I created my own system

chapter 367: Just follow the path



The space around Apollo change slightly as the air grew even colder, like the area around had turned into glass. His system then tries what it could not only removing his pain but also guiding the energy towards the palm of his hand to help him concentrate. Apollo cant help but take a deep breath as he began pulling in the raw, chaotic energy from the Azure Frost Lotus, not to destroy it, but to control it, and use that purity of elemental cold to forge the cracks made by his enemies.

A soft crack came from Apollo's shoulder. Not the ice shelf. His own body. Immediately it was healed by the system, though the pain wasn't able to be immediately neutralized. However despite being healed, the damage continue. The power of the flower kept spreading out, creating fissure that brought dreadful agony and torment to the boy.

The torture continues as the frost began forming over his collarbone and creeping towards his jaw. The lotus's energy was so cold it bypassed his resistances, even in demon form. But Apollo didn't stop. Instead, he spread his arms wide and let the frost build, inviting it in a single point

[Creator calculation has been completed, all measures as been established. Waiting for you signal to start]

Jeremiah had calculate the depth of each rift all that is left is for Apollo to start.

The boy heard it.

He clenched his teeth and ignore some of the pain that the system failed to remove. His eyes faintly turn blue, tracing the fractures he needs to fill. Without hesitation he began to materialize the frost according to Jeremiah's detailed plan.

And so a low, thunderous groan from beneath the surface roar as massive slabs of ice ground against one another, but stopped.

The gaps were freezing shut. Bit by bit.

Apollo narrowed his eyes, sweat freezing as it rolled down his face.

The lighting in his body fly everywhere trying its hardest to regulate Apollo's droppping temperature.

"Maintain the rhythm. I'll focus on the deepest fractures first. If I miss something fill the gap, take some from my palm"

[Understood, Creator. Do you still wish to increase the output of the pain absorption?.]

"Yeah whatever, though its not absorbing all the pain. Jeremiah help me control it, its breaking my body"

[Affirmative Creator]

His arm finally gave out, dropping as it turned a brittle, pale blue from fingertip to elbow.

"I can't channel the Lotus for much longer, redirect some of the flow into the remaining fractures. Let the pressure off gradually!"

The ice shelf trembled once more, this time not from collapse but from the sudden force that is locking into the place. The supercooled veins of Lotus energy were forming massive crystal bridges beneath the cracks, hardening faster than natural ice ever could.

It was working.

But Apollo's knees buckled midair. He fell a meter before catching himself with his wings.

"Jeremiah…" he croaked, "Redistribute 20% of the absorbed essence... into me. Just enough to keep my organs from shutting down… then put into conversion and upgrade my stats"

[Re-routing now. Engaging emergency thermal correction to sustain vitals. System Warning: Creator's temperature had dropped in such dangerous level.]

Apollo's body burned with cold and heat simultaneously, like frostbite and fire fever at once. His vision blurred.

"What the fuck"

But down below... the shelf had stopped breaking.

Silence reigned for a moment. Then Alicia's voice echoed from the distance, full of awe and disbelief.

"You actually froze the cracks shut... using that flower and your own body as the vessel. Do you have a death wish, Apollo?!"

She sounded wounded but suddenly he could feel a warmth that began warming up his frezzing body.

He let out a weak chuckle as Jeremiah slowly recalibrated his vitals.

"Maybe," Apollo whispered, falling slowly to the now solidified ice. "Or maybe I just hate asking for help that is why I am like this."

His voice was beginning to sound eve more weaker, but the problem is the cracks are still there and Apollo wasnt done, fixing all of it.

So even when his vision and body failing to fulfil thier task, Apollo with Jeremiah's assistance continue to guide the flower's energy.

"Hmmm? Strange whay is it getting much easier than before?"

He was confused for a moment until his gaze fell to Lothar and Alicia. It seems the gaps he didn't notice were taken care by them.

"Thats good, as I expected. Its not good being alone"

And then, in that moent, as soon as he saw them mend the last rift, Apollo finally let himself collapse, he began falling, his thunder aura was dispelled, cold as death itself, but victorious.

Alicia seeing Apollo falling down as such fast rate, without delay she flew straight away to catch her fallin friend.

"Recovery"

She whispered, and a green and faint energy began to to envelopes the boy. Healing every injury back to how it was. She was completely restoring Apollo and even his missing limbs regenerated within a second.

"That was really dangerous"

Lothar arrived right beside them, his sword was drew in case any magical beasts were to attack them.

"Dont worry my spell wont be detected"

For a moment Lothar was amazed hearing that but as he blink, his previous amazement turn into total disbelief once he notice something.

"We.....are at my home?"

He was at the shelf, he was sure of it, but then a second later he was back at his home. With a warm fire ready to welcome them.

"What just happened?"

He was confuse but he conpose himself remembering that a certain boy is currat the deaths door.

He spreads his senses and found them right into the kitchen right in fron of the huge oven.

"How is Apollo"

Alicia glance as him before replying, "Sleeping"

The cold winter sun filtered through the stained-glass windows of the palace's war chamber, casting fractured rays of gold and crimson on the polished obsidian floor. King Lorenzo stood stiffly before the messenger, his gloved hands gripping the back of his throne with such force the wood groaned.

The scroll trembled in the courier's hand.

> "Repeat it," Lorenzo said, his voice low and deadly.

The messenger swallowed hard. "T-The Imperial Court has announced that the Emperor dispatched the Archmage Order to investigate the Brood Scars left in the northern rim. Not the Ice Shelf."

A long silence followed.

Emilia, standing beside her father in a deep violet cloak, felt her stomach twist.

> "They weren't supposed to look there..." she whispered.

Lorenzo slowly sat back, eyes unreadable, jaw clenched. His fingers tapped once, twice on the stone armrest. Then he looked at his daughter.

> "They were supposed to drown in the chaos of the Ice Shelf's collapse. That was the design," he said, his tone cold with controlled fury. "Not this."

> "Then it's him," Emilia muttered. "Apollo played us."

She turned away from the throne, pacing. "He shifted the narrative. The clues... the trail we thought he left us — it was a decoy. The truth was never under the ice. It was buried in our sins. The Brood Mothers..."

Lorenzo exhaled heavily, fingers pressing to his temples.

> "Damn him."

A pause. The realization was setting in.

> "We are compromised," he finally said. "Erase every record. Burn the research halls beneath the capital. Kill the scientists. Collapse the caverns."

> "We won't outrun a truth the Empire is now chasing," Emilia replied grimly. "Especially if Apollo is lighting the path for them piece by piece." This chapter was made possible by the MV_LEMPYR community.

Her voice cracked with something halfway between fear and fury.

> "And my fiancé..." she almost spat the word, "...is the one leading the damn hunt."

Lorenzo stood, cloak billowing behind him as he moved to the large war map.

> "Then let us set fire to the forest before the hounds reach the prey. Every trace of the Brood Program must vanish. No bones. No labs. No test subjects."

> "It's too late," Emilia said, her voice bitter. "You don't realize what he's doing. He's not just hunting monsters, Father."

She met Lorenzo's eyes.

> "He's hunting legacies."

---

Cut to: The North – Alicia

Meanwhile, high above the frost-stained peaks of the northern reaches, Alicia stood on a rocky outcrop, wind whipping through her dark hair.

She had pieced it together now.

Apollo's plan wasn't to confront the enemy head-on. It was to lead them into exposing themselves. To make the Empire's greatest authorities chase truth — truth Apollo quietly staged for them to uncover.

One clue at a time.

Alicia narrowed her eyes toward the horizon, where Imperial banners now flew in the skies, mages sweeping the ground in search of arcane residues.

> "You're not just baiting your enemies," she said under her breath. "You're baiting your brother. Making him lead the hunt…"

She looked down at the encoded sigil Apollo left her earlier — a glyph etched in silence.

> "And he doesn't even know he's about to hunt the one person he swore to protect."

A cruel wind blew past her.

> "Emilia."


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