Chapter 222 - Chapter 222 (1/2)

While Jin-Woo had his eyes closed to focus all of his attention on searching for the escaped beast, the Sovereign of Frost had intuitively sensed it. It was an opening left by the Shadow Sovereign.

Such an opportunity would not come around a second time. Even if there was a huge gap in individual strength, how dare he take his eyes off his enemy?

Avoiding death would be impossible if this chance was left ungrasped.

It was facing unavoidable death right now. In order to struggle free from the shadow of death taking large strides towards itself, the Sovereign of Frost decided to bet everything on one final move.

'I must end everything with this one hit.'

Its right arm slipped behind its back and Mana began gathering there in a large lump. It then proceeded to create the most powerful spear of ice it had ever created.

Every ounce of energy dragged up by the desperation it felt would be contained within this attack!

A terrifying amount of magical energy was being forcibly concentrated on the ice spear. The power gathered was so great that the ground beneath the Sovereign wielding the spear froze up in pure white while issuing cracking noises.

Just before one would be tempted to wonder whether the Sovereign's right arm grasping the spear had expanded far too much or not...

The spear was fired out with the velocity of a bullet and tore straight through the air.

Whoooosh-!!

At the same time, the ice humanoids received orders from their master and pounced on Jin-Woo like a nest of enraged fire ants.

Whoooosh-!

Moments before the spear aiming at his forehead could penetrate into his face...

….Jin-Woo opened his eyes.

"Found you."

Simultaneously, the time flow of the surroundings came to a standstill as if the 'pause' button had been pressed on the playback. No, actually, the time had slowed down to such an extent that it almost looked as if it had come to a standstill.

The ice spear's shaft spinning at a scarcely-believable speed was definitely getting closer, albeit only an inch at a time. And behind that, he could see the Sovereign of Frost's rather deeply distorted face glaring in his direction.

Was that all, though?

He even could see the faces of every single ice humanoid surrounding him from all sides pouncing on him.

This was the scope of the Shadow Sovereign's vision once he got ready for battle. His ability to perceive that had reached the realm that no other human being could ever hope to touch upon, and made it as if everything around him had come to a dead stop.

Jin-Woo was like an alien invading the world of a paused video and relaxedly scanned his surroundings.

This feeling...

'Haven't I felt something similar to this before....?'

When could that have been?

He slowly combed through his memories and eventually recalled that moment when he was about to die from the assaults of the stone statues.

Indeed.

Back then, time had come to a standstill as if everything had been paused, too.

'Ah, so I had already possessed the power of the Shadow Sovereign in me, even then.'

Only now that he got to unlock the full powers did he realise once more just how long the Sovereign had been watching him. Jin-Woo continued to check out his vicinity and soon, discovered the backs of his two Marshal grade soldiers.

'Ohhh....'

Even though the time had seemingly frozen, both Beru and Igrit were moving in to intercept the enemies, albeit very slowly. This was as good evidence as any that their agility had reached an incredible height now.

Jin-Woo studied them in happiness before remembering that there was a spear coming his way.

'Oopsie.'

Like an insect studiously crawling forward, the spear was continuously closing the distance bit by bit. To stop the weapon's advance, Jin-Woo used one of his powers.

'Ruler's Authority.'

This was one of the Shadow Sovereign's powers, although he trained on using it proficiently while thinking that it was merely a skill.

The moment he activated 'Ruler's Authority', he got to see the Mana dispersed throughout the surroundings suddenly rush in and wrap about the ice spear.

Once caught in the magical energy, the weapon lost all forward momentum and stopped in its treks.

He got to see for the first time how the skill 'Ruler's Authority' worked and he couldn't help but softly sigh in admiration.

'Ah, so it was not an invisible hand or some such.'

No, it was more like 'invisible Mana'. Simply put, Mana moved according to the will of the skill's activator. Jin-Woo's eyes could capture the movement of Mana so clearly now, when it was impossible to do so in the past.

'Nice.'

Now that his sensory perception had reached the peak, he could definitely pick up on the flow of Mana surrounding his vicinity. As he observed its flow, his eyes sparkled brightly.

This was the end result of the Rulers trying so hard to fortify this world. A world once devoid of Mana was now overflowing with it. And as the inheritor of the Shadow Sovereign's powers, he was given the right to freely wield this energy with nothing but his will.

Ba-thump, ba-thump.

His heart raced faster as he sensed the surrounding Mana breathe.

'….Let's do this.'

Jin-Woo broke past the slowly-moving time and approached his two Marshals before resting his hands on their shoulders.

"There's no need for you guys to step up here."

Beru and Igrit heeded their master's order and immediately stopped moving. Jin-Woo stood before them.

He'd now maximise his control of Mana that he trained whenever he had the time through 'Ruler's Authority'. He took a sweeping look at the ice humanoids and deeply breathed in and out once.

The emotion still filling his chest was the gratitude towards the Shadow Sovereign welling up from deep inside his heart. Also, gratitude for teaching him how to control his powers through the System's guidance.

Jin-Woo was done focusing on himself and controlled the Mana in the air at once. In that blink-of-an-eye moment, the space around him tumbled.

Wooo-woung-!

It truly was for just a moment.

In an instant, a powerful wave of Mana, starting from Jin-Woo as its centre, crashed out and swept away the huge masses of ice humanoids trying to pounce on him.

The Sovereign of Frost also detected the violent storm of Mana rushing at it.

[….!!]

It hurriedly spread out an ice barrier to protect itself.

Once the violent winds of Mana went past, the Sovereign quickly undid the barrier and it was greeted by the sight of debris, belonging to the ice humanoids, scattered everywhere. The powerful pulse of Mana had destroyed them all. Even the blizzard storm clouds it had summoned were gone, too.

This was the power of Shadow Sovereign.

[But... but how!!]

The Sovereign of Frost shivered from shock after witnessing the true power of the Shadow Sovereign, formerly the greatest Fragment of the Brilliant Light, as well as one of the most powerful Kings in existence.

The wall.

The completely insurmountable wall.

Didn't the gap between it and him seem far too great?!

Jin-Woo took a look around himself and nodded his head at the rather satisfying result before locking his gaze with the frightened eyes of the ancient Ice Elf.

Flinch!

He could sense that creature shivering even at a distance away.

He still had a score to settle with that thing. Jin-Woo recalled the face of the late Association President Goh Gun-Hui and his expression became colder in an instant. However, he wasn't the type to expose his emotions that easily.

The enemy he wanted to kill the most would be disposed of at the very end. He'd make sure that the opponent would get to enjoy enough time to shiver in terror from the unavoidable death.

Jin-Woo raised his voice.

"You shall be the last."