Night Ranger

To outsiders, everything pertaining to the Eternal Frozen Spring was a mystery.

It had been too long, after all... Much information had disappeared in the river of time.

Especially in a place like the Underdark where fighting was just a part of daily life. History was passed down by from mouth to mouth, and many books and written documents had disappeared.

Thus, even if the Underdark United Council exhausted all their means and gathered six Legends, they were still in the dark in regards to information about their target.

They only knew some basic characteristics of the Dark Specters, and they had paid a heavy price just to learn this.

In the game, Marvin had never heard about that group of Legends.

He supposed that these six had perished in their attempt to deal with the Final Ghost Mother because there was no information about these six people in the final instance of the Ice Palace.

After all, if they had died in the Ice Palace, or even further still, their bodies would have been possessed by Dark Specters, probably turning them into minibosses.

This was also why there was a hurdle like the Ice Jade Palace in the surroundings of the Eternal Frozen Spring.

The creator of the Ice Jade Palace was the King of the Jade Dragons, Aiken.

The Jade Dragon stood out a lot and were different from the Chromatic Dragons or the Metallic Dragons. The Jade Dragons came from Jade Dream, a rather beautiful Secondary Plane. It was said to be between the Green Sea Paradise and the Astral Sea.

In Feinan’s early days, wars happened very often.

When the Night Monarch led his troops to expel the Beasts, he incidentally passed by Jade Dream. At that time, Jade Dream was being invaded by the Abyss. With the help of the Night Monarch, they managed to drive out those repulsive Demons.

In order to thank the Night Monarch, the king of the Jade Dragons had agreed to personally lead nine Jade Dragons to join the Night Monarch’s troops.

The other Jade Dragons would recover in Jade Dream. It was said that they then sealed the entrance to Jade Dream and mortals were never able to find that mysterious, beautiful world again.

And those ten Dragons followed the Night Monarch to fight in all kinds of wars. They gradually tired of all the battles.

At that time, Feinan encountered the invasion of the Dark Specters.

After the Night Monarch sealed the Final Ghost Mother in the Eternal Frozen Spring, Dragon King Aiken had a request.

He and his troops wanted to rest, so they offered to guard that frightening, otherworldly monster.

The Night Monarch could only agree to Aiken’s request. But he reminded Aiken that he should always be on guard against the Final Ghost Mother’s bewitchment.

The Jade Dragon King expressed his confidence in his firm willpower.

In his eyes, the Jade Dragons were the most suitable race to watch over this place. The Eternal Frozen Spring was really cold, and most beings in this world wouldn’t be able to resist that cold.

Jade Dragons were very mystical. Although they weren’t Ice Dragons, their bodies didn’t have the concept of temperature.

Whether they were icy or flaming areas, they wouldn’t feel any difference.

And they loved the beautiful scenery of the Andes Snow Mountains.

Thus, they sealed the entrance and built a beautiful palace inside.

The Ice Jade Palace gradually took form.

Dragon King Aiken led the nine loyal Dragons to settle in and guard this sinister place.

They were still there even now.

But they were no longer themselves.

No one knew when it all began, but the Final Ghost Mother’s power had started spreading through the seal.

The Final Ghost Mother’s strongest ability lay in controlling the mind of intelligent lifeforms. After all, a Ghost Mother could control the consciousness of thousands of lifeforms, and all of those were controlled by the Final Ghost Mother.

The Final Ghost Mother’s mental power was even stronger than that of Gods.

She managed to tempt the arrogant Dragon King, who was getting older, by promising him eternal life.

The Jade Dragons became corrupted.

Aiken became a subordinate of the Final Ghost Mother and unsealed the entrance.

They really did obtain eternal life, but they were deprived of their sentience!

Their bodies were all occupied by frightening Dark Specters!

They were the elites among Dark Specters and had occupied the Dragons’ bodies for a long time now, becoming very familiar with them.

They had very terrifying strength when fighting together.

Especially Dragon King Aiken. As one of the Night Monarch’s subordinates, his power was outstanding.

If they couldn’t take over the Ice Jade Palace in a flash, they would give the Final Ghost Mother time to prepare.

Their team was there to quickly take down the target.

Only the Final Ghost Mother was in the Eternal Frozen Spring, while the Ghost Mothers were spread throughout various parts of the Underdark.

They had to take advantage of this to kill her. If they gave her too much time, the army of Dark Specters would be called back to the Eternal Frozen Spring by the Ghost Mothers. Even if they were Legends, they would still die from the endless waves that would swarm over them!

...

"Are you sure there are 10 Dragons?"

The group kept moving ahead through the ice-cold Andes Snow Mountains, not too slow and not too fast.

The surroundings were completely still.

Everyone was still immersed in the shock from Marvin’s information, and the first to finally react and ask a question was the Fiendish Swordsman.

Marvin nodded.

He was certain about that point. The story of the Jade Dragon, Aiken, had spread among the players.

The only part that Marvin wasn’t sure about was whether or not they would meet the Final Ghost Mother immediately after the Ice Jade Palace.

In any case, they had to open up the Ice Jade Palace extremely quickly.

"Is there any way to circumvent it?" the Fiendish Swordsman asked.

Marvin shook his head. "As far as I know, the entrance to the Eternal Frozen Spring’s seal is in the depths of the Ice Jade Palace. There should be a copper gate there."

"That gate was sealed personally by the Night Monarch. We can’t force our win in, we can only use a key to open it."

"And that key is hanging from the neck of Dragon King Aiken..."

They all remained silent once more.

If what Marvin said was true, then they might really have to deal with all the Jade Dragons.

This was just the warm-up fight and they already had to face something like the frightening Dragon Race. What would be next?

No one knew what was ahead of them.

As they trudged through the endless snow, the strongest powerhouses from the Underdark tightly held their weapons, preparing themselves for battle.

Time slowly passed.

After some time, a gloomy voice noted, "There!"

That was the voice of the Duergar Sealer.

Everyone followed his gaze and saw a tall, dark statue encased in ice.

"That’s the Night Monarch’s Dark Knight!"

"The Ice Jade Palace, at last!"