Chapter 37

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, as everyone anxiously awaited the response from the king of Camelot.

The knights and the commander felt anxious and fearful at the prospect of a negative response coming their way.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, though she shared these same fears, found her mind completely occupied by something else, as she continued day and night trying to replicate what Ethan had done. Without understanding how or if she would even succeed, she persisted, tirelessly wielding her sword.

The sweat dripping down her body, causing her clothes to cling to her skin, was irritating and uncomfortable, yet the feeling of gradually progressing each time she swung her sword made her have no intention of giving up.

In the end, after two full days of training tirelessly, Elizabeth finally managed to use aura offensively for the first time. Despite all the effort put into making it happen, when it actually did, it seemed natural and instinctive, with a sharp, thin layer of cutting aura forming around her blade.

As her aura formed, her heart raced with happiness, and Elizabeth smiled, raising her sword. In that moment, she felt as if she were cutting through the air and the snow wherever the blade passed.

After a day of waiting, although the knights were too anxious to notice, snow began to fall in small amounts on the battlefield.

When they woke up on the second day, small white layers had already formed on the ground, making them wonder if winter had already arrived. But the answer was obvious, they had just gone through the last one, the next winter was still far away.

However, despite this being worrying, especially for the crops, none of them really paid attention to these details, after all, they were too preoccupied with the arrival of the king's letter to do anything like that. The response that would dictate the course of their lives.

However, what happened on the third day cannot be ignored.

"Do you think Riley and Aiden have returned with the response...?" Clovis asked, looking around outside the tent. Outside, demons ran across the white field and threw small white balls at each other.

"I'm not sure..." Ethan replied, stepping on the ground and having his feet sucked into the snow covering the ground. "Send someone to the kingdom to make sure.."

Earth or grass could no longer be seen anywhere in that field. Not even the bodies covering the ground were visible at this point. During the silence of the night, when everyone closed their eyes, the snow covered everything.

Looking around, Ethan saw something quite familiar, a slightly bluish and cold mana, the same one that keeps invading the kingdom every passing day.

"Watch out!" one of the demons shouted.

Ethan quickly dodged, and Clovis moved his head shortly after. Carlos, who had been stretching inside the tent, wasn't awake enough to have the same agility.

His mouth opened as if he were letting out a silent roar.

"...What are you..." no more words, just anger. His face was covered by the icy snow covering the ground.

Wiping his face with his hands, the veins in his neck seemed to bulge as the snow fell to the ground.

"You... You bastards!"

Carlos ran out of the tent and, reaching down to the ground with one hand, he grabbed as much snow as possible to create a snowball and throw it at his companions.

"Don't run away! Damned! Come back here now!"

As Carlos chased the demons across the snowy field, Ethan watched them from the front of the tent until he looked towards the base of Camelot and saw a hesitant knight approaching. With each step he took towards where they were, the knight would stand still for at least five minutes, sometimes even stepping back two paces, and then moving forward again.

"It seems like the response from the king of Camelot has arrived." Ethan said, his black wings appearing on his back and his feet detaching from the thick layer of snow. "If the response from what Riley and Aiden found is negative, send someone to call me. I want to know what's causing all this."

Clovis nodded, before being hit by a snowball thrown by Carlos, and Ethan flew towards the base of Camelot's army.

Carlos ran for quite some time after doing that.

To the knights' happiness, the response given by King August was quite positive, giving permission for Ethan to go to the central city.

The vast majority of the knights remained at the base, and only twenty went with Ethan, Elizabeth, and the commander.

"How long do you think this will take..?" Ethan asked, looking out the carriage window.

"Normally it would take a little over a day..." the commander replied. "But thanks to the snow... it might take a bit longer."

Ethan sighed.

"I see..." he said.

Despite trying not to look, Elizabeth couldn't help but let her eyes wander in his direction. The sacred sword glowed, calming her mind and giving her courage to open her mouth and ask the question she so desired.

"Hmm..."

She tries. Her mouth even opens, but the words don't come out.

Is it fear? Is she still afraid...?

Her body trembles, indeed, but now she can't tell if it's out of fear or not. Thanks to the sword, her mind is staying minimally centered, so fear couldn't be the cause.

Gripping the hilt tightly in a discreet manner, her mouth opens again, but meeting those purple eyes made her mind go completely blank.

"What's wrong?" Ethan questioned. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"..."

The sword glows intensely in its sheath, and with her eyes closed, Elizabeth finally says what has been stuck in her throat for the past few days.

"How... How did you make that cut...?"

"Huh..?"

Ethan leaned one arm on the carriage window and leaned in, feeling the cold wind tousle his hair as he looked out at the surrounding landscape. Everything was white.

"Hmm..."

Elizabeth understood his silence as a denial of her question. Obviously, why would he answer her, after all? There's no reason.

"I can't say..." Ethan said, responding to her question.

Even if he thought about it a lot, as Riley had already told him, there's nothing he can describe about what he does other than... talent. The most monstrous talent there is.

How could Ethan teach someone what he does, if it only took seeing aura being used once for him to learn it? The ascension was what truly left everyone dumbfounded, after all, he had reached the first stage after a simple fencing practice duel.

In just one day, his aura could not only be used defensively, but also over long distances, signaling the arrival of the second stage of ascension, intermediate ascension.

No surprise was shown on his face when, while training alone on the beach behind the demonic castle, he made use of his aura and ended up, naturally and instinctively, parting the waters of the ocean, marking his arrival at intermediate ascension.

Now, after finally learning magic, his use of aura has become even more natural and versatile, with him being able to do things he had never imagined before, like cutting through the ambient mana itself, as he did days ago, or simply, according to what his senses say is possible, splitting the moon in the sky.

"Well..., according to what I've been told..." he continued. "..., you would need to achieve advanced ascension in aura usage to do something like that."

"Advanced ascension?!" exclaimed the commander, surprise evident on his face. "You... You're saying you've already reached that level...?!"

Without using words, Ethan's silence and the deep sigh that followed were the answer to that question.

"A monster..." thought the commander. "Definitely a frightening creature! Putting this war aside is surely the best choice. There's no one in the kingdom who can match him..."

"What is this advanced ascension..?" Elizabeth asked, confused. "Are there levels to it?"

Elizabeth didn't know. After all, how could she? The only information that reached her about ascensions was in a casual conversation with Marie, her maid at the castle.

"Yes, miss..." replied the commander. "And advanced ascension is the highest level among them all..."

For the first time, Elizabeth looked at Ethan, not only with fear but somehow also with a look of admiration.

"So the difference was that big...?" she wondered, gripping the hilt of a completely dull sacred sword. "Damn monster..."

***************

"Hey, it's been over three days already!" exclaimed Aiden, sitting on the frozen ground and leaning against a large block of ice. "You still haven't found anything?"

Walking through the frozen terrain was not as dangerous or difficult as it would be if they had to investigate the Frozen Peaks themselves, after all, there they didn't need to protect themselves from the cold with magic or aura.

"You talk as if doing this was easy." replied Riley, examining one of the huge ice rocks scattered around the place. "Be grateful that, thanks to my luck, we found this place quickly. If it depended on you, we'd still be stuck in the Frozen Peaks."

"What?! I told you that wasn't the right place, you just didn't want to listen!"

"Yes, yes, sure, you're absolutely right..."

Running his hand over that stone, Riley feels something strange, but by now it had become normal due to the number of times this has happened.

"This one too..." Riley thought.

All the stones in that place have a strange texture, as if they weren't simple stones, but rather huge scales.

"The texture is the same and..."

Looking at the ground behind the stone, Riley sees long marks coming from the sea, others from impacts, as if something had been thrown in that place, and some that seemed to start right there.

"These marks... is there really something or someone dragging these things..?"

"Hey, Riley..." called Aiden, with a trembling voice. "Do you remember that bet we made with Carlos during knight training...?"

"Which one? The one about who would cut the training dummy first?"

"No... not that one... The one about the ice dragon from the Frozen Peaks not existing... Remember I bet that it did...?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember. But why are you bringing this up now? And what the hell is happening to your voice?!"

Riley turned around, only to see Aiden slowly approaching him as he backed away from a frightening creature. Each step was silent, as it could very well be his last.

Its enormous bluish body is made entirely of ice, just like its long tail that breaks the ground where it hits, its claws that easily shred the ice under its feet, its large pair of wings that seem to leave the two demonic knights with no prospect of escape, and its teeth... teeth so bright and sharp that they resemble cutting blades.

"So... it seems like I won this bet.., right...?"

The dragon roared, signaling the start of its attack and causing Riley and Aiden to dodge, each jumping to one side.

"Damn it..."

A path of transparent ice appeared in the direction where the roar came from and extended for several meters.

"..., I'm never betting anything with you guys again..."

As the ice dragon emerges before Aiden and Riley, Ethan finally arrives at the gates of the kingdom of Camelot. And at the same time, in some location bordering the Frozen Peaks, a sight never before seen horrified any guard on duty.

Its white fur swayed gently with the breeze that surrounded it, and its teeth emerged every time it growled. For the first time in years, the feet of an ice creature touched outside the territories of the Frozen Peaks.

The howl coming from the mountains put everyone in that city on alert because, finally, the trumpet was sounded. Its loud and penetrating sound warned everyone that the enemies were coming and that whoever could fight should gather at the back wall of the city.

End.

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There wasn't supposed to be a chapter today, but I ended up preferring to post this one today, rather than posting only one chapter next week.

To be honest, I just wanted to thank anyone who made it this far reading this story. Seriously, thank you so much.