Chapter 1054: 1053: Ice and Space
Simon woke nearly twenty-four hours after lying down.
For a while, he remained beneath the covers, looking at the ceiling.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept that long. Or slept that well.
The heaviness in his limbs had eased. His heart no longer felt as though every beat required effort, and the ache left by the two awakenings had faded considerably.
He stretched, then sat up.
Four familiar presences answered a brief sweep of his perception.
Sonya, Akaza, Virella, and Ammor were in their rooms. Their auras were steady, and nothing suggested they needed his attention.
Good.
Simon got out of bed.
His private cultivation chamber occupied the rear of the ground floor, beside the passage leading to the practice courtyard. A heavy black door stood within a thick archway, with pale inscriptions running around its frame.
He pressed his identity token against the small recess beside it.
The door opened.
Inside, a low circular platform occupied most of the room. Silver channels crossed the floor and climbed the walls, guiding dense demonic energy toward the centre. There were no windows. Soft light came from several crystals set into the ceiling.
It was plain compared with the rest of the house, but Simon preferred that.
He closed the door and activated the chamber’s isolation and protective formations.
Then he sat cross-legged on the platform and brought out two transparent cases.
The Nether Ice Origin Crystal gleamed within the first, its narrow points almost colourless around a deep-blue centre.
Beside it, silver-white marrow rested in a small vial.
Simon considered them for a moment, then returned the sealed marrow to his ring.
Ice first.
He released the crystal’s seal and lifted the cover.
The moment he did, cold struck his face.
Frost raced across the platform, spreading beneath his legs before climbing the walls. The ceiling lights blurred behind layers of white crystals.
Simon drew a breath and it was slightly painful.
He hadn’t even touched the treasure yet.
Ice gathered along his robe and stiffened the fabric around his knees. The hand nearest the open case began turning numb.
His Fire affinity answered immediately.
Heat spread from his chest, restoring warmth to his circulation. He kept it within his body rather than releasing a flame into the room.
The cold pressed harder.
Simon leaned forward and placed his fingertips against the crystal.
Devour
Its sharp points began dissolving into pale strands that disappeared into his hand.
The temperature inside him plunged.
His fingers froze first.
Then the cold climbed his arm, settling into his elbow and shoulder before pushing toward his heart.
Simon clenched his jaw.
The surface frost was nothing compared with what he was taking in.
He slowed the rate of Devour and increased the heat around his heart. His peak S-grade Fire affinity kept the cold from stopping his circulation, but he couldn’t simply burn away everything entering him.
He needed that essence.
A thin sheet of ice spread over his neck.
"Fuck."
He separated the incoming power into smaller streams, guiding each one through his body while keeping the warmth around his vital pathways steady.
His High C-grade Ice affinity struggled to accommodate them.
The crystal had been sealed for a reason.
Simon kept absorbing.
The ice around his knees thickened until his robe was fixed to the platform. Frost covered his hair, and his breath escaped in short white clouds.
Inside him, Fire and Ice demanded his attention at the same time.
Whenever the cold gathered too heavily in one place, he spread it elsewhere. Whenever his circulation slowed, he increased the heat just enough to keep it moving.
The effort made his temples ache.
But gradually, his Ice affinity began responding.
At first, he could guide only the thinnest portions of the incoming essence. Then a thicker stream followed his control.
The ice coating his hand stopped spreading.
Simon concentrated on that response.
He drew the cold through the pathways that had been resisting it, careful not to let any of the crystal’s essence escape unused.
His connection to Ice deepened.
The numbness in his fingers eased even though the temperature continued falling.
He could feel the frost on the walls now. Every layer was distinct, from the fine crystals coating the door to the heavy ice around his legs.
Moving it no longer felt like forcing something unwilling to obey.
The crystal’s dark centre began shrinking.
A final surge entered his palm.
Pain stabbed through his shoulder.
Simon nearly pulled his hand away, but he held it in place and divided the surge before it could reach his chest as a single mass.
His Fire affinity flared.
Cracks spread across the ice covering his torso.
He guided the remaining essence through his body, refining it until the pressure finally eased.
The case was empty.
Simon remained still, breathing carefully while the last traces settled.
Then he lifted a finger.
The ice around his legs loosened.
A narrow ice spear formed above his hand, its surface was smooth and almost transparent. He turned it slowly, changing the shape of its tip without breaking the shaft.
He had made ice before but never with this ease.
The energy needed was far less than he would once have spent producing something weaker.
His affinity had reached S grade, and not just S grade.
Peak S grade.
The crystal’s description hadn’t promised that final subgrade. Devour had allowed him to take its essence without wasting it, and his control had let him refine what another practitioner might have lost.
Simon smiled.
He dismissed the spear and drew the cold back from the chamber’s surfaces. The ice began thinning.
Only after his circulation had settled and the room was clear did he bring out the second case.
The Void Origin Marrow.
He opened its protective casing, lifted the vial, and broke the seal around its neck.
The moment he removed the stopper, the silver channels along the walls seemed to bend.
Simon immediately stopped moving.
The door appeared nearer than it had a moment earlier. Its edges shifted, and a ripple passed through the space between his hands.
He felt that ripple more clearly than he saw it.
The marrow turned within the vial, folding over itself despite having almost nowhere to move.
Simon held the container steady with his Will.
Then he tilted it until a small drop touched his fingertip.
Devour.
The drop stretched into a silver thread and disappeared.
His entire arm jerked.
For an instant, his hand felt too far from his shoulder.
Simon looked down.
It hadn’t moved.
The distortion passed through his perception and into his body, tugging at different places in different directions. A sharp pain spread beneath his ribs.
He stopped drawing more from the vial.
The pressure remained.
His Space affinity answered as he tried to steady it, but the unfamiliar essence resisted being held in the way he normally controlled space.
His Nine-Tailed Byakko bloodline stirred.
Simon focused on the area immediately around himself. He held it steady, then slowly guided the absorbed essence through his own energy.
The pain lessened.
He let out a breath.
One drop.
That was all he had taken.
He looked at the marrow remaining inside the vial.
This was going to require patience.
Simon resumed Devour, restricting the absorption to a thin stream.
The distortions returned.
His reflection in the vial stretched sideways. Ripples spread from his palm and reached the chamber’s walls, making the inscriptions waver.
The protective formations brightened.
Simon narrowed his concentration.
Trying to suppress everything at once would waste energy. He kept the space around his body stable and focused on refining what entered him.
Whenever the strain grew too strong, he stopped absorbing and worked through what he already held.
Then he continued.
Sweat ran down his temples.
A thin cut opened across one finger when his control slipped. He immediately steadied the warped space beside his hand before it could cut deeper.
His regeneration closed the wound.
Simon didn’t increase the flow again.
He had no intention of losing a hand because he was impatient.
The marrow slowly diminished.
His spatial perception changed with it.
Distances he once judged as a whole became easier to examine. He could feel where a spatial fold would meet resistance and how much power he needed to hold it open.
The space within The Abyss was still dense.
But it no longer felt uniformly difficult.
He began making smaller corrections, guiding the essence instead of constantly fighting its effects.
The ripples around his body weakened.
Within the vial, the last silver-white portion clung to the bottom.
Simon drew it toward his fingertip.
It vanished.
The space around his chest tightened abruptly.
His breath caught, and both hands trembled.
He stopped everything except the circulation supporting his refinement.
For several heartbeats, he remained like that.
Then the pressure loosened.
Simon slowly exhaled.
The walls stopped wavering. The door returned to its proper distance, and the silver channels settled into straight, unbroken lines.
His Space affinity had also reached peak S grade.
He examined it carefully before allowing himself to smile.
He had previously estimated it to be somewhere in A grade. Whatever its exact subgrade had been, the difference now was unmistakable.
Simon set the empty vial down.
A small spatial fold appeared above his palm.
He extended it toward the far side of the platform, keeping both ends within the chamber. The connection formed smoothly, with far less effort than before.
He could feel precisely where it began and ended.
An ice needle appeared between his fingers.
He released it into the fold.
It emerged across the platform and stopped where he directed it, its pointed tip hanging just above the floor.
Simon looked from it to his hand.
Ice and Space. Both at peak S grade.
He let the needle melt, closed the fold, and leaned back on his hands.
There were quite a few things he wanted to try now, but that would be later.
Maybe when he was outside attempting the Sovereign’s mission.