“Damn it…” Cronix gritted his teeth as the ice wraith sucked him dry of all the mental energy he was worth. He could feel his mental expanse shrinking the more the ice wraith absorbed.
Even worse it showed no signs of stopping, instead its absorbing speed was growing even more powerful.
Cronix quickly attempted to gain control over his mental energy, cutting off the ice wraith from its’ nourishment, but it wasn’t going to be that easy for everything to stop.
Instead of calming down, the ice-wraith attempted to fight for control over Cronix’s mental energy.
“How the heck?! Whose expanse do you think you’re in?” Cronix wrestled for control over the ice wraith for a few seconds. The greedy wraith was stubborn, but in the end, Cronix defeated it with ease. But this situation still displayed a massive problem for him.
The ice wraith’s power was still growing, and while he could defeat this wraith in control over his mental energy now if this continued, he’ll eventually lose, and everything will be stolen away from him.
“I don’t know nearly enough about mental energy to deal with these types of situations.” Cronix muttered while scrambling his ‘hair’.
“And it’s not like I can ask anybody for help…” An idea struck Cronix, “...Would he help me? I mean Mr. Ezerta helped me before, asking for more advice…” Cronix’s hand grasped his pendent, with a realization quickly following.
“Wait, shouldn’t this thing be interfering? It’s usually active when it comes to things within my mental expanse, why isn’t it working now?” Cronix examined the pendent, and sighed, “Couldn’t this thing be consistent for once?”
With plenty of worries occupying his mind, he left the expanse. Once he did, he could feel the wraith fighting over his lingering control and stealing some of his mental energy in the process.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to last if this continues.” His situation started to remind him of a specific person back in Alktarsha, “Is this where I finally become like Mr. Williams?”
Cronix closed his eyes, if what he planned didn’t work, then his time was truly limited. Williams spoke of changes but never really went into depth on what they were.
Cronix was pretty sure he was being frozen from the inside out, but there had to be more, if even his physical characteristics, like hair and eye color, were changed.
Opening his eyes again, Cronix looked up at Kara, she was already watching him after Lapsa told her to, and from her own observations that made her worry.
“Let’s all do something new today.” She heard Cronix say.
…
Lapsa sat on the roof of the residence, and although he was out in the open, he didn’t bother hiding anything, His white ears and tail were fully out on display. This was because Wendril and Ms. Potpourri left earlier, they didn’t say why.
The wind elements surrounded the squirrel like a tornado, fluttering his hair and the employee clothes he wore. A book floated in front of him supported by a separate group of elements.
The tornado group converged above his head. Lapsa reached out an arm. With only two fingers extended, he drew this arm back again, with a portion of the elements trailing his movements.
He then quickly shot his arm forward, and the elements again mimicked him except this time all the elements under his control followed, and with the drawn back portion now held the lead in the forward movement, creating an arrow shape that zoomed across the sky.
“I did it,” Lapsa said between breaths, “Can I stop now?”
A head poked out of a nearby window, “You aren’t sweaty enough, you can come down when you’re drenched.” The head said, before going back inside.
Lapsa’s pupils shrank, “The winds are going to evaporate all the sweat I have. It’s impossible for me to be drenched!”
Cayden’s head popped back out, flashed him a smile, then went back inside.
“This badger is going to work me till I drop!” Lapsa muttered before gathering more elements and repeating his moments.
This continued for fifteen minutes until he was interrupted by a bird’s cry and Kara flew out from Cayden’s window, circling the wind elements above him.
But that was only for a few seconds, she quickly dove down, circled Lapsa for a few seconds, then quickly went back inside.
Lapsa tilted his head, “What was that about?”
“She obviously wants you to stop and come back inside.” Cayden poked his head out to say, before going back inside and disappearing from view.
“She obviously wants you to stop and go back inside, whatever screw off…” Lapsa barely finished his mocking Cayden before a stone flew past his face with enough speed to cause the wind to flutter his hair for a brief moment.
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“Are you going to come inside or are you going to continue acting like an idiot?” Cayden’s voice reached Lapsa’s ears again, and this time Lapsa made sure to keep his mouth shut.
He slowly landed and entered through the window. Cayden already left the room with Kara. He found the two of them plus Cronix in the kitchen, with Cronix carrying several bowls, some with his hands, others with his mental energy.
“What’s this?” Lapsa asked as he arrived.
“I thought we should all eat together?” Cronix said, placing a couple of bowls on the table.
Lapsa and Cayden both took a seat, after seeing what was in the bowls, Lapsa couldn’t help but lean over and whisper, “It’s all fruit…”
Cayden shushed him, looked over at Cronix who was cutting an apricot with his tail, and frowned, “Are you okay Cronix? Your breathing kinda hard.”
“Oh yeah, how are you feeling Cronix? Did you take any pills?” Lapsa asked, drilling a small hole into an apple.
Cayden frowned and turned to Lapsa, “Wait, what do you mean by that?”
“He was feeling weird a little weird yesterday,” Lapsa explained to Cayden.
“You’re telling me this now?”
“It’s nothing to worry about Cayden,” Cronix said once he sat down, putting down a small plate next to him for Kara, “If things go well, I should survive.” Cronix then passed a jug to Lapsa and asked if he could blend them.
“That’s good,” Cayden said, then shifted his attention to the bowl of fruits. Cronix looked back at Cayden like he was waiting for something else, but nothing else happened.
“Is that all you’re going to say?” Cronix finally asked.
Cayden raised an eyebrow, “Is there anything else you want me to say?”
“I mean, a little more worry would be nice. I am in danger of dying.” Cronix said, knowing full well he was simply seeking more attention.
Cayden chuckled, “Do you not like the amount of trust I have in you to not be worried?”
A smile rose on Cronix’s face, “I’m touched.”
A quiet laugh escaped Lapsa when he overheard their conversation, but he didn’t say anything so he could stay focused on his wind elements blending the fruits.
An hour quickly passed and Cronix left their home wearing the cloak, he passed Wendril as she eagerly guided a group of three to one of the buildings nearby, trying to avoid Cronix’s group.
Yet that wasn’t completely possible, because she also didn’t want this new group to see the destruction of their previous residence, so she had to sacrifice one of the two.
“Woah, am I seeing things?” One of the members of the new group asked, this being a man around his mid-twenties, he was wearing a jacket, and on the right sleeve read, ‘Orzen Mercinaries.’
“No, I thought I saw something too” The lady next to him reassured, she wore the same jacket as the man, but her’s was more worn out.
“Maybe you saw a ghost.” The third member said, she was the youngest of the three with the cleanest jacket and was around Cronix’s age group.
“I can assure you young Master Ariti, and Madame Yune, you are not seeing things, that was simply one of our other residents,” Wendril said, sighing in her heart.
Following the same route as last time, Cronix found his way to the same area he bought the carriage ride last time.
After paying for the ride, he was quite surprised to find the journey faster and therefore cheaper than last time, but he still ended up paying the same amount as last time as a tip.
Cronix quickly made the line by the gate and into the seemingly different world it lead into. He then walked passed the pickaxe-shaped building and into the mines.
After finding the quieter area of the mines, he sat down on the floor.
The last time I was here, he came to me on his own, then insulted my formations, but I don’t know why he came to me. Maybe he just happened to pass by, but something had to interest him.
Cronix ended up drawing the energy sealing arrangement as a test to see if it was his ‘sloppy’ formations that drew the mysterious man known as Mr. Ezerta.
After a few minutes of waiting, nothing happened. Cronix frowned, and muttered, “So it wasn’t the formation that caught his attention, so he probably just happened to be passing by.”
His shoulders slumped, “Hmm, maybe… I should cause some chaos… But it would be harder here than at the Ayuna’s. I can’t just create a teleportation formation, there are so many people here who could sense its creation.”
Normally Cronix would have dared to do anything here, but being only in the Caster stage, there weren’t a lot of things he could do to stop the majority of people from killing him.
And if he did cause too much destruction, who knew if Mr. Ezerta would come or if he’ll be executed immediately, and there was still a chance that Mr. Ezerta would kill him himself.
A sigh escaped him, “There are other ways to cause chaos without destruction. In Alktarsha, mining competitions drew a lot of attention. If I mine a monstrous amount of crystals then it could work… But there are a bunch of people here with stronger formations than me…”
Behind Cronix, Mr. Ezerta’s lip twitched. He was already paying attention to Cronix the moment he arrived, yet he didn’t expect Cronix to be thinking these kind of thoughts.
He let out a cough to get Cronix’s attention, and he ended up almost laughing when he saw him jump like a cat.
“Mr. Ezerta, you’re already here?” Cronix said when he turned around, looking at the unclear figure of Mr. Ezerta.
“I’ve been here for quite a while actually, and let me tell you, destroying this place isn’t the best way to gain attention.”
Cronix looked down with a pale face, and he subconsciously drew the water elements towards himself. Mr. Ezerta sighed when he saw this, he already knew most of Cronix's secrets, yet just him overhearing something like this made the boy worry.
“I’m curious though, what do you want so badly that you’re willing to bring such unnecessary attention to yourself.”
Cronix looked back up, and said, “I need your help.”
“Oh, I wonder what… Wait.”
Cronix didn’t understand why, but he suddenly felt like a shadow grasped his heart, and under his vision, the formless figure of Mr. Ezerta contorted, like a mirage.
Pressure weighed down on him, but it wasn’t the same as when Arthur released his aura back in the mines of Alktarsha, this was completely different.
This pressure didn’t feel like an increase in gravity, but like a monster just tore apart all your defenses and was two inches from devouring you.
Even under the cloak, Cronix didn’t feel safe, against this monster, no matter what protections this cloak provided, they’ll all shred like paper.
Thankfully, this only lasted a second, but the lingering effects didn’t.
Mr. Ezerta’s voice broke through the nightmare Cronix was in, but his words didn’t make him feel any better, “So you have an ice wraith, a red cage full of memories, and a defensive treasure combined with a life treasure, what a strange expanse.”