Sieg walked up the great spiraling pathway that ascended the mountain. He passed beside the arena with its elevated stone seats, where Mister Knight had utterly beheaded him.

  "What a memory…" He stepped closer to inspect it, and to his surprise, his death had truly happened. One side of the arena was torn open, smashed elevated seats strewn across the path, with stone splintered into debris.

  But that wasn't what caught his attention.

  "That's my body." Indeed, his frozen-solid corpse still lay at the center of the arena, made all the more morbid by the sight of his shattered, solidified head resting on the floor.

  "To imagine that I really did die." As the cold wind brushed past him, he remembered the sensation of it again, the pain of permafrost. Bones freezing deep and fracturing.

  "I need to find ways to deal with other people's abilities, in case I'll face anyone on the same caliber of Mister Knight in the future…" But Sieg had a bright idea, it was time to test Cryostalgia. After all, it permafrosted anything it touched, and knowing how it worked firsthand could help him in the long run.

  "Better to know how it works now, while I'm still out of danger." He drew Cryostalgia from its scabbard. Its white steel gleamed beautifully, perfectly complementing the snow-dusted arena.

  "How do I activate this?"

  ? [Through intention — and it will naturally occur.]

  "Right… sounds simple enough." He practiced a few swings, warming up before the real test.

  When ready, Sieg took a deep breath, focused his intention, and slashed horizontally in front of him. Cryostalgia glowed then frost spread along its blade.

  As the arc finished, a wave of permafrost shot forward, but not very far, mostly just directly ahead.

  Yet, one thing was clear.

  It was far inferior to Mister Knight's capabilities, but that doesn't stop Cryostalgia from being awesome.

  "Holy shit… this is fun!" Sieg murmured, his eyes shining like a child on Christmas as he sent three more permafrost slashes into the snow.

  "This is the best birthday present I recei—" Before he could finish, a sharp pain shot through his temples. He dropped the blade and sank to his knees, panting.

  "AGHH! IT HURTS!" The sensation was like being stabbed in the head with multiple poles at once.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  ? [Warning: [Permafrost Slash] is considered a Basic Art. Spell Power is defaulted to 1 as you have 0. You have strained your sanity by repeating it three times — adequate rest is advised.]

  ? [Note: It is possible to use [Permafrost Slash] 2 more times, only if you paused with each cast, consecutively usage is not adviced, it will only overwhelm your mind.]

  "THAT'S GOOD TO KNOW!" Sieg took that lesson to heart. Despite the pounding in his head, he picked up Cryostalgia and sheathed it.

  Deciding to rest, he lowered himself onto one of the stone seats, letting the cold wall press against his back as he tried to calm his strained thoughts, granting his sanity a moment to recover.

  For the next ten minutes, he remained silent, muscles taut and head pounding, deeply reflecting on the revelations about his own limitations. The ache slowly subsided, though it never completely disappeared.

  "Mister Knight would've laughed his ass off if he saw the stupid thing I just did." After a while, Sieg stood up, shook his head while massaging it, and prepared to continue his journey up the spiraling path.

  As he moved forward, Sieg noticed enormous frozen knight statues embedded into the mountainside, many of them incomplete, headless, armless, or fractured.

  Giving them a closer inspection, Sieg found himself in awe of the spectacle. Yet as he moved on, he failed to notice the subtle shifts behind him, the statue's heads moved slightly to follow his blind spot, and snow slipping from their necks as faint cracks of ice creaked through the air.

  Some of them even wore faint, ominous expressions. Sensing that something was amiss, Sieg turned around.

  The knight statues stood perfectly still.

  Yet he knew — something about them was different now.

  "I'm in danger." Sieg tried to dismiss the thought and continued walking, but at the last moment he turned sharply, hoping to catch something, anything — out of place.

  Once again, the knight statues stood perfectly still. Sieg could have sworn they hadn't been facing his direction before.

  "Something is wrong… and I just can't prove it."

  He continued on, alert and wary as ever, yet nothing occurred. "Who even built these things here?" His confusion deepened as more and more knight statues appeared along the path.

  But it wasn't only them, the higher he climbed, the more he spotted stunning blue and teal flowers, which are all born entirely from ice shards.

  "That genuinely looks goo—" His curiosity got the best of him. He reached out and touched one of the flowers, and a frozen chill shot up his finger all the way to his arm. He yanked his hand back immediately, unwilling to risk a complete freeze.

  "Tch… I have to bring this home. It's like having the ultimate ice maker—" he muttered, letting out a small squeal of excitement, though thankfully, only those pesky statues witnessed his reaction.

  But then—!

  "I saw that—" One of the statues lagged behind, and Sieg stared it down.

  Alert for a moment, he then smirked. He brought two fingers to his eyes and pointed them at the statue. "I've got my eyes on you," he muttered under his breath.

  The statue, of course, remained still, and even wore a slightly awkward expression, but Sieg wouldn't be so easily fooled.

  "I do hope I'm not schizophrenic… that would be tragic." Sieg continued up the spiraling path, the cold wind brushing past him. For a few moments, the silence was almost too heavy, pressing in from all sides.

  "How long is this mountain…?" he muttered, his voice echoing slightly.

  "Feels endless." Just as the thought left his lips, a statue perched on the mountainside moved. In a split second, its stone sword came crashing down toward him. Sieg rolled just in time, the blow rattling the ground where he had stood only moments earlier.

  He scrambled to his feet, heart racing, and gazed back at the unmoving knight statue.

  "I'M NOT SCHIZOPHRENIC AFTER ALL!" he shouted, half in relief and half in disbelief.

  Chapter End.