Kalon Bloodborn's POV
Inside the Citadel of Stygia, a unknown, magic maintained a steady warmth that made one forget the world was currently locked in the teeth of a brutal winter. I was certain it was nit natural perhaps the city had magic spellforms that performed this function. Whatever it was, it helped make livingcomfortable.
As I stepped beyond the massive city walls, the air hit me harshly. The world outside was shrouded in a thick, suffocating blanket of snow. It sparkles with a beauty under the now grey sunlight. The biting cold enveloped me, reaching through my clothes to claw at my skin.
Instinctively, I flared my mana. The coat of energy I had learned to manifest in the astral realm flickered violently the moment it met the frozen air. It sputtered like a candle in a gale, unable to remain steady in the presence of the absolute zero of the Stygian plains. I hadn't realized it was this cold. I was forced to sink deeper into my reserves, pouring more mana into the coating over my clothes and another layer against my skin.
I felt the drain immediately. To compensate, I turned my focus inward, applying the enlightenment I had gained from the Hall of Knowledge. I began to slow the flow of blood beneath my skin, forcing the mana to agitate the cells, generating heat that spread from my heart to my extremities. It was relieving.
Beside me, Ariadne stood as if she were basking in a summer meadow. She wore no cloak. The cold had failed to bite her. She stood tall in her Noden attire, her skin barely even pale from the frost.
Damon, noticed my struggle, speaking. "You're not in the library anymore, Kalon. The air here doesn't care about your pedigree."
He and I both donned our Traveler Cloaks. It was a strong, tough garment built for exactly this. Thick, reliable fabric with a soft, warm lining and edges trimmed with dense fur. As I pulled the hood up, the barrier provided a much needed reprieve for my mana pool.
Damon looked equally snug, though he moved with a ease that suggested he had done this a thousand times.
Suddenly, a massive shape erupted from the treeline, charging toward us with grest force. It was a frost bear. Blinding white fur that matched the drifts. Its eyes two pits of frozen blue. My instincts flared. I shifted my weight, my hand hovering near the hidden vials of blood at my waist, ready to manifest a solid blade.
But the beast skidded to a halt before Ariadne, its massive paws throwing up plumes of snow. Its presence shifted from a lethal threat to a playful ally in an instant.
"Who's a good boy? It's you, Frigid! Come on, let's go!" Ariadne shouted with a bright voice bright that carried genuine affection I hadn't seen before.
As I approached the beast to mount it, the bear turned its massive head toward me. For a second, our eyes locked.
Curiosity got the best of me. I wondered if I could apply the Lamian healing arts I had studied. I tried to extend a thin, invisible thread of my mana to sense the bear's internal blood flow, hoping to read its strength.
The moment my mana touched the bear's aura, a sharp, agonizing jolt shot back through the connection. It was a backlash. My head felt as though it ran into a wall of solid ice. My mana-heart throbbed with a dull, sickening pain, forcing me to gasp. The beast's its internal pressure was so vast that my probe felt like a needle trying to pierce a glacier.
The bear brought out its long, red tongue, licked its jaw with a huff of indifference, and looked away. It didn't even consider me a threat. Painfully, I acknowledged inwardly that this beast was significantly stronger than I was.
Ariadne looked at me, her brow furrowed in confusion at my sudden stumble. But Damon caught on. He leaned against the bear's flank, a knowing smirk on his lips. "Trying to read a frost bear on your first day out, Kalon? Careful. They don't like people poking around in their veins. They're sensitive about their privacy."
I cursed under my breath, readjusting my Traveler Cloak to hide my trembling hands. "I was just... checking its vitals."
"Sure you were," Damon chuckled. He reached into the folds of his own cloak, and a long, slender shape slid out.
I moved away.
"Calm down. This is my blood wrm, Scar." The creature was about five feet long, its body covered in green tough scales. It wasn't thick, crawling effortlessly around Damon's arm.
As I climbed onto the bear's back, Scar made a sudden, lightning fast movement, leaping from Damon to the back of my neck. I lurched forward in surprise, nearly sliding off the frost bear's saddle. The wyrm felt warm, its internal body heat conducting on my hand. It return back to Damon.
"Why didn't I notice him earlier?" I wondered aloud, frustrated by my own dulled senses.
"He slid under my cloak. My bad," Damon muttered, though he looked more amused than apologetic.
"Hold on tight" Ariadne warned, as we began to move.
We traveled from frozen plains towards Stygia outskirts. As we approached the Beast Enclosure, I realized that the term was a gross understatement. The building loomed ahead. It was a grand structure that beared the very elegance of the Stygia's Citadel, but with a structural purpose that was far more different. Its walls were beautiful, designed with interlacing stone vines, and its most striking feature was the series of soaring, onion-dome roofs that punctured the grey winter sky that cast down on us.
I stared up at the largest dome, wondering if the shape was merely an aesthetic choice of my race scholars. Damon leaned back in the saddle of the mount. I believed he had sensed my inner questions about this masonry.
"Don't just admire the curves, Kalon," Damon said, his voice cutting through the whistling wind. "Those onion domes you've seen so far have long served as the Citadel's research. They are designed as massive mana funnels. They capture the drifting, raw mana from the high-altitude winds and channel it down through those tapered necks into deep reservoirs beneath the floor. The system filters out the static, leaving only blood mana rich with life essence. It's how the Citadel powers high level healing rituals and how they keep these beasts growing at such an unnatural rate. It brings the scholars as close to the pure form of mana as one can get without burning their mana out."
"Oh. I see" I said in response.
"What? That's the most you can react to this. Does nothing suprise you?" Ariadne complained bitterly, and I could feel my lips curve as I let out a laugh.