My Servant System

I tuned out the prickling gaze of the Demon Wolf when I began to circulate the mana inside of my body, slowly and carefully guiding it from my palms up into my arms, making sure to keep it steady and consistent no matter where it was.

Whenever the mana - now mixed with the herbal paste that had been smeared across my palms - rushed through my veins and through the mana pathways beneath the places that had been marked by Leone I was embraced by a deep chill that swirled around my bones.

This was probably what had pained Anput during her time in the array, the element she wielded rearing its head against her this time as it 'attacked' her body, putting her through a trial that was going to hurt just as much as it was going to benefit her.

Where she probably had felt an impossible heat that was burning her from the inside out I was feeling the opposite; a deep, debilitating chill that numbed me completely before it came back with a roaring vengeance as it inflicted a cold burn on me.

And because of the mana needing to travel slowly within me I was subjected to a rather 'long' period of being completely frozen inside, my bones rattling within me while my skin visibly paled and glistened, that frost I loved so much spreading across me instead of my enemies.

Even as someone who was more acclimated to the cold and more receptive of it this was far too much, and feeling the last vestiges of warmth within my body be frozen over was nowhere near a pleasant feeling that I wanted to experience again.

Yet as each rune was activated by this circulation of mana the cold in those prior regions of my body receded, leaving me in this numb state that made it hard to concentrate; the words Leone had spoken to me before I started still rang in my ears though, and although it would have been easier to halt the flow of mana and focus on warming myself back up I just persevered...

I didn't want to persevere but I had to, and as I made my way towards each and every single rune that had been painted onto my body that chill only deepened, but with it came a sense of betterment, of improvement.

I could feel the mana purifying itself beneath the frozen tundra that was my body, feel it slowly growing stronger as the cold tempered it like fire tempers metal, and because the mana that was left behind in each section of my body was slowly permeating the muscles and bones, strengthening them far more than I had anticipated.

The sinews and the nerves were chilled before they stretched themselves out, filling me with an odd combination of both relief and pain as they got stronger far quicker than any natural method could ever hope to achieve.

And this was just my arms making me wince and shiver continuously, so as the circulation began to target my torso I was somewhat prepared for it to hurt like hell, but the depths of said hell were unknown to me, forcing me to plunge into them and pray it wasn't as bad.

It was, of course, far worse than I had anticipated, with the first set of runes being the ones on the edges of my collarbone; both sides of them flared up in agony, sending a fresh wave of pain down my arms and back up like it was a bouncing balls.

Going back up and then down again drew a hiss from me as I tried to endure it, only to be caught off guard as the next set of runes were touched; the ones resting above my lungs made it impossible to breathe for a few seconds, and when I could the breaths I took felt like I had buried my face into snow and inhaled as much of it as possible.

Breathing began to hurt as the sharp needles of cold pricked at everything, though it reached an equilibrium far faster than the others as I continued to work my way down; my midriff was wrapped by a serpent of ice that slowly slithered around and around my body, spreading the frost methodically and targeting each organ available one by one.

It hurt in a way that provided no sort of pleasure at all, so my tolerance for it was unsurprisingly rather low, but it didn't care about that nor did it ask if I wanted to stop; it just kept going as it swiftly consumed my legs in that stygian embrace so that it could finish the job soon.

And although I was getting close to the end it definitely did not mean I was getting a break nor did it slowly wind down; even though it was running out of runes to activate it never once reached a climax of pain or discomfort, and considering the spots left were my heart, Core and head, well...

If it had been bad already it was about to get worse, but thankfully the body had built in safeguards for these sorts of things, my consciousness fading away and my body going on autopilot as my heart actually stopped for a few seconds, while my Core froze over completely.

My vision went black and although I wanted to panic and fight to return to the land of the living I was unable to muster any sort of retaliation, primarily because the runes were activated already and because the circulation was reaching its end.

Now my head was wrapped up in a frigid blanket that snuffed out anything and everything around me, but just as quickly as it was used to smother me and isolate me from the rest of the world it was instantly snatched away, leaving me confused and conflicted as the cold became bearable.

It didn't lessen at all, it was just... tolerable now, and I don't know if that was because this was done or because I was past a point of no return or something... but when I finally had my vision back, my body wasn't frozen and I could actually think I realized that it was over...

The pain was gone and the mana within me was no longer in turmoil; it was calm, incredibly cold, and it was completely... normal again, though even with it being normal I could feel it's newfound power, which continued to pulse within my body alongside my heartbeat, growing stronger and stronger with each breath I took.