It was pointless to think about it.
To chalk it up to the Nox would be the easiest and most direct solution, and judging by their track rate, it wouldn’t be surprising either, but he couldn’t just make that conclusion without any evidence.
Besides, the reason for these peoples’ extinction didn’t matter to him. The only thing he cared about was the elemental seed.
‘Did Lunaria find something similar on her side? I should ask her once we meet again.’
Thinking so, he continued teleporting through the ruin. The difficulty wasn’t anything like what he imagined it would be. From start to finish, he didn’t get attacked at all.
Until finally, he arrived at a building that had held itself in pristine condition unlike any of the rest.
It was something that looked like a shrine, with hundreds of steps leading up to the actual floor of the building. The steps were lined with torches in a strange pattern. Every time he climbed another step, a corresponding torch would be lit aflame.
But the flames were ice blue in color just like Lunaria’s Ice Phoenix Flames. Only, they lacked the same gentleness.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Each step he took created a resounding sound that seemed to echo through the area. With each torch that was lit, the temperature dropped significantly.
It was already extremely cold. The domain conjured by the elemental seed had submerged the entire ruin in an ice age. When the temperature continued to drop on top of that, it reached a point where even Damien couldn’t simply bear it.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
He soon climbed up 100 steps. His Void Flame encased his body like a fiery robe that expelled the cold mana from his system and prevented it from coming close.
But the Void Flame was still in its growth phase. There was no way it would be able to hold up entirely. By the time he hit 150 steps, the flame’s protection began to wane.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
The torches that hovered in the air began emitting a strange resonance as more and more were lit up. However, Damien didn’t have the time to pay attention to them. The cold had penetrated his Void Flames and entered his body.
He immediately moved his Void Essence into action, which prevented his internals from being immediately frozen over, but his exterior condition couldn’t be helped. And the cold mana kept invading his system without pause, making it so he couldn’t use his Void Essence for any other purpose besides defending his internal body.
Clack!
His steps began to slow. Frost gathered on his hair and eyebrows, painting them white. His skin began to take on a blueish hue as well.
He had reached 300 steps up the shrine, but there were still 200 to go. Judging by his current pace, he wouldn’t be able to make it.
‘I could just teleport…no. I can’t do that.’
He wanted to teleport, but his instincts were adamantly telling him not to. It was as if he would fail the ongoing trial if he did.
So, he kept climbing. Putting one foot in front of the other over and over again. His mind was slowly emptied of all thoughts other than continuing the climb, because thinking of anything else felt like he was expending too much energy.
Fshhh!
It was a sound like boiling water meeting ice. As the sound got louder, Damien’s thought process began to slow. Even thinking about climbing became a chore.
If he had the spare energy to look inside his spiritual world, he’d be able to see a layer of frost spreading within. His spiritual continent was being frozen over by this frost, limiting his mental power a great deal.
Clack! Clack!
He kept climbing. He eventually reached the 400th step. But when he tried to continue, he found that his legs would no longer move.
Krrrr!
He dragged his legs forward, causing them to scrape against the rock-hard floor. He strained his neck to look down, only to realize how poor of a state his body was in.
He was freezing. Literally freezing into a block of ice like those beasts from before. And the worst part was, he didn’t even realize what was happening until his legs had already become chunks of ice.
‘N-no…I can’t let this happen.’
Even his thoughts were chattering while being affected by cold. It was insane to even think about. He tried to think of a solution, but his current prowess and circumstance didn’t allow any easy way out.
He had the ability to spatially displace the ice, but the problem was that the ice was becoming one with his body. Displacing it meant ripping himself apart.
‘N-no…if I do it now…i-it should be possible…’
It wasn’t too late yet. Things hadn’t become irreversible. His mana was sluggish, but still responded to his command.
He wrapped his mana around his body like a thick coat. The process that should’ve been instant took many minutes to complete. The freezing had already gotten worse.
But his bone structure and muscles still hadn’t been totally affected yet.
Realizing what he was about to do, he cringed. He really didn’t want to take this route, but since teleportation seemed to be illegal, he could only move forward with what he planned.
‘F-fuck…this is…really going to hurt…’
It was his last thought of hesitation. Immediately after, he circulated his mana in a rage. Spatial mana coated his frozen legs and freezing upper body like a veil. It infused into the ice and deep into his skin and muscle.
And then, he displaced everything his mana had encased.
Rrrrip!
“ARGH!”
He screamed in pain. Laying on the ground a few meters away from him was a lump of flesh and skin.
All of the skin and a part of the muscles on his legs had been flayed from his body. Luckily, only the skin of his upper body had been affected, or else the pain would’ve been multiple times worse.
Copious amounts of blood spilled to the ground from his body. From the neck down, his muscles were entirely exposed to the outside world, looking like the models he used to study in health class.
“AHHH!”
The pain was unbearable. Flaying of skin was a commonly used torture method, but he never thought he’d be the first one to do it to himself.
But just as rapidly as his skin and muscles were torn from his body, new skin and muscles began to grow. His High-Level Regeneration worked its full effect, slowly bringing his body back to peak condition.
High-Level Regeneration was a good skill. He was incredibly thankful to have it. As long as he didn’t lose any limbs and as long as he had enough mana, it could heal him entirely.
But the pain didn’t go away. Along with the pain brought by the forceful healing of so much of his body, the phantom pain of him ripping off all his skin continued to impact him.
His legs were first to heal. His regeneration had been focused there first before moving on to his torso.
But as he focused on regulating his body while healing, he failed to notice the odd movements of the blood that had spilled to the floor.