Siegfried charged forward like a bullet.

Fwaaaaah!

Fwoooosh!

He unleashed Infernal Hellscape to turn the surroundings into a sea of flames. Then, he activated Karma Flare to debuff the Frost Queen.

‘Let’s see if I can beat it up easily or not,’ Siegfried thought, but then...

“...!”

Siegfried suddenly glanced around and was shocked.

“Huh? How...?”

His supposed-to-be raging flames were extinguished. The throne room didn't get engulfed in flames, nor did magma come flowing out from the floor, even though he had cast Infernal Hellscape.

Infernal Hellscape had flooded the corridors earlier with magma, allowing Siegfried to make quick work of the Frozen Guards and Frozen Royal Guards.

More surprisingly, it was the same for Karma Flare. He had clearly used the skill to set the Frost Queen ablaze, but the flames did not latch onto her for some reason.

No, more precisely, the skills did set the chamber and the Frost Queen ablaze, but they were extinguished almost instantaneously.

“What in the world? What’s going on?” Siegfried muttered.

He was puzzled and couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

“Hey, what did you—mmpf!” Siegfried couldn't finish his sentence, as his upper and lower lips stuck together tightly like they were glued shut. The saliva on his lips had frozen, shutting his mouth up and making it impossible to speak. This was the same phenomenon when one’s tongue would stick to cold metal in the middle of winter.

But that was not all...

Badump!

Siegfried suddenly felt a sharp stabbing pain deep inside his chest, as though needles were piercing his lungs even though nothing had struck him.

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

A notification popped up before his eyes.

[Alert: Your character has been afflicted with frostbite!]

[Alert: Your lungs have frozen!]

[Alert: Lung capacity has decreased by 10 percent!]

Siegfried’s breathing slowly became labored.

Huff... Huff...

‘This is crazy...’

He couldn’t breathe properly. With his lung capacity diminished, he could breathe in far less air than usual, so it was only natural for him to struggle.

‘Is it even possible to be this cold?’

Siegfried finally understood what was happening.

The temperature inside this chamber, where the Frost Queen resided, was below sub-zero temperatures. It was like not even a little bit of heat existed within its walls. The chamber was so cold that it froze everything that existed within it, and fire-element skills were practically useless.

In fact, it was so cold that simply breathing the air within it made Siegfried’s lungs freeze up.

“You shall be executed.”

The Frost Queen waved her hand.

Wooong!

Magical formations appeared all around the chamber, and from them, ice element monsters of all kinds began to emerge.

‘No thanks.’

Before the monsters could even act, Siegfried dashed forward like a bullet, aiming straight for the Frost Queen.

She sat on a throne elevated about fifteen meters from the floor, gazing down at him with eyes full of disdain.

‘I’ll just have to drag her to the World of Despair.’

Rather than fight in this frozen throne room where she reigned supreme, Siegfried planned to drag her into his realm, the World of Despair.

There, he could unleash his full strength without being bound by this crippling cold.

Unfortunately, it was not as easy as he hoped.

‘Huh? Why am I not moving?’

No matter how much he ran, the distance between himself and the Frost Queen didn't shrink even by a single centimeter.

‘How about now?’

Siegfried spread his wings and tried flying toward the Frost Queen, but just like a while ago, it was futile.

Even though he flew, he couldn’t close the distance.

‘Tsk... I guess I have no other choice.’

In the end, Siegfried gave up on a direct one-on-one fight with the Frost Queen.

He couldn't understand what was going on, but he had no other choice but to leave it for later. Right now, he had to focus on eliminating the monsters the Frost Queen had summoned that were swarming toward him.

***

The battle was grueling.

While the monsters were not that strong enough to threaten Siegfried, the status ailment he was afflicted with, Frostbite, made it hard for him to even breathe properly.

Unable to breathe properly, he was constantly short of breath, making it very difficult to move as he wanted. On top of that, the stacks of Frostbite continued to build up, slowing him down even further.

He couldn’t breathe properly, and he was feeling sluggish. Even Siegfried found it nearly impossible to fight in this throne room ruled by the Frost Queen.

However, the biggest problem was that his bread-and-butter skill, Karma Flare, was completely useless.

The intense cold within the throne room would snuff it out before it could roar to life, preventing his signature debuff skill from working at all. This was indeed proof of the strength befitting a demonic monster once imprisoned in Purgatory.

It had been a few days since the Frost Queen escaped from the rampaging Ancient Dungeon, so the level of difficulty she posed was far beyond that of any other Calamities that Siegfried had faced thus far.

‘Damn it!’

Siegfried gritted his teeth and cut down the monsters charging at him.

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

(omitted...)

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

Unfortunately, the monsters summoned by the Frost Queen gave no Experience Points at all. The frozen monsters outside the boss room had granted a ton of Experience Points, but the summoned monsters gave none at all.

Of course, Experience Points weren't important right now.

“Ughhh! Argh!”

Afflicted by both Frostbite and Slow, Siegfried struggled bitterly. This battle would have been a piece of cake for him if he could just use his debuffs, but his inability to do so only worsened his situation.

“Kyuuu! Hang in there, owner punk! Don’t give up!”

Hamchi summoned his magical wheel and ran on it, casting buffs on Siegfried, but it was not enough. The buff was indeed powerful, but the stacks of status ailments on him were simply too overwhelmingly powerful.

[Alert: Warning! Warning! Warning!]

[Alert: You will be completely frozen solid if you gain 11 more stacks of Frostbite!]

The status ailment stacks continued to increase, driving Siegfried into a corner.

‘Tsk... I guess I have to call that bastard,’ Siegfried clicked his tongue and made his decision.

Wooong!

He poured his Primordial Force into the Dark Abyss: Necklace of Greed and Betrayal.

Exactly thirty seconds later, a portal opened, and from it emerged Siegfried’s former nemesis now subordinate-cum-friend—Chae Hyung-Seok.

Since Siegfried’s debuffs were useless here, he decided to call in Chae Hyung-Seok and use his buffs to overcome this crisis. Of course, Chae Hyung-Seok was not exactly pleased with being summoned all of a sudden.

He would have made time and waited if Siegfried had informed him in advance, but being summoned like this out of the blue was frustrating, to say the least.

“What do you want?”

Chae Hyung-Seok asked curtly, shooting Siegfried an irritated look.

“What do you think I am? Am I your lackey that you can just call whenever you please—”

He couldn’t finish complaining.

Why? Because—

“Mmpf! Mmpf!”

Chae Hyung-Seok’s lips were frozen shut together as well.

“J-Just shut up and cast your buffs! I’ll listen to your annoying rants later! Huff! Huff!” Siegfried shouted with the little oxygen remaining in his lungs.

“Mmpf! Mmpf!”

Wooong!

Chae Hyung-Seok immediately began casting buffs on Siegfried.

[Alert: Your Attack Power has increased!] 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

[Alert: Your Defense has increased!]

[Alert: Your Attack Speed has increased!]

[Alert: Your Movement Speed has increased!]

[Alert: Your Casting Speed has increased!]

(omitted...)

[Alert: Your resistance to Water element has increased!]

[Alert: Your resistance to Water element has increased!]

[Alert: Your resistance to Water element has increased!]

(omitted...)

[Alert: Your status ailments have been dispelled!]

In addition to casting a ton of buffs on Siegfried, Chae Hyung-Seok also dispelled the status ailments plaguing him.

‘Good job!’

Thanks to Chae Hyung-Seok’s help, Siegfried quickly regained control of his body.

Though the intense frost within the throne room was still suppressing the use of Karma Flare, just having the status ailments dispelled was a huge relief for Siegfried.

‘Time to kill them all.’

Gripping his +10 Sky Piercer, Siegfried began cutting down the swarming mobs one after another. Now that he was freed from the crippling status ailments, he regained his immense combat strength.

Even without his debuffs, he could now unleash his full destructive power thanks to Chae Hyung-Seok’s buffs.

***

Exactly five hours later.

“Hey, is this even going to end?” Chae Hyung-Seok complained.

He crawled up the cross to avoid the freezing energy.

“Erm... I don’t know, actually,” Siegfried replied awkwardly.

The monsters summoned by the Frost Queen kept coming without showing any signs of stopping. Whenever he killed the whole wave, she would just summon another one.

Again and again, the process was just on endless repeat.

It felt like being trapped in an eternal loop or pouring water into a bottomless jar.

To make matters worse, the summoned monsters gave neither Experience Points nor loot.

In other words, Siegfried was just grinding without any rewards.

“Hohoho! Let’s see how long you can endure this! In the end, you shall collapse from exhaustion, foolish humans!”

The Frost Queen laughed gleefully as she watched Siegfried’s party suffer.

With that, she summoned even stronger monsters, further mounting the pressure on Siegfried and his comrades.

‘Damn it... There has to be some kind of mechanism here...’

While cutting down the summoned monsters, Siegfried’s mind raced, trying to come up with a solution.

‘I need to get close in order to defeat the Frost Queen. But I can’t get near her. Why? Why can’t I get closer?’

This question had been bothering him for a while now, but no clear solution had come to mind so far.

It was then.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Die!”

“I will kill you!”

“Come to hell with us!”

A massive horde of monsters rushed at him.

‘Tsk... Screw it,’ Siegfried clicked his tongue and immediately unleashed Splitting Heaven and Earth.

Krwaaang!

The skill unleashed in a fan-shape, ripping apart the floor and leaving destruction in its wake.

The Frost Queen shrieked in anger, roaring, “H-How dare you! How dare you damage my palace!”

Fwoooooooosh!

Her wrath summoned a ferocious blizzard that swept down upon Siegfried.

“Arghhh!”

The blizzard was so intense that Siegfried still lost thirty percent of his HP even though he had activated Shield of Malice.

Krwaaaang!

Boom! Boom!

Thud!

At that moment, three massive ice pillars that supported the throne room collapsed.

Splitting Heaven and Earth had damaged the pillars, and the raging blizzard seemed to have caused them to fall.

‘Huh?’

Siegfried suddenly noticed something strange.

The Frost Queen’s HP had decreased by a tiny bit.

‘Why did she take damage? I didn’t hit her at all, so why did her HP drop? And why is she suddenly so mad?’

Just then, an idea came to his mind.

‘Hold on... Is it possible that all I need to do is destroy this palace?’

He analyzed his current situation and came to the conclusion that it was a plausible theory. It was highly likely that the reason he couldn’t get close to the Frost Queen was due to some unique spell or property of this Ice Palace.

‘What’s going to happen if I destroy the entire palace and fortress? Will I still be unable to approach her?’

He still had questions, but there was only one way to find out.

“Hey, Chae Hyung-Seok! Cast all your Attack Power buffs on me!”

“Got it!”

After receiving Chae Hyung-Seok’s buffs, Siegfried immediately charged up Touch of Death.

‘Let’s try destroying this place.’

After charging up the Touch of Death into his +10 Sky Piercer, Siegfried drove the spear straight into the ground.

Since he couldn't approach the Frost Queen or drag her down from her throne, he decided to just destroy the whole place itself.

C-Craaack!

Cracks appeared from the point where the +10 Sky Piercer struck, spreading across the entire floor like a spiderweb.

RUMBLE!

Exactly three seconds later, the cracks that appeared on the throne room floor spread far and wide until the Ice Palace split apart and began to collapse.

The Frost Queen’s eyes widened.

“N-No! Noooo!” she screamed, her voice filled with panic.

Siegfried grinned from ear to ear at the sight.

Why?

It was all because her reaction was proof enough that his suspicion had been spot-on.

The way to defeat the Frost Queen was to bring down the entire palace.