The Magic was recovered in the same way, and the effect and final state matched what his breath produced. He had not even set the spell to cause internal explosions. The result was clear.
"So it's not just the breath. Anything that controls ice is affected by this power?" That seemed to be the case. Both ice control and the breath came from the same change after eating the fragment, so such an effect made sense.
After several more tests, he confirmed that monsters killed by his Ice Element had their ice and Magic naturally return to him, following the ice he had released. The cost was extremely low, and he even gained a little in the process. This realization sparked a dangerous idea in his mind.
His Energy Field could absorb Magic as long as it was ownerless. If it belonged to someone, the owner had to die first. Now, the power released by his breath had a range even larger than Energy Field, with an automatic return after killing the target, bringing part of the Magic back with it.
What did that suggest? "Remove the limits, keep spraying, set up a huge Magic Array, and blend the power into the wind and snow…" By unleashing this control over Ice Element, he could create an unprecedented ice storm and wipe out all life within it.
Most ice-aligned monsters would not escape such a disaster. Everything would die, and even the bodies would be buried under snow, turning the frozen land into his hunting ground. Life would be cut down in waves, and all of it would become his food.
This was not something armor or protection could stop. The strange wind and snow would seep into everything, extinguishing life directly. And causing it would not even be difficult, he would only need to push things slightly before it spiraled out of control on its own.
The raging frozen disaster would consume everything while he simply reaped the result. "But that's a bit too terrifying." Belial suppressed the reckless urge stirring in his chest. He had no desire to cause a mass extinction.
Such an act would surely draw the attention of powerful beings in Otherworld. No matter their reasons, someone would come to hunt him down. The depths of Otherworld were not something he could see through yet, and this power had only come from a single fragment.
If one fragment could do this, what about a complete one? And if it had once been whole, why had it shattered, with chains clearly placed by someone? Otherworld definitely held forces far stronger than he understood, so caution was necessary.
He only wanted enough strength to live freely. Becoming a dragon that unleashed an ice catastrophe would ruin his reputation and make survival harder. "I have to strictly stick to the stay-low strategy." Belial firmly wrote that line into his mental notebook.
"It's so cold…"
Feltz pulled her Mage Robe tighter around herself. People always said the Northlands was cold, but only after stepping onto the snowfields did she realize it was far worse than she had imagined. The weather also felt strange, because her warming Magic Array was clearly active, yet the Ice Element kept forcing its way in, with thin, sneaky gusts slipping into her clothes and making her shiver.
The Blizzard had almost never stopped since leaving the city and entering the wilderness. Sharp winds howled nonstop, filling the air with snow, and sometimes even ice pellets were mixed in. Thankfully, she had long been treated like a work mule and sent on field jobs all the time, or she would have refused to step out of the carriage like those pampered colleagues. To be honest, she really did not want to be out here, and if she had not lost at drawing lots, she would never have taken this job alone.
"It's freezing… that old man really is something. What kind of job is this, anyway?"
Five years ago, Feltz had rescued a certain single fire archmage from the claws of a terrifying Black Dragon. By clinging to that thigh, her resources had been tilted in her favor, and she gained access to higher knowledge and valuable connections. She was truly grateful, because her life had almost completely changed after that.
At first, she respectfully called him Mentor and Sir. That lasted until all the funds were burned away, and she had to run around begging for investment, taking field jobs, and scraping together savings. After being whipped around by endless tasks like a spinning top, she once returned exhausted only to receive a notice from the Morality Enforcement Corps telling her to fetch a drunk old man from a luxury Bathhouse Quarter.
When she arrived, the bar tab was charged to her card. Her heart died on the spot, and madness followed. Killing the mentor would be without regret.
"So when exactly is that rotten old man going to drop some gold?"
Only then did she understand why every disciple or student of the famous Grand Fire Archmage eventually disappeared. It was probably not just because he was picky. There was something deeper there, but Feltz could not even put it into words anymore, only a sense of exhaustion.
She held the Magic Staff that was taller than she was, its small bells chiming clearly in the storm. Several perception-type spells spread out, and a circular Magic Circle formed beneath her feet. Although she had ice as a secondary focus, this task did not demand much, only the detection of unusual elemental activity and Magic flow.
The requirements related to Ice Element were not strict at all, just basic detection and rough judgment. The real hard requirement was strength, and in that regard she was proud of herself. She was the kind of ultimate grinder who could split a day into forty-eight hours.
"Monster Uprising… what on earth happened in the Northlands?"
Feeling the feedback of wind and snow passing through her Magic Array, Feltz muttered to herself while casually releasing a few small spells. Ice and snow surged together, and dense clusters of ice spikes rose up, easily skewering several charging monsters and turning them into a grim, frozen forest. When she moved closer, the monsters' twisted heads were still twitching slightly, an abnormal sight she had never seen in books or past experience.
Monsters were not mindless NPCs that attacked anything on sight. They weighed gains and losses, and they fled when facing enemies they clearly could not handle. Yet now they fought as if enraged, ignoring their own lives, and they targeted humans specifically, whether carnivorous or herbivorous.
At this point, humans in the Northlands felt like they had isolated the entire snowfield by themselves. Everything else could join the fun, except humans. Monsters were also appearing in greater numbers, and rumors even spoke of a possible beast tide attacking the cities.
"But what does that have to do with me?"
Feltz was not a local. Once this miserable business trip was done, she would leave immediately, and even if a city was attacked, it would not be her problem. After all, it was only a possibility, and usually a very small one, since monsters had no reason to charge fortified cities for nothing.
She wrote down information about Magic flow and elemental conditions in the air. To be honest, Feltz felt this was even harder than writing a thesis. You had to make sure a group of magic-illiterate clients could at least understand part of it, believe it made sense, and feel their money was well spent.
Otherwise, you would truly experience the misery of the client-contractor relationship. What she feared most was not complete outsiders, because those were easier to fool. It was the half-knowledgeable ones who thought they understood, insisted on their own opinions, and never changed their minds no matter how heated the argument became.
"Sigh… two more areas left. Let's keep going."
She closed the thick record notebook in frustration, feeling that her eyes probably looked like a salted fish at a market stall. She clearly counted as a pretty girl, so how had things turned out like this. Just as she was thinking that, she paused.
"Hm."
The sound slipped from her lips in surprise. Through her perception of elements and Magic, she sensed two living beings, which was not unusual even in this desolate snowfield. What puzzled her was that behind those two targets was a large group whose presence felt strangely muted.
And there was also the smell of blood.
Feltz did not sense any high-level Magic targets, but the blood scent put her on guard. She frowned slightly as she considered the situation. "Did someone run into wolf bandits?"
Because of recent orders from the lord, large numbers of residents and caravans were gathering in bigger cities. Such heavy movement naturally bred more pests. She tapped the ground lightly with her Magic Staff and chanted obscure yet rhythmic words, spreading layers of Magic Array beneath her feet as stone platforms formed and carried her swiftly toward the targets.
"So it really is them."
She moved as fast as a boat over dry land, and what came into view still surprised Feltz. Two small figures wrapped in thick robes rode atop a pack beast, with a glimpse of ice-blue hair visible from one of them. They were two girls.