The fractured mask tumbled through icy gusts, forgotten. Three gazes locked onto Amelia's unveiled visage - Sebastian's slack-jawed fascination, Yuri's momentarily arrested composure, Marcus' snarling contempt. Moonlight sculpted her features into marble perfection, every fleck of blood and sweat only heightening her ethereal lethality.
Sebastian's hammer dipped unconsciously. "The Violet Flame's High Priestess pales beside this..." he breathed, recalling Sunfire City's famed beauty. Where Joanna's allure had been cultivated grace, Amelia radiated primal majesty - a storm given human form.
Yuri recovered first, though his next incantation carried vengeful fervor. "Cease gawking!" he barked at his spellbound ally. Marcus required no prompting, his remaining eye blazing with consuming hatred. The mercenary cared not for aesthetics - this face represented everything stolen from him.
"Such devotion wasted," Sebastian spat, sudden seething envy twisting his features. His hammer flared ochre as he charged. "I'll make him watch you break!"
Amelia's blade danced through ever-narrowing defenses. Sebastian's lecherous hunger proved more unnerving than open malice - his earth-shattering strikes now carried crude taunts and probing feints toward her unprotected face. She shattered his latest advance with an elbow smash to the diaphragm, only to barely evade Yuri's ice shard barrage.
Fatigue seeped into her bones. Combat aura flickered like guttering candleflame - an hour remained at best. Her peripheral glance confirmed Kael's continued stasis, the mage's brow furrowed in unconscious struggle.
Within his metaphysical prison, Kael's consciousness raged against titanic forces. The ice core's essence dwarfed his arcane reserves - an abyssal sea versus a meager stream. Yet where brute force failed, subtlety thrived. Threads of stolen knowledge from the crystal orb resurfaced - forbidden equations for energy transmutation.
Amelia's boot skidded through gravel as Marcus' axe grazed her shoulder guard. Three against one. Three relentless predators sensing weakness.
Her blade met Sebastian's hammer in a shower of sparks. "Yield!" he growled, spittle flecking her cheek.
Amelia's answer came as a forehead smash to his nose. Crimson bloomed across his sneer as she whirled into defensive stance. No words needed - every parry, every counterstrike shouted her defiance.
Yuri's frost wyvern reformed overhead, its crystalline claws gleaming. Amelia braced, arcane formulae from Kael's past lectures surfacing unbidden. Perhaps...
The construct dove.
She sheathed her sword.
Gasps rippled through her attackers as Amelia raised bare hands toward the plummeting behemoth. Her remaining aura condensed into a radiant sigil - Knight's Vow, final technique of a dying order.
Kael's inner battle reached critical mass. Threads of azure energy spiraled through his meridians, the ice core's power finally bending to his will. One chance. One desperate gambit.
The frost core's glacial essence flooded Kael's meridians, reducing his arcane reserves to a flickering ember trapped beneath his diaphragm. Each heartbeat brought crushing pressure - the primordial energy threatened to rupture his spiritual veins like overfilled waterskins. External awareness tormented him further: Amelia's aura grew increasingly faint between explosions of combat, occasional pained gasps escaping her lips.
Reckless glutton... His mental snarl held no real heat. The ice core's absorption had been necessary amidst Scarlett's ambush and Sebastian's treachery. Survival demanded risks, yet now both he and Amelia teetered on oblivion's edge.
A desperate gambit surfaced - force fusion between opposing energies. Kael's metaphysical self recoiled instinctively. Such alchemy required surgical precision; his current state resembled a drunken surgeon wielding rusted tools. Yet Amelia's faltering defenses left no alternative.
Outside, metallic clangs crescendoed. Amelia's silver blade clattered against stone.
Kael's consciousness stilled. This trembling hesitation... When had he become so cautious? The woman shielding his defenseless body wielded greater courage than his current paralysis.
Enough.
His inner focus sharpened to diamond clarity. Threads of azure energy spiraled through spiritual pathways, guided by half-remembered formulae from the crystal orb's stolen knowledge. The frost core's surging tides slowed, then reversed - not through domination, but invitation.
Amelia's bloodied hand slapped against frozen earth, her sword trembling inches from Sebastian's advancing boot. Yuri's wyvern circled for the kill. Marcus' axe rose in a butcher's arc.
Kael's eyelids fluttered.
Reality detonated.
Cerulean light erupted from his supine form, shearing through combatants like divine wrath. Sebastian flew backward, armor smoking. Marcus' axe shattered mid-swing. Yuri's wyvern dissolved into harmless mist.
Amelia collapsed against Kael's chest as the shockwave faded, her remaining strength spent. Through blurred vision, she glimpsed his raised palm - frost patterns spiraling around crackling arcane sigils.
Kael's voice rasped with dual timbres - human determination layered over primordial winter. "Your turn."
The frost core's energy, now harmonized with his arcane essence, awaited command.
Since arriving in this world, empowered by The Book of Immortality and blessed with extraordinary talent, Kael had always prospered effortlessly. Ethan had taken him as a disciple at their first meeting, while Zorath the Silent—a high-ranking authority in the Sacred Council—had shown him exceptional favor. Figures like the Medicine King and Dean Austin all regarded him with utmost esteem.
Yet after constant dealings with these prudent mentors, though Kael remained diligent, their cautious temperaments had subtly influenced him. He now approached matters with meticulous deliberation. While this brought benefits, it had also dulled some of his original sharpness.
Suddenly, Kael felt a weight lift from his heart, as if an inner barrier had shattered. He recalled his magically-binding vow—to become the continent's greatest mage. How could he claim that title if he hesitated even now? When he first crossed worlds, his hunger for magic had been pure and unclouded. Though his dedication remained, his mindset was no longer as crystalline.
"A mere Millennium Ice Essence dares obstruct me?" Confidence surged through Kael, his resolve crystallizing. He released all restraints, boldly channeling both his mana and the ice essence into convergence.
Like floodgates bursting open, the two forces collided. Yet compared to the glacial energy's vastness, Kael's mana resembled a lone skiff in a stormy sea—moments from capsizing.
"Damnation—it's consuming my mana!" Kael gritted his teeth. The ice essence's power dwarfed his own, threatening to devour his magic entirely.
At this critical juncture, the slightest disturbance would make his body explode. Yet Kael remained eerily calm, guiding his meager mana to fuse with the ice essence. His mind achieved unprecedented clarity—what right had he to pursue supremacy if he couldn't overcome this trial?
On the path of magic, one advanced relentlessly. There would be no retreat.
With his resolve solidified, Kael surged forward unhindered. The mana within him swelled explosively in response to his determination, now counter-devouring the Ice Essence's energy until the two forces gradually merged into one entity.
As his strength resurged and grew, his mental fortitude stabilized completely. Every meridian in his body seemed to burst open simultaneously—a radiant beam illuminated his inner consciousness, flooding his being with light before cataclysmic power erupted through him.
My heart is stone—unshakable, guarding my path.
My heart is forged iron—unyielding, never retreating.
My heart is a razor—cleaving storms, advancing without fear.
Kael's spiritual realm ascended abruptly. Torrents of glacial energy converged upon his coalescing mana core, their fusion finally achieved. The Ice Essence's overwhelming power scoured his entire body, transforming every inch of flesh, tempering every fiber through relentless refinement...
Clarity and unwavering confidence radiated from Kael. No force in heaven or earth could obstruct his pursuit of magical mastery now.
——
Amid the storm-wracked battlefield, Amelia and Yuri's faces twisted abruptly. They sensed terrifying energy coalescing within Kael—a dormant force akin to a chrysalis-bound butterfly preparing to burst forth from its cocoon.
An involuntary colossal vortex whirled around Kael, sucking ambient magical elements into his body with frenzied intensity.
"Hell—the brat's merging with the Ice Essence!" The perpetually composed Yuri paled, urgency sharpening his voice. "Kill them fast!"
Should Kael awaken now...