Cold.

It was extremely cold, so much that Kaden and Sora had the impression that their very insides were being frozen.

But that was not an impression actually… it was happening, really.

"Fuck!" Kaden cursed, sensing his body turning stiff and motionless, as if he was becoming ice itself. He turned his head, and found Sora gulping down health potions and mana potions like a starved beast.

Her injuries began to heal at a visible rate, her golden eyes began to regain their ferocious luster. She slowly got up, swaying a little, then steadied herself before standing properly, looking at the ice storms followed by an avalanche of snow about to crash down on them.

They stood there, mesmerized by such a dreadful sight. Their bodies refused to move according to their will.

The whole expanse was blue, ice and snow swirling through the frozen space with unnatural speed.

Their very breathing was transforming into ice locked in time, their hair started to be covered in frost at the tips, their bodies paled as if devoid of blood, and they started to shiver.

Madly.

Their bodies immediately sensed mortal danger as they pulled themselves away from this sight that seemed to hypnotize them.

Sora's body began to flare in golden fire, enveloping her like a cloak, melting the ice inside her body and outside of it.

Kaden's body flared with a vicious black flame that burned the mana of the ice around him and inside him, making it useless.

They succeeded in protecting themselves, albeit barely. But they knew that if this storm, that looked like the hungry maw of some primordial beast of permafrost, touched them, they would be frozen solid without suspense.

And besides, their Intermediate mana would not last long if they continued to burn this much just to keep their bodies from being frozen.

The effect started to show as not even minutes later, Sora began to struggle to keep the flame around her body stable. It flickered sporadically like a candle blown by the wind.

Even though she had taken mana potions, it was clearly not enough to face such an apocalyptic attack of nature.

Frustration began to creep inside her being, clawing at her insides, making her want to shout in anger.

But they didn't have the time, the storm was approaching, ready to swallow them in its depth.

Kaden shifted his attention from the storm to Sora, seeing her state, her deep angry and unflinching eyes.

It was clear, she wouldn't ask for help.

He clicked his tongue in irritation.

"You are weak, and you dare to be prideful." He said with a note of disdain before taking hold of her, then flung her on his back like a sack of potatoes, and sprinted away from the storm, leaving behind a burst of snow erupting from the ground.

"YOU! How dare you touch me again?" Sora snapped as she tried to get out of Kaden's grip.

"Do you wish to die? Stay still, golden voice." Kaden growled as even with his black flame, he was being cut by the shards of ice ripping through his body.

His blood flowed out and froze against his skin, giving him a sickening creep.

But Sora didn't listen.

She already felt anger and frustration at being saved by this guy previously, and now this?

She certainly couldn't accept it.

She would rather face the storm with her dying flame than be saved a second time.

She started to struggle even more in his arms, making Kaden almost trip and fall into the cold snow.

"What are you doing? Are you dumb?" Kaden snapped, an extreme feeling of anger blooming from his heart like red thorns.

For a brief moment, he was tempted to throw this damned princess straight into the approaching storm.

"I can protect myself. I didn't ask you to save me, leave—!"

BANG—!

She fell silent, unconscious. Reditha flashed above her head, glowing with a sinister red hue.

Kaden looked at his sword, surprised.

He hadn't told Reditha to do anything, but she had acted on her own and forced this annoying woman asleep.

No, feeling the emotions she was emitting, she clearly wanted to do more than knock her out.

Kaden smiled dryly, feeling the storm just behind him, making his spine ice over in dread, overwhelming his black flame and starting to freeze the defenseless Sora completely.

"Thanks, Reditha." He managed to utter, the saliva in his mouth frosting, as he gathered all his remaining mana and fueled his black flame, while enveloping Sora as well.

Then with all the strength and agility in his body, he bolted forward with impossible speed, ice shards cutting him harder and deeper but he kept going.

His eyes darted across the blue expanse in search of a place to hide, but nothing was in sight.

All he saw was snow and ice covering his vision, making him unable to see anything.

In that moment, he looked like a man trapped in the Ice Age of humanity, alone, with a prideful princess on his back, running from nature itself as it tried to devour him.

Suddenly, a roar of cryonic intensity crashed down across the wilderness of ice, causing Kaden's black flame to freeze and shatter like glass.

His eyes widened in horror as he snapped his gaze behind, seeing nothing but the storm about to engulf him whole.

But Kaden felt a gaze falling on him from within the storm. A cold, permafrosted gaze that wanted nothing but to make him into a frost-forged man, a delicate ice statue in this white expanse.

A sharp and piercing feeling of danger pulsed through him as his perception screamed.

A tight frown spread across his face, he increased his speed, but nothing worked.

He was getting caught.

Not only was he at the limit of his speed, but there was a damned burden on his shoulder too, straining him.

He manipulated the blood in his reservoir and used it as fuel to enhance his body. Red veins spread across his skin like cracks through transparent glass, his eyes turned bright red like a puddle of sticky blood, his speed increased dramatically as he shot forward, looking like red line clawed into a pristine white sheet of paper.

This pursuit continued, with Kaden using blood as fuel each time, but it didn't change much.

The glacial storm was still just behind him, clinging to him desperately like a Yandere lover.

His face was covered in sweat despite the cold, sweat that froze instantly over his skin, giving him a grotesque look.

His lungs were burning, running out of oxygen, of energy. His blood reservoir was soon depleted, leaving him with only his tired physical body.

Each step in the snow was heavy and straining, like a boulder was put on his back.

At this rate, Kaden knew he would get caught. But his mind was crystal clear, sharp like the ice around him. He looked at his surroundings with exhausted but unyielding eyes, searching for a solution, for relief.

And soon he saw it, as he finally arrived at one of the jagged mountains of ice. There, in a corner of the steep mountain, slightly above, he saw the small mouth of a cave.

Hope flickered in his eyes, he suddenly found the strength to push harder, barely escaping the storm.

Arriving in front of the mountains, he took a deep breath — that he regretted immediately as ice clawed its way back into his throat — and leapt toward the small cave, his boots crunching into the icy rocks as he reached it.

The mouth was wide enough for only one person to enter at a time.

He took Sora from his back and put her inside first, his body shaking from the cold as fear rose sharply — he could feel the storm just an inch behind him.

Once Sora was inside, Kaden started to enter himself, but just at that moment, he felt something grabbing his clothes in an iron grip and pulling him out.

That simple touch froze his back into a slab of ice. A deep but numbing pain rushed through him, he struggled desperately, his feet scratching the icy rocks as he resisted, his eyes red in defiance — but it was useless.

He was too tired.

His mana and blood reservoir were depleted, his physical strength at its lowest, with tormenting ice gnawing at his very soul.

A sense of weightlessness assaulted his mind, it blurred, and he started to lose consciousness to the frost.

His body swayed, about to fall into the storm before suddenly…

Above, the glacial half-moon swelled into a full soft blue cerulean moon, its light spilling across the horizon, and the raging storms dissolved like mist beneath a merciless sun.

The temperature returned to a mere bitter cold.

But Kaden was still about to fall from the cliff, except…

…a fair hand grabbed his frozen one, and pulled him inside the cave.

—End of chapter 210—

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