Silence settled into the atmosphere. No kolves moved, frozen to their spots, as my opponent fell, lifeless, and burst in red mana flames before turning into smoke, not a trace left of its existence.

Master seemed surprised, an eyebrow raised and mouth open slightly. The weak kolves seemed to growl among themselves and step back out of fear.

But then, a sharp clapping sound came from above and a surge of air rushed into the cavern. The huge patch of ice on the ceiling had dispersed to reveal an upper layer as a figure descended from above.

“Magnificent performance,” A woman’s voice echoed, followed by a piercing cackle, “The most spectacular, I would say.”

A massive magic beast hovered on the air, four paws treading on air, causing small frost-imbued ripples across the space. The magic beast resembled a majestic kolve the half the size of a cottage. Its mane was entirely made out of flaring mana that manifested glowing snowflakes. Its eyes were pure white, seeming to reflect an endless void that contained nothing but coldness. Built sturdily, muscles rippled under the skin and a long tail curled from its bottom.

“Haha!” A woman with white hair appeared on the back of the magic beast, “I have to say though, meeting you, Zanharu the Great, here is truly a delightful surprise.”

“You-” Master shouted, seemingly angry.

It was my first time seeing Master that riled up before. His usual dark-green eyes seemed to blacken and the aura I had seen before was more intense.

The woman was unfamiliar to me in every aspect. She wore a long-sleeved open robe that hung outside of a gray dress. Her facial features were sharp and refined

“How adorable, Zanharu. How long has it been since we last saw each other?” The woman giggled, cloud-colored eyes glinting with insanity while she counted her fingers, “Oh, about a hundred years, right? I see you have a new companion.”

The the woman turned to look at me. Sweat dripped from my forehead as I froze on the spot, feeling like a mere slave being spectated upon by a king.

“It would be quite the shame if I…” The woman stretched out a hand and flicked a finger in my direction.

I couldn’t react until a white flash met a green flash and heaven-shattering crash almost burst my eardrums. Master had appeared in front of me, an enormous green hardened mana sword gripped in his hands.

A needle of ice was cracked into pieces at the hardened mana blade’s edge. Master pushed me away.

“Hide, Lupus!” He shouted as I stumbled backwards hazily.

Master slashed his sword in a circle around him, green mana swirling outwards until it hit the surrounding kolves, severing them and ending their lives.

“End this madness, Thiel.” Master launched upwards into the air until he was parallel to the woman’s large kolve mount.

“Oho! Why would you call this madness, Zanharu?” The woman, seemingly named Thiel, mocked as she slapped her mount and the magic beast shot out a thick glacial beam.

I scrambled away as Master and the woman exchanged airborne blows, a whirlwind of mana frolicking in the air. Master was stepping on the air like he was flying, feet glowing green.

Ducking behind a crag in the tunnel that led to the cavern, I watched the battle with stunned eyes. I couldn’t do anything in this situation. If I tried to help Master, I would be nothing but a nuisance, so I could only keep away and pray for Master two win.

Green glowing rocks appeared around Master and shot towards the woman, on the same level as complementing green mana beams sprouting from the tip Master’s mana sword. They were met on by a total blizzard of ice and white mana from the woman’s kolve mount.

A green blitz suddenly flashed Master appeared from behind the kolve and brought down his humongous sword onto the magic beast’s flesh.

“What?” I couldn’t help but let out a gasp at the next scene.

The inside of the kolve was entirely crystalline ice. In fact, the moment Master’s sword sliced through the kolve, the whole “magic beast” dissolved into powdered snow.

“So, it was a puppet that the Great Mother gifted you, huh?” Master gritted his teeth, eyes full of bitterness.

The woman laughed, “Of course! Mother is generous to all who obeys her!”

Master was silent as he plunged down with his mana sword to slice the woman’s neck after she landed on the cavern ground.

“Come on, that can’t be all there is to your power now, can it?” The woman whipped around and a tinkling sound of ice freezing was heard as ice spikes shot up.

Three of the spikes shattered as Master brought down his blade on them, followed by a shower of Master’s sharp rock shards.

Master had jumped away as columns of ice shot towards him and landed to counter by sending out respective rock spikes.

The two forces collided, with no clear winner as both rocks and ice breaking into tiny pieces.

“Surrender already! You have no chance of winning against me, Zanharu!” The woman was clearly getting frustrated, “I’ll even let that child go, so stop struggling!”

Master held firm, “This isn’t just about Lupus, Thiel. Although I do need to maintain my hopeless pride when in front of him, this is more than that!”

The woman glared, “So you choose death.”

Master’s mouth curled into a faint smirk, “Of course.”

Snow swirled around the cavern as dozens of pointed ice chunks appeared in the air, poised to strike and pointed at Master. Time seemed to slow down as the ice chunks flew at Master.

A cloud of ice particles rose up as an impact clearly resounded. As the ice particles disappeared, I found myself looking at a show of sheer power.

Master was fully decked out in bright green mana, but now accompanied by sprawling vines.

I knew that power that controlled vines. I had seen during my first encounter with Master.

A splitting pain seemed to crack my mind into two. Images from my experience in my last life flashed in my eyes. My brain was shuffling through all those memories, the tinkling laughter of friendship by a bonfire, connections strung with trust, and…the cold truth of reality.