Return of the Frozen Player

“I’m pretty sure you guys already know what they call you outside,” said Kis as he stood on the podium in front of the training ground. The one hundred knights of the Winter Order were standing before him, and they had come here to follow their Knight Commander and Lord.

“They call us sugar.”

The other planets called the Knights of the Winter Order sugar because their existence was not necessary to Niflheim. It was sweet to have them by one’s side, but Niflheim could make do without them.

“It’s not really an infuriating form of address!”

“I mean, Her Majesty likes sugar, right?”

“Wait, I think that’s the reason Her Majesty trusts us a lot…”

The knights of the Winter Order started laughing.

Kis smiled upon realizing that his soldiers were energetic as usual.

“Knights speak with their weapons and move with loyalty. The same is true of not just me but you as well. A knight shouldn’t care about other people’s evaluation or words.”

Kis made eye contact with every single knight before him.

“Soon, we will have to go out there and fight.”

The training ground instantly fell silent, and the knights’ expressions made it seem as though they had never been laughing. Their sky-high morale melted away like snowflakes melting before plummeting to the ground.

“We definitely have a chance,” said Kis.

The knights’ expressions brightened in pride and hope.

The Lord of Winter Castle had always been a man of his word.

“...I understand,” a knight stepped forward.

‘Ah!’ Seo Jun-Ho gasped. ‘I know him.’

The knight was one of the knights Seo Jun-Ho had met during his proof of knighthood at Winter Castle.

The knight unsheathed his sword, cut off his dog tag, and tossed it to the ground.

“Knight Captain of the Winter Order, Horun Simus, has perished here.”

Soon, the other knights cut off their dog tags as well and tossed them to the ground.

“Knight of the Winter Order, Phil, has perished here.”

“Knight of the Winter Order, Segio, has perished here.”

…

It took quite a while before every knight was done declaring their deaths.

The meaning behind their action was simple and clear—it was to announce their determination to fight as ghosts with their life at stake.

Kis looked at the dog tags fallen on the ground and closed his eyes.

“The Lord of the Winter Castle, Kis Bremen—”

Slash.

Kis Bremen didn’t have a dog tag, so he cut off a handful of his hair and tossed it away.

“—has perished with his knights.”

***

Three days later, the demon army appeared on the frozen snowfield near the capital.

‘There are too many of them…’

The horizon was filled with nothing but demonic creatures as far as the eye could see. The capital was surrounded, and it seemed that the demon army would attack all gates—north, south, east, west—at once.

‘I’m just a bystander, but I already feel suffocated just looking at them. I wonder how these people are feeling.’

“Do they wish to have a meaningless war of attrition?” muttered the Frost Queen as she stood on the walls.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

Crackle!

‘...!’

A terrifying burst of magic abruptly froze and reaped the lives of the demon army on the distant horizon.

‘Is this… her true power?’

The Frost Queen was overwhelmingly powerful.

‘She kept on telling me just how strong she truly is, but I didn’t expect her strength to be this absurd.’ A multitudinous number of enemies froze in the blink of an eye, but no one celebrated and assumed that they had won

“Of course, there are more of them,” muttered the Frost Queen.

Indeed, the demon army shattered the ice statues and stepped over the corpses of their fellow demonic creatures.

“Sir Kiro.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” An old mage bowed deeply. “How many enemies did you say there are?

“So far, the confirmed number of enemies are…” the old mage gulped before saying, “A little over three hundred million.”

It was Seo Jun-Ho’s first time hearing such a massive number of enemies on the battlefield.

‘I remember fighting so many cockroaches on the 4th Floor.’ However, Seo Jun-Ho could still remember that he had only dealt with about a hundred thousand cockroaches.

‘But three hundred million?’

Those disgusting cockroaches were everywhere as far as the eyes could see, but there were only about a hundred thousand of them. Whereas three hundred million demonic creatures were approaching Niflheim’s capital.

‘Three thousand times more enemies than I faced on the 4th Floor…’

Seo Jun-Ho’s head started to ache at the thought of fighting so many enemies.

“That’s a lot of scarecrows,” said the Frost Queen. She sounded uncaring as if the number of enemies didn’t matter to her. In fact, Seo Jun-Ho reckoned that the Frost Queen would still sound the same even if there were three hundred billion enemies.

“How about the enemy commanders? Are there any changes?”

“No, Your Majesty. The Seven Counts of the Underworld are still under Kimaris’ lead.”

Kimaris was one of the evil Transcendents of the universe. The Seven Counts were definitely Star Destruction Stage creatures because one had to be a Star Destruction Stage creature to become a Count in the Underworld.

“Well, it seems that the Archduke thinks highly of me.”

A Transcendent was the only being capable of dealing with a Transcendent.

Even a thousand Star Destruction Stage would lose against a Transcendent.

The Archduke had made a pretty big investment, especially the decision to send Kimaris, an infamous Transcendent, throughout the vast expanse of the universe.

“And he’s too afraid to show himself?” the Frost Queen smiled in disdain.

Kimaris was currently engaging in a meaningless war of attrition with the Frost Queen to exhaust the latter.

“He does not deserve to be a monarch.”

The Frost Queen didn’t hesitate to freeze every enemy as far as her eye could see. It was truly a divine sight, and it felt like the entire world was supporting her will.

“...”

It was definitely a great war, but it was silent. It was unprecedentedly silent, but it lasted more than thirteen hours. Seo Jun-Ho reckoned that the Frost Queen had frozen close to three hundred million demonic creatures at this point.

“Your Majesty!” Kis shouted upon noticing the change in the enemy camp.

“Ah. It is time.”

The snowfields were filled with the corpses of demonic creatures, but the Frost Queen and the demons in the enemy camp paid them no heed, as they had no interest in the corpses that would soon be buried in the upcoming snowstorm.

“They’re coming,” said Kis.

A separate detachment filled with nothing but demons started running across the snowfield at breakneck speeds, and the demonic energy they were radiating was incomparable to the demonic creatures that the Frost Queen had frozen so far.

Seo Jun-Ho gulped.

He was sure that there had to be half a million demons in the detachment.

“...” The Frost Queen frowned.

These demons were certainly stronger than the demonic creatures, but there was no rhyme nor reason to their charge. In other words, the Frost Queen just had to snap her fingers, and these demons would be reduced to nothing but ice statues.

“But why…”

‘Did they not see me freeze demonic creatures over the past thirteen hours?’

The Frost Queen pondered briefly, and her eyes abruptly shot wide open.

“No!” she screamed.

Boom!

A figure clad in darkness struck the sturdy walls of the capital.

“Ah!” A cacophony of screams filled the air in an instant, and the medics moved busily to rescue and treat those who were injured.

“...!” The Frost Queen’s expression turned ugly, and she gnashed her teeth in fury.

She looked up and saw what looked like a mass of demonic energy approaching them.

It was then that the Frost Queen finally understood what Kimaris had been doing.

“He was waiting for someone else?!”

Kimaris had been acting as if he wanted a war of attrition, but it turned out that he had been waiting for another Transcendent. Otherwise, the Frost Queen would have risked her life to end his life if she had known that he was alone all this while.

The Frost Queen urgently shouted, “Sir Kis!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“The situation has changed. I have to go,” said the Frost Queen. She knew that there was no way she could protect the capital while fighting two Transcendents.

A battle between Transcendents would be certainly destructive, so the Frost Queen knew what she had to do.

“I’ll lure those two Transcendents away. In the meantime, you must…” The Frost Queen stared intently at Kis. “...protect.”

The Frost Queen didn’t say anything about what Kis had to protect, but Kis didn’t ask for any explanation. He simply put his fist over his heart and bowed deeply.

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

With that, the Frost Queen took off and disappeared.

Kis Bremen glanced at Kimaris as the latter chased after the Frost Queen.

Kis turned his gaze to the soldiers and knights.

“Prepare for battle!” he shouted.

“Yes, Sir!”

The knights and soldiers immediately got busy.

None of them asked what they had to protect.

- We have to protect everything.

Kis’ thoughts and feelings were clearly conveyed to everyone else.

The tension of the upcoming battle filled even Seo Jun-Ho’s soul.

- This land, the people, and ourselves…

The Frost Queen didn’t care about the castle at all, as it could be rebuilt. However, the remaining people of this land had to be protected at all costs.

“All the knights, gather at the North gate!”

The army led by the Seven Counts of the Underworld gathered at the North gate with the intention to break through the castle at once.

It wasn’t strange that they had made that decision because Kimaris had attacked the walls of the North gate, causing it to collapse.

“We will lose grip of the battle if we allow the enemies to enter the castle through the gap.”

Kis was planning on taking care of the North gate.

Mage Kiro asked, “Are you really going to go out there, Lord Bremen?”

“That’s the only way.”

The Seven Counts of the Underworld were Star Destruction Stage creatures, while the Winter Order only had three Star Destruction Stage creatures.

In other words, it wouldn’t be an issue for the demon army to enter the castle vicinity if the Counts worked together.

“I have to join the battle to maintain the balance of the fight.”

“Then, leave the other gates to us. I will stop the enemies no matter what, even if I have to sacrifice my old life.”

“Did you not hear what Her Majesty said? Do not give up your life so recklessly.”

“Haha. It seems like I can’t even die whenever I want…”

Kiro approached Kis and blessed the latter.

“May Justice be wherever the white snow falls.”

Kis responded by bowing to the old mage.

“May you pass by winter and greet spring once again.”

The two blessed each other and went their separate ways, Kis approached the collapsed North gate. By the time he arrived, the North gate was already crowded with knights and soldiers.

“...”

Everyone wordlessly stared at the Lord of Winter Castle.

Kis Bremen wasn’t only a knight among knights who had been fighting demonic creatures in silence for a long time in the coldest and most hostile land on the planet, but he would also fight with them as the Knight Commander of the Winter Order.

“...”

Kis wordlessly stared up ahead. The demons that had tainted this planet were approaching them. The land trembled, and everyone felt as though they had gone deaf from the enemies’ cacophony of curses and shouts.

Kis unsheathed his sword and raised it high above his head.

“To protect what Her Majesty has entrusted to us!”

“For the Queen!”

400 knights and 1,200 soldiers charged at the hundreds of thousands of enemies approaching the North gate…