Chapter 344
Episode 106: The Record Keepers (2)
“Now that I think about it, that pure white hair is typical of pureblood Ziphl.”
A Ziphl mage from a thousand years ago.
The silver-haired woman trapped inside the pillar of ice looked impossibly young for someone from a millennium past.
“Maybe around thirty? She looks so young.”
Perhaps because she was frozen by the absolute cold of the Everfrost, her long, snowy hair gleamed with an almost unnatural sheen.
Her closed eyes seemed merely asleep, as if any moment they might open to reveal shining irises.
Her robe was flawless, without a single tear or blemish, yet it looked as if it were made from tough leather. The staff she clutched tightly before being sealed was plain, without any ornate decoration.
And her face was remarkably clear.
She had such a gentle expression that you wouldn’t believe she could harm a soul—not even a tiny insect.
It was almost unbelievable that someone like her had once been part of the great evil that ruled the world back then. And how she had come to be trapped so vividly inside this pillar of ice was a mystery.
The woman looked as if she might break free from the ice at any moment and move.
“Are you saying this is an ancient Ziphl mage?”
“Yes. A thousand years ago, the second head of the Bikyung clan used the power of the Everfrost to seal this mage.”
Talaris said as she gently touched the ice pillar.
Jin noticed new wrinkles forming on the back of her hand—something he hadn’t seen before—but said nothing.
“Is this because of the oath made by the Endorma bloodline you mentioned earlier?”
“Yes. You know well enough that no power comes without a price.”
As the contract holder of a thousand years, Jin understood this better than anyone.
His own second chance at life, and the immense power and potential he now possessed beyond any genius his age, came with countless sacrifices and responsibilities.
Of course, Talaris didn’t know all the details behind the thousand-year contract.
But watching Jin save the Hongin, she had come to believe he was already a man who understood what ‘responsibility’ truly meant.
“The Everfrost power our Endorma bloodline gained is the same. We were granted power far beyond what a human should have, but in exchange, we were tasked with helping resolve the world’s anomalies.”
This was the first time Jin had heard such a thing.
“I always thought the Bikyung kept neutrality simply because of their nature and influence. But they had a mission?”
It was a story few knew.
The Endorma bloodline’s pact with the Everfrost—a divine sword, or rather, a promise with a god—was different from ordinary contracts.
“What kind of anomalies are you talking about?”
“The disasters caused by the witch Helluram are the most notorious. The previous Bikyung heads struggled greatly to stop her. Including my mother.”
“You’re telling an outsider too much, Mother.”
“Outsider? Daughter, how can our son-in-law be an outsider?”
“Who exactly decided Jin was your son-in-law…?”
“Hmph. Most people don’t know this, but if my mother hadn’t stopped Helluram, the world’s population would be tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions fewer.”
Talaris dismissed Siris with a wave. Siris sighed, and Jin’s eyes widened.
If what she said was true, then everyone in the world owed the Bikyung a debt, even if only a little.
“Five hundred years ago, during the Holy Kingdom’s Defense War, the Bikyung swords infiltrated the demon lands and killed high-ranking demons, greatly contributing to the peace of the mortal realm.”
Since the first Bikyung head was chosen by the Everfrost, the clan had made immeasurable contributions to the world’s peace and prosperity over the past thousand years.
Talaris herself had sacrificed much, and continued to do so, to eliminate these anomalies.
“This woman was one of those anomalies.”
Jin shifted his gaze back to the woman inside the ice pillar.
“From all the lovers I’ve had, I’ve learned one thing: you can’t judge a person by appearances. Sometimes a guy who looks like a loser turns out to be incredibly tough, and vice versa. This woman looks like she couldn’t even kill an ant, right?”
“That’s how she appears.”
“Due to foreign invasions, many records were lost, but even the surviving Bikyung archives describe her as a demon on par with Helluram.”
Suddenly, a name from the third tomb’s record device flashed in Jin’s mind.
How did it go? Sarah, did you destroy all the enemy towers?
No, I couldn’t. Could you believe there was another mage like Elona? Silderei. It was so terrifying, I smashed about fifty towers before giving up and coming back.
What? Really!?
You’re being fooled again, Silderei. Haha! You’re so easy to trick, I can’t stop playing pranks.
What? Lies? Again?
Yeah. What crazy monster like that could exist? She’s dumb but cute.
Elona Ziphl.
Even the teenage knights of Runkandel back then shuddered at the name, calling her a mad monster. Just the mention of another mage like her made Silderei shrink back in fear.
“She’s Elona Ziphl. A pureblood Ziphl, but never a clan head. There’s not a single other piece of information about her. It’s strange how little is recorded. But according to clues left by the second Bikyung head in the Everfrost…”
She was a mage capable of wiping out entire continents.
Talaris trailed off and channeled the Everfrost’s power into the ice pillar.
The pillar glowed, and several ‘screens’ appeared.
“A recording device? Images!?”
Jin flinched, examining the pillar.
Unlike the record device left by Solderet, these were not videos but frozen images, like paintings.
The screens showed Elona Ziphl in battle, or the aftermath of the battlefields she had ravaged.
Though still images, Jin felt overwhelmed by Elona’s presence.
Elona, staff raised; shattered mountain ranges; tens of thousands of humans gathered to oppose her…
The next image showed no living soul—only countless drops of blood forming rivers of flesh and bone. Elona’s clothes remained untouched.
“Probably even the second Bikyung head couldn’t kill her. So they barely managed to seal her using the Everfrost.”
“Then is this Elona Ziphl still alive?”
“Though many records were lost, I’ve heard there was never any record of her death. Her time is simply frozen.”
A chill ran down Jin’s spine, goosebumps rising.
“A monster like this… only sealed, but still alive.”
They couldn’t kill her now.
If it had been possible, the previous Bikyung heads, including Talaris, wouldn’t have left Elona alone.
One thing was hard to accept.
“Why are there so few records about such a powerful mage? Only the Bikyung have any record of her. Other histories probably don’t even mention her name.”
According to the teenage knights’ records and the traces left by the second Bikyung head’s sealing, Elona Ziphl was undoubtedly the strongest mage in Ziphl history. If not, her name would have come up whenever the strongest were discussed.
Yet Jin had never heard of her during his own past life’s magical studies.
People mentioned Riol Ziphl, not Elona, when talking about the greatest mages in history.
In other words, she was a forgotten figure.
Like Chenmi, or the old Runkandel, like countless others erased by Ziphl.
“Did Ziphl erase her?”
The obvious thought was that Ziphl had manipulated history.
But why?
Elona was Ziphl’s greatest asset at the time. The Solderet record device even described her as ‘above clan head’ and ‘half of the entire force.’
“Did they erase traces of the disasters Elona caused? Or was her power too uncontrollable? Judging by their attempt to rewrite Temar’s history, it didn’t seem like that.”
Or maybe something went wrong—Ziphl suffered heavy losses defeating Runkandel back then.
As all these possibilities raced through his mind, Talaris spoke again.
“The Bikyung have hidden this woman from Ziphl for a thousand years.”
Talaris had just revealed one of the Bikyung’s greatest secrets to Jin.
The reason for hiding Elona’s existence from Ziphl was clear.
“If Ziphl finds out, she could become active again.”
“A future no one wants to imagine. Ziphl is already dominating alone. If a monster like this joins them, balance will cease to exist.”
Indeed.
Even with the sole Starborn Knight Siron, Runkandel couldn’t surpass Ziphl. Other powers like Biment, Kinzel, and Bikyung would naturally be absorbed or destroyed if the balance collapsed.
Of course, Elona might no longer fight for Ziphl. But that was wishful thinking—an extremely unlikely scenario.
“I’m telling you the Bikyung’s secret because you’re uncovering the tombs of Runkandel’s first clan heads and glimpsing the hidden truths of that time.”
Talaris believed Jin might find clues to ‘kill’ Elona.
Or a way to suppress Ziphl’s historical manipulation—an anomaly.
And Talaris was desperate.
Jin could sense it.
“Recently, the Everfrost’s seal has been weakening.”
At those words, Jin looked again at Thalarys’s hand.
There were wrinkles—something she hadn’t had before. Given her age, some wrinkles would be natural, but like most martial artists who have mastered the ultimate arts, she had managed to suppress aging remarkably well until now.
Moreover, the Endorma bloodline, empowered by the Manbing, was especially resistant to the effects of aging.
The pronounced wrinkles on her hand meant that the Manbing’s power, which was keeping Elona in check, was reaching its limit.
Her body was struggling just to maintain itself at peak condition.
“So, how much time do we have left…?”
The moment Jin finished speaking, a sharp crack echoed—
Crack! Snap!
A fissure split through the center of the ice pillar.