Rebirth

When Skadi left so did the winds and snow.It was finally spring in frozen wastelands of Iceland province and so the sun shyly moved trough the clouds and brought new life to destroyed countryside.Ice wolfs ,wraiths and trolls migrated to the northern never ending ice lands and deer, bears even some of rabbits were seen in the dark green woods first time after many months.Every corner , every river was alive and brimming strongly with newfound strength .

The grey apostates returned to the temple some days after. They started doing their usual odd jobs when high priest noticed pale boy with bit of redness on his cheek. He approached with care and with fright and pulled out his worn cane to check for signs of life .As the cane touched delicate skin boy moved but still was in deep sleep. He decided to press but no matter how hard he tried he could not move or awake young boy. He and his priests decided to guard and let nature do its bidding. They thought that he was a test from goddess to them and even kept guard around the altar where body was.

Finally after one more week boy was up.He gazed the new world with his eyes trying to find any clue. He remembered the frozen wastelands and beautiful goddess but nothing more .He asked

: "Where i am?"

The hall was silent And than the old priest with cape said :" You are in the house of Skadi.

We brought her many gifts over the years , many deer and even mighty ice kirins were sacrificed to soothe the wrath of the eternal ice but this is the first time our order of Ice guardians witnessed goddess sparing someone. Do you by any chance know why?"

Boy wanted to tell them the answer but he did not know ! He did not remember the words he exchanged with Skadi just her beauty .

As men saw his puzzled look they decided to put matter aside. One of other priests than asked:

What is your name?

He taught a second:" In this Northern wolf empire the soul that occupied this body had name of Ivar i will honor him!. In past months Marcus got his soul merged with Ivars and they shared same memory.

" My name is Ivar of Volsung clan son of Sigsmung yarl of Daggertip. By the grace of goddess Skadi i was given new body and new life and he lowered his head and touched the altair"

Old pirest :" Our goddess was never cruel but also she was never merciful this must be a miracle , lets check his body".

After half an hour

"Nothing unusual , did her holiness make mistake?

Why would she spare such a weak boy with no cultivation whatsoever. He had nothing in his dantian and was pretty usless .He did not even start with cultivation and he is what 15? How is this possible even commoners would know basic breathing methods and be in the qi condensation realm( In this world only lowest of the low were not on part of cultivation , even the waste of Marcus was lvl 9 of qi Condensation when he was betrayed and that was shameful for prominent family of Great dragon city) ".

While they were busy and arguing Ivar thought about it.He knew nothing about cultivation , he hated qi circulation practices and always skipped them . Only part of his daily routine he did not find repugnant was the sword practice but even it was done with half effort and zero to no results .He was truly an idiot , one that did not deserve clan that he had had in his first life.

With all the bickering old priests split. One fraction said Ivar was to be sent with nothing from the temple and other said that Ivar was gift from god and such should be guided as treasure by the guardians and should be given all the arts and hidden knowledge temple gained over the time.

Only High priest did not put a word into discussion . He asked Ivar :"What do you think?"

Ivar responded :"Honestly i do not know ".

"One should not bite heaven with teeth of rabbit . Interesting you were given a chance for power but you are not sure you want grab it ..Why ,are you a rabbit or maybe something else?"

"I do not know what i am but im no rabbit but not dragon either, at least not yet. I wont owe anyone a great debt and i wont be bound by any sects or any clans !".

"Good , good Finally a bigger picture , now i know who you are ! Old priest Frollo !!" he said to one of the bickering old men. "Teach him ice qi of frozen waste-lands qi circulation , no better give him manual of the arts and show him some of the 10 stands. This should be a gift for person that does not want to be tied down to one sect or clan ! Let me see if you by yourself can learn it in next year , if you manage to do it all the arts of our Ice guardians will be given to you , we may even teach you the rune work of the nine worlds." he than stood up and pointed to hall of the left and signaled man to take young boy away.

The priest Frollo showed him the way. It was dusty library that saw many ages many heroes and many demon invasions.Old man was proud of it :He said " this was given to us by great Ragnar

first emperor of the Northern wolf empire " as he showed golden scripture that was guarded by two stone dwarves. Boy tried to take the scripture but Frollo stopped him..You are still green apple and than came to scripture and extended his right hand. The stone statues came to life and attacked him viciously . He dashed to the side and than made strange hand sign and said :" Only peak Royal nobles are qualified to take a look.I am Royal noble to but i wanted to show you how you escaped death and how truly lucky you were by my side in this library"

When old man was done with his bragging he pointed to shelf ."There are some basic arts our temple does not need over there . Since i like you i will let you choose one "

He looked to into the pile filled parchments with many names. The names were full of glory full of might like The spirit of ice fox, The endurance of polar bear and so on. There were many basic arts Like imperial sword art , the trance of battle axe that was meant for famed berserk warriors of imperial legion that brought fear even demons of Abyss . All that was lying like junk all over the place .Some of them had even moth holes that showed that time was not merciful. Than in the end he noticed one scroll. It said : Basic sword arts of eight dragons school . He felt his hearth beating faster. How the hell is this possible . This is sword art of my clan . As he browsed trough the content he found that it was even more complete than old set they had in their clan treasury .

He asked old priest ; " Why do you have this?"

"Oh that is sword art of dragons school , that was an ancient sect that followed gods of war and gods of destruction .Its shame they had their sect arts and lineage cut down by 4 imperial families over disputes ages ago . It was said that eight dragons wanted to connect and unite 5 empires to drive demonic hordes away . They almost won but in final battle 4 imperial houses sided with demonic court and killed 7 of 8 main clans . Only one clan was left in Eagle empire but it also burned away 10000 years ago. Shame no one can now cultivate these arts because they required blood of the dragons to promote cultivation "

Boy took it and firmly said ;" I want this ".

Old man grunted : "Why the hell did i tell you about that school , my cursed mouth oh why did i tell you the story!!"

Boy just replied : " Old man you promised me that you will give me one manual",

Finally Frollo Replied biting his tongue :"Ok, but i will not give you opportunity to change it when time comes".

Ivar just exaled happily :" Old priest thank you for this treasure".

Man decided to put matter to rest and said: "Since you have chosen one manual from the temple now i will show you the frozen waste qi circulation ."

He jumped up and his arms became the winds .He was now the storm gathering all clouds.

First stance :" The winter comes to frozen waste-lands!

Than his arms made a slow move that was close to waves new snow .

Second stance :The first snow falls.

Ivar noticed that his arms started to dance to the strange tunes of first winter snow.

After that his arms were starting to move faster and faster.

Third stance : The blizzard arrives.

After that he sat down and said: " Many people find it strange because first three of our stances are just dances but nature is just a dance of the elements" old man smiled profoundly.

Now i will show you the true art.

Fifth stance ; Ice melts the blood.

His blood in his hands slowly turned into cold ice .Ice Crystals were growing on his hand .

Sixth stance : The speed of ice wind ;

This time all the blood of his legs turned into ice . He became an ice shadow a wraith of ice wastelands with his unnatural speed.

Ivar was really impressed . This is first time he saw such magic that merged one with nature.

Seventh stance : One with the ice !

This was basic ice controlling art: After finishing fifth and sixth stance one would finally control the ice . This was current level old man was on and maximum of his powers. Still he was one of most powerful individuals Ivar had seen in his life.

The whole art left boy amazed and filled with aspirations . Maybe one day " i will be able to control nature as well."

Rollo waited minute and said :" I am only on seventh level but master is on level eight - the ice life level.He can make life using just ice and give ice free will and intelligence but this is not for you . At least not for now "