The Cold Wolf

In the frost mountains overwhelmed by blizzards, an old man smiles as he is confronted with a man with a scar on his face.

"Why hello there stranger." The old man says smiling.

Silva left the cave, and his wolf friend, only an hour after Kira had left. He was reluctant to leave the cave, especially after not sleeping for two nights in a row, but he needed to keep moving. If Fenris was heading the investigation, he wouldn't waste any time once the storm passed. As much as Silva needed to rest, he knew he couldn't afford that luxury until he put acceptable distance between himself and the cave.

It wasn't long before his adrenaline started to run out, and exhaustion hit him in the full. He kept moving though, he had been through worse. Eventually, just as he was about to set camp early due to his need for rest, he heard a noise.

Carefully peeking from around a corner, he spotted an old man. He had to blink several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He was definitely real. Though the man was quite old, he seemed to still have some strength of youth in his body, which made Silva wary.

He had wandered these mountains for years and had never seen any sign of any mountain hermits, or any permanent residents, and hadn't he just come from an encounter with a Magnian spy? He wasn't sure of this man's intentions, and he found it hard to believe that any elder would be able to make the journey this far into the mountains, nor even why they would want to make the journey. He decided it might be safer to just avoid him altogether. He went to go back up the way he had came.

Then his foot snagged on a rock, and kicked it to the ground.

He cursed his luck. He was never that clumsy. There was no way he hadn't been heard, and if that old man was able enough to make it think far, he would surely be looking for any signs of the source. Well, Silva thought, might as well make myself known. He walked into view of the old man.

His eyes took in everything about the elder, and as much he scanned him, he couldn't detect any weapons. That didn't rule out magic. Magic was never ruled out.

"Why hello there stranger." The old man said, a large smile on his face as he did. Silva couldn't tell if it was a warm or cold smile. Was the man actually greeting him, or was he doing what Silva was and taking in the newcomer?

"Greetings, elder." Silva replied. "I will admit, I am surprised to see another face this far into the mountains. What brings you up here this far?"

"Oh I'm just doing a little hiking." The old man said chuckling a bit.

As the old man stopped chuckling, he looked at the man before him, and only blinked once after examining him.

"You're weak." Said the old man calmly.

The man stared in somewhat confusion towards the old man from here. But all the old man did was stand firm and in place.

"You most likely fought the Dragon Emperor didn't you?" He said as he smiled not in a happy manner, but in a sly appearance as if having figured out a person's mind.

"Would you like to grow stronger? Or are you content with what you are now? Are you ready to finally open your eyes? Or are you content with your pride keeping you weak?"

Having said all this, the old man opened his eyes to the man before him, revealing his cold silver eyes. And as he did, the blizzards grew stronger...

Silva was startled by the man's sudden change in demeanor. When the weather changed, things started coming together. He smiled. He actually let out a genuine smile, an increasingly rare event for him.

"Hiking indeed, divine." Silva said, for some reason he wasn't that intimidated by this agent of the gods, which is what Silva knew him to be. Either that, or some avatar of one of the Immortals, but that was less likely. "And a fine time and place to do it.

"I will admit, you are correct, I did fight the Dragon Emperor and lost, badly. I have resolved to improve myself to the point where even one like Ryu Shinra will have trouble fighting me. Unfortunately, it appears that is easier said than done." The temperature continued to drop, the man showed revealed nothing away. There was no way for Silva to tell if he was pleasing him or not. He didn't like not knowing how people ticked.

"I would ask why you chose to visit me, but I know you wouldn't reveal to me the exact reason so easily. Nor do I really care enough to try and figure it out. I have always been confident in my skill, always able to brave the elements and improve my physical body. However, it appears that thus far, my current efforts to strengthen myself have been in vain."

It occurred to Silva that this may be some kind of test or trick. Perhaps the offer of power was simply a way to see what kind of person he really was. If he botched this, he would never get another chance quite like this again. The more he looked at him, the more Silva was convinced that this was actually an avatar of Frostus, god of ice, cold, and winter.

"That being said, though I have always overcome my obstacles by myself, I recognize that is sometimes necessary to accept a helping hand. I wouldn't be foolish enough to ask the gods for anything, nor do I say I deserve it, but you did ask me a question. You asked me if I would like to grow stronger, or if I was content. The answer is indeed yes, I would like to grow stronger."

"Hmmm...you haven't released your aura yet..." The old man said examining the man before him.

"Until you master your aura, you will never make the Dragon Emperor wince."

It was then the old man walked towards the man and looked up at his face.

"Kneel boy...you're too tall" The old man said.

And as the man knelt, the old man tapped his head and closed his eyes and bright blue mist-like air started flowing around his arm towards the man. It was then that the old man opened his eyes.

"Silva Darkmoon...at your current power, you won't even be able to defeat the weakest of Scaradia's elite royal guard." He said as more mist began to appear. "However, it has come to my attention that Scaradia has become too powerful and that I must do what I can to maintain a sort of balance."

Suddenly, the ground at which Silva was kneeling on began to crash down. Silva was being crushed by an energy force at which he could not even see.

"I cannot grant you power to rival the monster they call the Dragon Emperor, unfortunately he was born with the natural talent...However, I can help you in terms of the development...but whether you survive and grow is up to you."

It was then the old man released his hand and jumped back. A surge of bright blue energy suddenly crashed upon Silva and smashed him onto the ground, crashing and roaring at the surge of energy coursing within him.

"I have unlocked your potential to harness aura, sadly you never were able to unlock it and so it built up over time and now it has been released like a wild animal that had been trapped in a dark cave. So It is up to you whether you can overcome this on your own..."

The old man then took a seat at a nearby rock and watched as Silva continued roaring and thrashing about on the ground as his own aura started taking its place within him...

Pain. Unimaginable pain was all Silva could feel. For the first moment, it was so intense and brutal, he almost regretted agreeing to this. Almost. Though he admitted that this was the most pain he had ever felt at one time, he had lived through worse. Much worse.

After he strengthened his will to cope with the pain, it got slightly easier to deal with. After a while, he thought he could see the blue aura in his mind, visualizing it take it's place inside him. It was amazing that all this he was seeing was only 20 years worth of unused potential. He didn't know much about aura, but if Frostus saw fit to give it to him, he should feel honored.

Of course, this lead him to think about the entire situation in general. Why had Frostus taken an interest in HIM, of all people? Sure, among Lunarians he was one of the best, smart, strong, and fast, but there were many reasons why the gods shouldn't take an interest in him. For one, he wasn't very religious. He believed in the Immortals, he believed the King's superhuman powers were proof enough, but he never worshiped them. In fact, he had killed a lot of Frostus followers in the past three years alone. Sure, he prayed to Frostus once in the past weeks, but that wasn't enough.

Whatever the reason, the Immortal had taken an interest to him, in at least some small way. What was most perplexing was the fact that Frostus had intervened in mortal affairs at all. In fact, he seemed concerned about Scaradia, which was technically at peace with Lunaria. Wouldn't he be more concerned about Solaria, which threatened to win the war due to the incompetent buffoon on the Lunarian throne?

Of course, Silva didn't have any problem fighting Scaradia. He had always hated them, even before he met Ryu, he just didn't understand why the patron god of Lunaria cared. It wasn't his place to know, probably, but he still was curious. It irked him.

After what felt like hours, he stopped thrashing, and the pain finally subsided.

"Oh?" The old man said as he examined Silva, now kneeling on one leg as he panted heavily. "Took you long enough, about 5 hours and 24 minutes to be exact." He added.

Standing up from the rock, he tapped his trousers clean and walked towards Silva.

"You should be able to use magic properly now that I unleashed your aura, however that can easily be learned on your own. For now, you will need to create your own aura technique unique to your aura class." Said the old man sitting down in front of Silva as he looked him in the eyes.

"You are of the Conjuration category..." The old man said as he smiled. "...that means your best bet in creating your aura into something..." He added as he stood and walked to circle Silva.

"You must be careful to think about your conjuration and to know that this indeed is a difficult task to accomplish...you can manifest your aura into something that can aid you in combat and you must learn to be able to think at least as one mind with two bodies...you can create a clone of yourself to aid you, hell you can even create ten copies of yourself if you choose so and master such an ability or possibly, create the living avatar of what you really imagine yourself to really be..."

As he said all this, the old man began to glow with an enormous amount of aura.

"In order for you to clear your mind and find the ability you truly desire...you will have to face something powerful...this isn't much from me but it's more or less the same amount of aura that that Dragon brought down upon you back then..."

And as he said this, a large silver maned wolf about 5-6 times the size of a regular wolf appeared next to the old man, growling at Silva...

"You don't have to win, but you shouldn't die either...the wolf will vanish once you make up your mind...so best of luck, Silva Darkmoon." The old man said as he smiled and turned to walk away in the cold blizzard as the giant wolf roared and lunged towards Silva...

Silva rolled out of the way as the great wolf leaped at him. It reminded him of his she-wolf friend, he had defeated a wolf this size before, he could do it again. He felt much stronger than before, the newly obtained aura coursing through him. Of course, he would need to develop it into a skill before long, but now was not the time to think about it.

He swiped at the wolf's paws, but it just nimbly jumped aside and returned his swipe with one of it's own. Silva narrowly dodged as he jumped over the giant paws. He tried and failed four more times to get a successful hit off on the wolf, but it just wasn't leaving him an opening. He was tiring himself out faster than it was. Actually, even if he did hit the wolf, it probably could take it without much hindrance. However, if Silva got hit by one of those giant paws, or those teeth, he would be a goner.

Silva climbed up the cliffside a little ways, then hid behind a rock that the wolf couldn't reach him. As the wolf tried to dislodge the rock so it could dismember him, Silva tried desperately to remember his fight with the she-wolf, eleven years ago. He doubted this spirit was smarter than her, but most of the tricks he remembered, he had already tried. It was difficult to remember his moves, all he had been thinking about at the time was protecting Fenris.

Fenris! Of course! The reason he was able to defeat the other wolf was because she had been split her attention between Silva and Fenris. If only he had a second person to help him! Maybe if he ran enough, he own she wolf friend would come to his aid. He dismissed this idea the instant it formed. The wolf could definitely run faster, and hadn't Frostus said that this was about forming his aura?

It wouldn't be easy, but Silva knew what he had to do. He reached into the aura that Frostus had just given him, and started to visualize himself. Every detail of his face, all the creases in his armor, and every scratch on his sword. He paid attention to every little thing he saw, and it would certainly pay off now.

He opened his eyes, and released his energy. To his surprise, an exact clone of himself stood in front of him. Silva smirked, he could get used to this aura stuff.

He sent the clone away from the rock to distract the wolf, and it proceeded to do exactly what Silva had done when he tried to fight it by himself. Apparently, when he wasn't controlling it, the clone had the same instincts and battle skills as Silva did. That was useful information.

When the clone had the wolf in place, Silva climbed to the top of the rock, drew his sword, then jumped and plunged his sword into the beast's back. It dissipated in a whirl of smoke. Frostus had said it would go away once he had made up his mind. No longer needed, the clone disappeared as well.

Silva got up and sheathed his blades. He had done it. He had unlocked an aura power. Silva smiled another genuine smile as he walked away, thinking of possible ways he could use the cloning ability to give him an edge.