Chapter 127

It was a truly wondrous sight.

Without warning, the hot spring water of Echo Forest began swirling around Sirka's toes, then surged upward, coiling around her entire body.

WHOOOOSH

In that instant, the hot steam and the bitter cold intertwined, resonating with each other.

CRAAAAACK!

With Sirka at its center, the hazy steam rising from the spring turned to pure white frost and froze solid in an instant.

It was a wondrous moment, as though the entire world had frozen over.

... And it truly had.

DING

[Sanctuary of the Snow Folk activates.]

Just then, a message appeared before Suho.

[Passive skill '(Unknown)' activates.]

Time froze.

* * *

A world of utter blankness.

Suho stood alone at the edge of an empty horizon.

'... Here again.'

Suho calmly surveyed his surroundings and found the being who had summoned him here.

'There you are.'

Beyond the edge of the empty horizon sat an old, shabby ice elf, utterly still.

Suho began walking slowly toward him.

'Did you call me here?'

[... ]

At Suho's greeting, the old ice elf slowly raised his head, revealing an aged, enfeebled face and weary, vacant eyes.

[The King of the Snow Folk, the Monarch of Frost, is watching you.]

The system message confirmed his identity, and Suho nodded.

'So you are Sillad, the King of the Snow Folk and the Monarch of Frost.'

[...]

But Sillad gave no answer. He merely gazed at Suho, looking utterly exhausted.

'What's going on?'

Suho was puzzled. His demeanor was completely unlike that of any other Monarch he had met.

He recalled his encounters with the other Monarchs.

Even in death, the King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs, had radiated a king's imposing presence from his entire body.

The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, had burned with vengeance even after death, attacking him with countless venomous insects.

But the Monarch of Frost sitting before him was... how to put it?

Nothing more than a shabby old man, aged and exhausted.

[... So. You are his son.]

After staring at Suho's face for a long time, Sillad, the Monarch of Frost, finally spoke.

[What a remarkable talent. To pluck my soul from its wanderings in the sea of the afterlife. Just what one might expect of the Shadow Monarch's son.]

'The sea of the afterlife?'

[You do not know it? The place the dead go when they die. Though I suppose such names hardly matter...]

With a look of deep regret, Sillad gazed up into the empty sky.

Of course, there was nothing to see above him.

Nothing.

[... To open my eyes in a world of nothingness. A rare experience indeed. Heh heh.]

A self-mocking smile formed on Sillad's lips.

[Yes. Death is this hollow. I knew all along that this was how it would end. What, then, did I struggle so desperately for?]

'... '

Suho silently watched him lament like a madman, never once meeting his eyes.

[Do you know? The other Monarchs may have been different, but I fought because I did not want to die. The darkness within me endlessly whispered that I should destroy everything, yet I knew that destruction was all that awaited at the end.]

HAAAAH

[Yes. I knew I would end up like this one day.]

Still seated, he let out a quiet sigh. The white vapor spilling from his mouth turned to frost, forming a mirage in the air.

Before Suho and Sillad appeared visions of countless ice elves.

[Do you know? War has been forced upon us from the moment we were born. From the beginning of time until now, and perhaps for eternity. That was why God created us.]

"Aaaaaagh!"

Within the mirage, the ice elves were fighting.

No, they were charging toward certain death.

And among them... was Sillad.

[Do you know? At the end of that war, we came 'close' to winning. I killed your father with my own hands.]

'...!'

Suho's eyes widened.

A young man appeared in the mirage. The man looked so much like him that there could be no doubt: it was his father, Sung Jinwoo.

And then...

SHUNK!

[With my own hands, I drove a blade straight into your father's heart.]

In the vision, Sillad was plunging an icy blade into Sung Jinwoo's heart.

'Father...?!'

Suho stared, his eyes wide.

[The King of the Snow Folk, the Monarch of Frost, uses 'Skill: Echo.']

Just then, the voices within the vision drifted past Suho's ears like echoes carried on a frosty wind.

["I shall return your weapon. Now, can you recover as you did before?"]

In the vision, Sillad whispered into Sung Jinwoo's ear in a voice of utter malice.

["Is this the end, human? Then you will not live to see it. The moment our armies arrive on this land. When that time comes, your human corpses will form mountains, and your blood will flow in rivers."]

Sillad heaped vicious curses on Sung Jinwoo as he lay dying with his heart pierced.

["But the country where you were born and raised will be different. I shall personally freeze every human in this land and make them suffer forever. Neither alive nor dead, they will endure for all eternity."]

[... Hate me endlessly in death.]

At some point, the voice of Sillad in the echo began overlapping with that of the Sillad here.

["That, too, will bring me pleasure."]

[That, too, will bring me pleasure.]

CRUMBLE

At that moment, Sung Jinwoo's collapsing body shattered, scattering into icy dust.

Sillad sat watching the ice dust with a hollow gaze, then turned an unreadable look on Suho.

[Did you see? I murdered your father with the utmost cruelty, and intended to curse every living being connected to him as well. For the very same reason. Solely so that I would not die.]

Sillad did not bother showing Suho what happened afterward: how Sung Jinwoo had risen again, and how it was Sillad himself who had ultimately lost the war and his life.

What did any of that matter now?

His very presence here proved how it had all ended.

'... Why are you showing me this?'

Having witnessed his father's body crumble, Suho's eyes burned like raging flames.

His fists clenched as though he might lunge at Sillad at any moment, but he did not act rashly.

He did not know whether the vision was true or false, but either way, his father was still alive now.

It was Sillad who was dead and here before him.

That only confused him more.

Why was Sillad showing him these visions?

Why was he provoking him like this?

[... And so, when my consciousness suddenly awoke in the sea of the afterlife, when I realized that the one who had awakened me was none other than the Shadow Monarch's son...]

A chilling murderous intent flashed through Sillad's previously vacant eyes.

[I intended to kill you at once.]

That mere trace of murderous intent sent a shiver through Suho, as though the bitterest cold had been compressed to its utmost limit.

[I did not know how far my power could reach you, but I intended to drag your soul into the sea of the afterlife where I had been, whatever it took. But...]

... He could not.

For Suho had not been the only one to awaken him.

The ice elf Sirka.

Sirka, Guardian of the Baruka Tribe.

Sillad had been curious about the successor who had discovered the Monarch's sanctuary he had hidden in Echo Forest.

To determine whether she was a suitable vessel to inherit his power, he had taken control of Sirka's body and read the memories within.

And he had regretted it from the bottom of his heart.

[... I should never have looked.]

Sillad had seen it.

Everything Sirka had experienced in this land after the war ended.

HAAAAH

Once again, Sillad's sigh formed a vision of frost.

And there within it... astonishingly, stood Suho's mother, Cha Haein.

'Mother... '

Suho saw the vision too.

Within it, Cha Haein was with the ice elves who had survived the war.

She stayed by those young, vulnerable children's sides, bringing smiles into bloom on faces that had been frozen like the bitter cold.

Just like a mother.

[... She was like a mother to them.]

Only then did Suho understand the expression on Sillad's face.

Even as he drove his blade into Sung Jinwoo's heart, Sillad had poured curses upon him.

["I shall personally freeze every human in this land and make them suffer forever. Neither alive nor dead, they will endure for all eternity."]

["Hate me endlessly in death. That, too, will bring me pleasure."]

Yet Sillad, who had spoken with such confidence, now sat here dead.

And his own tribes, the survivors of their defeat in the war... were being cared for by the wife of Sung Jinwoo, the victor.

What was more, the ice elves in Cha Haein's care wore nothing but radiant smiles, free of even the slightest shadow.

"Hah."

Sillad's face twisted in utter humiliation.

Ironically, those bright faces bore warm smiles that he, their king and Monarch, had never once seen.

Of course he had not.

To him, they had been nothing more than pawns on an eternal battlefield.

They had been created for that purpose alone.

And yet...

[They were capable of such expressions?]

With a lament, he turned to Suho.

[Yes. You have won. I acknowledge that, in the end, I have been defeated even in death.]

Tears had begun spilling from Sillad's eyes, his face still etched with humiliation.

[Now, far from hating you in death, I find myself feeling endless gratitude toward you. Yet even for this humiliation... I am simply grateful.]

Yes.

He was profoundly grateful.

Grateful enough to weep.

Sillad, who had remained seated all this time, slowly rose to his feet.

[Son of the Shadow Monarch.]

WHOOOOSH!

A Monarch's aura slowly began rippling from his aged body, filling the blank world.

[The King of the Snow Folk, the Monarch of Frost, is watching you.]

That supremely haughty gaze settled on Suho.

[I have one request for you. These are the cowardly, servile last wishes of a Monarch defeated in war, my final lingering attachment to this land.]

'...'

[Please... convey my gratitude to your mother on my behalf.]

Yes.

That would be enough.

[And just as your mother cared for my children, from this moment on, I too shall protect you.]

SHHHHH

At that moment, the frost energy filling this blank world blessed Suho.

DING

['Blessing: Blessing of Frost' is applied.]

Suho's frozen time began to move again.

As Sillad, the Monarch of Frost, receded into the distance, his final words reached Suho.

[Your mother is in danger nearby. I shall send you straight to her.]