“Ugh… !”

Struggling, Kalisten looked exhausted. When he tried to swim up, the weights attached to his arms and legs caused him to sink. At the same time, the painful cold made it hard for him to concentrate.

“Kal! Hang in there!”

Aselia jumped into the pool where he was.

—Splash!

As soon as she jumped into the icy water, her body ached with intense pain. It was as if dozens of knives were hacking her body. Although her limbs were unbound, her muscles started to freeze up and seize from the ice.

She looked for Kalisten and found him sinking to the deepest point in the center of the tank, and dived down.

Just opening her eyes hurt. Everywhere the water touched pulsed with needles of pain, and even her intestines seemed to scream from the cold.

For a second Aselia made eye contact with Kalisten.

She stretched out her arm, trying to grab Kalisten, but her body wasn’t obeying her.

Kalisten stopped struggling to look at her. The sight frightened her even more. It was as if his body froze from the ice and was becoming less and less responsive.

“Kaff… !” —Gurgle

She was suffocating, but the ice picks that seemed to stab her were more dizzying and tortuous.

Frantic, she swam for her life and brushed his fingertips.

Kalisten, who sank headfirst into the floor, turned around. Then, seeing that it was Aselia who was trying to hold his hand, his eyes widened.

—Boom!

“Argh!”

Aselia was shocked that the frigid water around her began to stir. Nevertheless, she reached out her hand to try to catch Kalisten.

Her vision was soon filled with water droplets, and she could not see in front of her.

And then.

– Kwa—bang! Ssiss!

“Ah… .”

Kalisten evaporated all the water.

Quickly, Aselia fell to the bottom of the tank, closing her eyes tightly. She felt a dull pain in her back, shoulders, and hips, but it didn’t hurt too much.

She could feel him hugging her like a snake wrapping around her tightly, but she couldn’t see. There was a lot of steam all around her, and nothing could be seen with the thick fog. All around was filled with white air.

“A..selia.”

Aselia responded to his voice calling her name and took him into her arms as he embraced her.

She felt the heat of his body burning her, but she didn’t let go of him. Her heart thumped wildly, a reaction caused by relief and, on the other hand, dread.

“Aselia.”

It was as if he was checking to see if she was really there. Aselia answered:

“I’m here, Kalisten.”

Then the weight that collapsed on her chest was considerable.

The deputy director, who watched the scene through the glass, grinned.

“The first stage of the 1st awakening is a success, Vice Director.”

“Yes.”

The deputy chief looked at the graphs and figures drawn next to her with a sneer with only one corner of her mouth raised.

Studying the display of the concentration of mana measurements, the deputy director’s eyes sharpened with a ferocity, and she remarked,

“It is really useful. Before, it kept failing.”

At her words, Ivan hesitated.

“What shall we do now?”

“Take them both to room Z-999. The team should prepare for the next step.”

“Yes, Deputy Director.”

She left the room, smirking.

***

Kalisten and Aselia were brought to his room as ordered and were left with just a few towels on them. Kalisten’s body temperature was scorching, but that was not the case with Aselia.

She was painfully cold as if the shock of entering the icy water caused her to become hypothermic.

Kalisten’s heat gradually transferred to her while he held her tightly, but she still shivered in misery.

“Aselia.”

“Argh… Kal… ”

“This must be a dream too.”

He murmured that in a haze and hugged Aselia tightly. Hoping that his body temperature would pass on to her.