Ikuta knew about the context of animals that had long disappeared because most of them had become the beast folks they all knew today . It's seen as the benefit of the core but they still had a few livestock mainly some species that failed to gain the benefits of the core and the alchemist's combined efforts .
" Really but there couldn't be any more animals right ? and wouldn't they be dead " " You can't be too sure "
Ikuta recalled that there had been a lot of demand for these ancestors of the beast folks in the black market even if they no longer exist " So what if the animals chew on Yukina ? " " They will feel fear of getting close to it "
Ikuta was surprised that they already had precautions " But I thought they didn't exist anymore " " Like we said Ikuta , you can't be too careful right now your contract with Yukina allows you to get it but anyone else is not allowed to eat whatever body part she has "
Yukina heard it and wonders if Hestia and Nyx were fine " But you can give it to others willingly it's just that the gardener and plant contract makes sure that Ikuta has to protect you so some of his dark mana is being sent to keep the pest away "
' right insects aren't extinct ' " but how does it defend Yukina ? " Louis touched the roots and darkness slashed through out of the branches .
He blocks it keeping it from damaging anything else " Like that , it basically acts as a pesticide which is dependent on the type of affinity you have if you didn't have one there won't be any pesticide "
" But didn't Claire say that they will feel fear when they get close ? " " That's what darkness is , it gives fear to others although it won't work so well on dark affinities , but it still works because your affinity is one of the highest ever recorded " Claire said " Oh but why is it a slash ? "
" Because that's what you mostly do in your training " Louis said " So it can be changed ? " " The default was slashing but you can change it if you put your mind to it " Ikuta did " Here are your drinks " Ikuta took the tumbler .
" Now be sure to call us if you have any problems we already put our numbers and names in there and there is money there to pay for your food in case you stay " " okay and I'll make sure to put in a password " Ikuta mentioned so he doesn't have to be told to do so ' But what is inside this anyways ? '
He ran to Ezio's house . He wasn't used to visiting but did whatever he did when he went to Druk's house and rang the doorbell " You're here " Ezio was tackled by his cousin " Are you Ikuta ? " The brown bull Toro asked " Yes who are you ? " " I'm Toro Ezio's dad is my uncle "
" So you are one of Ezio's older cousin " " yep " Toro's height was slightly higher than Ezio " It's nice to be the youngest " " no it's not " Toro said Ikuta was confused and recalled the biology of other species " Oh why did Ezio bully you ? " " No because I don't get to get hand me downs because I'm bigger "
Ikuta looked at Ezio who was shivering " Come inside it's cold out there " Ezio shut the door and Ikuta looked around " It's so quiet " his expectations were destroyed thinking it might be noisy .
" Nobody would visit our house because we are very crowded but since all our cousins are visiting their friends so I called you "
Ikuta looked at Toro " What about you ? " " I'm homeschooled mom said I can start school after this summer so I only know about my cousins " " At least you get to start next summer " Ezio said " I know but " Toro imagined going to school and meeting new people .
" It's okay Toro Ikuta did well going to school , he fought a mannequin on his first day " " I almost forgot about that " " Oh yeah I heard all about it can you show me your sword ? " Ikuta looked at Ezio who intercepted .
" How about you get carried by Ikuta he did break a part of the ground to block magic from the mannequin " " Oh yes lift me up " " I can do that " Ikuta crouched down and Toro jumped on him . Ikuta carried Toro up .
" Wow you are strong " " That's because I exercise everyday " Ezio took the notebooks and asked with a little bit of embarassment " Uhm Ikuta I don't get some parts can you tell me about them " " Oh sure but can we play those games you play on the same screen after ? "
Ezio instantly agreed knowing he would get bored studying all day " Hmm Ikuta what is this part anyways ? " " That was the notebooks from when I was young , I bought them to school in case I needed to add something "
Ezio was suspicious if these were part of the subject , but he thought Ikuta was paying attention " Finally I finished the book " Ezio said " bravo now you have three more to go and we still have time until lunch "
" Are you going to stay for lunch ? " Toro asked " Yep but I know how much I eat so dad gave me a phone , it has money in there to spend so I'll be eating a lot from your restaurant " " I heard you ate a lot yesterday " " I did "
" How do you do that even my oldest brother couldn't do it " " Because I need to , I have a contract with a plant so I also have to feed them " Ezio hands Ikuta a controller " Come on let's play "
...
Yukina shakes the last of her roots out of the snow and goes inside ' It's so much warmer here ' Yukina thinks of the fruits that she had offered to Hestia and wonders what Ikuta had planned to do for Hestia .
' I wonder if I could make one for her ' Yukina checked the fire mana she had absorbed from her contract with Ikuta " Let's see " She did her best and made a fruit " Great " she plucked the fruit out and turned to the fire .
" I should write a note for her " Yukina grabbed some pen and paper leaving the fruit at a corner of the table " Huh where did it go " She couldn't find the fruit and thought it rolled out ,
" My note " She grabs the note that fly and finds the window open , irritated by this she shuts it and searches for her fruit . She peeked under the fridge and couch but found nothing " I don't think there is a bug that can carry it right ? "
She checks the surroundings and senses a life " Hmm ? " She follows the signal and catches a squirrel " An animal " " Ahh let me go " She felt familiar hearing the voice .
" Ratatoskr " " Ahh yes that's me please don't kill me " Yukina was conflicted what to do with Ratatoskr because the squirrel was the one that could easily run away if she let go now .
Ratatoskr looked at Yukina and reached to cut the branches off . But dark threads wrapped around Ratatoskr tying his body and keeping him from moving " Ahhh " Yukina thought someone might find him and took the squirrel to the attic where she kept him quiet .
' If he is here does that mean that Nidhogg and Vedrfolnir are alive ' " Are you Yggdrasil ? " Ratatoskr asked " I'm sorry for eating some of your fruits but it's not like I ate your body or children after all those were rare right ? " " What happened to Nidhogg and Vedrfolnir ? " " Uhm you don't remember ? "
Yukina continued asking either way " do you know what happened to them ? " " They died don't you remember that ? " " No I don't Yggdrasil died don't you remember that ? " Ratatoskr was surprised " What really ? " " Yeah what do you think happened ? " " I thought Yggdrasil moved so who are you then ? "
" I'm Yukina did you think I was Yggdrasil ? " " Yeah the fruit you had smelled just like what Yggdrasil made " " I don't want to do with you Ikuta isn't even at home " " Uhm can I go ? " " No you ate my food so you should pay for it " " What ? But Yggdrasil let me eat her fruits for free "
" I'm not Yggdrasil and you aren't that important that I give you a fruit for free " " Come on just this once let me go I'll pay you in the future " " No "
Yukina left him and spoke to herself ' I can't even let him go if I wanted to ' Ikuta's spinning wheel made the dark threads so Yukina had no control over them .
She looked at the bitten fruit and decided to not send it to Hestia " I should ask Ikuta what to do when he gets home later " " I WIIIIINNNN " Ezio yelled " Finally I won a game out of Ikuta "
Said as if he had tears in his eyes " Uhhh Ikuta why are you so good at mini games ? " " I just hope I didn't break the controller " " Don't worry it can handle a bull's strength " Toro bragged .
Toro said confidently ' I could play better if I had my controllers ' " Time to study Ezio " Ikuta wondered if he might be neglecting Yukina and called the house on the phone " Hello ? " " Yukina are you bored ? " " No but I found Ratatoskr " " You mean the real one ? " Ikuta went away from Ezio .
" Yeah he's tied in the attic right now " " Okay you can leave him there , do you need anything else ? " " I wanted to offer Hestia something but he already bit the fruit I made " " There is a basket of fruit at the table that you can use " " But she's a goddess isn't that disrespectful ? "
Ikuta thinks of it and checks the black market " okay I'll think of something " " Ikuta what does this mean " Ikuta teaches Ezio while Toro waited and asked " Who's Yukina ? " " She's the plant that I have a contract with right now I'm feeding her life force from the food I ate "
" Oh I know this , this is the contract that elves have so that their plants can grow right ? " Ikuta nodded " But Yukina grows much faster because I have a lot of lifeforce to give but now I have to eat more so that I can feed her "
" What kind of tree is Yukina ? " " She's a rare tree and all her branches spread out through the house " Toro imagines what the house looks like with branches spreading around it " So what kind of fruits does she make ? "
" Depends on what I eat , just this morning I ate a lot of spicy food that had plenty of fire mana and she made a fruit with the fire mana but she could also make one out of the ice mana because it's winter right now "
" What about your affinity ? I heard that elves' nature affinity is what feeds their plants " " It's dark affinity but she doesn't feed on it probably because it's darkness ? I'm not sure " " Cool you have the dark affinity , I heard that it's rare "
" Yeah I think you got it from that mannequin at school " Ezio said " I did dad was the one who thought about it too " Toro looked at Ikuta and his long dark hair " Why do you have long hair ? " " I never cut it at all "
" Really ? " Ikuta nodded and Toro wondered about his hair " How do you tie it ? Mom doesn't have hair like you " " I just tie it like a ponytail but Nisse knew how to do more so she ties it even differently "
" Oh that elf girl I remember her she likes to eat barbeque a lot " " Ikuta help " " Let me see " Ikuta continues to help while thinking about the food he should offer to Hestia . Toro watched the TV seeing the advertisements for good fruits .
" I kinda want fruit " Toro said and Ikuta watched it thinking about the location ' It's kinda far and I don't really know how to get a ticket ' he didn't want to do that and asked the duchess but heard no answer .
' I do have that magic from the cultist best to start from there ' he studies programming from the store clerk and helps Ezio while entertaining Toro and eventually has to have lunch . Toro was amazed at watching Ikuta eat through a giant bowl .
" Wow , I wish I could eat that much " " You will have to exercise that much too " they finished lunch and walked back to Ezio's house " Aren't you cold ? " " I had training under a cold waterfall " " Your house must be very big " Toro said .
" Nope , it's not that big I just had to move to another place to train my body like that tall waterfall nearby ? " " Oh I remember that Dad was watching the news that day I remember that whoever owned that mountain got lucky and earned plenty of money from getting the hot springs that came out of nowhere "
' That sounds familiar ' Ikuta tries to remember that day " I remember that dad told me to train there " " Really ? " Ezio asked turning back to Ikuta " Yeah one time I had to cover myself with so much blanket he told me I should go train under a waterfall at that mountain "
" So you own the mountain where the springs opened ? " " No my father owns it , I only trained under the giant waterfall " " Doesn't that hurt I heard that people failed to do that challenge before the spring appeared "
" Not at all " Ikuta scooped out snow on the sidewalk hearing a truck push it and some kids excitedly " Because I got used to the cold " Ikuta rolled the snow with his bare hands " Oh I wanna build a snowman "
" Okay " Ezio said not wanting to go study without having a bit of fun on this very snowy day .
Ezio and Toro rolled their snow while Ikuta thought about that waterfall ' How did it become a hotspring ? ' he thought it might have something to do with him but either way , he decided to investigate .
A cultist was moved to the spring while Ikuta was building snowmans , the cultist entered the spring ' Now I have to find the location of the source ' he felt ice and fire mana in the spring but no water mana , he thought about the possible connections between these two mana's presence in the hotspring .
' I'm pretty sure you get hot springs from underground so is there supposed to be a hole from the water source for that waterfall ' He remembered that Claire and Louis told him that his training facility involved hot water and cold whenever he trained his resistance that alternated with some technology they both told him about to get him to focus .
He moved the dark eye into the waterfall he used to train and avoided looking down ' Wow that's amazing ' Ezio looked at Ikuta who continued rolling the snowball into a boulder . The dark eye goes inside and what was inside the cave amazed Ikuta .
He recalled the creation story of Norse Mythology ' Muspelheim and Niflheim ' he felt a sense of familiarity feeling Niflheim's ice and Muspelheim's flames .
' It's the same as the food I ate and the current winter ' a block of ice and a fire floated beside each other with the melting ice making the spring water . he couldn't see beyond the ice and fire as one was too bright and the other had too many crystals forming .
Ikuta imagined that is how his father had brought winter to the world using the block of ice ' Why did dad do that ? ' his father had so many different possible intentions whether it be his greed driving him or other intentions " Hey Ikuta shouldn't you stop "
Ikuta turned his attention to the snowball he made " Uhm I'm trying to make the biggest snowman " Ikuta got another ball rolling and thought of the purpose of bringing winter ' Winter is one thing but why would Dad do that ? '
He knew it was complicated and wondered if he could ask his father and remembered Hestia ' Maybe I can ask her more about any survivors or maybe just dad ' He opened his phone and called his dad " Hey dad uhm is our money good "
" Oh stop asking that question kid , you aren't even a teenager you should worry about whether you could beat level one not worry about money , dad's got it handle " " I will keep worrying unless you tell me you are doing well "
" Fine the money is okay a lot of people are visiting the hot springs so you can still go shopping and buy as much as you did during your first one , just make sure your screen time isn't too much or I'll have to screen lock your phone cause it's unhealthy " " okay dad "
Ikuta looked at the snow boulder he made and lifted it to gently put it on the bigger one " Wow " Ikuta created some darkness and squeezed it as hard as he could using it as eyes . Now people can see a giant snowman as big as a two-storey house .
" I don't think there's a carrot for the nose " Toro said " It's okay , everyone knows it's a snowman " Ikuta said looking at the eyes he made " Come on hurry inside even if you can't feel cold if you breathe too much ice mana you might have to stay at the heater too long " Ezio said .
Ikuta thinks about the ice mana that he has and wonders if he has to worry about that too " Ikuta what's this ? " " Toro it's not nice to get people's things " Ezio scolded Toro " I know but it was just lying on the table "
" It's how to get an ice affinity , dad sent it to me hoping I could get one " " But isn't this hard ? " Ezio said .
" No , it's actually easier for someone who has no affinity , there was a book on how to get affinities and it says that those without it can get it more easily because those with affinities already have theirs deeply ingrained , it's like I'm a blank paper while you are a used paper with lots of words "
" Ohh that makes sense " Ezio and Toro said " But I have to be able to have my dark affinity and my ice affinity together which wouldn't be that hard since they are kinda similar in a way " " but if you get ice won't it be hard to get fire affinity ? " Ezio asked .
" I've been reading it for a while so I should at least try to get ice I'll think about fire later it's not like dad gave me any books about it " " You are gonna get an affinity ? "
Toro asked surprised " Yep I already practiced a lot moving mana , the book said it's safer the more I understand and know how to move mana around my body so Ezio you'll just have to mark what you don't know later "
" Can I watch ? " Ikuta thinks about it " Sure just stay inside " Toro wonders why and Ikuta starts to attain the affinity . He feels his body and the cold mana in each cell he turns outside his body and feels the ice mana through it .
Every breath he took was accompanied by a little bit of the cold mana , he thought of how he could store it remembering how the dark magic he inherited came into him as a shape ' Since it's ice maybe I should make it like how dad squeezed the Niflheim into a block of ice .
He took deeper breathes absorbing more of the cold mana and opened his dark eye at the source of the hot spring ' I may as well copy what Niflheim feels like ' he saw how the cold mana circulates in Niflheim and moved the ice mana and formed a cube .
He changed the way they moved mimicking Niflheim , he assumed it would be hard but as he imitated it closely to Niflheim it got easier and easier ' Hmm what ? ' he felt confused and more of the ice mana gathered into him .
' Is this happening because I made it just like Niflheim's cold mana circulation ' He already went so far and accepted this opportunity . Ice mana surged into his body trying to enter what was once where they belonged .
He felt like he could die if it wasn't for the training he used to have at the waterfall made by the realm of ice or the enchanted clothes he currently has ' Claire really helped and thanks dad for that training ' the ice mana flowed through his body without damaging it .
And as for his breath , he was expelling some of the ice mana and compared that the mana he breathed out wasn't like the ice mana that entered his body ' Is this the primordial ice of Niflheim ? '
He breathed out the ice mana and Primoirdial ice surged into his body attracted to the cube that served as his source of affinity . He gasped out a white breath and felt the cube along with the affinity of darkness .
" I did it " Ikuta stretched his body and looked around . There was less snow but he did feel it " So what happens ? " Toro asked , Ikuta smiled and like before he summoned a katana " Yep it works "
He remembers the brittleness that could break it and made a broader sword " Wow " Toro clapped his hands " Wait let me touch it " While Toro went to get dressed Ikuta checked the dark eye and observed how Muspelheim's fire mana still present along with the ice of Niflheim .
He checks his dark affinity and wonders if he could use both at the same time ' Fire made ice easier to mold but ice and darkness are both hard to use in the first place but at least Ice keeps its form while darkness doesn't . '
He looked at the snowman and the eyes he made " let's try that " he observed how fire mana entered the ice and melted it yet there was still some of the ice mana . He made darkness seep into ice and watched it freeze .
" Hmm it doesn't work " he created a snowflake and tried to combine the darkness into it only to color the ice black instead of doing anything " Wow that looks amazing " Toro said and Ikuta nodded .
" But it doesn't seem very useful , using the dark affinity and just makes it like this " Ikuta made two balls one with pure ice and the other was both " Toro stand back " Ikuta waited for Toro to be somewhere safe and smashed the two together .
" Hmm " He held the ball that has both " Why is this harder ? " " Because my dark affinity is high enough to manifest darkness as a hard material " ' So it's only because of that ' " That was loud I'm sure the neighbors heard that "
" I'll apologize if they complain " Ikuta said ' I guess the ice affinity isn't as high as the duchess's affinity if it loses to hers , but it's new so I can make it better ' " Wanna make a bigger snowman ? "
" Yeah " Ezio looked outside jealous and his phone rang " Hello ? " " Ezio is your friend going to eat at the restaurant ? " " Didn't he already eat everything " " I told your cousin to come home and buy more . "
Ezio thinks about Ikuta " Ikuta do you want to eat at my family's restaurant ? " Ikuta thinks about his father who was taking advantage of his contract , he was reasonably annoyed about what his father did and felt like it was just right to do so .
" Didn't I order everything on the menu " " Uncle he said he already tried everything " " Tell him we have another menu " " We do ? " " Yes it's only for customers who can't find what they want on the usual menu "
" Ikuta uncle said he would let you try the secret menu " " You have a secret menu ? " " Yeah " His uncle tells him more to tell Ikuta " He says there's more food you get to try " " Okay I'll go " Ikuta was curious on what kind of food he gets to eat and ate at the restaurant
...
Ryela walks to a meeting with her other colleagues to address the sudden winter " We have found that someone had released the frost of Niflheim " They talked about how it was possible when Yggdrasil was gone .
" I believe that my target has it " Ryela showed the evidence and explained how it was obtained " I will still keep the responsibility of this case , but I don't believe it's him , however , I've found that he has obtained the ice affinity . "
Ryela showed more information connecting Ikuta to the recent events " He received plenty of books from his father , he even obtained the affinity for ice but the most important part was that he obtained an affinity took the frost from Niflheim "
She showed the data obtained from another department " Should we contact the manager about his child ? " Ryela thinks of how Ikuta doesn't want to get caught by his father .
" I believe that would be hard to reach , after all the abyss manager is profiting out of his connection to the abyss but you wouldn't be successful after all , he wouldn't believe it "
Ryela was worried if this was the right move to keep Ikuta's father from knowing Ikuta's actions .
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