Throne of the North.

Chapter 598 A Born Leader

This world called Swavnir used to have many people, about ten or twenty years ago.

However, with the appearance of the Frostfiends and the increasing number of rebels, the population has plummeted.

Whether they were normal people or rebels, they all firmly believed that their great god would rise from the dead and return. This sentiment reached its peak when Siguni appeared.

Those who had initially held firm became rebels because of Siguni; the girl didn't have to do anything, and everyone would gather around her.

The natural leaders represent the will of the gods, and the loyalty of the rebels in the world of Svavnir is like their devout faith in the gods.

Ryan was contemplating how to conquer this world. Clearly, he faced two major challenges: the rebels led by Shadow Leader Signi, and the Frostfiends brought from the North of this world.

As for that god, Ryan leans towards another answer: that He may already be dead.

With the dimensional gates opening so many times, Ryan has also discovered a pattern: only when a world is on the verge of its impending demise can it be captured by the spiritual panel. Ryan is the savior of the dead world.

If there are no problems with the gods of the Svafnir world, then Ryan wouldn't appear.

As night gradually faded, the two short hours of daylight arrived. Just as the prisoner had said, when daylight came, large numbers of Frostfiends appeared around the camp from all directions. These creatures of the North began to attack them. In just a few minutes, the entire sky and earth were shrouded in icy mist. The Frostfiends' domain made it so that even the knights of the Stag Legion could hardly see their own hands, even inside the camp.

"They are not particularly powerful individually, but their numbers are frightening."

After half an hour of fighting, Ryan had no better way to deal with the Frost Ghosts, and Archmage McKen told him something unpleasant.

"Frost demons are elemental beings, and magic has limited effect on them. Only fire mages can deal 200% damage to them, while other mages' magic damage may only have 5% to 50% of the destructive power."

Elemental life forms are such a headache, making mages feel like they are facing a dragon. The difference is that dragons have high magic resistance and high magic affinity, which can be said to be numerically overwhelming, while elemental life forms are purely... no different from magical factors.

What makes up elemental life is a large number of activated, condensed magical factors that give birth to souls.

They are the most microscopic particle-based life forms in the extraordinary world.

The only good thing Archmage McKen mentioned was that these frost goblins weren't fairies; otherwise, most spells might have reduced their damage to zero.

Although the daytime was only two hours long, Ryan did not intend to continue this meaningless battle and immediately ordered the army to withdraw and return to the Frozen Territory.

On Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, Ryan reconsidered the achievement points he could gain in this alternate world.

Once he defeats the Frost Demons and humans, he will be able to completely conquer the otherworldly plane.

"First, we need to know the exact number of Frostfiends, whether it is possible to completely annihilate them, or find the source of the Frostfiends' existence and solve the problem at its root. Frostfiends were born in the North, but no such elemental life form was born in the North of other worlds, so there must be something special about Svafnir that caused the Frostfiends to appear."

"Secondly, those Shadow Vanguard represent the extraordinary power of the native human race. Appeasement is not an option. They have their own leaders, and those rebels have no morals whatsoever. Peaceful means will not work, and war will be difficult to achieve as well."

"The Shadow Vanguard's strength allows them to hide in the shadows, and their guerrilla tactics make it difficult for the army to eradicate them."

Ryan was in a bit of a dilemma.

Monsters are not scary. Even dragons can be killed with enough warriors. But the threat posed by a fully formed human civilization is on the level of intelligence.

Those natives aren't fools; they won't stand still and wait for them to come to them so they can start a war. They'll just flee and wait for an opportunity to strike at Ryan's army.

They have no bottom line and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Given this condition, Ryan didn't even consider recalling the Bucks Legion from the Northwind Province.

"How do we solve this?"

Ryan murmured, his combing needing to be based on his ultimate goal, exploring the trimming little by little like branches.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to conquer the other world, obtain all its resources, and harvest wealth to strengthen the power of their frozen territories before the world dies and falls.

Below this is the population, which can bring him spiritual income, and the spiritual can help him to bestow spiritual blessings, creating his extraordinary foundation through miraculous means.

"Spiritual blessing."

Ryan's eyes lit up. The spiritual replenishment was difficult because of the presence of Signi, a natural leader, and those shadow avant-garde figures hidden in the shadows were also hard to grasp.

In comparison, the benefits would be much greater if one could find a sacred object imbued with spiritual blessings.

Moreover, Ryan was very curious about the power contained in the spiritual blessings of this world.

"Then, besides searching for the Frost Demon, we also need to find the sacred artifact from another world."

The idea has been proposed, but how to implement it is another challenge.

There is only one person who can complete Ryan's mission: Griff the Falconer of the Frozen Territory. A natural scout, he is the only one who can help Ryan find what he wants in this other world.

Moreover, only the Blood Eagle can detect the traces of those Shadow Vanguards.

"The attendants also need to stay in the other world plane to support Griff at any time."

Ryan made a decision: after more than an hour, when the other world once again fell into darkness, he reopened the dimensional gate.

After some effort, the knights and squires found the camp, but the scorched ruins indicated that the natives had already visited before their arrival.

Griff didn't say much, and disappeared into the night with Blood Eagle.

……

With her thick, long brown hair, Signi was a natural leader, because everyone who saw her serpentine vertical pupils would not doubt that she was the spokesperson for the great god.

Ancient and devout faith led people to believe that everything Sighni did was right. They believed that all of Sighni's choices were divine guidance and would lead Swavnier toward the right path and toward the prosperity of civilization.

The god is dead, and people firmly believe that He can return, but they are inevitably confused before that happens, so following Signi becomes the only option.

Most of the rebels in Sławnir were there for this reason: they needed a leader, and Signi was a natural leader.

Everyone thought so, except for Signi himself.

Even in coarse linen clothes, Signi's tall and slender figure remained undeniable. She was not a sentimental human being; her serpentine vertical pupils represented extreme indifference. She even felt she was gradually losing the emotions that humans should possess. She was indifferent to death and enthusiastic about destruction; each time she plunged the earth into scorched earth, she felt an unparalleled sense of transcendence.

This strange feeling led her to a very bad suspicion.

The great being, the god of Sławnir, may have truly fallen this time.

He is ancient enough to have died many times over the long past, but those were not true deaths, but rather a deep slumber, like a snake hibernating in winter and then reviving in the warm spring of the following year.

The arrival of the North meant that this world had only winter, and no spring or summer.

So, can the gods break free from hibernation? Or is it that the North arose precisely because He has fallen?

Sighney didn't know, but she trusted her guess, because as the number of frost wraiths increased, representing the North's deeper influence on the world, she also began to feel sleepy.

There are only two hours of daylight in a daytime, and the world is plunged into darkness for the remaining twenty-two hours.

Only Signy knew what was going on.

Swavnier's day and night were never this different before, until she became stronger and stronger, and she became more and more sleepy. One day she suddenly realized that she was only awake for two hours a day.

From that time on, the world only had two hours of daylight.

An unseen force is influencing her; if she sleeps for more than twenty-four hours, something terrible will happen.

The world will die, and everything will be destroyed.

Based on this terrifying assumption, and in order to combat the harsh winters of the North, Signi decided on a scorched-earth policy.

Her power burns the land, turning it into scorched earth. The flames bring high temperatures, but more importantly, the scorched earth stores a lot of heat. In those places, there will be no more frost in the morning, and a scorched earth can last for half a month.

But Signi felt her drowsiness increasing, as if she were stronger today than yesterday, and her drowsiness was also greater today than yesterday.

She has been in the Holy Realm for more than half a year. In another six months at most, she will reach the peak of the Holy Realm, and if nothing unexpected happens, she will not encounter any difficulties in becoming a legend.

The arrival of that day may also be the day when this world is plunged into eternal night and death. The day she becomes a legend will be the day she dies.

The threat to survival drives life to evolve, and Signi has recently been trying to slow down his rate of becoming stronger.

If she could, she would like to take the Shadow Vanguard to a new world, a world where the days wouldn't get shorter because of her presence, so that they could survive.

Does she have that ability? Yes, of course she does.

The people of this world possessed a wealth of knowledge that surprised Ryan. The natives' understanding and knowledge were unmatched by any other world. In fact, compared to the Norris continent, Ryan felt that most humans could not compare to the natives of this world in terms of their knowledge and inherited wisdom.

Why is this? Because the Shadow Vanguard have traveled to many worlds, stealing knowledge from those broken worlds, and with the arrival of Signi, this efficiency has increased even more.

Signi led them on a smuggling trip to other worlds, stealing vast amounts of precious knowledge to cultivate even more outstanding avant-garde individuals, all in order to find a suitable new world.

However, without exception, every other world that Signy found was even more desolate than this one. Before the North, there were many desolate worlds.

They are all leaves of the World Tree, and such a scene was described in the legacy of the great beings bestowed upon Signi.

"The eternal World Tree has broken countless branches, and the falling of golden leaves represents the withering of each plane of the world. Ancient beings have crushed the chaotic trunk, and newborn great beings have devoured the nutrients from the roots. Towering giants have covered themselves with the bark and woven clothes."

"It ushered in the cold winter, and so the Creator was also covered by wind and snow."

That was a message passed down to her by a great being, describing an incredibly vast scene: the once golden World Tree was now covered in snow.

It was because of witnessing that scene that Signy realized he was becoming increasingly distant from humanity.

She is on her way to becoming a god, but the process is destined to be difficult. After becoming a legend, she will probably sleep forever and die with this world.

So recently, Signy has started to think about whether to abandon everyone in this world. Those people call her a natural leader, but Signy doesn't think so. She has no sense of morality, and the world cannot morally bind her with the responsibility of a leader.

She wondered if she should travel the world alone, wandering among the golden, withered leaves, searching for hope for life.

Before they could make a decision, they discovered that otherworldly beings had appeared in this world. They were very powerful, more powerful than the humans that Signi had encountered when he smuggled himself to other worlds, and they had a distinct core of civilization. They were not chaotic, but rather firmly gathered around their leader.

Signy did not sense any fear of disaster in these otherworldly beings.

This made her wonder if the world the other person lived in was the very place where she was looking for a chance at life.
That's what Signy thought, and that's what she did, and so she... appeared in the Frozen Territory.

No one could stop this natural leader, because even when she passed through the dimensional gate, no one noticed her presence.

On Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, Signi raised her head and looked at the sun in the sky. In that instant, Signi felt an immense terror. It was an incredibly terrifying and great being, even many times more powerful than the god she served.

She was discovered, and Signi felt as if the whole world had become her enemy.

This was an attempt to illegally immigrate, and the illegal immigrants have now been discovered.

The only good thing is that the sun in the sky, that great being, has not awakened. The power of instinct only makes Signy feel uncomfortable and tormented, but cannot directly kill her.

In addition, Signi found her body becoming more active; she was no longer sleepy.

Under the sun's rays, she was no longer so sleepy. She understood why—this world was beyond her control. Even if she became a legend, the length of day and night in this world would not change.

Signy knew she had found a way out, but the problem was that she couldn't live in this world as an illegal immigrant. She could only appear in this world temporarily, and she couldn't obtain a legitimate identity in this world.

This left Signy helpless, just as she had been before, unable to find a solution.

Turning her head, Signi looked into the distance. She was hidden in the shadows because the castle on the mountain was inscribed with a powerful force. Once exposed, she would be locked on. Even in the shadows, there were guards patrolling. She saw a cat.

A cat that looked like a human was crouching in the shadows, feeling sleepy. This was the influence of Signi on it; the cat-human had undoubtedly fallen asleep at this moment.

Signy walked in the shadows of Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, through the castle, and finally stopped in front of a horse.

(End of this chapter)