Frostbound

Chris

It was over. Blissfully over. I wasn't sure how long it had been, or how many days had passed, but it was done. The mana rushing in, around, and throughout my body had finally settled into something 'normal.'

The new normal of everything was wildly different from what used to be the case, but my mana was finished arcing out erratic spurts or massive waves causing pain.

The meld between my mana channels and circulatory system was still unfinished, as that was a lengthy process and one that would take weeks to complete, but the main part of the technique was over.

A new power accompanied the beat of my heart and it sent mana cascading through my entire body. Zoning in on my heart with my mana senses made it feel like there was an eight-cylinder engine roaring constantly and peaking with the beat of my heart.

It was... wonderful.

The pain that was linked to having frigidly cold Arctic mana shooting through delicate areas was gone and now all that was left was the feeling of power.

My body used the mana coursing through it along with the oxygen my blood usually carried to become more than it once had. The two combined working together in more ways than one.

Both sides of the coin were represented. The physical and the magical both were used as fuel instead of only one. I wouldn't know the extent of the changes until I got back and tested it, but the initial discoveries were promising. It was even more of a change than getting a Body of Wood as there was more to build off of.

After the ignition was over, I took a few days of rest inside my dome and caught up on some much-needed sleep. My three-month estimate for how long it would take was wildly off and allowed me some time to rest.

Either the mana here was purer and more abundant or I could have stopped and done this much further South.

From what I could tell when I finally broke out of the dome was that around a month had passed. The darkest days were behind us and light was slowly coming back a few minutes at a time.