Chapter 2: The Sovereign and the Slave
Black Dungeon No. 7: The Glacial Purgatory.
Depth: Unknown.
The concept of "cold" on Earth was a physical measurement. It was the slowing down of atoms.
But here, Cold was a Law.
Ye Han walked through a world that defied physics. The sky was a swirling nebula of indigo and violet, lit by three pale, frozen suns that offered no warmth. Instead of ground, he walked on massive chains of ice that spanned across a void of endless stars.
To an ordinary human—even an S-Rank Hunter—this place was hell. The atmospheric pressure alone would crush their lungs, and the "Absolute Frost" in the air would freeze their mana solid within seconds.
But five-year-old Ye Han was humming a tune.
The suit he wore was tattered, his shoes ruined by the trek, but his skin glowed with a faint, rhythmical light. Every time he took a breath, the deadly frost energy of the dimension rushed into his nose, circulating through his empty meridians like a refreshing breeze.
He wasn't walking randomly. He was following the red thread of fate—the heartbeat.
He reached the end of the ice chain. Before him stood a palace.
It wasn't built of brick or stone. It was carved from the corpse of a moon. A massive, spherical moon-palace, cracked open to reveal a throne room inside.
Ye Han stepped into the palace.
The floor was made of polished stardust. In the center, rising hundreds of meters into the air, was a staircase made of frozen dragon bones. And at the top of that staircase sat a throne.
On the throne sat a woman.
She was resting her cheek on her hand, her eyes closed. She wore a dress that looked like it was woven from the aurora borealis. Her hair was a cascading river of silver liquid, and protruding from her forehead were two crystalline, diamond-like horns.
The pressure radiating from her was suffocating. It was heavier than the sky.
She was Tiamat, the Frost Monarch. The Ice Dragon Queen. The Ruler of the Seventh Calamity.
She opened her eyes.
BOOM.
The air in the palace exploded outward. Her pupils were vertical slits of molten gold.
She looked down at the tiny speck standing at the bottom of the stairs. She had expected a Titan. She had expected a God. She had expected, at the very least, an army.
"A human larva?"
Her voice did not travel through sound waves. It slammed directly into Ye Han's brain, echoing like a grand bell.
She leaned forward, her massive presence looming over him. "I felt a resonance in the Universal Ice Laws. I felt a kindred spirit, a potential heir to the Frost. I called out to it."
She scoffed, the sound causing icicles to fall from the ceiling.
"And the universe sends me a toddler? One with no mana core? Is this a cosmic joke?"
Ye Han looked up. His neck hurt from craning it so high.
"You are loud," Ye Han said.
His voice was small, but it cut through the oppressive silence of the throne room.
The Dragon Queen froze.
"I am loud?" She blinked, amused and insulted. "Little creature, do you know where you are? Do you know who I am? I have slaughtered civilizations that dared to speak above a whisper in my presence."
"I am Ye Han," the boy said, ignoring her threat. He pointed at his chest. "I am here because you kept knocking on my head. Stop it."
The Dragon Queen's golden eyes narrowed.
She descended. She didn't walk; she simply floated down from the throne, landing softly in front of him. Up close, she was terrifyingly tall, nearly three meters in height, a true goddess compared to the small boy.
She circled him, sniffing the air.
"Strange," she murmured. "You have no mana. Your body is mortal. You are fragile. I could kill you by blinking too hard. And yet..."
She sensed it. Deep inside this boy's soul, buried under the mortal flesh, was a void. A hunger.
"Let us test this," she decided. "I am bored, and you have entertained me by surviving the trek here. I will give you a gift. A drop of my Essence."
She raised a finger. A single, tiny sphere of blue light materialized at her fingertip.
"This is Origin Ice. If you are trash, it will turn you into a beautiful ice statue, and I will keep you as a decoration. If you are special... well, perhaps you will survive."
She flicked her finger.
The blue sphere shot toward Ye Han's forehead.
It wasn't an attack intended to kill, but for a five-year-old human, it was the equivalent of being hit by a nuclear warhead.
Ye Han didn't dodge. He couldn't.
The light struck the center of his brow.
The Dragon Queen crossed her arms, waiting for him to freeze.
One second passed.
Two seconds passed.
Ye Han blinked. He rubbed his forehead.
"It tastes like mint," he said.
The Dragon Queen's jaw dropped. "What?"
"More," Ye Han demanded.
Before the ancient Dragon could process what just happened, a terrifying change occurred.
The drop of Origin Ice didn't vanish. It acted as a key. It unlocked a door that should have remained closed until Ye Han was an adult.
Rumble...
The palace began to shake. The frozen suns outside flickered.
Ye Han's eyes rolled back into his head, glowing with a blinding, absolute white light. His small body began to float into the air.
Behind him, a shadow manifested.
It wasn't a mana projection. It was a Dharma Idol—a manifestation of the soul's true nature.
The shadow grew. It grew larger than the Dragon Queen. It grew larger than the palace. It was a humanoid figure made of nothingness, wearing a crown of shattered stars.
The Sovereign of Ice.
The temperature in the room dropped. It dropped below absolute zero, entering a theoretical realm of cold where time itself stopped moving.
"What is this?!" The Dragon Queen shrieked, stumbling back. Her own ice mana—the power she had cultivated for a billion years—was trembling. It was bowing.
Her mana didn't want to obey her anymore. It wanted to go to Him.
"You... what are you?!" she screamed, transforming her hands into dragon claws to defend herself.
Ye Han (or the entity possessing him) looked down at her. He raised a small hand.
[Submission.]
A single command echoed through the fabric of reality.
"No!" The Dragon Queen roared. "I am Tiamat! I am a God-Rank Beast! I will not kneel to a human child!"
She flared her aura, trying to crush the boy. A massive spectral Ice Dragon materialized behind her, roaring in defiance.
But the Sovereign's shadow simply reached out a hand.
It grabbed the spectral dragon by the neck.
Crack.
The spectral dragon shattered like glass.
The Dragon Queen coughed up a mouthful of golden blood. Her connection to the Ice Laws was severed instantly. She was stripped of her authority.
"My... my power..." she gasped, falling to her knees.
Ye Han floated closer. The suction force coming from his body was irresistible.
Golden chains erupted from the void. They weren't mana chains; they were Soul Chains. They wrapped around the Dragon Queen's wrists, her ankles, and her neck.
[Contract Initiated.]
"Stop!" she pleaded, terror finally replacing her arrogance. "You cannot soul-bind a Black Rank Boss! Your soul is too small! You will die! We will both die!"
A Forced Soul Contract required the master to be stronger than the beast. If a cup tries to swallow the ocean, the cup breaks.
But Ye Han wasn't a cup. He was a black hole.
The chains tightened. The Dragon Queen felt her very essence being ripped out of her core and dragged into the boy's dantian.
"You madman! You lunati—"
ZOOM!
With a final flash of light, the massive energy of the Ice Dragon Queen was sucked into Ye Han's small chest.
Silence returned to the palace.
Minutes Later.
The Dragon Queen reappeared.
But she wasn't standing. She was sitting on the floor, panting heavily, her dress torn, her hair disheveled.
She looked at her wrist. A snowflake tattoo had been branded onto her skin.
She looked inside her soul. A thick, unbreakable golden chain connected her life force to the boy lying unconscious on the floor.
"I... I have been enslaved," she whispered, her voice trembling with disbelief. "Me. Tiamat. Enslaved by a five-year-old."
She looked at Ye Han.
The boy was in bad shape.
His skin was cracking like porcelain. Blue light was leaking from the cracks. His blood was freezing in his veins.
The Sovereign Soul was supreme, but his physical meat-suit was garbage. It was a mortal body. It couldn't handle the energy of a billion-year-old dragon.
"He is going to explode," the Dragon Queen realized.
If he exploded, she—his soul-bound servant—would suffer a backlash that could wipe out half her cultivation, or even kill her.
"Fate is cruel," she hissed through gritted teeth. She stood up, her golden eyes flashing with annoyance. "I wanted to kill you, but now I have to play nursemaid."
She walked over to Ye Han and placed her hands on his chest.
"Listen to me, you little monster," she muttered to the unconscious boy. "I am going to seal this power. I am going to lock my own essence deep inside you. You are not ready."
She began to chant in the Draconic Language.
"First Seal: Lock the Mana."
"Second Seal: Lock the Memory."
"Third Seal: Lock the Constitution."
Nine layers of ancient runes wrapped around Ye Han's body like a cocoon. The cracks on his skin healed. The blinding light faded. The terrifying aura of the Sovereign vanished, leaving behind what looked like a normal, sleeping child.
The Dragon Queen wiped sweat from her forehead. This sealing technique had cost her a hundred years of cultivation.
"There," she sighed. "The Nine-Layered Frost Lock. It will hold until your body matures."
She looked at him with a complicated expression. Hate? Yes. But also... curiosity.
She had waited a billion years for someone who could challenge the Heavens. She never expected it to be her master.
"When you turn eighteen," she whispered, stroking his cheek with a cold finger. "The Awakening Ceremony of your human world will trigger the first key. The seals will begin to crumble."
She stood up.
"Go back. Live a humble life. Be trash. Be ridiculed. Let the world forget you."
"Because when you wake up..."
She smiled, a terrifying, beautiful smile that showed her fangs.
"...we are going to burn this world down with ice."
She waved her hand. A portal opened beneath Ye Han.
The boy fell through the floor, tumbling through space and dimensions, back toward Earth.
Earth. The Edge of the Dead Zone.
Ye Han landed softly on a patch of grass. The Dragon Queen had used her remaining connection to ensure he landed safely.
He was asleep.
A few hours later, frantic shouting echoed through the woods.
"I found him! Over here!"
"Han! Oh god, Han!"
Lin Lan, the S-Rank Ice Valkyrie, burst through the trees. She was crying, her eyes red. Behind her, Ye Tian followed, looking exhausted and grim.
They had been searching for hours. When they found the boy lying near the Black Dungeon's entrance, their hearts nearly stopped.
Lin Lan scooped him up. "He's cold! He's so cold!"
Ye Tian checked his pulse. "He's alive. Just sleeping."
Ye Tian looked at the dark, swirling gate of the Black Dungeon nearby. He shivered. "He must have wandered close and passed out from the Fear Pressure. It's a miracle he's not brain-dead."
They carried him home.
The Next Morning.
Ye Han woke up in his bed.
He looked at his hands. He looked at his room.
"Han?" Lin Lan was sitting by his bed, looking anxious. "Do you remember what happened?"
Ye Han blinked.
His eyes were still blue, but the terrifying depth was gone. They were just... normal blue eyes.
"I went for a walk," Ye Han said. His voice was childish again. The maturity was gone. "I got tired. I slept."
"Do you remember the... the calling?" Lin Lan asked.
Ye Han tilted his head. "Calling? No."
The memory was gone. The Sovereign was asleep.
Ye Tian stood in the doorway. He looked at the medical report in his hand.
"Confirmed," Ye Tian said, his voice void of emotion. "Mana capacity is zero. The specialized scan shows his meridians are atrophied. He will never be a Hunter."
Lin Lan bit her lip. "Tian, he is still our son."
"He is a civilian," Ye Tian said coldly. He crumpled the report. "He will live a life of luxury. I will provide for him. But he is no longer the Heir."
Ye Tian turned and walked away.
Ye Han watched him go. He didn't feel sad. He didn't feel anything. He just felt... tired.
Deep in his subconscious, behind nine heav
y doors wrapped in chains, a dragon curled up to sleep, and a king sat on a throne, waiting for the clock to tick.
Thirteen Years Later.
Chapter 2 End.