Step. Step. Another step.
Matthew El entered the sanctuary, the rhythmic tapping of his staff echoing through the space accompanied his entrance.
His eyes widened in awe at the sight of Lord Asher, savior of the city of Zorah, seated cross-legged on the floor.
Asher’s hands rested serenely on his thighs, while a whirlwind of exquisite, gleaming daggers made of deep blue glacial ice spun around him.
The daggers’ edges shimmered like polished gemstones, their crystalline structure reflecting the light in a mesmerizing dance.
Everyone thought he was still in slumber and a week had passed. No one knew he woke up two days ago and began learning how to strengthen his Kryos ice.
“Stop walking.” Okeanos voice rang and that instant, Matthew froze, his right foot raised slightly.
Okeanos flashed its tail and water splattered over the room. To Matthew’s shock, the water droplets hung mid air!
But it truly wasn’t mid air. It was black ice! There were almost everywhere in the room, present but invisible. Extremely thin yet unreasonably durable.
Never touched a whetstone but sharper than a sword sharpened until it gleamed like a mirror.
Even as an Awoken One, Matthew began to see Asher as a threat but this was just the basics of what Kryos could do!
“How could there exist a talent like this? He’s able to fabricate even living soldiers to fight at his behest! The talent of the first men is unmatchable.”
Matthew sighed.
“Do you know why I do this? If I had left him the way he once was, it would have taken him decades to discover all these and we might be able to kill and conquer his domain before then.”
Okeanos said.
“Then why?” Matthew frowned, unable to understand how Okeanos still did what it did while knowing all these.
“Because there will be no future for El if we don’t have a dragon slayer on our side. More dragons will come since something has made their home uncomfortable and there will be some capable of burning this city to the ground in one breath, without someone like Asher, I can’t think of another counter as perfect as him.”
Matthew took a deep, measured breath, the air escaping his lips in a slow, deliberate exhale. “I see,” he said finally, his voice tinged with a hint of caution, his eyes never leaving the whirlwind of icy daggers surrounding Lord Asher.
“Still… I did not expect him to master months worth of training in just two days. It’s like watching a man with the potential to surpass the first Kryos.”
Okeanos beat the water surface, and magically gathered the flying water droplets, forming a round water screen.
It rippled several times and suddenly, a beardless man with long snow white hair, white eyebrows and piercing golden eyes could be seen seated at the cliff of a mountain made out of glacial ice, sparkling with a beautiful colour of blue.
Embedded into the ice flanking his sides were two swords in leather scabbards, slightly slanted.
Their metallic hits gleamed.
Seated there, he was clad in bronze armour, a battle skirt, sandals tied around his foot up to his shin and a helmet resting on his thigh.
His black cloak made of wool fluttered in the wind while he feasted his gaze on the vast icy expanse, like a guardian.
Always watching.
Though 10 feet tall, he was sculpted so perfectly that it seemed he was a man who was forged by the very hands of God and thrown down to earth.
“That’s him. I was young back then…” As Okeanos began to speak, a maelstrom of violent energy burst out of Asher.
Matthew couldn’t even blink as his eyes lingered on the daggers all around the place with six about to pierce different parts of his body.
One was right before his left eye!
“Apologies, I almost lost control for a second.” Asher rose up, his hand sweeping through the air with a gentle yet commanding motion. The ice, forged with a strength that rivaled steel, shattered and dispersed into a swirling mist of white.
“Almost?” Matthew hissed.
“Show me what you have learnt against Matthew? Be warned, he’s allowed to use the strength of an Awoken One.”
A solemn expression graced Asher’s face as he reached out for Ithamar, slowly pulling the sword out of its sheath.
With a soft grunt, he withstood the violent energy, and then assumed a battle stance, almost instantly.
‘I also want to know my current limit.’
Matthew’s right eye lit up, showcasing bright plain white, a word void of anything. A blank space that allowed him to do as he pleases!
This was Matthew’s inner world.
In his world, his staff became a massive ink pen, leaving black strokes upon black strokes on the black world, bringing life into this lifeless plains.
In less than a second, an image of Asher surrounded by seven sentinels, each with the power of an imperial-ranked knight around him.
Just then, as Asher was about to move, seven sentinels appeared around him closing in on him from all sides!
What’s worse, the earth bound his legs. Though it looked like earth, the hardness was on par with dwarven ore!
Asher leaned forward, his lips curling into a fierce grin. ‘Blossom,’ he whispered internally, swinging his sword in a wide arc.
A crimson radiance erupted from the blade, illuminating the surrounding area as it cut down all seven sentinels.
With his sword still humming with energy, Asher stretched out his other hand, his fingers folding into a tight fist.
The air around him seemed to shimmer and distort. Glacial daggers coalesced from thin air, their icy blades glinting in the faint light as they hurtled towards Matthew from all directions.
Still on the offensive, Asher swung his sword, Ithamar, in two swift arcs.
Matthew’s eyes narrowed as he realized Asher was using output – a technique that allowed him to channel his energy into a devastating blast.
A wall materialized in Matthew’s inner world, only to be replicated in the physical realm, sliced through by the black ice Asher had unleashed.
The ground erupted in a cacophony of sound, as if a thousand knives were bursting forth from the earth.
Matthew raised his staff, shattering the ice pillars into a thousand glistening shards that flew in all directions, forcing him to dodge and weave to avoid the deadly projectiles.
After taking several steps backward, Matthew’s eyes flashed with a solemn light. “You’re something else I’d give you but it will take you more than two days of training to bring me down.”
The moment he fell silent, a thud followed. Asher’s knees crashed into the ground, his eyes widening as he realized his connection to his energy was gone?
“I gained my inner world by severing my ties with this world. So I can see the threads, the power that flows within every living being and cutting one disrupts the flow. It’s like cutting the tendons of the muscles transporting your mana.”
Suddenly Matthew frowned. Something cold grazed his neck and upon moving his head, he discovered an ice spike emerged from behind him, aiming for his neck!
Clearly, Asher did that before his connection to his mana was severed.
This meant he was so close to death!
“He’s just 24.” Matthew stuttered, unable to swallow his shock. Just twenty four yet he was able to put a Legendary-ranked Awoken One in a tight corner.
And this was with his connection to mana severed!