"It’s been a while, Julian..." he murmured, his voice barely carrying through the whistling wind. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Julian stopped a few meters away from him. The winter breeze rippled his coat, but he did not seem to feel the biting cold. He looked at Klein and Jasper in turn, before fixing his gaze on his former comrade.

"Looks like you’ve changed a lot, you bastard," Julian remarked in a tone meant to be light, although his voice lacked its usual warmth.

Klein could not help but let out a small cynical laugh, his newly thrust hands shoved into his trouser pockets.

"You’ve changed a lot too, Julian," he replied in the same tone of acidic banter. "Looks like you’ve become a real mage-warrior. Guess chasing all the girls in Skycity didn’t stop you from training seriously."

Julian sketched a smile, but it was only a facade that failed to hide the tension in his muscles. He turned toward Jasper, who remained impassive, his bow still in hand but lowered.

"And you, elf?" Julian asked.

Jasper did not reply, content to stare at him from behind his headband, probably analyzing the unstable mana flows that were beginning to saturate the air around Julian. The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the crunch of ice under Julian’s boots as he took a step toward Klein.

Suddenly, his expression changed radically. His smile vanished to make way for a cold face, almost palpable. The air grew thin, and the aura around Julian became much denser.

"But enough with the pleasantries," Julian said, his voice dropping an octave. "If I stayed and followed you here, it’s not to talk about the good old days."

He approached until he stood face to face with Klein, so close that the latter could feel the fluctuations of his frost mana. Julian stood straight, his gaze plunging into Klein’s with an intensity that would have made any other student back away.

"Where is she, Kaiser?" he asked, his words hissing between clenched teeth.

Klein frowned slightly, feigning incomprehension. "Who are you talking about, Julian?"

"Don’t play dumb with me!" Julian exploded, his calm crumbling. "My mother, Irene Frostvine. She disappeared shortly after you were declared dead. No one has seen her since."

Ah... so she finally told him what was going on between us, Klein thought with biting irony, the image of Irene offering herself to him in her office crossing his mind.

"The Duchess Frostvine is a woman free to move as she pleases, Julian," Klein replied in a flat tone, his face remaining stony. "What she chooses to do or the people she chooses to see is none of my business. If she has disappeared, maybe it’s simply that she had enough of a cold marriage and a son who spends his time in brothels."

The provocation was the last straw. Without another word, Julian threw his right fist. The blow was lightning fast, charged with a frost aura that left a bluish trail in the air. It aimed precisely at Klein’s face, seeking to disfigure him.

Klein did not retreat. He simply raised his left hand, his open palm intercepting the fist at the exact moment of impact.

The shock produced a dull sound, a mana shockwave that sent the snow flying around them. Julian’s strength was impressive, but Klein’s own aura, which had reached Transcendence, was superior. The frost tried to climb up his arm, but he dissipated it with a simple impulse of energy.

"Your impulsiveness will kill you," Klein murmured while squeezing Julian’s knuckles in his grip.

Julian growled with rage. He jerked his arm free with a brutal shake and launched into a series of strikes. He was no longer looking to talk. He was fighting with pure hatred, his blows raining down on Klein’s guard with the force of an avalanche.

He used his left foot to try to sweep him, but Klein jumped backward to gain distance. Julian gave him no respite. He drew his sword covered in a frost aura.

<Art Frostvine: First Movement - Frost Blade>!

A blade of icy aura stretched from his weapon, slicing the air toward Klein’s neck. The latter drew his katana in a fluid motion, the dark metal absorbing the ambient light. The clash of the blades produced a shrill metallic screech, sparks of mana bursting at every contact.

"You’re going to tell me the truth!" Julian yelled while multiplying his thrusts. "What did you do to her?"

Every sword blow he delivered was wilder than the last. He was fighting with rage. He held Klein responsible for his mother’s disappearance.

Klein parried a downward attack. Julian’s sword was heavy, which testified to his progress. His opponent’s eyes were bloodshot, his breath forming long clouds of vapor in the cold.

"You’re completely mistaken, Julian," Klein said while applying lateral pressure to deflect his blade. "Your mother is no one’s prisoner. Even I don’t know where she is right now."

This new allusion, although cryptic for Julian, only fueled his inner fury. He jumped back, planting his sword in the frozen ground.

<Elemental Magic: Ice Vines>

The ground shook violently. Wooden outgrowths, covered in a layer of sharp ice, burst from the rock to try to ensnare Klein’s legs. The thorns, sharp as daggers, sought his flesh.

<Dash>

Klein used his mobility technique to escape the trap. He vanished from the vines that closed on empty air. Julian launched a breath of pure frost, creating an opaque screen to mask his advance.

<Aura Repulsion>

The shockwave he released instantly dissipated the frosty fog and shattered the vines that came too close. But Julian was already on him, his sword pointed at his heart, his face distorted by murderous determination.

Shifting to the left side, Klein let Julian’s sword pass before grabbing his arm to lift him, flipping him over then striking him to the ground.

While Julian was lying down, he thought back to everything that had happened after Kaiser had been declared dead.

"It’s all your fault," he murmured as his gaze was lost.