my cold can't be easy on his magic energy reserves.)
Blood soon covered most of the field, heavily dying the ground with a red hue and when only about a one-meter-high portion of the blood glacier's base was left remaining of it, Uriah finally heard Kirst's voice sound, presumably from within the base of the blood glacier:
"Sorry for the wait, Uriah Narco."
Uriah heard that and then felt an incredible surge in the magic power all around him.
(Blood Lady)
The blood covering the field was instantly vaporized, dying the atmosphere in a deep-red hue. The concentration of blood vapor was so high that Uriah could not see much around himself except red; even the remaining portion of the blood glacier had been vaporized. Uriah cast one of his advanced grade spells in response to the creation of the blood vapor:
(Ice Spiritual)
No sooner than Uriah had cast his spell, his magic sense alerted him to the blood vapor beginning to change properties but it was too late for him to react any further. All the blood vapor within the atmosphere immediately condensed and hardened into blood spikes of varying lengths that pierced into the ground and rose upwards, most rising at varying angles.
Uriah's eyes became blood-shot as his body erupted with pain all over. He quickly observed his own situation and realized that he had been impaled from his rear, front and flanks. Two blood spikes impaled his lower-torso at his front, three blood spikes impaled his upper-back from his rear and one blood spike impaled him at each of his sides. Of course, the blood spikes quickly began to freeze over, starting at Uriah's wounds and following that, Uriah's own body began taking on the form of solid ice, even his clothes. Uriah internally commented at this time:
(Ice Flesh is a powerful talent but I have a feeling that if I had not cast Ice Spiritual to further transform my flesh into the 'essence of ice', I would be in trouble right now. The blood magic power around me right now is incredibly high quality.)
Uriah painfully glanced around him and then became aware that the field had basically become a 'blood forest' with the blood spikes acting as trees. In front of Uriah, at one end of the blood forest, Kirst sat comfortably on a one-and-a-half-meter-high throne that seemed to be made entirely of solid blood. Kirst sat upright with both his arms perched on the blood throne's armrests; he noticed that some of his magic energy was somehow drained from his mindscape unnaturally but to him, it was an inconsequential loss so he ignored it for the time being. He soon pointed at Uriah with his right index finger, saying:
"Since your last match, I've noticed that you don't bleed. That's real weird of you, and I know that it's not just because of the effects of your spells. C'mon, tell me. What talent do you have that is creating such an effect? You'd really be helping me out by giving me the deets."
Kirst laughed heartily after saying that but then became eerily silent a few moments later and glared at Uriah like an executioner in the presence of his next victim.
Uriah returned Kirst's glare with one of his own and replied with clear dislike in his tone:
"You know something; you talk too much..."
It had been a long while since Uriah felt visceral discomfort like this. At this time, memories of the distant, uncomfortable past filled his mind.
************************************************************
"Get up, boy! We have another day of training ahead of us, so don't you dare try to squander it."
A young boy that seemed to be about twelve years old, rose from his bed and wearily rubbed both his eyes with his seemingly thin, and frail, pale-white hands. This boy had a very pale-white complexion, almost to the point of looking sickly, he had blue eyes, sharp eyebrows and short but flowing silver hair. The boy soon removed his hands from his eyes and blinked rapidly until his vision became clear.
The boy then saw an old man that seemed to be in his sixties, standing at the lower end of his bed and looking at him with a stern expression. The old man wore a brick-red and brown flannel jacket, a pair of straight, dark blue Jeans pants and a pair of worn, brown work boots. The old man had a head full of flowing silver hair that reach down to the nape of his neck, complimented by well-kept side burns, mustache and beard. The boy complained:
"Grandpa, I don't want to train anymore. Lying in bed is so much more pleasant."
The old man opened both his eyes wide in response to the boy's words before they began to twitch. He replied to the boy with solemnness in his tone:
"This is my last warning. Get out of bed, Uriah."
Young Uriah sighed and finally got out of bed. He was wearing a pair of white cloth shorts and a white t-shirt. The old man then basically supervised Uriah as the boy showered, got dressed in a pair of dark-blue jeans pants and a black wool sweater and had breakfast. Uriah sat at the dining table and ate his meal of fried eggs and toast.
The dining table was made of unpolished wood, much like the rest of the cabin that Uriah and his grandfather were currently living in. Uriah's grandfather sat at the other end of the dining table and Uriah soon spoke to him flippantly:
"Grandpa, Alaska is so cold and boring. I don't like the cold. I want to go home or at least somewhere that I can get a tan."
The old man, who had been keeping a solemn expression all this time, looked up from his own meal of eggs and toast and replied:
"If I stepped even a foot within the United Kingdom at this point, I would be executed by the Magicians Association. Our Narco family did something unforgivable in their eyes and they want to punish me through exile. They didn't believe that killing your father, mother, my other children, grandchildren and relatives were enough. They even forced me to hand over our family's phantom path inheritance..."
The old man's tone and expression became melancholic as he spoke further, recounting his struggles with the United Kingdom's Magicians Association. Uriah eventually became uncomfortable since much of the details involved tragedies, including the ones that killed his parents, who he could hardly remember by now.
(I hate when grandpa gets like this. If he hates the Magicians Association so much, why doesn't he just hurt them back instead of reminiscing bitterly in this place?)
Uriah had always been a smart boy, not that his grandfather agreed because Uriah was relatively quiet. Uriah and his grandfather immigrated to Alaska six years ago when Uriah was about six years old. Uriah did not remember much from that time except their comfortable home. Most of the faces of the family members that had suddenly gone missing from his life during that time had already become blurs within his memories.
The old man soon became silent again and continued to eat his meal. After another ten minutes, the old man and Uriah left the cabin. From the outside, the cabin's exterior appeared to be made entirely from neatly cut logs except its chimney that was made of red bricks. The temperature of their surroundings was frigid and even with his wool sweater on, Uriah was bothered by the cold and gritted his teeth in response to it; the old man, however seemed to be completely unbothered even though he was only wearing a flannel shirt on his upper body.
The cabin was surrounded by trees on almost every side of it with a ten-meter-wide clearing all around it where a two-inch-deep layer of snow and ice perpetually rested. The old man led Uriah down a path that seemed to be artificially created among the trees; the ground of the path had already been cleared of ice and snow and frozen dirt was visible.
After walking twenty minutes, Uriah and the old man came to a small, shallow pond somewhere within the woods that seemed to have an artificial clearing around it as well. The strange thing about this pond was that its water was not the least bit frozen despite the frigid ambient temperatures. The old man quickly instructed Uriah:
"You know what to do. Take your clothes off and sit in the lost water within the pond."
Uriah openly grumbled but did not dare to defy his grandfather. He quickly took off his wool sweater, his pair of jeans pants and his pair of black hiking boots. He folded his clothes and placed them under the shade of a tree before moving towards the pond and eventually sitting in it until only his head was visible above the water.
Uriah grimaced intensely as the biting cold invaded his flesh and bones. He mused at this time:
(This sucks! I've been doing this training every day for six years already. When will this torture end? At the very least, the coldness of the water doesn't make me stone stiff anymore.)
Uriah soon resisted the effects of the cold just enough to ask his grandfather:
"Why do you call this water, lost water?"
The old man's solemn expression actually broke into a cool smile in response to Uriah's question, with him thinking:
(If he can talk while immersed within the lost water, that means that his body has finally grown accustomed to it after these six years. That's a good sign.)
The old man replied to Uriah:
"The lost water is a kind of treasure that I obtained in my earlier years from a very dangerous realm. It supposedly has the properties of 'absolute cold' within it."
Uriah's own expression became confused and then he asked:
"What is absolute cold?"
The old man's face became solemn again and he replied:
"To tell you the truth, I don't know much about it myself but I do know that it is good for you."
Uriah muttered before falling silent:
"If you say so grandpa."
The old man then summoned a plastic folding chair seemingly out of nowhere and sat in front of the pond so that he could keep watch over Uriah's condition. After eight hours of watching Uriah soak in the pond, the old man order Uriah:
"Get out of the pond. Let's move on to the next phase of your daily training."
Uriah did as his grandfather said and stood bare foot on the frozen ground, with only his drenched underwear being worn on his body. The discomfort from the cold was so bad that Uriah shivered uncontrollably the whole time. The old man then summoned a one-meter-high pile of ice cubes that rested on a metal plate, and instructed Uriah:
"You can start eating now."
Uriah internally sighed. He had been eating ice cubes after his dip in the pond for six years. Not only were they ice cubes unusually cold and often left his mouth bleeding, they tasted terrible.
(I don't think that ice is even supposed to have a taste to it.)
Uriah had to eat his own weight in ice cubes before sundown, so he sat cross-legged beside the pile of ice cubes and slowly began crunching on them until the pieces were small enough to be swallowed. When he did swallow the ice pieces, his throat felt like it was burning and Uriah's eyes often teared up as a result. The old man saw Uriah's tears and thought:
(Believe me Uriah, these tears that you are crying now are nothing compared to the tears that you will be forced to cry if you don't take your training this seriously. If only I understood that when I was around your age...)
As time went on and Uriah had eaten half the pile of ice cubes while he shivered terribly, two persons suddenly appeared from among the trees and entered the clearing.
One was a man that seemed to be in his late thirties; the man had a white complexion, brown eyes, a head full of short, curly, black hair and an athletic body. He wore a pair of brown cargo pants, a thick, black cotton sweater, a pair of black, cotton gloves and a pair of black hiking boots.
The other person was a girl that seemed to be about fifteen years old. She had a white complexion, black eyes, a head full of shoulder length, curly, black hair and bushy eyebrows. She wore a thick, black parka sweater, a pair of pink denim jeans pants and a pair of black hiking boots.
The black haired man's eyes went from glancing at the pond of lost water, to glancing at Uriah and then finally resting on the old man. The black haired man raised both his hands to the sides of his head while maintaining an almost blank expression to show that he meant no harm. He then spoke loudly to the old man:
"Hello, my name is Julius Marx and I am a visitor to this area. I and my daughter have become lost and I would like some help in finding the closest settlement from here."
The old man's expression suddenly became very genial with such a quickness that Uriah, who had seen mostly solemn and unfriendly gazes from his grandpa over the last six years, was inwardly frightened. The old man laughed heartily from where he sat and then replied:
"Well, it's always nice to see new faces. My name is Elijah Narco. Where are you from, strangers?"
Julius faced Elijah while the young girl discreetly eyed the pond of lost water while pretending to pay attention to Elijah. Julius responded to Elijah's apparent friendliness with a forced brand of his own. Julius smiled and spoke enthusiastically:
"I and my daughter are from Washington and are here in Alaska for vacation but instead of relaxation we've only met with ice and bears."
Elijah laughed again and then spoke with a very friendly smile still plastered on his face:
"Well, you see, I've actually been observing you two for quite a while as you approached my and my grandson's position and I witnessed that you both used your magic sense and methods to scout the surroundings. Are you trying to tell me that two rank 4 Magicians somehow can't find their way to a non-magical settlement? Hmph! Laughable."
When Elijah said the latter parts, his genial smile faded and his usual solemn expression returned with a hint a malice embedded into it. He reasoned:
(When these two first appeared, their eyes went straight to the pond of lost water and that girl's attention has never left it even though she has been pretending otherwise. I have been training Uriah here for six years so it is natural that our crumbs have attracted a few rats.)
Elijah stood up and his body exuded a strange, grey aura that sent a shiver down Uriah's spine. Julius panicked internally in response:
(What? This old man is a Regular Magician. The mystics in town said that there was some kind of treasure in this area that was being hoarded by an old man and a young boy. They never mentioned having to risk our lives just to get a glimpse of it.)
Julius quickly tried to diffuse the situation, saying:
"Hold on, we were just a little curious about the water in that pond. We could feel the peculiar ice magic radiating from it from over a kilometer away. Did you think that people would somehow remain oblivious to such magic power?"
Elijah coldly responded:
"Are those really your last words?"
The young girl, seeing that he situation was not in their favor, suddenly pulled out a one-foot-long wand made of polished, brown wood and attempted to cast a spell at Uriah. A ray of pink light then quickly emerged from the wand's tip and rushed towards Uriah but the pink ray did not traverse even two meters before it dissipated just as suddenly as it appeared. The young girl appeared shocked by the turn of events:
(I thought that this old man would at least move to defend the boy, which would have given us enough time to attempt to escape but he didn't even have to move from his spot or flick his wrist in order to deal with my method. Julius and I have walked into a lion's cave this time.)
Julius was about to follow up his companion's method with one of his own but before he could do that, Elijah simply swung his right index finger towards them both and the two Magicians' bodies were then swiftly wrung like wet cloths by a formless magic power, and following that, their blood spurted out from breaks in their skin that resulted as well as from their orifices. Their bodies then fell to the ground and laid there like common trash.
Uriah spat out a few of the ice cubes in response to seeing such a gruesome sight. He quickly asked Elijah:
"Grandpa, what did you just do to them?"
Elijah looked at Uriah's mystified expression and sighed, thinking:
(Despite my grumblings, I never actually showed the boy my magic powers while we've been in Alaska so he's a little shocked by them. Such shock is not befitting a Narco. Julius said that they noticed the peculiar magic power emanating from the pond from a kilometer away. I hadn't cared about the pool's effect on the surroundings because this area is usually void of people, but now I know that since creating the pond six years ago, it has been here for too long and has attracted attention. Uriah is close to the finish line, though. I know it.)
Elijah did not answer Uriah's question and instead instructed Uriah:
"After you have finished eating those ice cubes, get back into the pond. You are going to spend a few more days here before leaving Alaska."
Uriah heard that and became so excited at the thought of finally being able to leave this cold and boring place. Uriah ate the ice cubes with far more fervor than before as a result and after another two hours, he finished eating his weight in ice cubes. His mouth hurt a little but unlike previously, no blood was in his mouth because the wounds created from eating all that cold ice had somehow frozen over.
Uriah felt the patches of ice within his own mouth and became worried. Elijah saw Uriah feeling the inside of his mouth and walked over to him to have a look. Elijah held Uriah by the chin and closely examined his opened mouth; he observed the ice covered wounds and reasoned:
(This is proof that my training him has not been in vain.)
Elijah commanded:
"Quickly, get into the pond."
Uriah listened to his grandfather and sat in the pond with only his head being above the lost water. Elijah brought his folding chair closer to the pond and sat immediately beside it. Uriah's expression then became weird as he watched his grandfather use his left index fingernail to slice open his right wrist. Elijah then held his right wrist over the pond and let his blood pour from his wrist into the pond.
Uriah asked Elijah in a panic:
"Grandpa, what are you doing?"
Elijah replied to Uriah with the same solemnness as always:
"I'm giving you a hope and a future, boy. Stay quiet for five more days. After that, I will explain some things to you."
Uriah became a little scared; the fact that night time was about to arrive didn't make him feel any better about the situation. Time went on and days soon passed. At first Uriah, was as uncomfortable as he had always been while immersed within the pool but after a few days, the lost water felt comfortably cool to him.
Of course, it was still disturbing that Elijah had been bleeding into the pond for days, which had left the almost stagnant lost water dyed in a red hue. After these few days, Uriah noticed something strange:
(How comes the water has not risen after all the blood that grandpa has bled into it?)
Uriah wanted to ask Elijah for an answer but Elijah had already given a command and seeing his grandfather's pale and tired looking face, he did not want to bother him with questions for now. At the end of five days, Elijah finally closed the wound on his right wrist and instructed Uriah to leave the pond. Uriah, who had not slept for the past five days, wearily left the pond and stood in front of his grandfather.
Uriah was still drenched with the blood tainted lost water but surprisingly, he did not feel one bit of the biting cold that was a persistent feature of the environment. It was now day time but the sun was mostly blocked by the clouds so the surroundings seemed a bit overcast. Before Elijah began speaking, he tapped Uriah on the forehead with his right index finger and Uriah covered his forehead with his hands in response.
Uriah then felt his mind being inundated with information that he had not known before. He slowly muttered a phrase that seemed to have significant meaning:
"Absolute cold inheritance."
Elijah nodded and said:
"That inheritance is now yours. I obtained it while exploring a very dangerous realm, decades ago, but I kept it to myself because of its immense value and also because hardly any of our relatives had a high enough ice path affinity to make use of it, anyway."
Uriah asked:
"Grandpa, what is an inheritance, really?"
Elijah replied:
"It is the culmination of a Magician's cultivation experiences, methods and theoretical knowledge of a magical path or a few during their lifetime. You don't need to understand it fully now, just listen to what I have to say."
Uriah nodded and paid attention to Elijah with laser focus. Elijah continued to explain:
"Uriah, our family was destroyed because we competed for certain resources with the Magicians Association and won. They took everything from me as revenge and that included family and wealth; everything except you. I want revenge at all costs but I am just one old man and my cultivation has long since stagnated; things are different for you, however. The training that I've put you through during the last few years was meant to earn you several talents that should make practicing the absolute cold inheritance easier. The blood essence that I bled into the pond during the last few days was meant to hasten the manifestation of those talents at the cost of my future but it also gave you a bright future. Use the opportunity well, Uriah, restore our family and deal with the United Kingdom's Magicians Association."
All of what Elijah had said was a lot to take in for a twelve-year-old boy. Uriah could hardly understand all of what Elijah was trying to convey at the moment but he did understand what 'restore our family' probably meant. Uriah nervously replied:
"I will do my best, grandpa, even though I don't really get it."
Elijah's solemn expression suddenly broke into laughter and then he spoke:
"Unfortunately, I don't have any more time to explain this myself but I've left a solemn will within your mind and it will inform you further when the time is right. I've done the best I can. Goodbye, grandson."
After saying that, Elijah's body gradually became fainter and fainter. When he saw his grandfather disappearing, Uriah did not know what to make of it; at first, he thought that Elijah was playing a joke on him, so he lightly chuckled before saying:
"That's a funny trick, grandpa. What are we going to do next?"
Elijah did not answer and eventually, he finally vanished without a trace. Uriah silently stood next to the folding chair that Elijah left behind for a long time, staring at it in confusion until finally realization dawned on him and two lines of tears flowed from his eyes. Uriah then muttered with a great amount of emotion in his tone:
"Grandpa?"
***************************************************************
Uriah breathed out deeply, his breath forming a visible mist in front of him. To Uriah, the blood spikes impaling him had already lost their sting and the blood forest around him had already become boring. The blood spikes impaling Uriah froze over within seconds and broke apart, freeing Uriah and allowing him to move freely again.
Kirst sat on his throne while his right cheek now rested on his right hand; he maintained his solemn glare at this time. Kirst was not the least bit bothered by Uriah freeing himself from the blood spikes because there was a lot more where those came from. Instead of being concerned, Kirst used Blood Lady to melt down the rest of the blood spikes, creating a very wide but shallow pool of blood.
From his throne, Kirst spoke with base in his tone:
"Let's start again, this time with feeling."
Uriah sneered at Kirst and then his own body began erupting with copious amounts of magic energy exhaust. Uriah's previous wounds that were created by the blood spikes had already been frozen over with patches of ice. Once again, Uriah's glowing blue eyes glimmered and he cast his spell:
(Ice Barrage)
Starting from Uriah's feet, the blood pool on the ground was immediately frozen over by blue ice and Kirst along with his throne was also frozen in place. Following that, a fifteen-meter guillotine made entirely of ice was generated, towering above the ground and standing erect, menacingly over Kirst. Kirst was seemingly stuck to his throne at this time due to the blue ice covering him; he breathed out deeply, his breath being visible due to the influence of the cold.
Kirst remained mostly unbothered, though, and the ice that had stuck to him had already started becoming blood somehow, which flowed towards the ground. The ground then rumbled violently, following which, blood spikes suddenly shot up from beneath the blue ice, breaking up the covering over the blood pool; none of the blood spikes impaled Uriah this time, however, and simply formed around him.
At this time, the blue ice blade of the ice guillotine was released from the apex of the structure and moved down towards Kirst at break-neck-speed. Sensing this, Kirst laughed heartily and the rest of the ice sticking to him was then instantly broken up by his magic power and converted to blood, following which, the back of Kirst's blood throne liquefied and morphed into two eight-meter-high, thick, vertical columns that were topped by a just as thick arch that was positioned directly above Kirst.
The guillotine's blade fell onto the blood arch ruthlessly but only managed to cut half way into it before halting its downward advance because the ice blade failed to cut all the way through Kirst's blood structure. Kirst's body then began radiating a relatively thick, blood-red miasma and he unconsciously rubbed the red ring on his right middle finger with his left index finger and thumb.
Kirst then got up from his seat and a drizzle of blood began falling over the entire field, even covering Uriah in blood as a result but the blood that fell on him quickly froze over with blue ice and frost. Kirst clenched his right hand and blood condensed within his right grip to form the shape of a common tree axe once again.
The blood beneath Kirst's feet rippled and at the same time, the blood beneath Uriah's feet was frozen over by blue ice; both men exuded intense magic power during this time - a blood-red miasma emanating from Kirst, threatening to encroach on Uriah's position and a crystal blue aura had begun being radiated from Uriah, which threatened to freeze everything that it came into contact with, including Kirst's blood-red aura. Another round of battling was obviously about to begin.