The Last Paragon in the Apocalypse

"Are those...?" Fruity raised an eyebrow, looking at the monster cores in her hands.

"Yes, these belong to the Seven Forbidden Monsters you needed to kill to awaken the four other elements," Yuying answered with a smug smile.

"I was bored in between your training, so I hunted them down and killed them. This will also make things faster for you," she added.

Fruity could only smile. "How strong were they, and what makes them forbidden?" he asked.

"Tier 9, and the reason they are forbidden is because they possess a type of ice the heavens don't approve of. You see, although this kind of ice isn't made by the heavens, it doesn't mean others can't awaken it. As long as it exists, it will eventually awaken in someone else," Yuying replied.

Fruity nodded. He already knew as much. The reason the Lightning Valley came after him was because they feared the kind of person he would become.

He was sure that, aside from them, other powerhouses would have made their move eventually; it was just that the Lightning Valley beat them to it.

But now that he had a sure way to awaken the elements, he knew for a fact he wouldn't be returning to the human world the same way he came.

This time, he planned to make sure that once he was finally done, nobody would ever raise a weapon against anyone who awakened a forbidden element. After all, he was the progenitor of all forbidden elementals.

"I'll reward you later, Yuying. For now, let me awaken the last four elements to make it a complete set," Fruity said, forming a series of hand seals.

A short while later, a circular, complex diagram appeared on the ground. He sat down and placed the seven cores in the circle. He had already awakened Annihilation, Chaos, and Devouring Ice, but that didn't mean he couldn't make them stronger.

He formed another set of hand seals, and the circle began to absorb the cores, transferring their energies into his body.

The Annihilation Ice is known for its deadly nature. As its name suggests, anything it touches—unless it's exceptionally powerful—will be destroyed. This means that as Fruity's control over it strengthens, his killing power will become several times more lethal.

Then there's the Chaotic Ice. This one deals more with the mind than with physical damage. Its main property is creating chaos, and what better way to create chaos than by messing with the brain? Fruity had seen firsthand what that was like.

Lastly, there was the Devouring Ice, which Fruity had realized had more properties than just devouring. After his battles, the ice had grown much stronger by absorbing the essence of everything he killed.

However, after chatting with Yuying, who seemed to know more about this forbidden ice, Fruity learned that the Devouring Ice is the nucleus of all the other types of ice. It can devour energy from anything and convert it into ice energy.

At first, Fruity thought the energy devoured was only for the Devouring Ice, but now he knows that the energy can be distributed to the other ice elements. He can even stop the Devouring Ice from absorbing energy entirely and allocate it to the other elements instead.

However, to accomplish this, he must first awaken all seven ice elements. Now, he was working toward achieving that.

Five hours later, the cores were devoured by the diagram, and Fruity began radiating an intense, chilling aura that instantly froze everything within a 10-kilometer radius around him.

A while later, a diamond-shaped tattoo appeared on his forehead and began to shine. Within seconds, Fruity experienced seven powerful bursts of ice energy each erupting from his body. When everything finally settled, the entire area where he had been cultivating lay in ruins.

In front of him, seven diamond-shaped ice formations—each emanating a different type of ice energy and glowing in distinct colors—hovered before him.

The Annihilation Ice, with its dark hue; the red Chaotic Ice; the dark gold Devouring Ice—and now, four more. The dark red Abyssal Ice, the deep green Hypnotic Ice, the white Immortal Ice, and the smoke-like Soul Eater Ice.

"Congratulations, Master! You have finally awakened all the Ice elements. All that's left is training them to their peak," Yuying said, looking incredibly happy as she watched the seven different ice forms floating before her Master, Fruity.

"Thank you. But can you tell me more about these new additions? They didn't exactly come with a manual," Fruity asked.

"I can't say much because of our neighbors up there, but I can tell you a little about their true nature, and from there, you can come up with a way to use them."

Fruity nodded, knowing that understanding their nature would give him a solid foundation to work with. 'At least my past self left me with some techniques I can utilize for now as I work to unlock his memories,' he thought.

"The dark red one is Abyssal Ice, and as the name suggests, it has something to do with darkness and sinister forces. Essentially, it taps into a form of energy known as Abyssal Energy, which comes from a place called the Abyss. This energy has no healing properties, so any beam or attack that is used from this ice is demonic and serves only one purpose: destruction.

The deep green one is Hypnotic Ice. The reason I made you train your mind was because of this Ice. Yes, it's used for hypnosis and illusions, and yes, it grows with your mental strength. When I say it grows with your mind, I mean that it becomes stronger as your mind becomes stronger.

Basically, it amplifies your mental capacity many times over when in use. So, if you want to maximize its potential, you need to continue training your mind.

The white one is Immortal Ice. Even from its appearance, you can tell it's meant for healing. But you might wonder why something meant for healing is considered forbidden. The answer is simple: it's not called Immortal Ice for nothing.

If normal healing ice restores your health at a rate of 0.005% per second, Immortal Ice will do so at a rate of 0.5% per second. It's incredibly powerful, and though I can't explain why right now, it would be best to use Devouring Ice to strengthen it faster.

Finally, there's Soul Eater Ice. Among all your ice elements, this is the most dangerous. I won't say much, as everything about it is highly sensitive, but imagine a battlefield filled with smoky ice that does two things: it eats away at the souls of your enemies and feeds their soul strength directly to you."

"Now, that is what I call forbidden," Fruity said with a smile. He could only imagine the evil he could do with it.

'Inner peace,' he sighed, realizing he was becoming what Yuying had always described him as. He was a monk, yet in his mind, there was nothing peaceful. He remembered everything that happened when he, his mom, and Haniva fled from his kingdom.

The pain and all the heartbreaking feelings were eating away at his resolve every second. The current him was more than ready to go berserk when he could no longer hold on.

Almost half of the monks had died during their battle with the Lightning Valley. These monks were his uncles, so if anyone assumed he was too peaceful as a monk to seek revenge, they were mistaken.

The only thing more dangerous than a bloodthirsty maniac is a peaceful monk who is grieving. Inner peace or not, Fruity was in pain, but for now, he was barely keeping it down.

"So, what next, Master? Now that you've awakened the elements, what's next?" Yuying asked, excited for what was to come.

"What can you tell me about the Tormented Trial?" Fruity asked, and Yuying's smile died down.

=====

[Author's Note]: This month, I'll be releasing 3–5 chapters per day. Bonus chapters will be added when the Power Stone threshold is met. Additionally, sending Golden Tickets will also unlock bonus chapters.

For now:

- 10 Golden Tickets = 1 bonus chapter

- 50 Golden Tickets = 2 bonus chapters

- 100 Golden Tickets = 4 bonus chapters

To read the latest chapters as soon as they're available, consider purchasing a privilege. Welcome to the month of November!