Snowflakes were swirling around Izzy's body as the temperature dropped below minus fifty degrees.
The five men started shivering, huddling together to provide body heat. One of them tried lighting a fire but only a spark of flames was seen before his powers were rendered useless.
Their immediate thought was to attack Izzy and stop her from killing them. Yet the few seconds they had spent thinking of attacking Izzy had sealed their death warrant.
Human bodies, especially those of mages, were resilient to temperature changes and could survive it for some time.
Yet fighting with a high level ice mage and letting him or her use one of their skills was like hitting your own leg with an axe.
The nameless men had turned into ice sculptures the next second as Isabella glared at them with hateful eyes.
Droplets of moisture were visible all around her body, having settled on her skin or soaked her clothes.
Noah's eyes looked around for a few seconds, nodding his head in approval. He then turned towards the bed and touched the ropes around Izzy's mother.
'Obsial.' He observed, immediately recognizing the material the ropes were made from.
Obsial was originally a metal which negated magic power for anyone with a below S grade affinity.
However the different races on the planet discovered that if used and processed correctly, it could be used to create bindings.
In the years that followed, it became a popular expensive binding that prevented lower level mage from using magic.
Izzy's mother also fell under that category, rendering her worthless. Just coming in contact with Obsial would prevent one from using their powers.
Noah then burned through the ropes using his flames, freeing both Izzy's mother and brother, both of who still looked shaken.
Noah had been through far more traumatic experiences that he could imagine how they felt. However, he wasn't about to offer them any sympathy since coming to save them was enough.
He instead looked back at Izzy who was staring at the ice sculptures without any emotion.
"If you want to do it, do it." Noah suddenly spoke up, using his experience to make such a statement. "It will give you temporary satisfaction, but remember you will feel guilty down the road."
Erika gave him a long, strange look, wondering what had caused her son's sudden change in personality. Not only was he behaving more confidently and independently, he was imparting wisdom at a young age.
'Did the potion that he drank yesterday contain some secret ingredients?' Erika asked curiously as Isabella suddenly reacted by raising her right hand towards the sculptures.
In front of everyone, the ice started cracking, causing Isabella's mother to quickly cover her son's eyes and preventing him from seeing murder at a tender young age.
Noah and Erika however looked calm as both of them had their share of encounters with ice magic.
The ice around the sculptures continued to crack before shattering with a bang. Ice shards flew in every direction as the five men became unfrozen.
Izzy had chosen the guilt free choice.
They started shuddering the moment that happened but Erika didn't let them enjoy any sort of warmth, even if it was for a brief second.
With a crackling sound, five mini bolts of lightning shout from Erika's right hand, hitting the men directly in the head.
They hit the floor simultaneously as the small amount of lightning had been enough for all of them to be knocked out.
"Now what do we do with them?" Izzy inquired the next moment as all eyes turned on Erika, except Noah's who had bent down near the bodies.
"Giving them to the police or the city lord is useless. I'm sure that this was an internal job as none of these men belong to this city." Noah spoke up before Erika could as he started searching the bodies.
"Indeed." Erika replied as she too joined her son on the floor, the two of them rummaging with the men's clothes.
They had been wearing standard black trousers, full sleeves t-shirts and trench coats with a lot of inside pockets.
Izzy on the other hand finally talked to her family, starting by tightly embracing her mother and brother.
Izzy's brother, Alec, hadn't understood much of what had happened. He was just twelve years old yet he knew that the men lying on the ground were not good people.
"Ma, who are they?" Alec questioned after the three had separated.
"They are men from the Zikarth academy." Noah suddenly announced, having found a pocket watch from one of the men's trench coat pockets.
It had the symbol of a eagle with its wings spread far apart etched on the lid.
The eagle represented freedom over the skies as well as victory over it, which was ironic considering how Zikarth academy was the opposite of freedom.
Noah, however, had to admit that the symbol did look cool especially in the black shade it was etched in.
"So what do we do with them? Bury them alive and hope nothing bad happens," Izzy's mother wondered, without a trace of fear on her face anymore.
"Even though that's a great option, let's do something simpler," Noah replied, his lips curling up to form a smile. "Let's take their mana cores out."
The effect his words had on the room was… silencing. All eyes were focused on him as though he had just said that he would climb to the moon.
"It's my legacy's power. With the help of at least three other people, I can extract the mana cores of other humans." Noah added, shrugging. "I think this is the right time to do test that."
It took a few minutes for the three women to come to an agreement but in the end, all of them agreed to proceed with the plan.
Mana crystals, of course, played a major role in convincing them.
It was the simple curiosity to see whether Noah could actually do what he claimed because if he could do that, he would become a living treasure.
This was because mana cores could be used to increase one progression rapidly. If one had a high level mana core, they could also use it to increase their affinity with an element.
Mana cores were however only present inside certain magical beasts, barely any of them being capable of increasing one's grade.
You would also have to hunt the beasts to obtain their core, making it a time-consuming and dangerous process.
However what Noah had proposed was way too simple.
Humans also had something similar to a mana core inside their bodies, the place where they got their mana from.
The amount of mana inside the core as well as the progression one would have was determined by their affinities.
Despite human mana cores being weaker than beast mana cores, obtaining one for a low level person was still quite fortuitous, especially for Izzy.
Removing the cores would also render the five men useless and would make it much easier for Noah to enchant them with his spirit magic, something he could already do but extracting the cores was more beneficial.
"So… how do we begin?" Erika inquired as Noah looked at the bodies of men for a few seconds.
Despite having said that he would extract the cores, Noah hadn't thought of how the others would play a role in it…