༺ The Ice Throne (5) ༻
The kingdom was facing a crisis.
The sudden occurrence from the north had forced them to rush their planned invasion.
The phenomenon that had reduced the kingdom to ashes was spreading relentlessly.
The invasion, forced to happen ahead of schedule, and the pulsation that originated from the north, dealt a fatal blow to the kingdom.
The kingdom was reduced to ashes.
The countless resources that were required to build the kingdom, everything was just gone.
Even the precious soldiers I had painstakingly collected for over ten years were gone in an instant.
A decade of patience, all gone in the blink of an eye…
The foundation for my world domination crumbled before me…
The shrinking territory left us with no choice but to hasten our march southward.
However, the soldiers stationed on the ground were unable to advance. On top of that, the pulsation had stripped away the kingdom’s camouflage, leaving the entrance exposed for all to see.
In the end, we had to vacate the capital and quickly retreat southward.
‘!’
While preparing to retreat along with the soldiers, I felt a foreign Object entering the kingdom.
It was an intruder.
How could there already be an intruder when it hadn’t been long since our kingdom’s entrance was exposed?
The intruder turned out to be a bipedal gray Object. It was leisurely strolling through the kingdom, seemingly unfazed by his surroundings.
Unfortunately for the intruder, the kingdom had no time for mercy.
The kingdom’s soldiers swiftly mobilized to halt the invaders.
***
A massive underground cave loomed before me, its entrance resembling a gaping hole heading underground.
It was a strange cave, where ice and metal intertwined in a chaotic dance.
The cave floor and walls were covered in metal powder arranged in a specific pattern.
Judging by the way the iron powder clung together, the cave walls seemed to possess a strong magnetic force.
Additionally, there were occasional flashes of lightning inside the cave.It could mean only one thing, high-voltage currents seemed to be flowing through the walls.
Being around 1.2m high, It was big enough for me to walk around.
A cave that was only 1.2m high and had high-voltage currents flowing through its walls? How could humans possibly explore such a place?
Well, It doesn’t really matter to me.
After descending for a while, I found myself in a vast chamber with numerous passages.
A Large number of ice spiders were also there.
The walls were adorned with a lot of spiders, clinging to the walls and ceiling, taking advantage of the magnetic properties of the cave.
Unlike the large humanoid ice soldiers I encountered outside, these creatures were smaller, standing at about 1m tall,
The low ceiling of the underground passage likely forced them into this choice.
The ice spiders, despite their numbers, posed little threat to me.
Because they were not an Object.
I looked for a single method to eliminate them all simultaneously.
As long as it wasn’t an object, killing it was a simple task.
***
The gray intruder suddenly picked up a piece of ice from the floor.
Picking up a chunk of ice in front of the ice and steel soldiers?
‘What is it trying to do with the ice?’
The intruder clenched its fist tightly and punched the wall three times.
Then, it tossed the ice piece into the air, swiftly balancing on its hand as the ice descended.
With a swift motion, it kicked the ice piece, sending it slowly gliding through the air towards the middle of the clearing.
The ice piece, moving so slowly that it could hardly be considered an attack, hit a chunk of metal lying in the middle of the clearing.
That piece of metal turned out to be the remains of a soldier who had been destroyed by the pulsation from the north.
I ordered one of the ice spiders to prevent the metal chunk from rolling around due to the impact of the piece of ice.
‘Is that all?’
If the intruder’s capabilities were only at this level, there was no need to worry.
However, all of a sudden, an intense surge of electricity struck the metal sphere, and changed everything.
The sphere exploded like a grenade, sending the spiders flying in all directions.
Fragments of the sphere scattered across the clearing, including the area that the intruder had struck with its fist.
A massive crack appeared, spreading through the clearing, and triggering yet another explosion.
The problem lay in the high-voltage current coursing through the passage.
If it was just a normal passageway, such an impact would not have caused its collapse.
The pulsation from the north, the accumulated shock within the passage, the abundance of metal powder and fragments strewn about—
It was the culmination of these factors and the intruder’s seemingly insignificant yet precise timing of the action.
The chain of events obliterated all the kingdom’s soldiers gathered in the vacant lot.
Additionally, the passage collapsed as well, the loud sound of the crash reverberating through the underground.
‘…’
The intruder seemed to have an unusual ability.
What on earth is its ability? Can it freely manipulate probability?
I couldn’t be sure, but it was clear that it was a powerful being with formidable strength.
It seemed impossible to fight against it with the current kingdom’s power.
Nonetheless, the strong had their own ways of dealing with even stronger foes.
All we had to do was present them with an illusory victory.
We needed to hide our true identity and make them believe they had won.
In the heart of the kingdom, preparations began to welcome this powerful being.
***
After wiping out the enemies with a single piece of ice, I looked around the collapsed clearing, while shaking the dust off my hands.
The few surviving spiders screeched, scurrying away in all directions.
I became sure as soon as I saw those spiders that were similar to the soldiers outside.
‘The Object that created the ‘Ice Throne of Dobong-gu’ is inside this cave.’
Step-! Step-!
With nimble steps, I set out to find the Ice Throne of Dobong-gu.
As I walked through the soldiers’ escape route, a vast empty space appeared before me.
Artificial light bathed the area, illuminating a collection of ice soldiers standing in formation like loyal vassals.
The intricate patterns carved onto the pillars and walls exuded a sense of reverence, akin to a temple.
It was a breathtaking sight that evoked admiration.
At the far end of the space, a colossal ice throne occupied by a figure whose entire body was covered in black steel.
If I had to put it into words, the armor sitting on the throne exuded an air of regality, resembling a king.
The huge space was also filled with floating metal items, further enhancing the mysterious atmosphere.
Before long, the armor rose from the throne, wielding a massive iron mace, its approach accompanied by resounding thumps.
Though it looked all cool and menacing, It was not interesting to me at all.
I just ignored it and looked around for what I was here for.
I mean, the armor was not an Object.
It was just a bigger and more nicely decorated ice soldier.
Effortlessly destroying the armor’s annoying iron mace by phasing through it, I concentrated on finding the Object.
Before long, I discovered it in an unexpected place—
On the table next to the throne.
There were a lot of floating metal items on the table, and the Object was one of them.
It was a metal disk, hovering above what appeared to be a superconductor.
Amidst the decorative arrangement of metal pieces, there was only one hidden Object.
A Superconductive Frog.
It was a motionless, flattened frog that was just floating around aimlessly.
‘Huh? Why a frog?’
This Object was the culprit behind the complete devastation of Dobong-gu, plunging the whole of Korea into fear.
Yet, that formidable Object had a simple killing condition.
[Break any part of its body]
I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment, as I had expected it to be as strong as the Hungry Ghost.
Probably realizing that I had discovered its identity, the frog started to attack me, spewing out cold air and electricity.
But as long as its attacks were physical in nature, there was nothing it could do to me.
I picked up the frog with one hand, as I mulled over what to do with the strange creature in my hand.
However, the superconductive frog, with its metallic sheen, crumbled as soon as I held it in my hands.
Even though It looked like it was made of steel, it proved to be more fragile than wet tissue paper.
***
It’s a monster.
I couldn’t even distract it with the soldier I used as bait.
It even effortlessly detected my perfect concealment.
The ruthless monster held me in its hand, and smiled mischievously.
I didn’t give up until the last moment, but the pressure of the monster’s grip grew stronger with each passing moment.
‘Is this the end for me?’
Will my eternal kingdom meet its end like this?
As I heard the sound of something shattering, my consciousness was enveloped in endless darkness.
‘In front of me… There’s nothing but darkness…’
***
When the frog was destroyed, all the soldiers gathered in the square collapsed like puppets with severed strings.
The invader of Dobong-gu was finally dead.
If I had lungs, I would have taken a deep breath before letting out a long sigh of relief.
I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, almost as if my body was floating.
‘????’
It seemed that after killing the Superconductive Frog, I had become a Superconductive Reaper.
Perhaps due to the magnetic fields within the cave, this newfound ability allowed me to move around as if I were swimming in outer space.
If this was a type of ability that couldn’t be turned on and off, like the scent of the pig statue, it might have been uncomfortable. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
As I floated through the cave, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
Should I ask the Sehee Institute to make a room based on this cave?
However, my fun zero-gravity walk came to an abrupt end as an earthquake shook the ground.
The pulsation of the Steel Tower had started once more.
Since the frog was dead, the anthill could no longer withstand the pulsations and collapsed.
I climbed back up to the ground to avoid the collapse and stood on the melting ice throne.
As I looked at Seoul from the twenty-meter high ice throne, it seemed to be embroiled in chaos.
A land tsunami threatened Seoul.
Civilization was on the brink of destruction.
The threat posed by the Steel Tower was incomparable to that of Dobong-gu’s Ice Throne.
