The Citadel of Bingyeon (Ice Smoke)

Episode 18: The Overlord’s Sword God

The commander of the Supreme Council stepped forward in a single stride to the front line of the main formation. The polished silver pieces of armor he wore flashed with brutal cruelty against the barren gray sky. He raised the frost-enshrouded broadsword high and aimed the tip of the blade straight at us.

"Put down the Star Glass artifact and surrender immediately, arms discarded!"

The commander shouted. His voice carried the terrifying weight of the Supreme Council's viciously paranoid authority.

"You are completely surrounded, Supreme Commander I Chanyeon. Hand over that outsider at once. Then we will allow you the procedure of a swift trial!"

I did not even blink an inch of frost. I showed not a single second of hesitation.

Gently drawing my body back and away from the firm, kind hand of Chanyeon oppa supporting my waist, I slowly stepped down from the threshold of the stone platform. Then, toward the slope covered in snow below, I began to march down with a gait of quiet precision, utterly unhurried. Advancing across the entire, open tundra plain without restraint, I finally stopped only when I reached a terrifyingly close distance of just a few feet from the very first rank of the vanguard. It was close enough for every patrolling guard to clearly see my face. In my eyes, perfect and absolute calm lay quietly settled, and the twilight crown of purple cosmic dust pulsing brilliantly above my head was writing a beautiful blaze of blinding radiance.

I looked straight into the enemy commander's eyes with a gaze so deep and chilling it made the skin crawl.

"No."

I whispered softly. My voice, carried on a humming vibration, swept across the entire plain of silence and radiated a terrifying, raw, absolute power and gravity enough to send shivers up the spine.

"Surrender yourselves."

The patrol members were instantly plunged into perfect panic and fear, staring blankly at one another in utter bewilderment. Their lips moved as they muttered frantic little bursts of shocked whispers, and as if they could feel with their whole bodies the pure, overwhelming physical scale of the celestial void radiance pouring from beneath my skin, the heavy iron boots they wore shuffled anxiously and unsteadily in the snow, missing their footing.

"Do not be fooled by that outsider's deceptive magic tricks!"

From the rear of the formation, the commander roared, his face twisted with a violently rippling fury.

"It's nothing but the afterimage of illusion magic! Capture and imprison that woman right now!"

A confident smile, firm and certain, with no such thing as fear existing in the first place, slowly spread to the corners of my lips.

With a lightning-fast, precise little flick of my wrist, the celestial void magic core that had been sleeping deep within my chest immediately overrode and responded violently. Clusters of twilight cosmic dust compressed and rushed together in a fierce waterfall into my palm, and in the blink of an eye, they solidified into perfect, hard matter, forging themselves into a vivid, sharp sword of purple light that burned blindingly white. The blade pulsed with periodic humming as it emitted a pure cosmic resonance frequency, and the air around it crackled and coiled sharply as it touched the raw, unmatched supernatural power.

Before the members of the front line could even raise their heavy shields to form a defensive formation, I charged forward in a furious full-speed sprint.

I hurled myself straight into the center of the enemy formation, and along the path of my body, a vast milky way curtain of purple cosmic dust beautifully embroidered the night sky and trailed in a long blur. My celestial sword, in a smooth motion without the slightest friction or effort, swept away and nullified the cold ice spears they had raised. The immense power, tearing this world's veil clean apart, pierced their dense defensive line with terrifying force, and before the guards could even swing a single blade, it sent those heavy ironclad sentinels crashing and tumbling brutally across the stone-earth ground. The strength of my body and my perfect balance were now completely overrode and obedient under my total control, and I was the perfect true queen herself, proudly reclaiming and ruling over every inch of my own territory.

Standing at the rear supreme command base and staring fixedly at this horrifying battle display, the commander of the Supreme Council froze in absolute, zero-degree silence before the raw slaughter that had unfolded in an instant.

But beyond the pounding of fear that was devouring his whole body, an even deeper, inescapable feeling of awe and admiration soon pressed mercilessly on his mind. His hand lost its strength, and the raised tip of his sword thudded downward. As he stared blankly at the wondrous sight of the cosmic dust rising from my fingertips and warping the atmosphere and even the laws of space-time in this wasteland at will, he painfully grasped a chilling certainty that sent shivers up his spine. If they kept fighting this immense divine power to the end, the cruel conclusion would be the complete annihilation and disappearance of his entire army in the blink of an eye. But an even larger and more shocking realization finally struck his mind without mercy.

The true ruler who, whenever the kingdom was cruelly divided, shattered, and at odds, would fall through the sky's veil and across space-time to finally unite and save all the lands beneath a single, certain crown.

Chanyeon oppa, Hyunjin, and Jiseok, who stood at the boundary line of the upper platform, were frozen in place for the blink of an eye and could not move. Their eyes had been completely lost, utterly buried by the overwhelming sight of their queen holding only a magic sword and charging alone, violently tearing through the enemy army's entire formation with all her might.

"Waa...."

Hyunjin let out a breath that was tight with awe, blurting out words in a flustered, fragile voice. While a huge, proud smile bloomed brightly all over his face toward me, his cheeks were already turning red in a waterfall of soft, sweet, deep blush.

"Our queen really didn't need even 1 ounce of guard escort in the first place! To cut everything down and just walk around all by herself like that is seriously so cool it's almost completely unfair!"

"Don't just stand there staring blankly, move already, Hyunjin hyung!"

Jiseok let out a soft chuckling laugh. His signature proud, radiant smile blossomed beautifully across his features, and in his eyes as he looked up at me, a story of a deep, absolute devotion that was impossible to escape shone brilliantly, becoming warm light.

The three young lords raced down the ridge slope at full speed in the space of a single heartbeat. They willingly threw themselves into the middle of the battlefield to firmly shield my flank, and Hyunjin swept his leather sleeve roughly, overriding and unleashing a vast storm of thick, swirling dark smoke and mist in all directions, completely blocking and trapping the enemy archers' line of sight. Jiseok instantly built a huge, stubborn wall of frost magic along the edge of the formation, brutally blocking and breaking the vanguard's advance, while Chanyeon oppa moved with the absolute strength and terrifying speed that belonged to the Supreme Commander, his trajectory tracing power itself. Every time his sword collided with fragments of the enemies' iron armor, a sharp, heavy metallic crack echoed harshly, shaking the entire battlefield.

Chanyeon oppa cut through the enemy defense line in one stroke and stepped right into the space beside me. Even in the very center of the battlefield, where savage blades were crashing violently together, his large, warm hand naturally and firmly held the back of my waist, supporting the weight of my body. His palm steadied me so my center of gravity would not waver on the frozen dirt floor, and his thumb slowly traced a line of reassuring, gentle pressure along the line of my waist and side.

The very moment he turned his head toward me, a sunlike smile, bright enough to blind, full of the certainty of victory, bloomed across his face. Soon, his deep, gentle voice as he looked down at me dropped by one octave, cleanly cutting through the heavy mechanical clangor filling every direction and exuding a weighty gravity that sweetly soaked into my chest.

"Lead the way, my queen."

Chanyeon oppa murmured softly, lowering his head beside my ear. In his dark eyes looking at me, the story of a deep, absolute devotion as if he'd carved the inspection of eternity itself into them shone clearly. He whispered, adding a steady, supportive strength to the hand that held my waist.

"We'll protect you perfectly from right behind you."