"She... Froze herself." Akira muttered grimly.
"What...?" Princess Yuki turned slowly. "No... That’s Eternal Freeze...!"
It was a forbidden spell. A legendary technique from the Northern Ice Kingdom. It encased the caster in a shell that no attack could penetrate. Not even space-warping or divine magic could breach it.
It was a perfect defense, but it was also a perfect prison.
Once activated, it could not be undone. Not without an equally powerful and forbidden spell of the opposite elent.
There was no such clan in Japan with such a powerful fla that rivalled the Northern Ice Kingdom’s power in Ice.
Which ant... They had to look for it in other countries.
It wouldn’t be easy, and it wouldn’t be quick.
"It was definitely an act of desperation." Akira clenched his fists. "Most probably to survive the Shinigami’s final blow before it retreated."
Princess Yuki fell to her knees. Her legs had lost all strength.
"No... Sora...!"
Wind stirred around them, carrying the scent of ice and ash. Tiny flakes of snow drifted down from the top of the sphere like falling starlight.
Akira stepped forward slowly, eyes fixed on the frozen figure within. The Shinigami was nowhere to be seen. The battlefield had fallen into a terrifying calm.
He reached out and touched the icy surface with his palm. It was cold. Far colder than anything natural. It burned. But he didn’t flinch.
Crackle.
A powerful energy stirred from within the frozen sphere and slowly made its way towards Akira’s palm. There, it pooled and waited, as if waiting for Akira to accept it.
"This... This is... Ice Energy Essence?!" Akira was taken completely by surprise once more.
In his original world, energy essences were rare treasures, only harvestable from dead elental beasts. And even then, only in the rarest of cases. It was said that such essences could only exist because of the unique way a beast’s body processed elental force, and how they miraculously release their stored energy in the form of energy essences upon death.
There was no other way to gain energy essences, apart from whatever human beings were born with.
But Princess Sora was clearly alive. And she was no beast.
So how was her Ice Energy Essence reaching out to him?
He glanced at Princess Yuki who had similarly placed her palm on the freezing surface of the frozen sphere.
She did not seem to have noticed the strange phenonon.
Cautiously, Akira accepted the Ice Energy Essence. He would reject it the very first mont he felt Princess Sora’s life force weakening.
The energy entered his body slowly. Bit by bit, it seeped into his cells.
It was the purest, strongest Ice Energy he had ever encountered.
A clean chill ran through his bones, waking every nerve. His skin prickled. His breath fogged.
And all the while, Princess Sora’s life force remained steady and strong.
Akira’s eyes widened further in disbelief.
But it didn’t stop there.
There was so much Ice Energy Essence entering his body that his body cells could not deal with all of it at that mont. He could at the very most assimilate just 1% of whatever made its way into his body.
The remaining 99% of the Ice Energy Essence instead pooled into a supercompressed Ice Energy Core within his body.
Instinctively, he knew that it was rely waiting for his body to finish assimilating the 1% before the rest would slowly dissolve and present themselves for assimilation as well.
"Did I... Just take all of her Ice Energy Essence? But even then, it’s impossible." Akira thought to himself. "Her peak power based on the Ice Shields she conjured earlier was probably at the very most 2% of the Ice Energy Essence I’ve just absorbed. Just where did all of these Ice Energy Essence co from? Could it be that all these were similarly locked within her body as well? Is this how energy works in this world?"
"Princess Yuki. Can you sense Princess Sora’s Ice Energy Essence?" Akira asked her quietly, his voice barely above the breath of wind that rustled her hair.
"Huh? Ice Energy... Essence? What is that?" Princess Yuki asked half absentmindedly. She was still imrsed in the pain of Princess Sora’s dilemma.
"The power source within us with which we use to cast our elental energies." Akira explained very simply while looking at her with a sharp gaze.
"I... I don’t know what you’re talking about. The source of Sora’s Ice Energy? She was born with a high affinity for Ice Energy. She practiced really hard and managed to strengthen herself to this extent..." Princess Yuki’s pain slowly receded from her eyes as she focused a little bit more on Akira’s questions.
"I see. Is there a way to gain additional elental affinities?" Akira continued to probe.
"No. We are only able to use whatever elental energies we are born with. Is there a reason why you’re asking all these questions?" Princess Yuki asked him.
"I can sense... Princess Sora’s Ice Energy leaving her body." Akira decided to give her the simple answer with half truths.
Princess Yuki’s eyes sharpened at his words, and she quickly directed her attention into Princess Sora’s body.
"You’re right!" Princess Yuki exclaid. Her hands trembled as she leaned closer. "Sora... There isn’t a single trace of her Ice Energy left within her body! Wha—what is happening?"
"It is a common occurance called Energy Dissipation. It happens all the ti after an energy wielding life form... Dies." A silky smooth voice of a middle-aged woman sounded from behind them, soft but firm like velvet dragged across stone, causing Akira and Princess Yuki to turn and face her.
A huge 2 ter tall woman with huge everything stared back at them. Yes, huge everything. Huge black rimd glasses, huge nose, huge lips, huge arms, huge hands, huge chest, huge everything else. Even her presence felt enormous, as if she displaced the air itself.
Her massive fra combined with the striking red robes she was wearing at that mont made for an impressive sight.
The number 13 was embroidered in gold on the mountain that was her chest.
"Captain Colossaria." Princess Yuki said with relief in her voice. "You’re back!"
"Indeed, my Princess. I rushed back the mont I received General Raikuro’s summon. I made it back in ti to help the General drive away the Shinigami outside. But when I got here... Princess Sora had already finished her Eternal Freeze." Captain Colossaria sighed regretfully.
But both her eyes were glinting with a strange light and locked in on Akira. The gaze wasn’t hostile, just unnervingly sharp, like a predator evaluating unfamiliar prey.
"Strong." Was Akira’s instant conclusion on Captain Colossaria’s strength.
Much, much stronger than the current him, and most probably even stronger than him during his peak back in his original world!
"And who might this handso young man be?" Captain Colossaria smiled at Akira, and it was a smile that made the hairs at the back of his neck stand up, eerily like a wolf’s smile just before the pounce. "Why don’t you introduce us, Princess Yuki?"
"And absolutely cold blooded." Akira thought.
The bloody stench of so many dead soldiers was still thick in the air, and she could chit chat as though she was chilling in a cafe.
"Ah! This is Akira, soone who saved my life back in Lord Hiji’s Castle. Akira, this is Captain Colossaria from the 13th Squad of JINKOKU. You know what JINKOKU is, right? The Monster Hunting Authority." Princess Yuki explained gently, her voice softening just a little as the tension ebbed.
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