VOLUME 4 : CHAPTER – 3 PROTECT WHAT YOU HAVE TO

CHAPTER - 3

PROTECT WHAT YOU HAVE TO

Caroline straining her arms pushed the heavy doors of the observation chamber. A grey room completely devoid of any materialistic value came into picture. It had a circular rooftop and the walls had a special luster to them. There were no windows and the thick walls almost made the room soundproof. I brushed one of my fingers on the wall and there was not a single speck of dust as usual. At a first glance it might appear some kind of a special storeroom. But it’s not, since its empty over here.

I prefer to call it an observatory while it also works as a communication room. And for the reason that we are here is still unclear to me except for the fact that Caroline was desperate to meet someone, whom she didn’t wanted to or apparently didn’t liked much.

Caroline plucked out a necklace from her pocket and maintained a constant stare at it. Her hands squeezed tightly around the ornament and her whole body shook with anger. Getting impatient I tried to make things clear, attempting to uplift the seriousness and exorcise the heavy tension the room was drenched in then.

“Are you okay?”

Crap. I did it again. That was a dumb question. It’s obvious from her looks that she is not okay.

“…I am fine.” As if snapping out of reality, she fumbled for the right words after staring back at me.

“Let’s begin.” She placed the necklace in the air which floated for a few seconds and then hovering in an upward direction got transfixed to the centre of the hemispherical roof. The necklace had a golden chain imparting light and a medium sized red pendant attached to it.

Like a crystal radiating light, the pendant glowed form above and the walls started to show images.

Now, I knew why the red stone in the necklace looked so familiar. It was an ancient communication magic from the age of gods and primarily used by them. I wondered who would have the receiving necklace…

Indulged in my own extrapolation of thoughts, the images on the walls blurred and then suddenly gained drastic clearness and sharpness.

Both I and Caroline had petrified looks on our faces.

Dead bodies. Blood. Dark.

Corpses lay scattered—some in pieces—around a giant hall that would’ve been considered beautiful otherwise. The beautiful laden tiles on the ground seemed to have been once white, but was now dyed red with blood and a tiny flow of water flowing in the square grooves on the sides of the floor in a symmetrical pattern was swirling with blood in them.

There must have been about hundred corpses spread throughout the ground, their weapons lying next to them – mostly broken. The bodies revealed signs of torture—some had had their limbs torn apart, faces crushed beyond recognition and other beheaded bodies showed signs of pure genocide.

Just what kind of entity brought down such a catastrophe? But I just couldn’t seem to peel my eyes away from it.

Searching for clues, I concluded that this hall was a part of a huge royal castle and quite extravagant for there to be such beautiful gems embedded everywhere in the wall and emanating radiant magical energy.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Following the sound ours eyes befell on a figure wearing a black cape and punching at something enthusiastically. Even the resonating sound of the throws had a rhythmic tone.

The person in question turned back and I was stunned to see a beautiful tall young woman in a black tight suit and black gloves with blood stains all over it.

What really shocked me were the physical features of this person. It was like looking at the adult version of Alicia. With only difference her height and azure blue eyes which shone like lightning. She had the same long white hairs and a very similar face to her to the extent to be called identical. Most important of all she appeared to be the cause of what was happening around and that ecstatic smile on her face was slowly damaging my nervous system.

The next shocker was another dead body which she seemed to have been using as a punching bag. Its face deformed and his blood stained body resting on the arm stand of a huge throne. So this really was a castle’s hall room. So, who is that man dead again…

“It has been a long time teacher.” Caroline made a small bow to the person in the film. She sounded so plain and trying to conduct herself properly.

I followed her example and too made a small bow. If Caroline is calling her ‘teacher’ then she is to be one of the twenty-four Pillar Goddess Urza. Alicia’s lineage and the previous wielder of that principium weapon.

“Long time no see, Caroline. How long has it been maybe around two hundred years since we fought together during the war.” Her careless response, smiling disposition and that still grin on her face. Has she forgotten the kind of place and situation she is in.

“Teacher what are you doing and where are you.” Caroline was still trying to act calm, as if she was expecting such kind of brutality. I found women every time scary when they try to act so normal.

She vigorously shook her hands which got rid of the sticking blood to her hands. She looked around in amazement as if for the first time realizing where she could be.

“Well I wonder about that. You see in this world the demon lord succeed in murdering all the heroes and was now playing around with the populace. Since most of the gods had abandoned this world, thinking that no one would mind I decided to join in the fun. And then it sadly became a one-time game.”

“Wait and you just went and did whatever you liked?” Caroline tried to counter.

“It had been so long since I wanted to have fun but the world has become quite peaceful now. I tried to hold myself the best I could but maybe the opponent team were all just talk. Ah! don’t tell me Alice you wanted to join me too. Sorry but it seems there is no more opponent team left to compete against us.”She made a seductive and yet innocent smile which made the whole conversation seem like an invitation to a popular one time exclusive game event.

But a demon lord defeating all the heroes is something quite rare. Those two titles are authorities made to counter interact with each other to maintain balance and prosperity but for one to overpower other showed just how strong the title holder could be. Wouldn’t the fight would have been too deadly, but by the looks of it – was a one sided massacre. And she did it with bare hands nonetheless when she is a dual wielder herself.

Now I understand what Caroline meant to not joke around when asking for a sparring match with her. Because I would get obliterated even with her holding back. So that’s the power of one of the top clans of the Mane Apostolo Council of Gods.

Caroline for a while stayed silent and so did she.

“Caroline…” she sounded a bit normal there, which showed that she might be getting to the point of the discussion now.

“Yes, teacher…” Caroline seemed to be still maintaining some sort of rules that she would be speaking less in front of her. Totally adverse of her true nature. Kind of scares me, to think that a person like her has such command over a quick-witted and prankster Caroline.

“Do you have a band-aid; it seems that I have scraped my knee falling for you.”

“I am going to call the cops. It must be illegal to be as fine as you are. This is not the time for such frivolous talks and flirting. If you are this free then you shouldn’t be acting so ignorant.”

“Is it about Sachi.”

“Her name is Alicia now.”

“Right Sachi…”

“A-l-i-c-i-a.”

Both of them seemed to be adamant with their choice of names. At this point of time I started wondering why I was even attending this meeting between a student and a teacher. But isn’t it too late to back out now.

“Then let me re-introduce the kind of relationship between us. Sachi… then, and now Alicia is be my biological grand-granddaughter from the world she came from. But since she possesses immense magical powers just like me but not a divine body, so that would make me her mother.”

“She is my daughter now.” Caroline doesn’t seem to be going down so easily.

“I know and you have my thanks for looking after that child when she was so alone.”

“Regarding that I found your traces of magic in her soul realm.”

There was a sudden silence, in which neither party spoke and the goddess seemed to be in a dilemma whether to reveal the cards or not.

“You got me. I did place a twofold seal on her to permanently negate her magical energy and life force.”

“How could you do that to such a small child, knowing that it would hinder her personal life and growth? The chances that she could even die and always remain sickly would be too high.”

“But didn’t she break through both of them on her own. Isn’t she awesome just like me. Am I right or am I right?”

“She lost her parents at such a young age and you weren’t even there to support and guide her. You say it like it’s all good and fine but…How could you even call yourself her….”

“Caroline you know that, it’s not like I had a choice. Possessing such great magical powers and life force, you do realize what kind of attention she could have fetched for herself from other gods who would crave to get their hands on her powers in any way they could with nothing good to do or the devils from that world. If I had stayed with her, then I might be able to support her but never completely protect her. The only way was for us to part ways. I don’t ask for that child’s forgiveness for what I had done to her and when I should have acted responsibly, but she is my only granddaughter and I do love her.”

“It’s still so unfair even if you put it like that and sound so reasonable at the worst moment when you yourself are so carefree. So, from now on I will look after her and make sure that she would never have to compromise or depend on someone in the outside world.”

“Alicia is growing into a beautiful maiden just like me and is able to do so many things she could not do in her previous life. So thank you for looking after her and I am glad that you were the first people whom she met to take care of her. How about I come there and let’s celebrate together.”

To be honest, her switching flips too quickly makes it difficult to say whether she is really serious or not. It’s hard to keep tabs on her mood, really.

“Don’t try to run away. You are still hiding something. So please tell me. Why of all times now. Why such an elaborate plans to reincarnate so many people at once.”

“You know I am bad with a lot of questions. So how about I answer one by one. I am in a good mood now, so hurry up with your questions.”

“Her true attribute... Just what is it?”

“So you have reached the conclusion that it’s not the six basic attributes. Well that was fast. Just what you can expect from my number one disciple.”

“But didn’t you say to me that I was the only disciple.”

“That’s true. That’s why you are number one. Hurray.”

“Heeeehhh.”A small cackle left my lips. For the first time I saw someone making fun and pulling leg of Caroline.

But then a murderous eye made contact with me and I stood in attention position immediately.

“Hurry up and just answer the question.”

“Ah! You don’t like me giving you special attention Caroline.”

“Fine then I am putting the transmitter off. Since this conversation is getting nowhere it’s better to postpone it.”

“Wait.. wait.. It’s just that you look even cuter when you are angry. So bare with me.”

“Buttering me up won’t do you any good.” Caroline was straight-forward with her thoughts.

“Jeez... but your red face tells me something else.”

I bend a little and pulled my eyes to the right to take a glance at my wife’s supposed to be flustered face. But before I could get a peek, she was about to pull the string of necklace and switch off the transmission.

“It’s nothingness.”

“….What!?” Caroline, stopped in her movements, most probably pretending to cut off the chat.

“You heard me. It’s none of the six attributes. Her soul core does not exist, because it’s empty. You can also call it void.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Even I don’t know how exactly it works. But you know what… Almighty World God created life using this very attribute by mixing his will in it. The attribute which is the origin of everything.”

“So, you want to tell me that all the six attributes are resulting breakdown products of that void or nothingness that you call and that’s why her spirit realm is like a void. But why allow something a singular existence like that.”

“Beats me. It’s not like I am in charge. Except for Almighty World God no one knows what’s up with the Divine World System to create an irregularity like this. But it seems that even the Tree of Life has the same goal but a different mindset to achieve it. That’s why it offered its fruit to her and she was able to survive the backlash and outburst of energy from time to time when the seal was being broken.”

“So, you are telling me that the Tree of Life is in a way trying to protect her, while the Divine System is trying to use her for a specific purpose. How bothersome. And on top of that learning about that fruit makes it even more realistic. So there really is something going on that the World God decided to take such drastic measures and reincarnate so many.”

“Well, that was a quick conclusion. But things have taken a turn again when the principium dual blades chose her as the next wielder. That would have been an unexpected event for both the Divine System and Tree of Life. You know exactly what those blades symbolize and that she is of my lineage.”

“What are you thinking of won’t happen?” Caroline passed it out straight to her.

“Even if you deny it how much you want, those are the swords of calamity and having a wielder means another war is inevitable and this time it maybe on a wider scale than the Great Wars.”

Wait… if that happens then wouldn’t the world itself get obliterated this time.

“Didn’t you yourself said it. Remember you told me that whenever a world is about to suffer from a big disaster that can threaten the system’s existence it always transfers a sacred weapon to the world to be used by someone worthy and prevent such events.”

“Then what of it. This time the divine system though chose a human with a power that would have allowed it to make her under its absolute control by putting restrictions on her. But the tree of life decided to give her a meaning as the best course of action and set her free from that ugly path. And now that she has a will of her own…. I see I won’t let that happen. Whatever the divine system has in accord for her, as her mother I will not just standby and see her dance according to its plans. But she will be strong enough to chose her own path and make her own decision.”

“Even if you say that, why the trust in her so much. Wouldn’t it only bring back uncertainties, pain and misfortune for you?”

“Because she is the daughter of a true hero and a true demon lord the strongest out there in this world. In the times she has stayed here I have come to love her as her mother and I still want to look after her. And the same time realized that there is nothing to worry, because unlike us, who were at that time weak and had to sometimes run away, compromise and lose things dear to us. She would crush those who would oppose her. Even though seeing her leave on the same path as to save the world, I trust her that she would come at the top and rise above everyone’s expectations.”

“Hahaaa…. Doesn’t that sound so much like me to destroy everything I dislike. So, you wish it for or not you are going to send her on a bloody path to hell. But are you ready to even able to lift the heavy burden for that. She will kill humans, other races, lose close ones and make more enemies. And even then you can say still keep on making the same claims.”

“No, you are wrong. She will defeat all her enemies, keep her closed ones safe. That’s just how strong she will be and that’s why she can be the only one who could do it for the sake of you know who. Didn’t you yourself say something you cannot achieve by your own hands is something you cannot protect. One cannot easily escape their fate in a world where the will of the god’s is supreme and stands above all. One’s fate is sealed when they are born whether it is a burden to become a king for someone for a noble family, to be born with titles like sage, hero or demon lords. When people have expectations from you and you fail then your fate blurs and you think it’s all over. But I have learned that every time you lose its just a single ball in life you were unable to hit. Life will keep on throwing new challenges at you. But if someone stops at the first ball, he would never be able to hit another even though he has to swing his sword for the hundredth time to hit for the first time. Not like I am one myself to believe in strings of fate and my own rambling.”

“Well, I accept nothing less from my pupil. Talking after you for such a long time just like old days…. Refreshes my mind. Then I hope everything comes true just as you say. How about we have such chats regularly.”

“No, on second thought I think I need to go and take a look at her.”

“Well, you are no fun. How about the one standing next to you. You are the true demon Lord from the Ashborn family correct.”

“Yes, mam.” I stood in attention position after a quick response. Doesn’t she know I can still see the blood-stained walls and corpses behind her?

“Thank you for taking care of my student and my daughter. Well, how about we have some fun together too. What do you say? We didn’t have a chance of sparring during the war.”

“No, no I am more than happy to look after my family. And I am happy living like this without having to fight formidable opponents so let’s postpone the match for now.”

“Huh! You are a boring plain guy. I see. Times surely have dulled people. Even after playing with these guys I am not having that much fun any longer.”

“Well. If I am dull and plain, it cannot be helped. Once again you have my sincere thanks for telling us about Alicia.” I tried to maintain a poker face and not to show my anxiety.

What is she even talking about, she K.O. them all without breaking a sweat. And that smile on her face though charming and attractive it might be, how can she still say she is not satisfied. Will Alicia eventually turn like that? I really do like when she smiles but for some reason like that.

“Well, then bye-bye. Call me if you ever need my help.”

“Thank you for your help teacher. Take care of yourself.”

Goddess Urza was now holding the pendant in her necklace which had stopped radiating light and also cut-off the transmission.

“Caroline, there are so many more things I wanted to tell you. But that have to wait. About how the grudges of the previous war had left that world unstable and the revolts of devils who would be stronger than the previous ones with much larger forces and more enemies to speak of. But I don’t want to make you worry. I am happy to see that you are living a happy peaceful life just like you wanted to. So stay where you are. Let us entrust our hopes to the next generation to those two. They two might make a good team after all. I am sure she will meet Athena pretty soon. Now that Alicia has broken her two seals, her attribute of nothingness is something even I may not be able to handle and it will keep on growing with that special body of her, made by Arachne. She did tell me that she wanted to create a new most supreme species that would have a high growth rate, but no one knew that she actually succeeded in making one and hid it. Maybe she realized what a frightening creation she had made that could eventually threaten her own existence and the position of gods. Not like I care.  But her desire to live far surpasses than any problem that could be thrown at her. Maybe everything was to be fated like this. Now then, that’s over, which one of you was the demon lord again.”

She glances at the pile of corpse without any glint of hate or hesitation in her eyes.

“Sorry, my bad. Maybe I killed everyone here before they could even speak. But wasn’t it there fault. Though I might have walked into the demon lord’s castle without an invitation but they were to attack me first. What if a fragile women like me would have got hurt. Maybe I would stay in this world for a while and keep watch.”

But I wonder what she would do when she awakens the second ability of the White & Black swords. The kind of power which even a God would desire, but can never be achieved…

***

CAROLINE ASCALON ASHBORN

Just when the transmission was cut-off I took a deep sigh of relief and caught the falling pendant and put it back on my neck. It had been so long since I talked to her and it felt so satisfying and wonderful that we could talk like old times.

“So, Zyl you kept on talking about how you wanted to compete against her, but then why did you reject her offer.”

“What are you talking about… I did…don’t mind me my brain might not have been in the right place. I must be talking crazy that time.” Zyl looked here and there without making eye contact with me. He always seems so funny when teased.

“Let’s go. We need to make lot of preparations. One month from now Lili will be leaving and some day…Alicia too. Things might be getting too quiet again.” I hurriedly started walking towards the exit gate.

“Hey, now! Don’t leave me behind here, you... Don’t I get a say in this? It’s me who you’re gonna force into preparing everything beforehand and coming up with presents, right? Right?!”

BOOOMMM.

Zyl caught up to me in no time.

“That might have been Lili practicing one of Alicia’s magic. She never showed such enthusiasm with me.” Zyl tried to voice his thoughts.

“These days I am just glad that we don’t have any neighbours to complain with the noise. Otherwise we might have been reported and called to the police station several times.”

“Is that a candy shop or a toy shop? Do they sell presents for small children?”

“Never mind. Zyl, what do you think now that you know all of this.”

“Well, you always mentioned about that clan, now I understand they are some kind of die-hard battle junkie.”

“No, you are wrong in your assessment.”

“But that’s what it looked.”

“The AEGIS CLAN, one of the pillar clans of the Mane Apostolo Council, though has very few members but is considered to be one of the strongest pillars in the council. What’s so special about them is that they can’t stand anything which is not to their liking. That means they will kill anything that they dislike. For them there is no good or evil – it’s all about their whims.”

Destroying something you hate with all you have got. Is it fun or,… Is it that terrible a thought, I wondered.

“And then Alicia has the same smile as her which troubles me… will she turn out the same. After all she is a unique existence.”

“What are you talking about she is not alone or something special. She is a part of our family. As for her smile, I love it more than anything and she should keep on smiling.”

As a true demon lord who once ruled almost more than half of this world, even I hated many things. Wanting them to disappear was the only thing I could think about. Subjects that tried to betray me, humans who used their semantics against us to wage wars for their own benefits, evil gods who plotted for their own entertainment. And when things got worst I would want myself to disappear, wouldn’t it had been better if the demon lords did not exist, who were sometimes made the enemies of this world. If there had been no enemies wouldn’t the world be more at peace and I could get some rest too.

But that’s when I realized after meeting Caroline who made me realize how sad that thought was. It was just the adverse of living a peaceful life. Being alone and invisible to others would not only make my life colourless and boring, but those who care about me will be sad too. Leaving them behind, giving up on your dreams is what cowards and losers do.

To live I had to decide for myself and not be led by those around me. Their expectations, thoughts ideas if cannot follow with me then I can just ignore them. No one has the right to blame for the way I want to live. If I chose not to fight, then I won’t. In some eyes I might have looked like a coward, but I know people who are more happy with this ongoing peace at present moment between races.

And if this is about to crumble, then Caroline is right that we should entrust it to those who are going to live on this world now while we are receding to the background. Providing support is the only thing…. No, it is the best thing to do for them to make their own dreams come true in their own way.

Just a little bit more of time and care will surely give rise to a great tree laden with fruits of happiness and harmony.

“Yeah you are right.”

***

ALICIA ASCALON ASHBORN

I launched another black fare arrow from my bow that was made of flames too at the monster standing on the tree which pierced through his heart and turned it into dust in an instant before it could even make a scream for its vanishing life.

It was an ice elf. Though they might be called an elf just because they have long ears but according to this world standards they are monsters. Their body almost frozen blue colour with well-built thick muscles it seems they specialize in ice magic.

This was floor 94. Both Lili and I were amazed to see this floor covered all in ice and with trees that had growing ice needle-like leaves. Under the light the reflected seven colours formed amazing patterns on the wall.

We decided we would preserve this floor later for fun and sight-seeing or picnic. With our status infliction and some magic we can easily detest this cold even in summer’s clothes. What I would like to do is cultivate those ice trees and make money by selling ice-creams in winter.

No, wait that won’t work people already can use magic with water attribute. Yes, the trees might sell for good as decorative purposes on Christmas. Wait do they even celebrate Christmas over here. Maybe there are still too many things left to know for me in this world. With magic there might be a possibility Santa does exist, but if it really turned out to be a myth of a thief who tried to escape from police by pretending to give gifts to people who caught him…. No maybe I have read too many story-paths regarding the same character and jumbled them up.

So, the best way without causing much damage was to kill every monster stealthily. With analysis magic I found that there were about hundred ice elves with one of them producing immense magical aura. That could have been their chief. While fifty of them are out scouting in this wide ice forest, the other fifty lives in a dense settlement close by to the next gate.

Sounds like a secret ops mission to me. Even Lili was excited to go covert. She decided that she would take things from left while I will set off from right and head to the settlement.

As things stand now and that the monsters are still quite it seems that the plan is working well. We just need to keep the forest safe and the rest can just disappear. They are not needed here.

I launched another arrow while running between the bushes and using wind magic to remove traces from the snow trail. Though it’s quite a hassle and much difficult than burning down the forest at once and killing them all along with it. But it’s all worth it.

After five minutes I met up with Lili at the rendezvous point which was a tall tree just outside the settlement - the best place to keep an eye on their movement.

“Big sister after it’s all done, then let’s make it our secret hideout.”

“Yeah this territory belongs to us two sisters now. We will claim it by all means. Then we can come and do ice-skating here.”

“Ices-skating!! What’s that?”

“You don’t know. It’s fun maybe I will teach you later.” Wait, what have I promised to her, it’s not like I know how to do ice-skating myself. I didn’t even own an ice-skate before. I just watched some videos and thought that’s amazing, it would be nice to do it someday. Maybe mother would know and I could make some ice-skates with creation magic.

“Big sister… look what’s this.” Lili was holding a round object which almost looked similar to fruit. Is it edible?

I applied analyse and found it to be safe for consumption. Just to be on the safe side I took the first bite.

“Umu… who would have thought I could get to eat that tastes exactly like blueberry pie... and that too none the less in a fruit of a frozen forest.”

My next successful business idea. I am going to be an entrepreneur and make big with this rare fruit. But is it really rare. I took a look back at that fruit.

Not that I care. If it’s tasty I can eat it and it will surely sell well. Just need to grow these trees properly. After all when I go outside I need to earn a stable income and have a proper source of income to fund our travels and living expense.

Seeing me Lili took a bite too from the fruit hanging near her from the branches.

“Sweet…so sweet. Big sister let’s take some home too.”

“Lili, resolve yourself. We are taking everything and not just some.”

“Yes. Think big. Do crazy.”

Wait who is teaching Lili these kinds of sentences. Could it be me in my sleep, talking in dreams? I made a quick note of this to fix this problem and find the source of it.

This time Lili wanted to train herself while fighting enemies in numbers and not just a single opponent. She is a diligent worker after all, though she only does things that interests her, even if it means neglecting her important day-to-day work. That’s a bad habit, for which mother and I are working hard to improve it. We came up with the idea of giving rewards on completion of daily work and exemption from household activities like cleaning your own room. Usually Flora did it during her absence but now she is back home she must learn to properly take care of her own from now on.

Lili jumped from the tree raising some noise and attracted every ice elves attention. Then as usual she flailed her scythe in the air and dashed towards the horde of almost fifty ice elves.

These monsters can manipulate ice and usually use ice projectiles to fight, but they specialize in physical combat and grappling techniques. So it’s easy to win against them if we maintain a fair distance and attack.

Within minutes Lili had already cleared half of their population and was hacking through them without any trouble. They were no match for her in close physical combat. It doesn’t matter whether their bodies are hard and they have home advantage, in front of Lili’s scythe everything crumbled.

I had just now leveled up and gained my soul weapon. But my father and mother forbid me to use it, since it went berserk and I need to do more training and learn more about the soul of a person.

It also seems that now I don’t need to use those white strings to level up and form a cocoon and whatever purpose that thing served for can now be directly done with my own body. I can always feel the connection between the magic molecules of the surrounding directed and absorbed by my body. Though I was still asleep for 5 days. That’s the only drawback.

I need to ask Al to come up with a counter measure to keep myself safe when I level up, like making a guardian or either when I am sleeping, Al can take control over my body for sometime during emergency. That doesn’t seem to be a bad idea at all. Speaking of which it’s for the first time Al has no memory regarding when my soul weapon went berserk, it’s quite odd. Well I will have my chance to try it again very soon.

For now I don’t need to lose sight of the chief and when he comes out I will take him down in one shot by my new magic which I came up with recently.

From behind the temporary shelters, though I thought they would be igloos but simple huts made of clay were standing tall, loud footsteps could be heard. I thought here it was.

But at the same time about ten ice-elves twenty-five feet tall showed up. It was clearly the chief – boss of this floor. But wasn’t there supposed to be just one of them.

I used my appraisal and was delighted to see that it possessed the {Shadow Clone skill}.

This is for the best, that means more target practice for me. For some reason all those clones which seem to be real were heading for me. One of them tried to throw a punch at me at a rather high speed than expected in this chill environment. Doesn’t their bone gets jammed with all this cold.

[SET CONTROL]

Before his hands could reach me, it vanished in the middle. For a second the huge giant gawked at me waiting for its hands to reach. But realizing the soaring pain reaching its backbone it retaliated with a loud scream.

“Kyaaahhhh!!”

At this point they must be thinking what I could have done. So others tried to do the same thing but I casted the same spell. All of them lost few limbs at some points. Others tried to launch huge ice lances at me but all of them vanished mid-air during their flight.

What I had been using until now was a special upgraded form of teleportation magic. By first causing partial teleportation over a specific area I assign a new co-ordinate for them. But stopping the spell in between - the teleported material ends up with two co-ordinates at the same time which is not possible. In other terms while causing a tunneling effect between two points if the target gets trapped in between it would vapourise due to the high pressure of the closing down tunnel with infinite gravitational force.

“Time to end it.”

[SET CONTROL]

I used this magic on each of its clones and they disappeared without a trace form this world lost between the gaps of two spaces.

Wait... who was the real chief among them. Not that it matters now when they are dead. I ended it soon before it could use any trump cards so that I could protect this beautiful ice forest.

“Big sister…” Lili came running at me. Seems like she is done too.

“Let’s head back Lili and plan to come once again here with something good to do next time.”

“I want to try ice-skating.”

“Yeah… about that. First let’s go home.”

We were now at the dinner table eating those fruits as deserts which we collected from the forest.

“I never knew ice elves grew these kinds of fruits.” Mother commented as she continued chomping on the sweet portion.

“It could be possible that it’s a mutation of a sweet fruit which they specifically did this with their magic to survive food shortage.”

Now that’s something I could learn from father. It will surely help me later to reproduce them.

“Lili tell me do you want something specifically for this coming month.” Mother tried to instigate a conversation.

Lili for a moment stared at the air in front of her.

“I want to stay here and don’t want to leave.”

“Not happening. You need to go to school.”

“Then how about I take big sister with me.” Lili tried to capture me in her arms.

“She can’t leave now. She needs to do more training.”

“Does that mean I am better than big sister when it comes to learning from you all and she is still behind in training?” Lili is really competitive, no matter how you see it.

“No, that means you are just so hard to teach that we had to force ourselves to send you to school.” Mother smirked.

“No, that couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be….” Lili sounded a bit scared there. Maybe she was a bit late to catch on the humour.

“I am just joking.”

“I don’t know about leaving, but I am really excited about my birthday.”

“Wait… birthday??” I stuttered. That was news to me. A new revelation.

“Big sister, next month is my birthday I want a nice present. Maybe a new weapon or a magic spell that only I can use which will obliterate the enemy in one strike.”

I for some unfounded reason seemed to be low on words to respond.