Monarch of frost
749 Words
The throne of bone didn't just sit in the square; it pulsed, drawing the very heat from the air. Sitting upon it was a figure encased in translucent, jagged armor: The Frost Sovereign, Kaltor.
This wasn't a mindless beast like the Centipede. Kaltor stood seven feet tall, gripping a claymore made of frozen starlight. His eyes were pits of absolute zero.
> [BOSS: THE FROST SOVEREIGN - KALTOR]
> [Difficulty: Rank A (Mutated)]
> [Warning: The gap in power is extreme. Survival probability: 12%.]
>
"A human... who can move through the folds of the Grid?" Kaltor’s voice was a tectonic grind. He stood, and the ground for fifty meters shattered under the pressure of his mana. "You are an error that must be corrected."
Kaltor vanished.
CRASH.
Jin-Woo barely crossed his arms in time. The frost giant’s claymore slammed into his guard, the sheer force burying Jin-Woo’s legs into the frozen asphalt up to his knees. The shockwave shattered every window in the surrounding skyscrapers.
> [HP: 62/280]
> [Status: Frostbite inflicted. Agility decreased by 30%.]
>
"Too fast..." Jin-Woo wheezed. Even at Level 12, an A-Rank Boss was a god.
Kaltor raised his blade for a vertical cleave. "Die, glitch."
Jin-Woo’s mind raced. He couldn't outrun this. He couldn't outmuscle it. He looked at his shadow, stretched long by the eerie red sky. He remembered the Architect’s Inheritance—the promise of a "rebooted soul."
If I can’t kill him with my strength, I’ll kill him with his own darkness.
As the blade descended, Jin-Woo didn't dodge. He reached out with the Architect’s Grip and grabbed the shadow of the blade itself.
[Skill Evolved: 'Shadow Extraction' (Temporary Access)]
"Arise," Jin-Woo whispered.
From the shadow of Kaltor’s own claymore, a shadowy duplicate of the weapon erupted upward, parrying the real blade with a deafening clink. The recoil sent the Frost Sovereign staggering back, his icy composure breaking for the first time.
"What... is this?" Kaltor hissed.
Jin-Woo stood up, his eyes now burning with a steady, obsidian flame. Dark smoke began to pour from his wounds, stitching his flesh back together.
> [CRITICAL OVERRIDE ACTIVATED]
> [Class Promotion Quest: 'Shadow Monarch's Path' - Stage 1]
> [Objective: Kill the Sovereign using its own shadow.]
>
Jin-Woo lunged. He didn't use Shadow Dash to move behind Kaltor; he used it to merge with Kaltor’s shadow. He became a flickering ghost, appearing from the Sovereign's left, then his right, then from beneath his feet.
Every strike Jin-Woo landed with the Stalker’s Fang left a trail of dark ichor that began to eat away at the frost armor.
Kaltor roared, swinging his claymore in a 360-degree arc, freezing the air into lethal shards. Jin-Woo leapt into the air, using Dominator’s Touch to yank a frozen car toward Kaltor as a distraction. As the Sovereign smashed the car to splinters, Jin-Woo dropped from the sky like a falling star.
He drove the dagger into the seam of Kaltor’s helmet.
"I am the one who levels up," Jin-Woo growled.
He poured every remaining point of MP into the strike. A massive explosion of shadows erupted from the point of impact, swallowing the Sovereign whole. The ice melted instantly, turned to steam by the sheer heat of the dark energy.
When the smoke cleared, the throne was gone. Kaltor was gone. Only a pile of black dust remained.
> [BOSS DEFEATED]
> [Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!]
> [Current Level: 17]
> [Class Promotion: Shadow Monarch (In-Progress)]
> [New Skill Unlocked: 'Extraction' - You may now claim the shadows of the fallen.]
>
Jin-Woo looked at the pile of dust. He reached out his hand, his voice low and commanding.
"Arise."
The black dust swirled, rising from the ground and solidifying into a towering, knight-like figure made of violet-black smoke and jagged ice. It knelt before Jin-Woo, plunging its shadow-claymore into the ground.
> [You have obtained your first Shadow Soldier: 'Frost Knight'.]
>
Behind him, Mina and the surviving Iron Heart hunters stared in absolute horror. They had seen many things in the Rifts, but they had never seen a man command the dead.
Jin-Woo turned to them, his new shadow soldier standing like a grim sentinel at his back. The Red Gate began to c***k, the exit portal flickering back into existence.
"Don't tell anyone what you saw," Jin-Woo said, his voice echoing with a power that made the air tremble. "Or my shadow will find you."
- Writer
