Destroyer of Ice and Fire

"Pitter-patter, pitter-patter…"

Early at dawn. Ayrin stood calmly in a wide and empty training hall inside the infirmary. His ten fingers repeatedly folded together in an unending stream of various postures. Not only the speed was enough to make one dizzy, they also made soft rhythmic sounds.

"He's trained Ciaran's Logic Fingers to such a degree… This guy, he entered the particle-condensing state so fast…"

Songat stood not far away from Ayrin, nibbling on a big chunk of ground-meat pie without the slightest care in the world, but a strange light kept shining in the deepest part of his eyes.

Liszt and Cana also stood beside him, watching Ayrin.

"Now that I've opened the second arcane gate… the power of arcane particles is indeed different… Sure enough, my body isn't back to its peak condition yet."

Ayrin had totally sunken himself in the particle-condensing state. His body produced arcane particles one after another inside him, pouring them nonstop into his two gates. He could also clearly feel that these arcane particles he'd condensed were much more powerful and harder to control. As the vessel for compressing arcane particles, many places inside his body felt as though they'd crack open with a single moment of carelessness.

He knew these places were the places that had been wounded in the fight against Lotton this time.

After a couple days of exercises, he already couldn't feel much difference during normal training, but in fact, exactly as Songat said, his body had barely recovered to the stage it could condense and utilize arcane particles. He was still far away from being able to cope with a fight with a little more intensity.

But what he himself hadn't realized was that, from being near-dead after having his body pierced through in countless places, he'd already recovered to this sort of condition after a short couple weeks of treatment. There had never been a more stunning recovery speed in the annals of the Office's medical department.

"That's about it!"

"Skunk Devil Summon!"

Ayrin stopped condensing arcane particles all of a sudden. Particles gushed from his hands; a skunk striped black and white fell from the air, and "puff!" released a cloud of stink.

"…"

In the middle of gorging himself with great relish, Songat's entire person froze, then his face became green the next second. "Wah," he almost puked. A howl of grief and indignation echoed inside this training site.

"Didn't you see I was eating?! Ayrin, you definitely did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Haha, I just wanted to see if teacher Songat had a way to counter this skill."

Pinching his nose, Ayrin couldn't repress a great laughter when he saw his face.

"Well done!"

Cana almost fainted from the stench as well, but she still couldn't hold back her laughter. "This guy breaks the rules every time, he eats breakfast only after coming inside the infirmary."

"This arcane skill is actually pretty interesting." Liszt pinched his nose with a scrunched face. He stretched a hand, then a wild gust of wind blew, seemingly gathering all the stench fog into a bead in front of him all of a sudden. With a puff, it became white ashes scattering without a trace.

"There's no stink left at all, what arcane skill is this?" Ayrin's eyes widened all of a sudden under the surprise.

"I used two skills, one's Hurricane Draw, the other's Divine Purification." Liszt glanced at him with a lazy air. "Hurricane Draw is a very common skill, it's a bit too simple for you and not that useful. As to Divine Purification, you can only use it with the power of four-gates arcane particles. There's no way for you to learn it right now."

"Alright then. In that case, I'm going to try Holy Gate of Life now," Ayrin immediately said with a nod.

The green-faced Songat had no choice but to toss away the remaining ground-meat pie in the trash can in a corner of the room while mumbling, "This guy… Holy Gate of Life is a secret skill that could rank as one of the most supreme secret skills even among all the taboo skills on Doraster, but the way he talks about it, it seems he'll use it whenever he wants to use it."

"Here I go!"

Ayrin once again operated Logic Fingers with an excited yell. His ten fingers flicked nonstop. Even Liszt, Cana, and Songat could immediately feel his spirit gathering at high speed.

Inside Ayrin, the arcane particles he'd previously condensed gushed out of the two arcane gates, forming countless loops inside him of various thickness.

"What a strange sensation, what a powerful taboo skill!"

He immediately felt that, along with countless flows of arcane particles circulating inside, five invisible whirlpools seemed to appear inside him. Yet, he himself couldn't sense the positions of these five whirlpools.

The greater part of the newly compressed and condensed arcane particles seemed to be immediately swallowed by the five invisible whirlpools, vanishing without a trace.

"That doesn't feel right…"

Ayrin stopped very quickly, looking a little weird.

"Haha."

Songat immediately started delighting in his misfortune. "Weren't you saying you'd learn it for sure? Now you realized how hard it is after trying it, right? This the famous Holy Gate of Life, one of the most powerful taboo skills there is, you think it's so easy to learn, so easy to grasp?"

"I know that." Ayrin scratched his head. "That's why it seems a little strange, it shouldn't be this simple… I managed in a single try."

"Oh, I get it, maybe it's because I couldn't do anything else these past few days, I could only lie in bed and think about this skill and simulate the way arcane particles course along. That must be why I succeeded on the first try." Ayrin suddenly seemed to see the light again and smiled with relief.

"What?!"

Songat, Liszt, and Cana almost directly crashed down to the floor.

"He even succeeded with Holy Gate of Life on the first try?"

"This guy, even if he was bound to be a kaleidoscope-type arcane master… This capacity to learn and comprehend, isn't it too disgusting?"

Songat couldn't stop shaking his head. That was a big blow for him.

"Teacher Liszt, teacher Cana's Thunder Blaze Wall seems a bit simpler than the Ruin Fetters you taught me. I'm going to try Holy Gate of Life together with Ruin Fetters in a bit."

After shouting a few more words, an Ayrin full of fighting spirit starting flicking his fingers again at flying speed, swiftly focusing his spirit to a high degree.

Ayrin's body generated a steady flow of arcane particles, steadily pouring them into his two arcane gates and the five strange whirlpools.

After using Holy Gate of Life and distributing the arcane particles he'd condensed into the seven arcane gates, he could feel that the accumulation of arcane particles inside his two gates had come to a crawl.

He felt his body's physical reserves reach their limits after the accumulation inside the two arcane gates reached one-third.

Simply put, arcane gates were the product of the combination of spiritual strength with the energy stored inside each minute particles inside the body. As soon as the body felt weak, as soon as the energy stored inside all the minute particles inside the body was more or less depleted, there was already no way to continue condensing particles.

"Even so, there's the equivalent of about a third of an arcane gate's worth of arcane particles stored inside each arcane gate. The arcane particles I can garner in one go is equivalent to fifty percent more than usual. It should be very powerful."

Stopping after feeling bouts of weakness and exhaustion, Ayrin became excited again.

"Teacher Songat, how about you help me train this time? Come resist my arcane skills, otherwise, I can't see the results of my skills if I just launch them into empty air without any resistance," he said, excitedly looking at Songat.

Songat rolled his eyes. "Why are you only looking at me?"

"For teacher Liszt and teacher Cana, I already know a skill or two from them, but I still haven't seen a skill from you." Ayrin laughed merrily. "Plus, you told me just yesterday we'd go catch a drake from Evil Dragon followers and have a taste of it if we get the chance. As companions, I should at least have an understanding of your skills."

"Since you put it like this, then let me see your Holy Gate of Life added to Ruin Fetters." Songat wiped his hands on his clothes. With a flash of his figure, he reappeared a dozen meters away from Ayrin.

"Alright, here I come!"

Ayrin took a deep breath and chanted in silence: "Holy Gate of Life!" There wasn't any apparent outward change on him, but what even he himself a little scared of was, five additional flows of arcane particles suddenly appeared inside him, gushing out along his hands and feet.

He was already controlling the speed of the arcane particles with meticulous care, because he hadn't totally recovered yet, but in an instant, the energy channels in his hands and feet still stung with acute pain, with minute damage appeared on them.

"So these are the additional five gates inside the body?"

The instant the five flows of arcane particles poured outside, he clearly felt as though five great gates had opened inside him, clearly felt the existence of these five gates.

Only, he couldn't control these five gates. All the arcane particles gushed outside as soon as they opened, then these five gates closed shut and disappeared from his perception.

"Ruin Fetters!"

The unprecedented feeling he had when arcane particles gushed out also gave Ayrin a sensation of unprecedented power. Dazzling particles enveloped his entire body, along with an exceptionally vigorous chant.

And at the same time, countless black particles poured in the air all of a sudden, all around Songat. Each and every particle seemed to glint with countless tiny, shifting black bolts of lightning.

"Swish!"

These black particles formed a black halo of light in a mere instant, with countless sharp thorns seeming to grow on its surface, fiercely contracting around Songat.

Songat's face suddenly became solemn.

"Crystal Hexagram!"

A six-pointed hexagram suddenly appeared, revolving around him. Transparent crystals columns appeared in front of him, layer by layer.

The moment the black particles had appeared, even Ayrin, the one who'd launched the skill, could feel his own brain become dizzy, as though the black particles were sucking his spiritual strength away. He immediately shouted in happy surprise, "Teacher Liszt, can this Ruin Fetters also confuse the nerves?"

"Bzz…bzz…bzz…"

The halo of black light ground nonstop against the crystal columns, making friction sounds keen and sharp enough to make one's hair stand on end.

"Not only a nerve-confusing effect." Amidst such noises, Liszt glanced at Ayrin and said, "It also freezes that area and creates a huge pressure. That's the reason why I said this skill was the only one you needed to learn when it comes to counter single opponents. It not only has a formidable destructive power, it can also confine and confuse the opponent from the start."

"Is it so amazing?"

In a daze, Ayrin looked at the black halo of light revolving around Songat.

Bursts of terrifying undulations of arcane energy shook between the black halo and the crystal columns.

"Crack crack crack…"

The rays of light radiating from the surface of the crystal columns around Songat were as dazzling as arcane particles. This defensive skill clearly had formidable power as well, but the crystal columns started shattering bit by bit in the space of an instant.

"Crystal Boundary!"

With another chant from Songat, the shattered crystal splinters started revolving swiftly all of a sudden, seeming to completely transform the air around him into crystal.

"Boom!"

And at the same instant, the black halo of light directly detonated.

The huge air blast and shockwave even pushed Ayrin back five or six steps.

A black flame that rose in the air like a mushroom.

"Amazing!"

Ayrin was dumbstruck.

"Flames of ruin added to confining fetters, that's the reason why this skill is called Ruin Fetters," Liszt faintly said, clearly expecting this sort of result.

"He actually succeeded with this skill in one try as well. This guy, he's definitely going to become the Evil Dragon followers' greatest enemy in the future." Songat slowly walked out from the black flames, his whole body seeming to glitter with a crystalline gloss.

He looked at Ayrin, his eyes also seeming to glitter with crystalline light.

"Can't be? Teacher Songat, are you crying?" Ayrin had good eyes, and he immediately made a big fuss.

"Cry your ass." Songat looked away, not even looking at Ayrin anymore.

"But I really seem to have seen tears flowing down…" Ayrin mumbled. Then he looked around in Liszt's direction and shouted in excitement, "Look, teacher Liszt, I didn't lie to you right? I really learned these skills."

"Haha, amazing." Liszt patted Songat's shoulder and gave Ayrin a big thumbs up.

"I'm already this powerful now, but I still can't go out there and fight. I'm really impatient… Today's the match between Golden Stag and Sofia and the others… Hurry up and recover!"

The excited Ayrin turned around again and looked in the direction of the arena, brandishing his fists while hopping a couple times in dejection.