Snow's path.

Emotional and informational chapter. Started explaining the cultivation and rise in power of the world of Darsus.

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H.F.

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Snow was in the glass prison atop the pond. A week had passed since the events had unfolded. Snow was still a mindless creature, filled with bloodlust and hunger.

Strangely, the glass prison had no scratches at all. Even when Snow tried to escape. The cause might have been because snow was clad in a tight suit which locked his arms to his body. His whole body was also in a tight steel brace, making it impossible to move.

Yellow runes were spinning all over his cloths and brace.

Snow had not gotten food for a whole week, but that didn’t calm him down.

Snow was changing, he was changing back to his previous form.

An ear piercing howl erupted from the glass prison.

Grim emerged from the shade of the Oak tree. He had expected the bloodlust to fade, but didn’t expect it to last a whole week.

Grim raised his hand while chanting.

Snow’s cloths disappeared and so did the brace.

He did this so that Snow wouldn’t hurt himself as he struggled against the pain.

Snow was rolling about and ripping of his skin with his claws.

Even if he was changing back this was a lengthy process. Snow felt like his bones were shrinking and that his muscles were feeling the backlash of the power used.

A stank of roasted pig came from Snow’s skin, his skin was losing it’s color and becoming white, while his red hair and fur was set ablaze or rather it seemed that lightning was consuming all the red spots.

Strangely, his tail split into nine parts before going back inside his body. This was not the same as last time, when he felt that his mother was in grave danger, no. This time his transformation had been complete, and last time he wasn’t mature enough to manifest his powers.

Snow was feeling every part of his body changing, though some parts did not go back to what they once were. Though many of these changes were no noticeable they had mainly changed his sense. For better or worse.

Snow screamed in pain as the process was finalizing, he felt as if a burning piece of coal was pressed against the back of his head.

The transformation was finalized! however, the gate in his mind was still open, and killing intent was rushing through it.

Snow was calming down, but when the gate was closing, he felt an increasing weariness and hunger. A natural hunger, though he had lusted for blood the last week. This time it was as if he had a hollow pit instead of a stomach.

He wanted food, any food.

Grim saw that Snow had finalized his changes and he had a ‘curious’ flame burning in his eye sockets. He could feel the changes which had happened to Snow, therefore he felt that some of the changes had manifested permanently.

He could see that Snow maintained sharpened fingernail, toenail and that his teeth were unchanged, like a carnivore. Especially the last change, he wondered if this went that Snow could only eat meat now.

He also saw that the fur parts of Snow’s body had expanded, especially on the tattoos. The tattoos had expanded and moved to the arms and feet.

It looked like Snow had become an alpino as he had lost his previous tan color. Though now sights of the red color except for the eyes were present.

But even then Snow looked extremely ferocious as he couldn’t control his teeth properly and it looked like he sneered.

Grim could see the confused look on Snow’s face and he decided to release him from the glass prison.

Snow was absolutely confused. After the gate closed in his mind, he had felt embarrassed by his actions, the weird thing was that it felt like he did them willingly. It was like the anger was a part of him.

He was frightened by the actions he had done. It was like losing all of the control he had. What if he just erupted some day and murdered people who could subdue him. He would go on a rampage.

He knew that he had to do something, if he let the anger overtake he would be forever in a prison of fear. Fear not because of dangerous threats to himself, but him being a threat to everyone around him.

Suddenly his gaze was filled with gratitude when he looked at Grim, he didn’t know why that frightening creature treated him so kindly. But it was like they had a strange kinship. Not a kinship of love or friendship, but a kinship of understanding.

Snow could see the sadness on Grim’s face even if he didn’t have visible expressions. It was like they bore the same feelings of a monster.

The fear that they themselves are monsters, living in a castle of glass. Which could break at any moment.

Even if Snow didn’t know Grim very well, he could feel that Grim was extremely powerful. He also had a feeling that Grim researched something occult and dangerous.

Snow himself might be dangerous, but when looking into Grims cold burning flame, the only word he could think of was tragedy.

Even if he himself was a monster, when looking into Grims flame, he felt nothing but sympathy.

Snow had never looked this closely at another being before, not even his grandfather.

Snow picked up his tired and hungry body, before running towards Grim.

He just wanted to be embraced and loved. He knew that the only beings that he could ever feel kinship now with was other monsters.

Monsters could take different forms, be it evil humans, good or evil demonic beasts or those that simply was a threat.

Monsters would be shunned by the masses, and hunted by superstition and fear.

Monsters are regularly misunderstood, and killed for no reason other than fear.

Snow ran with his small body, and embraced Grim while crying tears of sadness and longing.

Snow had never known a mother or a father. The closest thing would be his grandfather, who had betrayed his trust. His grandfather had tried to kill him and acted as if he had done nothing wrong.

He now had a different opinion towards his grandfather, and it was no longer a feeling of love, but of fear. Snow felt powerless in front of his grandfather. Anger and powerlessness followed every time, he thought about his grandfather.

Snow was locked in a one-sided embrace with Grim. He himself cried and hugged Grim, but not the other way around.

Grim only softly laid an arm around Snow while saying “A wise man once said; ‘Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.’ Anger will never disappear from your heart as I feel that it is your legacy. But you must embrace the anger and redirect it. Let the coal become your fuel. Fuel yourself with the power, become powerful so that you can control yourself.”

Snow grasped the meaning of the profound message. He could alleviate his anger by using it for slaughter. though he would only let himself disappear in the process. But he should rather embrace the anger and try to use it in the right situations.

He would become powerful so that he could protect himself from his anger!

He would probably never become a truly righteous being, but not being a threat to everyone would be a start.

Snow had a smile on his face while tears of sadness still rolled from his eyes.

He had a purpose, he would not let his legacy win over him.

Snow brought his right hand to his nose, he took a sniff at his bracelet made from his mother's clothes. It was still intact, but only held a faint scent.

But Snow could feel the scent better than he had ever had, it was like a vivid amount of colors painting a picture in his nose. He could smell the form of his mother and the terrible condition she had been in.

He could also feel the poor quality of the cloths. Strangely he could feel a faint smell of grease from a man on the cloths, it was not as if there were grease on the bracelet, but he could smell a faint smell of sweat and grease being caught in the cloth.

Snow felt a sudden longing to see his mother. But he knew it would be impossible, he wouldn’t have other means to find her other than her smell.

However, a new world had opened to Snow, it was like seeing an entirely new world. He could smell the carps and flowers as if they were a beautiful picture on a canvas. He felt that he might have a chance with his heightened senses to find his mother someday.

Something disrupted his mind, as a different and disgusting scent filled his nose. It was like dried meat left in the sun combined with bleach. Snow could feel a strange sense of death coming from the source.

Snow quickly realised that Grim was the source. Even if Snow didn’t have such a sharp nose, he would still be able to feel the aura of Death being emitted from Grim, and he had before, but it was faint. But now it was like there was a sign, with the big letters Death over Grim.

Snow shivered slightly, before he thought of himself, and that he was practically in the same boat.

---

Snow moved away from Grim after a while. he asked Grim “What will happen next?”

Grim replied with the same eerie voice “Xivar has given me permission to train you.”

Snow just nodded.

He was okay with the situation, he would begin finally be able to resume his training. Though under a different teacher.

“When will we begin?” asked Snow with an impatient expression.

“Soon, but we will have to test out your new abilities first.” Replied Grim.

---

Snow and Grim began experimenting some of Grim’s ideas and thoughts about the extend of Snow’s changes and abilities.

They quickly found out that Snow no longer was a omnivore. They had found this out when they tried giving Snow a Potato and some other vegetables and fruits. Snow immediately either threw up or got really sick. Only meat would do. Snow was for some reason able to picture the animal or Demonic beast that the meat came from just by tasting and smelling it. Even if he hadn’t eaten that Animal before.

This however worked best when the meat was soaked in the beast's blood and was uncooked.

With a large amount of experimentation they found out that Snow could release lightning swipes from his sharpened fingernails. These lightning swipes were blue and white like normal lightning, but also much, much weaker than the crimson ones.

Though they only found this out when Snow began to cultivate his qi.

Snow had learned various things about qi from Grim. Grim had thought Snow about the origin of qi in one's body and how to move and use it.

The qi of this world is something that the practitioner will have to cultivate to rise in rank. A normal practitioner with only great muscles will only be able to rise to maximum rank D on the adventurers scale.

Qi is gained from unraveling the user's preferred magical element. This however is a lengthy process and takes a huge amount of mental and physical concentration. The requirements for rising in tiers for cultivation is linked directly to the user's ability to unravel and store the qi from the user's Magical element. The amount of magical element in the user's body is also the amount of mana they can store. Mana can be stored in the body, but the amount of storage is dependant on a lot of things.

Such as natural affinity to a specific element. The amount of training the individual has done or simply the natural capacity to store mana.

Snow has a very high natural affinity for Lightning and a slight but greater than average affinity for Fire. Though he had these affinities he was about average in all the other elements, except for Life.

As a natural killing machine he of course has a very low affinity towards Life. He might appreciate life, but he will at some point in life be a taker of lives. Therefor he is hopeless as a cultivator of Life.

Snow had just barely reached a Tier - 10 cultivation with Grim’s help. Cultivation has to be mostly done on it’s own as each individual has to show individuality and pursue power on their own. However, the concepts of cultivation can still be taught and hints can be given along the way.

Cultivation is a process where individuals has to build up experience with mana and what their element really consist of. Then they will be able to unravel the next layer of their mana which will release more energy with a higher purity. After the Qi has been released the user can use it in two ways.

The Qi can be stored temporarily in the veins, and be used as a special attack. This process consumes the Qi and the Qi has to be gathered again. This process allows incredible attacks.

The other option is to fuse the Qi with muscles or other parts of the body to strengthen them. This process is permanent, even if a limb has been regrown, the body will still send a surplus of Qi into the newly grown limb to balance its condition with the rest of the body.

This process however makes a slight overall loss in cultivation, but can be quickly regained, if a sufficient layer of unraveling mana has been reached.

When Qi is fused with the body it has to be done under extreme conditions such as training or straining the body. The user can then move some temporary Qi onto the strained locations of the body and the muscles will absorb the Qi as a form of nutrients and become stronger as a result. it’s a dirty and primitive method but it works, and no other methods has become known.

This however means that there tend to be two kinds of fighters. which can be split into more subsections.

First of all there is the fighters, these are the people who unravel Qi and use it to either store temporary Qi or fuse it with their muscles making them outstanding fighters. But it’s rare for them to use mana directly in a fight.

The second type is called the mage. A mage doesn’t really care about unraveling mana, they tend to train their mana storage capacity to unimaginable lengths. Mages use their mana directly to fight, they do this by sending different ‘spells’ of mana at their target.

Spells are an interesting term it’s actually just a way to compress and shape mana and giving it instructions.

It’s not necessary to cast spells if the user ability to use their mana has reached such heights that they can simply shape it with their minds. This makes voiceless incantations possible. However, much mana is lost when not given clear instructions this means that chanted spells have more firepower for a lower cost in mana.

Mages mostly prefer using chants, but some excellent mages will use voiceless incantations when fighting fighters.

Both classes of mana usage has drawbacks and advantages.

It’s possible to be both, but that would require an extremely sharp mind and more time on their hands than normal people. when cultivating it’s an important rule to only focus on one area, otherwise you will fall behind other people as they progress faster.

Grim had asked Snow what area he wanted to chose, but he still recommended the fighters area for Snow as his body was perfect for it. His advantage in body would only increase as he grew older. His body right now was not even ideal for practising weighted training.

The only kind of training he could do right now was practicing stances and try and unraveling mana without sufficient experience in his magical element or the storage of mana.

Storage of mana was important for mages and fighters, fighters gained a sufficient amount of storage when they turned around 8-10. This was because the natural storage of mana would increase with age. A newborn wouldn’t be able to use mana at all, but a 4 year old might be able to make sparks if he had the knowledge. But a 8 year old might be able to have enough mana to train his storage capacity and the use the increased capacity for unraveling the mana. Unraveling mana had to be a continuous process that means that any stop would make one have to start over, until their mana was full again. This process would also stop if the mana storage went dry.

But at 10-15 years old the ability to store mana would be sufficient in any kind of unraveling the only part that would be missing would be the comprehension of mana.

This also made a great divide in fighters some had the required storage for mana and could unravel a lot of mana they would hope that they could somehow reach the next layer. This was a lengthy process, but was used by most, as comprehension of mana was an extremely difficult task.

The method was just not a method which relied on mana storage, but had the requirement of a decent sized mana storage. This process relied on comprehending mana. This was only for the extremely rich with great teachers. Or the extremely experienced in mana. This cultivation method of mana usually fell to those who were mages before and decided to try the fighters method.

Grim had told Snow to use the 2nd method as he would he his teacher and he had pretty profound knowledge about mana. though he himself had to find out about the crimson lightning affinity. Grim had also sensed that Snow had gained a special kind of attribute, an attribute of bloodlust and anger. This was also something that Snow could comprehend with increased amount of bloodshed and massacre. Grim suspected that this attribute would help Snow in becoming more in control.

Though it was also risky as Snow had to not fall completely to Bloodlust. Grim speculated that this was something he had to work on as fast as possible. And be his greatest ability against going berserk.

---

Grim had decided a location for Snow training for the next few years.

Grim wanted Snow to learn survival and increase his resistance against bloodlust and anger.

While at the same time making him stronger and more mature. Even if Snow was amazingly mature at the age of 4 he still had a bit of the innocence of a child. or At least this side of him had.

Grim wanted Snow to feel the bloodshed that he would cause, from an early age. Grim also wanted to show Snow the frightening powers of a true monster. He had decided to take Snow as his first disciple and show tell him his story. Snow would be the first to know his story, but it was not for this time.

Grim asked Snow if he wanted to be his disciple. Snow quickly got onto the ground in a kneeling position, Snow then said with a steady voice “Disciple Snow greets Master Grim!”

He was no longer crying but had a slight smile on his face “Disciple Snow greets Master Grim!”

Grim replied while standing tall “Master Grim greets First disciple Snow.”

He also gave Snow a name that would fit with his new path “From now on you shall be know as Snow to your friends and comrades. But for enemies and the public, you will be know as Red Snow. This will signify the bloodshed that you will cause, and staining the pure white snow that you’ve been until now.”

Snow raised an eyebrow as he replied “I will take the name Red Snow as a proof of my legacy. Let the blood drain from those who are unworthy!” Truly cryptic words from a four year old.

But he is the champion of the Tiger of War. Even if he didn’t know it yet. And not not just any tiger of war, but an ender of life and a god of destruction for those unworthy.