The Death

* Remaining time: 62:12:17 *

* Underground slave warehouse near the town square of the Valley City. *

"Stand in the middle." With the order from Arcid, Aiden could only comply.

There was a complex magic circle drawn on the floor. It was like the one he had seen in the slave warehouse of Jewel. But there was something different about it.

Unlike that magic circle with a big circle in the middle and two circles at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, this one had three circles at 4, 8, 12 o'clock position around the big circle.

No matter how complex the magic circle maybe, looking at the similar but intricate language around the edge, Aiden had no difficulty in understanding its use.

"You learned about it from Jewel, didn't you?" When Arcid's manager asked, Aiden chose not to talk about it. However, the man continued.

"This is an upgraded version. It will give you twice the amount of mana, so you can dominate the essence of the beast." Looking at Aiden who frowned, he said with a smile, "But we've never tried it before."

'Shit.' Aiden cursed his heart. And there's nothing he can do about it. He even tried to entice them with a promise of delivering other cultivation techniques and weapons. But the man with the glass was more clever than he thought.

"What if you don't even come back after leaving the earth? Without boss around you, you can just live like a normal person on another planet. It is not like we can hunt you down if you don't return." He downright rejected it. And now Aiden was standing inside the magic circle.

Aiden looked around to find that two of the slaves were putting mana crystals in the two circles. To his surprise, these are two different types of crystals. 'Wind and water.' ESS confirmed it in the mind.

"Let's get started." The slaves left the room as soon as Arcid came in with a wooden box. With a smile on his face, Arcid opened the box and took out the essence of the beast.

Looking at the crystal in Arcid's hand, a chill came down Aiden's spine. It wasn't fear or anything, but it was the sheer coldness that had affected him.

And it wasn't just him, the manager could feel that, too. But Arcid had the worst effect of it. The skin of his hand had already changed its colour as he controlled the essence of the beast within his body.

However, it was nowhere near effective. A layer of frost was covering his hand, and the small shard of ice was condensing at the edge of his hair. 'Shit' Arcid cried as he put the crystal back inside the box again.

"That is ice." Aiden was unable to hide his surprise. "That is not wind or water. That is ice."

But the other two in the room had a confused look at his protest, as if they weren't even able to understand what Aiden was talking about.

"Of course, it would be ice. What else were you expecting?" Arcid cried as he was trying to shake off the ice of his hairs. But it was the manager who had realised the problem.

"Could it be that you don't know anything about the duel element?" Observing the confused look on his face, the manager nodded his head as if he had understood everything. "No wonder you couldn't use the element of ice."

'What are they talking about? What kind of relationship could there be between them?' All of their words sound gibberish to Aiden.

"This may be the last thing you know, so let me explain it to you." The manager said with a smile on his face, "When you mix both water and wind, you get ice."

"Like they're buckets of water and you can mix it as much as you want." Those intended words never came out of his mouth as Aiden waited for the manager to explain it to him.

"We don't know how it was achieved by those from the northern continent, but they could mix different types of mana inside their bodies to create warriors with the power of ice, Lighting and magma."

"They said that when you mix the fire and the water you get lightning, the water and the wind will create the ice. Magma is created by a dual Elementalist with earth and fire. I've even heard that few can combine three different elements."

'The combination of different elements?' Somehow these words made sense to him. He was trying to know more about it. Alas! It wasn't the time.

"What are you talking about?" Arcid cried impatiently as he walked toward the magic circle, putting the beast mana crystal in the empty circle.

Aiden was surprised by this sudden move, and before he could say anything his body turned stiff.

"Boss, wouldn't it be better to let him know the basics before the ingestion process starts?" The manager frowned.

"What are you talking about?" Although Arcid spoke, he dared not take his eyes off Aiden, "When I ingested my mana essence, I didn't even know what mana was, much less about earth mana. Haven't I survived?"

"But he is someone who can control mana. If he knows about it will increase his chances of success."

"Bullshit." Arcid cried, "If he has a strong will, he'll survive otherwise he'll be as good as dead. But…" His voice sounded a bit curious. "Shouldn't you have used ice mana crystal instead of wind and water?"

The manager shook his head and said," This mana is there to give him energy, to help him subdue the beast. As he is more accustomed to wind and water, it will increase his chances of survival."

As they were talking, the mana crystals were being diluted at a rapid rate and absorbed into the mana circle. It was the same for the mana beast essence too. But as soon as it melted, the temperature inside the room dropped.

"But if it is to subdue a beast with an ice element, won't fire mana crystal be the best thing?" Looking at Aiden, whose entire body was now covered with a couple of layers of frost, Arcid could help to ask.

Shaking his head, the manager said, "Then his body would explode before he could even attempt to subdue the beast."

Aiden, on the other hand, was struggling to breathe. It looked like all of his inner organs were frozen solid. His nose wasn't enough, and with his mouth wide open, he tried to take as much air as he could.

"He may not have survived it," Arcid said with a dark expression on his face.

"Looks like the will of the mana beast that came from the mine is too strong." The manager sighed before asking, "What kind of mana beast was that?"

"It was a little bluebird. Unlike other mana beasts from the mana crystal mine, only one essence crystal could be extracted from the mana beast. So I thought it was very weak." Arcid looked at the frozen solid Aiden and said, "But it looks like the weakest is too strong."

And there was a change in the ice shell that covered Aiden. It cracked and soon covered the right side of his body.

"What's going on?" The sudden change shocked both of them, but none of them could understand what was going on. "Why is black smoke coming out of the cracks?" Even if they wanted to know that nobody could answer them, and...

*Boom*

Sharp shards of ice were sent all over the place. The manager was quick to hide behind Arcid as thick rhinoceros skin covered Arcid's entire body.

"What the hell?" Their words resonated with each other, but they had no idea.

One side of Aiden's body was covered with a thick layer of ice, while the other side was with black smoke. And it wasn't just his body. The left side of the room was covered with jagged ice, while the black smoke now melted away the metal cage on his right.

If it wasn't shocking enough, Aiden was staring at them. But there was no pupil. His left eye hole was decorated with an ice-blue crystal and the right one was with a black one. And half of his hair had turned to silver.

"What is happening to him?" as he peeked from behind, the manager asked.

"Get out of here." Instead of answering him, Arcid yelled at him.

It startled the manager, but when he looked again, he noticed Arcid was shaking. He wasn't sure whether it was due to fear or cold, but the manager didn't dare to waste any moment.

But it was too late. When he turned around, he discovered that the door was frozen behind a thick layer of ice. The only thing he could touch was a doorknob, but he had no chance to rotate it.

"Boss, we've got to stop him. Otherwise, we might get frozen to death." And it seemed like Arcid was thinking the same thing, too.

By the time the manager turned around, Arcid was already on his four. His body was covered with a thick layer of skin, and his nose turned into a horn. And he was charging at Aiden.

Or at least he was trying. His body stopped just after taking two steps. All four of his limbs were bound by a thick layer of ice, and the ice was spreading from his legs to his body.

"Ahhh!" Arcid cried and turned into a human again, hoping that he could get his limbs out of the ice, but all this was nothing but his futile attempt. Soon his chest was covered with ice, and no matter how much he struggled or cried, it didn't help him at all.

Standing close to the door, the manager watched with fear that his boss was frozen dead inside the blue ice coffin.

"Nooooo!" The manager yelled and tried to shake the doorknob again. Looking at the ice that didn't stop spreading, he crept closer to the other side, and his finger touched the black smoke in his carelessness.

"Ahhhhhh!" the cry escaped his mouth as he looked at his hand. His fingertip was covered in black smoke. Or it is better to say that it was burning in black flame.

No matter how many times he blew it, it didn't go out. Rather, it was covering his entire palm. He did not realize in fear and shock that there was no burning sensation, and he continued to shout.

After all, losing his sense of touch of all the places the black smoke touched was fearsome enough. Yet there was nothing he could do about it.

His clothes turned into dust as soon as he tried to cover the black flame with it. And after observing the fate of Arcid, he didn't dare to touch the ice. The only thing he could do was wait for his death to come.

His tears and snot made a mess of his face as he continued to stare at Aiden's crystal eye with eyes full of resentment. It wasn't long before the manager's consciousness left his body, leaving a statue like Aiden in the middle of a magic circle that had long lost its power.

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* Remaining time: 61:54:39 *