Shade looked at the priest before him with mild surprise. The man could briefly connect his soul to the snow mountain. On Shade's outstretched right hand, fiery red cracks spread from the back of his hand up his arm, but the dense web of fissures vanished at his elbow.
The snow mountain's chill was completely melted away by the afterglow of the First Fire, while the power of the earth represented by the mountain could not shake Shade's soul at all—a soul that had once devoured part of the earth's origin. Shade would not dare claim that he was the earth itself, but the earth was indeed a part of him.
Even the blessing bestowed upon him by the Winter God, the Winter Maiden, manifested at that moment. Snowflakes drifting beneath the night sky, which had somehow turned deep blue, began to dance for Shade. Then the rushing cold wind let out a terrifying howl among the mountains, as though the blizzard and the mountain range had violently collided.
Only the two of them could hear that thunderous sound. After the howl arose, Elder Harald realized in astonishment that the snow mountain itself seemed to have accepted this unfamiliar young man after that collision.
He immediately released Shade's hand and was forcibly withdrawn from his state of connection with the snow mountain. Staggering back two steps, he dropped his long staff with his left hand and clutched the right hand that had just held Shade's. Burn marks covered it.
The elder of the tribesmen at the foot of the snow mountain stared at the young man before him in utter disbelief:
"What kind of fire is this? No, I can sense the power of the seasons. You came from the Great Northern Ice Cap? Are you one of the Winter