Kyrian felt as if he were surrounded by darkness. He couldn’t move, speak, hear, or touch.
Even his thoughts seemed slow, but he knew he wasn’t dead yet. He was sensing something. A faint connection to something he didn’t understand.
But it was there, it was familiar. Something that had always been with him since before he was born. Since he had come into being.
But now it was different. It was...
"Icy?"
At that moment, something changed.
From his eyes, empty, colorless, with irises that had never shown a sign of appearing,
Something emerged from the depths of the pupils.
Ripping from within, a snowflake appeared, forming two irises in his eyes.
And at that moment, something seemed to respond.
The ice that covered his body cracked.
His heart began to beat again. Air entered his lungs like a knife. Kyrian’s consciousness suddenly returned to his body.
"AAAAAAAAHAHHA!!!" Kyrian awoke, screaming with all his strength, vomit coming with the desperation.
A hoarse roar echoed across the empty snowy plains.
Kyrian didn’t think of anything, he just breathed, breathed deeply with all he could.
His heart, which had stopped, began pumping blood through his body again. And the cold finally disappeared completely.
So completely that, in fact, the wind hitting his body no longer felt cold at all.
Five minutes passed until Kyrian felt the haze of pain clouding his brain dissipate.
He then looked at his arm and his body. He was completely fine.
He clenched his fingers and opened them normally, letting out a sigh.
"I... survived."
Kyrian said as he closed his eyes, laughing like a madman.
It was a childish smile. But completely crazy. It was, truly, the first time he had laughed this much. The only person who had ever made him feel this way was his mother.
But Kyrian was genuinely happy. And how could he not be...
He opened his eyes again.
His mind was clearer than ever, as if feeling an eternal breeze. Along with this, knowledge emerged as he awoke.
Knowledge about something he had never imagined possible.
The cold. It no longer hurt him.
Now, everything seemed sharper to him, not just in his vision.
It applied to all his senses. The snow was not just snow, each flake followed a certain path, obeying something. The ice was not just ice.
Kyrian did not know the name. But he knew how to use what he had learned.
What he learned from the tiny fragment he had stolen from the massive translucent blue barrier he could now see in front of him.
He felt that he could make the air wherever he looked heavy and cold enough to suffocate someone. He could move in the same rhythm as the snow present there and vanish silently.
It was instinct and knowledge. Not some technique.
He slowly turned to the barrier.
It pulsed, cold and alive.
Kyrian tilted his head slightly in respect, letting his smile open even wider.
"I thank you!" Little Kyrian said with all his heart.
Not to the barrier itself. But to whoever it was, whoever had created this barrier.
He was so excited that he simply started running. But this time, it was different, his feet no longer sank into the snow like before.
He felt like a snowflake guided by the cold and the wind.
He was no longer physically stronger.
But he knew that if he faced his past self, he could kill him without the other understanding what happened.
It was the knowledge he now possessed. Knowledge about something whose name he would soon discover.
...
Kyrian ran through the snow for several minutes, enjoying himself until he flopped into it.
"So, what do I do now?"
"Staying here won’t work anymore. I can’t see anything in the barrier I can absorb, I think this is the limit for now."
’I also can’t cross the barrier, if I try, I’ll really freeze to death.’
Kyrian thought as he picked up one of the nearby particles and brought it to his eyes.
"This hasn’t reached its limit yet... I really need information. What I absorbed this time is clearly not the same as the particles."
"I should go see Rurik. And then leave this place."
"Explore the world until I can meet those who have the information I need. That is the path." Kyrian decided.
He stood up and ran again.
His feet slid over the snow, his speed was far greater than when running on land, more than double.
He felt he could reach the village in no time and only stopped when he arrived there.
He stopped at his mother’s grave.
"Mother, now I am certain that there is a way to become so strong that ordinary human strength would be considered a joke."
"And now I will pursue it. Thank you again. Goodbye, mother." Kyrian said with a small smile.
And then he ran toward the city of Falk.
’Maybe I’ll arrive in about four days.’
Kyrian thought.
...
Kyrian left the frozen land after six days, stopping occasionally to test the things he had learned from the fragment.
Also, to avoid starving...
Now that he had left the frozen land, he felt slightly worse. Actually, he was normal, but he didn’t have that comfort he always felt when he was in the snow and ice.
’Hmm, well, I expected it to be like this.’ Kyrian thought as he washed himself in a stream in the forest of yellow trees.
He then looked at his reflection.
His face was still the same. Childish, pale, and truly beautiful. After all, he had inherited it from his mother.
Kyrian raised his hand to his eyes.
Now, they had completely changed as he had imagined they would.
’Well... I guess now people will look at me even stranger. But... this is really beautiful. Mother, if you saw this, you would praise it, wouldn’t you?’ Kyrian asked, looking at his eyes.
His pupils had transformed into an extremely light sky-blue, and at the center, finally, two irises appeared.
They transformed, they were two snowflakes. Not very large, but anyone looking would obviously notice.
’Well, I’ll just stand out even more. Not that I care.’ Kyrian thought before getting dressed and heading toward the city of Falk.
...
A few days later, he arrived. The city was the same.
As he approached the gate with his spears on his back, the two guards he knew immediately bowed.
"Welcome back, Vice-Captain Kyrian!" they said together.
"Hmm, how long has it been since I left?" Kyrian asked calmly.
"Six months, sir. And Captain Rurik asked me to inform you that as soon as you returned, you should go see him immediately." One of the soldiers said.
"Yes, and judging by the captain’s expression, it seemed really urgent. But it’s good news rather than bad because he looked genuinely happy." The other soldier added.
Kyrian was curious and entered the city.
He walked quickly, and many people greeted him along the way, while he merely nodded.
None of them mentioned his eyes, although they noticed and looked. Kyrian also didn’t feel fear or disgust, only curiosity.
It seemed this city truly respected him.
He soon reached the barracks, where again the two guards bowed. Kyrian merely nodded and went straight to the courtyard, where he heard the sounds of clashing weapons.
And there he was.
Captain Rurik is giving lessons to this year’s recruits.
He approached calmly, but the novices saw him and immediately stopped training. The captain was about to yell at them, but they all bowed slightly.
"Welcome, Vice-Captain Kyrian."
Upon hearing this, Rurik turned quickly. Seeing Kyrian’s face, his smile widened as he ran toward him, slapping his shoulders several times.
Kyrian noticed that as he grew stronger, Rurik’s slaps became heavier on his shoulders. And he knew Rurik did it on purpose.
"You finally returned, little brat. I thought you’d never come back." Rurik said, slightly irritated.
But Kyrian knew he was joking.
It was then that Rurik looked at Kyrian’s eyes. He took two steps back, studying them closely.
"Boy. What the hell are those eyes?" Rurik said loudly, bending slightly and looking directly into Kyrian’s eyes.
"I don’t know exactly either, so don’t ask. Some things happened, and now they’re like this. But I already told you, don’t swear in front of the kids." Kyrian said calmly.
The children, in this case, were not him, but the novices standing behind Rurik at that moment.
"Tch. Again with this, brat? The recruits are already adults once they turn sixteen. You should worry about yourself." Rurik sighed.
"EVERYONE, CONTINUE TRAINING UNTIL YOU ALMOST DIE. IF I COME BACK HERE AND ANY OF YOU ARE LAZY, EVERYONE WILL SUFFER TOGETHER!" Rurik shouted authoritatively.
"UNDERSTOOD, CAPTAIN RURIK!" they all shouted and resumed fighting.
"Great, the soldiers now have more desire to learn. So bandits won’t disturb everyone’s lives again, isn’t that good?"
"Well, follow me to my office, something important for you has arrived. Something you will really like." Rurik added with a mysterious smile.