The New Arc: The Shadows' Refuge
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Chapter Eleven: "Breathing Ice, Lightning Unmasks"
Silence enveloped the room as Iris, her body bursting with energy, hurtled toward Monty's room, like a meteor of snow-light about to crash into the earth. She wasn't flying; she was gliding through the air as if gravity had momentarily abandoned her, allowing her to dissolve into the void. At the edge of this scene, Ethan stood, his eyelids fluttering, his heart racing, opening a void behind her, chasing after her... but in vain. She was headed for something else... the wardrobe.
The old wardrobe that everyone had always ignored, considering it merely a piece of furniture. But now... it screamed. Yes, like a moan from another time. It shattered, the wood scattering as if fleeing from something greater. And from its depths emerged the essence... that frozen, strange entity that, the moment it touched Iris's body, melted into one another... no, became one.
Ethan froze, sweat beading on his forehead, and asked in a trembling voice,
"Is...is this one of the legendary powers? Oh my God...if so, we've been blessed beyond measure!"
But another voice came to him from the depths of the shadows. The voice of an old man, his face etched with the weight of time like a map of torment.
"Fool...that's not a legendary power...it's the Ice Queen's Chain."
Ethan gasped, but the old man continued, his tone ominous:
"The Ice Queen's Chain, Ethan, isn't just a power. It's one of the greatest ancient secrets. A rare power...that makes your sister not an A or an S...but an SS...and above."
Iris's eyes opened, glassy, her body trembling, as she felt conflicting energies raging within her.
Ethan said to her calmly,
"You have merged with the Essence, but the Power is not entirely yours. The ice within you is not yet your own. It is... royal ice. Unforgiving ice."
Suddenly, as if reality weren't strange enough, the mysterious child appeared. The one who had climbed the snowy mountain alone, so slowly... but he wasn't slow; he was... resisting something unseen.
The child said with an eerie calm,
"Let me help her."
He placed his hand over Iris's chest and began to speak in a language no one understood, as if the wind itself were whispering his words. Her body began to tremble, then still. Energies began to harmonize. A sacred harmony.
Ethan stood and smiled at the child.
"Thank you... you whom I do not know."
But time waits for no one, and Ethan quickly decided to go to the strongest sanctuary in Country A. He took the child with him, and Iris, who was still adjusting. When they arrived, the guard greeted them at the back gate.
"What are you doing here?" the guard said disdainfully.
"We want to join," Ethan replied.
The guard laughed mockingly.
"This way? The Muggle entrance, gentlemen, is on the right."
But Ethan couldn't wait. He raised his hand and blasted a giant boulder that lay beside the gate, leaving not a single shard behind.
"Your level?!" the guard yelled, his expression changed.
"My level?!" Ethan said.
"My sister? She controls the ice shards. And the child? I don't know."
Ethan and Iris went inside, but the child... was forced to go through the Muggle entrance, leaving a wound in his heart.
As soon as Ethan entered, he felt something strange... as if something was watching him.
In the center of the hall stood a blond man, his eyes framed by black screens, wielding an axe inscribed with ancient symbols, symbols from a bygone era.
The man's voice was sharp:
> "Who are you?"
Ethan replied confidently:
> "Ethan Carowan. The Explosive One."
The blond man said:
> "Zane Calvus. Second General. The Survival One. Will you accept the test?"
They were suddenly transported to the battlefield, no one knew how. Everything had changed. The sand, the rocks, the sky.
The fight began.
Ethan attacked with explosions. Calvus faced it all alone. Absolute survival. But suddenly... a flash of black lightning. Shock.
>
> "Lightning? But it's not ordinary..." Ethan muttered, "It's violent... and that's against the nature of lightning!"
Ethan leaped, powerless, behind Calvus. A sudden, precise attack. But!
Ethan's spear stopped in mid-air. A hand grasped it. Another man, indescribable, barely visible.
He said in an unforgettable voice:
> "Stop. You two are about to kill each other."
Time stood still. The spear was a millimeter from Calvus's eye, while his axe was at Ethan's throat. Death was there... waiting.
Ethan asked:
> "Who are you?"
The man said:
> "I am the leader of this sanctuary... the Sword of Light."
Later, Ethan was given a private room for himself and his sister. But in the shadows, the child had crept in... He entered the room, trembling as he said:
> "The treatment here is terrible... They're not as kind as they claim."
But the real surprise was in Ethan's eyes. He remembered Black Lightning. This was impossible. Lightning wasn't used with axes. No one combined the speed of lightning with the power of force.
> "Is he... a dual-powered?" he muttered anxiously.
Meanwhile, Calvos gazes out of his window, remembering how Ethan teleported behind him in an instant.
"That wasn't just speed... he broke the laws of time. Is he a double too?"
A day passes, and an urgent alert arrives: a Legendary-level mission. All the top fighters are on the move. Calvos, Ethan, the Commander.
But this time... Iris doesn't come. She's still learning how to fight... with the power of Ice Royale.
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End of Chapter