Dungeon of Niflheim

“You two stay here and finish your work while I go and help Frost with his training. Whoever does the best gets to help me make tonight’s dessert.” Maya smiled gently towards the two phoenix kin, placating their desires to train with them. Young children should be focusing on other things at their age, not just getting stronger.

The two children initially felt despondent but then revitalised after hearing the reward, the one who helped make dessert always got to lick the utensils plus it was a much desired bonding experience between them and Maya.

The two instantly refocused back on their books, studying diligently in order to complete their work without any errors.

‘So cute.’ Maya and Frost both thought this before the two teleported into the training space. Nanna and Loki couldn’t be here during such training given their species; their instincts would overwhelm them the moment the cold flame was summoned.

Frost and Maya appeared within the training space a moment later. The walls and floors were once again their immaculate white colour without any signs of damage despite the amount of blood that had been shed within.

They moved towards the centre of the room before Maya had Frost retrieve the sealed flame from his dungeon vault.

“The seals that Dark God-sama placed upon the flame can only be removed through your creation energy so the onus will entirely be on you. Once a seal is removed however there’s no way for you to create a new one, your abilities aren’t at that level yet so only scratch the surface unless you want to be turned into a popsicle.” Maya let out a slight giggle at the end as she imagined the irony. Frost the so called embodiment of ice being frozen into an ice statue. However she quickly stymied her laughter and put on a serious expression, the threat of that happening was very real. Thus she had to be ready, to move at a moment’s notice and separate Frost from the flame.

“Got it.” Frost nodded his head nervously, the hand holding the flame trembling ever so slightly, worried about such an eventuality.

.....

“Cold flames especially ones as high ranked as this one are pure manifestations that can greatly enlighten those who study them in regards to the primal force of the ice element without leading them down a wayward path. With great reward however comes great risk. The only reason you can even think about analysing this flame is due to your inherent ice nature as well as the protective seals placed on it by Dark God-sama.....take this very seriously Frost.” Maya reiterated the danger making doubly sure Frost understood what he was dealing with.

Frost’s trembling hands shook even more after hearing that warning, but his eyes showed steely determination, still prepared to take on such risk.

“Just for reference what’s the difference between a cold flame such as this and natural regular ice type oddity?” Frost found it a little weird that a natural oddity of the ice element was actually a flame instead a something like an ice crystal. This same fact also greatly sparked his interest, revealing that ice wasn’t simply restricted to its hard, solid form.

Maya frowned in response as though the question asked was one heavily loaded and complicated and that’d she’d struggle to explain but after a small sigh she decided to give it her best shot.

“A cold flame is still very much of the ice element and its primal makeup isn’t much different from an ice crystal oddity of the same rank only the form is different. Thus when it comes to analysing their mana consistency so as to improve one’s elemental knowledge like you’re doing it makes no difference.” A frown began to grow on Maya’s forehead as she continued.

“However technically speaking cold flames are a subset or derivative of the natural ice path and have more stringent requirements thus not everyone can utilise them. Myself for example despite my magic and chakra proficiency I can’t create cold flames or have my chakra take on a non-solid form, I’m just not compatible. Some therefore view cold flames as a higher level of ice because of this as well as the fact that the primordial ice king is particularly skilled in creating such flames but.....” Maya then summoned her ice chakra, at a much higher level than Frost had ever seen her do before.

A solid light blue ball of ice formed above her hand and drastically sucked in the surrounding heat making even Frost feel horribly cold with flakes of ice forming upon his skin. This was the first time he was truly experiencing what it meant to be cold, and it was frightening.

Maya removed her ice ball a second later knowing that such an item was beyond Frost’s current capabilities.

“Ice when you get down to it is the absence of heat, regardless of the form it takes whether that be a solid, gas or even a liquid, any magic or chakra of the ice element eliminates heat, cooling and even freezing its surroundings. The result is the same regardless of the form, just because you may not be able to use cold flames doesn’t make your ice magic any less devastating.” This was something taught to her by her grandmother who like her was unable to utilise the cold flame path but that didn’t stop her from becoming a veritable ice magic powerhouse. Even the primordial ice king praised her grandmother as an ice prodigy.

“I won’t be able to teach much about the ice flame path if it turns out that you’re particularly skilled in that regards but I can teach you the essence of ice that applies to all of the ice element.” Maya clenched her fist, confident that even without being able to use cold flames she could properly teach her young master in terms of his ice magic.

Frost listened to Maya’s words; his mind working overtime as countless doors seemed to open up in his mind. Ice was not something simple, this cold flame was proof of that, the element was flexible, not rigid. His one trick pony status suddenly didn’t feel like one at all. He looked down at the sealed flame within his hands, his heart thumping away and he envisioned so many possibilities.

‘If it can be a flame the very form of its elemental nemesis then what can’t it do.’ Frost was reminded of one of his first desires when he was taught about the ice element by Maya.

‘What are you thinking about so hard young master?’

‘Wondering if I can freeze fire.’ He answered like that, determined to overpower his element’s natural enemy. The image of his 3rd brother Pyro floated passed his mind at this point as did the thought of competing against him with flames. A wild smile adorned his lips as he thought this, his trembling hands were now due to excitement.

Maya saw his change in expression and smiled, thinking that such a look suited him, very attractive.

“Whenever you’re ready young master, I’ll watch over and separate you from the flame if necessary.”

“Alright I’ll start now.” Frost nodded his head before sitting down on the floor cross legged, placing the sealed flame in front of him. Maya positioned herself to his side, ready to move at a moment’s notice as well as observe his actions.

“Huuuu” Frost let out a deep breath before closing his eyes and focusing his attention deep within where his divine energy resided. Only that was able to unseal something created by a God.

Frost planned on following Maya’s advice and only unlock the first seal which should be just about the level he could handle.

Slowly his divine energy flowed out from the contained space, slowly siphoning into his body, it was dense and filled with power, one wrong move and it could become very volatile, bursting apart his still developing mana veins. Using it with the dungeon menu was a natural process that he had very little control over, this however relied entirely on him, the process was very mentally exhausting. He only recently gained the strength to tap into this powerful pool of energy when he developed his aura, so he was still very inexperienced in controlling it.

The energy was slow and uncooperative but eventually Frost had it reach his hands that were resting on the cold flame’s seal. The moment his divine energy made contact with the seal it started to radiate a golden shine and the sound of something melting could be heard before.

Whoooosh!

As the seal came down the inherent freezing property of the cold flame was released, instantly dropping the temperature of the surroundings similar to the ice ball that Maya summoned though much less controlled.

Frost shivered as the cold assailed him, his body’s inherent resistance to ice was nothing much in the face of a high rank earth flame. His deep breathing creating visible clouds as he exhaled. Ice crystals formed across his hands and arms, his fingers felt numb, his reactions slowing and an intense desire for warmth filled his mind.

‘So this is how regular people feel when faced with the cold.’