I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

The storm didn't stop.

It never did.

The raindrops continued to crash into the frozen earth.

Shattering into bits of diamond shards, frozen by the biting cold that emanated through the broken fields.

Everything which stood had been brought to its knees. Forcefully and Demandingly.

Crumbled by the weight of a power that drifted between cold and dark.

The Earth bore witness to that power.

Tall shards of ice and darkness intertwined in an unholy offspring of destruction.

While trails of the artistry of war lay waste on the battlefield.

And above that, the crackling of mana infused into the air.

Particles that broke, hummed and shivered under the guise of the storm.

They formed patches. Colourful dusts of blue, green and purple.

Nearly inconceivable to the human eye, yet it held a presence that was too magnanimous to be ignored once identified.

Around. Behind. Forward.

Raph would glance around and spot them.

Regions of mana clash. Beyond which would cause the destruction of the Territorial Space if mishandled. A Mana Reflux.

He had identified the cause, but the perpetrators were mere faces without a purpose.

The basis of a Mana Reflux was a clash of power equivalent to or more than a Transcendent.

A strength that was far above the majority of the Academy.

A difficult phenomenon to pull unless you were incredibly strong or skilled enough to carry on that task.

His thoughts would dive deeply into his collective memories from his past life.

Searching deeply for any significance or similarity to the issue at the moment.

But none came.

He expected it.

After all, time had long since been taken away from his hands.

Events that unfolded in a certain way had been curled…nearly torn apart in a form that seemed unreasonable.

Now, what he knew was reduced to a mere skeleton of what it once was.

Guesses that had the likelihood of either occurring, not occurring or evolving into something else entirely. Better or Worse.

In this case, he was not so sure.

"Raph?"

His head suddenly snapped.

A voice cutting through the muddle of thoughts like a knife through butter.

His eyes blinked. Slowly, then quickly before it came to a stop. He glanced around.

The first image that registered in his brain was no other than the Burly Man, Morris– alive, but barely.

A moment ago, he was a giant with demonic attributes, using Miasma at his core with the intent and general ability of killing them.

And now? He had been reduced to ash. A frame without a stand.

Stripped of both the powers that belonged to him and the one which was borrowed.

A far cry from what he stood for. Like many others of the Masked Figures.

Scars, dried blood and blue skin had become prominent.

Each was a testament to the brutality of the fate he was ensnared in.

Frozen from the inside out, etched with wounds still bleeding.

Limbs that had been regenerated through the powers of the Demon were slowly decaying.

Darkness and footprints of Miasma emitting from the frail limbs while they stood in place from the pillars of ice.

He looked like a prisoner set for execution– only that, this one had not in any way given up.

Despite the pain that throbbed within his body like blood and the sensation of cold biting at his skin like a million ants, his gaze remained unfazed.

No emotion.

No weight.

No sympathy.

Simply the will that had carried him throughout their battle.

The willingness to fight back despite all odds. To struggle till the very end for the slightest chance of success.

Not because their life depended on it but because they put their lives on the line for it.

A difference stood.

While one fought till the end because they had to for their Leader, the other fought because they chose to.

A choice was always better than a command.

And Raph knew this.

Times on the battlefield had taught him many things, and one of which he recognised from Morris' expression.

The white haired sighed as he shifted his gaze away. The man was still pinned in the end.

His resistance now meant nothing to him.

"You called, Elsie?"

Shifting his gaze to the side, he caught sight of the dark-haired Wolf kin.

Her ears perched in the air while her head was tilted to the skies.

Far away, beyond the Hostel Buildings.

Her body seemed to have clamped tightly.

A tension that lingered on in a silence drowned by rain.

It startled him. Confused him.

He raised a brow slowly as he glanced up at the sky, peering within with a silent hum.

His gaze flickered. A white light sparkling over the pupils when something clicked in his head.

He looked away instantly and turned to Rita.

"How much mana do you have?" He asked.

The dark-haired glanced up at him.

Her eyes naturally droopy with her arms folded.

She shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Since that explosion. I've felt nothing." She explained.

Raph's expression slowly turned bitter.

It was the same for Elsie as well.

Her darkness ability had been suddenly hindered by her inability to control mana.

It was bizarre when he first heard it, startling as well until he felt it as well.

The ripple.

It started from the skies.

Then scattered in waves. Pulling with it, their mana. The source of magic is like a magnet to iron, before draining it completely.

He was no different from them in the moment, and he had thought it was one of Morris doing until it affected his ability as well.

Worse than there's, if he were to rank it.

Mana and Miasma had been completely made unstable.

Incompatible with the current collision of mana particles in the air.

'It'll last for a while too.' He thought with a sigh as he turned back to the skies.

His gaze flickered once more.

Aura slowly sipped out of his body into the surface of his skin.

Mana may have stopped flowing, but Aura wasn't affected entirely.

It worked, but not to its full capability.

Nearly more than half of its original worth.

It was thanks to this loophole that Raph was able to completely turn the tide and quickly subdue Morris.

Even in times of confusion, one couldn't ignore an advantage when it was given to them. Especially with foes like Morris.

He had proven adamant in every way.

A battle that was drawn for far too long.

Nearing a point where he had nearly released every calibre of power within him despite the trio's effort.

'Well…not like it matters now…'

He placed his hand on his abdomen. Gently pressing against it.

'That mana pulse drained more than half my reserve. I've been put in the very predicament I tried to resist.'

It was due to experience that he knew the necessity of saving one's strength on a battlefield.

Especially one riddled with foes of great strength.

Defending oneself can be brought to a disadvantage with a common notion of unavailable mana or aura.

Draining their reserve in common battles when epic ones lay in wait.

'Hopefully….not this time.' His thoughts settled at last while his gaze trailed away from the sky.

He had observed what he needed.

A confirmation slowly drifting into place.

"You guys feel it too?"

Elsie flinched. Her wolf-ears darted to the side with a subtle shake.

She turned her head to the others, her expression slowly growing into uncertainty.

"I did."

Rita nodded with a sigh. "So did I." She let the words settle before she continued. "It would have been difficult to ignore. The explosion had taken away mana straight out of our bodies."

Elsie turned to Morris.

Straining her ears to the sound of his heartbeat.

It still pumped. Low, unyielding, slow.

It struggled with each beat, but it lasted him a lifetime.

Enough to keep him alive.

"It's not just mana…Miasma too." She said with an arched brow. "Something like this… shouldn't be possible."

Raph shook his head while he walked towards Morris.

He stretched his hand as his double-edged katana formed from a gust of frozen shards.

A slow creation of a blade that simmered with white fumes of ice and cold.

He raised it into the air as he neared the Burly man.

Just above the man's chest.

There, their eyes met.

A fraction of a second with their worlds clashing.

"It is possible. A phenomenon like this is due to the strength of a transcendent.."

His expression hardened.

"You saw it as well….beyond the Hostels, around the Garden of Forest…"

"Yes…" Elsie completed. "The clouds are clear."

Rita glanced at the two figures beside her with an arched brow.

Her intrigue was palpable as she folded her hands.

A huff escaped her lips. Thoughts reeling in.

"Well? What do you mean clear?" She asked.

Unlike those two who had inhumane sight and hearing, she wasn't particularly adept at any particular sensations.

"Oh.." Elsie continued, glancing at her. "The rain….the thunder…the lightning. Everything is gone."

Rita's expression shifted into profound confusion with each of her statements.

One sentence dropping bomb after bomb into a reality that seemed inconceivable.

"...As if it all…just…stopped."

'Stopped? What the heck is she saying?' Rita's thoughts reeled in.

She raised her head and glanced at the sky. As if trying to reconfirm what had dropped was actually rain.

It was.

"So…you're saying a part of the Academy right now where rain should be pouring as much as it is now….isn't?"

"Yes…" Raph responded as he plunged his sword into the man's chest.

A guttural, sleek sound like the cutting of meat, projecting into the air in the process.

The sword. His sword pulsed with the beat of his heart. The dying vibrations spread to his arm.

He stood in silence. Waiting. Listening, while their gazes continued to clash against each other.

The space between them, impregnated by silence.

The girls halted in their conversations as they turned to him.

Their gaze lingered on Morris's body before reaching Raph– carrying the weight of finality.

Still, Raph's brain continued to ponder the visceral phenomenon ahead of them.

"Mila." He said.

The words left his mouth and brought a spark into Morris's gaze as it bulged open slightly despite the flickering lights.

The others glanced around, their intrigue evident in their expressions.

"What about her?"

Elsie asked.

"What else…" Raph muttered. Letting his statement sink in before the neck.

A whisper before a shudder.

"She's dead."