Chapter 90: The Blizzard’s Embrace

Half an hour later, the Ivory Tower Arena of the Holy Academy buzzed with anticipation.

Normally, dozens of freshmen from local Holy Academies were expected to gather here today to watch a performance. It was an annual tradition for the Holy Academy, where instructors from the Ivory Tower would showcase divine miracles to inspire the new students, encouraging them to strive for a place in the Inner Academy during their time in the Outer Academy.

However, the audience today far exceeded mere dozens. Students occupied nearly half the arena’s seats, as the rumor of the Snow Princess engaging in a live combat exercise with an Inner Academy instructor had spread like wildfire. A large number of upper-year students from both the Inner and Outer Academies were drawn to the spectacle.

As events unfolded, other instructors scheduled to perform simply canceled their segments. After all, everyone was only interested in watching the Snow Princess.

Curiously, Kleiman, the Second Imperial Prince and the instigator of this confrontation, was not present in the stands. Instead, with his hands clasped behind his back, he stood deep within the arena’s entrance tunnel, observing the two figures in the ring from a place unseen by the crowd.

“To put yourself forward as a sacrifice just to test the First Princess of the Winter Kingdom? You’re still—as reckless as ever.” A second voice echoed through the tunnel.

An old man wearing an iron mask emerged behind the Prince. His attire alone revealed his identity: an Inquisitor, and one of the highest-ranking figures within the Inquisition.

The Imperial family and the Church shared governance over the nation, and to maintain a reasonable struggle and distribution of power, certain customs had evolved. One such custom dictated that a member of the Imperial family would always join a Church institution and secure a position within it.

The world believed the Second Imperial Prince to be a pleasure-seeking wastrel, a ‘Happy Prince’ oblivious to the suffering of common folk.

However, the institution he had joined was rather peculiar, making it unsuitable for him to openly reveal his identity. The Inquisition, after all, was viewed by the populace as a terrifying and brutal organization—a perception rooted in truth.

“Miss Eve is no sacrifice,” Prince Kleiman replied, his unchanging smile still gracing his lips. “She is my most cherished girl.”

“How precious could a little match-selling girl, picked up from the slums, truly be? She’s only a Sixth-Tier ‘Elementalist.’ How could she possibly defeat the heir to the Winter Kingdom? The Snow Princess must have been nurtured with national resources to advance; she couldn’t possibly be below the Middle Tier, could she?” the old man stated coldly.

“Miss Eve’s strength certainly can’t compare, but she has no regard for her own life. All she needs to do is force out the Princess’s true power, and she will accomplish her mission,” Prince Kleiman said with a beaming smile. “She is my proudest little mad dog.”

****

In the arena, Miss Eve and the Snow Princess stood a distance apart, gazing at each other.

“I bet, Princess, everyone here has come for you. You are the star of this show,” Miss Eve declared.

“That is indeed the truth. You needn’t be disheartened,” the Snow Princess calmly replied.

“I am not disheartened.”

“Why did you accept such a challenge? You don’t strike me as an obedient subordinate,” the Snow Princess inquired.

Miss Eve grinned, a hint of irony in her smile. “The reason is simple: if I defeat the Snow Princess, I can make a name for myself and get what I want. Losing to you incurs no loss at all.”

“That is certainly true,” the Snow Princess conceded.

This morning, she was the renowned Snow Princess, while the Prince’s female attendant remained an unknown. In this match, she was the one whose fame was being leveraged.

But this held no particular significance for her.

“Let us begin,” the Snow Princess said, drawing her slender ice blade.

“Alright, let’s begin!” Miss Eve laughed, raising both hands.

Two large, bright orbs of flame instantly ignited in her palms, their glow like a sudden sunrise.

Miss Eve thrust her hands forward, and the two flames merged, transforming into a torrent powerful enough to engulf a person whole, pushing relentlessly onward.

The surrounding students gasped, feeling an overwhelming wave of heat surge towards them.

Miss Eve had gone all out from the very start. The match had spiraled completely out of control from its inception; this was no mere friendly spar!

Yet, facing the encroaching flames, the Snow Princess remained remarkably composed. She simply raised her hand to her forehead, lifting her slender sword high towards the sky.

The next instant, a blizzard descended, centered around her. Gale-force winds, laden with frost and snowflakes, spun rapidly around her, forcefully blocking the tide of flames. Steam billowed upwards where fire and snow met, spreading outwards in all directions.

An even match? This was the first thought of the onlookers, including Alice.

This notion was swiftly shattered.

The Snow Princess suddenly pointed her long sword at Miss Eve, and the blizzard swirling around her abruptly expanded, covering most of the arena. It swallowed Miss Eve whole, extinguishing the flames she had summoned in an instant.

The watching students cried out in dismay. The blizzard summoned by the Snow Princess did not encompass them, but the biting cold emanating from it made them shiver uncontrollably.

Everyone instinctively hugged themselves, trembling.

Of course, Miss Eve suffered the most. The bone-chilling cold pierced through her mage robe in an instant. Frost rapidly condensed on the ground and began to form on her body as well.

The severe cold, the fierce winds, and the snow soaking her clothes—in mere seconds, Miss Eve felt her skin growing numb with frostbite, and her joints stiffening. She realized she would be frozen solid in this blizzard in less than a minute.

She immediately attempted to summon flames to counterattack, but then she was astonished to find that the flames she conjured were suppressed the moment they formed by the extreme low temperature surrounding her. As soon as the flames moved two meters away from her, they would dissipate in the wind and snow.

Every ‘mage’ had a preference and specialty in using elements. Miss Eve excelled at ‘fire,’ representing high temperatures and combustion, while the Snow Princess specialized in ‘ice,’ representing low temperatures.

In terms of the size and intensity of their elemental domains, the Snow Princess clearly overwhelmed Miss Eve. Once covered by the Snow Princess’s blizzard domain, Miss Eve’s own domain was compressed to a mere two-meter radius, making it impossible to even launch a proper counterattack.

“You should concede,” the Snow Princess called out calmly. “If this continues, you will freeze to death.”

Miss Eve glared at her, her teeth chattering as she mumbled an unclear reply: “I’m not dead yet, who’s going to concede?”

She exerted her last ounce of strength, forcibly summoning flames and compressing her elemental domain to about a one-meter radius around herself, causing the flames to spin around her.

To the onlookers, Miss Eve had transformed herself into a living matchstick, using her own vitality as fuel to sustain the burning flames.