Chapter 1559 The Trial Of Skadi
"To further improve your understanding of the element of ice, Drake, you must surround yourself by it, touch it, eat it, breath it." The Frost Queen's Phantom explained to me.
Right now I found myself within the coldest regions of my Divine Realm, to the south, a snow and ice-covered landscape simply known as the Desert of Snow. There are thousands of kilometers of just that, snow and ice, and giant mountains with even more snow and ice.
This is where the concentration of my Ice Elemental Power has been concentrated the most. Divine Realms are also expressions of our Divinities and the Elemental Powers we possess. Although there's a lot of greenery in my Divine Realm, at least seventy percent of it is ice.
Even more now, this area was now merged with a large part of the Frost Queen's own Divine Realm, when we visited her, and I got her inheritance. There were many ice-type divine treasures everywhere, and she made me gather as many as I could and eat them while diving deep in the coldest waters of frost.
"You're submerging yourself in the coldest waters that my Divine Realm could produce, they're called Frozen Azure Moon Spring Water, I took a bath daily in these. Cold, isn't it? Even for an ice dragon at Rank 10, you're trembling." She mocked me, as I was in the depths of this water.
As an ice dragon myself, there was never a time when I felt like freezing, that sense had just gone away from my memory. But this water and eating so many ice-type divine treasures changed that completely. I felt cold, an uneasiness bathing over me.
The coldness I feel… I've almost forgotten what it truly meant to be frozen.
"In Ancient Times, there was a Goddess of Frost, a mighty titaness known as Skadi." Said the Frost Queen. "As I delved into my own lineage, I learned she was my Progenitor, where my own bloodline descended from. She taught me the ways of frost as I connected to the Titan Records, the counterpart of the Draconic Records, which is much more barren than yours. We Titans didn't have that many kinds. There were the Mountain Titans, the Frost Titans, and the Fire Titans. Our Record is not divided by realms but shared equally by all. Our Patrons, the souls of the ancient titans, rest there, in harmony with their elements."
"However, compared to dragons, there are too many giants, right? This is why only giants that awaken their Titan Bloodline can enter this Realm." Said the Frost Queen. I still had yet to know what this had to do with what she was teaching me, but it was an interesting information, nonetheless.
"I received whispers at early stages of life, as I survived and battled against the Vampires that had conquered our world and turned it into an eternal night." She said. "Lady Skadi called to me, she taught me methods to awaken my powers faster, although they came with risks. This method is one that she taught me. To encompass yourself in ice, to feel the cold in every inch of your body, feel the loneliness of the element of ice, feel its isolation, its slow, creeping pain."
"I am feeling it… And it reminds me of things I didn't want to remember for a long time."
"Don't break your focus and don't speak."
"…"
"You can't speak, focus, concentrate, cultivate. Grasp the ice, not with your hands, not with your mind, grasp it with your soul and your intent. Grasp the frost creeping through you. Do you feel it? What memories resurface within you as you feel like you're freezing to death?"
What I remember…
That family trip back then, and how everything seemed so fine. I was with my family; we were going to have fun. The kids looked happy, and I, for once, was also smiling. My sister and her husband were excited I had decided to come along for once.
But everything ended so abruptly, even more than I ever thought. The snow completely engulfed me. And I died so slowly, the cold creeping into every inch of my body.
The pain was slow and dulling, but the feeling of helplessness…
This sensation, is this what she wants me to revive?
FLASH!
Suddenly, I felt something, right within my body, as I saw my skin freeze, the ice creeping inside of my body slowly started to merge with my own flesh. Was I freezing, or becoming ice itself?
An azure-colored divine essence slowly grew larger and larger, encompassing me entirely, and freezing my body even faster than before. I could hear the faint words of the System, she seemed alarmed.
But I couldn't even respond, my mind seemed to be slowly fading away, burrowed in the eternal freezing waters, and with my entire body freezing from inside and outside, there was nothing else than to become ice itself.
I don't know how much time passed after that, but I felt like I was constantly crawling across an endless snow labyrinth, frost and ice everywhere.
And a gigantic figure loomed into the distance, my visage was distorted, I felt so dizzy.
Yet something deep down was telling me to keep moving.
Perhaps my own will, maybe just a survival instinct.
The snow mercilessly bathed over my body, as I realized I wasn't in my ice giant Dragonoid form, nor in my true dragon form either.
I was just the same human I once was, crawling through these frozen lands, wearing no clothes…
"Is this… Some weird dream?"
As I looked around myself, I ended hitting the same landmark I had hit at least a hundred times within my state of dizziness.
A small tree made of frost, with many fruits made of azure crystal ice.
"Hahhh…"
I took out one fruit without thinking it, biting into it. The cold juices froze my mouth, it almost felt like my jaw was about to fall.
"Fuck…"
But I kept eating and eating the fruit, until my stomach was both full, and freezing.
The gigantic figure looming at the distance continued watching me, too blurry beneath the snowstorm.
This must be a trial of sorts; I need to surpass it and get out of here.
