Uehfvjfd 16 Land Of The Eternal Cold

A yell came from the guard tower quickly causing the whole village to awaken.

It had been hundreds of years since someone was seen in the eternal cold. They got their food from their cow farm and they got wood for their fire from the frostwood, something that could easily be mined underground.

The village, numbering about 40 people young and old, quickly gathered. None of them had even considered this stranger a threat, instead they believed this man should be a great and powerful ent.i.ty.

Alicia was 18 years old this year. Hearing about the stranger in the snow she seemed to be the only one that was scared. If this person was so powerful then what said he wouldn't just take their village for him, or their cattle.

She quickly took her falchion before beginning to sharpen it. If this person was here with bad intentions she would kill him without questions. After all, even those mystical mages wouldn't survive a sword in the neck, right?

With a fireball floating before him, Jay quickly made his way across the snow. Soon he saw the st.u.r.dy stone walls this town seemed to use. It clearly wasn't maintained well as some places where holes must have appeared were messily filled with pieces of stone that didn't quite fit well.

When he got up to the gate he felt something was wrong, not only was the gate unlocked but the smell of blood was thick here.

Unsheathing his sword he walked into a large group of dead bodies. There were 40 or so people here of all ages. It seemed like they had been recently killed and before they even realized it. All of these people were still smiling, as if something joyous had occurred.

He slowly started making his way through this odd town. It looked like snow-shoveling was by far the most common thing for these people to do. There were shovels all over the place and only a small layer of snow on the path. After going through half the village he reached the ranch. There were quite a few cows here each of which seemed healthy and well-fed.

After a moment he decided to walk up and inspect one of the cows. After all, it was possible their names would give him an idea of where he was.

He had only just jumped the fence, however, before he sensed a thick killing intent from behind him. An 18-year-old girl wielding a b.l.o.o.d.y falchion soon came into view.

"YOU... I KNEW YOU DIDN'T COME WITH GOOD INTENTIONS!!"

Enraged the female quickly leaped at him swinging her falchion at his neck. Her technique seemed quite decent, yet her weapon couldn't even be compared to his own. Leave alone, when sword intent and magic were included.

When he struck out his sword a fine red line seemed to reach from it, leaving a fine imprint going over a meter in the air. Thus when Alicia was confident his strike wouldn't connect she got hit right in her stomach.

A fine red line, a thing that looked so harmless at first glance quickly turned into her worst nightmare.

Blood seeping out of her wound she felt scared and helpless. She had heard in her past that mages could kill people without even lifting a finger, yet she had never expected these rumors to be true. Regret and sadness mixed in her expression as she barely managed to utter a few words before fainting.

"You, why?"

Unbeknownst to her, these words had saved her life.

Hearing this Jay realized she might be a survivor instead of the murderer.

After bandaging her wound and laying her to rest Jay looked around the part of town he hasn't checked before. Even when double-checking he didn't manage to find any sign of the murderer.

Disappointed, he could only wait until Alicia awakened. He had already securely bound her to the bed and took away the falchion. Making sure he could see her hands at all times he started practicing magic while waiting for her, thus increasing his mana to 5.

It wasn't long before she woke up. As expected the first thing she did when she woke up was panic. Since after all she was bound to a bed with a stranger sitting in a chair next to her.

"Why did your sword have blood on it?"

His voice was stern and cold. Making one feel utterly uncomfortable.

"I-Because I was forced to kill them. You bewitched me!"

The girl cried as she spoke. It was clear she had difficulty talking about what happened.

"Tell me everything that happened in detail. And then perhaps you won't die."

Since she didn't seem to have much choice Alicia started reciting what had happened with difficulty.

It all happened a few hours ago. She was in her hut 'preparing' for his arrival. After sharpening her blade she started arranging her things. She had some basic armor, a spare weapon and a few other miscellaneous items such as bandages.

When she was organizing her things she noticed something odd out of the corner of her eye. When she approached it she saw there was a small gla.s.s ball that seemed to be filled with blue mist inside of it.

Thinking it might be one of that mage's weapons she promptly destroyed it releasing a mist all over her room.

After a moment of shock, the view before her changed. The mist subsided as it revealed her demolished hut, outside were a bunch of savages that were killing the villagers. She fought one after another killing them all.

Despite having lost a few people everything seemed like it would be okay, they then her vision faded. And a moment later, instead of the corpses of the savages she had killed. The corpses of her friends and family laid there.

"The mist..."

Lost in deep thought he thought back to his previous encounter with the misty orbs. That time he broke an orb with white mist inside which stopped the mist's effects. The fact that the villagers died with smiles meant they hadn't seen their death coming. Alice loudly slas.h.i.+ng villager after villager wouldn't have such an effect.

Then he recalled what happened last time just before the mist arose. It was as if time stopped. After a few minutes, he came to the conclusion that the mist must have some sort of ability to stop time. And it was probably also what had interfered with his legacy.