Chapter 10: Sin

The cold feeling quickly began to spread throughout my body before I could even react.

All my efforts were useless.

In the end, I couldn't win…

“What is this?”

Amanda's voice suddenly brought me back to the current situation.

Her sudden surprised scream helped me open my eyes, but it took me long seconds to adjust my view to finally see her face filled with incomprehension.

I failed to understand why she was making such a face until I saw her magic.

The water that stemmed from her hand had stopped moving.

I didn’t understand, but my eyes followed the trail to my left hand, which was tied by her magic.

The once blue water that was circling around my wrists and moving almost like a living creature was now paler and immobile.

I stared at my hand then the other and finally turned my eyes toward my feet, only to see them trapped in a prison of ice.

It wasn’t possible to create ice with only Primordial magic, but I didn't have the time to care about that. I created an earth spear to destroy the ice tentacle around my neck.

*Bam*

The tentacle of ice immediately shattered.

I coughed a bit before finally catching my breath.

“Sacred magic!”

The voice echoing in the clearing made everything clear to me.

I didn’t know how, but I was just able to use the Sacred magic of ice.

I had no idea how something like that was possible as nobody had ever taught me this kind of magic.

While I was still confused, I felt mana beginning to gather in her other hand.

Still in a dazed state, I reacted on instinct by injecting my mana into my shackles. I was attempting to enhance the influences of the ice. After a few seconds, the ice began to spread at a moderate pace toward her.

I was surprised when I saw it was working but I didn't have the leisure to hesitate.

I didn't lose more time and immediately tried to speed up this phenomenon by amplifying to the limit the amount of mana of my magic.

The ice covered her tentacles of water and quickly enveloped her hands.

I stopped pouring my mana when I saw that she was unable to make use of them to cast other magic.

I didn’t know how but the sudden appearance of this Sacred magic saved me.

It was my victory. I just had to kill him while Amanda was still encased in that ice.

I broke the ice trappings my legs with earth magic.

My head was a little dizzy because of the large amount of mana I used in a short time.

I glared at Arthur Waldemar who was still on the ground with an incredulous look on his face.

It was time to end this.

“Sillath!”

I turned my gaze to look at her. However, when I realized what was happening, I was so shocked that I was unable to react.

The ice wasn't stopping.

It just kept expanding.

Her arms were already completely trapped inside.

“Do you want to kill me too? Please, Sillath stop it!”

Her voice was clearly desperate and filled with fright.

“I-I don’t know what is happening. I stopped pouring mana as soon…”

As I was pleading, I finally understood what was happening.

I already poured too much mana. The magic was already triggered, it was just that the ice was forming slowly. Just like other magic, once created, it wasn't possible to directly cancel it.

I rushed to her side.

Using fire magic, I tried to melt the ice, but it was no use.

My fire magic wasn’t nearly strong or even fast enough for that.

It would have been different if I had mastered the first barrier magic, but that wasn’t the case.

The ice surrounded her chest and was spreading on her legs and neck.

She was having troubles catching her breath.

“Sillath! Help…me…” Her voice was slowly weakening as the ice continued to expand.

“Amanda!” I screamed as I put all my mana into my fire magic.

I felt dizzy.

I knew that I was reaching my limit.

However, it wasn’t enough. Instead of melting, the ice began to cover my hands as well.

I refused to accept it even if I knew deep inside me what was happening.

The ice couldn’t be stopped.

Not anymore.

I could only watch helplessly as Amanda's beautiful face continued to grow paler while her long black hair slowly began to freeze.

“Sillath… Help…”

The ice finally covered her beautiful face, trapping forever the words she was trying to say.

It was over.

She couldn’t be saved anymore.

I fell to my knees, unable to realize what had just happened.

"It can’t be… I killed her?... How? Why?”

My head was filled with painful questions as I stared at the block of ice still growing around her.

“AHHHHHHH!”

I couldn’t suppress my screams anymore.

Tears were flowing from my eyes continuously.

“You killed her?”

This man’s voice changed my focus. I turned my gaze away from her only to see him standing up. His elegant clothes were already tainted with his own blood, but he didn't seem to care.

“It’s alright Sillath, it’s not your fault. Sacred magic is hard to control. Don’t worry I will be here to help you in the future.”

I couldn't understand what I was hearing.

“What are you saying?”

I clenched my fists covered with ice as strong as I could. The cold prevented me from feeling my nails piercing into my palms.

“Wasn’t she your lover? Why are you talking as if it had nothing to do with you? WHY?”

“Don’t worry Sillath. You’re more important to me than her. Let’s just forget everything that happened.”

My sorrow quickly turned to anger as I watched his irritable face.

I never despised someone as much as him.

His eyes were gleaming.

This man wasn’t sad nor afraid.

He was happy like a child unwrapping his presents for his birthday.

“She loved you. She chose you. So why? Why do you say it doesn’t matter?”

“It can’t be helped! You’re my grandson while she wasn’t able to give me an heir. With your Sacred magic, the Waldemar house will shake the entire continent. We will once again rise to…”

I couldn’t bear to hear his words anymore.

My exhausted body almost moved on its own. In an instant, I rushed to him as fast as I could and kicked him in his stomach.

The violent impact made him fall backward heavily on the ground.

I didn't lose any time and got on top of him with my small hands covered in blood aiming for his neck.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

I squeezed his neck as hard as I could. However, in the end, the hands of a child were not made to take lives.

I wasn’t strong enough to choke him.

I couldn’t use magic anymore either. My mana pool had already been depleted after all. I knew that if I tried using anymore magic I would just end up unconscious.

My physical strength wasn't enough to restrain him either. After a few seconds of a violent struggle, I felt my grip on his neck weakening and his body beginning to push me away.

“Sillath, stop this....”

His voice was almost inaudible with my hands around his neck, but he was still able to mutter a few words before pushing me to the side with his entire strength.

I rolled on the ground while he was coughing and gasping for breath.

“Sillath, I just want…”

I couldn’t stand his voice.

In this instant, I couldn’t think of anything else except that I wanted him to shut up.

I rushed once more and punched him in the face.

The impact between his head and the ice on my hand created a disturbing noise.

I kept hitting him.

Again and again.

This regular sound replaced his voice.

I continued hitting him until the ice encasing my hands shattered.

After a few minutes, Arthur Waldemar wasn't making any noise anymore. I only stopped my onslaught when I wasn't able to raise my arms.

The entire clearing was finally quiet.

Only the sound of my own breathing could be heard.

After catching my breath, as if waking up from a trance, I realized what just happened.

I killed my Grandfather.

I realized what I just did, but strangely I didn't feel any shame or disgust after taking his life.

Maybe I didn't truly realize.

The blood spreading around his crushed head almost seemed surreal.

I killed him, but in this instant, I didn't care about him anymore.

I finally stood up to get away from the pool of blood that was rapidly increasing in size.

The anger burning inside me like a wild beast a moment ago was already gone. A cold feeling had already replaced it. My heart was cold as if it was trapped in the ice in front of me.

I didn’t look back.

My gaze was fixed on this beautiful and eternal prison of ice engulfed by the rays of the sun.