At the Evening
The lightning bolts suddenly stopped, causing the chain to break, and the temperature dropped rapidly.
With the sudden dip in temperature, the delicate balance between the two extremes broke, and the 'icy' aura began to overpower him.
Grim noticed the sudden change canceled his ability.
"What the hell is going on?"
He glanced at the clone and saw its pathetic state. The clone was extremely pale, exhausted, and panting heavily.
Grim asked. "Are you out of Qi?"
The clone nodded in response.
He asked again. "Didn't you absorb Qi while using 'storm'?"
@_@
The clone had an awkward expression.
Grim knew the meaning behind the expression, but he didn't bother arguing.
He ordered. "Go, recover your Qi."
He went to the rest as well. He could go on for months without eating, drinking, or sleeping. However, there's a saying 'old habits die hard', and those habits made him human.
***
The next day
He woke up early in the morning and spotted the energetic clone. The pathetic clone from yesterday was nowhere to be seen.
Grim stated. "Let's start."
'Fire Domain'
'Lightning Domain'
The two domains overlapped.
As before, Grim flew to the edge of the domain.
Grim was about to order the clone to commence, but he noticed the clone moving in his opposite direction.
Grim yelled. "What are you doing?"
The clone replied. "The Qi at the center of the domain is 5x less, and there is only an 'icy' aura toward your direction. So I have to remain at the edge of the Frozen wasteland to sustain the ability."
"Fine."
'Storm'
'Moonlight Storm'
The clone began to absorb Qi while channeling the ability.
Grim yelled sarcastically. "Start. Just don't drop the lightning bolts on me."
"Go"
The lightning bolts surged toward him and struck his surroundings.
'Moonlight Storm'
He also began to absorb the 'icy' aura.
The battle between the two extremes commenced again.
His affinity with both 'fire' and 'ice' elements improved significantly as the process continued, which was out of his expectation since his objective was to increase 'fire' resistance.
***
A month later
"Stop"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The clone heard Grim's yell and stopped the process.
It had been a month since the training, so he was eager to check the progress, and his stomach was growling.
"Stay here and recover your Qi. I'll go and hunt."
'Aerial'
He dashed out of the Frozen wasteland.
An hour later, he came across an Elk.
He appeared in front of the elk and grabbed it. The elk began to struggle and attack him with antlers, so he snapped its neck and flew away with the body.
He arrived as fast as he had departed.
'Fireball'
A fist-sized fireball appeared before him, and he began to butcher the elk. Afterward, he began to roast the meat. Despite its size, the fireball was hot enough to cook the meat.
Once cooked, he offered some to the clone and began chowing down until he was full.
"That hits the spot. Now let's test the fruits of my training."
Grim yelled. "Again"
His clone understood the order and got back into it.
The two domains overlapped.
'Storm'
Lightning bolts appeared before the clone.
"Go"
The bolts stuck lunged toward Grim
'Storm'
The bolts appeared and lunged toward him, forming a chain.
The temperature began a rapid rise. However, he didn't use other abilities to resist the heat. His objective had been to raise his heat resistance, so he wanted to check the progress.
Time began to pass seconds after seconds. He was doing well even while nearing the minute mark, but he felt a slight pressure at the minute mark.
He yelled. "Stop"
The clone canceled the abilities.
"Not bad, not bad. The fact that I'm not charred as before proves the progress. Let's start the training again."
Grim also noticed an improvement in the mastery of the 'ice' element. However, it was not significant enough for him to test it.
***
Six months later
Sigh!
Grim was 940 meters(3116 ft) from the source. However, he ran into a problem.
As he approached the source, the 'icy' aura began to overpower the clone's dual domain.
"This is problematic. I've made significant progress in these six months, and I feel I can achieve my goal by the end of the year."
He was not wrong. Every month, his heat resistance increased by 500 °C(932 °F), and his mastery of the 'ice' element also progressed well.
He began to ponder. "Hmm. How should I deal with the problem? The clone only has 50% of my strength, so its abilities are 50% weaker."
Suddenly, a bulb lit in his head.
"Since one clone only has 50% of my strength, two should make 100%, right? Let's test the theory."
'Polyp'
80% of the Qi vanished, replaced by a new clone.
Grim ordered. "You two, let's go."
The clone followed his instructions and formed two dual domains successfully.
To his delight, the power of the domain has increased. However, the size remained the same.
"The size didn't increase? I guess it would be too overpowered otherwise. No wonder I have yet to come across 'polyp' again in the system store."
"Let's start."
'Moonlight Storm'
He started to absorb the 'icy' aura.
The two clones launched lightning bolts toward him in succession-heating the surrounding even more.
His training resumed again. Meanwhile, the 'fire' and the 'ice' affinity started to overlap better.
***
A year later
Grim announced. "I'm Done."
The clones canceled their abilities immediately.
After the abilities subsided, a figure could be seen.
It was Grim. However, he had changed significantly. Even clones were alarmed by his pressure, and his body was covered in a blue aura. The clones felt extremely cold and hot simultaneously as he walked toward them.
Grim was unaware of the changes, but he saw the uncomfortable expressions of the clones.
So he asked. "Are you guys ok?"
The clone replied honestly. "The pressure, and aura around you are too much to bear."
Grim quickly checked himself and saw the blue aura. So he suppressed his aura and the pressure.
Phew!
The clones breathed a sigh of relief.
He examined his body, and to his surprise, the mastery of the 'ice' element had reached the 'master' level.
He muttered. "I didn't mean this when I said 'achieve my goal' last time."
"Let's test if it's real."
'Ice Domain'
The domain extended 2.5 kilometers(1.5 miles), and blizzards materialized within.
He exclaimed. "So it is true."
'Ice Needle'
Tiny needles manifested around him.
'Ice Arrows'
The arrows replaced the needles.
"Dual-domain between 'fire' and 'lightning' is good. However, I want to see if it works with two extremes."
'Fire Domain'
The domain extended 2.5 kilometers(1.5 miles)-materializing embers within.
"This is the moment of truth."
'Ice Domain'
The domain extended 2.5 kilometers(1.5 miles), and blizzards materialized within.
The blizzard tried to extinguish the embers. However, his mastery of both 'fire' and 'ice' elements had reached the 'master' level. So it was not an easy task-resulting clash between the embers and the blizzard.
"This won't do. I have to do something about it."
Grim began to meditate and control both domains.
He took inspiration from the training and separated the 'fire' domain on the left and the 'ice' domain on the right. Then, he simulated the same process and started a clash between the two domains under his guidance.
At first, the two domains clashed as before. However, they started to calm down as the time passed.
They started to merge slowly from the second day and fully merged by the end of the second week.
The fully merged domain looked blue like an 'ice' domain and lacked any trace of the 'fire' domain. However, if you judged it just by the looks, you'd be burnt to ashes.
Despite the looks of the 'ice' domain, it had the heat of the 'fire' domain.
'Solar Wave'
A big wave of fire manifested before Grim, and he could feel the property of both 'ice' and 'fire' from the ability. He was about to test other abilities.
Suddenly, a dark cloud formed above. He knew what was about to come.
[Evo points left: 9,534,750]