Castle of Ice

Bright light shone through the barricaded room through the gaps between the tentacles pouring in. Neither Nero nor Gabriel could afford to distract themselves by paying attention to the room, so the others would have to protect themselves.

Step by step, Nero cut off invading tentacles and blocked the rest as he approached the monster. Gabriel kept a distance, but once again he began weaving his sand together, using friction to heat it up. 

At the same time, a part of him was trying to understand why his sand became redder when heated. He did not reveal the details of his innate ability to anyone, letting them draw his own conclusions. But the truth was that the red colour was a result of a mutation, and something he likely inherited from his mother. If that was the case, its origins lay in an innate ability related to blood.

The burning ability of his sand was not actually burning, but corrosion, and it worked better on animals than everything else.