Shadow Slave: Immortal Ice

Rubbing his already healed forehead, Eirwen looked up at his teacher with a slightly annoyed expression. "What do you mean? It's great, I literally can't die. Sure it has drawbacks bu-"

Gale chuckled, interrupting him, and shook his head. "It's not that you can't ever die. I'm sure there's something in the Dream Realm that could erase you from existence. It's more about the fact that if you run out of Essence, you'll be stuck in an endless cycle of dying and coming back."

He opened his mouth to retort, wanting to argue that there were plenty of ways to regain Essence, but Gale stopped with a finger.

"Not just that," Gale said, his tone rather sharp and serious now, "if a Nightmare Creature stronger than you ever gets ahold of you, you'll be stuck, feeding it until it turns into some obese behemoth. And forget Nightmare Creatures for a second. What do you think you'll do if some rogue Saint decides to capture you? There are plenty of those running around nowadays, don't think for a second, you're untouchable. Even I could kill you again and again until you go insane. And there would be nothing you could do. Not even die and end the suffering."

He took a step closer, his crimson eyes narrowing. "Or let's say an entire mountain collapses on top of you. Go ahead, explain how you'd claw your way out of that while your Essence is trickling away faster than my money after your father pays me."

"And that's not even all," Gale continued. "Your Essence. it spends too much of it, and you can't even disable it. It'll drain you faster than you can keep up with it. When there is not enough Essence to consume and regenerate, you will probably die or shut down until there is enough of it again, then you will wake up, waste the Essence and shut down again.

We can only hope your Aspect Ability doesn't consume too much, otherwise you'll be running empty before you even realize it."

With a roll of his eyes, Eirwen stood up, rubbing his forehead one last time. "I already thought of all of that," he said, his voice annoyed. "That's why I need you to find suitable Memories for me and help me create my own fighting style that fits this Flaw."

His teacher thought for a moment before nodding. "I have one armor-type Memory for you, some charms, and other utility stuff. But I need to think about a weapon for you. It has to be something that doesn't waste lots of Essence though."

Eirwen raised his hands, showing the Gauntlets. "I would prefer something for my fists and feet."

"Yeah, sure, sure," Gale dismissed with a clap of his hands, clearly having a better idea in mind. "Back to testing now though. Do you have enough Essence?"

Concentrating on his breathing and Soul, Eirwen nodded and stepped back to create some distance. "Slightly less than half. Should be enough."

Gale nodded, dismissing his Memory, the long and beautiful spear. "First, try to copy my Dormant Aspect Ability. Then we'll see if you can also copy Enchantments from Memories. Also we gotta test what your limitations are. I don't think you can copy an Ascended Aspect Ability but we can try."

If only Eirwen knew how to do that in the first place. He raised his finger, signaling for Gale to wait as he concentrated, trying to figure out the best approach.

'I'll have to try to copy it into the reflections of my eyes somehow. Otherwise, I don't really know what else to use. Is there a sword made out of mirrors by any chance?' he thought.

"Start." Eirwen said after a moment.

Gale's Dormant Aspect Ability, [Flash Step], allowed him to move at nearly instantaneous speed. It wasn't exactly teleportation, but it was damn close. Eirwen remembered Gale explaining how much it had strained his body and the monstrous amounts of Essence it consumed when he was still a Dreamer. First time he ever used it, he thought he would end up in a wheelchair.

Now that Gale was a Master, using [Flash Step] was as effortless to him as breathing. It still strained his lower body, but through absurd training, he had conditioned his body to withstand the pressure.

"Sure," his teacher said with a nod, stepping forward.

When Gale's foot was mid-air, he fully disappeared from view, reappearing next to Eirwen in an instant. The movement was so fast, it seemed almost like teleportation.

As all of this happened, Eirwen's eyes were wide with concentration. He didn't even blink, his focus entirely on Gale, trying to grasp every detail of the movement as his teacher and friend repeatedly used the Ability.

Nothing happened though.

Eirwen's Runes didn't appear to signal him that he was successful. 

A couple minutes later, still no results.

His brow twitched as he cursed under his breath. 'Leviathan, help me out maybe?!'

For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, suddenly, a chorus of ethereal voices echoed in his mind.

'Imagine you are throwing chains and catching the threads of his whatever that young lad is doing.'

Gale was already starting to get annoyed from blinking around the training ground repeatedly, "How long are you gonna take, dude?"

Eirwen waved him off without looking, signaling for Gale to keep going. "Shush," he muttered, diving back into his thoughts.

This time, Eirwen stretched his hand out, opening his palm wide. He took a deep breath, focused, and nodded. He concentrated on imagining illusory chains binding Gale.

Gale blurred out of existence again, only to appear on the other side less than a second later.

But when Gale disappeared, Eirwen felt a strange force calling him, both pushing and pulling at once. The temperature around him visibly dropped. It was as if the very air around him had turned icy.

A strange force surged into his palm, overwhelming his hand with raw and cold energy. Eirwen felt the power coiling within his fingers and moving down his arm, on the verge of overloading and exploding it.

The ethereal voices echoed in his mind again, "Hold your palm to your eye."

Without hesitation, his hand shot up, pressing tightly against his left eye. He could feel the strain. The pressure and strain on his body was immense, but he gritted his teeth and tried to endure.

Eirwen could hear Gale stumble and yelp as he nearly fell, probably startled by the sudden coldness surrounding them. With a groan, he held his palm in place, waiting for something to finally happen.

[Recording an Ascended Power]

The Spell echoed in his ears; his eyes widened further. 'Ascended?'

"You good?!" Gale screamed from the side, but Eirwen ignored him, buckling to his knee.

The Essence that filled his Soul was quickly depleting, the recording alone took a strain on him. That was definitely not good.

Snap

A snap suddenly resounded in his mind as his body changed once more, now overflowing with a different kind of energy. It was a foreign, yet familiar energy. A massive river of Essence flooded his Core, filling it up once more. It wrestled against the alien energy in him as if taming it.

When the Spell whispered again after a moment, he smiled widely, his shaking stopped.

[Recording finished. Destination: Archon of Wrath and Mercy's left eye]

[Ascended Gale's Dormant Aspect Ability: Flash Step]

[Usages: Unlimited. Will be lost when the Host loses his eye]

[Potency: Same as original]

[Remove Recording?]

His smile widened into a grin as he stood up again, releasing his hand from his eye.

"From the way you're grinning like a moron, I assume you finally managed? What was that damn coldness and weird pull, by the way?" His teacher asked, raising a brow.

Instead of answering, Eirwen focused on his left eye. It glowed a bright golden color before he disappeared from where he was standing.

The speed was overwhelming, far faster than even the top speed he could muster in the prince's body back in his first Nightmare, so he had to fully concentrate on not falling or running into a wall.

Nearly losing his balance, Eirwen slammed his foot into the ground, denting the floor slightly as he launched himself sideways, then up, spinning in midair.

Gale's eyes widened faintly, but he was quick to react. He raised his hand just in time to block the powerful axe kick aimed for the top of his head. The impact echoed through the training room, a shockwave tore through the field from the collision.

Andromeda's Aegis Mirror immediately appeared, protecting her from the shockwave by absorbing it.

When Eirwen's feet landed on his teacher's hand, he used the leverage to steady himself and perform a swift somersault backward.

"Good job!" Gale shouted, his voice full of excitement, before his form blurred and he shot forward in an instant.

Appearing again, he swung his arm down in a wide, crushing overhand, aiming to bury Eirwen into the ground.

Letting his instincts take over, Eirwen stepped to the side when he landed on the floor, narrowly dodging the punch by an inch. Without hesitation, he ducked low, twisting his entire body to throw a devastating liver punch.

As his fist shot forward, he also activated the [Bone Blade] Enchantment, extending long, sharp bone-blades from his forearms.

But that was not enough. What Eirwen hit was only an afterimage.

In the blink of an eye, Gale had already appeared behind him, his arms tightly wrapped around Eirwen's waist.

Eirwen's concentration crumbled as he realized what was happening. He twisted in a desperate attempt to break free, but it was useless. Gale's grip tightened, lifting him effortlessly off the ground.

In a flash, Gale suplexed him into the metallic floor with no mercy.

He managed to curse as his head slammed into the ground. Before everything faded to black, an unbearable pain surged through his skull, as though his head was fracturing open, the force of the impact driving it into his cervical spine.

---

"Hey," Gale gently slapped Eirwen's cheek. Andromeda stood over him, her face pale and drenched in sweat from worry.

"C'mon, wake up. Your head's back in one piece anyway!" Gale slapped him again, this time harder.

It worked. Eirwen gasped for air and shot up into a sitting position, his hands immediately going to his head and neck, checking for any damage. He was still not used to dying and then coming back in one piece.

"See, Andromeda? I told you he's alright!" Gale looked back with a reassuring grin on his stupid face.

But after a second, Gale's head snapped to the side from a sudden impact.

Eirwen landed a hook on his teacher, his face filled with anger. His teeth were gritted, and his eyes wide.

"Just because I can't die doesn't mean you have to fucking mutilate me every chance you get!" Eirwen cursed, his voice clearly annoyed.

Andromeda, following Eirwen's action, slapped Gale on top of his head. It was too gentle to have any real effect though.

Gale rubbed his cheek and glanced back at Eirwen, rolling his eyes. "I'm just making sure you get used to tolerating pain."

Eirwen's entire face twitched at the audacity of his teacher. "I will kill you in your sleep I swear," he muttered through gritted teeth.

Andromeda nodded along from the side.

After a minute, Eirwen calmed down and sat back, accepting a glass of water from Andromeda -God knows where she got it from- and quenching his thirst in a few gulps.

'So, whatever I record will stay recorded until the object that casts the reflection gets destroyed? Wait… my skull practically exploded, doesn't that mean that…?'

Eirwen's eyes widened in realization. Without wasting another second, he called forth the Runes, focusing on his Aspect Ability.

Aspect Ability: [Frozen Reflection]

Recordings: [0/2]

"…"

Eirwen's urge to kill his teacher in his sleep only intensified.