-Those within that place are, among them, those with especially resilient souls who have still not become our brothers.
-To you, who cherishes the natives, they will be of even greater value.
Inside the ice,
were, unmistakably, the faces of my parents I’d been searching for so desperately.
When I flinched and stopped in front of them—
-I do not know the details, but it seems you favor those two natives.
A voice of souls reached me.
I flinched for an instant, but—
“......There are familiar faces, I guess.”
-You too wear the flesh of ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) a native...... so that is only natural.
Replying as casually as possible—
THUD.
Without a word,
I put their bodies into my shadow.
-We have handed them over. Now return, Guardian of the natives.
-Tend to your children, and hold them close. We, too, will not lay hands on you for the time being.
-It is a truce. We have already lost much on both sides. It will be better for you as well to postpone the next fight for a while.
I had succeeded in reclaiming my parents—the goal I’d been aiming for—
and the missing humans.
It was a situation that had my chest boiling with excitement, but......
‘Stay calm, Shin Youngjun. Don’t get excited.’
In my head, I forced myself to be as calm as possible.
Even as I gathered people’s bodies into my shadow, I listened to what they were saying.
‘If I get excited over family, I make mistakes.’
I already knew that from experience.
I’m not a perfect bastard.
I make mistakes often enough, but—
‘I don’t plan to make the same mistake twice.’
The moment I got excited here,
I’d end up making the same mistake again.
‘For some reason, those guys can’t physically restrain me right now. They know that too.’
They were probably extremely powerful beings.
But right now, they couldn’t do anything except speak like this.
If they could have stopped me in the first place, they would’ve blocked me when I was collecting those monsters.
‘And yet they “guided” me here?’
The problem was their response.
‘Why?’
The human bodies here were extremely useful.
Not just in the sense that Awakeners contained enormous potential.
‘If they realized I cherish humans, they could’ve used these people to threaten me.’
But they revealed this place to me like it was nothing.
If that happened, I could just take these people,
and then go right back to the path I’d been walking earlier.
A truce offer, whatever.
If I didn’t accept, that was that.
‘There’s no way they don’t know that.’
And yet they were spewing nonsense about a truce here.
......So what reason could they possibly have.
“Yeah.”
After I put everyone’s bodies into my shadow,
I nodded and spoke.
“You’re buying time.”
At my words—
-.......
-.......
-.......
The voices that had been loudly yapping about a truce,
fell silent together.
“I don’t know why, but you think you only need to buy a tiny bit of time.”
-That was not our intention.
“So you diverted my steps somewhere else.”
-Do not distort our intentions. We merely, in sincerity......
“I get why you didn’t threaten me. If you threatened me for no reason and I got pissed off, it’s over. The card you secured turns into a useless scrap,”
I’m not a guy with a great personality.
If they’d threatened me,
I might’ve gotten furious at that threat and, even if it was reckless, eaten [Cuisine] and charged straight at them.
“You didn’t want to take that risk. On the other hand...... if you guide me down another route while talking about a trade, the burden’s smaller.”
-.......
“It’s just me detouring for a moment. You figured I’d accept it easily. And to a certain extent, I did.”
Then,
the answer is simple.
“I need to hurry.”
-......!
If they were trying to buy time,
then I had to pull time forward.
‘Ah, goddamn it.’
No matter how fast I moved,
my current condition had a limit.
‘Then.’
Without hesitation,
I shoved my hand into my pocket.
[War Cook’s Devotion-Infused Yethil of Rage Foreleg Jerky]
What I pulled out was,
obviously, Cuisine.
And the moment I tried to put that Cuisine in my mouth—
[Caution!]
[Side Effect - ‘Severe Aftereffects’ is still in effect!]
[If you consume Cuisine again while aftereffects from Cuisine remain, there is concern that the side effect will act with even greater severity.......]
A long warning message appeared in front of my eyes.
But unfortunately,
I didn’t have time to read it.
‘I don’t know what’ll happen later.’
GULP!
‘Future me, I’m counting on you!’
I chewed and swallowed the Cuisine.
[Trait - ‘Rampage’ has been acquired!]
An effect applied in an instant.
With the strength of that Cuisine behind me—
WHOOSH!
I dragged my heavy body and started sprinting back out.
‘Ghk......!’
Pain drilled into my skull,
and I could feel every joint in my body screaming for me to stop.
‘Even though the last side effect still hasn’t ended, I forced myself with ‘Rampage’.’
My condition was absolute garbage.
Since the Collapse,
I’d been injured worse than this, sure, but I’d never once been in a worse state than this.
‘And I ate Cuisine one more time on top of that.’
I couldn’t even guess how severe the backlash would be afterward.
So I’d conserved it as much as I could,
but right now, I had a “certainty” that I had to run even if it meant forcing myself.
-Stop!
“Fuck off.”
Ignoring the voice trying to stop me,
I ran as fast as I could while dragging my heavy body.
Pain strong enough to make me want to black out covered my whole body,
but I clenched my teeth and kept moving.
‘It was unavoidable bait.’
Rescuing the surviving humans before they were dominated.
That, at least, was something I had to do no matter what.
I’d noticed early on that this was probably bait,
but I still had no choice but to follow it.
‘The time I lost because of it isn’t long. Buying that short time...... what are you trying to do?’
I ran as fast as I could.
I braced against frozen monster torsos and shoved them behind me.
Slide.
CRASH!
Some fell into my shadow,
and some shattered.
But I didn’t do it because I wanted those corpses,
and I didn’t do it because I wanted to break them.
‘Even a little faster!’
Using those monster bodies as supports,
so I could move forward even a little faster.
“Huff...... huff......!”
And like that, I—
reached the deepest part of this Gate.
[Hall of the Old Imperial City]
A gigantic, beautiful cavern,
in the deepest part of this castle.
-......Truly a frightening one.
-Not only is your power great, but your schemes are meticulous. As the guardian of a species, you are a talent lacking in nothing.
And what was there......
“What the hell, you guys.......”
Giants with bodies so massive
they looked like they could reach the very top of this vast royal castle.
[Ariant Imperial Guardian]
[Great guardians created by Ariant, a great empire once called by the epithet ‘Guardian of the Earth.’]
[They faithfully carried out their mission to protect the world, and until the very moment the empire fell, they fought the enemy bravely.]
[State - Possessed]
[They are in a state of being possessed by leader-class individuals of Frozen Soul, Belsnickel.]
[Freshness - Best]
Just like the monsters I’d met on the way here,
they were enormous monsters trapped in ice.
The difference was—
‘Blue.’
That color.
It was an incredibly deep blue.
And—
Roll.......
-Truly...... it was close.
-Hm. I thought our brothers’ fate might end here.
Unlike the other monsters I’d met on the way here,
“Alive.”
These bodies
were alive, perfectly fine, and their eyes rolled toward me.
*****
In the hall of the gigantic royal castle,
as if to surround me the moment I stepped into its entrance, nearly twenty giants stood there.
‘There were monsters preserving their bodies while still alive?’
And the number wasn’t small, either.
Just from what I could see, about twenty.
So then why
didn’t they go out to face the Expedition Force outside......?
I learned the reason quickly.
“A seal.”
This was a Gate.
And from what I’d experienced at the Gate [Heavenly Mountain Martial Hall],
beings with power that was too great ended up being imprisoned by a seal placed directly by this world.
“......So that’s what it was.”
I didn’t know the details,
but they had fled their original world,
and in the process, many lost their bodies.
‘That’s the countless monster corpses down there.’
But.
Not everyone lost their bodies.
‘Monsters with power above blue stayed alive.’
Instead,
they were sealed by this world that feared that power.
[Extreme Saint, Baleim]
-It was not an easy matter to escape this powerful seal, but...... fortunately, the seal on the soul loosens a bit faster.
I also understood Gyeonggi Province’s climate.
These monsters were separated—soul and body.
The seal on the soul side loosened first,
and the abnormal ability of those souls was what was lowering Gyeonggi Province’s climate.
So these were likely the bosses of those stray specters—
‘From the moment their souls began to open their eyes, Gyeonggi’s temperature plummeted.’
And I could also see
why they’d tried to buy time.
[Sealing in progress......]
[Target Danger Rating - 3]
The souls that were sealed.
The seal on those souls was definitely functioning, but—
[Time remaining until seal release - 59.......]
[58.......]
“......Tsk.”
The time remaining until the seal broke
was not much.
*****
-Truly it was close.......
They let out sighs mixed with relief.
Why they’d tried so hard to buy even a little time.
Because there wasn’t much time left until that seal shattered.
Because there wasn’t much time left
until they could walk the world themselves.
‘If the Expedition Force had arrived even a little later...... those guys would’ve awakened from the seal and fallen on us.’
Thinking that as I looked at them,
a chill ran down my spine without me meaning to.
‘Each one is a boss-class monster.......’
Blue energy.
And that blue wasn’t pale at all—it was extremely deep.
‘At minimum, energy on the same level as Ariella, who’s at least baron-class.’
Even Ariella was an absurdly powerful monster.
Even though her race specialized more in raising forces than individual power,
her true self’s power alone was beyond imagination.
‘The combat power of the monsters here...... will be above that.’
More than twenty monsters with that kind of power.
If monsters like this fully emerged into the world......
Even the Legion wouldn’t be able to stop it.
-If you had found us only a little earlier, we would have met the end without even resisting.
And as if they knew that too,
voices with laughter rippled through the hall.
[Iceflame Duke, Balthazar]
-But it seems victory will ultimately be ours, you foolish one.
“.......”
-You certainly had a chance as well. But your foolishness—wasting time because you cherished the natives—has driven all natives toward ruin.
One of the giants
looked down at me and spoke with an arrogance beyond measure.
[Thick Crystal, Gellimbo]
-Kuhahaha! No matter how powerful a guardian you are, in the end you’re just a guardian of insects! It wouldn’t be strange if your intelligence is the same as an insect!
Another giant, as if already certain of victory,
openly spat words that insulted both me and humanity.
Because I’d sprinted here at full speed,
I’d succeeded in arriving right before they were freed from the seal.
But—
[Chief Inspector, Illaon]
-Until we walk this world with our own bodies...... one minute remains.
The time left
wasn’t even a minute.
[Wise One, Iterek]
-Do not despair too much, Guardian of the natives.
With my body in its worst state,
even if I assumed I were at my best, doing anything in a minute was impossible.
[Interpreter of the Lonely Soul, Anador]
-Your struggle was admirable, little child. Now become our brother, and use that strength for us.......
In one minute,
they would fully awaken from the seal,
and crush me with those enormous bodies.
But while they smiled, convinced of victory—
“......One minute.”
I repeated the number they muttered, and thought.
“Good.”
The moment I realized they were buying time,
I wondered if it might already be too late.
No, it was late.
......It was late, but—
“It doesn’t seem like I’m very late.”
-What?
Still.
It looks like I’m not that late.
