129 The aftermath

"@#@#@ $#!@@#." The elf cried in intangible language as he glared at Aiden. The elf wasn't sure what was happening inside Aiden's body, and he had no way of explaining what was happening in front of his eyes.

A body made of ice was standing in front of him, as cracks were spreading through Aiden's translucent light blue skin made of ice. And the black fire was escaping from the cracks in fearsome speed, as if the pressure had reached its peak.

The one-handed elf stared at his now severed left hand that was turning into dust under the effect of the black fire. He touched his left shoulder and froze it.

"There shouldn't be such mana on this plane. No, no, no." The elf shook his head, "These humans are from a different plane. Could it be that there is Oglit on that plane too?"

The elf took another look at the ice statue that had stopped discharging the black flame. However, the black flame didn't completely extinguish.

The black flame had enveloped the left side of Aiden's body, while the right side of his body had become so cold that it had begun to create the mist.

"It's not like he can control the Mana of death." The elf pulled a red fruit out of the small pouch that was hanging from his waist and swallowed it.

"Otherwise, I wouldn't be alive to eat it. I think something had sealed that mana inside his body." While he was trying to comprehend his secrets, a change occurred on his frozen left shoulder.

The ice that was covering his shoulder wiggled and extended to create a shape of a hand. The ice elf shook his hand to shake off the excess amount of ice and exposed the hand, made of blue skin, underneath it.

He was checking his newly grown hand when Aiden opened his eyes. A pair of bright blue eyes glared at the elf for a moment before the domain vanished.

Like a vacuum inside a high-pressure zone, the strong wind and blizzard pushed in from all directions.

"@##$" The elf cursed in an intangible language as the sonic boom shook the entire world. He had copied Aiden's [Blink] using his second innate skill [Mimic].

Even with the effect of his innate mana spell, he could use the mimicked spells a fixed number of times. But he couldn't hesitate.

"To think they were using a death mana user between them." the elf shook his head as another sonic boom shook the world, "I need to report it as soon as possible. Otherwise…"

The words got stuck in his throat as a hand covered with the black mana appeared before him out of nowhere. In such proximity, there was no way he could escape, and as soon as the hand touched him, his body crumbled.

It was an ice clone. Even if it looked like a mad thrust for blood was driving Aiden to hunt the elf, he still could differentiate the fake body.

It was hard to see inside the blizzard. Still, Aiden raised his head and searched for the elf. And he sprang into action as soon as he detected something.

A figure appeared behind the white curtain of snow and Aiden. However, before its out-stretched hand could touch Aiden, Aiden touched it. And it turned into dust under the effect of death mana, leaving behind a belt with a face.

Before a frown could form on his ice-cold face, the surrounding area lit up. And four beams crashed on his body at the same time. In a blink, it trapped Aiden inside a block of ice.

*Creeeee*

Their victory cry resonated with each other as they dragged their body with the help of their bat-like wings. Before the echo could vanish, the ice shattered, and a black shadow jumped out of it.

Aiden had slit their wings, and without it, their mobility was almost zero. So, one could expect the result. Before they could open their mouth to send another ice breath, Aiden reduced them to dust.

However, it didn't end there. Aiden raised his head, looking for the elf, and he found something again. Aiden charged to the transporter. In his eye, someone was dragging a body without a hand. He stretched his hand and…

*Ahhhhh*

Charak screamed in fear. He did not understand what it was. But with half of the body covered in ice and the other half in swirling darkness, it looked fearsome enough.

And what surprised him most was its action. When it appeared in front of him, it stretched its left hand, made of darkness, at him. Just before it could touch his face, it moved the right hand, made of ice, to grab his left hand.

As he was staring at its bright blue eyes to understand its intention, it spoke, "That is why I told you not to use the Oglit mana."

'It's Aiden.' Charak was sure about it but wasn't able to discern his intention.

"That mana has an insatiable hunger for the living." To Charak's surprise, Aiden was talking like he was speaking to someone else, "The more you devour, hungrier will you become."

"There is no living that could escape the effect of Oglit mana. It's like a fire that will continue to burn for eternity. That was why I had sealed the seed of Ordog inside the obelisk."

Charak stared at Aiden as the black fire continued to evaporate from his skin. It slowly exposed Aiden's face. Only when all the black flames had vanished, Aiden shed the ice like a snakeskin.

Yet Aiden stood there staring at Charak as if he didn't know who he was. As he was about to say something, he covered his mouth before spitting out a couple of mouthfuls of blood.

He whipped his mouth and moved to Robin. He bent down beside him and froze the wound to stop blood loss. Then he turned to Charak, "Give him a dose of Ck30. Drive the transporter to the predesignated route."

It was a clear and concise order, but before Charak could say anything, Aiden fell on his face and lost consciousness.

**********

The virtual meeting room.

Other than the seven 5 star generals and a few heads of the stronghold of the Planet Will on the first row and the 9 Directors on the second row, there were five councilmen present at the last row, which signifies the importance of the meeting.

On the giant screen in front of them, they could see that a light beam shot out of the stronghold, and the screen went black.

"It was at this moment that all the satellites stopped working and crashed to the ground." the host explained, "As we cannot recover the satellites, we can't understand what has caused it."

Under the control of the host, the images on the screen changed, "The supply ship trotter had reached the planet about 7 hours later after the incident. And they had recorded this one."

"Is that a storm?" the director asked curiously, "it looks similar to the red-eye of Jupiter."

"Even if it looked similar, considering the density of EXO-04's atmosphere. It shouldn't be possible." One of the heads of the stronghold explained, "It does look like a cyclone, but its eye is too big compared to its body."

The host nodded, adding, "It isn't a storm. The calm area is the same area where the circle had formed. It stretched almost 1500 km. Including the area covered with the grey cloud, the entire thing is about 6000-7000 km in diameter."

"So it isn't a cyclone?"

The host shook his head, "Even after 10 hours of observation, we didn't even notice any movement. But what is most surprising that this area covered all the strongholds and the research posts."

"Are you telling me it is not those monsters who had intentionally created it?" With the question, all the eyes turned to the host. Alas! He had no answer.

It was then one of the councilmen spoke. "That is quite possible." A video started playing on the screen. A human was staring at a three-meter tall beast who was carrying a stone pillar on its shoulders.

The staring continued for a moment before the wind peaked around the monster. A giant dome covered a twenty meters area around the monster.

Even if they couldn't see what was happening inside the dome, they had no problem understanding that the wind inside the dome was a lot faster than the wind outside.

"It's like a blizzard inside that dome. Even if these monsters weren't as common as the small ones, there were reports of over 87 sightings of these monsters."

"We know the monster could use ice mana. And all that could be a spell?" Another councilman explained. "And even if they can control the weather, do you think they are just spread around the area and constantly using cloud creation spells?"

The first councilman shook his head, "If a monster, three meters tall, can create a blizzard that is twenty meters wide, what would a monster that carries a mountain on its back could do?"

"Monster that carries a mountain on its back? Bull…" The 'shit' got stuck in his throat as an image appeared on the screen. It was an image of an enormous turtle that had a giant shell on his back.

And above the shell was a snow-covered mountain peak. The councilman smirked, "You are wise enough to understand that the dome of the blizzard was a spell, but you have never asked what can use a spell that could freeze a kilometer wide stronghold in a single shard of ice."