The Frost Storm
The skeleton mage that had burst from the gate spotted something and began frantically struggling to force its way back inside.
But thanks to the gate explosion phenomenon, once a monster made it outside, returning was impossible.
“...What the hell is that thing doing?”
“Some kind of boss routine?”
The awakened and returnees watching on were bewildered.
The skeleton mage had been radiating a terrifying aura, yet it suddenly started behaving strangely.
To the mage itself, however, the situation was deadly serious.
This... this is ridiculous... Why won’t it let me back in... I can’t stay here... I mustn’t stay here...
Though nothing but bones remained, it could feel the gaze of a predator that made its very soul shudder.
It didn’t fully understand what was happening, but it was certain that remaining here would lead to complete annihilation, soul and all.
That was why it had been desperately trying to crawl back into the gate, but—
!
Suddenly, the skeleton mage’s movements froze.
The blue flames burning in its eye sockets flared crimson, and any trace of cunning intelligence vanished.
All that remained was pure hatred and rage directed at its enemies.
As it thrust both arms into the air, a wide-area buff surged through the other undead.
Red light flared in their eye sockets as well. From that moment, their physical abilities skyrocketed and their durability grew monstrous.
They had already been difficult foes that required precise headshots to destroy; now, anything less than a direct hit to the skull barely affected them.
Ratatatatat!
Boom! Booom!
The gunfire continued without pause, yet the undead refused to fall and kept surging forward.
The soldiers had no choice but to descend into panic.
“A-awakened! Returnees! We’re begging you!”
Deputy Minister Gang Taebeom shouted, and those who wielded mana in their bodies rushed into the fray.
Magic, psychic powers, sword arts, unique abilities, spirit magic—the full spectrum of powers from people who had survived other worlds.
When they joined the fight, the battle seemed to stabilize for a brief moment.
But it was only a fleeting reprieve.
They couldn’t even hold back the elite monsters properly, and worst of all, the skeleton mage had yet to enter the battle.
Every swing of its staff unleashed exploding clouds of black energy that swallowed soldiers whole.
If this continues… we’ll be wiped out!
Gang Taebeom’s eyes darted frantically.
He had climbed too high to die in a place like this.
He was a man with exceptional judgment in moments of crisis.
The commander must survive to devise the next plan and reorganize the troops. Strategically, I have to live!
His mind reached a swift conclusion.
“Deputy Minister! What are your orders?”
“Cheongna cannot fall. If it turns into urban combat, we’re finished. We stop them here at all costs—fight to the death!”
“B-but…”
“Are you disobeying a direct order?”
“...We will fight to the death!”
The armored division battalion commander nodded with trembling eyes and began radioing his men.
Watching him, Gang Taebeom quietly slipped backward.
With the roar of shells, screams, and constant vibrations filling the air, no one noticed his movement.
On the rooftop of an apartment building far from the battlefield, Lim Dojun’s brow furrowed slightly as he observed the scene.
This is going to be trouble.
The monsters spawned by the gate explosion were far too powerful.
The armored units had formed solid ranks, but the enemy proved more difficult than their firepower could handle.
In situations like this, a powerful returnee was supposed to step forward.
With the skeleton mage’s buff strengthening the lesser undead, a high-ranking returnee or an awakened armed with artifacts needed to eliminate the mage first.
That was the standard tactical response to a gate explosion—neutralize the leader, then let the military regain control.
None of the awakened or returnees gathered here are up to the task.
The ones who had finally begun to move were, at best, struggling against one or two elite monsters.
Even among returnees, who were usually far stronger than awakened, there were no true powerhouses present.
At their current level, taking down the skeleton mage was impossible.
The future was painfully clear.
He also saw Gang Taebeom quietly slipping away amid the chaos.
“Hoo… I only planned to deal with Gang Taebeom quietly.”
If left alone, the military line would collapse and the monsters would charge straight into the surrounding cities.
Damage was inevitable, and if even a handful of monsters slipped into urban areas, it would be catastrophic.
The civilian casualties would be impossible to calculate.
Lim Dojun had retired, but he had once dedicated himself to this nation.
He couldn’t simply ignore the slaughter he knew was coming.
With a deep sigh, Lim Dojun rose gently into the air.
His blue robe fluttered wildly, stirred by the majestic mana radiating from his body.
His eyes had turned a vivid, icy blue.
"Frozen Domain Array."
⟨ Advanced Blue Tower Magic ⟩
He clasped his hands together, then pulled them apart. A complex magic circle bloomed between his palms before condensing into a single stem of ice.
It looked like an ordinary tree branch, but this was advanced magic from the Blue Magic Tower.
Spells of this level affected the very space around them, granting each one overwhelming power.
The drawback was its massive mana consumption, but for Lim Dojun—who possessed a fragment of a Dragon Heart—it posed no real problem.
He then layered on the secret art Blue Enhancement, amplifying the spell even further.
"Frost Storm."
⟨ Amplified Blue Tower Magic ⟩
He hurled the ice stem into the heart of the battlefield.
Crrrrrrrrrack!
The stem flew in silence. The instant it touched the ground, an ice storm exploded outward in every direction.
A blizzard of razor-sharp ice that shredded everything it touched.
Moreover, the earth itself began freezing from the moment the storm’s domain touched it, spreading outward until everything within several hundred meters was encased in ice.
The undead army that had been so overwhelming froze solid in an instant, then shattered like glass.
The battle fell into sudden silence.
“Wh-what the hell is this?!”
“That mana output…?”
Ordinary soldiers simply marveled at the spell’s power, but the awakened and returnees locked in combat with the monsters were stunned by the sheer volume of mana contained within it.
Even the top-tier monsters of the Returnee Union possessed monstrous strength, yet none of them seemed capable of something on this scale.
“Who on earth…?”
“Did one of the Union’s upper brass come?”
Yet the person responsible for the magic was nowhere to be seen.
“Huk! Hah! I have to… get out of here!”
Deputy Minister Gang Taebeom sprinted desperately through the alleys.
The formation around the gate had been tightly packed, but as the supreme commander, he knew exactly where the gaps were.
He was confident that if he slipped away while everyone was distracted, he could at least save himself before the rest of his forces were annihilated.
After putting some distance between himself and the battlefield, Gang Taebeom allowed himself a small smile.
The sounds of combat had grown distant.
Then, at some point, the noise stopped completely.
Damn. Were they wiped out?
Or was it merely a temporary lull?
Either way, he needed to move faster.
Even as he ran until his lungs burned, he strangely felt colder and colder. The moment he burst out of the alley, someone was standing there waiting.
A figure in a blue robe, hood pulled low, mask covering everything but the eyes.
Gang Taebeom sensed the unusual atmosphere and studied the stranger cautiously, but the other party spoke first.
“Gang Taebeom.”
“...Do you know me?”
“Of course I do.”
Lim Dojun nodded.
Gang Taebeom’s eyebrows twitched.
He was trying to be careful because he was in the middle of sneaking away, but he wasn’t the type to tolerate such rudeness quietly.
“...How rude. Returnee or not, I am a public servant working for this nation. You will show me the proper respect.”
“You really don’t recognize my voice?”
“......?”
When Gang Taebeom tilted his head in confusion, Lim Dojun removed his mask.
At first, the deputy minister simply frowned, unable to place the face.
It was someone he had never expected to see.
But it was the face of a subordinate who had once been called the best several years ago, so the memory soon returned.
“Lim… Dojun?”
“Yes. It’s been a long time. Nearly six years, I believe. We haven’t seen each other once since I retired.”
“You… how? I heard you were half a vegetable, living as a complete cripple?”
Vegetable. Cripple.
Hearing those words, Lim Dojun gave a small, dry laugh.
Because of people like this man, he had ended up that way—yet the very culprits had completely forgotten about him and moved on with their lives.
Just like Yeo Juhwan before him, and now this man too.
He wondered if either of them had ever bothered to visit the National Cemetery even once.
“It seems we have quite a lot to talk about.”
Crrrrrack.
An ice sword formed above Lim Dojun’s hand.
From his recent experiences, he had learned something important.
There was no need to waste time asking polite questions from the start.
For a truly productive conversation, a proper dose of violence came first.
“Haa… This is such a damn hassle.”
Go Wonjin sighed heavily as he moved.
His steps toward Cheongna were slow and reluctant, little more than a casual stroll.
The returnees currently dispatched to Cheongna were, in truth, the lowest-ranked members of the Union.
The weakest of the weak.
They were people who had died shortly after being thrown into the other world and returned early.
Their skills were mediocre at best, barely different from ordinary awakened.
So why send such people?
It was the result of a power struggle with the government.
The government, the Returnee Union, and the Awakened Association maintained a delicate balance in South Korea.
The Union had been negotiating with the government for more influence, but the talks had soured.
As a result, they had only sent their weakest members for this request. To cover their bases, they had belatedly dispatched one high-ranking returnee.
Just in case something unexpected happened, they needed at least one capable person on site.
That person was Go Wonjin, which explained his constant stream of complaints.
“Aish. Why did a pain-in-the-ass situation like this have to pop up and drag me all the way out here?”
Normally, he would never bother with something this annoying.
But Go Wonjin had committed a sin.
Go Wonjin. Since you caused an incident with the Ghost Temple, you will handle this matter.
......
It was essentially a light punishment from the Returnee Union for his clash with the necromancy faction.
Compared to the scale of the trouble he had caused, it was a mild consequence, so Go Wonjin couldn’t really protest.
“And to make it worse, I heard that damn rat is the one in charge.”
Learning that Gang Taebeom was the supreme commander made the location even less appealing.
That rat-like bastard smiled and flattered to your face while stabbing you in the back with all sorts of dirty schemes.
It wasn’t once or twice that a few minutes of conversation with him made Go Wonjin want to deal with him the way the Extreme Martial God Sect handled problems.
One good stab to the gut and he’d finally drop that fake mask and show his real face.
Maybe I should just do it and call it an accident.
He regretted that he couldn’t—the Union would only impose a harsher punishment if he did.
Regardless, Go Wonjin had made his way to Cheongna, hoping against hope that everything would be resolved before he arrived.
“...Hah. Is it because our Pope isn’t in this world? Even my own followers don’t listen to me anymore.”
Go Wonjin let out an even deeper sigh.
The enormous surge of mana he felt from afar was impossible to ignore.
Even at this distance, its power was unmistakable. The situation was clearly not normal.
He could no longer afford to take his time.
The mana felt strangely familiar, but Go Wonjin dismissed it as a mistake and kicked off the ground.
Thud!
Each powerful stride closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
When he was serious, he could move far faster than any vehicle, so the remaining distance meant nothing.
Go Wonjin soon entered the streets of Cheongna and raced toward the strongest source of mana.
Then, purely by chance, in the middle of the eerily quiet city, he discovered two figures.
“Gurgh… Uuurgh…!”
A familiar face wearing a robe and holding a sword.
“Huh? Bro?”
“!”
And across from him, the unlucky bastard covered in sword wounds.
“Keugh… P-please help! I-I’m the Deputy Minister of National Defense! Someone, anyone, please help me! There’s a murderer here!”
Even though not a drop of blood flowed from the wounds, Gang Taebeom screamed at the top of his lungs.
Lim Dojun glanced at Go Wonjin, startled.
This… wasn’t part of the plan.
He never imagined Go Wonjin would show up here.
While he stood frozen, unsure how to react, Go Wonjin approached with a bright grin.
“Little bro! You were in the middle of doing something good?”
“......Yes?”