The six of them, plus one, caught up on other events besides the mess they found themselves in as well as recent improvements in training. Specifically, the time spent under house arrest led to a fair bit of information gathering while a few of them formed relatively niche hobbies. Jaren, in particular, really liked the various teas available in Trifer, something common for nobility as well. Darak took part in charity work unassociated with Salvation’s churches, this mostly provided food and shelter for destitute individuals.
While the capital certainly lacked anything resembling a slum, the number of poor or homeless individuals pretty much lined up with any other radiant and impeccable city they knew of.
Mala just focused on alchemy, spells, and completely filling up her library with so much high-value information that he felt like the Nexus might arbitrarily reduce its magic damage boost just to balance itself. She learnt a few soul spells too, just so Icy no longer performed that taxing work on his own.
As they sat about, a few of them playing with cards, Korridan mentioned to Icy, “Right, you weren’t around, but I got news that Crastin Valnettio died a month ago. Some claim the surrounding countries all joined up to kill him, but the wounds were just a single blade wound through his heart.”
“Valnettio… Who again?” He really racked his memories to try and make the link, but nothing came to mind. But given the power required to put him down, the person at least reached Cornem rank.
“Primordius rank over in Messecan. You know, the country where the port was. Killed a ‘sea god’ and kept the country independent?” At Korridan’s reminders, he remembered more vivid details.
“Right, right… Dead from a single blow. Has to be a divine relic then… Or a demigod. I should go, we really have to get to the Dragonlands.”
Icy flipped over his cards with some converged mental force and moved away from the table, Raccelline quickly giving a hug before he moved towards the door though. Adret also stood to leave with him. In the end, she followed around the best she could, even if it only earned more ire from him. The rest gave their farewells and Icy smiled with a nod in return.
However, as he walked to the door and it opened, his eyes flashed white for a few seconds. While just a small concern, he swore that a flash of mana appeared in his mana sense, something normal if a person activated a skill.
But what alerted him was that no elf attached themselves to this activation.
Someone under stealth purposely hid themselves, or rather, they panicked and stupidly revealed themselves through a skill activation. Furthermore, his Fabric Weaver bloodline noticed that someone nearby tampered with space somewhat, a highly expected fact in the capital.
More than a few Blossoming wizards passed through daily, and many of them hid themselves in miniature gaps of space to avoid others, but after so many months here, Icy knew what was normal and what constituted a hidden wizard. A single glance from both eyes caught sight of what produced these anomalies.
“Stay here. I won’t bother saving you in a fight.” He infused his words with complete disregard for Adret, he truly wished that she grew some common sense and actually spoke back to him or criticised the almost malicious attitude.
But she didn’t. She never did. A disappointment.
Instead, her body froze just a step outside the front door and everyone saw her freeze, then, with a frown, returned into the house. Most of them didn’t really care why she returned, and believed that Icy complained in a not-so-kind manner. But Korridan still asked for the sake of it, “He said he didn’t want to be around you?”
With a slight shake she turned around, clearly confused, and replied, “He said he wouldn’t save me in a fight. But why would I need him to? I’m actually a mithril tier. He’s just got abilities to branch the gap.” A few of them looked over with pity, and her frown deepened. “Am I wrong?” But they all knew that he just never showed off all his abilities since she appeared.
“Raccelline! No! For fu–” Mala’s shout filled the house, but no one picked up on what exactly happened till they looked over at Raccelline’s now empty seat.
Korridan and Mala rubbed their heads, but the other two just laughed it off, Adret herself stared at the spot too and vaguely saw that some sort of remnant mana clung to that region of space. From intuition she guessed, “She can teleport? And still hear us?” While she knew that the young girl possessed abilities which broke most common sense, never before had she seen a normal Mithril rank warrior teleport so casually.
Even dragons at the same tier required rare spatial bloodlines to achieve such things.
“She keeps the tunnel active for about 10 seconds, just in case there’s anything important she needs to hear. You better not return with injuries!” Mala directed her final shout to the shrinking suspension of mana, and in just a second, the spatial tunnel completely closed.
Sure, any of them could easily follow after the two, but why bother?
If it endangered Icy, his bloodline warned him. The fact he forced Adret back just meant he knew she might die unless he revealed that fourth soul armament or some Origin Force. Obviously, neither of the two could be discovered by those powerful beings who watched sporadically. Thankfully, the progenitor detonated his body, so none of those Great sages studied what Icy used to seal him.
“It has been a while since he’s had any to eat too, he’ll be quite happy.” The four of them laughed morbidly at the future of whoever attacked, and while Adret vaguely understood what they meant by ‘eat’, she didn’t know even half of the full story.
…
“I understand you want to come with me… But why are you on my back?” Icy’s neck turned so his face stared at the rapidly growing girl on his back. Even though his size barely fit her, she just awkwardly laughed as her fingers played with his strands of glowing hair, even so, with just her legs, she stayed attached. That left only one option. He sighed and let her do as she pleased. What else could he do?
Throw her off? Of course, because he could totally overpower Korridan.
She’d probably listen if he told her to, but he’d really grown far too soft against her after years of this behaviour. Unless she actually did something reproachable or ill-mannered, he almost never blew up at her. Honestly, the fact she behaved too well made it hard for anyone to actually stay mad at her.
“Somehow, it’s like you regressed in maturity…” He laughed with an over-exaggerated shake of his head. But she just pouted and flicked the back of his head lightly, the force alone pushed it down slightly.
Her voice came out, but it took a quieter turn with far less playfulness, “So, will this upgrade really resolve the issue with your body?”
“Yes… Something I think I’m being too demanding with, though. How could I possibly carve such a thing into my mental space?” He thought about it time and time again, and truly wished to create a luxurious but surefire array which kept them all safe from such events again.
“Do you have to make it all now? If you do a bit, then save the rest for the future…” Raccelline stopped there, her words almost identical to Mala’s from a discussion weeks ago, back when he first considered this endeavour.
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“But what if it isn’t just a Sage, or Cornem who wants us dead?”
He gave the same answer. Raccelline didn’t push, she knew him well enough, probably the best if she wanted to brag a bit. Sometimes it felt like she understood his perseverance better than himself…
She mumbled incoherently to ensure he only heard a mess of sounds, but in her heart, wished for something else, “It would be nice if you bothered to save yourself once in a while.” An idiot who sought immense power to achieve his goals with no end. That described his source in her eyes.
But why did one of his goals have to be their lives?
Of course, he could say the very same thing about her.
“We’re outside now too. Not too far from the subworld’s entrance,” Icy’s words broke her inner thoughts as the two already left through the city gates and wandered a distance out. Those individuals in stealth outdid themselves, but still failed to pass the spatial test. At least they bothered to completely hide their mana, those sorts of stealth skills required fine control to activate.
Icy quietly merged with the spirit but kept its power hidden, a necessity as a straight dagger coated in a white poison prepared to stab into his neck.
But Raccelline already vanished, and to his left, she already appeared with sword in hand. And a decapitated head in the other, Icy moved away from the dagger to avoid its poison. From scent alone, he figured it was some sort of dragon-specific sort, rather easy to tell, since it inflamed his nose from a mere whiff.
If it entered his body… Probably not a fun thing to test.
“Twenty-three elven assassins. How the hell did they hire so many? And all Mithril ranks? The Eternals are way richer than I gave them credit for.” He talked to himself as though the figures hidden from his eyes weren’t at all a threat, and several more closed in at once to kill him, this time their stealth waned and revealed parts of themselves from high-speed movement.
Faster than his spirit, sure, but while idling, his pocket watch slowly wound up to 30 seconds. Ten times acceleration so that his body withstood the effects too, and all the while, Raccelline’s body appeared and disappeared as she repeatedly utilised her stupidly advanced space-tearing skill. She tunnelled in a straight line at least once a second, and none of the assassins knew who she targeted when cast.
If not for limited mana, she could easily kill them all with this skill alone.
And there was the dragon in question they came to kill. The pocket watch returned, its effect still ongoing, and in its place came a new tool. The slow world all around barely mattered now. Origin Force and mana poured out of his body, his eyes flashed white for a moment to confirm those alive nearby. And in a single second of slowed time, ten of the assassins had yet to realise their deaths.
A trail of white light bounced in the air from target to target. Simple, straight lines which penetrated the hearts of each while he casually cast two wide-range spells. Both attacked the soul. When time finally returned to usual, those with penetrated hearts dropped dead without a single chance.
As for the spells, on each cast, they released a pulse of foggy, dark mist which spread outwards in a ring. As it struck a soul, the elf assassin froze from such an action. A second one overlaid on the first, this combo-ed effect directly sent most onto a knee or out cold.
Beside him, the fourth soul armament floated inconspicuously, an ordinary bead about the same size as a human eyeball. Mistaken as painted black at a distance, closer inspection revealed its surface as an extremely dark green instead, perhaps with a hint of blue. The colour appeared cheap and tacky though, like a low-quality paint or dye, but beside this single attribute, the bead possessed nothing else of interest.
It just floated. Not made of crystal… But anymore information might give away what resided inside.
He put it away and grouped up the few living elves while Raccelline already cut off the heads of seven herself. That left six alive, albeit three fell unconscious from his back-to-back spells.
“You lot really don’t catch on quick do you? Don’t bother, I tore out your pills already, the ones in your head are a pain though.” In front of the conscious three, he showed a handful of torn-out teeth used as suicide pills. However, in preparation of this, a second sort of caplet resided in their brains for instant use with mana.
“Even if we talk, we die. And even on the slimmest chance you did let us go, I doubt they’d let us go.” One of the assassins with a full face mask nodded his head towards the capital city behind Icy, and his point was more than clear.
“Was it a voluntary job?” Icy didn’t get a response, all three of them detonated the small, black pills in their brains and he watched as the delicate grey matter melted into puddles of sticky, black goo. It oozed from their eyes and ears, and rapidly killed any wildlife it touched.
“That’s a yes, right?” Raccelline asked, to which he nodded with some hesitation. Three unconscious assassins remained, and for the sake of it, Icy just dragged them over to the city and had the guards deal with it.
Interrogation was never really an interest, and if the guards learnt something useful then all the better. He’d be gone in a few weeks anyway…
A fair haul of experience at the least.
[Killed Level 58 Dark Assassin! Received 3% EXP
Killed Level 59 Deep Space Rogue! Received 8% EXP
Killed Level 58 Nameless Dreams! Received 4% EXP
…
Killed Level 62 Infinite Shadow! Received 20% EXP]
Name
Icryladrom (Icy)
Title
Nexus Aid Bonus III
Magic Primary II
Spellcaster 3
Maestro’s Touch
Species
Dragon
Bloodline
Dragoncored Ice-cream
HP
100%
MP
100%
Level
62
EXP
55%
Unallocated Stat Points: 3
Strength
0
Luck
13
Agility
30
Growth
20
Magic
105
Mutation Rate
15
Ah, Maestro’s Touch, how he wished the title wasn’t so ridiculous that he gained a great degree of power at all times. At least the party, especially Raccelline, enjoyed the fruits of his labours from which that title depended on… But he chose not to think about it.
“What’s the matter? You’ve had that face since the fight ended.” Icy leisurely strolled towards the subworld’s entrance with Raccelline, but her distressed face in deep thought roused his interest. As well as a strong desire to help, albeit unsure if he could be of much use if it involved skills which required a body not made of ice cream.
She pouted and said, “I can’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“My tunnel is wrong… It’s bad and wrong… I can’t figure out how I did it back then. It was so fast, faster than anything I’ve ever done.” Her string of words caught him by surprise, and it took longer than he cared to admit to understand them.
“What do you mean faster than anything? I thought Flash Strike instantly teleported you anywhere in twenty metres?”
“That was better. It was so… peaceful. I felt faster than light. But this is still wrong.” Her reply scared him and a cold shiver pressed down on his back. The gap between light and teleportation absolutely could not be so easily breached, not even by Great sages more often than not.
But he knew what strike she meant now. That final one against the progenitor, where she somehow appeared and stabbed his back, but he never noticed her appearance. The same being, who with just a portion of his mana, sensed Icy’s movements at a rate of milliseconds. With fully unsealed mana… Their near-instant deaths came as expected by the demon elf’s unbridled speed and power. And, for reference, Starlite rank warriors often travelled metres per millisecond.
“Faster than light… I wouldn’t doubt it. Right, Nexus?”
[Information is classified. Why must you ask when you already know our response?]
He got a bit of a laugh before Raccelline asked for the answer as well. It always amused him when the Nexus complained a bit to him these days, though it happened very rarely on account of its emotionless, professional persona. But to give it an answer as they entered the palace…
“Because it’s fun,” he snarkily responded, and soon broke into the pedestal-bearing room in the palace. It only took an hour, but Raccelline swore up and down the halls all evening that Icy’s idea of fun did not match hers.