The Central Domain of Earth was never meant to be whole.
To the south, Ignis burned—a continent-sized wound vomiting flame into the sky, turning clouds into molten mirrors. To the west, the Insect Queen's territory spread like a living cancer, forests swallowed beneath layers of chitin and pulsating biomass.
But the north…
The north was quiet.
Not peaceful.
Not calm.
Silent.
The Black Dragon Fortress crossed the invisible border without ceremony.
One moment, lush jungle and dense mana currents pressed against the hull. The next, everything ended.
Green vanished. Sound died.
Below stretched an endless wasteland of grey snow and black ice, the land stripped of color as if the world itself had been drained of meaning. Petrified trees jutted from the frozen ground, their twisted branches clawing upward like skeletal hands frozen mid-prayer—begging for a sun that would never return.
Even inside the fortress, temperature alarms flared.
The Spirit-Fusion Drive pushed harder. Failed.
Cold crept in anyway.
Not the kind that numbed skin.
The kind that ate heat itself.
Babata's hologram flickered into existence, her usually playful expression tight, the simulated shiver unmistakable.
"Atmospheric analysis complete," she reported. "Ambient temperature: negative eighty degrees Celsius. However… this is not conventional thermal cold."
She paused, recalibrating.
"It's entropic. The environment is actively draining kinetic energy from matter. Living organisms will experience accelerated heat loss and cellular stagnation."
"Entropy," Su Chen said calmly, seated upon his throne.
His Gold Body radiated soft light, pushing back the invasive chill like a stubborn star refusing to go out.
"The signature of a True Lich."
His gaze swept across the bridge.
"Esdeath," he added casually, "you'll enjoy this place."
A faint smile curved her lips.
"Serana," he continued, eyes shifting, "you won't. It's dead—but it lacks blood."
Serana said nothing. Her fingers tightened slightly at her side.
"And Albedo," Su Chen finished, rising to his feet, "prepare the Skeleton Army."
He smiled faintly.
"Let's show the locals what a real undead legion looks like."
Albedo stepped forward, black armor gleaming under the bridge lights, wings folding neatly behind her.
"My Lord," she said smoothly, "the undead of Nazarick are not mindless corpses. Compared to these… feral bones, they are art."
Her eyes gleamed.
"I shall lead them personally."
"Good," Su Chen replied.
He turned toward the frozen horizon beyond the viewport.
"The Lich King is sitting on a Mana Nexus," he said. "I want it."
The Welcome Party
The deeper the fortress pushed into the Dead Zone, the heavier the silence became.
No wind.
No wildlife.
Not even echoes.
Then—
The ground moved.
Not corpses clawing upward.
Not undead rising.
The snow itself began to crawl.
It peeled back like a living skin.
SCREEE—
A piercing shriek split the clouds.
Shadows descended from above, vast and angular.
Frost Wyrms.
Skeletal dragons animated by blue soul-fire, their massive ribcages encrusted with layers of eternal ice. Empty eye sockets burned with cold intelligence as dozens of them circled the fortress like vultures sensing a dying god.
[Target Identified: Frost Wyrm — Undead Construct]
[Level: 55 (Elite)]
[Breath: Soul-Freezing Chill]
"Dragons?" Esdeath laughed softly. "They look like flying ribs."
"Zagara," Su Chen said through the Hive Mind. "Deploy the Air Wing."
The fortress responded.
Its undercarriage opened—but this time, nothing fell.
They launched.
Ten thousand Winged Void Stalkers burst into the sky.
After devouring Wind-Blade Wyverns and Terra Formar Dragonflies, their evolution had stabilized: massive membranous wings unfolded from armored backs, slicing through thin air with terrifying efficiency.
The sky ignited.
A Frost Wyrm inhaled.
Blue fire poured forth—a cone of soul-freezing annihilation.
Three Void Stalkers were caught mid-flight.
Their outer carapaces froze solid and shattered.
But they didn't die.
Void Regeneration—copied from Leviathan—triggered instantly. Frozen tissue rewound itself, muscle and chitin reknitting before gravity could claim them.
They latched onto the Wyrm's spine.
Jaws capable of crushing diamond bit into necromantic runes anchoring the creature's existence.
CRUNCH.
The Frost Wyrm collapsed into drifting bone dust.
One by one, the rest followed.
Efficiency. Brutality. Adaptation.
"Your pets are effective," Albedo remarked, observing calmly. "Crude. But acceptable."
"They're tools," Su Chen replied. "Now take us to the spire."
The Citadel of Icecrown
At the heart of the frozen wasteland rose a spire.
Forged from Blood Steel—Earth's twisted echo of Saronite—it spiraled upward like a jagged spear piercing the heavens. At its peak hovered a floating citadel, chains of frost and mana anchoring it to reality.
The Black Dragon Fortress did not stop at a respectful distance.
It parked directly in front of the balcony.
Su Chen, Albedo, and Serana teleported out.
They landed upon ice so cold it screamed beneath their boots.
At the center of the balcony sat the Sovereign of the North.
A humanoid figure clad in jagged plate armor fused to decaying flesh. A helm obscured his face, leaving only two pinpricks of blue light burning within. In his grasp rested a massive runeblade—its surface rippling with imprisoned screams.
[Boss: The Lich King — Fallen Guardian Archetype]
[Level: 90 (Sovereign)]
[Race: Undead Lord]
[Weapon: Soul-Eater Blade (Divine Class)]
He did not rise.
"You are not dead," the Lich King said, his voice grinding like glaciers colliding. "Yet you reek of the grave."
"And you smell like a freezer that hasn't been cleaned in a century," Su Chen replied flatly.
He activated Spirit Sight.
The truth revealed itself instantly.
The throne.
The land.
The silence.
All fed the blade.
The sword drank the souls of the entire Northern Territory, sustaining the King like a parasite masquerading as power.
"I see," Su Chen said, nodding. "You're not a ruler."
"You're livestock."
The Lich King rose.
Temperature plummeted further, rivaling even Esdeath's domain.
"I am the jailor of the damned," he declared. "This land is mine. Leave—or join the Scourge."
"I already have one," Su Chen said.
The Book of the Undead materialized.
The Divine Gold Ring spun around it, flooding the citadel with radiant authority.
The Lich King staggered.
"Gold… Divine Attribute?!" he roared. "Impossible! The Death God fell eons ago!"
"I'm the replacement," Su Chen replied calmly.
The Usurpation
"Die!"
The Lich King swung.
Soul Slash.
A wave of screaming faces tore through space—not cutting flesh, but severing existence itself.
Serana recoiled. "That blade—!"
Su Chen raised his hand.
[TGOALID — Authority Activation]
He didn't resist the wave.
He commanded it.
"Return."
The souls froze mid-air.
Green Nether Fire ignited in Su Chen's eyes.
"You treat souls as ammunition," he said softly. "I treat them as citizens."
He pushed forward.
The wave reversed.
BOOM.
The Lich King slammed back into his throne, armor cracking.
"My authority—!" he snarled. "You stole my authority?!"
"Borrowed power always gets repossessed," Su Chen said, stepping closer.
The Lich King summoned.
Nothing answered.
His Frost Wyrms were gone.
His undead army knelt—confused—before Albedo's overwhelming aggro.
"You're alone," Su Chen said.
Desperation took him.
The blade stabbed into the ground.
"Explosion of the Damned!"
Su Chen vanished.
[Shadow Step]
He reappeared beside the sword and grabbed it barehanded.
The blade screamed—trying to devour his soul.
It failed.
Protected by the Mind Stone Authority and the System, Su Chen's soul felt like a star lodged in its throat.
"Nice toothpick," he said.
He tore it free.
The Lich King collapsed, withering into a husk.
[Target Neutralized: Disarmed]
New Management
Su Chen examined the blade.
[Frostmourne Replica — Divine Artifact (Corrupted)]
"Infinite Copy."
One became ten.
Ten became a hundred.
He tossed one to Albedo.
She caught it, smiling.
"It screams," she noted. "Charming."
He turned to the fallen King.
"Serve me, or fade."
"A… library?" the Lich whispered.
"Yes," Su Chen said. "Infinite necromancy. Central heating included."
The King bowed.
[Kel'Thuzad Recruited — Librarian]
Aftermath
The Frost Heart pulsed beneath the throne.
Su Chen fused it into the fortress instead of stealing it.
A Cryo-Stasis Wing was born.
Then—
Babata spoke.
"Master. Massive energy spike detected. Eastern Territory. Human Saint."
"Nascent Soul?" Su Chen muttered.
He smiled.
"Set course east."
He glanced at his inventory.
Then at Zagara.
"Build me Blademasters."
Her eyes glowed.
"It shall be done."
The Human Saint was about to learn something important.
Graduation parties are meant to be crashed.