She continued to walk over to the empress, completely unaffected. The blizzard empress began to panic, and throw everything it had at her.

Countless magic circles were formed in the air around them. Ice spears, Ice lances ice tridents all manifested themselves. Chains of ice were formed and propelled straight at Serena. A large ice shark leapt out of the water from beneath the bridge with it’s mouth wide open, aiming to take Serena’s life.

But it was all futile. 

“Sacred flames.” Serena muttered.

[Golden Heat Wave]

A was suddenly released from Serena as a sphere of flames enveloped her. The heatwave, passed through spells, both the ones which had manifested and the ones which had yet to be manifested. 

When they came into contact, all that was left was steam.

The sun which remained manifested also provided a boost in the heatwave.

“What… What am I looking at right now…?” The crew captain asked

“You’re looking at the empress of flames, it’s also rare but she appears to be in a very bad mood.”

Before the blizzard empress even realized it, Serena was already standing in front of her. It’s body began to shake as fear filled it’s heart. Everything it threw at her was countered. Even the sun had already started to melt it’s body. 

Temperatures so high, she couldn’t believe it. Yet somehow the other humans were unaffected. How? Just how was such a thing possible?

“Sacred Flames… Flames which burn and heal whatever I want. Even I’m not sure how high it’s temperature can reach. But I know that it can easily melt through even the toughest of metals.”

The sphere of flames which had been formed around her, disappeared as she placed her hand on the Ice empress’s ice cold belly.

“Sorry… You may rest now…”

In that instant, a glow came from the tip of Serena’s hand and the ice empress evaporated into steam.

————————————

John’s eyes opened wide beneath the blindfold only to close shortly after as he quickly looked around him. The others were all unconscious and motionless.

Confused, he quickly checked up on them. The first being the nearest person to him. Hexo.

He placed his hand over Hexo’s head before letting out a sigh of relief. He was just asleep.

He repeated this and checked with the other two and they two were fast asleep. 

After making sure everyone was okay, John stopped the platform from moving. For some reason it Hadn’t stopped even when he fainted, that could only be thanks to Zestari.

John then realized that Zestari was probably the one who put them all to sleep in the first place. Either way he wouldn’t be able to tell, thanks to the blind fold. A seal which prevented him from communicating with either of them unless it was an emergency.

A seal which made him feel less and less like himself. However, he had no choice but to use it.

…

[John, from now on, use that blindfold… Always, as much as you can. No matter what, you mustn’t take it off…] Said Zestari

John nodded and was about to put it on without asking neither why or for the details.

[Wait.]

This somewhat annoyed Zestari so she explained it herself before he could.

[It’s a seal. As you know, your powers have grown a lot lately… Your emotions have made a big impact on these changes. It’ll feel strange at first, but don’t pay it too much mind. This seal is going to affect them in the same way as [possession.]. It’ll also allow you to keep control over your body.]

John gave another nod as he quickly placed it over his eyes and wrapped it at the back.

[John Wai-]

Zestari was interrupted as her presence seemed to have been cut off. And in that instant, John could feel it.

Heaviness. His muscles and bones were all heavy. His thoughts were clear, but at the same time, filled. 

He was himself yet he lacked so much. 

But most importantly the pain had stopped. The pain and grief which he had felt for all that time, just disappeared. Just like that. 

He was finally able to stop caring and it felt great. He felt great. His heart was finally repaired. But at what price?

All of his emotions, he couldn’t even shed a tear after thinking about all the grave sins he had committed. 

…

It was the thing he needed the most, or so he had thought.

Now he couldn’t help but feel like maybe using it was a bad idea.

“I need to clear my mind…” John muttered as he stopped the flying platform

He got up and stood by the edge before vanishing, leaving a trace of darkness behind.

It was his most used move, shadow step. It allowed him to teleport to anywhere and everywhere with footing within a 200 meter radius. It used to be 50 meters but he was able to train it to increase the distance.

A useful ability with the only downside being it only worked during his possessed state and you weren’t able to teleport too far into the air. The range was 200M only on ground, while in the air it was 20 meters at most. Unless, you could use the person as footing or  there were objects big enough to use as footing in the air.

It was only after shadow stepping however, that John remembered. They were in the middle of the ocean.

‘!?’

*Splash!*

John went plummeting into the ocean, creating a small wave shock wave as he did. 

However, that didn’t slow him down one bit as the moment he had entered the sea. He quickly began his move, swimming down wards while using aqua to propel himself. 

He could sense other life forms in the vicinity thanks to both ‘possession’ and his search spell. 

It was thanks to it, that he noticed something unusual lurking in between the water. 

John could breathe freely thanks to the increase of his magic control. He could freely exchange the gases in his body by removing the carbon dioxide from his mouth into the water and taking the oxygen molecules from the water and sucking it in through his nose. 

Again, he would separate it, so he would essentially be breathing underwater. He didn’t have a name for this move Asa it was a rather simple process which he could do subconsciously. 

***

He continued to descend More and more until he eventually reached the sea floor. It wasn’t that far down as they were not that far off from the coast, but it was still quite far.

Around 2000 meters far down. 

John had seen sharkicorn and dolwhales and other strange sea creatures on the way down, but ignored them all for he was looking for something in particular.

Prawns. John had already collected a few small ones on the way and put them inside a water bubble above his head. But he could feel an unusual presence similar to that of prawns at the sea floor. Just a few meters away from him.

He looked turned his head around and noticed that it was trying to mask it’s presence. The sea floor was completely dark as well, giving it an advantage.

However, such an advantage wouldn’t work on someone like John, who lived his daily life in darkness.

John felt five, no six distortions in the water around him. And quickly shadow stepped away, from the area only to feel water piercing the area where he was standing before.

Whatever had tried to attack him, noticed that it had missed as it was able to clearly feel his presence. Because of this, it then formed an underwater vortex which began to drag and pull in the water nearby.

John shadow stepped again, in the opposite side of the water vortex and a tornado of water had already been formed waiting for him. 

“…”

…

[Stop relying on shadow step.]

…

It was only then that he had remembered what Zestari had said.

‘Understood.’ John thought to himself.

[Water Removal] [Water Bubble] 

Two spells casted in an instant. They didn’t seem like they equated to much, but the result was unbelievable. 

All the water within a two hundred meter radius, vanished. This left behind a huge underwater hemisphere without water. Following that, before the water around them could go back and fill hemisphere.

John casted water bubble which stopped the water from coming inside and reinforced the hemisphere. 

A simple elementary class spell being used in such a way was unheard of. The spell water removal was also unable to be used in such a way due to the mana restrictions. Only John, who’s mana pool whose size was undetermined would be able to perform such a feat.

A 200M hemisphere wasn’t that big, he had already done it before when fighting the mermaids, the problem came in maintaining it. Being able to maintain it was the hard part.

Either way, it was worth it because it was now only John, the unusual sea creature which he had felt and a few fish which were dropping from the top of the hemisphere that were inside of it.

John quickly shadow stepped in front of the sea creature and he couldn’t help but feel like drooling. 

A gigantic prawn. Nearly 20 meters in length.. John knew what he was cooking for dinner tonight.