Chapter 129

Chapter 129
## Chapter 129

### Title: The Monarch of Frost vs. The Sovereign of Cinder

—

Aria.

She remained in a meditative posture, her breathing rhythmic and calm.

Above her crown, a lone blade drifted in the air, radiating a subtle, freezing mist.

‘Northern Sky Ice Sword.’

A relic of a forgotten deity from the frozen wastes of the north.

It was a weapon of such cataclysmic potential that the White King had seen fit to keep it under lock and key personally.

Its reputation for flash-freezing anything in its vicinity had deterred any would-be masters.

Yet, she had managed to bend it to her command.

In doing so, she had attained a new level of spiritual clarity and shattered her previous limitations.

‘It is still insufficient.’

Her soul yearned for greater heights.

She was still a world away from matching the brilliance of ‘that’ blade etched in her memory.

The strike that had cleaved the ancient stone monument in a single, effortless motion.

Where the Sword Sage and even the formidable Swordmaster Lactusha had failed to leave a mark, he had cut through as if the stone were mere water.

The concept of a true ‘sword saint’ mentioned by the Sage was clearly embodied by that man.

‘How do I close the gap?’

She once took pride in her status as a prodigy.

But encountering Lactusha and ‘that individual’ had stripped away her vanity.

Even with the Northern Sky Ice Sword at her beck and call, he felt like a distant star.

She was desperate to reach his level, regardless of the cost.

To achieve that, she could not afford a moment of stagnation.

With eyes shut tight, Aria delved into her internal reflections.

However, her peace was short-lived.

‘…Oh Juryeok.’

A specific name surfaced, shattering her concentration.

The figure who had blazed across Kramdel like a sudden celestial event.

The Fifth Overlord, Randolph.

His name was a constant ringing in her ears, despite never having met the man face-to-face.

And yet, the White King was intent on forging a connection between them.

‘I refuse to be a pawn.’

She was not some prize to be traded away at the King’s whim.

The second she stepped into that room and saw him, she would set the record straight.

She would let him know that a scavenger like him wasn’t her concern.

She had zero interest in tethering herself to someone so repulsive and scarred.

She intended to make the Fifth Overlord so uncomfortable that he would be the one to flee the room.

“…”

Bolstered by that conviction, Aria stood up, her resolve hardening.

The hour for her meeting with the Fifth Overlord had arrived.

—

A grand hall sparkled, encrusted with a thousand precious stones.

Entering the banquet area, Aria reinforced her mental defenses.

‘I will be blunt. If he finds me distasteful, this farce ends here.’

It was a direct challenge to the White King’s authority.

If the King were truly determined, this wouldn’t stop him, but there was a variable: the Fifth Overlord.

The White King had shown a strange habit of yielding whenever the Fifth Overlord was involved.

Simply put, if the Overlord rejected her, even the King wouldn’t be able to force the issue.

‘He beat me here.’

The scheduled time hadn’t even passed, yet the figure who had to be the Fifth Overlord was already waiting at the table.

In a place like Kramdel where punctuality was a foreign concept, the Overlord seemed to possess a rare sense of timing.

‘I’ll speak my mind immediately.’

Her decision was final.

She wouldn’t play along with the King’s forced matchmaking.

The moment their eyes met, she would get to the point.

She would tell him how much she detested his kind and how she found corpse-eaters revolting.

It was a massive insult to protocol, but it was her only escape.

With that grim determination, she took her seat across from him.

“…!!!”

The practiced insults died in Aria’s throat.

Her plan to unleash a torrent of venom evaporated, leaving her mind a total void.

It was because of the Fifth Overlord’s face.

That countenance…

“H-How is this possible…!”

A primal terror raced through her nervous system.

It wasn’t just that he looked monstrous.

While his appearance was indeed terrifying, that wasn’t what caused her blood to turn to lead.

“B-Baal…”

What was Baal doing in a place like Kramdel?

—

…Baal?

I tilted my head, confused by the name Aria had just gasped out.

I’d grown used to people looking at me with pure dread since I took on the form of ‘The One Who Ignites Darkness,’ but no one had ever called me ‘Baal’ before.

If I really looked like this Baal character, wouldn’t the White King have been the first to point it out?

Perhaps the King and the other elites had never actually seen Baal, leaving them unable to recognize the resemblance.

“Why has Baal come to Kramdel? Have you come to bury this kingdom?”

*Shiiiiiing!*

I leaned my head to the flank, feeling a heavy weight slicing through the air behind me.

A blade whipped past my ear, trailing a wake of absolute zero.

“I won’t permit your schemes here!”

“Wait, I’m the Fifth Overlord—”

*Kwang!*

Aria launched herself off the floor.

A layer of rime coated her skin as she gripped her weapon.

She manifested a suit of crystalline ice armor. As she swung, the very atmosphere began to solidify into frost.

‘Her progress is staggering.’

I couldn’t help but be impressed.

The Aria I had encountered back at the mountain was a shadow of the warrior standing before me now.

**【Lv. 11】**

Much like the other Overlords who had grown in power, she had ascended significantly.

It was likely due to that blade.

**【Northern Sky Ice Sword(???)】**

A weapon of mysterious origins that had clearly pushed her capabilities several tiers higher.

A blade that bestowed such staggering might.

‘It’s a cursed sword.’

This wasn’t a standard tool of war.

It was the kind of sentient, demonic weapon that would consume its master if they showed a shred of weakness.

*Tak!*

I reached out and caught the incoming blade mid-swing.

“You idiot…!”

To grab the edge of the Northern Sky Ice Sword with bare hands?

He should have turned into a statue of ice and shattered into dust instantly.

*Swaaa!*

As predicted, the sword unleashed a torrent of sub-zero energy.

The frost lunged toward the target.

…But I didn’t freeze.

‘What?’

Nothing was supposed to survive the touch of the Northern Sky Ice Sword.

Contact usually meant an instant icy tomb.

Yet, the chill was having no effect on the man standing before her.

‘How can this be…?’

…The cold energy suddenly swerved, doubling back to encase Aria instead.

It was as if the weapon she had worked so hard to tame had betrayed her, sinking its teeth into its own master.

It was a logical impossibility. An event that broke the rules of the world.

‘Did the sword change masters…?’

Then it clicked.

The reason I hadn’t been turned into an ice cube.

It wasn’t that I was merely tanking the hit; the moment I touched the steel, the ‘right of ownership’ had shifted to me instantaneously.

But even that shouldn’t have been possible.

The Northern Sky Ice Sword was ‘Soul-Bound’ equipment.

Such items are locked to a single soul until that soul departs the living world.

That was the fundamental law of binding.

Every inhabitant of Pangeniar knew this as a basic fact of life.

Furthermore, there was no logical reason for a holy-yet-terrifying relic like this to accept the touch of an entity as dark as I was.

Hadn’t it been locked away in the frozen north for eons under the King’s personal watch?

Its lethality was legendary. Anyone rejected by the blade who dared to touch it would die on the spot.

He should have been dead.

…Yet, he stood there, unfrozen.

Did the Northern Sky Ice Sword actually choose him as its true lord?

‘…A more profound darkness…’

Ah.

For a second, the truth seemed too wild to believe.

The sword hadn’t chosen him.

It had been broken.

Forced into submission by a darkness so deep and a will so overwhelming that it had no choice but to obey.

I had never witnessed such a ridiculous display of power.

Nobody had.

“Go to sleep for a while.”

*Craaaack!*

Aria was instantly entombed in a massive block of ice.

—

‘…Now what am I supposed to do with this?’

I scratched the back of my head, looking at the frozen Aria.

I hadn’t counted on her mistaking me for some guy named Baal and starting a fight.

‘How do I get her out of there?’

I looked down at the ‘Northern Sky Ice Sword’ I was now holding.

The One Who Ignites Darkness.

That specific power had allowed me to hijack the sword’s abilities for a moment, but I had no clue how to reverse the freezing process.

*Tok. Tok.*

I gave the sword a little shake.

Typically, when I’m in my ‘Glutton’ form, I can’t use items, but I was clearly wielding this thing without an issue.

This had to be another perk of the Darkness Igniter form.

What’s more:

*-Terrifying! What are you?! So scary!*

…It’s an ego sword.

The Northern Sky Ice Sword was actually talking to me.

Fascinating.

Truly remarkable.

Even ‘Path of Light,’ that high-tier blade I’d used against the Demon King, didn’t have its own personality.

It had a will, sure, but it couldn’t hold a conversation or vibrate with the fear of a sentient being.

Most ‘ego swords’ in item descriptions are just glorified recorders.

They spout fixed lines when triggered.

They don’t have feelings.

So, I was genuinely surprised.

This was a first for me.

Even digging through the memories of Wilhelm didn’t show anything quite like this.

“…Fifth Overlord. What is the meaning of this?”

Ah.

A voice rang out from behind me.

Turning around, I saw the White King staring at the scene with a heavy, dangerous expression.

Aria was a statue of ice, and I was casually playing with her legendary sword.

It was a total disaster of a first impression.

…But the White King was clearly coming to the wrong conclusion.

**White King vs. The One Who Ignites Darkness**

This dinner was supposed to be a chance for them to bond and talk.

The King had been certain that despite being forced, they would actually hit it off.

Both Aria and the Fifth Overlord were straightforward people.

He thought a little nudge would spark a connection.

‘…’

…That plan had backfired spectacularly.

Instead of a romantic dinner, he had walked into a ‘slaughterhouse.’

Aria was encased in ice.

And the Fifth Overlord was swinging her sword around like it was a common stick.

‘…How is he holding it?’

The Northern Sky Ice Sword was soul-bound.

The rules stated it could only be taken if the owner was dead.

It was a law of the universe.

So how was the Overlord using it?

There was only one logical deduction for the King: he had murdered Aria to take it.

Furthermore.

‘The Omen Eye.’

The sword was a demonic relic.

Even if stolen, it shouldn’t work for someone it didn’t respect.

But now, a literal ‘eye’ had manifested in the center of the blade.

The eye of a crow, the mark of an omen.

The White King saw that blood-red, weeping eye and realized the Fifth Overlord had completely corrupted and enslaved the weapon.

‘The nerve of this man.’

To commit such an act.

In the King’s own home, right under his nose.

“You have crossed the line…”

The White King’s eyes began to glow a murderous red.

His fur stood on end.

He realized he had been too soft.

He had given the Fifth Overlord special treatment.

While he usually kept the other Overlords in check, he had shown this man a degree of genuine respect, even when he pushed boundaries.

Despite being an omen, there was no reason to make him an enemy.

But it seemed his kindness had been mistaken for weakness.

“…I think you’re getting the wrong idea, caw.”

…Before the King could fully shift into his ‘true form,’ I managed to squeeze out a sentence.

The White King had never shown me his true power before.

He knew that if he did, it would be a fight to the death.

But he was on the verge of it now.

Seeing Aria like that had snapped his self-control.

I had to fix this fast.

“Aria isn’t dead…”

*Kwaang-!*

Before the words could leave my mouth, the White King lunged at me.