Chapter 11

"Anna? Wait, seriously, Anna?! You mean, Anna's full name is Jade Anastasia?!!" Douglas exclaimed in utter surprise. Then he paused for a second, as a scene from years back suddenly popped up in his head. He exclaimed in realization, "Oh yeah! Oh sh*t!! I completely forgot! She once mentioned her full name to Master, in my presence. Wow, that was some years back! I completely forgot!"

"Hold on a sec, you guys know Jade Anastasia?!!" It was Illenia's turn to exclaim. She couldn't believe that the duo beside her were familiar with one of the Xis.

"Yeah, we were together when we were kids. We were the magnificent trio." Jason affirmed, as he struck an idiotic gung ho pose.

"Gods, I hated that stupid name." Douglas face palmed, as he sighed. "It was so cringe."

"Anna seemed to like it though."

"Yeah, she was cool."

"As cool, as ice." Jason added.

"Yeah. It was no wonder she was able to manifest ice. It was kind of poetic, you know; for her to literally have ice running through her veins, added to her cool personality."

"She was the best. I really missed her, you know. I am glad I might be able to bump into her in this tournament, though it might not be easy." Jason sighed again.

"But she was kind of a bitch, you know." Douglas frowned. "Leaving without informing us of where she was headed or even bidding us farewell. She didn't even leave a note. She just left like that."

"What? You didn't get a note? She left me a letter on the day she was leaving. You didn't get anything?"

"What the f*ck?! What in the f*cking hell?!! How could she leave you a note and leave me with nothing?! Is that how lowly she thought of me?! I can't fucking believe this!!!" Unbridled anger began to rise from the pit of Douglas stomach.

"Hmmmm." Jason thought deeply, "She might have left you something with Master Jehoshaphat. She couldn't have given me a note and left you with nothing. Perhaps Master forgot to hand it over to you. You know how he is."

Douglas gritted his teeth to force himself to be calm. He scoffed at himself for been genuinely angry over this. It was nine years ago. He shouldn't be letting things such as this, from the distant past, get to him. If not, then what was the point of all the sh*t that he endured in order to harden his mentality?

"But how come she is one of the Xis, a top contestant in this tournament? She didn't seem to be all that brilliant, when she was training with us. In fact, she was quite weak and could barely keep up. Master only tagged along with training her, because of the money he was been paid and because of her genuine perseverance." Douglas wondered about this.

"Most of the training we did was physical. As master would always say: 'Building the body is fundamental and a key foundation to effectively controlling and manipulating Mana.' So, we mostly tempered our bodies in violent conditions and environments and did extreme bodybuilding developmental training. This was effective for me, as a flame manipulator and it was highly effective for you, as well, Douglas, but in Anna's case, well, ice manipulation has to do more with advanced skill and expertise in mana control, than with body building. Though, the training did assist in her development, but that wasn't exactly what she needed. And she's a girl, you know. There was no way our kind of brutal training wouldn't be too harsh on her. It was even impressive that she was able to keep up with us, albeit, barely. That was why when the Frozen Fairy Asgard were recruiting disciples, she wrote in the letter that Master Jehoshaphat made contact with one of the elders in the Asgard, for Anna to also be included to take the examination. You remember that time when Master was gone for about three to four months, well, he travelled to the province of Sapphire, to where the Frozen Fairy Asgard was located, for Anna's sake. That was why Anna left on such short notice, after Master's return.

As for her been so prominent now, well Anna was already a natural at manipulating Ice and with the physical torment from Master's training and having highly technical teachers in the Asgard, it's no coincidence that she is where she is right now."

Douglas thought for a bit, then he quickly realized something amiss and inquired, "But if you knew where she was, why didn't you ever visit or did you go to see her without informing me?"

"That's because the Asgard doesnt accept visitors." Illenia spoke, before Jason could reply. "The Frozen Cloud Asgard worships the goddess of purity; Alkazem. They all practice and indoctrinate the laws of the ice element, as they feel it is the ultimate form of purity. The condition of the province also helps, as Sapphire is snowy and cold all year round. Everyone in the Asgard are females; not a single male is present and every decade, membership is open for young girls between the ages of twelve to sixteen, whom have talent in the ways of Ice, to have a chance to join . They must also be virgins, because, well, you know, purity and all. They are quite serious about this. They f*cking check, before they are eligible to begin the examination.

The examination is hard and rigorous. That's quite understandable though, as hundreds of thousands of young girls participate in this from all over Arges and even from neighboring nations and only the best of the best are to be selected. Only less than a hundred are selected.

Once a disciple is selected, she never leaves the Asgard ever again, except on official duties and she never receives any visitors, not even her parents or siblings. Her life is tied to the Asgard. Her connection to the outer world is gone. She must be purged of worldly pleasures and her heart must be pure, holy and untainted, as she basks in the glory of Alkazem's purity, all the days of her life, or some nonsensical shit like that. She also remains single and a virgin for life. She never marries. No single sexual contact with any man or woman. Anyone that defies this rule of virginity, is banned for life from the Asgard.

Honestly, I feel they are just a religious fanatical cult, but their training in the control and manipulation of Ice techniques is no joke. It's the real deal. When it comes to cold energy, none other in the Pacific Continent, even I dare say in the whole world, is better. Even the moon energy of the Santi province doesn't compare, in terms of cold energy.

The Ice queen is the head matron of the Asgard and right now, Jade Anastasia is her second-in-command. It's insane that you guys actually have a connection with her. Maybe you three might reconnect later."

As Illenia spoke to this point, she furrowed her thick brows and said suspiciously,

"Though, I wonder how your master was able to get in touch with someone in the Asgard, and an elder for that matter. He even travelled there and achieved results. Not just anyone is able to do that. One must have achieved a considerable status, before even garnering the attention of a top disciple, running errands for the Ice queen or the elders. This your master, who exactly is he?"

"Master Jehoshaphat was a former lieutenant commander in one of the cities of the capital." Douglas revealed.

"What??!!! Are you kidding me right now??!!!" Illenia was completely shocked by this revelation. "You guys were trained by someone of that pedigree???!!! How did u even get to meet a person like that??!!"

"It's quite a long story, really. We, three were extremely lucky to have encountered him. Without the old man, Anna wouldn't have even known about the Frozen Fairy Asgard, talk much of attaining her current status. I wouldn't have been good enough to enlist with the red monks and Douglas, well, he owes his entire life to him. Master Jehoshaphat is pivotal to why we are here, competing in this tournament." Jason paused. He turned to face Douglas with a beaming smile etched on his face, "That reminds me. How is the old man doing, Douglas? I didn't see him in his home, when I visited. I wanted to show him how much I have improved in the last five years and perhaps maybe he could still offer me some more guidance. How is he?"

Douglas suddenly froze up. But, it was just for a brief moment. He came to and silently continued walking, like as if he had heard nothing from Jason. He ignored him completely. Jason felt confused. He could have sworn that, for an instant, Douglas's expression was one of grief and regret. Had something terrible happened to Master Jehoshaphat? Was there something Douglas wasn't telling him? Was his master in a bad condition or was he gravely ill or maybe...or maybe he had di-

No!!!!

Jason brushed off such nonsensical thoughts away from his mind. This was Master Jehoshaphat and not some mere mortal. He had never even for once even seen the man break down from fatigue, much less, to talk of Illness. He only called him old man, because of his bushy gray hair, which he had adamantly refused to trim, but apart from that, the man was as agile and active, as a budding youth. That man couldn't die, even if he wanted to. He wouldn't die, even if one were to kill him. No. Douglas must have done something astronomically stupid to anger the old man. Something so stupid, that he didn't even want to think about it or divulge it to him. Perhaps what he perceived as grief was probably shame and self-reproach. Yes, that must be it. It had to be.

Jason was about to inquire from Douglas about this matter, but he was suddenly interrupted by Illenia,

"We are here. The Hanji store is just right in front of us."

Contrary to expectation, the store's structure wasn't massively or exorbitantly imposing, as one would have thought. It had a very simple design and it was slightly compact in size. Streams of people were moving in from the glass door on the right and out of the store from the door on left, in droves. One could immediately fashion a guess, as to how important this store was in Victoria city and even to Arges, in general. Douglas had a feeling that the internal structure and contents of the store, would betray the simplicity of its outer.

Just as they were about to join in with the patrons, heading into the store, Jason caught something interesting from the corner of his eye. He turned to his left to properly focus his attention on what he had just noticed and then, all of a sudden, he burst into a resounding, overly excited laughter, like a deranged fellow. He pulled along the arms of both Illenia and Douglas, without warning, and hurriedly moved towards the location he had spotted.

"Yo, Jason, what's going on? Where are you taking us to all of a sudden?" Douglas asked in astonishment. He wondered what could have gotten into Jason, for him to suddenly act so excited like a little kid, whom had just spotted his favorite flavor of ice cream.

"It's Anna, man! I just saw her! Can you believe it?! We were just chatting about her a minute ago! Talk about a wonderful coincidence! I couldn't locate her, when we were on stage, so this time I am not losing sight of her." Jason exclaimed excitedly.