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What in the world was that? Raul had never seen anything like it. Even as he swam closer, he was still having trouble figuring it out.

‘Careful,’ came Arumoro’s silent warning. Even underwater like this, the reaper’s ethereal avian form was still flapping its wings as if flying. ‘This entire thing is filled with soul power. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the work of a servant.’

‘In that case, you should be the one being careful,’ said Raul, still swimming. ‘Get behind me.’

The reaper paused but didn’t argue. Then he flew over and attached himself to Raul’s right shoulder.

Damn, it was cold down here. He’d braced himself when diving in, but even still, he hadn’t expected it to be this intense.

In fact--

Wait.

Was it getting even colder as he moved nearer? Dangerous, if so. He should address that problem before his brain began to go numb.

‘Aru, give me some strength.’

The reaper obliged, and Raul felt the familiar vigor course through his body.

He summoned his concentration and smacked his hands together, pulling on all of the undead strength that he could muster. This was going to be extra difficult underwater, so he couldn’t hold back.

He rubbed his palms together as hard as he could. With a bit of soul-strengthening to make his skin more resilient, the heightened friction began to generate plenty of extra heat.

It felt good in this piercing cold. It was enough warm up the front of his body almost immediately, and he decided to keep it going while he reevaluated the situation.

Cold, huh?

Could that giant egg actually be made of ice?

But no, ice was less dense than water, so it would’ve been floating on the surface of the lake, surely.

Hmm. Unless its density had been manipulated, he supposed. Such as by a powerful materialization user.

Ah, but the only one who could materialize ice was Lord Zeff. In the whole world, only the Water Dragon of Sair could create that particular molecule.

Well, except maybe--

Raul’s hands stopped, and his eyes widened.

No, no. He was being stupid. Any materializer could manipulate temperature. Plenty of them could create frozen versions of their element. So this probably wasn’t actually ice. Not pure ice, anyway.

Yeah. Yeah, of course. And that meant he should be extra careful when tampering with it, too. If it was a highly reactive element, then he might accidentally cause it to explode if he pushed a sudden wave of heat into it, especially when its temperature was already so low.

Hmm. What to do, then?