Chapter 203: Any Sky

The sky above the high-rise did not clear quietly.

Even after Kalon pulled the passive back under control, residual cloud hung over the district for several minutes.

Cars stopped in the streets as the drivers looked up. In the nearest towers, people stood at windows with phones raised to post videos and photos onto social media.

By the time Thea and Kalon came down from the rooftop, the first public posts were already spreading.

Kalon did not answer any of it.

Inside the apartment, Thea watched the last of the artificial cloud break apart through the window-wall and finally let out a breath.

"That’s going to be on every local channel by morning."

"I know," Kalon said.

She turned from the glass and collected her things. There was still heat in her face from the cathedral and the rooftop both, but the practical side of her was already returning.

"I need to get home. Mother’s been very serious about my progression recently. Says that a good night’s rest is most important for skill awakenings and attribute increases."

Thea sighed.

Kalon nodded.

"Of course, I’ll see you soon."

And with that, Thea pecked him on the cheek and made her way to the door.

After she left, the apartment was silent once again.

Kalon stood alone by the window and checked his remaining travel allowance.

There were still travels left in the day. Earth could wait. The lightning passive needed a better test than one clear evening over the capital.

Cryos was the obvious choice.

If Throne of the Open Sky depended on familiar atmosphere, a frozen world with completely different temperature and pressure would expose that immediately. If it still worked there, then the skill was not limited to Earth, and was indeed worthy of it’s rank.

He travelled without wasting much time.

[Initiating Travel Sequence...]

[Adapting body to suit conditions...]

[...]

[You have arrived!]

[Welcome to Cryos!]

The cold hit him at once.

Kalon stood on an open ridge outside the capital where that tournament had taken place.

The sky above Cryos was almost completely white, with light frozen rain splattering down onto him.

Stormvein Body woke under his skin. Charge gathered. He raised a hand and fed lightning upward.

Throne of the Open Sky reacted just as it had before...

Clouds tore together above the ridge in a rough crown, darker against the Cryon sky than they had looked over the city on earth. White electric climbed from his body into the sky above.

The passive had worked. Even in this frozen atmosphere, he was able to control those clouds.

The only difference was that the cold became even worse.

As the pressure dropped and the storm structure widened, the temperature around the ridge plunged harder than the planet’s baseline.

Frost raced across the stone at his feet. His breath thickened. Even with Frostvein Physique and the system’s adaptation, the combination of open lightning and Cryon air bit deep enough to make his fingers stiffen around the charge.

Kalon held the effect long enough to confirm it was stable, then shut it down.

The clouds broke apart slowly over the ridge. The worst of the unnatural cold lingered for a few seconds before the planet’s normal freeze reclaimed everything.

Good enough. If it can work here, it should be able to work on any of the other planets that I’ve went to so far... I’ll probably avoid using it in Delphinium though, incase it makes their islands collapse further.

Kalon left the ridge and travelled closer to the capital, locking onto Sifa’s mansion grounds.

He appeared in the rear training field.

Sifa was there already, high above the packed snow on the back of her ice dragon.

The creature had grown again. Its crystal-plated body was longer, wings broader, movements cleaner in the air.

Sifa rode in a secure seated stance between two ridges of frozen scale, one hand on the dragon’s neck plating, the other raised as she shouted instructions into the wind.

"Again! I know we can do better!"

The dragon opened its jaws and forced out a rough burst of pale fire mixed with ice-steam. The blast was uneven, but it was controlled enough to travel in a forward path before breaking apart against a target pillar of frozen stone.

Sifa’s face filled with satisfaction. She looked beautiful on dragon back.

Then she saw Kalon in the field below.

The shock almost made her fall.

"Kalon?!"

The dragon banked hard at her sudden shift. Sifa dragged it down in a sharp descending spiral and landed in a spray of snow close enough to push cold air over him.

She was off its back in seconds.

"Kalon, you scared me! If I didn’t see you, I might have accidentally hit you with the fire."

Kalon chuckled.

"Astral Counter would have kept me safe... Anyways, you’re teaching it to breathe fire?"

Sifa glanced back at the dragon, then at him, cheeks already blushed slightly from being in his presence.

"Trying to. Ever since you showed us that fire wasn’t a myth, it seems that the world has followed... Well, I guess only my dragon so far, but it’s a start. I can’t believe we used to believe that such a thing didn’t exist."

Kalon smiled.

It made sense. If any creature on Cryos was going to awaken an affinity to fire, it would be the first living dragon.

Afterwards, the pair went inside.

Sifa dismissed the dragon with a brief hand signal.

The creature settled near the field edge while she led Kalon across the grounds and into the mansion.

The temperature changed the moment the crystal doors sealed behind them.

By the time they reached her room, Sifa was already close enough that her shoulder kept brushing his arm.

She turned to face him after the door shut.

"You always arrive like this," she said quietly. "Out of nowhere... I like it."

Kalon reached up and brushed a line of melting frost from her hair.

Sifa’s breath became a bit faster, and suddenly an urge spread throughout her body.

Her ice body was melting in all the right places. A droplet ran down the inside of her thighs and underneath her breasts leading down to her stomach.

She knew then that she had to fuck Kalon.

Ever since he had arrived in her life, she had never entertained any other man. However, in secret, she had used her ice to make a dildo in the likeness of his cock.

Now that the real thing was in front of her, she couldn’t wait any longer.