Russian Cleansing (1)
Seon Yul opened a small entrance beneath his feet.
[Absolute Space Entrance Created.]
Tsssss.
In the middle of the snow-covered ice field, an oval shadow spread out like black ink.
Alexei frowned.
“…A spatial-type?”
“You’re still far off.”
Seon Yul smiled.
“This is my space, not just any space.”
Through the entrance, something slowly revealed itself.
About 2 meters long.
A massive sniper rifle… black and heavy.
The barrel alone was longer than a human’s height, and beneath it was a mana cable unique to Absolute Space.
“…A gun?”
Alexei glanced at it sideways.
“In this climate, gunpowder won’t work.”
“That’s only true for ‘outside,’ where mana exists.”
Seon Yul spoke quietly.
“This gun fires from the ‘inside.’”
He lifted the rifle onto his shoulder.
“So it has nothing to do with your ice-loving domain.”
Thud
The entire ground trembled once.
Alexei drew in a dry breath.
“…Interesting.”
His body disappeared.
This time, along with the ice.
He surged forward through frozen air at a speed that seemed to crush even light itself.
Sssk!!
Every path he passed froze and cracked the air.
Seon Yul pulled the trigger.
Bang!!
It wasn’t a sound… it was a void bursting open.
The space between the muzzle and the bullet vanished for an instant.
A tungsten round tore through the frozen air.
Along its trajectory, there was no ice, no air, no temperature at all.
Boom!!
A distant explosion rang out.
“…He dodged.”
Seon Yul said calmly.
Alexei appeared about 50 meters to the right.
“That just now… smaller than what you used in Beijing, but faster.”
Alexei’s eyes gleamed.
“I’ll admit it. You’re stronger than any mana user I’ve met so far.”
He raised his right hand.
“So… you need to die first.”
KWA-A-A-A-A!!!
This time, it wasn’t ice… light itself froze.
Even sound lagged.
Seon Yul’s body was pierced by multiple ice spears.
Pak! Pak! Pak!!
“…!”
One of the allied mages monitoring the front screamed.
“He got hit!! That guy–he’s been impaled–”
But at that moment…
Seon Yul’s body, skewered by the ice spears, distorted like a black shadow, and vanished.
“…?”
Alexei’s eyes widened.
“An afterimage?”
“Correct.”
A voice came from behind.
The moment Alexei reflexively turned to unleash cold… his feet caught on something with a soft thud.
He looked down.
Thin silver threads spread at knee height.
[Wire Master – Restraint.]
Shrrrrrr!!
In an instant, dozens of wires wrapped around his ankles, waist, and arms at once.
“This is…?!”
“I’m slow, and you’re fast.”
Seon Yul took one step, then another forward.
“So I tied you down.”
Ice burst outward.
Attempts to freeze, snap, and break the wires continued relentlessly.
But the wires kept regenerating with mana supplied from Absolute Space.
“In that state, try taking one more hit.”
Seon Yul lowered the sniper rifle slightly and opened his other hand.
[Powerful Strike – Activated.]
A spear of death formed in his grip.
Alexei’s eyes sharpened.
“…That spear.”
“You’ve heard the rumors, right?”
Seon Yul aimed the spear.
“If it hits, it’s just over.”
Black mana condensed at the tip.
“I thought extreme cold could stop regeneration.”
Seon Yul murmured.
“Want to try?”
Alexei clenched his teeth.
“Who… who do you think you’re!!!”
Thud.
The spear pierced straight through his chest.
At the moment pure white stigma and black curse collided, it felt as if the world fell silent for an instant.
“Kh… KRAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!”
Ice shattered.
The pillars of ice across the entire snowfield collapsed at once like sandcastles.
At that moment, a short message appeared:
[‘Lord of Frost – Alexei Borodin,’ wielder of Russia’s pure white mana, has been eliminated.]
[The ‘Permafrost Domain’ covering the northern region of Earth-104 has been lifted.]
[You have gained a large amount of experience.]
Seon Yul pulled the spear out and said, “It was too cold. Should be a bit warmer now.”
The moment Alexei collapsed… inside a command bunker dozens of kilometers away, Tatiana Gregorova’s eyelids trembled.
“…Alexei is dead.”
She crushed the obsidian cup in her hand as she muttered,
“Interesting.”
The corners of her lips slowly curled upward.
“Then… shall I try meddling with the mind this time?”
Dozens of branded troop formations that had been heading toward Ulaanbaatar all began turning at her single command.
“Objective change. Absolute Safety First.”
Tatiana’s eyes glowed a pale violet.
“This time, I’ll let you have some nightmares.”
***
Western Russian front, snowfield.
At the place where Alexei fell, there were no more ice pillars, storms, or waves of freezing energy.
Only a strange silence remained… like the quiet that lingers after snowfall suddenly stops.
“…It’s over.”
Cheon Li Yu said as she withdrew her divine sight.
“The domain’s gone. The temperature’s rising again too.”
Seon Yul roughly wiped the blood off the back of his hand and glanced over the shattered ice field in the distance.
“One ‘blade’ down.”
“One more left.”
Cheon Li Yu’s gaze naturally shifted east.
“The illusion side. Tatiana.”
Seon Yul’s eyes sharpened slightly.
“Location?”
“The exact coordinates keep changing.
But based on the pattern… she’s selectively targeting command units along the Ulaanbaatar front.”
Cheon Li Yu brought up her divine sight display.
Inside, it was a bizarrely tangled battlefield situation.
Allies attacking allies, command chains collapsing, a base suddenly self-destructing.
And at the center of all that chaos… There was always “a faint, shadow-like woman.”
“There.”
Seon Yul tapped a point on the screen.
“The source of the nightmare.”
“Let’s go.”
An entrance to Absolute Space opened.
A doorway connecting the snow-covered Russian field to the Mongolian steppe appeared.
Mongolia, outskirts of Ulaanbaatar.
The steppe was no longer a steppe.
Bullet marks, traces of magical explosions, overturned ground.
Among them were scattered remains of military equipment and burned tent structures.
And in the middle of it all, a woman was slowly dancing.
Under the night sky,
her long purple hair flows down.
The space around her rippled gently like waves.
Tatiana Gregorova.
The one who ruled the “Dance of Illusions.”
Every time she flicked her fingers,
screams, accidental discharges, and friendly fire erupted in nearby military bases.
“Why are you shooting?! We’re on the same side!”
“They fired first… no, they looked like enemies–AAARGH!!”
Bullets and mana clashed and exploded.
Tatiana watched the scene lightly,
like a conductor enjoying an orchestra.
“A little more… just a little more.”
Her eyelids slowly lowered.
“If you fall apart just a little more, you’ll collapse on your own.”
Then…
Tap.
Behind her, a small sound… like a pebble dropping in midair.
Tatiana turned her head slightly.
“Who is it?”
“A spectator.”
A short reply.
She turned fully to look.
Black clothing.
An unremarkable appearance… but a strangely unsettling gaze.
It was Seon Yul.
Tatiana smirked.
“You… you’re not ordinary.”
She was the type who could read people at a glance.
That’s not just a soldier. Not a normal player either.
The realization surfaced like instinct.
“Absolute Safety First.”
She spoke first.
“That’s you, right?”
“Lately the name’s been going around so much it’s a bit embarrassing.”
Seon Yul shrugged.
“And you… Tatiana. Ruler of illusions.”
Tatiana smiled.
“Then let’s say introductions are done.”
She tilted her head slightly.
“You must have a clear reason for coming all this way, right?”
“Very straightforward.”
Seon Yul nodded.
“The reason I came is simple too… I don’t want you poking around in people’s heads anymore.”
“So you’re going to kill me?”
“If possible, I’ll try to make it not painful.”
Tatiana let out a small laugh.
Behind that smile, violet slowly filled her eyes.
“That’s not something you get to choose.”
The moment she finished speaking… the world subtly flipped.
“…Hey, Seon Yul.”
Cheon Li Yu, now standing behind him, tapped his shoulder.
“You’re already caught.”
“Yeah.”
Seon Yul already knew.
The scenery before him, the smell of the air, the sensation under his feet… everything was too clean.
Just moments ago, it had been full of explosions and the scent of gunpowder.
Now it was an overly pristine military camp.
‘An illusion.’
Seon Yul thought.
Tatiana’s specialty was flipping a target’s senses and implanting a different reality.
And the problem was… it went beyond simple visual hallucination, affecting touch, temperature, and even mana flow.
“You’ve probably heard at least that much somewhere.”
Tatiana’s voice echoed.
She was now sitting far away, perched atop a command tent… like a spectator overlooking everything.
“I also know you’re the careful type. I’ve already heard about Absolute Space, and the Hammer of God too.”
Seon Yul replied,
“Then from your perspective, the best scenario would be to bind me here in one go and slowly enter my mind alone to savor it piece by piece.”
“Correct.”
Tatiana snapped her fingers.
Snap.
With that single sound, the surrounding air creaked again.
“So let me ask one thing first.”
She asked:
“Are you sure what you’re standing on right now is real ground?”
At that moment… the ground beneath Seon Yul vanished.
“…!”
But he didn’t fall.
“Yeah. I expected that.”
Beneath his feet, a circular entrance was already floating.
[Absolute Space Entrance Created.]
Tatiana’s eyes widened slightly.
“You’re using it already? Running away?”
“Not running. This is just better.”
Seon Yul answered.
“The space you control is ‘outside.’”
He stepped in up to his ankles.
The boundary where reality and Absolute Space overlapped.
Tatiana raised an eyebrow.
“…Interesting.”
“Agreed.”
Seon Yul said.
“Your illusion ability is more dangerous than I expected.”
He spoke honestly.
“To be frank, the type of ability I hate facing the most is ‘mental-type.’”
Tatiana smiled.
“Then why did you bother coming all the way here, even talking to me?”
“Shared vision.”
Seon Yul lightly tapped behind his ear.
“In a situation that’s obviously an illusion, it’s a bit risky to trust only what I see.”
Tatiana immediately understood.
“…So you have other eyes outside.”
She frowned slightly.
What Seon Yul relied on was divine sight, shared vision, and Absolute Space.
“This might get a bit annoying.”
She raised her hand.
“But still…”
From her fingertips, petal-like violet fragments began to scatter.
“Let’s start by tasting what’s right in front of me.”
Sight, hearing, skin, brain… everything flipped.
The boundary between reality, memory, and imagination collapsed.
And suddenly…
Seon Yul was standing inside a convenience store.
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