Chapter 41: Time to hatch
The red light coming from the burning flame of Kim Hellfire and Eliza flaming tornado started to quenched with the brilliant white frost. The flame itself seems to be freezing.
Without her mana spirit, Eliza herself was standing within the gaze of Kim. She held her staff and waved it around making the blizzard blowing as she pleased. She started to move and spin around graciously as if she was dancing. Her dance could make any person feel entranced, without they even realized how chaotic the blizzard has become. They may get frozen before they even realized what was happening.
Although Kim felt astonished with her movement, alas she was still a skeleton which ruined the moment a bit. Have to blame the Helliwudo for portraying the image of a skeleton as a creepy figure. But to Kim right now, that dancing little dancing skeleton who sounded like a small girl was seemingly cute.
He slapped his face to get back to his sense.
"Ha-ha-ha choo!"
Kim rubbed his red nose amidst the cold storm. As a child, he always read about the story of a snowman who came to life to befriend a child who made him. That time he would innocently wait for the snow to come. Until he learned that snow will never land on Malaysia. Still, he would continue to imagine how wonderful it would be if the pure white snow would suddenly fall on this land.
Today, his dream came true. He never felt or touch, or even seen snow with his own two eyes. Looking at how white the place has become, make it feel like he was in a whole new world. And the first words that came out from his mouth was...
"COLD!"
His arms and legs were numb. He couldn't feel his face. All he could hear was the snowy blizzard and the clattering sound coming from his teeth smashing against one another. He only had extreme heat resistant but not cold resistant!
Even with all his clothes, he felt like he's having an ice cold bath in the middle of winter without a single strain of thread on his skin. He tried to produced fire but it was extinguished the instant he made a spark. He strengthens his mana barrier, but it was a futile effort. The painstakingly cold pierced his entire body like a thousand needle. Numbing the entire cells of his body.
"This...this...is...un...un-fair!"
Kim tried to hold his composure but the whole situation was extreme to him who lived his life in a country that only has two seasons. Rainy and sunny.
The moment Eliza stopped her dance ritual, the storm slowly recede along with her. The gushing wind that blows the snow away was perfectly synchronized with liza dance movement causing Kim to be alarmed.
The blazing crimson red that was once covering the whole area was buried under the white snow. Which means only one thing...
"This whole area... is her domain"
Standing close to the centre of the whole area, she stood there without a single trace of snow on her robe. She looked at Kim with a vile grin causing him to tremble violently.
"H-h-how is it my dear? D-d-do you n-need m-me t-to get close to y-y-you... and warm..you up? hahaha-ha.."
"W-what d-do you mean? A-aren't y-you t-th-the one who is trembling now??"
Both of them were trembling and hugging their body due to the piercing chill. But none of them wanted to tell each other that it was super cold!
"M-me??? C-cold? Hah! *cough* I'm just a skeleton I d-don't feel ha-choo! Cold!"
Although Eliza only consisted of bones, her body still responded well with the cold as how she couldn't perfectly resist the heat. She was in the same condition as Kim. Except that, she has more experience facing harsh winter than Kim. Kim on the other hand only had extreme heat resistant. He never faced cold before. Even if both of them were at a disadvantage at this point, Eliza was still in the upper hand. Taking a slight advantage in every mean possible is the basic step as a mana user.
"Ha-ha-hachoo!"
"Are you okay uncle?"
There were no more undead monsters near them as they were annihilated. Since Eliza was focusing on maintaining her condition in the cold, she couldn't waste more mana to revive the undead anymore. Rentap and Momo could go and help Kim now, but they could also keep themselves warm and comfortable.
Momo ground the leaves she picked up in the lair and made some warm tea.
"Here uncle, take a break. And cover yourself more. Would you like some too blackie?
"Yes, please"
The voice could only observe their behaviour and let out a sigh.
"I want some tea too..."
On the other hand, Kim and Eliza were still trash talking at each other. In the end, Kim gave up, when Eliza would subtly put in some flirtatious and suggestive words while winking and grinning. But he didn't let his gaze away from Eliza for a second.
"W-why are y-y-you looking at me so intense...it's ..it's...still too early..."
She looked down while poking both her finger together, wriggling her body side to side. Like a shy inexperience little girl...while covering her face, she told Kim
"I still need to k-kill you first... and you can h-have m-me all you want when I-I revived you again kyaa!"
Kim felt like slapping his own face, but it was too cold for him to move arm now. Instead, he just let it slide while he did his preparation. If this would advert her attention then he didn't care if he could finish her in one attack. Afterwards, he will do 'anything he wanted' as what she asked for...
"I'm gonna beat her skull several times after I'm done with this"
"What did you say, darling? You w-want...to..to.. spank me hard??? Kyaa!"
Kim cursed in his heart but didn't lose his focused as he let his mana flow into the ground. Although the white snow was the lich domain, the entire earth of Sarawak was his! His eyes shone with brilliant light and with all his energy he stomped his right leg to the ground splitting the earth apart causing a fissure that could swallow a whole football stadium!
"So you could still control the ground..."
Again Kim felt like slapping his face realizing how stupid he was. That lich can fly! His ambushed was a failure but his determination didn't stop there. Despite the cold, he pushed his arms downwards and buried it to the snow, touching the ground. Then two massive hands appeared underneath Eliza, trying to slap her like a mosquito.
The hand movement was too fast that if you blink you will surely be smashed to a pulp without knowing what happened. She let out a snort and unleashed her deep red mana that was similar to the colour of blood.
"Ice throne, absolute zero"
The whole area froze. The air, the wind, the earth, everything inside the white domain freeze in its place. Kim was frozen as well. And to him who was viewing this whole thing felt like even time and space has frozen.
The two hands that were supposed to crush her stopped instantly. She gently touched it with her finger and it was entirely turned to snow dust.
"Y-your m-mana capacity is huge, b-but... you still an amateur when c-com-compared to me. I lived for more than hundreds of y-years manipulating mana. I-I even cross dimension to get h-here. B-Be honoured t-that... you going to be my loveliest servant. Time to kill you, darling!"
Kim's heart was racing furiously. Unable to lift even a finger, he could only see the approaching lich coming to kill him. A skeleton, covered with a robe, she held a scythe with one of her hands... her body emitted the dark deep red mana which could cause a person to fall in a state of madness. He felt like a death god has come to take his soul away.
"That look in your eyes, delicious... I will shower you with love! Hahahahahahaha!"
'The look in my eyes?' Kim thought to himself. With his heart beating faster and faster, there was only one expression he would show to the monster that's going to kill him soon...it was fear.
'5 years ago, I was prepared to kill myself. Now, I'm scared of dying... I guess my heart got softer throughout the years...' And that moment he thought of Momo who always beside Kim wherever they were travelling.
'It's okay...she will be fine without me. Rentap and his boys are there anyway...'
He tried to accept the inevitable death but still, he could not stop feeling distressed.
'What is this feeling? Is it really fear? It's not because I'm worried about Momo as well? What with this unpleasant feeling?'
As the lich getting closer and closer, the negative feeling got worst. The unpleasantness became extreme. He was anxious. He was anxious to the point he wanted to split open his head.
'This... it's not that I'm afraid of dying... it's just that... I want to... I want to live!'
"So you do have the desire to live now?"
"Old geezer..."
"I don't remember raising a puny weak little kid like you"
"..."
"If not because of me being your master, you would have been burnt to a crisp by a mere dog."
By the time the voice was talking to Kim, Eliza was already standing just in front of Kim. She swings her scythe sideway aiming toward Kim's neck.
"Please, accept my love"
"Enter your domain now!"
At this time, Kim was sitting cross-legged in the middle of black empty space. In front of him, a gentleman wearing a black tailored suit stood gallantly, unleashing a domineering pressure. He raised one of his hand and suddenly a paper fan appeared out of nowhere. He swings the paper fan downwards, smashing Kim's head. Kim felt like a one-tonne metal pipe was crushing his skull.
"I didn't raise a weak disciple"
Boom! Another swing to Kim's head.
"There's nothing I can do now. That dirty lich was just... stronger than me"
Boom!
Rubbing his head from the pain, Kim looked at the man with an intense gaze. At least let me die peacefully he thought.
"Kid, you are way stronger than you thought. I told you that you never used 100% of your power, didn't I? Well, that's because the first thing I taught you was to control your mana like an egg, keeping it to yourself. That was only because your control was weak"
Now that Kim thought about it, he naturally covered himself with a barrier so that his mana would not be leaked. The reason was that he would attract too many monsters even in his sleep. Even if he could easily destroy them, holding a cup of water for too long would soon tire his arm out.
By now, he got too used to it that it felt like his second nature to contained his mana like this.
"That time, you just awaken. You didn't have full control of your excessive mana. Now, you already a master. You must have realized how sharp your mana sense has become. Can't you feel and see mana more clearly now?"
Kim actually doesn't know what a master was... but it's true that he was able to utilize his mana more freely. Before this, he could only sense and see the flow of mana, but now he felt like he could actually touch the mana and affect its flow.
It's like choosing the sushi he wanted from a conveyor belt. There is a flow, and he could choose any of it to be his.
"Remember when you lose control of yourself?"
He would not forget that time when he almost killed himself and Momo.
"That time, you were utilizing 100% of your mana but not at the same time. Because you lose control. But know it's going to change... last time there was a crack, now it's time to fully hatch it open. It's time to let loose!"
The moment Kim came back to his sense, the scythe was already reaching his neck.
"Breath kid!"
Kim forgot about controlling his mana and unleashed it all without restraint.
That time, Eliza shook as she saw cracks forming on the surface of Kim's frozen body. A burst of mana exploded from Kim, melting the whole snow domain.
When she saw the thawed Kim, she felt an imminent danger. She wanted to pull back was too late because she already swings her scythe. Shoosh! The scythe passed through Kim's neck without resistant. She looked back and Kim was already gone from her sight.
Then she extreme killing intent that made her knee to lose balance, she almost fell to the ground. The moment she turned around, a fist reach her cheek, causing her to fly away hundreds of metres away...again!