Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Conclusion: The Hill Where Ice Flowers Bloom
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Crack—Crunch!!
The death mana spreading through the surroundings began to freeze solid.
No, the entire space—excluding me and Yoon Seo-rin—turned chillingly frigid.
From the fingertips Seol Yu-bin raised, a visible chill of subzero temperatures slowly spread outward.
Like ice flowers blooming in midair, transparent frost layered upon itself, blanketing the battlefield.
Karserion slowly turned his gaze toward her.
The blue soulfire surged fiercely once more.
"...Authority of frost— a chill familiar with death, yet of a different grain."
Seol Yu-bin did not respond.
She merely tapped the staff she held loosely in her left hand against the ground once.
A biting cold that tore at the skin, and a faint vibration.
Just from the presence alone, it was clear.
The rules of this battlefield were about to change.
Karserion spoke first.
"However, it is already too late, bearer of authority. The Gate of Death is fully open, and the king shall soon—"
Before his words could finish, the Gate of Death tore itself open wide.
Woooooom—!!!
Something began to emerge from beyond the black void.
Not so much a form as an aberration, a concept made manifest.
One glance seared the eyes, roiled the mind, and shattered normal senses—an incomprehensible mass.
The deathly aura mingled filthily with its presence as it burst from the gate.
I forced my trembling hands and instinctively recoiling gaze to focus on the entity.
'To think I'd actually witness that thing descending in the flesh...'
I'd only heard its name before—I knew nothing of its skills or combat patterns.
But one thing was certain: once the Primordial Black Ring Krolsa fully crossed the Gate of Death, the quest difficulty would skyrocket beyond even the Dullahan.
Karserion's skeletal lips curled in satisfaction.
"Behold, humans. This is the true origin we serve, the Black Ring's..."
That was when it happened.
Tap.
A single short sound.
Seol Yu-bin made the slightest adjustment to her hand gesture.
"Noisy."
Her voice was refreshingly languid.
At the same moment, the surrounding temperature dropped once more.
My breath felt like it froze solid before it even left my lungs—an illusion, but vivid.
Seol Yu-bin's lips moved ever so slightly.
"Domain of Absolute Zero."
⟨ Absolute Zero Domain ⟩
Crackle—!!
The already frozen surroundings hardened further.
The black energy spilling from the Gate of Death solidified into transparent ice crystals in an instant.
The monster forcing its way through the gate halted mid-emergence, frozen like paint flash-frozen solid.
Crunch—!!!
No more cracks formed.
In one breath, Krolsa was encased as a perfect ice sculpture.
The Gate of Death, the king beyond it trying to emerge, the necromantic energy enveloping it.
All of it.
In a single moment.
Karserion's soulfire wavered.
"Frost...? No, this is—"
Seol Yu-bin glanced over the frozen gate and monster as if admiring her own handiwork, then murmured lowly with evident boredom.
"Is this what you believed in?"
Her eyes cooled just a fraction.
"Disappointing."
"......"
Karserion's silence stretched long.
A moment later, he extended a hand toward the ice encasing the Gate of Death.
Jet-black mana boiled at his fingertips.
"...I acknowledge it. This is the abyssal realm even I cannot handle lightly. But to seal it in one strike—"
Seol Yu-bin cut him off.
"I didn't seal it."
Half-lidded eyes, murmuring like someone not fully awake.
"I just froze it."
Then, clearly.
"Every possibility of it coming out here."
In that instant, a bizarre rupture echoed from beyond the ice—like wailing or something snapping.
Karserion's skull trembled faintly.
The blue soulfire flickered in hues of confusion or rage—indiscernible.
"...Regardless of how deeply you perceive, the price for insulting our king—"
"King? Not my problem."
Seol Yu-bin let out a short sigh.
"Right now, I have exactly one concern."
Her gaze finally locked precisely on Karserion.
"Making you—the one who tied up those kids behind you and turned my precious little brother into that state—suffer as much as possible before you die."
Ice flowers began blooming slowly around her.
Seol Yu-bin slightly raised her staff.
"So—let's clean up first."
Karserion's soulfire blazed fiercely once more.
"Very well, mistress of absolute zero. Then... you shall be the first offering to the king... Take it as an honor."
As he spread his arms wide, scattered bone fragments, corpses, and undead debris all floated up at once.
Whoooosh—!!
Each piece aligned like puppets, swiftly reorganizing into a massive magic circle.
"Necromantic Formation — Throne of the Myriad Skeletons."
⟨ Throne of the Myriad Skeletons ⟩
Black light mingled with crimson ritual glyphs, forming a colossal throne in the sky once more.
Karserion stood beneath it.
And opposite him, Seol Yu-bin stood.
The sound of blooming ice flowers and rattling chains of death filled the battlefield simultaneously.
"True to her name... The Hill Where Ice Flowers Bloom is breathtaking no matter how many times I see it."
I murmured softly, gazing at the beautiful ice flowers blooming around Seol Yu-bin. Yoon Seo-rin nodded in agreement beside me.
"Not sure about anything else, but one thing's clear. Getting involved in that fight now would just be a hindrance."
"Agreed."
Even so, I couldn't let go of the gun in my hand.
It felt like the battle was starting anew.
A high lich at the pinnacle as necromancer and shaman.
A mage at the pinnacle of ice magic.
Inevitable death versus absolute zero.
The moment their presences clashed head-on—
Karserion moved first.
"—Kneel. Before death, none are exempt."
Seol Yu-bin's eyes narrowed just a fraction.
"I heard that exact line from an enemy I fought before..."
She lowered her staff and murmured lowly.
"Back then—it was from someone incomparably stronger than a worm like you. A lord-class demon on the verge of becoming an apostle."
"I don't know what you're getting at, but what does that have to do with me..."
"It does. I lost then... but I don't plan to lose this time."
An ice magic circle unfurled at Seol Yu-bin's feet.
"I still regret it. If I'd been just a bit stronger two years ago... that wouldn't have happened... No, pointless talk now."
The magic circle began glowing pure white.
When the spell fully completed, she glanced back at my face, then spread her arms wide.
"Scatter... Myriad Extreme Frost Flower Refinement."
⟨ Myriad Extreme Frost Flower Refinement ⟩
Crunch—Clang!
A massive ice flower above Seol Yu-bin's head shattered into ten thousand fragments in an instant.
No, not fragments—actual petals.
Endlessly multiplying petals raining down from a single bloom.
The sky... the entire space drowned in white light.
The falling petals sliced through the battlefield like perfectly honed blades.
Karserion's necromantic formation reacted immediately.
"Necromantic Formation... Throne of the Myriad Skeletons —!!"
The rising bone fragments interlocked like tree roots, forming a barrier.
A vast curtain of necromancy blanketed the sky.
But the instant the first petal touched it.
Sizzle—
The bones and corpse fragments of the formation began melting away.
Not freezing, but their crystal structure disintegrating, jet-black mana breaking down.
The second petal struck.
The blue flame within Karserion's skull shuddered as if swallowing hard.
Third, fourth... thousands of ice flowers descended at once.
Kaboom—!!!
The icy storm from the heavens clashed with the crimson glyphs of the formation, unleashing shockwaves that upended the entire battlefield.
I instinctively deployed a protective barrier, and Yoon Seo-rin swiftly ducked behind it.
"Ha... Is that 7th Circle, or higher...?"
"By the Mage Tower standards, it'd clock in around 8th Circle. But it's meaningless. That's not magic... it's closer to an authority."
Even as we frantically blocked the chains surging from the ground, we couldn't tear our eyes from the two—precisely from Seol Yu-bin.
From the spectacle of the sky shining white.
For the first time, Karserion showed genuine agitation beyond mere mockery.
"Impossible... This level of chill... From a mere human who luckily got a fragment of authority... How...!!"
Seol Yu-bin didn't twitch an eyebrow.
"Haven't even started yet?"
In that instant, she casually lowered her right hand.
A single motion.
But with it, the falling petals shifted direction.
No, not direction... target.
Tens of thousands of ice flowers converged on Karserion, ignoring everything else.
"———!!"
Karserion tried reconstituting the formation, but it was too late.
His pieced-together bones and rituals shattered into frost before they could connect.
Myriad Extreme Frost Flower Refinement engulfed him entirely.
Boom—!!!!
His soulfire rocked violently, flickering pathetically for a moment.
Karserion's outer shell cracked, exposing his soul core within.
"...Impossible..."
Shatter—!!
The final petal struck his core, and Karserion froze solid.
Sealed in ice, he staggered before silently shattering into pieces.
Even the necromantic energy scattered like wind, frozen.
Seol Yu-bin said emotionlessly.
"Used more power than expected."
She lowered her staff again.
At the same time, distant sounds of shattering metal and short screams erupted.
I turned that way.
There, Wol Ha-yeon's twin moonblades traced a circular afterimage like moonlight, slicing through the air.
The Dullahan's form spun slowly in midair once.
Slide—!!
From shoulders to waist, waist to legs—it smoothly severed end to end, quietly falling apart.
The soulfire flickering in the Dullahan's head blinked in the air, shook faintly, then winked out with a final flicker.
Wol Ha-yeon shook the spotless bloodless blades, utterly composed.
"...Done."
Dullahan and Karserion.
Both battlefields ended in the same instant, perfectly in sync.
I couldn't help but let out an incredulous chuckle.
'A Dullahan and even Primordial Black Ring Krolsa showing up should've meant an instant restart.'
Yoon Seo-rin confirmed the battles fully ended, peeking out slightly before murmuring.
"The sovereign of ice magic was impressive... but handling the Dullahan solo from start to finish? As expected, no joke."
"Right? That's what I think too."
Seol Yu-bin confirmed the last ice flower melting away, then turned back and walked slowly toward us.
Only then did the reality of survival truly sink in.
"Hyun-sol."
She smiled faintly.
"It's okay now. Let's go home."
"...Yeah, sis."
The battlefield was fully cleared amid the dazzling afterglow of ice flowers.