Castle in the sky

In her past life, Ise formed the yang core as she reached twenty. The mana storms of Drasca, the fire kingdom are famous for increasing cultivation speed, as long as you are able to absorb the mana.

After that, Ise's hobby has been to create miniature buildings. She could very well build an entire castle, if she had enough power.

While she has the necessary control, she does not have the necessary power yet. This is where Elantra came in. Elantra is sensitive to mana, but can not control it well.

But as long as Ise controls mana, and forms the shape, Elantra can punch in with force solidifying the walls.

Ise put a lot of thought into making the night stay for the climbers.

She made chicken egg shaped domes, made out of snow, with enough ice and air in them to insulate the inside. She formed vents at the bottom for the cold air to seep out, and thin conical vents a little above them to let the air in. The entrances are small, like the paper folded inwards.

That vertical slit will be just enough for a child to squeeze in through the door, but any cold air will not directly enter the house straight. The beds are formed at a height of two and half meters, at which place warm air gathers. As the humans fill the space, in an hour, the air at that level is at body temperature. Perfect temperature to rest in.

By the side of the beds, she formed another type of structure, with four sturdy pillars, and four strong ice rebars, over a one foot ice pedestal. This is to be used by the children who carried their supplies with them. Ideally, they will tie a bed skirt around the frame, hammock on the square frame attached to four pillars. Inside the bed skirt, they will put a small charcoal brazier, which will keep them quite warm through the night. Even if they don't use the charcoal fire, they could still tie the hammock, and lay in a sleeping bag over the hammock. That will be comfortable too.

After the houses are formed, Ise transforms the icy craggy paths into clean steps. Where the path is not steep enough for a step, flat tiles ice with wedges is formed. This way, none of the children will slip, even if they run around. In half an hour, the entire third peak was transformed into an ice wonderland made especially for kids.

Ise also paid attention to the place where fliers are to land with extra supplies, and made the platform they are on to create teeth like structures extending into the sky. It is like a spider flower with especially white tendrils extended into the sky.

As the fliers skate down these teeth, their wings will be reduced in size to nothing.

After some thought, she gestured to Elantra, creating such flier landing teeth at the beginning of many stairs.

The children who reached above early, the fliers who remained behind to prepare the food and medicine both stared wide eyed at the transformation of the third peak as Elantra and Ise worked together.

If they merely followed Ise before, their like transformed into reverence now.

Though it's called medicine, what they serve is ginger soup and mulled cider.

The flier team went to the fifth peak's team which was traveling on the road to get extra supplies. Thus, they returned just as the children waiting for their turn were getting restless.

Another pot of ginger soup and mulled cider were set up. The children all drank the overly sweet drink, then ate the not so sweet porridge.

Many of the children carried hammocks and sleeping bags, so they were fine without the tents.

Tonight, none of the children went to sleep straight away. Now they are used to the Reotonarch's cold, most of them stayed awake to practice their skills. The little Pollen raised his wings, and zipped around the field like a little hummingbird. He wobbled here and there. Following him, many of the other fliers spread their wings, and they started flying around the beginner's playground Ise created.

Elantra, looking at them, waved her hand, and created a gigantic ice mirror. The children looked at the gigantic mirror with a gasp, then, in but a second, the entire mirror broke in to pieces, forming a hundred identical mirrors the size of Elantra, creating a maze of mirrors on the flat ice terrace.

With that, Elantra vanished from the sight of the children.

" Where is she ? " they gasped.

The children rushed inside the mirror walls trying to find Elantra.

Ivan Sekov, unable to hold any longer, created a fog horse, making it gallop through the mirrors. If the horse enters one single mirror, the mirror shatters. But the moment the horse comes out, the mirror forms again. Leian created an ice blaze ball in his hands. He threw it at the mirror. When the mirror shattered, a small wisp of the cold blue blaze hung in the air, and no mirrors formed there.

Sekov and Leian could be considered a bit of rivals, but now, all of a sudden, they started working together.

Sekov created two horses now, letting them gallop through the mirrors in a straight line. Wherever the horses went, mirrors shattered. Leian flicked his finger, filling the emptied space with a wisp of frost blaze immediately.

Elantra was unable to form mirrors there. But, she could form mirrors elsewhere.

As they blasted the mirrors, another kid entered the mirror instead of blasting it. The mirror rotated on the axis, showing him the next mirror he could jump to. He tapped his toe on the hollow mirror, creating a mark on the mirror. He jumped to the next mirror.

And tried to move around again. This mirror twisted in the anticlockwise direction, which is opposite of the previous mirror. He caught sight of Elantra. He immediately wanted to follow her, but after much effort, he realized the mirrors only turn in one direction. He must stop the mirror in perfect alignment to the next mirror to travel to the next mirror. He tapped his toe, marking this one first. Then, tried teleporting to the previous mirror, with which there's no alignment at all. He was able to teleport to the mirror.

He teleported to the last mirror on the path, jumped into the next. If he keeps creating the teleport marks, would he be unable to catch the little girl ?

Sekov and Leian broke near to five hundred mirrors before they ran out of juice.

The fliers flew over the maze rowdily, confusing the children inside the maze even more. Almost every one tried to use the skill they learnt, trying to break the mirrors. It is a testament to Elantra's strength that she was still able to keep up in mana stamina.

Yet, as time passed, Elantra, who was only focusing on creating a new halo mirror and jumping over to it, felt the gaze of someone on her back. Ise absorbed mana right in front of Elantra. This is the way of communication they have tentatively developed.

Elantra followed the path, and jumped onto the ground right beside Ise.

A second later, a boy fell face forward as he missed catching Elantra.

He raised his head only to see Ise, who was standing in front of Elantra.

" Hey ! I almost caught you. " The boy exclaimed upon seeing Elantra.

" Almost is still a failure ! " Elantra snapped back.

" My name is Hail ! Remember it, Little lady. Next time, I will definitely catch you and make you my bride ! " Hail exclaimed at her. There is no real intent of romance, only childishness in the words. The boy heard the words somewhere and thought them cool.

" Who wants to be your bride ! Ugly Monkey ! " Elantra fought back, sounding extremely childish. In fact, Hail is almost as pretty as a girl, only that, his hair is exceptionally wild. Like a black lion's mane. His eyes are black, his skin is as fair as snow. On top of that, the boy had an oval-shaped face. If not for the lion's mane hair, he would very easily be mistaken for a girl.

Ise smiled at the fight of the children.

" Then, Sir Hail, you must make sure to catch her one day. " Ise said, smiling at the boy.

" Upon my honor, Princess. " The boy said, kneeling, and placing a fist across his chest.

" I don't marry weaklings ! " Elantra exclaimed, pointing at the boy's nose.

" I will become stronger than you. " The boy exclaimed back.

" Ha! You can't even catch me. " Elantra pouted her lips, folding her hands across her chest.

" Are you stupid ? I said I will catch you another day. " The boy snapped back.

" Huung ! " Elantra looked down at him, still pouting her lips, radiating the air of ' I am mature, so I won't fight with you child ' written all over her body.

" See you later. Goodbye princess. " The boy said to Elantra, and nodded with his fist across his chest to Ise, then teleported away.

There are still many others to catch. Since he placed his teleportation mark, he should catch as many others as possible.

Ise looked at the wild field of mirrors which has developed into a gigantic game of Tag full of laughter and magic. Ise smiled looking at the field. ' I had been such a fool ' She chided herself once again, as she returned to her sky tower to practice.

Elantra followed her with a skip in her step.

Once again, the children had a very comfortable night atop Reotonarch.