The moonlight blue slimes were pretty interesting, later I shall try something similar with the moon blight specters. Unlike the slimes they will probably die inside my dungeon due to the amount of necrotic mana, unless I find some solution, perhaps try to give them necrotic resistance?

Actually there may be another way, but that’s for later. For now Merlin is deeply staring at the heart of frost and if looks could kill…actually his looks can kill people.

“You know what? Let’s skip the banter for now. Do it!“

Merlin turns to look at my voice array. “Do what? I cannot activate this.”

“I was talking to myself.“ Totally, factually true.

I take a closer look at the altar, just to make sure everything is in place. It has slight differences from the one before, besides being made of ice. One of them is the large circular array around it, there is one on the ceiling and one on the ground. There are also a multitude of thin half-silver mithril needles all over the altar and a few more pricking the heart, specifically on the thin tendrils of black mana spread on its surface like veins.

The heart of frost is not an actual heart, by that I mean it is a figure of a heart made of frost, not an actual functioning heart.

It has a single large crack where Merlin’s necrotic energy broke through and the black veins spread from it.

“The energy from this one shouldn't be too dangerous so you can watch it closely.”

Saying that, I immediately begin.

The altar activates, I can almost feel the shift in the room as it becomes more aligned with ice and positive mana. My necrotic energy weakens and the temperature of the room drops.

My mana is being purified slowly, it feels more lethargic too, as if slowed down or sapped of momentum. It expands from the heart outwards consuming more and more of the room, each time eating more of my mana, transforming it into a soft and cold radiance, a mixture of sheer cold and brilliant light.

It stops expanding when it hits my containing array, and it starts to grow in power instead of size. Merlin reaches out and puts his index finger past the array barrier. In less than a second, his crystal skin cracks and bursts into bright purple snowflakes, which quickly lose their color and become transparent. His black bony finger endures for about 2 seconds before it starts to deform, frozen spikes and rods erupt from the digit, cutting and rupturing it apart.

I watch as they travel upwards, exploding out of his hands, before the ice leaves the array Merlin plunges his hand deep within the array and causes it to explode.

A black plume of bone dust and crystal shards rushes from him like dark clouds on a sunny day. The plume finds resistance from the frozen mana, the pressure too great for it, the plume swirls around itself and condenses for a second, becoming more crystalline.

Then it explodes again, this time with more force, but before it can expand it is mercilessly sapped of its speed.

I watch as once again the pressure of the ice and light mana squeezes into the necrotic mana and purifies it.

Merlin looks down at his, well, his lack of a right hand, then he lifts his left one.

“Are you really going to do that again?” I ask him. Merlin stops, like a kid that is about to put his hand into something dangerous. I can almost see his eyes glittering with a child’s innocence, there is also the fact that I can feel his thoughts wondering what exactly he should say.

I leave him to it while I take a closer look at the heart.

Everything seems fine, the array is containing the advance of this radiant frost very well. Not that I actually need it, I could very easily contain it myself with my mana, buuuuut I am also afraid that may or may not mess up the experiment somehow.

Speaking of the experiment, I will take a closer look at it. The heart is sitting there in the altar looking pretty, prettier actually, the dark veins plaguing it are slowly disappearing. Now the idea is to make the heart become neutral again, not necrotic or radiant, so I have to be careful not to overdo it.

“Yes?” Merlin says, after a lot of thinking.

“Okay then, tell me how it feels.” Merlin punches into the array, his mana now actively fighting against the purifying influence of the mana within.

His crystal skin shifts, moving along his body towards his hand, making it denser. Then it shifts again, five crystal needles grow from each of his fingers and as soon as they stop growing they are purified and break into small snowflakes. He then shoots a death ray into the array, the ray zooms into it before stopping midway, transforming into a large rod of ice, before falling into the ground and breaking.

“Hmmm, interesting.” Merlin shoots a few crystals and rays into it again, watching what happens to them. He then creates a few snowflakes with his crystal skin and watches as they are purified. Each time they only begin being purified when they are complete.

“This mana…it needs the target to be still, or slowed, to purify it effectively. It seems to absorb speed too.”

“Alright, take a close look. I’m finishing this.”

Saying that I take control of my mana, deactivate the array, and push into the frozen mana with my own.

The frozen mana does not try to fight me, almost as if it knows it cannot win. The mana is pushed back, it resists being corrupted and instead solidifies itself slowly, the closer to the heart I get the stronger this solidification.

Suddenly I hit a tipping point, the frozen light mana solidifies fully into a dense diamond shape.

Each facet shines a brilliant pale golden light, it is a gentle calm light giving a feeling of peacefulness, but also of unbending and incorruptibility, that is before I force my mana into it. The entire crystal cracks, its surface becoming similar to snow, before it tries to reform again. I quickly show Merlin where to cut into the diamond shape, and he follows my mental orders exactly. His {Reave} claws cut into the ice diamond, yet the diamond is too strong, it steals the momentum from his attacks before he can make a clean cut. Its radiance dulls the edges and shatters his bladed claw, making them leave only a thin slice into it, a slice that is soon filled with ice that will harden just as strong as before.

Yet Merlin is no human, he quickly attacks again, his cut identical to his last one with the precision only an undead or a machine can achieve. I see the pieces of the ice diamond fall, and slimes congregating around it, well they will soon be useful.

Together with Merlin I keep cutting and destroying the ice diamond, making it shrink in size with each second. Merlin gets better with each swing, and soon he does not need me at all to tell him where to strike, his own knowledge of crystals helping him find the weak points of the ice diamond.

I look deep within it, and see that the heart of frost is completely purified, and now being turned into a mixture of ice and positive light. I push with my mana, the ice diamond cracks and then fragments almost completely and I send my order to Merlin.

His claws disappear and he uses his hand to grab a particularly corpulent crystal slime, which he then throws into the much diminished ice diamond.

The slime latches onto it and starts to suck its mana out, replacing it with pure unaligned mana. Yet I see it won’t work, the radiance and frost of the ice is simply too powerful, the slime cannot combat both of them at the same time.

Merlin pushes his hands into the slime, they gain the claws of {Reave} but smaller and he starts to make fine cuts into the ice. Using {Shade Mantle : Jack o’ frost} he also manipulates the ice making the fine cuts easier to make, smoothing over small mistakes and so on.

I can feel the sheer concentration coming from him and the slime, they divide their roles, with Merlin chipping the ice and the slime eating the light. Slowly the ice diamond is transformed into a heart made of polygon shapes, Merlin grabs it with his hands and gently guides his mana, further weakening the positive light mana.

Together with the slime the heart is returned to its original state…well mostly.

Frozen Diamond Heart

A heart of pure magical ice, able to create frost and ice mana. The ice and frost created by this heart are more durable.

I look down and notice that some slime actually died from trying to eat the pieces of ice diamond, the other ones are still trying to eat them.

Radiant Ice Diamond

A diamond made of radiant ice, able to create ice, frost and radiant mana. The ice and frost of this diamond enhance the power of light.

Merlin grabs both of the diamonds, one in each hand. He pulls ice mana from the diamond heart, then uses it to power the radiant ice, of course as soon as he activates the radiant ice diamond it hurts his hand, still I can feel his happiness.

He then tries to do the opposite, and the radiant mana from the Ice diamond is immediately exhausted when entering his body, it does not get even close to his other hand. It also hurts him a bit.

“I have an idea.” I say to him. It’s time to build some power armor.