Elysia Ryder's Story

The first thing that Elysia noticed was a strange sensation. Slowly, her thought processes started working again, although her thinking was still a bit choppy after centuries in a place void of all things. The sensation was slightly familiar and after some time she remembered what it was called.

Cold, she was cold.

A normal human would have gone looking for warmth at this point, but Elysia was still rather dazed. It took her a while to realize what it meant. What feeling sensations in general meant. She was no longer in the Void.

But even this realization was not quite enough to shake her out of her stupor. She didn't know how long she laid there, her sense of time distorted, but she slowly opened her eyes at some point, only to be met with the sight of white.

'Snow', her sluggish mind supplied her, as it put one and one together to make two.

'So cold'

Her consciousness faded, and the immortal fell asleep, not knowing, nor caring about how long it would take for someone to find her.

Of course, she was not someone who went unnoticed. In the normally empty forest of snow and trees, that appeared to expand across as far as the eye can see, there was another figure there. However, the figure was not that of a man, but a boy.

"Hmmm mmm hmm hm hm. Hmmm mmmm hm hm hmmm".

Someone who was humming something that was totally at random, it was Ixa Snowfall Rixy. He was wearing a blue hoodie that had cat ears on top, with a cat tail attached to the back, a pair of shorts, and the shoes that he normally wore were stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie. As for why they were stuffed in there with his socks instead of on his feet, that was because he thought it would be uncomfortable if snow slid into them while he was wearing them and become all slushy slushy.

So instead, he was walking barefoot with nowhere near enough clothing in the snow.

However, this was not really an issue for him as it was impossible for him to get frostbite or be bothered by extreme colds. As one with the ability "Lord of the Frost", Ixa was totally unaffected by cold temperatures. Of course, inversely, temperatures considered "hot" made him want to strip completely naked because he would find it uncomfortable, unless he used his ability to keep himself cool.

And that was when he stumbled across the person.

"Oh!"

"See, I told you some sort of spacial distortion happened here".

Appearing at his side was his Spirit Guardian, a large white wolf he named Snowflake. Or, did Snowflake name herself? Or maybe it was a name another gave her? Ixa forgot the specifics.

Ixa decided to nudge her face with her feet, to see if she would wake up. Unfortunately, he was not really the brightest of the Rixys.

Another sensation assaulted Elysia, awaking her from her cold-induced slumber. Something was... touching??? her face. At first she attributed it to the unrelenting snowfall, as the object was rather cold, but rather than stay still, the object was nudging her. Had she not just started the process of escaping a several-centuries-long catatonic state, she would have swatted at it, but alas, she had yet to regain enough self-awareness for that.

She opened her eyes though, only to see the bare foot of a boy hovering over her face. Fortunately for her, it didn't smell due to the circumstances (the boy having walked barefooted through the snow for a while). 'Dream?', she decided after staring at it for a bit, before closing her eyes again.

After all, despite having been in the catatonic state for centuries, she hadn't seen a living being for millennia.

The fact that she was in a place where snow and cold existed -where /anything/ existed- as opposed to the Void, so living beings could possibly exist, not quite clicking yet.

Ixa kept nudging her face a bit, seeing if she would react in any such ways, wondering if he was being ignored. He might just get a tad bit sad, or perhaps very sad, if he was being ignored. Even though the entire reason he came through the Southern Region in the first place was to go unnoticed, if a person that he was trying to interact with ignored him coldly, Ixa would probably take considerable mental damage.

Ixa's skin was actually pretty much perfect, due to his Adaptability power that did a lot of miscelanous and usually rather mundane things. Of course, it made him a universal receiver of blood, organs, and such, but given that it caused him to also be an experimental test subject for nearly a decade, in fact for almost all his life up until recently, it was not something he would brag about. But Ixa was well known among the RIxys for his overly positive attitude. He was probably, at least a bit, too positive.

"Wakey wakey! You might get a cold there!"

And when he heard her mention him as a dream, he pouted a bit.

"I am not a dream! Thats it, time for the secret technique! Ultimate Ixa Stomach Jump!"

And so he jumped on her aiming for the stomach region in a playful and silly manner, in a way that would do almost no damage...but would certainly be something that could be felt.

It was quite possible Elysia had accidently broadcast that thought instead of simply thinking it, millennia of isolation having destroyed the need for 'in-mind thoughts', although it wasn't very likely. Or maybe the boy had just been sensitive to such things. Just because someone wasn't a full-fledged telepath didn't mean that they couldn't accidently pick up a stray thought once in a while.

In fact, most of the time someone went 'I thought I heard someone say something' in a silent room, it was such a case.

This was neither here nor there however, as Elysia wasn't quite in a state to wonder about it, so those wouldn't have been her thoughts anyway.

Another sensation suddenly spiked.

Pain.

She couldn't help stifling a scream. At one time she had had a rather high pain tolerance, but having been touch-deprived for so long, she was hypersensitive to it. The cold and slight pressure of the foot touching her face had been well inside the tolerable range, if still significantly more unpleasant than it would have been for others. Something that would have actually registered as hurting considerably for them though? It was much, much worse for her.

By instinct she curled up on herself, protecting her head and stomach, while letting out occasional whimpers.

Ixa jumped back off of her once she screamed, with a very positive look in his face.

"Yay! You are awake! It worked!"

"Ixa, please stop acting like an idiot" Snowflake told him before turning to face the woman. The large white wolf's fur glistened as the sun reflected off the snow and gave her a beautiful appearance of her own. You know, for a giant white wolf. "My apologies, Ixa is still new to the outside world due to his...circumstances...and lacks proper common sense. Well, it is true you might die or at least suffer lasting damage due to hypothermia if you slept here, so I suppose his actions did help save your life just now. So please, forgive him".

Ixa watched as Snowflake talked to the woman who had suddenly curled up and started whimpering.

"Hey, are you okay? Well don't worry, I found you so you will be fine! My name is Ixa! Ixa Rixy! It is a pleasure to meet you!"

Ixa said that while extending his hand, as if hoping for a handshake.

The words of the white wolf, like all the things that were said before, would go unheard by Elysia. This was not out of malice or her ignoring them on purpose, but rather because she couldn't have understood in the state she was in. She had basically been doing what might as well be the human equivalent of 'coming back online' after a long period without (sensory) input.

She slowly left the agitated state the pain had left her in, as her magic worked on repairing the injuries.

Yes, injuries.

For all that the boy hadn't intended to actually harm her, Elysia hadn't been in that good of a condition to begin with. Magic might be useful, but that didn't take away that she had 'lived' for a long time without sustenance. Even magic, which she generated a little of herself, could not creating something out of nothing, leaving her very vulnerable. Her bones had grown brittle, and her organs had been either on or past the brink of failure to begin with.

Yes, the ambient magic and actual matter to be converted into necessarily substances had helped her own magic a lot in starting to repair the damage, but not that much time had passed between Elysia entering this world and the boy finding her.

Blood dribbled down from the corner of her mouth, staining the previously pure snow a vibrant red. Something which, due to her current positioning, and it only being a few drops could easily go unnoticed.

She kept fading out of and into consciousness for a few minutes, unaware of what was going on around her.

As the two spoke, it was finally becoming apparent for them that she couldn't hear them. They though since she had moved, at least a little, that she was active, but it appeared to them now that she was still in a bad state where she could not really hear them or something. And of course, it was Snowflake who finally noticed the smell of blood.

"Ixa! There is blood somewhere! She is bleeding!"

"What? But, I don't smell anything".

The fact that everything was covered in snow had dulled their ability to sense a bit, but Snowflake was not just a wolf, but a Spirit Guardian. Her senses were even more advanced then Ixa's, who had been given enhanced senses from the experiments done to him. This allowed him to actually notice the smell of blood once Snowflake brought his attention to it.

"Oh, now I got it...dont worry mysterious lady! We will help you!"

"But Ixa, you lack the ability to heal other people. You can regenerate yourself just fine, but...you cant really heal other people".

"Cant you do that, Snowflake?"

"...I would need to know a bit more about these injuries to do anything".

"Well then! I will just have to try something with Lord of the Frost!"

"Wait, that shouldn't have a healing ability thou..."

"It gives me full control over stuff like this right? Well then, there is certainly a way! I just have to try! Maybe by sending energy right into her, I can absorb the cold from her body and let her body return to a more normal temperature where it can operate better!"

"That is...surprisingly a good idea, coming from you..."

Of course, this was not a coincidence. Ixa had been a test subject for many years, and Lord of the Frost was an ability that they had forced him to use in various ways. Not to mention the scientists always talked about bioscience stuff around them. Ixa was an idiot, and an extreme optimist sure. But, after being made to hear about this stuff for every day, for his entire life up until recently, Ixa did pick some things up.

And so to help restore her body to a temperature that he figured it would operate better at, he sent his own energy into her body and would use it to extract the cold energy inside her, while Snowflake would try to load them both onto her back so she could transport them to someplace better then an open, snowy field.

Elysia remained mostly unaware of everything. She didn't really feel herself getting moved unto the wolf's back, although some time in she did notice how soft whatever she was lying on felt, before her consciousness faded again. What she did notice was the intrusion of a strange energy into her body, but her magic made no more than a token attempt to fight it off, especially as it soon became clear that whatever it was doing was not harmful.

The fact that Elysia couldn't have died from hypothermia didn't mean that the energy previously spend at keeping her bodily functions from getting far worse had no better uses after all.

She might not have been able to die, but she wasn't truly alive either. Neither was she an undead. It would be more accurate to say her body was frozen in time, but that was not quite it either. Most of her organs might have been useless by now, but once her magic had repaired the damage they would work as intended.

The only real difference between her and a living person -aside from the complete absence of the concept of death from her being- is that damage done to her wouldn't heal naturally, that task fell to her magic instead, which was a good enough substitute all things considered.

She wasn't alive, she wasn't dead, or anything in between. She just was at this point.

Now one might ask, what's the point of repairing the damage in that case? Well. One could again liken her body to a machine. Bodies were merely something our souls used to interact with the world around us after all. I might say 'merely', but can you imagine living without a body, unable to affect anything? Even magic needed a conduit after all, and while there were examples of spiritual beings being able to affect the physical plain of existence through their magic Elysia hadn't the foggiest about how to go about such a thing.

It was better to be safe than sorry. So yes, maintaining her body was definitely worth her time.

With that done, the two of them set off with the one that they found and began heading to a place where they could treat her better. Of course, neither one of them actually knew she was an immortal and that what they were doing probably wasnt necessary, so they continued with treating her as well. Ixa, who normally had this aura of being a silly, goofy, overly positive and cheerful person, was working very seriously right now. So much so that he accidentally forgot to keep himself balanced, and fell backward butt first into the snow and got his shorts all wet and covered in snow.

After awhile, they came across what appeared to be the remains of an old trading outpost. Although it looked old and abandoned, because it was made of stone so it could endure a surprise monster attack, it was durable and good, and even had a chimney and fireplace. Of course, all the supplies were gone, but Ixa still had his own. There was some furniture left around in good condition.

Of course, normal people would find it uncomfortable, but for Ixa who had been raised being experimented on, tortured, and never given any comforts or even treated like a person, he found it comfortable. He had the woman rest by the fireplace, however...

"Snowflake...we dont have any way to start a fire, do we?"

Ixa realized that as they were both ice based, neither of them had the ability to start fires.

"That is why I reminded you to get a lighter, remember?"

But Snowflake had remembered to handle it. Ixa put down his shoes by the door, and then lit the fire so that in addition to him sucking out the cold, the heat would help as well. He also remembered overhearing a scientist say at one point that fire can help wake people up due to the various senses it owuld influence, such as the sound of it crackling, the light of it going into people's eyes, the smell of the burning wood, and the feel of the natural warmth, but he might have been misremembering that.

And then...Ixa took off his wet shorts and hung them by the fire to dry. His hoodie was oversized, so in truth nothing really was wrong technically...but obiously, no normal person would likely do that in a room with a stranger. However, Ixa hated wearing wet clothes because they were uncomfortable. As for why they were wet, it was because he fell in the snow repeatedly on the way here when he got too focused in treating the woman.

Actually, because of the fireplace, Ixa wanted to take off his hoodie too but Snowflake stopped him. His Lord of the Frost gave him extreme cold resistance, but because of that heat would effect him more. Because of that, Ixa would likely have to be completely naked if he ever wanted to travel through a desert. Of course, he could train himself to get used to heat more...but, Ixa was a whimful person.

"I wonder if she will wake up soon. Its not easy to make conversation when the other person is asleep".

It took a few hours of Elysia's magic working in overdrive, but it had reached a point where her bodily functions would actually work on their own if left to it. She was still rather unhealthy, but she wasn't in immediate danger anymore.

In the end, it turned to her mind. Elysia, had started awakening from her stupor on her own after starting to receive sensory input again , but while it couldn't exactly help her with that, it could at least start repairing her Mind Palace. (Something, that in laymans' terms could be called a Mindscape or an Inner World).

Hers had originally been the mansion she spend her formative years in, but over time it had been fortified, as she learned to defend herself from spiritual intrusions, and later it had been expanded, as one of it's functions was also used to store memories. This was during her prime however, as while there were still remnants of it remaining, it was little more than a pile of rubble now. the void having eaten away at her sense of self.

In fact, had her magic still been bound to the rules of her world what it was about to do would have been impossible.

(Heck, a lot of the things that it had done since landing in this world were originally beyond it's scope, but having both been old as hell -everyone knew that magic grew stronger and more intuitive with age-, as well as cut off from her original world and having been exposed to the primal Void, had had it grow beyond its initial specifications.)

So it worked on restoring her inner palace. The building materials were all there after all. Because while the void had eaten way at her sense of self, there was no part of her that could actually be destroyed, not even her memories. It merely destroyed the bonds between them, leaving her a jumbled mess.

It couldn't simply reverse the damage without destroying part of her, which was, as stated earlier an impossibility. The only thing it could do was recreate the bonds that had been there before one at a time. It was a good thing time didn't move the same way within an Inner Palace, because reassembling it was a task that would take it thousands of years.

---

Elysia had been growing increasingly lucid on her own, but it was her magic's efforts within her Mind Palace that saw her sense of self restored, her sense of identity. It was because of this that when she awakened this time, a few hours after entering the building, she was capable of taking in her environment.

---

With all of that done, it was now a waiting game as Ixa and Snowflake would wait for the woman to return to consciousness. Of course, they had no idea when, but Ixa was getting uncomfortable in the room because the fire was burning a little too well. This was not actually a coincidence. Neither Ixa nor Snowflake realized it, but the fireplace was enchanted to produce extra heat, warmth, and stimulate the body, and would not normally produce harmful effects. There was a way to change the setting, but neither of them knew that.

Unfortunately while the heat that is produced would be at a level where people normally just be fine if they wore a T-shirt and shorts or such, for Ixa who was better with cold then hot, it was almost unbearable. In fact, halfway through, he became a sweaty mess and was panting as if he would get heat stroke. He could just cool the air, but he was being considerate of Elysia as he did not know she was an immortal, or about the exact state of her body or mind. Checking the body required Ixa to do something he really shouldn't do to without permission, or to the opposite gender, unless it was an emergency, but since he saw her appearing to recover he hadn't. Of course, Snowflake could try invading her mind, but they thought it would be extremely rude and a breach of privacy to do so.

Because of that, while they waited, Ixa decided after he became such a stinky, sweaty mess, to wash his body and clothes. Thankfully, the heat from the small building did vent to one other location. There was some sort of outdoor bath set up. This place was pretty old, so the technology to make it was remarkable. However, because he was now outside and this was far away from Ryder, he was able to cool the water to a degree where it was a temperature he enjoyed. He also simultainously began to wash the oversized hoodie he had, because it got drenched in sweat as well. Notably, anyone else would find the water way too cold for them after Ixa's cooling.

Normal people might be embarassed, even if no one was around, to take a bath outside, but Ixa lacked people common sense. Snowflake was trying to teach him that, but that was why he did not think of it as anything when he thought about taking off his clothes earlier. He was treated as a lab rat all his life, and was never given any clothes until after he escaped. That was why his ability to properly treat Ryder was flawed, why he did things normal people wouldn't. He had been experimented on, and essentially tortured and mistreated, all his life.

And yet somehow, he was still able to smile like that, and was so energetic and positive and happy.

As he was getting out, and pulled his now clean hoodie back on.

"Ixa, come quick! She is waking up!"

Ixa immediately ran over and into the building, to see the woman who appeared to become aware and lucid. The sun was just about to come up as well.

"Goodmorning!"

Ixa said that immediatley without even checking to see if she was actually awake, and with a bit too much energy. No, for that matter, shouldn't someone his age be tired after staying up all night? Well, he was an experiment, so normal people logic didn't really work on him.

Also, he hoped she was awake and had recovered enough so he could put out that fire. It was already bothering him.

"Good M...", Elysia started replying to the wolf and her boy in a hoarse tone, that made it clear she hadn't talked for a long time.

That is, until she realized what she was doing, what was happening, and where she was, on top of the fact she had company. Nevertheless, she composed herself, so after a lightly elongated 'mmmmmm', she finished with

"...orning?"

"Ah", she began, "Not to be rude...", she was very much aware it was in fact rather rude, "..., but where am I, and who are the two of you?"

It was a question worth asking in her opinion, despite its rather mundane nature. After all the universe had ended quite some time ago, and there hadn't even been theories about the multiverse during it's existence. Well, at least not that she knew off. In fact, she was freaking out slightly, even if she managed to mask it well.

All those years of living as a noble seemed to still be good for something.

She couldn't help but think: 'Mother would be rolling in her grave at my lack of manners, had it still existed'

"Yay! It worked! You are awake! I knew the fire would work!"

"You knew, huh?"

"Would I have put myself through all that suffering if I didn't?"

"To help someone else? Possibly" Snowflake retorted, before turning towards the woman. "I suppose you did just wake up from a dangerous situation. We found you unconscious and near death in the snow and cold, so we dragged you over here to this old building for shelter and started a fire while giving you treatment. That said, its forgivable since you are possible not fully recovered, but please remember in the future it is rude to ask other's of their names without giving your own. My name is Snowflake, and I am the Spirit Guardian to this boy here, Ixa Snowfall Rixy, also known by one of his nicknames as 'Lord of the Frost'. He used his powers to suck out the cold from you, keeping you alive and stimulating your recovery speed".

"Yeah yeah! My name is Ixa! Ixa Rixy! And uhh....do you still need the heat on? Sorry, its just...that fire is really hot..."

Ixa said that with some discomfort showing on his face, which otherwise had a nice and innocent smile on it as he was relieved she was okay. However, it was likely painfully obvious to Ryder even with limited awareness he was clearly not dressed for extreme cold, and yet the heat in the room, while sort of high, shouldn't be causing him issues with the limited clothing he had on. His legs were even completely exposed pretty much, and it did not look like he was wearing anything under that oversized hoodie that covered most of his body. And yet, instead of being cold, he was hot.

"If its normal heat, I can usually manage somewhat...but this fireplace seems extra strong...anyways, how are you doing?! You are not dying anymore, right?"

Elysia smiled at the interaction between the two of them at first, although it slowly left her face as the wolf began talking.

Not that the news was all that bad all things considered, or that the things the now identified Snowflake said where unreasonable, but Elysia couldn't help but feel a twang of annoyance at the patronizing way the wolf was talking to her. Nevertheless, she feigned shame.

[She thought the names a few times in the meantime, rolling them around in her head. From the resonance to their beings she could divine the so called Ixa was somewhat honest, truly believing it to be his name, even if it was somewhat doubtful it was the name he was given at birth. For while it resonated with him, it was not quite his Second Name. She couldn't quite identify the problem.

She couldn't get a read on Snowflake at all, but maybe that's because she was a spirit first and foremost.

(True Names being so-called First Names, and Second Names being the name given to a child by their parents)

"Ah, I apologize", she said. "My social skills have become rather stunted over the years.."

'not entirely a lie', she thought to herself

"... My name is Elysia Ryder, thank you for saving me."

She could have told them of her immortality, and that she'd probably have been fine to begin with. She didn't for two reasons. The first being that she didn't quite trust the duo with her secrets yet. The second being that it was rather rude, even compared to her previous faux pas. They had endeavoured to help her -a stranger- after all. Who would she be to disparage their efforts?.

She turned to the fire place, following Ixa's question. It was true that it burned rather hot, almost unnaturally so. It took her a while to find the explanation, but there seemed to be an enchantment of sorts on the fireplace.

"Ah, yes... One moment, let me adjust the fireplace's settings."

Luckily she was close enough to interact with the spell without having to move excessively. She was somewhat surprise when an actual interface popped up in front of her face, never having seen that happen before. Well, all the better, she was unfamiliar with the enchantment after all, and if she could use a build-in regulator, she'd do that, instead of tweaking the enchantment directly instead.

The result, while not truly instantaneous, became clear within less than a half a minute, when the fire simmered down to a colder, but not truly cold temperature.

(She might be willing to accommodate her 'saviour's' needs to a certain extent, but that didn't mean she enjoyed the biting cold herself)

She turned around, and looked at Ixa questioningly, "Is that better?"

As the heat turned down that was being radiated from the fireplace, although it did not go off all the way, it bothered him far less then before. "Yeah...I should be able to handle this fine, at least for a good while. Sorry about that. I really don't know much about common sense".

Ixa said that as he smiled, in a rather innocent and childlike manner. As the light poured in and he stepped into it, she would get a better look at him. He was still barefoot, and wearing a huge oversized blue hoodie fashioned with cat ears and a tail. The hoodie was so oversized, it went well past his waist and stopped a little bit past one third of the way to his knee. There was no way to see under that, but it was clear he was not wearing long pants despite the freezing cold outside.

The sleeves were covering his arms and hands, but he could probably roll them up if needed. As for the opening where his head was, he still had the hood up even though he was indoors. Although it looked like his shoulders could keep it up as well, it was probably so that it did not slide off. However, through the opening, not only could she see his face but also his upper chest a little since he was not wearing a shirt.

Of course, if she paid attention and noticed, there was something quite notable (and possibly the entire reason for all of this description in the first place), was his skin and hair. From sight alone, one could see an abnormally high amount of care was put into it. Simply speaking, his skin was perfect, especially for a boy. Not only was his skin perfect, and if she felt it the feeling would be smooth, perfectly smooth beyond normalcy. And it was not just part of his skin. Everything seemed that way.

His hair too. His pure white hair seemed exceptional, more exceptional then any normal human hair. Even if most of it was under the hood, this could still be understood by a novice just by seeing what they could from the front. And his eyes just had a certain shine and brightness to it.

The inexperienced might have an idea of it, and the experienced would definently be able to tell. His entire body was just too unnaturally perfect. In other words...he was almost certainly cloned or grown in a lab of some kind. An artificial human.

"Anyways, you are welcome for the help! Are you able to move? Will you be able to move soon? Do you need any more help? You do know where you are, right?"

"Ixa, calm down a little" Snowflake told him before looking at her. "Sorry, he tends to get a bit energetic. Anyways, the reason he asks is because there are monsters that live in this region, and dangerous ones at that. There should hopefully be a town or city nearby that would be better to stay in then this abandoned place. Maybe a port town north of here. This road doesn't appear to be used a lot, but there was some recent activity of man made vehicles".

Now that Elysia got a good look at the boy, she got an inkling about why the boy didn't identify with his Second Name. His looks were to perfect to be natural, which indicated some sort of magic was likely involved in his creation.

She wasn't entirely right about that by common standards, but she wasn't entirely wrong either by the standards of her own world. Artificially created beings had existed. There were golems, which Ixa was clearly not, and there were Homunculi. While the exact method of creation wasn't the same, Ixa definitely counted as the latter by Fysalda's standards.

Not that it mattered much to her. Homunculi had been counted as people too on her world. They were ensouled beings after all.

She smiled at the excitable young boy, even as he was being rebuked by his spirit guardian, and answered:

"Moving will still be hard for the next few hours I think. I have magic, and it's working on healing my body at an accelerated rate. Aside from that, I..."

Her stomach growled loudly, as if punctuating what she was planning to say. She sighed at this, and continued,

"...Haven't eaten in a while, so I'm not sure if I have the energy to walk very far. Again, with my magic being at the strength it is I usually don't actually need to eat, but it is currently otherwise occupied, and will likely be until I have healed fully."

(Her magic might be powerful, but being forced to work to keep her body from collapsing until it was fully healed, and the healing itself, of both her body and mind were pretty much the extent of it's multitasking abilities.

Once she had explained her own situation, Ixa nodded and understood everything. Well, not really, but he understood enough to know what he needed to do. He faced the other way and bent down so he could quickly look through his bag, searching for any food to eat. However...

"Ixa, I doubt she wants ice cream bars in her condition. Something easy to eat, like soup. And not cold soup. Only you can enjoy it like that".

Snowflake explained that as Ixa looked around. As Elysia had figured, Ixa was not a natural person. In truth, he would be best described as a clone, however many various methods were used in his creation, including methods to create homunculi. But because of that, and the way he was raised, it appeared he lacked any common sense.

Well, there was a single mark on his skin. It was something that had not quite been visible before, but a glimpse of it could be seen. A sort of barcode, on his cheek under his left eye. In truth, if one scanned it, they could access all the files the scientists had made on him, including growth and medical records.

That said, if Ixa did not have the appearance of a nine year old boy, he would probably be considered extremely attractive and be sought after. No, with his looks, it might be possible that people not normally interested in those like him would be. But Ixa himself had no awareness of that.

If one were to look at his soul, they would probably see it as pure. They might even see his full body, unhindered by anything. However, aside from the embarassing aspect of that, it would also likely mean they would notice the scars that had been hidden across his body, not noticable by normal people. Indications that he had been cut open, and given the organs of others. Of pain, and suffering. And yet, his soul would still be surprisingly pure and positive, shining like the sun itself.

And it also appeared to be eternal, never aging. Something about his body had stopped his own clock.

Eventually Ixa came over to her and offered her some fruit. It looked like it was still quite fresh, and was not frozen solid, and would be edible for her.

"Then maybe this will help? Or do you need meat or something?"

Once again Elysia nearly frowned at Snowflake, or rather how condescending she seemed to be. Even if Ixa lacked the common sense of this world there was no need to talk down on him like that. As Elysia saw it, this definitely seemed to pass the thin line between mothering to smothering.

She ignored it though. Despite dearly hoping this wasn't their usual mechanic.

"Thank you Ixa, this will do.", Elysia told the boy with a smile. To be honest she would have been happy even with cold soup or this thing called ice cream bars as long as it filled the stomach, but she didn't say that out loud.

The wolf had had a point though, despite Elysia's thoughts. Those weren't really the types of food to be given to recovering people. She didn't remember this yet, the knowledge being part of what was deemed 'miscellaneous' by her magic. It had therefore not been restored yet, because there was a lot far more vital stuff to worry about.

---

Right now the only thing she had seen of their relation so far was the wolf constantly shushing Ixa, and apologizing for his behaviour. The boy might have been somewhat exuberant and a little under-taught, but what was wrong with that? She estimated the boy to be around 9-years-old, and those two things weren't too out of place for that age.

Snowflake also kept talking for him, where he might have been able to explain himself if the wolf let him. She constantly corrected him and had also openly doubted him when he said something remotely smart.

All in all she came to the conclusion that this relationship seemed to be rather toxic for the boy.

But in the end she realized she had too little information to go by.

Ixa looked around for more food to give her to help, but ultimately realized that as they had also been on their way into a city, their own food supply was rather low and did not really have much to say at all i nthe way of meat. All there was in there was some soups, like something called "beef soup". Ixa didn't know what beef was, but unfortunately they had run out of chicken soup, so he thought they were out of meat.

Incidentally, Ixa knew of hamburgers, steak, and such, but as none of those were called "beef" he was blissfully unaware that it was a meat and overlooked it.

"Oh, I know! I can just hunt one of the monsters nearby for meat!"

Ixa declared that as if it was a normal thing to say, even though the region they were in were known for tough and dangerous monsters nowadays. Furthermore, he was only wearing a hoodie as his protection. And yet, he just smiled at Elysia as if it was normal. Snowflake seemed a bit concerned though.

"Are you sure Ixa? I mean..."

"No, don't worry about it Snowflake" Ixa said, though compared to his words before there seemed to be a deeper emotion...a deeper meaning...in this. "Its not like we can always avoid it, in fact we have pretty bad luck towards that. But this is just hunting for meat. Its a normal activity normal people do. Its something to experience".

Hearing those words, Snowflake looked at him for a moment before nodding her head in agreement.

"Very well Ixa. I understand. Its just...if you don't want to fight, you don't have to".

When Ixa opened the door though, if Elysia even just looked outside it would be pretty much impossible for her to miss it. There appeared to be a huge wall of reinforced ice, surrounding where they were staying. The ice was truthfully harder then titanium, and thick enough to withstand a siege. Ixa had created all of this, just so they could rest peacefully.

Maybe it said something about his power, but it also spoke to how dangerous the monsters of this area could be. Indeed, this powerful barrier actually had one or two small cracks in it already.

"Oh, looks like it will be easy to find. A bunch of them have moved real close! Don't worry, just stay right there! I will get some meat for you!"

Incidentally, Ixa might seem powerful, but power was not everything. In a fight, there were various factors to consider, including technique, compatibility, their mental and physical states, and luck. While maybe Ixa could be considered strong and powerful, even with his optimistic and positive attitude, he understood that he could be defeated, and possibly quite easily if he was not careful.

Plus, Snowflake would always be at his side to help him out. And so, once he set out, it would take only a few minutes for Ixa to find some meat to bring back and cook for Elysia.