Chapter 289

A quiet rage stirred in the cool wind. That anger was coming from Sirka.

The title of “high elf” had always been a legendary one, something only shared among the ordinary elves in tales. High elves were considered the greatest protectors of their kind. Only those who had risen so high that they could be considered candidates for the next Monarch could be called by such an honorable name.

However,

these

high elves had been devoured by Elvenwoods and the spirits. The elves had lost their roots entirely—and there were no less than three thousand of them.

“I didn’t know there were this many,” Sirka remarked.

She felt like a weight she hadn’t realized she was carrying had suddenly been lifted.

An emotion had been slowly building up within her as she accompanied Suho in the search for the Elvenwoods. Every time she had encountered high elves living around the trees, the feelings in her heart had built layer upon layer. And now, as she stood before three thousand of them, the last thread of restraint inside her snapped.

Sirka clenched her teeth.

“There were so many of you?”

She repeated the words over and over through gritted teeth.

It was shocking to know that so many elves were still alive, and they were no ordinary elves—they were

high elves.

And yet... How did we live?

The young elves—just children who had lost their parents in the war—had been neglected and abandoned in a sanctuary without a king, left to freeze in the merciless cold. They had been forced to worry about survival before they could even walk.

I thought everybody lived like this when I was little...

Memories of those days flashed before Sirka’s eyes.

She had been born into winter. She and the other young elves had learned to walk on the ice. She had once believed that was simply her fate, and it was all a trial that was to be expected since they were ice elves.

But

no more.

It wasn’t true.

She had learned otherwise when she met Cha Haein—or rather, Cha Cha.

Cha Cha revealed something that Sirka had never known. She learned about the concept of “parenthood,” about the fact that adults were supposed to protect children. It was a very natural thing, a heartwarming idea. Sirka hadn’t known that young, fragile creatures like them deserved to be cared for until Cha Cha had taught her so.

Only then did she begin to notice what had always been missing. There were no “grown-ups” among the ice elves—adults who should have been there to raise them in Cha Cha’s place.

Even then, however, she was willing to accept the facts. There was nothing to be done. The adults had all died in the war—or so Sirka had believed.

But it seemed that wasn’t true either.

“So many of you....”

Too many.

All those high elves—the ones who should have been leading them and protecting the future of their race—were still alive. It was only natural for her to be furious.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The cold buried deep within her heart began to spread outward. At first, it was a quiet frost. Then it intensified, growing as frigid as the moment the spirits had first emerged from Álfheimr.

This was not because Sirka controlled the Spirits of Extreme Cold. This was the result of the sting of betrayal and the overwhelming resentment she carried.

She was just a child when she was forced to become a guardian to her people. Now standing before her were the very high elves who had abandoned their duty, the ones who had fled the war. And there were so many of them.

At the very least, these elves should have come back stronger than before, but this was not the case. They were tainted by Elvenwoods and spirits. They had become scum filled with the power of the Outer Gods.

How could she not despise them? How could she feel anything but contempt?

“Spirit Cavalry!”

The Spirits of Extreme Cold she had dominated looked on with gleaming eyes. They had not been mere spirits, but winter itself—a nightmare for the elves. Now in the form of sturdy ice golems, compressed and formulated before Sirka’s might, they rose to their feet.

As Sirka marched with them, she made a quiet resolution:

She

would become winter to those pathetic high elves.

“My name is Sirka.”

She

would teach them herself the suffering her people had endured.

“As the rightful successor of Sillad, the Monarch of Frost and the King of the Snow Folk... On my grandfather’s honor...”

Spirit Armament.

Her fury coursed around her and took shape, manifesting as armor. It formed over her body, its size growing steadily.

“I revoke your right to call yourselves high elves. You never had the right to be elves in the first place.”

Each word was loaded with the weight of her rage, howling like the winds of a relentless blizzard.

“It is time for you to die.”

Winter had arrived in the form of Sirka.

***

In the small country that was South Korea, there was an out-of-the-way region called Yangpyeong covered with valleys and fog. There, a mouth split the air, and from its depths, the Apostle of Paradise was spat forth.

“So this is the place,” he murmured, dismissing the rift to conserve his strength.

He glanced around. The fog was so dense that he could see nothing at all, but his lips curled upward nonetheless.

How intriguing.

Yangpyeong—of all places, this was where Suho’s greatest vulnerabilities could be found.

A laugh escaped the apostle. Even his abilities did not allow him to travel wherever he wanted. The mouth of the void could only take him to locations reachable by the power of the Outer Gods. That was why the Church of the Outer Gods sought to spread their influence across the globe.

But as luck would have it, the church was hiding in this very city—or at least it had been until recently.

“It was destroyed not long ago when it was discovered by the association in South Korea.”

Yuri’s words as he handed over the files resurfaced in the apostle’s memory. But the church was of no consequence, as this was Yangpyeong.

“This is where the meteor fell.”

A knowing smile played on the apostle’s lips as he walked through the fog. His footsteps vanished into the mist as he moved along the damp ground.

At the end of his path lay the meteorite. A fragment from the Outer Universes had fallen here in Yangpyeong.

Finding Suho’s family, then killing them or taking them hostage—at the moment, this came second on his to-do list.

In hindsight, it had been very difficult to cross over to this dimension while staying out of sight and avoiding the detection of the shadow army. Right now, they guarded every path here from the Outer Universes.

But space was vast, and not even the shadow soldiers could monitor the countless drifting rocks that filled the void. That was why hiding within a meteorite to escape the war had been a viable strategy.

Still, even that had not been easy. Followers with too much power couldn’t attempt such a thing. Even if they hid, they would be found immediately. It was also pointless to send followers who were too weak, since they would accomplish nothing even if they managed to arrive.

So the apostle devised a different plan: He split his power.

“In order to bypass this difficult problem of crossing dimensions, my original body was split into multiple beings, effectively dividing my power. They were then sent to this world.”

“Your original body was split apart?

Does that mean you were all originally one being?”

“Yes.

These fragments crossed the Outer Universes, each fragment hiding in a meteorite of their own.

I am one of them.”

Yuri had struggled to grasp the concept when he first heard it, which was understandable. A mere human—bound to the limits of his small, insignificant dimension—couldn’t possibly comprehend the ability to divide one’s own existence the first time they heard about it.

But Yuri had managed to understand in the end, and he asked only the most pertinent question.

“So you’re saying you need to find the other meteorites?”

“Yes...

They likely landed in various dimensions within this universe, not just on Earth.

When I find them and absorb them, I will slowly regain my original power.”

“How will you find them?”

“We are already looking for each other.

We don’t yet know our exact locations, but in time, we will. Our goal is the same.”

“Then how can I help you?”

“There seem to be plenty of religions in your world.

I want you to spread one that worships the Itarim.”

“Ah.

So you want me to create a cult?”

The apostle shook his head.

“That is a disrespectful term.

I’m sure you have already experienced my divine power.

In any case, that will be enough action.

Those with the divine power of the Itarim can recognize one another.”

“So you intend to merge with them?”

“I will decide that after I meet them. Fusing can be done at any time I please.

But now that my mind has been divided as well, we do not need to become one being if it seems more beneficial to stay separate.

What matters is that

he

doesn’t discover us.”

“He? Who’s he?”

“That... is none of your concern.”

Walking through the thick fog, the Apostle of Paradise reflected on that conversation.

There had been no particular reason to keep the answer from Yuri. However, the being the apostle feared and despised most—the Shadow Monarch—was a human just like Yuri Orloff. Given Yuri’s personality, this knowledge would have made him very arrogant, and the apostle simply hadn’t wanted to see that.

“Hmm... It was somewhere around here, if I recall correctly...”

He scanned his surroundings. It was clear the meteorite was nearby, but as he got closer, it became difficult to pinpoint the location.

He had absorbed most of the power within the meteorite when he had found it previously. At the time, he had only just founded the Church of the Outer Gods. He had entered a gate nearby, subdued some demons, and created factories for researching the Stones of the Outer Gods. To sustain that research, he had left behind a fragment of the meteorite’s power.

Even if he couldn’t find it now, he wasn’t worried. While it had come from the Outer Universes, it looked no different from a simple rock on the surface. The Church of the Outer Gods here might have been destroyed, but no one would have cared about a rock. Besides, the fact that he had been able to transport himself here through the dimensional rift at all was proof that it was still around.

“Found it.”

Finally, the apostle laid eyes on the remnants of Yangpyeong’s meteorite.

He grinned, baring his teeth, and absorbed the rest of its power. Then he exhaled slowly.

“Ah. Very nice,” he said in ecstasy, slowly fusing the power with his body.

With the last bit of its power drained, the meteorite crumbled, leaving only a fine powder. Even now it was still useful, however. This material came from his dimension, which meant it responded to his power far better than any other. In other words, it was an even better fertilizer for his “divine power” than the Stones of the Outer Gods.

“Grow.”

As soon as the word left his mouth, the fruit he had been holding onto all this time began to use the powder for nutrients. It rapidly took root in the damp soil.

“Sprout. Bear fruit.”

He had named himself the Apostle of Paradise. After he was separated from his original body, he had given himself a name that aligned with his goal—turning this planet into a paradise of his own.

“Sung Suho, the place where your family resides will now become my garden.”

A slow, ominous smile spread across his face. Then he began to pollute the region, turning it slowly into a new terrarium.

There was one thing, however, that he was not aware of—something he had told Yuri without realizing it.

“Those with the divine power of the Itarim can recognize one another.”

When he opened a hole in the dimensional rift, arrived in Yangpyeong, and then used his divine power to plant the first seed of an Elvenwood, someone had felt it. A man who had lived here for a long time—a certain someone’s father—had already detected the apostle’s presence.