Unlike before, with one orb moving, the pain was far less.
Grinding his teeth, Bard moved the orb.
He would have warned Ezra of the pain, but Ezra's muscles wiped his fears, so he didn't bother.
Ezra was drawn into an inexplicable darkness, awakening once the job was done.
His body cast an enormous shadow and he was sweating buckets.
"How long did it take?"
"Ten minutes"
"That short?"
"I'm surprised as well. What is the affinity rank for darkness?"
"A-rank" the more Bard didn't know, the better.
Swiftly, Ezra drank the blue potion as Bard warned him…
"Moving too many too fast could cause issues"
"Tell me that before I drink it"
Sighing, Bard got to it.
This time, he woke to an iced room, with his body frozen, releasing chilling air.
Bard stood unbothered.
"How do you feel"
"What do you-"
A headache struck as blood fell from his nose in drops.
Ezra cleaned it and waved his hands away.
"This…is…nothing much"
Why was his voice funny?
Bard raised his brow.
"Your body's covered in frostbite. It's to be expected"
With the pain so miniscule, Ezra gulped down the deep red potion.
Bard was alarmed.
"You can't just-"
"Begin"
This time, Ezra woke to see himself seated in a pool of blood.
Moving his head revealed an amplified headache.
Rubbing his hair, he found it covered in blood.
A closer look revealed blood spilling out of his pores.
He felt dizzy, but Ezra thought it manageable.
As he sought to drink the next potion, his body went limp.
"What…"
His eyelid fell, sending him into the darkness.
Waking up after an unknown amount of time, a smell struck him.
The blood on his skin had dried and was now smelling.
"Ah, you've awoken. How do you feel?"
"Better than I did before. In a weird way"
"Shall we finish?"
"Shouldn't I clean up first?"
"No need. It's better to shift the orbs as fast as possible"
"Okay" he gulped the red potion.
Immediately, his temperature rose.
"Will you be okay?" he asked Bard, who smiled in response.
"No worries my liege"
Ezra shrugged and Bard began.
He drifted into the darkness once more, awakening to a body rid of all smell. Instead, his skin radiated sweltering heat.
He understood.
'I burnt the impurities away'
Having slept, the backlash was negligible, so he threw the lighting leaf in his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it.
Bard went to work soon after as Ezra found himself wide awake as his body released arcs of white lightning.
*Scrunch*
His body twisted and his bones snapped, aligning in order as the lightning orb was pulled into place to complete the circle.
The orb settled and Ezra shook. The orbs lit up at the center of his chest and started orbiting as one.
"Unbelievable" Bard muttered.
Ezra was shocked.
"Isn't this supposed to happen?"
Alas, he didn't hear Bard's reply as darkness erupted from his body.
"Ugh!" Ezra groaned, his mind swirling in chaos as he sought to make sense of the situation.
The darkness covered the chamber in its entirety. It began receding, replacing it with a cold wind.
As ice tried to materialize, Ezra's heart pounded painfully, the phenomenon then ceased.
He fell to the floor thinking…
'What just happened…?'
His eyes caught sight of Bard running towards him as his vision went dark.
—-------------------
Elsewhere, Fredrick was dealing with a headache of his own.
'Seriously'
With the advent of an Ice shower, the war proceedings stalled.
No large-scale battles took place as the wet and slippery floor made it disadvantageous to do so.
Skirmishes between small units replaced it as the kingdoms were still going strong.
With the Emperor having added the conquering of nearby kingdoms to its aims…he put up conquered lands and Nobility titles as prizes to be won with contribution points.
With immediate effect, Master-rank mercenaries and those affiliated arrived in droves, withdrawing an even bigger part of Niton's fighting force.
One would expect such events to reduce death tolls, but rather, it skyrocketed.
Falling ice wasn't the most fatal thing the ice shower brought. Vold.
To weather such temperatures, thick clothes were needed and many could not afford it. And in response to the ice shower, these thick clothes had tripled or even quadrupled in price.
For commoners, it was a hellish and testing time.
In Lexon, more than seven hundred commoners died daily due to war and cold.
Likewise, many were born as well.
For ice Mages and ice attributed Knights, this was a heaven-sent opportunity to make a killing.
With the hindrance of cold out of the way, they hunted twice as much as before and twice as fast. Also, being the main source of monter items, they charged triple the normal price, and of course, in such an advantageous environment, most could only comply and pay.
To fight the unfairness, adventurers banded together to hunt monsters as they refused to pay large amounts for meager pieces.
Commoners had it worse, as many lived on their wages. Alas, the ice shower froze many businesses, blocking their source of income.
Businesses that remained in place lowered the wages of their workers by more than half.
Crime rates soared, with each person looking for something to eat.
Many were those who had all the food stockpiled for rainy days stolen to the last grain.
At some point, villagers ganged up to snatch and steal from their fellow townsfolk, giving excuses of how it 'wasn't fair' that one person enjoyed while others suffered.
The result? A bloodbath ensued.
At the end of their stick, the agile men and matured boys gathered and went to hunt beasts in groups of fifty and above.
Others migrated from homes suffering incessant beast attacks from nearby beast regions.
With man and beast hungry, blood was shed as each sought any and all ways to survive.
In this situation, Fredrick found himself at the center of a massive problem.
News of the Gold Slums movements spread far and wide, and thousands came seeking refuge as guild members.
At the point where he would start to refuse and send them packing, Bolton came in.
Emphasizing that the land certificate was 'gifted' to Black Jaws only because of their noble goals of enriching the poor, he forbade that they send away those who came to them for help.
Fredrick was amazed at his reasoning. As the royal advisor, he could move far larger forces to take care of the matter more efficiently.
Instead, he pushed such a core responsibility on a G-rank guild.
'Unbelievable'
Well, Fredrick wasn't dumb.
'To think he'd target us this way'
The moment Black Jaws refused their help, Bolton would use it as a window to take back the land certificate.
He huffed a sigh. They had bought a month's time to arrange matters to accommodate the large number of people.
In three days, they confirmed the first problem.
'We don't have the funds to accommodate such a project'
There were at least three thousand people scattered about the slums of the cities Black Jaws was renovating.
Then, as the available workers ballooned, the pay lessened drastically, making the original workers resentful of those who arrived later. This resulted in multiple confrontations as the two parties formed.
In turn, Black Jaws had to spare many D-ranks to use as supervisors of the ongoing constructions.
At the same time, guards of the delivery of goods were doubled to ward off bandits that had ballooned in number.
Alongside that, their partnership with Halobren was in trouble.
It was an all-round crisis.
Unable to communicate with Ezra, Fredrick called upon Cabrera, Nathan, Mirahan and Kron to deliberate a solution.
Carlos Halobren, head of the Halobren merchant family was among them.
"We can put up requirements to cut down the prospects we accept"
"And the advisor would sit and watch as we do so?" Fredrick smiled.
"Well…what other options do we have? Besides, we can't buy buildings anymore. Where do you suggest we put them?"
"Let's have them hunt beasts" said Cabrera.
"That's basically sending them to be slaughtered"
"My point exactly. We can't accept them all, so we need ways to cut down their numbers"
"That way, we'll be falling right into their trap" Fredrick spoke.
Others couldn't understand, so Fredrick continued.
"If we send them to their deaths, what will happen once this ice shower ends?"
None knew.
"I'll tell you. We will be told off as murderers and our reputation would hit rock bottom. It won't be surprising for our members to be killed, following by our workers quitting"
"We would progress at a slug's speed, and changing that reputation would take too long. Then, at that point, that advisor would have every right to eradicate us citing that we slaughtered the masses. It'll be our end"
Everyone calmed down.
"So…we can't kill them, yet neither can we accept them all"
They sighed as Fredrick spoke.
"For one, we'll have the advisor lift our ban on purchasing finished buildings"
He looked at Carlos, who hadn't given a single remark.
"What about you? What solution do you provide?"
Garbed in thick clothes, black gloves with orange hair, and a monocle, Carlos tapped his cheek.
"The solution seems simple enough though"
They were puzzled, but he continued…
"Not enough money? Then shouldn't you borrow?"
Fredrick's eyes widened as he'd forgotten about that possibility.
Mirahan spoke…
"It'll be an astronomical amount. I doubt they are willing to lend such an amount"
Carlos smiled.
"Of course they won't. That's why we'll use their trick against them"
"Which is?" asked Nathan.
Carlos pointed out the window.
"The people"
