Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 1211

Realizing something was amiss, the middle-aged man lifted his right foot, clad in a black leather boot, and stomped down hard. An invisible shockwave radiated from the impact, scattering the snow on the ground and revealing the slick sheet of ice beneath.

Layer after layer of snow peeled back as a strange wind kicked up the loose powder, sending it swirling through the air like a dust storm. The dead trees, which had been crudely jammed into the snow, toppled in the gale, skittering and scraping across the ice into the gloom.

This was no withered forest on a snowy plain—it was a wide, frozen river. Someone had disguised it, making the surface feel solid, not like the treacherous ice it was. In the pitch-black night, unfamiliar with the terrain, Jenkins had walked right into it, completely unaware that he had stumbled into a carefully laid trap. Thıs text ıs hosted at NoveI[F]ire.net

"I know you're the strongest in that band of human wizards. If I can take you down, the rest of your little army will be no threat. Human, you are the first worthy opponent I've faced since I unexpectedly awoke from an ancient age."

"Wizards? What an archaic term."

Jenkins mused silently. For this Epoch, at least, those with supernatural abilities were universally known as Enchanters. Looking back to even older eras, however, there had been a host of other strange titles: "wizards," "spellcasters," "golden humans," "alchemists," and more.

The term "wizard" dated back to an age even more ancient than the 12th Epoch, a time tens of thousands of years in the material world's past.

A gale whipped the snowflakes into a frenzy, and heavy clouds blotted out the twin moons. In the pitch-dark, the light arrow fired by his Ice Bowman briefly illuminated the ground, but it missed its mark, its glow fading into the distance along the river.

Directing the Ice Bowman to continue firing while sending his Twin Demons lunging ahead, Jenkins backed away, yet found himself unable to leave the vast sheet of ice.

"Damn it, what am I up against now?"

A stream of fire fell from his sleeve, spattering across the ice in a shower of sparks. The flames sizzled and ate at the frozen surface, but managed to leave only a shallow indentation.

This vast expanse of ice was a single, unified entity, with the power of frost permeating its every inch. Trying to break through it meant fighting against the collected power of winter in the entire region—a futile struggle of one man against nature itself.

The Twin Demons detonated, but their black, demonic flames offered Jenkins no illumination. Amid the swirling blizzard, he summoned his monocle. His vision sharpened, revealing mottled energies permeating the very air around him.

The problem wasn't with space itself, he realized, but with the snowflakes swirling around him. The bizarre snow and the ice at his feet seemed to form a colossal prison between sky and earth, and he, Jenkins, was its only inmate.

He tightened his grip on the chess piece in his hand and lashed out with a punch. His fist met a beam of ice-blue light, and a layer of frost instantly coated his hand, only to be absorbed by the chess piece a moment later.

All the snow from the endless sheet of ice had been whipped into the sky, forming a raging blizzard that swirled around Jenkins like a tornado. The extreme cold gnawed at his body, but it could not touch his soul.

Though his freezing flesh made his movements sluggish, his defiant spirit burned like a sun, feeding him a ceaseless supply of strength.

He flicked his left wrist, and a translucent shield of ice materialized before him, deflecting an ice-blue ray that shot out from the blizzard. But it was a purely defensive move. Right now, Jenkins couldn't even find a trace of his foe.

His eyes could still perceive the mottled spiritual auras, but they were scattered everywhere, diffused throughout the air, as if his enemy had become omnipresent.

This was far beyond what could be explained by the innate abilities of some strange creature. The man, he feared, commanded a much more terrifying power.

"In this weather, I am invincible."

The voice echoed from all directions, mingling with the eerie chanting from beneath the ice, making it sound as if a crowd surrounded Jenkins, repeating the same words over and over. He stood his ground, scanning his surroundings, but saw nothing but the driving snow.

"Merge with the blizzard. It is the greatest reward you could hope for."

From deep beneath the ice, the bizarre chant of millions of voices swelled to a crescendo. Amid the swirling snow, the sound was almost romantic, but as the notes reached Jenkins, he felt as if his very organs were freezing solid.

A chill spread from his core to his extremities, his body growing stiffer by the second. He lacked experience fighting in these conditions.

"You've... become the snow itself?"

He called out into the blizzard.

"Yes. I am now everywhere, I know everything. In this moment, I am the g—"

"Oh God, your compassion embraces all!"

Just then, an even louder, more resonant prayer boomed from the unseen distance, cutting through the voice that spoke from the swirling snow.

A speck of golden light appeared on the distant horizon, then erupted like a newborn sun. In that instant, a brilliant, divine radiance illuminated everything, and its warmth washed over Jenkins, allowing him to finally let out a breath of relief.

"Like I said, I knew you weren't human," Jenkins called out, his voice now steady. "I figured it out the moment you returned to camp with the scouting party."

No matter how powerful this monster made of snow was, it couldn't deceive Jenkins's sight. As soon as he realized someone had infiltrated the scouting party on their return, Jenkins had quickly found a way to inform the others. The incident with the rabbit meat had simply been the final confirmation.

Even his seemingly reckless charge out here alone had been part of the plan. They had all wanted to see the infiltrator's true objective, which was why they'd gone to the trouble of putting on this little show on such a frigid night.

Still, there had been a few unexpected hitches. Shortly after giving chase, Jenkins had realized the main force meant to be following him had apparently gotten lost. That was why he'd dared to use some of the abilities he preferred not to display openly during the initial part of the battle.

The arrow he had loosed earlier was never meant to hit anything; it was a signal to his comrades. When those familiar specks of divine light appeared on the horizon, Jenkins knew he no longer had to worry.

A vast force of over two hundred Enchanters strode forward, their solemn faces appearing one by one in Jenkins's sight. Each one praised their own deity, but though their faiths differed, in this era of unity among the Orthodox Churches, their hymns and prayers merged seamlessly into a single, powerful chorus.

Bathed in the brilliant golden light of their divine arts, the Enchanters marched toward the battlefield at the center of the frozen river. Wherever they passed, the wind died down and the snow ceased to fall. Golden light shone upon everything, and the great power of the gods banished the darkness.