I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

A beam of red shot out at lightning speed.

Slicing through the molecules of the air with a shrill noise as it swallowed the distance in its way.

In a fraction of a second, it was already upon them.

Its size, thrice as large as before, overwhelmed them in an iridescent hue of red and white.

Doom was upon them.

But they expected it.

Within that moment, Rebecca bit down hard on her pale lips as she swung her sword through the air with a relentless surge of power.

"Aaarrghhh!!"

Her battle cry was followed by a sonic explosion that thundered through the air as her sword slammed against the beam with a purposeful force.

BOOM!

The air crackled. Steam sizzled as her blade cut through the beam, dividing it before it rushed past her and the team behind her.

Her body quaked. Muscles clenching against itself as her veins popped to the surface of her skin.

Pain radiated through her bones. Rattling the tendons that held her joints together.

Her eyes glowed feverishly with the rush of gold.

A sudden boost to the immense power that exuded from her body.

She screamed. Not one of pain, but one of resolve.

Her purpose roared within as she clashed with the sonic rush of vermillion blood.

Kira's gaze flickered for a moment.

Her head darted to the sides at the scene of the split beam whooshing past their forms.

'That was close.'

She thought before her peripheral caught sudden movement.

Turning her head in that direction, her face hardened.

The Juns were on the move.

Thalia flew through the air with a sudden outburst of mana.

A surge of power overtook her as she stretched her palm.

She dashed past her sister, just in time for Raph to appear beside her.

Both floating mid-air.

'When did he learn the flight spell?'

Thalia thought to herself for a moment before she tuned all focus to the mana pool in her grasp.

"together?!" Her voice boomed.

Raph smirked beside her.

"Together."

A surge of energy ignited within him as his body was caught aflame with the rush of Aura.

'Insane!'

He thought to himself.

Within him, his aura stars and Mana circles were in a frenzy.

Vibrating and spinning at a speed, triple the usual.

It was absurd. Immense.

The flow of Aura that rushed into his body only continued to increase.

And the mana– an energy that should have stayed within his heart.

Serving as a means of back-up energy, when a spell was supposed to be cast, it began to leak with it.

Aura and Mana were spilling.

They were twirling. Surging. Mixing.

A vibrant boost that snapped his senses. His reflexes. His brain capacity by nearly fourfold.

'This isn't the result of Resonance.'

No, what resonance did was multiply his power by a combination of several stars.

But this…this pooled out power from everything.

Every icicle of his being.

From the slight crevices and corners of his body. Hidden units where energy surprisingly stayed.

It baffled him.

The more he felt the change within him, the more he wanted to sit down and inspect it properly.

Because this…

'Was simply remarkable.'

His smirk widened as a thought crossed his mind.

He stretched his hand in the air as his sword came to life.

'I can use it.' The word hummed with a pleasant taste to it. 'I can use the 13th Chapter.'

"Are you ready sister?"

He asked with a flicker of joy in his heart as his aura trembled to his wake.

Thalia darted her gaze at him.

Her eyes flared at the sudden, bizarre nature of the flow of energy within him.

'What…What are you doing?'

She wondered, but her thought was left in the dust.

Her actions, instead, focused on what needed to be done.

"You ask unnecessary questions, Raph."

She teased as amusement played in her tone.

Immediately, the mana within her churned and spun. Flowing through her body like hot lava.

It surged through and erupted from her form as her gaze glowed deep blue.

The colour of her mana that surged within manifested within her orifices.

It was a general colour, though. One which all Jun's naturally possessed.

Their energy had always been blue.

"10th Chapter of the Jun's Mage Arts."

She stretched out her hand as a wand appeared in her grasp, and above it.

A loud whistle echoed to her call before wind flicked to life at the tip of the wand.

Then, in a fraction of a second, flames sparked to life on her other free arm.

A moment passed, and the air around her seemed to violently shake as lightning sparked to life.

Then in an instant, the wind swallowed. The flames consumed. The lightning ravaged.

Their sizes grew at a remarkable speed, rivalling the one known as light.

She twirled her wand like a conductor with his baton, and the three elements began to mend with one another.

Spinning. Drifting. Binding to one another into a corrupt infant of the elemental catastrophe.

'The elements of destruction.'

In many cultures, including humans and even Elves, fire, wind and lightning had always been called the Destructive Trio.

They were strong separately.

Bringing harm if called upon the land, and causing immense damage if used improperly.

But when brought together with a drastic amount of mana…

'Their effects doubled over, five times.'

As the three combined, a heavy force descended upon her.

A strain that suddenly locked her limbs and clamped her bones shut.

She squirmed. A soft mutter of pain escaped her lips.

'The strain is too much.'

She thought as tendrils of flames and lightning began to stretch towards her limbs.

Climbing upon flesh and tearing through cells. Little by little. They began to eat her.

'Shit. Shit! It's not done yet!'

Her body began to protest.

The pain stung far more than it was meant to.

It was a spell their second eldest had created merely on a theory, but no Mage had the constitution to actually use it.

Though, Fiona and her sisters were different.

Naturally from a Swordsman family, they were born with a strong constitution and natural adaptation for strength.

It differed with experience and skills, but it played out mostly the same way.

As Thalia had not reached Fiona's level, the pain was only natural.

Her thoughts began to drift, as she was slowly letting go of that hold over the spell.

'Perhaps I should release it as it is… its damage will still be effective.'

Its effects, even if it weren't at its top, would– should cause enough damage, but–

"Chapter 13 of the Jun's Swordsmanship."

Thalia's body throbbed.

Her eyes flared.

And her head darted to the side.

There, her brother stood.

Aura ravaging through the air as it compressed into a black mass with sizzling stars that twinkled around it.

'Is he crazy?!'

The thought popped out in her head, but not hers alone.

Behind them, still holding the brunt of the Crimson Lord's attack, Rebecca had turned to her brother.

Eyes slightly widened.

"Raph, what are you doing?!"

Unlike Thalia, she wasn't going to keep quiet about it.

Raph could feel it. Their stares and the panic ensued with it, but he ignored it.

He could understand the need to worry. After all, it was the technique their father had used for the first time, before he died.

Disappeared with the dust left behind from casting such a powerful technique from limited energy.

The 13th Chapter was much heavier than the others.

A one-shot technique strong enough to bring down Monarch devils despite their intelligence, but they required a vast, immense Aura to be used properly.

Luckily, Raph at the moment, was flourishing in it.

His stars had been filled to the brim, and more flowed. Concentrated form that mingled with mana.

The effect was immense. Increasing the entirety of his power beyond the scope of a 9th Star.

'Heck…even father's Aura reserves weren't as much as this.'

Not even half.

This was knowledge to him. A fact that had brewed the confidence he had in using the skill. Though, his sisters lacked this knowledge.

He sighed as he concentrated more aura and mana on the black mass that began to increase. Exponentially.

"Worried?" He muttered as he glanced at them. His smirk was continuously etched on his face.

"Fret not, sisters."

His words were short. Precise and simple.

They got the message, and more than that, they felt his confidence.

Raph had always been someone outside the norm.

The black bead in a box of white.

Always striving. Walking. Darting away from the norm into a horizon of what was ordinarily considered impossible.

If there was anyone who could do what no man had set their mind as impossible, it was he.

Still, despite their reason, they worried.

"He's coming."

That one word from Raph sparked them back to the present.

Immediately, Thalia broke through the chains that tied her down.

The Mana ring suddenly glowed brightly as a surge of mana rushed out of her very being.

She clenched her teeth and gripped her wand tightly.

Lightning and flames grew and cast a long, heavy shadow over her body.

And the pain was just as progressive.

A rush of adrenaline with a stark side effect that continued to persist.

Still, she continued. Relentless.

Rebecca had begun to grow tired and wary, and it only became adamant as the Crimson Lord slowly hovered towards them.

Closing the distance and increasing the speed and force of his blood beam.

But Rebecca ground through her teeth and bones. Resisted until the very end.

Finally, Raph. Ever calm. Ever poised.

He let his sword bask in the darkness that consumed it.

The eternal flickering white light blinked within it like the nebula.

An Aura of sparkling darkness, ever growing in the path of his sword.

That power surged towards him. Rushing through his system to his heart and dantian.

It pulled, eating at his energy like a bottomless basin of pure darkness.

It consumed everything, and churned slowly towards his life, but before it could get a taste, Raph's energy reserves would replenish and the cycle would begin anew.

This further increased the magnitude of the darkness around his blade.

Blasting is length and width until it takes the form of a crucifix.

By then, words didn't need to be spoken.

Actions did all the talking.

"Climax Burst!"

"Nexus Surge."

They projected their attacks with the swift and curve of an athlete, blasting their powers forward.

The attacks rushed through the air in pursuit.

A tremble phasing through the air. Rippling the molecules and causing small tears in its path.

Both squirmed their way towards the Crimson Lord at the same speed as his beams and struck him in unison with a Monumental explosion.

BOOM!

The crimson sky turned black.

Lightning ravaged through the air. Flames melted on a molecular level. And the wind rose and fell like a tyrant.

The word bent under their attack.

And it was made evident through the result.

Behind the trio who panted heavily from their outburst, Kira stood.

Already halfway to the end of her spell.

Her shocked expression warped into a devious smile. Plain satisfaction etched on her face.

'This will do.'