Chapter 637 Bounded Field Lessons
Chapter 637 Bounded Field Lessons
?'It's her father, right? It's him! It can only be him! He acts like he couldn't bear to hurt a fly but in reality, he's very ruthless!'
Speaking of fathers, she opened the door to her study and the man she had just thought of was seated at her desk while going through a book.
He looked up upon their entrance, shutting the book in his hand as he spoke.
"I was looking for the both of you"
"It's your fault!"
"…"
"…what?"
Both Griselda and her father turned to Riah with confused gazes wondering why she was suddenly blaming the man for 'something'.
'Look at him acting all innocent when he's the reason our daughter can even consider beating her cousin to death!'
It just so happened that the man she married was the kind who could kill someone with a 'smile' on his face, and his daughter seemed to have inherited a portion of that trait.
She was usually fine but once she reached her limits, scenes like that of a few minutes ago happened.
While Riah was thinking that, Griselda had walked over to her father and was 'whispering' in a not so quiet voice to him.
"Maybe it's that time of the month…."
"Hmmm, that might actually be the case…I should give her some space."
"I can hear the both of you!"
""We know.""
Father and daughter replied in sync while the man patted the girl's head, ruffling it a bit in the process.
"Why do you two like doing this? It makes the time I spend doing my hair seem like a waste, you know?"
Although she said that, she made zero attempts to get his hand off her head, and her father pointed out that fact.
It did earn him a few pokes to the side, though.
"You can blame Father about whatever it is later, but first, I wanna hear about Evan."
"Evan? Who's that?"
The answer came not from his daughter whom he posed the question to, but his wife, Riah.
"Probably someone Griselda met when she snuck over to the Alpha Continent."
"…"
The man was silent for a moment, an expression of pure confusion on his face as he asked aloud.
"Griselda went to the Alpha Continent?"
From his words and his expression, it was very obvious he had zero idea about this incident in the first place.
"Just sit down… you'll find out all about it now."
Riah spoke as she plopped down on her chair and faced her daughter before continuing.
"Start from the top."
◇ ◇ ◇
Barthmont Palace
Goras
Beast Kingdom
June 1st
Year 1053
Around the same time Griselda was talking with her parents, Evan—the subject of their conversation—was standing silently in the middle of a grassy clearing about half the size of a football stadium.
He took a deep breath in, breathing out an icy mist that caused the ambient temperature to suddenly drop.
With his Harbinger of Ice skill silently activating, he deployed the skill's pre-set Bounded Field.
"Frozen Domain."
A torrential wave of crystalline ice surged forth from beneath his feet with unstoppable force, transforming the grassy plain into a frozen tableau within a mere second.
However, despite having turned the immediate environment into a frozen landscape under his control, his contracted demon casually moved around without any hindrance.
Despite her current attire—a simple oversized red t-shirt tucked into a pair of high-waisted black trousers—she didn't seem to be affected by the cold.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest and walked around Evan, infusing magic power into her eyes as she inspected the network of magic energy underneath his feet.
After a minute of silence, she stopped in front of Evan and looked the boy in the eye before saying.
"4/10."
"Really? A four?"
"Yes."
Evan sighed and shook his head when he heard her reaffirm her earlier evaluation.
"Can I even get a 10?"
"Impossible. 10 is a perfect score…no Bounded Field can be 'Perfect'.
Complete, yes, but not Perfect."
The High Demon instructed him calmly as she twirled a ring of spatial attributed magic power around her fingers.
If it wasn't obvious by now, then Evan was currently receiving Bounded Field lessons from Pride who was much more experienced in the technique.
The battle against Bhak served to teach Evan how important these Bounded Fields were, and honestly, if it wasn't for Pride's intervention, he and Eliza would not have been able to force the Lizard Lord to stop deploying the technique.
This Topographic technique held great advantages for the user, and they seemed to be quite commonly used by beings in the Epic Level and above to turn disadvantageous battles in their favour.
To be specific, it was commonly used by the beings who had been able to create one for themselves.
A lot of existences, even Legendries who could use world laws were unable to use Bounded Fields, as the technique required the user to manipulate a bit of space.
Naturally, not everyone had an affinity for the element. Even for Evan, his affinity for space was just a 'tiny bit' above average at best.
Luckily for him, he had a head start that a lot of people did not have; a Series Skill with a pre-set Bounded Field.
'Come to think of it, the Mystic Eye of Mimicry has its own Bounded Field, doesn't it?'
"I don't expect you to have a complete Bounded Field at your current level. You're not a Legendary Level so you would not be able to control the ambient space laws even if your affinity may be low.
As a Legendary, you would be able to use those laws to properly segregate the space for your Bounded Field."
Pride broke him out of his thoughts with her words, tapping on weak links in the magic power network of his Frozen Domain with her feet as she spoke.
"Bounded Fields aren't things Grandmasters should be using anyway, You only have this chance because of your skill."
"Yeah, all Series Skills have one."
Just as Evan said that, he realised this also meant that Pride and the other deadly sins should have Bounded Fields of their own. The answer he received from her when he asked about it, however, was far from expectations.
"My Incarnation Skill indeed does have one, but I hardly use it."
"Why?"
"The one I created myself is far better."
Evan smiled wryly when he heard this, having half-expected this kind of answer from her.
'The way she acts normally makes me sometimes forget that she IS the demon of 'Pride'.'
"I have a suggestion for you to be able to draw out the true nature of your skill's Bounded Field and not this pitiful excuse you are currently deploying."
"Well sorry, I can only deploy this 'pitiful excuse'."
The boy's mood visibly soured as he rolled his eyes, but Pride didn't seem to about how he felt and went on with her words.
"You need to discover the 'Real Name' of this Technique."
"What?"
"Names have power.
That applies to techniques as much as it does to living beings and artifacts.
From the way I see things 'Frozen Domain' is simply a placeholder name and not the real name of this Bounded Field."
Evan had called it 'Frozen Domain' because that's what it was referred to as in the game by Silverwing itself. But if even Silverwing didn't know the actual name of the Skill's pre-set technique, how was he supposed to know what it was?
Pride moved to the edge of the Frozen domain's effective area and inspected it, noting something she had missed earlier.
"The little snowdrops and then this slightly rising edge…this Field is probably a 'Dome Type'.
This further confirms my guess that you are not deploying this fully."
"Is that so? Oh well, that's a problem for future me.
I'd just focus on strengthening the magic power network for now."
Evan spoke with a shrug before disabling the technique.
"Back to you, Pride.
You said your own Field is better than your skill's pre-set field, didn't you?"
When Pride gazed at Evan, she quickly understood what the boy was hinting at and sighed softly. Raising her hand, she spoke.
"A little demonstration wouldn't hurt."
"Indeed, a little demon-"
*SNAP!
Pride's fingers snapped before Evan could even complete his words, causing a wave of demonic energy to surge out of her very being.
It was only for a second that Evan blinked in light surprise, but when his eyes reopened, he wasn't in the grassy plain anymore.
"…what?"
Evan found himself inside a chamber shaped like a giant dome, as large as an Olympic stadium. Flames of black light erupted on the numerous torches packed tightly on the walls, but the real lighting of the chamber came from the shiny luminescent pears embedded into the ceiling.
In between each of the torches on the walls, were dozens of metallic statues. They all had the forms of fully armoured knights, each one wielding a different weapon.
Sword, Dagger, Battle Axe, War Scythe, Bayonet, Spear, Staff, Lance, Sheild, Mace, Flail, Warhammer, Nunchaku, Baton, Halberd, Guandao and many more weapons.
Right in front of him, was a long flight of stairs, and when he looked right to the top, he saw the figure of his contracted demon seated atop a majestic throne with her legs crossed.
In that same moment, her voice rang out across the massive chamber.
"This is my Bounded Filed; The 'Throne of the Omnipotent'."