The place they discovered was truly a wonderful sight.
Suddenly, the hot spring water from the Echo Forest began to swirl around Shirka's toes, and soon enveloped her whole body and gushed out.
Kuwaah!!
At that moment, the hot steam of the hot spring and the frigid cold intertwined and resonated.
What a bummer!
Centered on Sirka, the misty steam rising above the hot spring quickly turned into pure white frost and froze.
It was a wonderful moment, as if the whole world froze.
… In fact, it had.
T-Ring!
['The Sanctuary of Snowfolk'(1) is activated.]
Just then, a message appeared in front of Suho.
[Passive skill '(Unknown)' is activated.]
Time Froze.
* * *
The void of the universe appeared in front of him.
Suho stood alone at the end of the empty horizon.
'… I'm back here again.'
Suho calmly looked around.
He found the being who called him here.
Found you.
The end of the empty horizon, An old, shabby ice elf was sitting on the other side of it.
Suho took a step and slowly approached him.
'Did you call me?'
[…]
When Suho spoke first, the old ice elf slowly raised his head.
In that moment he revealed his old and weak expression and tired, empty eyes.
[The Frost Monarch, King of Snowfolk, is watching you.]
At the system message that appeared just in time, Suho was convinced of his identity and nodded.
'As expected, you are the King of Snowfolk, Frost Monarch, Sillad.'
[…]
However, even when Suho spoke to him, there was no reply from Sillad.
He just stared at Suho with a tired look.
'What?'
Suho felt a sense of wonder at the atmosphere so different from other Monarchs he had met so far.
Suddenly, he remembered the moments when he faced other Monarchs.
The King of Beasts, even in death, still radiated the power of a king all over his body.
The King of bugs, also attacked with numerous poisonous insects, burning her vengeance even to the point of death.
But what can I say about the lord of the cold sitting in front of me…
He was just an old, weary old man.
[…Yeah. You are his son]
After staring at Suho's face for a long time, Sillad, the Frost Monarch, finally opened his mouth.
[That is quite a strange skill you have. To be able to rescue my soul from the sea after death. So, you are the son of the Shadow Monarch.]
'The sea after death?'
[Don't you know? It's where the souls go after they die. Hey, why are you making such a face? …]
Sillad looked up at the void sky with a remorseful expression on his face.
Of course, nothing was visible on it.
Nothing.
[… Waking up in a world of nothingness is such a rare experience. Tsk tsk.]
A self-deprecating smile formed on Silad's lips.
[Yeah. Death is such a futile thing. Even though I knew it would end like this anyway, what on earth did I struggle so hard for?]
'… '
Suho silently looked at him without even making eye contact as he complained like a madman.
[You know? I don't know if other Monarchs are any different, but I actually fought because I didn't want to die. The darkness within me constantly whispered to me to destroy everything, but I knew that in the end it would bring me my own destruction.]
woo woo-
[Yes, I knew I would be like this someday.]
As he sat down, he sighed softly.
Then, the pure white steam that flowed from its mouth turned into frost, creating a mirage in the air.
Countless illusions of ice elves appeared in front of Suho and Sillad.
[Do you know? We have been forced into war from the moment we were born. From the beginning until now, maybe since the beginning of time. That is why God created us.]
Kuaaaah-!
In the illusion of a mirage, the Ice Elves were fighting.
No, they were running toward certain death.
And among them...
'Sillad' stood amongst them.
[You know, at the end of that war, we 'almost' won. I managed to kill your father with my own hands.]
'… !'
At that moment, Suho's eyes widened.
The image of a young man reflected in a mirage.
The identity of the man who looked so much like him was clearly his father, Sung Jin-Woo.
Fu-wook!
[I thrust a knife into your father's heart with my own hand.]
In that fantasy, Sillad was stabbing a frozen blade into Sung Jin-Woo's heart.
Father!?
Seeing this, Suho widened his eyes.
[The Frost Monarch, King of Snowfolk uses 'Skill: Echo'.]
Just in time, the conversations that were taking place in fantasy passed by Suho's ears like an echo on a frosty wind.
-I'll return your weapon to you. Alright. Now, can you heal like you did earlier? Probably not. No matter how strong you are, you are not a complete Monarch.
Sillad in the fantasy was whispering into 'Sung Jin-Woo's ear. In an extremely vicious voice.
-Is this far as you go, human? If that is the case,you will not be able to witness it. The moment our armies set foot on this world. When that time comes, there will be a mountain of human corpses, and their blood will form endless rivers.
Sillad was pouring a terrible curse on Sung Jin-woo, who was dying from the stab in his heart.
-But this country which you grew up in will be different. I shall personally freeze every single human in this country and make them suffer through an eternal agony. They will have to live for an eternity, unable to die or live.
[…So show me your endless contempt for me within your death.]
At some point, the voices of Sillad in the echo and Sillad here overlapped.
-That will also be my pleasure.
[That will also be my pleasure.]
Passeuk.
And at that moment, Sung Jin-woo's body, which was crumbling, shattered and scattered into ice powder.
Sillad, who sat staring at the ice powder in vain, looked at Suho with a puzzled expression. [Have you seen it? I murdered your father in the cruelest way possible, and I intended to curse every life close to your father. The reason is also the same. Just so that I wouldn't die.] Sillad did not bother to show Suho what happened next.
After that, Sung Jin-woo was resurrected, and it was Sillad himself who lost his life after being defeated in the war.
What does that matter in the first place? The fact that you are right now proves all the results.
'… Why are you showing me this?'
As he watched his father fall apart, Suho's eyes were boiling like hot flames.
His fists were full of energy, as if he would run at the man in front of him at any moment, but he did not act rashly.
He didn't know if that fantasy was real or false, but at any rate, at this point, he knew his father was still alive.
Rather, it was Silad who was dead and here now.
So this was even more confusing.
Why was Sillad showing such an illusion?
Why was he provoking himself like this?
[…So the moment I suddenly woke up from the sea after death, the moment I realized that it was the son of the Shadow Monarch who woke me up.]
For a moment, a terribly cold sense of life passed through Sillad's eyes, which had been empty until now.
[I was thinking of killing you right away.]
That handful of bloodlust gave him goosebumps, as if the bitter cold had been compressed to the extreme.
[I don't know how far my power will reach you, but I was planning to somehow drag your soul into the sea after death where I was… but.]
That didn't happen.
Because Suho wasn't the only one who woke him up.
Ice elf Sirka. Sirka, the guardian of the Baruka tribe.
Sillad was curious.
Who is the heir who discovered the Monarch's Sanctuary that he hid in the Echo Forest?
In order to determine whether or not it is a vessel that will pass on its power, he controlled Sirka's body and read the memories contained within it.
He soon regretted that.
[…I shouldn't have seen it.]
Sillad watched. He saw all the things that happened in this land after the end of the war, which Sirka had personally experienced.
Haaaa—
At that moment, Sillad's sigh created an illusion of frost again.
In that fantasy...
Surprisingly, there was Cha Hae-In, Suho's mother.
Mom…
Suho also saw the vision.
In that fantasy, Cha Hae-In was with the Ice Elves who survived the war.
She stood by those young and weak children and brought smiles to the faces of the children who were frozen in the cold.
As though a mother would.
[…She was like a mother.]
It was only then that Suho realized the identity of the expression on Sillad's face.
Even at the moment when he stabbed Sung Jin-Woo's heart with a knife, Sillad cursed at him.
–I shall personally freeze every single human in this country and make them suffer through an eternal agony. They will have to live for an eternity, unable to die nor live.
–So show me your endless contempt for me within your death. That will also be my pleasure.
Sillad, who had said so confidently, was sitting here dead like this.
And the tribes that survived after losing the war...they were all being taken care of by the wife of Sung Jin-Woo, the winner of the war.
In addition, the expressions of the ice elves being cared for by Cha Hae-In were filled with bright smiles without a single wrinkle.
Kuk.
For a moment, Sillad frowned with the most humiliated expression.
Ironically, their bright expressions were warm smiles that their king and monarch had never seen before.
That was natural.
They were just horses on a battlefield that would last forever to him.
From the beginning, they were created only for that.
However.
[I wonder how she was able to make them smile as much.]
He sighed and looked back at Suho.
[Yes, you guys won. In the end, I admit that I was defeated even in death.]
Tears were leaking from Sillad's eyes, who had a humiliated expression on his face.
[Now, far from hating you in death, I have come to feel endless gratitude for you. But even with such humiliation... Just– thank you.]
He thanked him to the point of tears. Sillad, who had been sitting the whole time, slowly got up.
[Son of the Shadow Monarch.]
Whoaaah-!
All of the sudden, the Monarch's energy slowly swaying from his senile body filled the empty world.
[The Frost Monarch, King of Snowfolk is watching you.]
That arrogant gaze reached Suho.
[I will ask you one favor. This is the cowardly and servile will of a defeated Monarch and my last regret on this earth.]
'…'
[Please… Please give thanks to your mother on behalf of me.]
That was it.
[And just as your mother took care of my children, I will also protect you from now on.]
Shwaaa!!
At that moment, the energy of frost that filled this empty world blessed Suho.
T-Ring!
[The 'Blessing of the Cold' is applied.]
At that moment, Suho's frozen time started to move again.
The final voice of Sillad, the Frost Monarch that was getting farther away, reached Suho.
[Your mother is in danger nearby. I'll send you to her right away.]
-------------------------------------
1: while the constant google translation seems to refer to The Frost Monarch as King of Yetis, the word Yetis is mistranslated from the word snowman [설인] which in this case is the snow beasts of all kinds, and more specifically its directed towards the Ice Elves.