The first snow of winter was falling over Seoul as Seun emerged from the ruins of the Frostgrave Catacombs, his boots crunching through a thin layer of fresh powder that did little to mask the stench of blood and void energy clinging to his clothes. The Frostgrave core pulsed in his grip like a dying star, its rhythmic thrumming syncing unnervingly with his own heartbeat.
His shadow soldiers trailed behind him—three now, where there had once been four.
Yuri's absence was palpable.
The remaining soldiers moved with mechanical precision, their forms sharper, their obedience absolute. They had witnessed the price of hesitation.
---
### **THE KILLING
*Flashback - The Dungeon's Heart*
The yeti's final roar still echoed through the cavern when Seun summoned Yuri back from the darkness.
Her silhouette coalesced from the inky blackness pooling at his feet, her blade-arm forming first—always the weapon before the warrior. Her features sharpened last, the familiar hollows of her cheeks and the too-wide eyes that had once been human.
For a fraction of a second, just before her form fully solidified, Seun saw it—the barest flicker of something in her gaze. Not fear. Not anger.
*Understanding.*
She knew why she'd been recalled.
The other shadow soldiers stood motionless as Seun stepped forward, the Hellfang Twins humming in his grip. Yuri didn't resist. She knelt, presenting her throat.
"Look at me," Seun commanded.
Her head lifted. Those eyes—black pools with only the faintest violet shimmer—met his without flinching.
"You hesitated."
A pause. Then, so quiet the System barely registered it:
*"It remembered me."*
Seun's blades moved as one.
Black ichor sprayed across the ice as the Hellfang Twins carved through Yuri's shadowform, not just dispersing but *unmaking* her at the molecular level. The other soldiers watched as their sister's essence tore apart like wet parchment, her final scream silent but felt in the way the very air vibrated.
**[System Alert: Shadow Soldier Purge Complete]**
**[Target: Yuri, the Broken Oath]**
**[Method: Soul Fracture]**
**[Effect: Permanent Termination]**
The remaining soldiers straightened instinctively, their postures perfect, their weapons ready.
**[New Status: Absolute Obedience Achieved]**
**[Loyalty Coefficient: 100%]**
Seun exhaled, watching Yuri's last remnants dissolve into the hungry dark.
*Good.*
---
### **THE RETURN
Seun's penthouse was a study in controlled minimalism—black marble floors, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, and a single obsidian examination table where he placed the Frostgrave core. The artifact pulsed weakly, its glow dimming as if exhausted.
His shadow soldiers took up defensive positions:
- **Reaper:** Twin scythe-arms crossed over its chest by the door
- **Wraith:** Blurred outline flickering near the windows
- **Voidfang:** Claws extended, stationed at Seun's back
The core trembled as Seun placed his palm against its surface. The moment his shadow veins made contact, the room *warped*—
*Flash*: A laboratory where surgeons in bloodstained scrubs carved runes into screaming subjects' bones
*Flash*: The yeti's birth—a still-living god's ribcage being hollowed out to make room for its frozen heart
*Flash*: A door marked *Subject Zero*, behind which something shifted in the dark, whispering Seun's name in a voice that wasn't a voice
The core *screamed* as Seun's shadows forced it to reveal its secrets, its surface cracking like thin ice under pressure.
**[Core Integration: 89% Complete]**
**[Warning: Memory Overload Imminent]**
Just before the artifact shattered, Seun saw it—a facility matching the one from his vision, its coordinates flashing in the System's crimson text:
**Project Lazarus Site Gamma**
**Location: 35.6804° N, 139.7690° E**
**Status: Active**
The core exploded in a shower of frozen shrapnel.
**[New Ability Unlocked: "Frostveil Shroud"]**
**[Effect: Phase through solid matter by aligning molecular structure with ice crystals]**
**[Duration: 9 seconds per use]**
**[Cost: 15% Vitality + temporary hypothermia]**
Frost spread up Seun's arm as he tested the ability, watching his hand become translucent. The soldiers tensed—this was new. This was *dangerous*.
So was he.
---
### **THE ASSOCIATION'S INQUISITION
Director Ko's office smelled of gun oil and expensive whiskey, the scent clinging to the leather chairs and the mahogany desk that had been carved from a single tree felled in an A-rank dungeon. Ko himself sat with his back to the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city's skyline stretching behind him like a crown of glass and steel.
"You butchered an A-rank dungeon in six hours," Ko said, pouring two fingers of amber liquid into a tumbler. "The Frostgrave Catacombs didn't collapse—they went *dormant*. Like someone flipped a switch."
Seun remained standing. "I killed the yeti."
Ko slid a tablet across the desk. The screen showed thermal imaging of the dungeon—the ice veins that had been glowing blue now dark and still.
"That creature was a prototype. Project Lazarus' first successful fusion of shadow and frost." Ko's smile was all teeth. "You didn't just kill it. You *reclaimed* its energy."
A pause. The air grew heavier.
"The shadows you command..." Ko tapped the tablet, pulling up classified files Seun recognized from his visions. "They're not just constructs, are they? They're *repurposed*. Like the yeti."
Seun's soldiers stirred at the edges of the room, their forms bleeding from the walls. Reaper's scythes gleamed in the low light.
Ko didn't flinch. "There are others like you. Not many. China has two. Russia one. All... *contained*." He opened a drawer, withdrawing a syringe filled with swirling black liquid. "Except you."
**[System Alert: Lazarus Serum Detected]**
**[Composition: 60% Shadowmancer Essence]**
**[Purpose: Neural Rewiring]**
Seun's Hellfang Twins were in his hands before the syringe cleared the drawer.
Ko chuckled, setting it down. "Not for you. For *them*." He nodded at the shadow soldiers. "To remind them who really holds their chains."
**[Mission Updated: "Eradicate Project Lazarus"]**
**[New Objective: Locate Site Gamma]**
**[Reward: System Integration +20%]**
Seun stood. "Are we done?"
"For now."
---
### **THE FIRST SHADOW'S WHISPER
Sleep didn't come easily anymore.
When it did, Seun dreamed of a throne room carved from frozen bone, its vaulted ceilings hung with chains holding faceless figures. The thing seated on the throne wore his face, but its eyes were voids within voids, its smile too wide for any human jaw.
*"You cannot keep killing the pieces of me,"* it said, its voice the crackling of ice under pressure. *"We are inevitable."*
Behind it, the chained figures stirred—their outlines familiar. Yuri. The yeti. Dozens more.
Seun woke with frost coating his skin and the System screaming:
**[Alert: External Influence Detected]**
**[Source: Primary Shadowmancer]**
**[Countermeasures: None Available]**
Outside his window, the first snow continued to fall. Somewhere beneath it, Project Lazarus waited.
And Subject Zero was waking up.