Chapter 121: The Frozen Cave

Iron Crown City — Capital of the Albright Dukedom

In the grand estate of House Albright far to the south, vast gardens stretched out like a small town of their own, lined with dozens of winding pathways. Exotic trees and rare spiritual plants gathered from every corner of the Empire lined the grounds, each one a quiet testament to House Albright’s wealth and reach. At the center of it all, overlooking a small lake from a river pavilion, Duke Albright sat calmly in a luxurious chair, sipping the tea the maid had just poured for him. His brown eyes carried a faint hint of satisfaction, though he took care not to let it surface any further than that.

For the past several days, he’d been fully immersed in preparations for his son’s Awakening Ceremony. He’d summoned one of the Empire’s leading alchemists to refine a Beast King Core traded through House Ravencrest, ensuring his son would be able to absorb the elixir’s full effect without complication. He’d even paid an enormous sum for an Archmage formation, meant to further enhance the process beyond what the elixir alone could achieve.

It had been only an hour since his son entered the sealed chamber. He wouldn’t emerge again for several more days.

Duke Albright allowed himself a rare moment of rest before his attention inevitably turned back toward other matters. Then he heard footsteps approaching from a distance. Already sensing who it was, he turned his head slightly toward the Head Butler, but something in the man’s expression made him pause mid-motion, his hand freezing before he could set the cup back down on the table. With only a glance from him, the maid quickly withdrew. The Head Butler crossed the small courtyard and bowed deeply before the Duke.

"My Lord."

"What happened?" the Duke asked, his tone flat.

The Head Butler began recounting the recent events surrounding the war between House Bluemoon and Count Thorn. Even with the information still fragmentary, the Duke analyzed most of it from only a handful of words, his expression remaining perfectly composed throughout, until the butler reached the news of the Gold-Grade Patent acquired by House Bluemoon, and the alliance now formed between House Ravencrest and House Bluemoon. Only then did the crack finally show.

The butler produced two elixirs, each of a different grade, and handed them over. The Duke uncorked one without hesitation and drank it down. He recognized its value instantly, feeling a subtle surge of strength settle through his body, but rather than pleasure, his expression only darkened further with every passing second, his calculating mind already working through the wider implications for House Albright, and the substantial losses they now stood to face.

The Northern Frontier had long depended almost entirely on House Albright for trade and resources, elixirs included. But with House Bluemoon’s new elixirs and trade routes now in play, House Ravencrest’s reliance on Albright’s resources would inevitably begin to decline.

It was precisely that dependency, that had made his own aggressive pursuit of an alliance with House Bluemoon so essential in the first place, one of his most significant sources of income depending on keeping that agreement intact. With Bluemoon’s recent decline, he’d been certain they would eventually be forced to accept his terms, no matter how unfavorable. He’d even been on the verge of sending a fresh proposal, one final offer before matters turned considerably worse for them, an offer that had now, quite suddenly, become entirely unnecessary.

Is this truly a coincidence? The alliance announced right before the Grand Mage Tower’s revelation?

Is this Elena Ravencrest’s doing?

Why did the mercenary leader suddenly switch sides... No. There’s no way this is coincidence.

And yet, something still doesn’t add up.

His thoughts shifted toward the battle itself. How did Bluemoon actually defeat Thorn amry? There’s no realistic way they could have won, not even accounting for Countess Luna executing some brilliant strategy, or somehow convincing the mercenary leader to switch allegiance mid-battle.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more one possibility refused to leave his mind. If the reports were accurate, then someone had appeared on the battlefield with enough strength to overturn a battle that should have been impossible for House Bluemoon to win.

Slowly, his composure settled back into place.

"What about the rumors?" the Duke asked.

The moment the question left his mouth, surprise flickered across the Head Butler’s face. The Duke typically dealt only in confirmed facts and hard evidence; it was rare, almost unheard of, for him to ask about something as unreliable as a rumor.

The butler reined in his expression. "There is a strange rumor circulating, My Lord. They claim an unidentified warrior single-handedly turned the tide. But we couldn’t verify its certainty. "

Silence fell over the pavilion for several long minutes.

The Duke paused, his brown eyes narrowing into cold slits. "Did you learn anything about him? His realm, his identity?"

"No, My Lord. Only that he was referred to as the Black Knight."

"The Black Knight... find out who it is," the Duke commanded softly. "I don’t care what it costs."

The butler bowed and took his leave.

Left alone in the quiet pavilion, the Duke’s stoic facade completely shattered, replaced by a dark, unbridled fury. He squeezed his fist his knuckles turning white as he stared out across the peaceful lake.

"Whoever it is," the Duke whispered, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes, " you will pay dearly for this."

Meanwhile, in the Winterveil Mountain Range — Inner Region

The jagged mountain peaks pierced through the clouds themselves, yet no true end was ever visible, the instant one peak fell behind them, another rose ahead, taller than the last. Days passed as Riennal and the Four-Eyed Demon pressed steadily forward, moving through ancient forests where the trees themselves stretched hundreds of meters into the sky.

The deeper they traveled, the stronger the surrounding monsters became, Apex Beasts, Beast Lords, Tyrant Beasts, their raw Primal Force unconsiously released by them pressing down on the air itself like an invisible boulder settling over everything nearby. The beasts already corrupted by the purple corrupting mist kept their eyes fixed unwaveringly on the distant fortress, still lit faintly with magical lamps, their minds consumed by mounting madness and hunger.

They continued forward at an even, unhurried pace, their boots leaving deep impressions in the snow with every step. As they advanced, the density of raw ambient mana thickened steadily around them, the cold wind striking hard enough to have staggered even a Knight Lord’s stride, yet neither of them so much as paused, moving through it as though something of that magnitude simply didn’t warrant their attention at all.

They pressed on deeper still, the sheer volume of pure mana saturating the air around them a treasure beyond price to anyone else who might stumble across it, yet to both Riennal and the Four-Eyed Demon, it remained something entirely beneath consideration compared to their Lord’s power.

Finally, they arrived at an enormous cave, stretching for several hundred meters along one of the mountain’s highest peaks. They sensed immediately that the mana here behaved differently from anything they’d passed through so far, a bitter, unnatural cold radiating outward from the cave’s mouth, freezing the surrounding air and stone alike. Frost crept across the entrance in intricate, spreading patterns, as though the mountain itself had begun to freeze from the inside out.

A cruel smile spread slowly across both their faces.

"We shouldn’t have doubted the Lord’s words." Riennal murmured, his dark eyes gleaming with zeal.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Their echoing laughter cut through the freezing gale, lost in the endless white void of the mountains.

Stepping past the cavern’s threshold, the atmosphere shifted instantly from biting frost to absolute, motionless absolute-zero.

The air itself felt solid striking them like a hammer. With every attempt to take a single stride, their limbs locked up completely. Thick, white ice crept rapidly up their greaves, crystallizing across their flesh and threatening to freeze their beating hearts and engulf them completely. Even with their strength, the oppressive elemental chill ground their progress to a dead, agonizing halt.

Riennal’s eyes narrowed amidst the freezing gale. Gritting his teeth, he raised his jagged appendages, completely black and steeped in dark energy. He slammed his black palm directly against his own chest and then to the four eyed demon who gritted his teeth trying to withstand.

Instantly, a surge of black demonic energy erupted from his hands. The dark energy hissed violently as it clashed against the white frost, burning away the creeping ice and forcing it to melt in a cloud of thick, unnatural steam. The dark energy pulsing through his black, jagged hands acted as an unholy shield, withstanding the freezing pressure just enough for them to shatter the ice encasing their legs.

Driven by sheer fanaticism, they pressed forward. One agonizing, heavy step at a time, their boots crushed through the white frost as they forged deeper into the pitch-black abyss.

Then, the mountain shuddered.

From the deepest recesses of the cavern, a deafening roar tore through the cave, shaking loose ice from the ceiling and echoing endlessly through the frozen stone around them.

HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!