Frozen Hell (Part 5)

"Huh?" Alex looked befuddled.

"Just get the fur coat on." Leo handed back his friend's clothing. "There is an experiment I need to test."

Confused, but feeling that this might be important, Alex draped the coat over his shoulders as he tagged behind Leo to the other room. The two men soon visited their female companions.

"Leo, Alex? What are you guys doing?" Judy appeared slightly disgruntled as she scratched her unkempt hair; it seemed that she had also been taking a nap.

"Has there been an attack?" Sarah asked curiously when she opened her door.

"I'll explain it to you guys on the way." Leo hurried through the hallway after handing over their belongings.

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Outside the front entrance of the manor, the group stood near the front doors as they watched one of their teammates step forward through the snow.

"Are you sure this is alright?" Judy asked skeptically while watching Leo making his way. "I don't even know what's happening at this point."

"It'll be fine, I think." Alex tried to sound positive. "Maybe he figured out something interesting."

Out in the icy wind, Leo turned back to the group.

"Can one of you guys come next to me?" he raised his voice across the wind. "I need a partner."

Judy and Sarah both turned their eyes towards Alex, clearly indicating for him to volunteer.

"You're the best suited for this," Judy said, referring to Alex's superior physical constitution as a warrior.

"Good luck!" Sarah wished him well.

Alex looked at them helplessly.

"Do you guys just not want to head out?"

In response, Judy tightened her arms together and grumbled, "I'm already out. I just don't want to go any further."

Alex sighed in resignation as he quickly ran forward, passing through the harsh wind that blew across the area. He did his best to cover himself with every step he took, attempting to offset the feeling of the cold billowing around his body.

"Good." Leo nodded once he saw Alex getting near. "I'm gonna need you to take this for me."

"What are you--? H-HEY!" Alex attempted to ask a question before stuttering in shock once he saw Leo steadily removing his fur coat.

"Are you crazy!" Alex hurried forward to stop his friend.

Even the most merciful temperatures of the Frozen Plains was said to be capable of freezing water in just a few seconds. It would be foolhardy for a non-warrior human to attempt enduring its climate without any form of protection.

However, Leo seemed to have ignored this warning. He took off the fur around him entirely before throwing it to Alex's direction without a second thought.

'It's as I thought. I really can't feel any cold.' Leo stretched his arms out wide to embrace the wind.

When he first opened the coat across his chest, he felt the wind caress onto his skin through the gaps in his shirt, yet it wasn't accompanied by a cold sensation. After taking it off completely, he felt no different than when he was inside the manor.

"You needn't worry!" Leo hastily said to calm Alex down; the latter was fiercely approaching him with his coat in hand. "I'm perfectly okay."

"You--" Alex halted his steps with a stupefied expression. "What's going on?"

"It wasn't the coat that was stabilizing my body heat," Leo explained. "It was--"

Before he could continue, however, he noticed a commotion behind his friend. Departing away from the manor's doors, Judy and Sarah were quickly racing towards them.

"IT'S FINE!" Leo raised his voice loudly in their direction. "I'M OKAY! JUST HEAD BACK!"

But his reassurance fell on deaf ears as the two nearly rushed right into him.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Judy shouted into Leo's ear after almost tackling him. No longer was she preoccupied with keeping herself warm. "Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"

"Do you want your body to be prayed over?" Sarah spoke in one of her rarely stern tones.

Leo raised his hands to shield himself from his team's wrath.

"Your misunderstanding; it's not what you think," Leo attempted to explain his actions. "As I was trying to tell Alex, I believe I've roughly discovered why I'm not experiencing the same cold as the rest of you."

He gestured for everyone to give him some space as he tried demonstrating this new discovery.

Judy and Sarah both hesitated as they stood in their spots, unmoving. It wasn't until Alex went to convince them did they decided to trust in their friend.

Once they all stepped back, Leo grabbed the pouch behind his waist and turned it over to the rest of the team.

"Although I'm still not completely certain, I think the cause for this has something to do with the phoenix feather." Leo slightly opened his pouch to reveal a glowing object shaded in ember.

"Phoenix feather?" the team grouped together to scrutinize the contents of the bag.

"Alex," Leo suddenly called out. "Can you come here for a sec? Ah, bring me the coat again, too."

"Eh, alright." Alex walked forward with an expression of uncertainty.

Leo took out the phoenix feather in a firm grip to prevent it from being carried away by the wind. As he observed it closely, he could have sworn that the glow was slightly more intense than usual, though this could just have been his assumptions playing tricks on him.

Still holding it tightly, Leo stepped towards Alex, who in turn handed back his coat after shaking off the snow, till they were only a foot apart.

"Don't move," Leo told the latter while he secured his fur coat. "I want you to hold this feather for me, but make sure it doesn't slip from your hands."

Although Alex remained unsure of the situation, he still nodded and took the edge of the feather with a serious expression.

"Do you feel any different?" Leo asked, still holding onto the other end.

When Alex shook his head in denial, Leo then briefly let go of the feather. Almost immediately, a biting cold penetrated his body, like a sudden splash of water submerged with ice. This was the first time Leo truly experienced the frightening temperatures of the Frozen Plains. Though he was currently wearing enchanted clothing to sustain his body heat, Leo had initially been long subjected to a daily dose of average warmth, so the unexpected chill shocked his nerves. Without slowly spending time getting used to the cold, his body was unable to instantly adapt.

"Hey, I'm starting to feel something!" Alex exclaimed once he became the only person in possession of the feather.

"Gr-gre-great! No-now give i-it back!" Leo desperately seized onto the end of the phoenix feather again but was unable to experience the same warmth as before.

"Oh, right." Alex quickly released his hold and transferred back the possession.

Half a second later, Leo finally felt normal.

'Phew... So that's how it works,' Leo thought fearfully. 'I never imagined the Frozen Plains would be this terrible.

'And these coats aren't effective enough at all! Judy was right!

'Perhaps if it was during somewhere other than here...'

Leo looked up and witnessed his group of friends shivering slightly.

"Er, let's go back!" Leo hurriedly announced.

Now that he too was forced to endure the terrible climate, Leo became more empathetic with his teammate's attitudes.

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Back inside the comfort of the manor, the group headed up the stairs.

"So," Judy began. "Care to explain what this phoenix feather is?"

"Hmm..." Leo contemplated on his answer. "I'm afraid I'm still lacking knowledge at the moment on the nature of this object."

It was the complete truth. Even after spending several hours studying the feather and finding accounts of it in other books, Leo was still unable to uncover all its mysteries. The recent experiment outside had been a one-time lucky find.

"So did you spend all your time figuring it out whenever you were in your room?" Sarah asked, accurately managing to guess his recent activities.

"Yeah." Leo didn't deny it. "I took it with me on this quest because I thought I would discover something interesting. Well, I guess that turned out true."

'But to think I was oblivious to its effect after three days...' Leo felt a little embarrassed.

Alex rubbed his hand as he remembered the warm sensation he felt when grasping the feather.

"Hhmmm, still though," Alex interjected. "How exactly did you receive that feather? I can't imagine something like that would've just been lying around."

"Ehh, actually..." Leo's face twitched. "It was during my last day attending Halo Academy. When I was packing up all my belongings, I found the phoenix feather randomly placed on my bed."

"What--? You mean it was actually just lying around?" Alex's face became stunned upon hearing that.

Judy and Sarah also exchanged looks of surprise. From their perspective, this phoenix feather is an item of great value, and can be essentially useful for individuals who regularly go out exploring. For such a thing to randomly appear in someone's room is a tad unheard of.

"Pretty much," Leo answered with a shrug.

"How strange..." Judy said curiously. "Do you have any ideas on why it was there?"

Leo crossed his arms in deep thought as his friends reached their designated rooms.

"I suppose it may have come from the phoenix that belongs to the school's Headmaster."

"Headmaster..." Judy's expression unnoticeably stiffened upon hearing that.

"Yeah, his name is Lewin Brionne." Leo explained, "He has a pet phoenix that likes to travel around the institution using some sort of teleportation magic. I'm assuming that it may have entered my room and shed a feather there."