Rivers of the Night

Chapter 833: Cold

The light of dawn barely peeked over the horizon.

Theron sat in silence, Lyra’s head on his lap. He found himself absentmindedly stroking her hair, a light smile on his face.

Her timing was pretty good—so good he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. Looking at her peaceful, sleeping face, he felt a similar peace.

It was odd. He couldn’t remember the last time he had had someone come and comfort him. So focused on holding up all his burdens on his own, he wasn’t even sure how he should be feeling right now.

But maybe he didn’t have to give a logical explanation to everything there was. Part of him still couldn’t help but wonder if she had come to his side after reading his mind or something.

She couldn’t have possibly known what he had just experienced with Ameridia or what happened with that. Or maybe the answer was a lot simpler than he was giving it credit for. Maybe…

She just wanted to spend time with him.

The day he met Lyra, he had already known her to be someone so bright and full of spirit. Even when he noticed that she had been so restrained and suffocated by the restraints placed on her by her family, she had always had that same glowing smile.

The Gold Resonance Saber she gave him to fight with the day they met wasn’t worth much to Theron now, but to Lyra, who had been cut off by her family, this was probably the only wealth she had had.

Yet she had given it to a stranger she had only just met because of a responsibility she felt as a senior sister.

There were too few people with such bright souls in the world.

Theron brushed her hair back and she nestled into his thigh further, smiling contently.

Alpha had often comforted Theron in the last more than year, but this felt different for some reason.

“You’re not very good at hiding.” Theron said calmly. He didn’t look up from Lyra, but he spoke out into the darkness as though he was speaking to the wind itself.

There was no reply to Theron’s words, but he didn’t seem to be moved or embarrassed by it. He just continued to stroke Lyra’s hair in silence.

After a long while, he slowly pulled himself out from under her. She frowned in her sleep, but his gentleness eventually got her back to a sound silence.

Theron stood and stretched, his back cracking. His neck shifted from side to side, and he took a deep breath.

When he exhaled, it felt like a breeze swept by the whole forest, trees swaying as their dense canopies rustled.

SHIIIIIING.

Theron vanished even as the blade’s echo hung in the air.

PENG.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

In the skies, streaks of white and crimson collided against one another, making it look almost as colorful as day. Theron didn’t need to look up to know that Alpha had attacked. As for who Alpha had attacked…

It was none other than the snow fox Kenton had rode on.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Theron crossed blades with the white-robed young master of the Stillveil.

For a moment, it looked as though Theron was fighting against an invisible current, but as blades of sword light rippled out in all directions and the trees suffered deep gashes from their residual clash alone, the outline of Kenton’s body became clearer and clearer until he couldn’t hide anymore.

The two separated and Theron landed softly on the ground.

‘His outward showing is that of a Higher King. But something is hidden deeper.’ Theron was a bit confused.

His senses were extremely powerful, about as powerful as the weakest Transcendents. So, there were only two ways that Theron would be confused.

Either Kenton was using an extremely powerful treasure, or he was using a method too obscure or complex for Theron to immediately understand.

The idea that Kenton was actually just a powerful Transcendent was immediately dismissed by Theron, because the first people to see through this would have been Ameridia’s legion.

At best, Kenton was a Saint. An extremely powerful one, but a Saint nonetheless.

‘Wait.’

Theron’s eyes narrowed.

Kenton was a Soul Mancer. So why was the air so chilly?

In fact, now that he thought about it, Bamby was also a Soul Mancer, but his aura was so hot.

Then he remembered how Daisy had said the Stillveil and Kindled Clans were closely related.

Kenton didn’t say a single word, brandishing a white steel sword with dancing silk strands extending from its hilt. The world warped and suddenly Theron found himself stuck in an expanse of white.

The entire scene changed and a chill crept into his bones. Theron had never felt so cold in his life.

He had never experienced a feeling like this before, not when one of his original Mandate Paths was quite literally the Chilling Path. It felt like this cold was etching itself into his very soul itself. And yet, it wasn’t an illusion, not like one would expect from a Soul Mancer.

Only Spirit Mancers could influence the soul of someone else to begin with. Soul Mancers gave of their souls while Spirit Mancers took. That was why the former were alchemists, blacksmiths, controllers of treasures, while the latter were the Necromancers and Beast Tamers of the world.

That was to say that only Spirit Mancers could cast an illusion to directly influence someone else. Soul Mancers could replicate something like this, but they would have to rely on a treasure or a potentially residual effect of something else they were affecting.

This meant one thing…

This cold was real.

And it was coming directly from Kenton’s soul itself.

Whatever cold Kenton had managed to master was far beyond Theron’s own by several orders of magnitude.

In an instant, ice crystals were already forming on Theron’s brows, latching onto his joints and slowing their movement considerably.

But Kenton wasn’t going to wait for him to break it, as the latter had already moved, his sword appearing before Theron in an instant.