The Ultimate Ice Magic

Gray was taken aback and turned his head to look around. "Is it here?" The train carriage was somewhat spacious, but Gray worried that casting magic might damage something.

Gaal nodded and spoke, "It's fine. Go ahead and cast. You can demonstrate any magic within this range."

Gray nodded, opening his left hand while forming a fist with his right, creating an ice-blue magic circle between them. "Ice-Make: Block."

He pushed his hands forward, and cold air gathered in the carriage as the ice-blue magic circle shone brightly.

In the air above the small table where Gaal and Gray sat, a block of ice, about half a meter in length, width, and height, suddenly appeared, but before it could fall, Gaal raised his hand and tapped the ice block with his finger.

Gray didn't feel any magical fluctuation, but the ice block, just formed from his magic, disintegrated and vanished without a trace in less than half a second.

Gray's eyes widened in astonishment. "Wha... What?!"

No wonder Gaal said he could cast at will. The gap between them was beyond his comprehension.

Gaal gestured for Gray to continue. Gray took a deep breath, becoming serious, and once again began to cast magic. "Ice-Make: Battle Axe."

In an instant, a gigantic ice axe appeared above the carriage, its sharp blade pointing down at Gaal. Seeing this, Gray felt a tightening in his chest, instinctively growing tense.

But in the next second, Gaal raised a finger and pressed it against the blade of the ice axe, which quickly disintegrated and disappeared just like the previous ice block.

Gray's heart relaxed. He no longer hesitated as the blue light in the carriage continued to flicker. "Ice-Make: Lance. Ice-Make: Grappling Hook. Ice-Make..."

One ice spell after another was cast from Gray's hands.

Even though Gray had been practicing shape magic with Ur for only a short time, he had a great talent, and after getting the hang of it, Ur hardly had to worry about him.

Ur had never hidden her magic book from him, and Gray had read it many times.

When they parted, Ur even gifted Gray one.

So, despite his young age, he knew a fair amount of magic, although the power still wasn't great.

As time passed, the train reached its departure time and slowly began to move.

Gray's magical energy was almost depleted and he stopped.

Gaal handed over a bottle of blue potion. Gray took it, drank it, and then widened his eyes, feeling something new within his body. "This... The recovery speed of my magic is increasing?! So fast! It's already fully restored!"

Gray looked in astonishment at the bottle in his hand. Just one sip had replenished all his magic in seconds, and there were still four or five more sips left.

He had some understanding of magical items, but he had never heard of one that restored magical energy so quickly.

Gray gulped nervously and looked at Gaal. Gaal smiled at Gray, saying, "Put it away for later. It's not that powerful. This will only allow a C-rank mage to recover one-third of their magical energy at most. But for you, you can use it multiple times."

Gray nodded, a little confused, then carefully stored the bottle and sat straight, looking at Gaal.

Gaal then spoke, "I've already seen your magic. What do you think is the essence of ice shape magic?"

Gray's expression grew serious as he pondered Gaal's question. Ice shape magic involves both ice and shaping, and those two alone couldn't be the simplest aspects.

Shaping requires imagination, experience, and exposure to various things before one can shape well.

Gray looked at Gaal, unsure, and said, "Is it imagination and experience?"

Gaal shook his head with a smile. "No. It's ice."

Gray was stunned, seeming not to expect the answer to be so simple. "Ice?"

Gaal raised his hand above the small table in front of him, and a large irregular ice block suddenly formed in his palm. "Exactly, it's ice. Whether you are creating the most basic shapes or have seen much and are trying to create powerful weapons, the foundation of all this is ice."

As Gaal taught, the ice in his hand continued to solidify and compress, the irregular ice block seemingly small but causing the entire room to grow colder. Gray stared blankly at this scene.

Gaal continued, "So the focus of your magic shouldn't be on shaping."

"It should be on strength and speed of execution. By strength, I mean the limits of the magic you can cast. This isn't the typical limits of magic energy depletion or area coverage. It's about finding your magical core."

"For instance, to me, the core of fire magic should be temperature. A flame of one hundred degrees can boil water. A flame of one thousand degrees can burn through a magical beast's body. A flame of five thousand degrees can effortlessly turn steel into molten iron. A flame of ten thousand degrees can vaporize most substances in an instant."

"So what is the core of ice?" 

Gray shook his head, still dazed and shocked, somewhat blank.

Gaal spoke again, "It's also temperature."

He then gestured for Gray to create an ice block above his palm.

Gray nodded and aimed both hands at Gaal's palm. "Ice-Make: Block."

A square ice block, half a meter on each side, appeared out of thin air. This time, instead of falling, it was levitated by Gaal's telekinesis.

Then, Gaal's irregular ice block began to stretch out ice strips, climbing upwards.

Soon, it formed a cage, surrounding the ice block Gray had created.

Both were floating above the table and did not touch.

However, as Gaal activated his magic, the temperature in the air above the table plummeted instantly.

In the next second, Gray watched in shock as the ice block he had created began to tremble in the floated cage.

Crack!

It shattered into several pieces, scattering in the air.

His ice block... was... frozen and broken?!

"How... is this possible?!"

Was there really such a huge difference between ice and ice?!

The temperature of the ice... Gray had never encountered such knowledge, and Ur had never taught it either, leaving him entirely stunned.

Gaal waved his hand again, causing the floating ice block to disappear and continued, "The lower the temperature of the ice, the greater the damage it causes. Ur's shaping magic is very flashy. But her ice couldn't freeze Deliora. Only by using the forbidden magic 'Iced Shell,' at the cost of one's life, to give ice a will can one eternally freeze Deliora."

Gray nodded gravely. Before Gaal arrived, he had witnessed that battle firsthand. 

Ur's ice roses had briefly frozen Deliora, but it had immediately been shattered by Deliora's immense power, followed by an energy roar that led to Ur losing her right leg in a matter of moments.

If Gaal hadn't shown up, Ur would have already deployed 'Iced Shell.'

Gaal raised his hand and drew a circle in the air. "But can ice truly not freeze Deliora?"

A faint golden light circle appeared in mid-air, followed by a white irregular object floating above the table.

Realizing the aura emanating from the object, Gray's heart raced. "This... is Deliora's aura?!"

Gaal nodded and said, "This is a small fragment of Deliora's bone."

Then, from the center of Gaal's palm, an icy aura emanated again as an irregular ice block formed, which then enveloped the small segment of Deliora's bone.

As the ice wrapped around Deliora's bone, the aura emitted grew colder.

The ice became increasingly opaque, and what sent shivers down Gray's spine, was that as the temperature dropped, the ice block floating in front of him began to make popping sounds, as if it were reaching its limit.

Each 'pop' made Gray's heart jump.

An indescribable sense of danger stimulated his body's instinctive reaction.

Gray couldn't help but lean back to distance himself from the ice block while simultaneously being unable to tear his gaze away from it.

The carriage fell into silence, with Gray's eyes fixated solely on the ice block making 'limit sounds.'

Until at some point...

Boom—!

The ice block, or rather, the bone inside the ice block, reached its limit.

In the astonished eyes of Gray, it shattered with a loud crash and rapidly collapsed, bursting outward.

Gray couldn't help but duck back.

Gaal waved his hand.

The shattered pieces of ice and bone instantly vanished, leaving behind a small fragment of ice with bone remnants on the tabletop.

Gray swallowed hard and looked at the small ice block containing the bone fragments. 

Even without magical enhancement, it was chilling enough to spread cold ice across the tabletop beneath it.

What's more...

Gray couldn't help but lean in closer, staring intently at the crack where the bone fragments lay.

It had been violently torn apart by some force.

Gray's eyes were filled with horror.

This was Deliora's bone. Ordinary magic, even Ur's ice, couldn't break through Deliora's skin.

But now, under the extreme low temperature of the ice, far tougher than the skin, the bone had been violently shredded...

Looking at Gray's shock, Gaal spoke, "If it were frozen to this degree, do you think Deliora could break free?"

Gray looked up at Gaal, and an inexplicable image of that night flashed into his mind.

If Deliora had been frozen like this at that time...

Crack—!

In Gray's mind, the frozen Deliora crumbled into countless pieces.

"It wouldn't! And moreover... this ice would directly kill it."

Gray snapped back to reality and said gravely. Then he couldn't help but frown, thinking of Ur and Lyon. "Then did Ur and Lyon go in the wrong direction?"

Gaal smiled as he said, "Everyone has their own path in magic. You can share with others, but you can't say they are wrong. No one is absolutely right. What I teach you is merely my understanding. Perhaps others don't see it that way."

In truth, according to his understanding, one could develop magic in various directions in this world. After all, the vast information explosion of his past life wasn't just talk. 

There were countless unique ideas, and some even had theoretical foundations.

But he couldn't correct others. He couldn't very well see someone's magic veering off course and say, "Your magic is wrong; it should be like this or that."

In cases where someone's strength was low, they could even get killed.

Besides, he wasn't one to meddle in others' affairs. He would guide those from Fairy Tail who sought his help, but he had no reason to hassle other mages outside.

Otherwise, if someone took offense and wanted to retaliate...

Whether he killed or didn't kill...

If he did, that would be crossing the line.

If he didn't, after offering advice, the other person rejects it? It would be a loss on his part, and then he might show them his true power!

So Gaal wouldn't engage in trivial matters that didn't concern him.

Taking a laissez-faire approach.

Gray listened, struck, and then realized that his words had been misguided. Teaching others casually could lead to trouble.

Then a smile crept across Gray's face; he thought it best to speak with his strength instead. 

When he meets Lyon next time, he'll show him how my ice can break his!

Imagining Lyon's frustrated expression fueled Gray's determination, "Then I'll use my strength to prove to them! We'll see whose ice is stronger, mine or Lyon's."

Even though he claimed that, Gray's face was already brimming with confidence.

Seeing this, Gaal smiled. "Then let's get started."

As he spoke, Gaal raised his hand, took off the magic ring from his right middle finger, and handed it to Gray. "This is the Amplification Ring. It can increase the power of your spells by 10%. Wear it and feel the difference. Then start practicing the basic magic compression..."

——

Two days later.

In the quiet carriage, Gray was fully focused on practicing magic compression.

Since experiencing the boost from wearing the Amplification Ring to cast ice make magic, it was like a door to a new world had opened for Gray.

The same magic, when casting Ice-Hammer while wearing the ring, easily smashed the ice hammer created without it.

While the temperature difference was only a few degrees, the effectiveness was worlds apart.

This drove Gray into a frenzy.

On the table lay several bottles of primary magic recovery potions. All were readily supplied by Gaal.

Gray didn't even remember how many bottles he had consumed; he hadn't eaten much, as he was filled with these potions.

Gaal's keen observation allowed him to easily judge Gray's limits. As soon as Gray approached his limit, he would enforce mandatory rest, and so...

In just two days, Gray could feel that his strength had nearly doubled.

This substantial improvement made Gray lose track of time and sleep.

However, Gaal had set his magic book aside and was looking out the window of the train.

There was nothing extraordinary in sight, just vast stretches of snowy mountains.

But Gaal could sense the demonic aura emanating from Deliora as they were approaching.

"Gray, get ready. It's time to fight."

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