Chapter 56: Kryovartha: Primordial Domain

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Kryovartha: Primordial Domain

The cave had already ceased to look like a place that belonged to the world above.

The walls were covered in layers of frost, thick enough now to swallow the natural color of the stone beneath them. Huge cracks ran across the rock face, glowing faintly with blue light that pulsed like something breathing beneath the surface. Pieces of broken ice floated in the air without falling, suspended by the overwhelming power radiating from the center of the battlefield, drifting slowly as though gravity itself had grown uncertain.

The temperature had dropped so sharply that every breath became visible, hanging in the air a moment longer than it should have before dissolving into mist.

Even the flames that had once burned within the cave had gone out, extinguished not by wind or water, but by something colder than either. What remained was only silence, and the low groan of stone straining under the weight of frost it was never meant to carry.

At the center of it all stood Theon.

His hand tightened around NIVARETH.

The Eternal Frostblade was no longer broken.

The two fragments had become one.

The blade itself was long and elegant, its surface covered in faint patterns that seemed to move whenever the blue light surrounding it pulsed, shifting like frost creeping slowly across glass. At the hilt were two small openings, one on either side, each humming faintly with contained pressure.

Then...

WHOOM!

A powerful blue light burst from both openings.

The entire cave trembled.

Theon slowly raised NIVARETH toward the ceiling.

The ancient elf stared at him.

since the battle began, he did not move.

He was trying to understand what he was seeing.

Then his expression hardened.

He still had power.

He was still an ancient elf who had survived for thousands of years.

He refused to believe that a ten-year-old human could stand above him.

Thousands of years of pride would not allow it.

His body moved.

He disappeared.

In the next instant, he appeared in front of Theon, his hand wrapped in condensed frost as he thrust it toward Theon’s chest.

But before his hand could reach him—

CRACK.

The elf stopped.

His fingers had begun freezing.

His eyes dropped.

Frost was crawling across his hand, spreading over his knuckles in delicate, branching lines.

"What...?"

He tried to pull away.

But The freezing only spread faster.

The air itself had become dangerous.

Behind Theon, Lyra’s breath caught and Her fingers were turning white.

Lazaria’s arms trembled as frost climbed over her skin, small crystals forming along her sleeves.

Leon gritted his teeth as ice began forming around his boots, locking him to the ground inch by inch.

Even Eiralyth expression changed.

She raised both hands instinctively, trying to resist the pressure pressing down on all of them at once.

"This isn’t an ordinary frost..." she whispered.

Ifrith’s eyes narrowed.

He immediately spread his arms.

A dark-red barrier erupted around the group.

BOOM!

The shield expanded, separating them from the worst of the pressure, though even it seemed to strain against the weight of what was pushing on it.

"If this continues," Ifrith muttered, "none of us will be able to withstand it."

Lyra stared at Theon.

"What is happening to him?"

Ifrith didn’t answer.

His eyes remained fixed on Theon like There was something different about him.

Something ancient.

Something that made even a primordial demon feel a chill beneath his skin, an unfamiliar sensation Ifrith had not felt in longer than he cared to remember. He had watched Theon grow stronger for a while now, yet nothing about that growth had prepared him for this.

Theon slowly raised NIVARETH higher.

The blue light surrounding him intensified as His silver hair drifted upward even though there was no wind.

The frost beneath his feet spread across the ground in widening rings.

Then he spoke.

"Kryovartha."

{For pronunciation; Kree-oh-VAR-tha}

The ancient elf’s pupils shrank.

His entire body froze.

"No..."

The word escaped his mouth almost as a whisper.

Theon lowered his gaze.

"Primordial Domain."

The world changed.

BOOOOOOM!

A wave of primordial frost exploded from Theon.

It swallowed the cave.

The floor froze then walls and also ceiling froze in place.

The broken pillars of stone became covered in layers of crystal ice, thick and sharp-edged, refracting the blue light into countless fractured points.

A massive domain spread outward, turning the entire battlefield into a frozen world.

The ancient elf staggered backward.

"What... is this?"

Ice erupted from the ground.

Massive pillars shot upward.

Blades formed in midair.

Spears appeared from nowhere.

Walls rose and vanished.

Chains of primordial ice slithered across the floor like living serpents, curling and uncurling with a will of their own.

The environment itself had become an extension of Theon’s will.

The ancient elf looked around.

His breathing became heavier.

"No..."

Behind Theon, Ifrith’s eyes widened.

"Kryovartha..." {Kree-oh-VAR-tha}

Eiralyth stared at the domain in disbelief.

Her expression had gone completely still.

She had lived for ages and have seen primordial powers that transcend human logic and also seen demons destroy kingdoms.

Yet what stood before her felt different, older somehow, as though it belonged to a time before any of them had been born. It did not feel like something a child should be able to summon, no matter how gifted he was.

"This power..." she whispered.

Lyra could barely speak.

"Theon..."

Lazaria stared at him with fear and awe mixed together.

Leon tightened his grip around his sword, his knuckles pale beneath the frost gathering on his gloves.

He had never seen anything like it.

The ancient elf took another step backward.

Then he saw them.

One Theon.

Then two.

Then five.

Then ten.

The frozen figures continued appearing.

Dozens of them.

Every single one held NIVARETH in their hands.

Every blade carried the same terrifying blue glow.

The ancient elf’s breathing stopped.

As he slowly turned his head.

There were Theons everywhere.

Above him.

Behind him.

On the frozen pillars.

Across the ground.

Surrounding him from every direction.

His lips trembled.

"Don’t tell me..."

One of the frost clones tilted its head.

Another raised NIVARETH.

Theon looked directly at the ancient elf.

Then he spoke.

"Attack."

His voice sounded wrong but it was still Theon’s voice. Only difference was that there was another voice layered beneath it.

Older.

Deeper.

Colder.

The clones moved.

At once.

BOOOOOOM!

The first wave struck.

The ancient elf raised his sword.

CLANG!

A blade collided with his weapon.

Another came from behind.

He twisted.

Blocked.

Another came from his left.

He ducked.

A fourth came from above.

He raised his sword.

CLANG!

The impact drove him into the ground, cracking the frozen stone beneath his boots.

Then the battlefield erupted.

Ice beasts charged from every direction.

Massive wolves formed from primordial frost and lunged at him, jaws wide, eyes burning with pale light.

Spears emerged from the ground as Blades descended from the sky.

Every movement Theon made was echoed throughout the domain.

One sword swing became dozens.

One step became countless attacks.

The ancient elf was surrounded.

"No!"

He swung his sword.

A wave of frost exploded outward.

Several clones shattered.

But before the fragments even touched the ground, new bodies formed from the surrounding ice.

The elf’s expression twisted.

"They regenerate?!"

Another blade struck his shoulder.

He blocked it.

Another cut across his side.

He twisted away.

A third nearly pierced his throat.

He barely avoided it.

The entire cave shook under the violence.

Stone collapsed from the ceiling.

Massive chunks of rock were swallowed by ice before they could even hit the ground.

The ancient elf roared.

"You think you are the only one who can wield such power?!"

He slammed his sword into the ground.

A terrifying wave of frost exploded outward.

"You may possess Grand Magic!"

His aura erupted.

"But I am an ancient elf!"

His eyes burned.

"I can still use Ancient Magic!"

He raised his hand.

"Absolute ZERO!"

The temperature dropped again, lower than before, low enough that the very air seemed to grow brittle.

Everything stopped.

The attacking clones froze in place.

The air itself seemed to crack.

Then...

BOOM!

The force struck Theon.

His body was thrown backward.

He skidded across the frozen ground, carving a long furrow through the ice.

The ancient elf rushed forward.

"You are not the only ancient being here!"

He raised his hand.

"Domain!"

The ground beneath him shattered.

A gigantic ice castle erupted behind his back, rising in an instant from the shattered floor.

Its towers pierced the ceiling.

Its walls glowed with ancient runes, older and darker than the ones lining the Hall far above, as though the castle itself had been waiting centuries for a reason to rise.

The elf’s aura exploded.

His strength multiplied.

Ten times.

A hundred.

A thousand.

Then far beyond.

The pressure became almost unbearable as his power had increased by more than ten thousandfold.

The elf raised his sword.

"Now..."

He vanished.

Theon barely raised NIVARETH in time to block the attack.

CLANG!

The impact sent him flying.

Another strike came.

Then another.

The ancient elf moved faster than before.

The clones tried to surround him.

But He easily cut through them.

One after another.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

Frost clones exploded into fragments.

The ancient elf continued.

He tore through dozens.

Then hundreds of frozen manifestations.

Finally, he reached Theon.

"You are powerful."

He raised his sword.

"But you are still a child."

He swung.

BOOOOM!

Theon was blasted backward, skidding across the shattered ice until a frozen pillar stopped him.

The elf appeared directly in front of him.

"Iced Frost..."

His sword began glowing.

"Blizzard Doom!"

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire battlefield disappeared beneath a violent explosion of ice.

A storm erupted through the cave.

The shockwave smashed against Ifrith’s barrier.

CRACK.

Ifrith’s eyes widened as another crack appeared.

CRACK!

"I can’t hold it Much longer!"

The shield began breaking apart.

Lyra immediately pushed her hands forward.

"Then we’ll help!"

Lazaria joined her.

Leon planted his sword into the ground, bracing himself against the pressure.

Eiralyth raised both hands.

Their powers poured into the barrier.

Ifrith gritted his teeth.

"Don’t stop!"

The shield stabilized.

Barely.

Inside the storm, Theon’s body was falling from above.

His eyes were closed as NIVARETH slipped from his hand.

For a moment

everything became silent.

Then the sword moved.

NIVARETH floated upward.

Its blue light intensified.

The blade turned.

SHING!

It shot forward.

The ancient elf barely had time to react.

BOOM!

NIVARETH struck him directly then the elf crashed into the ground, ice splintering beneath him in a wide, jagged web.

The storm stopped.

The cave fell silent.

Theon slowly rose.

His hand extended.

As NIVARETH returned to him.

He caught it. Then he raised the sword.

The primordial ice throughout the domain began moving.

Every fragment.

Every pillar.

Every blade.

Every construct.

Everything gathered toward a single point.

The ancient elf looked up.

In that moment, genuine fear appeared in his eyes.

Theon spoke.

"Grand Ice Cataclysm Prison."

The world froze.

A gigantic structure of primordial ice descended from above, vast enough to blot out what little light remained in the cave.

It surrounded the ancient elf.

Walls formed.

Then another layer.

Then another.

Chains of ice wrapped around his body.

The prison sealed shut.

BOOM!

Silence.

Theon began walking toward him.

His footsteps echoed through the frozen cave.

Step.

Step.

Step.

NIVARETH rested casually in his hand.

The ancient elf looked through the ice.

"That sword..."

His voice was weak.

"That sword you hold will bring great disaster upon this world."

Theon stopped then he looked at him.

"It will only bring great disaster..."

His eyes narrowed.

"...if I let it."

The ancient elf stared at him.

And..

he smiled.

A strange, knowing smile, the kind that carried more meaning than the words behind it.

Theon said nothing.

Above them, suspended in the darkness, the woman bound in ancient chains remained completely still.

For thousands of years, she had not moved.

Not once.

Then—

her fingers twitched and Her eyelids slowly opened.

Two ancient eyes emerged from the darkness, catching what little blue light drifted up from the frozen battlefield below.

She looked down.

She saw NIVARETH.

Then she saw him.

The boy standing beneath the frozen prison.

Her lips trembled as Tears gathered in her eyes, held there for the first time in an age long enough to have no proper name.

And after countless years of silence, she finally spoke.

"You’re finally back for me..."

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"My Agapētos."