Chapter 154: 8-11 Freezing Water

???, Below the Waves

Slumber. Everlasting slumber. Banished by the usurper, fled from their presence, hidden. Waiting. Eons pass; this one watches. Eternally watches. Waiting. Eventually, all things end. Even gods. Even the Usurper. Small things crisscross the surface, tiny creatures buzzing in slightly larger vessels of metal and wood. They are irrelevant. The Usurper finds amusement in watching these things, best to ignore them lest this one attracts its attention.

Eons pass. This one can feel the world shaking once again; the boundaries of reality weaken; the Usurper is moving. The cycle repeats. This one will wait. This one will watch. Eons pass and the pattern repeats countless times. This is the same.

This one will wait. This one will watch. This one… Strange. This time is different. The Usurper… its presence grows more substantial. This one is confused. Confusion. This is a new sensation. Curiosity. This one will investigate. Towards the surface. Toward the tiny buzzing creatures of flesh and their slightly less tiny vessels of metal and wood.

Surprise; this one is surprised. The tiny creatures are running around in fear as this one looks above the waves. They shoot small things at this one but it matters not; they cannot harm it. The presence of the Usurper… it is stronger now. Present. They have established a conduit, a link. Perhaps the age is passing? This one should ask That one and the other. Perhaps this one should even proclaim a council?

Pain! This one is in Pain! This one rears itself towards the tiny creatures. One creature, surrounded by several others. That one struck this one! Like a pest or a vermin, that one tried to bite this one. Perhaps this one disregarded them too much. After all, the Usurper was interested… This one summons the waves.

“Itlami Nahui-Atl!”

This one watched the waters wash away the tiny pests. This one slipped beneath the waves to think; perhaps that was an overreaction. Perhaps the Usurper’s movements had caused this one to become overly sensitive. Eons… No. Time passed, but it wasn’t Eons. This one could feel the Usurper.

The Usurper seemed to be in a slightly not tiny metal vessel, with two others following behind. Along with the Usurper, there was also a Scion of Tenebris, and… This one was enraged. They had a Fragment! A Fragment of Chalchi and this one! Where had the Usurper… No. This one did not have time. This one had to act now, or the Usurper would surely do the fragment harm.

This one moved toward the Usurper, dreading the encounter that was to come. But, something was not right; as this one drew closer, this one found that its senses became dull. Something was making it difficult to feel the fragment… Something about the front-most metal vessel. As this one drew close, this one paled with yet another new feeling. Fear. The lead vessel was an Anathema.

“Itlami Nahui-Atl!”

Stahlia, 17 Years Old, Ninth Month of 949

It did not take long for Lord Alriss to find a number of volunteers to donate their mana. That shouldn’t really be that surprising, considering my reputation and the respect I commanded with my troops. Even with the implicit risk that they might die despite Eris’ assurances that they would not. And all so that I could freeze some water.

Well, not “some” water. The plan for me to freeze a section of the ocean surrounding our ship was outright insane by any normal standards, but just about on the edge of possibility given my prowess. But would it really be effective? That doubt was stuck in my mind.

Knowing that we were dealing with an Ancient Spirit, I couldn’t help myself. This thing had enough mana to lif Will of the Gods wholly up and above the water. It was only thanks to her sturdy mana-dampening Mythril hull that she hadn’t been completely broken apart. In theory, a creature that was capable of moving such a large quantity of water would have to be extremely specialized toward that element. In the case of a Water Spirit, that much was an obvious feature of their physiology.

But would the same hold true for an Ancient Spirit?

It was a distinct possibility that something that powerful would be perfectly capable of controlling Ice just as much as water. Especially considering how Ice was a compound Element of Water and Wind; this would not inconvenience a water spirit nearly as much as it might an Earth or Fire spirit. It was a distinct possibility that this thing would be able to pretty much ignore my efforts.

But it wasn’t like there was a better plan. I could try talking to it again, but considering how fruitless that had been the last time, I doubted it would work now. More likely, I would just become a target for trying. Eris had more success at communicating for reasons that were lost on me. But were she to try negotiating it would more than likely prove a mistake; one of the sentiments the Spirit had clearly expressed was a distaste for demons.

I need to create a shield of ice, and use that to get back to Will of the Gods. Then, I can use the spell amplifier to maybe do something with Divine Element Magic… With enough mana, I can drive it off, maybe.

Lord Alriss was probably thinking along similar lines, just without considering Divine Element. Killing it was out of the question, not without using my final trump card. But assuming I survived disconnecting again, I would be out of commission for a while; morale would tank, and in the worst-case scenario, I would miss the start of the war.

“...Is my lady ready?” Eris quietly asked from beside and slightly behind me.

She was clearly uncomfortable, fidgeting slightly with her hands and not quite making eye contact, but that was none of my concern; Eris would simply have to get over herself.

“Yes.” I replied curtly, then sank into my thoughts in order to give a final review of my newly composed spell.

I need to be specific, and can get around some of the cost by Invoking Wind and Water separately, instead of Ice. But it might be better to invoke Ice and eat the cost; that will make it more difficult to overcome with basic water magic.

I felt one of Eris’s hands on my shoulder; it was right above the neckline of my dress. My barriers were consciously lowered so as to allow her an open path through which to feed me the mana of the volunteers.

With a hundred leveled men’s worth of mana, I can probably manage an extreme max of five hundred meters… No, seven hundred. For safety’s sake, limiting things to two hundred meters from the sides, and twenty-five from the bow and stern. 

With that, the area frozen would be a rough circle, with a diameter of five hundred meters. As far as depth was concerned, that would make things complicated due to buoyancy… another twenty-five meters should be safe.

“Then, I’ll start.” Eris voice was punctuated by a strange sensation that caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up straight. It wasn’t uncomfortable in the most literal sense. Rather, it felt like someone was pouring warm oil on my back; vaguely nice if it was from a masseuse but given the context, offputting. Despite being experienced at using my own mana to invade others’ privacy, the only person who had ever done the opposite was Sitri, and the memory of that event rose to the forefront of my conscious mind.

“Ahh!” I couldn’t help but gasp, and my shoulders likewise stiffened involuntarily.

“Please relax, and release your resistance; it will only hurt otherwise.” In the reverse of her earlier state, Eris had become calm, and she softly admonished me.

I know that.

My focus was forcibly diverted away from the warm-liquidy feeling on my back and neck, and instead onto my spell. At the same time, I pulled at my mental barricades, forcibly lowering them and doing my best to accept Eris’s intrusion.

Then, in terms of effect, I think I can get away with omitting it here. If any of the soldiers protest, I can just say that most of them occurred underwater… Maybe invoke Light Element, and place…. an illusion, to make it look like, something is, happen…

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“Ahh!” I gasped again; the sensation had changed. Less like oil, this one felt like something sticky. It was still warm, but closer to honey or syrup than anything else. If the last had been tolerable, this one was disgusting. Was the sensation going to change every time the mana’s source changed? That was going to make it very hard to concentrate.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lord Alriss watching me with some amount of concern. Next to him, Franklin had finally shown up. If the state of his hair and armor (messy and only halfway donned) was anything to go by, he had been sleeping and only just arrived.

“That one’s done, I’m starting with the next.” Eris warned me in advance this time. Or maybe she had both times and my thoughts had caused me to overlook the previous.

To say this guy’s mana was a change of pace was an understatement. Rather than feeling warm, oily, or sticky, this guy was like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. It was cold enough to be outright painful, a sensation long forgotten due to my [Ice Immunity]. I clamped my jaw shut and grit my teeth, sucking in air past them.

Enough; my spell will work. I need to focus on maintaining my composure, and manipulating the foreign mana.

To say that the difficulty of the task surprised me would be an understatement. Within my body, it felt like there was a raging storm as contradicting mana tossed about. Before shifting my focus, it had taken everything to just contain the raging mass. Now, it was doable. But by the time all of the volunteers’ mana had been transferred, it would definitely be impossible. Of course, that was only without using my cheats.

I kept my mouth screwed shut, and began molding my own mana; the key would be to balance the raging torrent with complementary elements. After I did that, it could be safely shunted into my mana crystal for temporary storage. If it wasn’t balanced properly, then not only would the crystal’s capacity fill up before I got everything, the thing was liable to shatter outright. For a normal monster, that would spell instant death. For me, I was probably strong enough to survive, but the injury would be traumatic. It would, in all likelihood, be something irrecoverable since the crystal was now part of my biology.

In a word, this was much, much harder than my previous method of doping on high-tier mana potions.

Alright. Warm-and-Oily. Looks like this guy had a disposition toward Fire and Earth elements… Maybe a small amount of Dark. Warm-and-Sticky, that’s going to be Fire and Water, with just a pinch of Earth. Ice Water. Well, Air and Water make Ice. A bit of a stilt toward Water in this case.

My analysis wasn’t just composed of guesswork, of course; there was also a healthy amount of experience with how the various elements felt. After all, the reason this was even possible was my own mana. Back when I’d first started at the Royal Academy, Gustav had administered a test to determine my attribute proclivities. At the time, I had seemingly possessed every one of the basic and compound attributes, as well as Light and Dark. Upon learning how the Divine Element worked the reason had become obvious. In short, I was already able to change my own mana’s element. In fact, that was the core principle of what I was attempting to do here.

Ok, these are done.

First, the storming masses needed proper mixing. Following that, I took some of my own mana and molded it into the missing elements. Then, I suffused it into the mass in order to provide a stabilizing effect. Finally, the whole lot of it was compressed and stored away inside of my mana crystal.

“Urk!” As soon as the foreign mana entered the crystal, I felt sick.

Eris paused briefly at my new reaction, but I shook my head, “Keep going; I’ll manage.”

She nodded, and released the Icy man while motioning for the next one to step forward.

It’s not as bad as being punished with Empathy was. I can keep it under control. But, reactions like that happen for a reason; this is going to be a last resort method in the future.

There had already been a voice in the back of my mind telling me that this was a bad idea, but the fact that my reaction was a feeling of sickness confirmed it. At the very least, I could get away with one use of a spell, as long as I didn’t hold the foreign mana for too long.

…So, how’s Eris holding up? No, she’s probably fine; Sitri was able to use my mana, the various knights, Dominic’s…

Of course, Eris wasn’t a succubus like Sitri had been. Sitri probably had a skill or biological component to lessen the effects of ingesting foreign mana. Along with that realization came the unbidden remembrance of Dominic, and all of the grief his life had caused me, even after his well-deserved passing. The real question was why I gave a damn?

Eris was a demon, my enemy. Now, she’s just my thrall.

The procession behind me continued, and I dealt with each new mana infusion in turn. Each one was a bit harder than the one before. In large part because I was getting progressively sicker. It was a really weird physiological reaction; vomiting wasn’t going to disgorge the foreign mana, I wasn’t eating it. If anything it had to be a side effect of my body not originally having a mana crystal; it wasn’t sure how to react to what was happening to it.

Eventually, after what felt like a small eternity, Eris removed her hand, “My lady, I’ve finished… Are you alright?”

Instead of answering her, I allowed my self to breath. Each infusion only lasted a few seconds, and for the last several I had refrained from breathing out of fear of doing something unladylike. The salty air hit my lungs and bile immediately rose up in my throat. Vomiting was not an option, so I fiercly swallowed it down until my stomach stilled.

“I’ll live, but, we’re, never… doing this again.” After giving her assurances, I slowly made my way to near the ship’s deck railing.

Carefully raising my hands up, lest I cause myself to become sick again, I began to chant while reaching into my mana crystal, “O Light, express your might from bellow the water; dazzle my allies in a cloak of your brilliance. [Submarine Solar Flare] O Water, O Wind, combine your strength; O Ice. Surround my ground with Ice, measure the distance to match my ground. Touch only Water. [Frozen World]”

Once again, I named both of my spells in English. There was a bright flash as the first spell resolved. By the time everyone’s vision recovered, the water had become a solid mass of ice. The same could be said about the water inside the ship; my vocabulary wasn’t extensive enough to quickly figure out a way of differentiating between the two. In short, the people in the mess hall and kitchen were probably very confused right now.

And it doesn’t look like anyone’s body was frozen, or if it did, they melted quickly enough from body heat.

Looking over the expanse of Ice, I swallowed. From somewhere behind me there were a collection of murmurs and mute exclamations. From inside my own head…

-BZZT!-

Confusion, Astonishment! Shock-Usurper!-

A series of loose concepts and emotional outbursts, then a single, very clear and directed thought. There was a dull thud, and when I looked left, Eris had fainted where she stood.

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