Absolute Zero

Most spiritual elixirs carried either yang energy or yin energy — one or the other. Never both.

Yet the oasis before him held both.

A substance that completely defied the laws of nature. Was such a thing only possible because this was the Underworld?

An elixir brimming with power on the level of Gong-cheong-seok-yu, containing both energies at once — he had never seen anything like it in his life.

I want this.

The problem was the sheer volume. Sensing its depth through his qi perception, he estimated the liquid in the oasis at roughly three hundred tons — enough to fill a twenty-five-meter, four-lane swimming pool to the brim.

"I can't let any other energy seep into it…"

He could simply use water arts or magic to dump the entire liquid into a subspace pocket and be done with it — but if internal energy or mana so much as touched an elixir this pure, it would inevitably degrade.

Even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scooping it out without contamination wouldn't solve the problem.

Subspace itself was a form of magic. Anything that went inside would still be corrupted. That was why, for liquid elixirs, the container mattered more than anything else.

Porcelain. Glass. Plastic bottles like PET were ideal — but where was he supposed to find something that could hold three hundred tons?

He spun around, scanning the surroundings.

"What are you looking for?"

Forme tilted his head. Doha had been frowning at the oasis for a long while, and now he was suddenly searching for something?

"Is there anything nearby that could hold this much liquid? Something sealable."

"Hmm… I have a small ceramic flask, but something large enough for all of this? Even I don't really…"

Forme pulled a small ceramic vessel from his robes — the kind of water bottle he carried on duty. As he'd just said, it was laughably inadequate.

"What about metal? Ore, scrap iron — anything, as long as there's a lot of it."

"Ah. You mean to forge a container out of mineral ore?"

"Exactly."

"For a volume this size, the amount of ore you'd need would be…"

At that moment—

The ground began to shudder violently, and far in the distance a colossal sandstorm rose into the sky.

"H-huh?! D-Doha, sir! We have to run — now!"

The instant Forme saw the sandstorm, the color drained from his face. He seized Doha's shoulder and shook him hard. Why was that one appearing here? They hadn't even entered its territory yet!

"D-don't tell me it noticed because we destroyed the golems?!"

"Why? What is it?"

"It's the Sphinx!"

The sandstorm that had looked ready to swallow everything vanished in a single breath, and a massive Sphinx revealed itself.

"Oh. A lot more refined and polished than the statues I saw in Egypt."

Doha's eyes lit up with genuine admiration. Had the Sphinx statues back in Egypt originally looked like this? Weathered and broken by the ages, they hadn't exactly radiated majesty — more like oversized chunks of rock. The one before him, though, glittered with gemstones set into its body, and it was magnificent.

"Doha, sir, this is not the time to be impressed — we need to flee!"

Forme's face was frantic. He knew Sphinxes existed in the living world, so he understood the fascination. But a Sphinx of the Underworld was a Great General.

The Underworld had one god and five Great Generals who served him. The god was, of course, Anubis — and the Generals possessed power formidable enough to stand at his side.

"Even the ones who ran wild in the living world are nothing before a Great General!"

Creatures of considerable renown and strength became mere wraiths the moment they entered the Underworld. A dragon had fallen here once — and it had been beaten to the brink of annihilation not by a Great General, but by a mere Underworld unit commander.

The ground rumbled.

"How did the likes of you reach the oasis?"

The Sphinx looked down on Doha and Forme with frigid eyes. That place was reserved for the god alone. Until now, no being other than Anubis had ever set foot there.

"And the Hell Leeches are gone."

The Sphinx scanned the surroundings, its eyes widening in shock. Hell Leeches were supposed to be unkillable — yet not a single one remained.

"I wondered how you reached the oasis. So it was possible because the Hell Leeches vanished."

It had come because every signal from the golems guarding the oasis had gone dead. Finding the Hell Leeches gone as well was unprecedented since the Underworld's creation. To learn exactly what had happened, it would need to take these two with it.

"Come with me."

The Sphinx's enormous forepaw swept down toward Doha and Forme.

"Do Underworld types just not do conversation? Always going straight for the attack."

One of the invisible Heavenly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Vajra constructs slammed into the Sphinx's forepaw with tremendous force, knocking it aside.

Sure, the best opening move in a fight was a first strike — but the denizens of the Underworld took that principle way too far.

"I was trying to keep a low profile, too… damn it."

Forme narrowed his eyes at Doha's muttered complaint. From the moment they'd ripped the Underworld Gate off its hinges, "low profile" had been a distant dream. Saying that out loud, though, would probably get him hit.

The Sphinx's entire massive body shuddered. Its eyes went wide. It had expected resistance — but the power behind that blow was staggering. It had only been a strike against its forepaw, yet the pain shot all the way up into its shoulder.

"A dangerous one!"

The Sphinx slammed its forepaw down hard. A massive shockwave surged toward Doha — an attack like a wind blade given form.

"Invisible attacks, is it?"

Doha flicked his fingers, and a vast magic circle bloomed into existence. He no longer needed chanting or calculation to cast. Or rather — more accurately — he had returned to the level he once possessed.

The ground beneath the Sphinx split open with a deafening crack. The Sphinx scrambled to seize the edge of the fissure. The desert had never split like this before.

"Oh dear. Clinging on so you don't fall — you look rather pitiful."

Doha snorted a laugh at the sight and shot high into the air.

Behind Doha as he soared skyward, the Heavenly Vajra constructs gathered and fused into an enormous palm.

"Down you go, you bastard."

The palm smashed into the Sphinx's face. A scream of agony tore from its throat as it plummeted into the split earth below. Then the fissure sealed itself shut, returning the desert to its original state.

"Ah! If I'd hit it from the side, that would've been a proper slap!"

Doha clapped his hands together in mock regret. A blow to the side of the head instead of the face could have ruptured its eardrums too. What a waste.

"Forme, about what I said earlier— hey!"

He turned and called to Forme, who was standing there completely stunned.

"What did I just witness…"

Forme's mouth hung open. He already knew the human before him was strong. Anyone who could tear down the Underworld Gate and overwhelm Forme himself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in an instant was clearly no ordinary being. But to handle a Sphinx this easily? That had been beyond imagination.

As he'd said — the Sphinx was a Great General. One of the handful of strongest beings in the Underworld, second only to Anubis. Forme had assumed even Doha would be outmatched.

"Just what are you?"

How could a human be this powerful? Even dragons — the masters of magic — were little more than beasts before a Sphinx.

"Does my identity really matter?"

"Of course it matters! I've never heard of a human this strong — not even as a rumor!"

"You know about the Absolute One, don't you?"

"Come on. You're not the Absolute One."

Doha narrowed his eyes at Forme. Was this guy just dense? Or did he simply refuse to accept that Doha was the Absolute One? Or was he just an idiot?

"Let's move. Fast. I need to find iron — processed metal, preferably."

Doha turned his back.

"We can take our time, can't we? The Sphinx is dead. What's the rush?"

"The Sphinx isn't dead."

"What?"

"It's still alive."

As he'd said earlier — he hadn't wanted to cause unnecessary trouble in the Underworld, so he'd dropped it underground rather than kill it. It could reappear at any moment.

And then—

A far more massive presence than its first appearance began crushing down on every direction.

"Tch. Climbed out faster than I expected."

The Sphinx burst up through the desert and into the sky, raw fury driving it to punch straight through the earth despite the deep wounds scoring its body.

"Your identity no longer matters! I will annihilate you where you stand!"

With the Sphinx's roar, a colossal sandstorm erupted across the entire desert. At a glance it looked like nothing more than a vast whirlwind — but everything drawn into it vanished in an instant.

"Aaaagh!"

Forme screamed as the storm seized him. He felt wind at his back, and before he could react, his body was yanked into the air.

"D-Doha, sir! Save me!"

"Ugh. Why are you such a handful?"

Doha sighed at the sight. That idiot. The moment he felt the Sphinx's energy, he should have moved to Doha's side — not backed away and gotten sucked into the vortex.

"Hey, Sphinx. I was planning to leave quietly if I could. But you? You're done."

Doha took a step forward.

"Human. This time will be different!"

The Sphinx poured out even greater power as Doha advanced. White frost bloomed in his footprints. Then his entire body began to turn white.

A technique he could finally unleash now that his realm had risen.

Pure white light blazed from Doha's eyes. White cold poured from his lips.

"Let's end this."

In a single instant, the Sphinx hanging in the sky, the whirlwind blanketing the entire desert, and even the surrounding air itself froze solid.

Only three things in that place remained unfrozen.

Doha. The oasis.

And Forme.

Forme, who had been thrashing helplessly in midair, dropped hard onto the ground.