A Degenerate's Tale

"Here it is." Earl released his hand and let a small blue flame float out.

The flame looked like it could be put out by a small breeze from how weak it appeared. The blue flame emitted a freezing cold rather than a heat that flames should have.

Standing in the middle of a grassy plain, Earl let the flame fall down to the ground and watched as the patch of grass freeze over.

By his side, his mother smiled proudly and embraced him, letting his head sink into her enormous breasts. Her unique fragrance filled his nose which added greatly to the sense of accomplishment he was feeling at the moment.

"It's excellent. Congratulations, my Earl. You are now the second person in the world who can use Frostfire Magic." Ari said joyously. Her happiness could not be contained. To see her son who she raised all by herself learn her signature magic... Words could not express her elation.

"Watch me become better at it than you now!" Earl joked.

"Fufu. I will be waiting for the day." Ari laughed lightly.

Earl then resumed his training. Keeping a solid visualization of the Frostflame solid in his mind, he manifested it in the form of magic again and again.

In the case of magic, "practice makes perfect" was not necessarily a true statement. There would always be slight variation in the execution each time because magic was the product of body and mind. A better statement would be "practice makes permanent."

The Frostflame extinguished in his hand and Ari gave a small piece of advice.

"Your cast time for Frostfire Magic can be much faster if you stop overthinking. Instead of thinking about how it works, why don't you just think about the impression it leaves you?"

"Impression..." Earl repeated and considered. What kind of impression did the Frostflame leave him?

A moment of thinking was enough for him to come up with an answer. It was easy to figure out. The impression it left him was his mother, Ari. Or rather, Ari's magic left a strong impression of Frostfire Magic which was why he wanted to learn it in the first place.

Earl closed his eyes to concentrate. He thought about Ari. Her graceful handling of magic. Her unwavering pursuit of magecraft. Her loving touch. Her calm smile. And just like that, his impression manifested into the most stable Frostflame he conjured yet.

Whoosh!

His eyes flickered open and the moment it did, the grassland surrounding him froze over. In his hand, was a real fireball of Frostflame. Compared to before, this was easily twice the size. It was beautiful.

Before he knew it, a wide smile had formed on his face. He spread his feet and threw the frostflame up into the sky, letting it soar.

When it reached its limit, it turned into shards of ice that shattered and flew everywhere. Flakes of white, silver, and grey filled the bright blue sky. It fell slowly and orderly as if all the flakes were falling in rythm. For a moment, the grassland became snowy due to the sheer coldness of the dispersed frostflame.

The flakes of ice finally fell on his face. The slight cold felt refreshing and his body began to shiver from the cold.

"You'll catch a cold."

Ari hugged him from behind and gave him the much needed physical warmth. When he turned his head, he could see that flakes of ice had decorated her hair.

Her jet black hair was now covered in hues of white and silver. It was a unique look that he has never seen before. Needless to say, she looked like a goddess of the snow at this moment. Her lips were lifted up for a smile.

He could feel how happy she was with his execution of her magic just now without her saying a word.

"I'm another step closer to becoming better than you," Earl said proudly.

"Not so fast." Ari chuckled. "The visualization was good but you still need to work on your control."

She lifted her arm up to demonstrate. "You are the one controlling the magic, not the way around. Send the magic out in a steady manner."

A frostflame appeared in her palm. It was the same size as Earl's and there was not much difference in appearance. She then threw up into the sky the same way Earl did.

"The difference shows when it's in action."

The frostflame dispersed and flakes of ice filled the sky. The range was much wider and the flakes of snow was much more evenly distributed across the sky.

"See?" Ari said smugly.

Earl thought of a random number and blurted, "Give me 10 years and I can do that!"

"10 years? Maybe that's a little much, fufu." She replied in an amused voice.

The snowflakes finally fell all the way down and landed on Earl's head. The added coldness made Earl shiver more.

"Look what you've done!"

"Well, I had to impress my son..." Ari sulked and hugged Earl harder to warm him up before laughing and Earl laughed along with her.

It was a completely silly situation that only happened because it was the two of them. It was going to become a special memory.

Achoo!

A sneeze from afar broke the pair's laughter. Earl looked and saw Aria shivering in the distance.

"Aria!"

That night, Aria was dismissed from her duties early and was able to enjoy a hot bath alone. In the hot bath, the dark elf sighed at the craziness of the mother and son. The door to the bath opened and a naked demon girl stepped in.

"Big sis!"

Aria smiled and shook her head. She had her fair share of craziness too.