The crowd retreated to the area where the ground hadn't been frozen. That meant the only ones left at the center were Anthony, Marcellus, Yahiko, and the two strangers. Anthony would have run too but he was too weak in his knees so he just stood there unable to make any decision while his friends had already turned tails on him.
"Fighting is not allowed inside the dome," The tall muscular man with a man bun spoke with authority. He was wearing a white coat that looked like a uniform. His build and his hairdo made him look older than he really was.
He exhaled fog on his every breath and his fingers were covered in a translucent thin layer of ice. He looked very strict with a slight scowl on his face. Marcellus could tell that his aura was greater than his own, even greater than Yahiko.
"We were just fighting back some bullies," Marcellus replied straightforwardly.
"That's- that's Einar Johansson right?" a girl from the crowd whispered to her friend.
"Really? I have never seen his face before, how can you tell?" The friend replied observing the man in question.
"He is wearing a UN coat over casual clothes. Only personnel that are A tier or above have the liberty to dress that way. Look at the left part of his coat. It's a trident with angel wings on the sides. Each clan associated with the UN has its own unique symbol. The trident is for Poseidon and the wings on the sides mean that he is an angel."
"Wow, you sure know a lot about this but what about the one behind him?" She said as she looked around and noticed all the boys and even the girls were mesmerized by whom they were looking at.
Marcellus himself could not help but be distracted by the woman who was behind the rude man. He was trying the make a conversation but his eyes kept finding the woman with snow-white skin.
"Stop staring at my sister," Einar threatened Marcellus, The scowl on his face grew more noticeable.
"How come a guy like you has such a pretty sister?" Marcellus said without thinking and regretted it immediately. He did not mean to sound rude but he actually ended up throwing an all-out insult at the guy.
"Oops, She is too distracting, I can't think straight," Marcellus thought waiting for the guy to go nuts.
Meanwhile, the pretty woman that had caught everyone's eyes was getting annoyed at her brother for indulging in such a trivial matter. She inconspicuously clicked her tongue in annoyance. The people looking at her did not notice it as her face did not give away any emotions. Her dark red lips barely moved and remained sealed preventing any form of expression from appearing on her face.
"Maria, She is so pretty I could die right here just from staring at her," the girl from the crowd sighed.
"Wow," The friend followed up, "I finally understand why she is called the ice queen, Her body looks like it is literally made of ice,"
While this was happening Yahiko had been desperately trying to break free from the ice. Fortunately, the internal part of his body had not been frozen. It was a layer of ice covering his body that made him unable to move. Whenever he tried to break free, the ice that seemed on the verge of breaking reassembled itself not crumbling before his strength.
He was facing sideways to Einar and Maria without being able to turn his head so he was dying to have a look at the two. He was hoping that Marcellus would help him out somehow but that was the last thing Marcellus cared about right now.
What worried him, however, was the fact that Einar had stopped talking, and instead, Marcellus could almost see a popping vein on Einar's face that perfectly relayed the emotional state he was in.
Einar pointed his palm at Marcellus and immediately an aura that almost looked as if it was water was shot at him. The aura was transparent and the light coming from the ceiling of the dome shined on it shifting the attention of everyone from Maria to that aura.
But the aura missed its target and collided with the wall of the dome. The part of the wall where the aura collided started freezing, proliferating to a larger area.
Everyone including Einar and Maria looked at Marcellus who appeared about five meters right to where he was standing originally.
"I will be fine as long as that does not hit me, right?" Said Marcellus casually dusting off his shoulders even though there was nothing to dust off.
Einar was surprised. He might have held back on the amount of aura but the speed he shot it with was close to his maximum speed. It was not evadable for anyone lesser than A tier.
Even though it had been a couple of minutes since this began, Maria had not really looked at the faces of the boys her brother was fighting but now Marcellus had managed to grab her attention. After all, evading that attack without much effort was no easy task and not something that the majority of Awakened could do.
Marcellus had moved to the location where Yahiko could actually see him. He looked at Marcellus helplessly.
"Dude, what the fuck are you doing still frozen like that? " Marcellus finally talked to Yahiko.
"Easy for you to say, getting out of this thing is not easy," Yahiko said in a muffled voice.
"You look like a circus freak by the way," Marcellus added and quickly took out his phone and captured a picture of Yahiko's state.
" I swear, when I get out, I'm going to kill you,"
Yahiko murmured, violently trying to break free.
"The ice is made of aura you idiot, don't just use your strength," Marcellus coolly said and mockingly showed Yahiko the picture he took.
Yahiko understood what Marcellus was trying to say. Even though he hated that he had to get help from Marcellus, it was getting embarrassing for him to be reduced to a mannequin in front of that many people.
Yahiko channeled his aura towards the surface of his body and met the resistance. However, It was not just the physical resistance of the ice. It was the aura that was acting like the ice that was clutching his body. Yahiko finally won against the aura and broke himself free.
The first thing he did was rub his forehead because it had been itching for a while then he finally got to look at the siblings.
"Wow," Yahiko could only say one word after he saw Maria.
"One evaded your attack and the other broke free from your Ice clutch, Who are these guys?" Maria finally spoke but very softly. Only Einar could hear it.
Einar took out his phone and pointed it towards Yahiko and Marcellus.
"No Data" was what the screen displayed after 10 seconds of scanning.
"You made quite a fool out of me with that annoying ability of yours," Said Yahiko. He took off his jacket which was now wet because of the ice.
"So, What are you going to do about it?" Einar challenged him.
"Oh I might be thinking of returning the favor," Yahiko immediately talked back with a fake smile.
"Don't get in a fight with a guy that has such a pretty sister," Marcellus joked. He was getting anxious about Davidson scolding them but the guy in front of him was looking like a worthwhile opponent.
"Stop talking about my sister," Einar said in a louder voice and immediately shot an aura at him but this time it was much bigger in size than the last time.
"Are you normally this protective or is this some kind of complex?" Marcellus asked after barely dodging the attack.
"This guy is almost as fast as me," Einar took a mental note.
Einar was getting ready for another attack when Yahiko appeared before him aiming punch mid-air.
Zapppp!
Einar immediately did a fusion and disappeared from Yahiko's vision. Yahiko's punch hit the air as a big gust of wind flew towards Maria. Her beautifully braided silver hair along with her white overcoat waved behind her.
Einar appeared behind Yahiko imitating his previous attack form but he had a big white aura on his fist this time.
Although Yahiko's body had started losing balance because of the momentum of his attack earlier, he switched to max level fusion and got in a position to block the attack.
He blocked the punch aimed at his chest with both hands. At the point of impact, his hands started freezing.
Yahiko immediately increased the fusion level at his arms and coated it with an aura surface as well.
After struggling for about 15 seconds he managed to push back Einar.
"This guy is slower but he is almost as strong as me," Einar took another mental note.
The crowd had fully retreated to the edge of the perimeter by now. The entire area was starting to freeze.
"Those guys are actually going against an A-tier and holding their own." a random person spoke.
Anthony was now back with the crowd watching in shock.
"Thank god, I did not fight them for real, I would not have been a match at all," He thought while trying his best to calm himself.
After being pushed back Einar stood straight and started channeling his aura.
"Time to put you in your places," He said staring at Marcellus and Yahiko.
This was the first time he had channeled all his aura at once. Until now he had just been using a portion of his aura in the part of his body as he needed.
"Epithet fusion mode," He said softly as he closed his eyes for a moment and his aura gathered at his forehead. From his forehead, ice particles started forming and spread to his whole head, and traveled down the neck. It looked as if he was slowly turning into ice himself.
The intense aura was starting to make everyone anxious. Marcellus and Yahiko prepared for what was to come.
"Einar, It's gotten far out of your hand to settle this cleanly. calm down,"
They finally heard her speak. It was a very cold voice that almost sounded like a whisper. A whisper that seemed to pass through your chest like a cold breeze.
She was staring at Yahiko and Marcellus, assessing their abilities.
" Just wait for a minute sister, I will take care of-"
"Einar," she did not bother to listen anymore. The voice was still as soft as last time but she stressed a bit more this time around.
Einar immediately backed down and relinquished all the aura that he was gathering. He dared not speak another word afterward.
"The guy that seemed like a wild beast just a moment ago just turned into a puppy, what's up with her?" Marcellus wondered as he watched the ice around the area slowly melt away and disappear with trails of water on the floor.
Marcellus had to take a break from his train of thoughts as soon as he realized that the eyes that seemed indifferent up until that point had started to look hostile.
Maria had not moved from her position at all. she had both of her hands inside the pockets of her coat but something about her did not seem right.
"Be careful, she might try something," Marcellus warned Yahiko. He had a bizarre feeling. Even though she had not used her mana at all, he felt like something big was about to come.
"What do you m-" Yahiko gasped before he could finish what he was saying. A transparent rectangular prism appeared around both of them before they could react and they could not move anymore.
A piercing pain shot through both of their bodies. it was so intense that tears rolled out of their eyes as they lied there unable to move. Their mouths went dry and they could not even gulp as their insides were being frozen.
"What did she do? She did not shoot any aura at us. I was alert and ready to evade anything but this thing appeared out of nowhere." Marcellus thought.
Yahiko tried the same thing he did against Einar but even his aura was restricted from moving. it was being completely suppressed. Her power was reaching every cell of their body and even their aura. It was the same as fighting against the man who used mist. It was clearly the dominance of her aura over theirs.
"That's what happens when you bite off more than you can chew," Einar proudly said, "That's called remote channeling. She can channel her aura at any point in a fixed distance. That is something only an alpha energy bearer can do and even among them, only the S tier can actually pull it off."
Marcellus finally realized what that meant. He was able to dodge Einar because he actually shoots the aura that travels at a fixed straight path, starting from his body. Maria, however, did something very different. The origin point of her aura was directly above their heads which gave them no time to react at all.
"That's her famous Verglass confinement, within those thin ice walls everything is forbidden to move, I heard even the air freezes inside that wall. She froze an entire town while fighting a guy named John Mccoy."
"Wait, so she is even stronger than Einar?"
"Of course she is, She is the pacifier of one of the strongest gods and an S tier, She is many times stronger than her brother. look at her coat and remember that style. The regular size is for the A tier and the one she is wearing, the overcoat is for the S tiers and above. There are only about seventy other Awakened on par with her out of which only 15 gods are stronger than her on the entire planet."
The crowd was full of people talking about her. Even though the direct exposure of high-level officials of the UN task force to media was controlled, The registered awakened still had places to gather information about these high tier officials. Maria was easily one of the most popular ones given her appearance.
"Why did I do that?" Maria wondered.
She had no intention of using her powers. She had no intention of getting involved in such a scuffle. But there was something about their aura. Every time Marcellus and Yahiko's aura struck her own, she felt provoked. As if that aura wanted to take over as if it was baring its fangs on her. Her act was instinctively self-defensive but turning them into ice statues certainly did not look like she was the one under the threat.
She felt relieved seeing that she had complete dominance but she was regretting her actions. It was forbidden for the S tiers to use their powers unless absolutely necessary.
CRACK! CRACK!
The confining walls of her ice shattered making a large sound.
Einar was shocked. The ice used to vanish whenever she intently undid the confinement. This was different, the way it shattered only meant one thing. It was forcefully broken.
Maria was surprised as well. In fact, It was the first time she showed any emotion. Her lips slightly opened and her eyebrows were raised. She was just about to undo the confinement but it was broken before she undid it herself.
A black prism of the same shape and size appeared around Marcellus and Yahiko and Maria understood right away what had happened. Her ice was forced to dismantle by another aura.
"The black aura, No way these guys undid that by themselves. Not with their beta-energy. Only an S tier could manage to do that," Einar anxiously said.
Marcellus and Yahiko started breathing normally and moved their arms to check if they were fine. The effect of the ice had completely worn off as the aura that they knew very well started warming them up.
"Damn, what the hell was that," Yahiko said in a shaking voice that was caused by the lingering pain.
"What can I say, looks like she has paralyzing effects on men," Marcellus nervously smiled.
"But we also have someone on our side who won't lose to her in anything," He added.
Maria could clearly sense an aura that was similar to the boys but much potent. Her eyes followed her sixth sense towards the ceiling of the dome. The dome had multiple balconies on its inner walls and on the one that was the closest to the ceiling stood a woman, staring down at them. It was hard to make out her face with the distance she was in but Maria was sure that she was the one who broke her ice.
Every eye on the dome that was on Maria turned to where she was looking. The crowd immediately started gabbling as soon as they laid their eyes on the mysterious woman.
She hopped over the metal railing and shot herself horizontally towards the center, directly above them. Then she gracefully glided downwards stunning the watchers. Everyone forgot to breathe until her feet touched the ground and the back of her black blazer settled to its rightful position under the effect of gravity. She stood in front of Marcellus and Yahiko, directly facing Maria.
The combined beauty of the two women at the center was too aesthetic for the crowd to handle. They stood facing each other creating a noticeable contrast because of how they were dressed. One of them was covered in white and the other in black. Without even realizing it, Maria had already started to channel her aura to match the lady in front of her. Even their aura was contrasting with each other as Maria had a pure white aura that looked like smoke.
"Th-that's Ivanna, Isn't she?" a female voice screamed from the crowd.
That was immediately followed by a gradual roar of the crowd and multiple sounds of phones capturing pictures.
"What is she doing here? she is an awakened too?"
"Is that why she had disappeared for such a long time?"
"So she is an actual goddess now?"
There were many questions dwelling on the minds of people on the crowd. More than half of the crowd were her die hard fans and even the other half had appreciated her talent and beauty at least once.
"You should pick your jaws man," Marcellus teased Einar who had not blinked since Ivanna had landed. He was ignored, of course.
"She can do remote channeling? from that distance? That was almost farther than the limit of my sister," Einar's mind was in disarray.
Even though both women were merely releasing a portion of their aura, it was evident that Ivanna had a comparable mana pool with the ice queen.
"I don't know what started it but that move earlier was quite harsh don't you think?" Ivanna politely said maintaining seemingly friendly eye contact with Maria.
"I got carried away, I did not intend to go that far, my apologies," Maria replied back in the same tone.
"I do not think it was that big of an issue, so I'm going to take the boys. We are in the middle of registering our aura so please excuse us," Ivanna said lowering her aura, "I was only channeling my aura to control my flight, I'm still learning you see,"
Ivanna did not want her to think that she wanted to fight. She understood that anyone would be intimidated given the nature of her aura.
"I was not questioning your intention, just acknowledging your power," said Maria as she stopped channeling her own aura.
Even though they looked like they were ready to part ways, the staring contest did not end for a while. It had people on the edge. were they friendly? was a fight going to break out? they just could not figure it out.
The two women, however, were just gauging each other, trying to find out the ceiling of one another.
Ivanna was the first to avert her eyes because she was in a hurry. She turned to the boys who were quietly standing behind her just like how children hide behind their parents while meeting a stranger,
"You two, how do you always manage to find trouble?"
"Well," Marcellus tried his best but could not find a way to assemble the perfect words.
"Anyway, go to the third floor and get your aura registered, they will give you an ID at the end, meet us at the fourth floor after that,"
"Ok" Marcellus obediently said and Yahiko just nodded his head behind him.
"And no more troubles," Ivanna added.
"Yes mam"
Ivanna quickly leaped off to the same balcony she jumped from earlier and disappeared after entering through the door that led to that balcony.
" I think it's getting easier to talk to her lately," Marcellus said proudly.
" You said, like, three words to her," Yahiko quickly reminded him.
"Says the guy who can't even look at her in the eye,"
Yahiko rolled his eyes and started walking towards the door.
"See you guys later, I think you are really pretty," Marcellus smiled at Maria and quickly followed Yahiko.
Einar tried to say something in return but noticed his sister had already started walking away so he gave up and followed her.
The dumbfounded crowd started their gossiping after the crazy people finally left the dome.
Anthony sighed in relief amidst the crowd for having dodged a bullet and went on to find his traitor friends.
Outside the building, a BMW waited for Maria and Einar. The driver quickly got out of the car and opened the door for Maria. Maria stopped right outside the door and stared at the top of the building thoughtfully.
"It's strange,"
"What is?" Einar was surprised to see her sister lost in her thoughts. It was not in her nature to get lost in thoughts.
"She has not reached her full potential and yet, she is that strong,"
She got in the car after staring for a few seconds more and Einar got in after her.
Martin and Davidson were waiting at the door to a special ward on the fourth floor when Ivanna got there. Davidson eyed Ivanna like a father asking for reports from his eldest daughter who was looking after her troublesome brothers.
Ivanna sighed as she walked closer to them, "I did not even ask,".
"Can't believe they picked a fight the ice queen herself hahaha, They seem quite handful," Martin said with a hint of a smile on his face.
Davidson and Ivanna sighed in unison.
The door unlocked after Marting scanned his fingerprint on a board by the door, past the door was a bed at the center of the room surrounded by multiple devices with displays that were constantly showing numbers in various colors. A typical hospital room.
On the bed lied a man whose whole upper body was covered with bandages. His lower body was covered with a blanket. His face was concealed with an oxygen mask on the top of all the bandages. On every breath he took, the devices produced sounds and monitors changed the numbers they were displaying.
Ivanna's face turned softer after she realized how grave the injuries were.
"What happened to him?" She asked.
"He was almost beaten to death by a god-level awakened. His lungs were crushed along with most of his ribs, He received blunt attacks all over his body and a concentrated aura attack to the left portion of his upper body. He received these injuries prior to awakening as a normal human. The doctors at the local hospital were just waiting to announce him dead but he did not die for a couple of days. So at his mother's request, he was transported here to be treated by me."
Martin moved towards a monitor and took a look at the readings. Davidson observed from a distance and Ivanna moved closer to have a clear look.
"Were you the one whose voice I heard that day?" she mumbled to herself as she carefully looked at his eyelids which were the only part of his body that was not covered as if trying to figure him out.
She turned to look at Davidson who looked very lost himself. They were not expecting this. Both Davidson and Ivanna had their own reasons to look out for this person, they had their hopes. Seeing him in that condition felt like hitting a dead end.
"What's with the grim faces? there's more," Martin said reading the atmosphere.
Ivanna's face livened up immediately. Davidson took a deep breath and tried to organize his thoughts.
"It's already impressive that he managed to stay alive for this long on his own. He is even recovering but at this rate, it will take more than a year for him to make a full recovery given that he can regenerate the damaged parts using aura fusion. That's where I come in, I can induce a full regeneration on him with my powers within three days."
"So why haven't you already done it?" Davidson asked.
"That's the interesting part. Healing him requires me to use my aura on his body but I cannot do that at the moment. He has covered his whole body with his aura, It almost acts as a barrier that will not allow any external aura to pass through it,"
Ivanna raised her eyebrows at that, "A self-defense mechanism? Even in that vegetative state?"
"Exactly," Martin looked excited, "I can't tell whether the aura is acting independently or if his brain is controlling this, but it is self-defense, that's for sure,"
"Maybe the trauma made his brain permanently deploy the safety measures resulting in that impenetrable barrier," Davidson added to the discussion.
"I think so too," Martin said rubbing his chin, "which is why I came up with a simple theory when you people showed up,"
He took a glance at both Davidson and Ivanna to check if he had their full attention. Once he confirmed that he carried on,
"A dog guarding the house barks at strangers that come alone but lets them in when they come with a family member."
"You want me to open a pathway for your aura to enter his body with my own aura," Ivanna caught on immediately.
"Correct, as his pacifier, you basically have the same aura as him, so I doubt the barrier is going to work against you, once his resisting aura retreats away from the affected organs I can do my thing to heal him"
"Hmmm," Ivanna understood the gist of it. Davidson nodded at her, He believed it was worth the try.
"let me just ask one thing, does this pose any threat to him?"
"None, I believe," Martin confidently answered.
"So you want to try right now? don't you have to prepare things? how does this work?" Ivanna asked Martin who looked ready to go at any moment.
He then channeled his aura and two arms made of dark green aura appeared below his real arms. his left aura arm was holding a spherical light green mass of aura.
"I have everything I need right here,"
He signaled Ivanna to move towards Kael's unconscious body, "After you"
Ivanna stood next to the bed and stared at the body carefully one more time before taking a deep breath. Then she channeled some aura to her hands and placed it on Kael's bandaged chest. She directed her aura to traverse into his body.
Davidson and Martin were very alert as they carefully observed Ivanna.
After entering through the first layer of skin, Ivanna finally met the resistance. She could not go any further. Despite the resistance, she had to keep pushing. The area where her palms were resting started to glow in black.
At one point she felt like her aura was blending in with his barrier. As she went deeper her aura resonated with Kael's aura and a strong sensation that felt like a jolt of lightning shot through her arms to her head. She felt dizzy for a moment because of the shock.
She was now connected to the aura as if it was her own. She tried to direct the aura to retreat from its position then suddenly she heard a voice in her head that was very familiar to her.
"Who are you?" asked the voice that she was sure was coming from the man who lied before her.