Chapter 121

The beginning of the War of the Outer Gods.

Back then, Sung Jinwoo had personally led his soldiers into the far reaches of space to confront the enemies from the outer universe. Full-scale war had soon followed.

["And that day..."]

Recalling the fierce battle of that day, Beru continued calmly.

["Kaisel, the wyvern who left carrying Lady Cha Haein, never returned. Not even now, years later."]

The order Sung Jinwoo had given Kaisel was to take Cha Haein safely home. Yet no matter how much time passed after he departed with those orders, Kaisel never rejoined the shadow army.

Sung Jinwoo had not been particularly concerned at the time, however. By then, they had already traveled too far from Earth to fight the War of the Outer Gods.

When the distance between dimensions grew that great, a shadow soldier's connection to Sung Jinwoo would gradually weaken until it was severed.

Just as Beru's had now.

Wasn't that very “distance between dimensions” why Sung Jinwoo couldn't simply dismiss Beru from Earth and summon him again out in space? If the distance was too great, he could neither replenish a soldier's mana nor dismiss them.

["As you know, Young Monarch, summoning shadow soldiers involves a kind of Gate. Soldiers waiting in the shadow world are brought into this dimension through a dimensional Gate."]

But opening a Gate ultimately meant piercing the wall between dimensions.

["When dimensions are this far apart, a Gate cannot connect them directly. One must fly through the gaps between dimensions, breaking through countless dimensional walls along the way."]

A prime example was the War of the Monarchs in the timeline that no longer existed.

Even the immensely powerful Rulers had needed years to reach Earth from their own dimension. During those years, the Monarchs, who had arrived ahead of them, had prepared for war on Earth.

In short, the dimension where the War of the Outer Gods was now raging was likewise unimaginably far from Earth.

By the time Beru finished explaining, Suho's expression had grown grim.

“Then don't tell me my mother has been...”

["Yes. It seems Lady Cha Haein encountered some unavoidable accident while riding Kaisel and never made it home in the first place. Perhaps she was caught in a dimensional rift along the way."]

Yes. An unavoidable accident.

Surely it had been something neither Cha Haein nor Kaisel, the wyvern carrying her, could possibly have avoided.

["... Dimensional rifts were opening all across the sky at the time, after all."]

Beru nodded solemnly as he finished.

Oblivious to their somber mood, Sirka, who had been listening beside them, nodded brightly.

“That's right! That's why Kaisel, the black wyvern, is always at Chacha's side, protecting her! That's why she's Chacha the Dragon Priestess!”

At that, Suho turned straight to Sirka and asked,

“So where is my mom—my mother now?”

His voice cracked slightly as he said “mom” for the first time in so long.

For some reason, his throat tightened.

* * *

WHOOOOSH

When they stepped outside the cave again, the mana-laden blizzard swept in from every direction, obscuring everything in sight.

But Sirka, the ice elf, set off without a care for the bitter cold.

“Just follow me. I'll show you the way to where my tribe lives.”

“...”

Suho followed her in silence, his face clouded with thought.

Sirka, on the other hand, had been beaming ever since meeting the son Cha Haein had talked about endlessly.

“I was born in this forest. Weather like this is normal for ice elves.”

As if to prove her words, Sirka navigated the mana-laden blizzard without hesitation. Her steps were astonishingly light, and she even demonstrated how she could hop across the deep snow.

Behind her, however, Suho's feet kept sinking into it.

Looking back at him, Sirka giggled with familiar warmth.

“You really are her son! Even that is just like Chacha! If your feet keep sinking, try spreading a thin layer of mana across your soles.”

“Mana across my soles?”

“Yep. Chacha struggled at first too, but she soon got the hang of it. You're her son, so I'm sure you can do it.”

Yet her face was full of mischievous amusement as she watched him. She looked like someone eagerly watching a little nephew take his first steps.

'Actually, Chacha didn't pick it up that quickly either. Hehe.'

She called it a trick, but in truth, the technique was far from easy for any race other than ice elves. Cha Haein had worked so hard to learn it.

It required delicate, precise mana control to become second nature with every single step.

“The trick is simple.”

The corners of Sirka's mouth twitched as she graciously imparted her knowledge to Suho.

“We ice elves crawl across snow like this before we can even walk. At first, we instinctively spread mana throughout our bodies as we crawl. Then, little by little, we narrow down the area where we distribute it...”

“Aha. Like this. I get it.”

“Huh?”

Sirka, who had been earnestly teaching her little nephew to walk, suddenly looked bewildered.

Suho was already standing effortlessly atop the deep snow.

“What? Am I doing something wrong?”

“Ahem. It's still a little clumsy.”

Momentarily dumbstruck, Sirka pointed beneath his feet to save face as the adult(?).

“Look. You're still pressing the snow down a little, see? You shouldn't leave any footprints at all, like me.”

“No footprints?”

Suho turned to look back along the route she had taken.

'She's right! Only my footprints are there!'

What an incredible feat. Walking over snow without leaving so much as a footprint.

Only when Suho recognized his shortcomings did Sirka relax and fold her arms haughtily.

“S-see? Of course, it can be a little difficult at first. But if you work hard enough...”

“Oh, so that's it.”

“...”

Before she could finish, Suho had stopped leaving footprints.

[You have learned 'Skill: Elven Footsteps.']

'A new skill?'

Suho's eyes lit up with interest.

She had called it a simple trick, but apparently it was a more impressive technique than he had realized.

Momentarily speechless, Sirka stared blankly at him.

“... No wonder Chacha bragged about her son every time she opened her mouth.”

“My mother did?”

Suho tilted his head in puzzlement.

“She bragged about me? That can't be right.”

Every time Sirka spoke about his mother, it felt strange to Suho.

The Cha Haein he knew wasn't stingy with praise, but neither was she someone who went around bragging about her child. If anything...

'She always wanted to raise me as an ordinary kid.'

That damned obsession with being ordinary...

Looking back, his childhood had been the very definition of “ordinary.” Though his strength and stamina had always surpassed those of his peers, he had been utterly ordinary in every other respect.

That was Suho as a child.

'And my parents were strangely delighted by that.'

Perhaps seeing those pleased expressions was what had made him try even harder to live an ordinary life.

He had taken it for granted at the time, but looking back now, it was quite strange. Didn't most parents love seeing their children outshine other people's, even just a little?

["Ahem. You see, that was your parents' consideration for you, Young Monarch, in wishing you an ordinary life, as well as..."]

Beru abruptly popped up beside him and began reminiscing about Suho's childhood.

But there was no time for that.

“We're here.”

Just then, they came to a stop, and a scene unfolded before them.

This was the ice elves' village.

What caught their attention first, however, was a large, beautiful ice sculpture standing in front of it.

And, astonishingly, the figures depicted in the sculpture were...

“Mother?”

["Lady Haein?!"]

Suho's and Beru's eyes went wide.

The ice sculpture carved by the ice elves depicted the enormous wyvern Kaisel and Cha Haein.

* * *

Five years earlier.

In the end, Kaisel, the shadow wyvern carrying Cha Haein home, had been unable to bring her safely back to the ground.

A dimensional rift—one of the countless rifts multiplying chaotically due to the Itarim's invasion—had opened right in front of them.

ROOOAR

A powerful dimensional wind struck without warning. Kaisel's wings lurched, and he veered sharply.

["Aaaah!"]

Cha Haein, who had been no more than an ordinary human at the time, screamed as she clung tightly to Kaisel's swaying back.

Kaisel did everything he could to keep her from falling, but once they were caught in the dimensional rift, escape was impossible.

Nor could he turn back. An immense battle had already begun in the direction they had come from.

At that moment, Kaisel recalled the order Sung Jinwoo had given him.

That order was...

'Take Cha Haein safely home.'

Cha Haein's safety.

Having watched Sung Jinwoo in his daily life, Kaisel knew very well how much her safety mattered to him above all else.

The instant he remembered that, Kaisel plunged into a dimensional rift without hesitation.

There had never been a choice. Resist and be dragged in, or dive in of his own accord. Either way, they were destined to be swallowed by the gaps between dimensions.

But if he went willingly, he could at least choose which rift would swallow them.

And so, for Cha Haein's safety, Kaisel turned toward the rift with the most stable mana.

The moment they passed through it, they saw what lay beyond.

A powerful, raging blizzard.

And beneath it, a beautiful expanse of frozen forest.

“... And that's how Chacha came down into the forest where we live.”

Recalling the sight of that day, Sirka gazed dreamily at the figure of Cha Haein carved in ice.

The moment Cha Haein passed through the dimensional rift.

The moment she arrived in this frozen forest.

The moment she encountered the ice elves.

Cha Haein had awakened the tremendous power she had long forgotten.

An S-rank hunter.