Chapter 6: The Ice Valkyrie Returns
The Ye Family Estate.
Banquet Hall.
21:00 PM.
The Bishop of the Temple of Light was dragged out by his subordinates. He was still twitching, his expensive robes stiff with frost, mumbling incoherently about "dead suns."
The remaining guests stood in a circle of awkward silence.
They were powerful people—CEOs, Generals, Guild Masters. They were used to being the predators. But tonight, they felt like gazelles standing in the presence of a sleeping lion.
Ye Han picked up a napkin and wiped his hands.
"The entertainment is over," he said, his voice cutting through the silence. "You may continue eating. The dessert is quite good."
He turned and walked toward the exit.
"Han! Wait!"
Ye Tian chased after him. The S-Rank Patriarch stopped his son near the grand staircase.
Ye Tian's face was flushed with adrenaline and wine. "Where are you going? The guests... the Generals want to speak with you! The Temple... do you know what you just did? You humiliated Bishop Crow! This will start a political war!"
Ye Han paused on the first step. He looked down at his father.
"Father," Ye Han said. "Do you fear the Temple?"
"Of course I fear them!" Ye Tian hissed. "They are backed by the Holy Empire in the High-Tier World! Their Pope can summon the avatar of a Seraph! We are strong, but we are not gods!"
Ye Han's golden right eye glowed faintly.
"They are just fireflies," Ye Han said dismissively. "If they annoy me again, I will extinguish them."
"You..." Ye Tian was struck speechless by the arrogance. But looking at the silver-haired deity in front of him, he found himself unable to scold him. "Han, you have changed. Is this... is this the personality of the Sovereign Class?"
Ye Han didn't answer. He turned to leave.
"Wait," Ye Tian said, his voice softening. "Your mother. I sent a message to the Antarctic Front. She is coming back."
For the first time all day, Ye Han's expression shifted. The indifference cracked, revealing a sliver of humanity.
"Mother is coming?"
"Yes. She broke protocol. She abandoned the raid the moment she heard the news about your SSS-Rank awakening." Ye Tian sighed. "She never gave up on you, Han. Even when I did."
Ye Han stood silent for a moment.
"I will be in my room," he said quietly. "Let me know when she arrives."
Ye Han's Bedroom.
23:00 PM.
Ye Han sat in a lotus position on his bed. The room was freezing, the windows frosted over, but he felt comfortable.
'So,' Tiamat's voice echoed in his mind. 'That man... your father. He is weak.'
'He is an S-Rank,' Ye Han replied mentally. 'By Earth standards, he is a king.'
'By Dragon standards, he is a lizard,' Tiamat snorted. 'He has no loyalty. He treated you like trash for thirteen years, and now he wags his tail because you have power. Typical mortal.'
Ye Han opened his eyes. He looked at his hand. He clenched his fist, feeling the raw, terrifying power coursing through his veins.
'And you?' Ye Han asked. 'You wanted to kill me when we first met.'
'I am a Dragon Queen,' Tiamat said haughtily. 'I don't kill out of malice. I kill out of boredom. Besides, we are soul-bound now. Your life is my life. Speaking of which...'
A holographic interface—one that only Ye Han could see—manifested in his vision. It wasn't the System of Earth. It was Tiamat's own projection.
[Current Status]
[Host: Ye Han]
[Race: Human / Dragon Hybrid (Incomplete)]
[Tier: Low-Tier (Suppressed)]
[Constitution: Eternal Ice Body (10% Unsealed)]
'You are running on fumes,' Tiamat explained. 'The Awakening broke the first seal, giving you access to the Sovereign Aura and basic Ice manipulation. But to unlock the Second Seal, you need energy. Lots of it.'
'Mana?'
'No. Mana is for Mages. You need Core Essence. You need to hunt beasts, extract their cores, and devour them. Or find high-grade Ice Treasures.'
Ye Han nodded. "So, I need to go to a Dungeon."
'Yes. And not those baby playgrounds they call "Schools." You need a real Dungeon. A place where things die.'
ROAR!
Suddenly, a sound echoed from outside. It wasn't a monster roar. It was the sound of a jet engine screaming, mixed with the cry of a beast.
Ye Han stood up and walked to the balcony.
In the night sky above the Ye Estate, a massive rift had opened.
An aircraft was descending. But it wasn't a normal plane. It was a Mana-Ship, painted white and blue, shaped like a spearhead.
Riding on top of the ship—standing on the hull in the middle of the freezing wind—was a woman.
She wore white combat armor made of dragon scales. A long, blue cape fluttered behind her like wings. She held a massive crystalline bow in her hand.
Lin Lan.
The Ice Valkyrie.
S-Rank Hunter.
She didn't wait for the ship to land. She jumped from 500 meters in the air.
BOOM!
She landed in the courtyard, creating a crater of ice. The shockwave knocked over the garden statues.
"HAN!" she screamed, her voice filled with frantic, desperate motherly love. "WHERE IS MY SON?!"
The guards scattered in terror. "Madam! He's in his room!"
Lin Lan didn't use the door. She looked up at Ye Han's balcony. She gathered mana under her feet and leaped, soaring three stories up in a single bound.
She landed on the balcony railing.
Ye Han stood there, watching her.
Lin Lan froze.
She stared at the tall young man with silver-diamond hair and heterochromatic eyes. She sensed the aura radiating from him—an aura that felt familiar, yet infinitely more ancient and terrifying than her own.
"Han?" she whispered, dropping her bow.
Ye Han smiled. It was a genuine smile.
"Welcome back, Mom."
Lin Lan's eyes filled with tears. She rushed forward and tackled him in a hug.
An S-Rank Hunter's hug could crush a tank. But Ye Han didn't budge. He felt solid as a mountain.
"You changed," she sobbed into his chest. "Your hair... your eyes... I saw the news. They said SSS-Rank. They said Sovereign. I thought... I thought it was a mistake."
"It wasn't a mistake," Ye Han said softly, patting her back. Her armor was cold, covered in the frost of the Antarctic, but to him, it felt warm.
Lin Lan pulled back, holding his face in her hands. She examined his eyes.
"This energy..." Lin Lan murmured. "It's the same energy inside me. The power I got when I gave birth to you. But yours is... pure. Mine is just a shadow compared to this."
'Of course it is,' Tiamat's voice echoed in Ye Han's head. 'She is a user of my leakage. You are the source.'
"Are you okay?" Lin Lan asked, checking him for injuries. "Does it hurt? Transformations usually hurt."
"I'm fine, Mom. I feel better than I ever have."
Lin Lan took a deep breath. She wiped her tears and stepped back, her demeanor shifting from 'Mom' to 'General'.
"Good. Because if you are SSS-Rank, the world is not going to let you sleep anymore."
She reached into her spatial storage and pulled out a small, metallic card. It was black, with a golden dragon embossed on it.
"I was saving this," she said seriously. "I thought I would have to use my connections to get you a safe job in the Logistics Division. But now..."
She handed him the card.
"This is a Unlimited Access Pass to the Dragon Capital Hunter Academy. But more importantly, it grants you rights to enter the Federal Reserve Dungeons."
Ye Han took the card. "Federal Reserve?"
"They are restricted dungeons," Lin Lan explained. "Kept by the government for training the elites. High mana density. High danger. The entrance exams for the Academy are in one week. But with your rank, you can skip the exam."
"No," Ye Han said, pocketing the card. "I won't skip."
Lin Lan blinked. "Why? You are SSS-Rank. The exam is for... mortals."
Ye Han looked at the moon hanging in the sky.
"Because I need to hunt," Ye Han said. "And the exam is held in a controlled Dungeon, isn't it?"
"Yes. The Green-Rank: Goblin Forest."
"Goblins," Ye Han muttered. "Low XP, but good for a warm-up."
Lin Lan looked at her son. She realized that the fragile boy she had protected for eighteen years was gone. In his place was something sharp. Something dangerous.
"Okay," Lin Lan smiled, picking up her bow. "But before you go hunting... you need training. You have power, Han, but you have zero combat experience. You don't know how to fight."
Ye Han raised an eyebrow.
"You want to spar?"
Lin Lan grinned. The air around her twisted, forming ice daggers.
"I am the Ice Valkyrie, kid. S-Rank. I have cleared forty dungeons. Let's see if your 'Sovereign' title can handle a real veteran."
The Training Grounds.
Midnight.
The Ye Family's training arena was reinforced with Tungsten-Carbide walls and S-Rank mana shielding.
Ye Tian stood in the observation booth, watching nervously. "Lan, take it easy! He just awakened today!"
Down in the arena, Ye Han stood with his hands in his pockets.
Opposite him, Lin Lan was fully armored. She held her crystalline bow. Her eyes were sharp, scanning him for weaknesses.
"Rule number one," Lin Lan shouted. "Never underestimate your opponent. Even if you have more mana!"
Ping.
She released the string.
Three arrows made of condensed ice mana flew toward Ye Han. They moved at the speed of sound. They curved in mid-air, aiming for his shoulders and knees—non-lethal, but painful.
Ye Han watched the arrows approach.
In his eyes, they were moving in slow motion.
'Do I dodge?' he thought.
'No,' Tiamat yawned. 'Dominate.'
Ye Han didn't move his hands from his pockets. He simply looked at the arrows.
[Skill: Cryo-Authority (Low)]
"Halt."
The word was barely a whisper.
Creeeeak.
The three arrows stopped in mid-air, three inches from his face. They didn't fall. They hovered, vibrating violently.
Lin Lan's eyes widened. "Control over external ice?"
"Return," Ye Han said.
He flicked his gaze.
Whoosh!
The arrows spun around 180 degrees and shot back at Lin Lan—at double the speed.
"What?!"
Lin Lan reacted instantly. She summoned an Ice Wall.
Boom!
The arrows shattered the wall, exploding into a cloud of frost. Lin Lan slid back a few meters, her boots carving grooves in the ground.
"You can hijack my magic?" Lin Lan gasped. "That's cheating! That's anti-mage!"
"I am the Sovereign," Ye Han said, finally taking a hand out of his pocket. "All ice belongs to me. Including yours, Mom."
Lin Lan laughed. It was a wild, excited laugh.
"Good! Then I don't have to hold back!"
She floated into the air. A massive magic circle, twenty meters wide, opened behind her. Hundreds of ice spears materialized.
[S-Rank Spell: Blizzard of the North Star]
"Show me!" she roared. "Show me the limit of SSS-Rank!"
The rain of spears descended. It was enough firepower to level a city block.
Ye Han looked up at the avalanche of death.
He took a deep breath.
His silver hair glowed. Behind him, the phantom of the Dragon Queen flickered into existence for a split second.
Ye Han raised his right hand. He clenched his fist.
[Sovereign Art: Shatter.]
He punched the empty air.
CRACK.
Reality fractured.
The air itself turned into a mirror and broke. The shockwave of "Shattering" flew upward.
When the shockwave hit the rain of spears, the spears didn't just break. They disintegrated into atomic dust. The shockwave continued upward, hitting the mana shield of the arena, then the ceiling.
BOOM!
The roof of the training hall was blown off. The clouds in the night sky above were punched open, leaving a perfectly circular hole where the stars shone through.
Silence.
Lin Lan hovered in the air, her spell completely negated. She looked at the hole in the roof.
Ye Tian, in the observation booth, dropped his wine glass.
Ye Han looked at his fist. Steam—cold steam—was rising from it.
"A bit too much force," Ye Han muttered.
Lin Lan landed softly on the ground. She walked up to him. She looked at the destruction.
"Han," she said.
"Yes?"
"You are paying for the roof."
One Week Later.
The National Hunter Academy Entrance Exams.
Location: Green-Rank Dungeon [Goblin Forest].
Thousands of students were gathered at the massive military base built around the Dungeon Gate. This was the biggest event of the year.
Camera drones were buzzing everywhere.
"Welcome to the Annual Exam!" the announcer shouted. "Today, the future heroes of humanity will fight for a spot in the Dragon Capital Academy!"
The students were nervous. They were checking their armor, their staffs, their swords.
"Did you hear? He's coming."
"Who?"
"Him. The SSS-Rank."
"I heard it was a fake. A publicity stunt by the Ye Family."
"Yeah, how can someone have 999,999 mana? It's physically impossible."
A sleek hover-car arrived.
The crowd parted.
Ye Han stepped out.
He was wearing light combat gear—black tactical pants and a white shirt. On his back, he carried no weapon. His silver hair was tied back in a ponytail, revealing his sharp, predatory face.
He didn't look like a student. He looked like a boss monster in human form.
He walked to the registration desk.
"Name?" the clerk asked, not looking up.
"Ye Han."
The clerk froze. The entire registration area went silent.
"Y-Ye Han?" The clerk looked up, stuttering. "The... the Sovereign?"
"Just put me in the queue," Ye Han said.
"Sir, you... you have a bypass," the clerk said nervously. "With your rank, you don't need to take the practical exam. You are already accepted into the Elite Class."
"I am taking the exam," Ye Han said.
"But... why?"
Ye Han looked at the massive swirling green portal behind the clerk. He could hear the screeches of goblins inside. He could smell the blood.
His dragon instincts were salivating.
"Because I'm hungry," Ye Han whispered.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing," Ye Han said, grabbing his badge. [Candidate #001].
He walked toward the portal.
As he stood before the swirling energy, a shadow fell over him.
A group of students, wearing golden armbands, blocked his way. They were from the Sun Moon Academy, a rival school funded by the Temple of Light.
The leader, a tall boy with a heavy shield, glared at him.
"So you are the heretic Bishop Crow talked about," the shield-bearer sneered. "SSS-Rank? I bet it's just a light show. Inside the dungeon, there are no cameras. Accidents happen."
Ye Han looked at him.
"Are you threatening me?"
"I'm warning you," the boy spat. "Stay away from the boss room. The Hobgoblin King belongs to us."
Ye Han smiled.
"The King?"
Ye Han stepped int
o the portal. His voice lingered behind him, cold and amused.
"Cute. But I don't hunt Kings."
He disappeared into the dungeon.
"I hunt Gods. But today... I'll settle for extermination."
Chapter 6 End.