Chapter 194: A Hard Lesson II

Chapter 194: Chapter 194: A Hard Lesson II

The fight had lasted far longer than either expected.

Damon looked at the man.

He was beaten. But he was still dangerous.

His strength was strange. It was powerful, but unstable.

There was no proper foundation behind it. As the corruption was forcing his body beyond its limits.

Damon understood the situation properly.

If the man had kept his full reasoning while possessing this level of strength, the battle would have been much harder.

Maybe even dangerous enough that Damon would have been forced to use everything from the beginning.

And that thought stayed with him.

He wasn’t strong enough yet.

Damon hated the feeling.

Not fear.

Something else.

The feeling that there were people above him.

People he couldn’t simply overwhelm.

It reminded him why he kept moving forward.

"I need to get stronger."

The words came naturally.

The man suddenly raised his head.

Corrupt Aether began gathering around him.

Damon noticed immediately.

"Wait."

The man’s body started shaking.

Fire gathered around his chest, and the corruption became denser.

Damon’s eyes widened.

"That’s not good."

Sylphie moved closer as well.

He’s gathering too Aether, but it didn’t feel like an Art.

Damon’s mind raced.

The man’s previous attacks were powerful.

But this was different.

The energy wasn’t being compressed for an attack.

It was being forced into his body.

Damon understood shortly.

"Self destruct."

The man’s body began to glow.

If it exploded here, the damage wouldn’t stop at them.

The surrounding zone would take the hit too.

And with this much corrupt Aether... he never knew what would happen after.

Damon acted immediately as he moved.

Wind wrapped around his body.

He reached the man and slammed an Ice Wall directly around him.

The man’s flames exploded against the ice.

But Damon reinforced it.

Then another layer.

Then another.

"Stay down!"

The ice melted almost instantly.

But Damon’s Aether surged even more.

He added wind.

The pressure compressed the flames inward.

Then he added lightning.

The electricity disrupted the unstable flow of Aether.

The explosion weakened. Only slightly.

But it was enough.

Damon gritted his teeth.

"This is too much."

The corrupt Aether continued rising.

His arms shook from the pressure.

Then he heard footsteps.

Damon looked back.

Caelia arrived first.

Snow followed.

Freya came next.

Shiro was right behind them.

Caelia immediately assessed the situation as she asked.

"What happened?"

"He’s trying to blow himself up." Damon replied quickly as Caelia’s eyes widened in urgency.

But Shiro stepped forward.

Damon looked at him.

"Can you stop it?"

Shiro didn’t answer. He simply moved.

Ice spread across the ground.

Then it climbed over the man’s body.

The man’s flames fought back.

Shiro’s eyes glowed.

"Ice Prison."

The ice completely surrounded the man.

The heat began disappearing. The flames weakened.

The corrupt Aether itself stopped rising. And the man’s body was slowly frozen inside the prison.

Even then, he struggled.

Shiro pushed more Aether into the Art.

The ice thickened.

As the fire eventually went out.

Silence returned.

Damon stood there for a moment, his shoulders dropped first. Before he sat down on the ground.

Caelia looked at him.

"Are you alright?"

Damon breathed out.

"Yeah."

He looked at the frozen figure.

"Just tired."

Freya moved closer.

Sylphie returned to her normal form.

Shiro remained beside the Ice Prison, maintaining it carefully.

Damon stared at the frozen man.

They had captured him. Alive.

More importantly, they had stopped the self destruction.

Damon leaned back slightly.

"Now..."

He looked toward Caelia and the others.

"...we can finally get some answers."

There were still too many mysteries.

The organization.

The Zone Hearts.

The mutations.

The corrupt Aether.

And now, the strange methods these people were using.

Damon smiled faintly.

The investigation had just become much more interesting.

Damon then took a potion from his storage and drank it.

The warmth spread through his body almost immediately, easing the fatigue left behind by the long fight.

He let out a slow breath.

"Much better."

He took another potion and handed it to Sylphie.

She accepted it happily and drank it without hesitation.

Caelia watched them.

She had been wondering just how bad the fight had been.

Judging from Damon’s condition, it had been far worse than she expected.

"You really fought someone that strong by yourself?"

Damon nodded.

"With Sylphie."

Caelia looked at Sylphie.

The Wind Spirit gave a small nod.

Freya sat nearby with her tails wrapped around herself, looking rather unhappy.

Damon glanced at her.

"What’s wrong?"

Freya turned her head away.

She clearly wasn’t happy about missing the fight.

Damon almost laughed.

"You wanted to fight him too?"

Freya looked back immediately.

"Alright, alright. Next time."

That seemed to satisfy her a little.

Damon then explained what had happened.

He told them about the masked man, the formation, the attempt to open the Zone Heart, and the corrupt Aether that had pushed the man’s strength beyond the Lord Rank.

Caelia listened quietly.

When he finished, she stared at the frozen figure Shiro was still holding inside his Ice Prison.

"So they really are connected to the mutations."

"That’s what it looks like."

Caelia looked toward the other captured members of the group.

"And we have all of them."

Damon nodded.

"That’s the useful part."

They had caught some of the attackers alive.

That was far more valuable than killing them.

Whatever information they had about the mutations, the Zone Hearts, or the organization behind them could help not only Damon, but the cities around the distorted zones.

If this group was moving between different zones, then their plans were probably much bigger than Tempest Hollow.

They needed to know what they were preparing for.

But there was one thing that had to come first.

The Zone Heart.

Damon looked toward the damaged formation.

"We’ll get the answers after this."

Caelia nodded.

"Agreed."

Damon stood.

He was about to move when Caelia stopped him.

"You’re not going anywhere yet."

Damon looked at her.

"I’m fine."

"You just fought someone above the Lord Rank."

"And I’m standing."

"That’s not the same thing."

Damon stared at her for a moment.

Then he sighed.

"You’re becoming troublesome."

Caelia smiled.

"Someone has to stop you from doing stupid things."