The Kind of Evil

‎Yur kept hiding behind Rasmus's back, avoiding Aris's wrath after she found out that the spirits had been hiding the Crystallized Dragon's Breath. Rasmus still didn't know what it was, and he could force Yur to tell them where it was, but he didn't. He knew that having spirits on his side would be a great addition because they didn't care about humanity but the world itself.

‎"Do you want it, Aris?" Rasmus asked, trying to calm Aris down.

‎"No," Aris answered without hesitation. "However, it's better if I'm holding it rather than leaving it to these spirits," she continued as she looked at the campfire.

‎Rasmus looked at Yur from over his shoulder, checking Yur's reaction. He could tell that Yur didn't mind with that idea.

‎"If we chose to help, you would give the Crystallized Dragon's Breath to us?" Rasmus asked Yur.

‎"Yes, I will give you the Crystallized Dragon's Breath. I don't want to carry it with me anymore because I'm tired of protecting it, especially when the demons are around," Yur answered, nodding its head as Yur's hands gripped onto his shoulders. "Sooner or later, they might smell it and will take it away from me forcefully. It's better if Lady Aris holds it," Yur continued.

‎

Rasmus turned his gaze toward Aris, waiting for her reaction after she heard what Yur had just said. However, she didn't show any expression, she stayed still and stared at Yur with a cold gaze.

"What do you think? It's not a bad trade since you don't want spirits to disappear from this world and you also got the Crystallized Dragon's Breath," Rasmus said with his brows raised. "It doesn't seem like Yur had any choice to begin with," he continued, trying to clear Aris's troubled mind.

"Where do you hide it? I want to see it first," Aris said, her eyes never leaving Yur.

Yur whined and whimpered as Yur tightened its grips on Rasmus's shoulders. Knowing that Yur didn't have any choice, Yur gave a slow nod at Aris. Yur then slowly got off from Rasmus's back and began to walk toward the forest.

Rasmus and Aris followed Yur silently as the spirits followed them from behind, moving from one tree to another. The atmosphere was heavy, even Rasmus could feel the tension in what he was about to witness.

Yur brought them to a small lake, a frozen lake which was something that Rasmus didn't expect to see. Yur slowly floated right above the ground and began to float above the lake.

"I kept it hidden from the outside world for decades, and I have been keeping deep in this lake, frozen," Yur pointed down at the frozen lake underneath Yur. "I tried my best to keep the Dragon's Breath frozen and crystallized..." Yur continued.

Aris slowly walked toward the frozen lake and began to walk on it with Rasmus walking beside her. They both approached Yur and looked down at where Yur was pointing at. They both could vaguely see a dim blue light deep inside the lake, and Aris could feel the power that was seeping through the thick ice and Mana barrier that Yur had created right underneath the ice's surface.

"Let us in," Aris said as she bent her knee and touched the ice surface with her right hand.

"Okay..." Yur answered reluctantly.

Yur flicked its tiny hand and the ice melted around Aris and Rasmus, sliding down slowly like an elevator. The three of them went into the depths of the lake which was quite deeper than what Rasmus had thought. It took them a few minutes until they finally reached the bottom of the lake, and it looked like an ice cave.

‎"This is it..." Yur said, staring at the small block of ice in front of Yur. "I contained it inside an absolute ice box. It took me a whole year to create that box," Yur continued.

‎Rasmus looked at how bright the block of ice was to the point he couldn't see what was inside it. It was almost blinding, and somehow his body felt feverish when he was standing close to it.

‎Aris carefully grabbed the block of ice that fit perfectly in her hand. She slowly used Mana to melt the block of ice, releasing and revealing the Crystallized Dragon's Breath that had been kept hidden from the world for more than centuries.

‎The moment the ice melted completely, a gust of wind was released, coming from the Crystallized Dragon's Breath. The wind was so strong it cracked the whole ice in the lake. Rasmus felt something was breathing behind him and he was so sure that he heard a deep and yet quiet growl when he felt that.

They knew it would be unsafe, so Yur manipulated the wind and made the three of them out of the lake. Rasmus was still confused by what he had just felt earlier, and although his sense of touch and still numb, he could feel the cold that lingered on his neck. He realized the cold wasn't something natural, it would be something beyond his understanding and logic.

‎As soon as they landed on the side of the lake, the frozen lake shattered and turned into a fine dust of ice. They watched as they found dust of ice getting blown by the gust of wind into the sky. It looked beautiful when it shone by the moonlight.

‎"If a mortal got hit by that breath, they would have gotten shredded into pieces," Yur said, staring at Rasmus. "So you're truly an Orthias since you can handle that breath," Yur continued.

‎

‎Rasmus didn't expect the gust of wind that he felt earlier was a breath, not something magical. He began to understand what he felt down there, the hum and the cold breath. He then glanced at the Crystallized Dragon's Breath in Aris's hand, a translucent sphere with a glowing bright blue tiny sphere at its center like a reactor. There was fog in between the glowing sphere to the outer sphere as if the smoke or the cold breath was frozen in time.

Rasmus had thought about it for a while ever since he underwent an awakening process in which he seemed to be immune to Aris's overwhelming energy. He wondered if his immunity to her power and that breath was a similar thing, but he didn't feel feverish when Aris released her energy, unlike the Dragon's Breath that made him feel cold and hot at the same time.

Aris stared at it with a cold gaze, her hand didn't move a muscle and there was nothing in her eyes. It was the first time that Rasmus couldn't see what was in her mind as if she was in a trance. Suddenly a spirit flew toward them from the sky, diving really fast that it moved faster than the speed of sound.

"Yur! This is bad!" The spirit squeaked in a high-pitched voice. "Demons! The Demons suddenly came into the forest!" The spirit continued, closing its eyes as it screamed its lungs out.

Aris glanced at the spirit, and her gaze was enough to make the spirit shut its mouth with both hands. She then stored the Crystallized Dragon's Breath into Rasmus's spatial ring, and then pulled out her sword from it at the same time.

"They must have sensed the overwhelming Mana that this thing released earlier," Aris said as she stared into the distance.

When Aris was about to go toward the demons that she had sensed, she heard a crack in her finger. That was when she realized the spatial ring couldn't contain the Crystallized Dragon's Breath. She immediately pulled out the Crystallized Dragon's Breath from the ring before it completely broke the ring. She looked at it and thought about where she should put it in a safe place.

"You hold this..." Aris approached Rasmus as she reached out her hand with the Crystallized Dragon's Breath in it to Rasmus. "Don't stare at it, don't answer a thing, don't say a word, and don't move a muscle..." she warned as she stared into Rasmus's eyes.

Rasmus hesitated to hold the Crystallized Dragon's Breath after he heard Aris's warning. Something was telling him that he shouldn't hold it, however, knowing that Aris had to go and deal with the demons that were coming to take it away. With a heavy heart, he reached for the Crystallized Dragon's Breath and held it with both hands.

As soon as Rasmus held the Crystallized Dragon's Breath, his surroundings turned pitch black. He could see anything, not even the tip of his nose, and the thing he also noticed was the fact that he was alone. He didn't feel any presence around him until suddenly he felt a looming presence as if a mountain was behind him.

At the same time, Aris, Yur, and the spirits stared at Rasmus, and he was standing still, staring at the Crystallized Dragon's Breath with an empty gaze. He had a similar gaze to Aris' earlier as if he was in a trance.

"He..." Yur paused, turning its head to Aris. "What's happening to him?"

"He's meeting the one who breathed that thing..." Aris answered as she walked away and swung her sword around. "Keep him safe, and I'll deal with these demons for you..." she said and then flew away.