Chapter 540: Crsytallized Flesh And Bones
Third Person’s POV
She deliberately maintained a small distance and refrained from making any physical contact with either the coffin or the being resting within it, as her caution had not diminished despite the absence of any immediate danger.
Her gaze lowered once again, this time with greater focus and intent as she looked directly into the coffin from such proximity, allowing her to observe the figure inside with complete clarity.
And now, with that clarity, she could finally confirm the fact without any doubt that the young man lying within the coffin was alive.
However, his appearance was unlike anything she had ever seen in her entire life.
It was something so unfamiliar and contradictory that it immediately unsettled her understanding of what should and should not exist.
His facial features were sharp yet carried a certain softness that made them appear delicate, an unusual balance that made him undeniably handsome in her eyes.
And it was to the point that he almost bordered on an ethereal beauty that blurred the line between masculine and feminine, especially with his long flowing hair that gave him an almost feminine grace.
That hair, which was originally violet in shade, was now covered in delicate crystals of frost, each strand stiffened and glistening faintly as if it had been frozen in place, while its color had subtly deepened into a richer violet blue under the influence of the surrounding cold, giving him an otherworldly presence that felt both unnatural and mesmerizing at the same time.
But despite all of that, what truly shocked her was not his appearance or the strange beauty he carried.
Instead, it was his body.
Almost his entire form had turned transparent, yet it was not the kind of simple translucency one might associate with water, glass, or any natural substance, but rather something far more complex and deeply unnatural.
It was as though his very flesh had transformed into a crystallized state of ice, something that defied the basic understanding of living organisms.
It did not look like a corpse, but it did not look like a living body either.
Blue, vein-like patterns spread across his body and glowed faintly as they traced along his limbs and torso, while beneath that semi-transparent surface, his flesh and bones appeared to have taken on a crystalline structure, forming a delicate yet eerie composition that blurred the line between life and something else entirely.
Even his blood vessels had turned into the shade of crystal blue, making her understanding of a human body go haywire.
And yet, despite all of this, she could still sense a faint heartbeat from his heart.
It was very slow and only came once in five seconds, but it was present nonetheless.
His lips had turned a pale bluish purple, and his eyelashes were coated with fine layers of frost, giving him a fragile and frozen appearance, as though he existed in a suspended state between life and death.
She had never seen anything like this before in her whole life and had not even read about anything like this in any ancient record or texts.
This young man seemed to defy all known classifications, his existence contradicting everything she understood about life, ascension, and elemental transformation, making it impossible for her to categorize him within any known race or lineage.
For a fleeting moment, she even considered whether he might belong to a rare branch of ice elves, but that thought was immediately dismissed as his features did not match theirs in the slightest, especially with his ears lacking the distinct shape that defined their kind.
From outside, he simply seemed like a human, but there were simply too many contradictions and too many unknowns surrounding him, which plagued her mind.
And for the first time in a long while, her mind felt unsettled as it tried to make sense of something that did not fit into any known framework.
She remained there for several long moments, hovering silently above the coffin as her eyes stayed fixed on him.
Her thoughts turned over repeatedly in an attempt to understand the nature of his existence, until a hesitant voice finally broke through her focus and pulled her out of that trance.
"What is it that is troubling you, my lady? May we come over as well? Perhaps we might be able to make sense of this situation together... if it is not dangerous, and if you permit it..."
Hearing this, the blue-haired woman turned her gaze toward the armored aura master, her expression returning to its usual calm as she studied him for a brief moment before giving a simple nod of approval.
Then, shifting her gaze toward the distant group of four who stood watching with restrained anticipation, she added in a casual tone,
"Bring them along as well... they already look like they are dying to see this mysterious person for themselves..."
Hearing her words, Arlene, the young maid, and Uncle Caspian felt a surge of anticipation rise within them.
It was a quiet excitement that they could not suppress, even though the tone in which the blue-haired woman had spoken carried a subtle edge that left them slightly embarrassed, as if they had been seen through too easily.
Even so, none of them allowed that faint embarrassment to linger for long, because the weight of the moment far outweighed such trivial concerns as the greatest mystery of their arduous expedition through this frozen hell was finally about to reveal itself in one way or another.
Arlene’s face remained tense as a storm of thoughts passed through her mind, her expectations rising and falling rapidly as she hoped that whatever lay within that coffin would prove to be of some use to her.
The rare magical herb she had originally sought with such determination and effort had already been reduced to nothing more than dust before her very eyes.
At the same time, she had already begun to realize that her aunt’s earlier suspicion about the existence of an Ice Corpse King had most likely been nothing more than a precautionary guess rather than reality.