Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Outside the cabin, the chill of the early morning air brushed against Maria's skin as she stepped out to find Mira already deep in concentration. Around her, the elements seemed to be in a state of flux, coalescing and dissipating in an intricate dance.

Maria watched, fascinated by the transformation taking place before her eyes. Mira now appeared as a conduit through which the elements flowed and merged. Ice no longer stood apart but served as the foundation upon which the others built, each element interweaving with the next.

However, it wasn't without failures, nor was she perfect.

She seemed to be searching for the meaning of 'a singular entity' and 'earth(etc.) is ice'.

Was it as simple as lumping everything together?

No. If it were that easy, she would've already discovered the answer.

So, if lumping and forcefully combining the elements didn't work, then what did?

Mira didn't know, but she figured the answer required a different perspective.

'Maria said I view the elements as separate, right? I'm not sure it's possible to view them as the same, but I think I can look at them through a slightly different lens.'

Like taking a magnifying glass made of ice to see what the other elements are really made of. What function do they serve? What kind of properties do they contain? How are they different? The same?

'From there, I need to dissect what can be used and integrated.'

This project wasn't simply about strengthening her ice, as that was dependent on other factors such as her cultivation, Qi quality, Dao understanding, and control. Weaving the defensive properties of earth into ice might not necessarily make it stronger, as she could compensate for that in other ways.

The first and most important reason was to save time. Trying to learn so many different elements was time-consuming. If she could throw it all together under one banner–ice–her life would be a lot easier.

The second reason, however, was equally important.

What she learned when developing the [Explosive Ice Gauntlet] was that trying to balance all the elements to achieve a perfect fit was incredibly tedious, not to mention wasteful. It required more brainpower, more Qi, a deeper understanding, and more stringent conditions for use.

And that was all to develop something simple, like an exploding gauntlet. What if she wanted to develop an attack that could affect the entire continent, using all eight elements?

Wouldn't she die in the testing phase?

Maybe for others who were born with dual or triple affinities, this wasn't a problem. On the contrary, they have probably already reached a state of using their elements fluidly.

If she had to make a comparison, it would be like comparing a high-intensity laser gun to a pistol.

But what if she didn't have to worry about different elements? What if one could do everything she needed?

She was working with too many moving parts and too many different components that could fail, and thus, her output(for techniques) was limited. Whereas the other multi-affinity people simply had to press a button and outshot a laser that was more precise and powerful than her pistol.

What Mira wanted was to take out the middleman, the different components(elements), and the various working parts and integrate all their usable strengths into one cohesive unit(ice).

Doing so should not only increase the efficiency of her Qi in general but also her control and fluidity. Whether it directly increased her power or not was irrelevant.

Right now, what she lacked were powerful techniques; a Battle Art. However, she was limited by all these different moving parts. Remove that factor, and she might be able to create something truly extraordinary.

First, she focused on earth. Traditionally seen as the embodiment of stability and defense, Mira observed its properties: solidity, resilience, and a grounding nature. How could these attributes be woven into ice? Ice was already solid, but it lacked the enduring toughness of earth.

However, what made earth, in nature, so strong wasn't simply because it was 'tough'.

Why can a mortal man crush a stone and not a mountain? It's too big.

When it comes to earth, size and density matter.

How she could integrate that into her ice element, she wasn't sure, but she was confident it would come to her after enough trial and error.

Next was water, the element of adaptability and flow. Ice was water in a solid state, but it lacked water's ability to adapt and change shape fluidly.

'It's really just about distribution. A cube of ice and a cube of water have the same volume, but one will remain a cube while the other disperses into a puddle and takes the shape of its container. If I want ice to have the same properties… I'll need to somehow be able to change its flow with a snap of the finger.'

This could easily be done manually, but the whole purpose of this meditation session was to eliminate such factors.

Fire was about destruction and energy. Integrating fire with ice seemed counterintuitive—the two were natural opposites. Yet, Mira was already halfway there with Yin Fire.

Wind was the element of speed, movement, and freedom. It could, in theory, go anywhere and be anywhere. Ice, being solid, naturally lacked the mobility and agility of wind.

'What the hell am I supposed to do here?' She didn't even know where to start. In her previous mortal lives, wind was the movement of air caused by gravity and the rotation of the planet, but things didn't necessarily work like that in this world.

Should she try and 'capture' wind within countless microscopic balls and place them in ice? Would that do anything?

Or maybe she was looking at it wrong. She had to somehow give her ice the ability to produce a natural wind—like wings but on a subatomic scale. But that didn't seem right either.

'Maybe I have to combine traits from other elements, like how water and wind are similar in some ways.'

Lightning was raw power and speed, an instantaneous force. Mira sought to infuse her ice with lightning's abrupt and explosive nature, envisioning ice that could strike with the speed and shock of a thunderbolt.

This was more in line with the type of adjustments she was thinking about. Like a brain sending trillions of little eclectic pulses between synapses, she planned to do something similar.

However, she didn't want something as simple as 'I point my finger at something, and a bolt of ice strikes it.'

Rather, what she hoped for was something that could bring all the previous elements together to create something almost semi-autonomous. Whatever she wanted could happen instantaneously according to her will. No wasted words, thoughts, or movements.

Lastly, the integration of light and darkness presented a unique challenge. And by 'challenge,' she meant she was at a loss. They simply encompassed too many things and were so complex by nature that attempting to 'pick them apart' didn't work.

However, as she had more than enough work, she decided to put them off for now.

Needless to say, the hours that followed were both fruitful and unpromising. She learned a lot about her affinities but ran into roadblocks every step of the way.

She couldn't cherry-pick everything she wanted and force it into the concept of ice. It wasn't about Qi, affinities, or even understanding. The problem stemmed from a more fundamental level:

How ice worked.

Therein lies the problem.

What good was understanding if she couldn't put it to use?

That's where two abilities that had only seen minimal use come into play!

Creation and Destruction!

If she could hone in on her affinity—the core of her being, her connection to the world… and alter it like some sort of psychotic gene editor, she could potentially change how her ice worked on a fundamental level.

If she wanted her ice to have a corrosive, cold-burn effect without using Yin Fire, she could add that. If she wanted her ice to be more stable, durable, and resilient like earth, she could add that! If she wanted ice to flow like water, she could add that!

Mira's body trembled in excitement at the thought of purely using ice.

'It's like I'm going back to my roots! All of this multi-elemental bullshit is too annoying, only for me to hardly put any of them to use! My Dao is that of Absolute Ice! Why should I need other elements? One is more than enough!'

She nearly burst out laughing at the revelation, something that's been in front of her eyes this entire time, but she failed to see it.

Looking back on it now, it seems her entire life led up to this point, from when she first acquired Yin Lightning to her several evolutions to this very moment.

It was pointing her in this direction all along.

She was never meant to be a multi-elemental 'mage'. Ice was her one and only path.

'...Maybe this is also the way of progressing through Soul Transformation Realm? Or perhaps the end goal?' She couldn't help but think.

Until now, it has been all about deepening the connection between her body, Qi, soul, and Dao.

What could be a deeper connection than this?

However, the answer to those questions remained to be seen. She wouldn't find out until she had tried it.

What she did know was this plan was batshit fucking insane.