Spirit Taming

As Clark flung the door open, he looked at Maria carefully. His eyes darted side to side while he looked at her body and the worried expression that she had. " Isa started to help her ice maiden to grow without me. You helped her in case she would be hurt. I understand." The split second response without Maria even saying a word made her stunned.

"How did-"

"You have goosebumps on your arm from being cold, you seem like you are worried and if anyone were to ask you for help it would be Isa and not Grace since Grace isn’t focused on increasing her ice controlling skills right now. That means it has to have been Isa that asked you for help." There were other subtle things like the frost on Maria’s shoes but Clark didn’t say anything else.

There was a rush of information as he looked around. His entire body felt lighter. Almost as if a lot of blockages had been undone. The clarity in the world he saw around him was exceptionally greater. He didn’t even feel bad that he had just gone through a nightmare that pushed him to potentially regret everything about what he had done. Or what he could have done.

Instead of this, he had found Maria and seen that she was in need. She wasn’t showing the demonic evil looks and giggles that she had in his nightmare. The simple glance he had given her before trying to understand the situation was enough to tell the differences between reality and a dream. It also made him realize that any illusion skills used on him in the future would need to be significantly stronger.

While on his way toward Isa’s room, Maria was looking at Clark’s back wondering how he was moving so easily after so little rest. It looked like he had just been to a spa. His demeanor was more relaxed and careful while he did everything. He had even guessed everything that was going on.

"It seems that the ice energy was larger than we planned..." Clark stopped just short of the open door there was frost seeping out of it and a small fog of icy air. It was drifting slowly out, freezing more and more of the room. "Get Ralph, we need his molten boar to help keep the ice from spreading in to the hallways. Grace can help with that too. I will head inside to look at things."

The resistances that they had gained through staying with Illia was enough to push through the cold in the room for a short while. However, the intense cold was dropping lower and lower. What was truly a wonder was the effects that Clark was seeing.

Small flurries rose and fell around the room as the ground was frozen and first. The floor had become a completely frozen surface while the walls appeared to have condensed their own pieces of ice. Even icicles grew from the ceiling. Most of all, was the fact that Isa now sat directly under the large frozen rebirth lotus. The bulb had started to peel away to reveal some white petals of dense ice.

Isa’s body was covered in a crystal like ice. Completely clear as she meditated in the ice energy all around her. Small signs of other energies were around her. A thin film of reddish fire energy that was keeping her warm, a small brown energy from her crystal golem that wrapped her showing skin to keep it safe from the absolute freezing temperature. Even the wind energy seemed to swirl around keeping warmer air near her. The other beats she had were keeping her safe even without Isa asking them to. They sensed the level of effort here.

’Changing beast of ice- unranked

This is the form of a beast that is changing forms. It is altering the deepest level of its energy by absorbing the unique ice energy around it. Multiple energies of the same kind are coming together in different forms so that the beast can alter its own existence. When finished it will be able to be recognized as a different beast with ties of its old self.’

The system had just this to say about everything. It was small but good information. Clark could also see that the energy around Isa was protecting her. Even though she appeared to be in some form of trance, her body was clearly starting to incorporate the massive amount of ice energy around her slowly. She had to adjust to it. There was no choice in the matter since there was such a large change happening to the ice maiden.

Clark backed out of the room to find that Maria had gotten both Grace and Ralph from their nearby rooms. Ralph looked a bit more tired than Grace since he had gone with Brad to assist in getting metals for him and Brad to use to train. But he was serious while looking around. His molten boar had taken a spot in front of the door and radiated heat around itself. Grace had also let her frost finch out to stop the flow of cold air from the room. It was an ideal countermeasure.

"I would give it another hour. The rate at which those petals are blooming is very fast. The energy that the ice maiden had was much more than I even imagined. I assume the beast that emerges will be very specialized and unique. I doubt many will be seen in our generation." as if to prove Clark’s words, two more petals opened up.

The hour seemed to pass slowly while they all watched as ice cracked and petals fell. As it opened, the ice was also disappearing from the room. The lotus was pulling it toward itself. When a slight blue tint appeared in a crystal like central flower, Clark tested the analysis again. He was amazed by what he could see.

’Winter witch- legendary

The winter witch is a beast that is said to appear from any spiritual ice type beast. Many have no idea how it is born but when it is, there are many events that will come about because of it in the wilderness. Blizzards, incredibly low temperatures, and even entire villages have been destroyed by wild winter witches.

They have unique bonds with the ice type energy that they hold affinity for. They can create storms of ice and snow that overtake large

areas. They are able to create and manipulate many forms of ice, snow, and frost. Many have been known in history to claim large mountains as their homes.

The winter witch will often start off weaker, they can grow their control of ice energy without large amounts of it. Their skill is not in gathering large amounts of ice energy but instead in their amazing ability to use it with high skill. A specialized beast that can fight with an entire area rather than close combat.

The winter witch can no longer grow and evolve in to other forms once it has taken on the blue skinned form of a snow clad woman. The robes are made from ice and frost while the entire physique is also made from burying forms of ice. Most people would confuse her for a human with blue skin, however. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

A winter witch can be said to lord over other ice type beasts just through strength alone. The strength they wield over ice is enough to garner respect from some of the more powerful beasts as well. Normally, a winter witch would be found by a powerful elder beast that desires its strength as a follower or a partner.’

The sudden shattering of all the ice in the room revealed the slender blue figure covered in robes of ice. The staff if ice that it held was enough to show off the detailed control of ice energy as well. But when the winter witch kneeled to help Isa stand, everyone knew that the ice maiden had just found her best form.

"And that my friends, is a winter witch. One of the most powerful ice type beasts we may ever see." Clark smiled softly as he saw Isa stand up looking at her partner. The cold air was nothing to them since the winter witch had easily pushed it away to a normal temperature in an instant.

None of them said a word as Isa and the winter witch had their moment. There wasn’t a single bit of sadness over the loss of the ice maiden from or the potential to have an ice queen. The drastic change to a beast that was always recorded in history as a wild beast was sudden and striking. An amazing encounter for all of them. It was also something that many people would see and know represented status in the world, not just as a tamer.

"We should leave them alone. I think they will be celebrating for a while." Maria had finally relaxed after the crystal golem, wind caterpillar, and the flame sprite had shown themselves to the winter witch. Their stronger partner, their family.