Elysia
Chapter 1: The Queen Goes for a Walk

The air on the Echoing Highlands felt frozen, not due to the weather, but from a tension so thick it was palpable. Before a tear in the very fabric of space—the Hell Gate, pulsing with a malevolent, blood-red energy—the mightiest alliance the world had witnessed in the last thousand years was assembled. This was not merely an army; it was the embodiment of the mortal world's hope and desperation.

In the front ranks, King Theron and Queen Lyra of the Elven Kingdom stood with unwavering majesty. Their robes, woven from shimmering silver leaves, seemed to glow, yet their faces were pale and stern. Beside them, four youths from another world, the summoned Heroes, tried to hide their anxiety behind their still-gleaming armor. Kenji, the black-haired leader, gripped his sword with whitened knuckles. Next to him, Aiko, a spectacled girl holding a magic staff, muttered a formula for mental fortitude. Behind them, Kaito, a large youth with a tower shield, planted his feet firmly, while Yui, the pink-haired healer, clasped her hands in a silent prayer.

Not far from them stood other legendary figures. Archmage Gideon, leader of the Agartha Magic Tower, his long white beard flowing over his star-spangled blue robes. His eyes, usually full of scientific curiosity, were now fixed on the gate with intense concentration. At his side, High Commander Borin of the Human Empire, a veteran of a hundred battles, watched over his flawless formation with an eagle's gaze. Even Gromli Stonehand, the Forge Master of the Dwarven clan, and Saintess Annelise of the Holy See were present, each bringing their own power and purpose.

Their mission was singular: breach Hell, face whatever horrors lay within, and seize the Crystal Amber. The artifact was the only key to awakening the Holy Sword capable of defeating the ancient Demon Lord prophesied to rise and swallow the world in darkness. They were prepared to sacrifice everything.

"Mages, stabilize the portal!" Archmage Gideon's voice, amplified by magic, echoed across the plains. "Knights, shields front! Heroes, prepare to enter after the first wave!"

The army roared in agreement, a symphony of clashing steel and burning resolve. They were the world's last hope, standing on the precipice of despair.

Then, the unexpected happened.

The heart-wrenching screams of spirits from within the gate suddenly ceased. The chaotic, blood-red pulse slowed, then stopped entirely. The abrupt silence was far more terrifying than the previous noise. The entire army, from the common soldier to the Elven King, felt a chilling premonition.

Then, the portal's color changed. The red was replaced by a soft, beautiful spectrum of light—the blue of the aurora, the violet of twilight, and the silver of starlight. The air, once hot and smelling of sulfur, suddenly became profoundly cold. Snowflakes, glowing with an internal luminescence, began to fall gracefully from the portal, an impossible anomaly in the middle of the warm highlands.

"What is this?" Queen Lyra whispered, her composure cracking slightly as she unconsciously gripped her husband's arm. "What sorcery is this, Gideon?"

The Archmage could only shake his head, his eyes wide with disbelief. "This... this is not sorcery, Your Majesty. This is a law of nature being rewritten."

It was then that a figure stepped out from the center of the mesmerizing light.

The tense silence transformed into one of absolute awe and terror. It was not the horned demon or the hideous monster they had anticipated.

It was a woman.

A woman of a beauty that surpassed mortal description. Her long, blue hair flowed like a liquid galaxy, adorned with an intricate golden crown that seemed forged from newborn stars. She wore a pristine white gown that flowed like a frozen waterfall, accented with feathers of indigo and magenta that shimmered with her every movement.

She did not walk upon the ground; she floated a few centimeters above it, her every step graceful and aimless. Her face was the very picture of perfect tranquility, as if the entire army before her was merely a part of an uninteresting landscape.

In the front line, Kenji, the Hero, swallowed hard. A pure, icy fear snaked down his spine. He forced himself to do as he was trained. "[Hero's Eye]!"

A status window, a Hero's privilege, appeared in his vision. But what he saw made him wish he were blind.

[Target Analysis]

Name: Elysia von Silbernebel

Title: Ruler of Hell

Level: ???

HP: ???

MP: ???

STR: ???

AGI: ???

INT: ???

VIT: ???

[HIGHEST-LEVEL SYSTEM WARNING]:

This individual is beyond measurement parameters. Do not provoke. Do not obstruct.

Let her pass.

Beside him, Aiko gasped, her glasses nearly falling off. Kaito, the shield bearer, unconsciously took a step back, his tower shield feeling like a piece of paper before this presence. Yui was already weeping silently, feeling a spiritual pressure so immense she felt she would shatter into pieces. The system warning appeared for all of them, an absolute message from the world itself.

The reactions of the world's legends were no better.

Commander Borin, whose mind was always racing with a thousand strategies, was now completely blank. There was no opening, no weakness. His entire army, the mightiest alliance in history, was nothing but a glorified honor guard for this single being. Their invasion plan now felt like the most tragic of jokes.

Saintess Annelise clutched her holy symbol tightly. She was supposed to feel a wicked, foul demonic aura. But all she felt was... a void. A majestic emptiness. Not a darkness that opposed the light, but an existence so immense that the concepts of light and dark no longer applied to it. That was far more frightening.

Gromli Stonehand, the Dwarven Forge Master, didn't see a woman. He saw an impossible masterpiece. The metal of her crown, the fabric of her dress, the gems that adorned it—none of them existed in his encyclopedic knowledge of materials. They were creations of a divine level, making his own life's work look like children's toys.

But the most profound reactions came from Archmage Gideon and King Theron.

Gideon trembled not from fear, but from a terrifying intellectual ecstasy. He was a master of magic; he could see the flow of mana in the world. Around this woman, mana did not flow; it submitted. Those glowing snowflakes were not simple ice magic. Each flake was a manifestation of the 'concept' of nullification, canceling any magic around it. The air the woman exhaled contained a denser energy than the rarest of mana crystals. She wasn't using magic. She was magic. Gideon's entire life, dedicated to understanding magic, felt meaningless before this living embodiment of it.

King Theron, meanwhile, felt something else. As he looked into those serene blue eyes, an echo of a memory not his own trembled within his elven blood. A forgotten legend, an ancient sin of his ancestors—an Elven King from a bygone era who, in his panic during the first demon invasion, had accidentally cast a human child into this very same gate. A small incident, forgotten by history. Could it be? Could this magnificent being be the consequence of that small mistake, left to fester and grow into something unimaginable within Hell for millennia? A cold sweat drenched his back.

In the midst of all this internal chaos, Elysia herself felt nothing. Or rather, she felt everything at once.

Air... she thought, closing her eyes for a moment. She could feel the breeze caress her cheek, carrying the scent of grass and damp earth. So different from the hot, acrid air of her kingdom. She opened her eyes and looked up. A blue sky... white clouds... A sight that existed only in her faintest memories, from a time when she was still Han Ji-hoon.

She paid no mind to the thousands of soldiers before her. For someone who had faced countless legions of demons alone, this crowd was nothing more than a peculiar grove of trees. They were irrelevant.

Her gaze then wandered, past the sea of frozen soldiers, and fixed upon the horizon. There, rising majestically through the clouds, stood a gigantic tree whose trunk shone with a green light of life. The World Tree.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched her lips. She remembered a worn-out fairy tale book she had read in a library in Seoul, thousands of years ago. A story about an adventurer who found peace beneath the branches of the World Tree.

A simple goal formed in her war-weary mind. I want to go there.

Without a word, Elysia began to move forward.

She walked straight ahead, parting the ranks of the world's mightiest alliance as if they weren't there. Her path took her right past King Theron and the Heroes. As she passed, they could feel a cold aura that made their souls tremble, yet there was no malice in it at all. There was only a profound, majestic indifference.

The entire army held its breath as she walked across the plains, her graceful back slowly receding into the distance. When her figure was far enough away to be just a blue speck, Commander Borin finally found his voice again, though it was hoarse.

"Don't... move," he rasped. "Nobody moves until she is out of sight."

Their mission was a total failure. Their world might still be in danger from the prophesied Demon Lord, but today they had met something entirely different. Not a Demon Lord who wanted to conquer the world, but the true Ruler of Hell who, apparently... was just out for a walk. And somehow, that fact was far more terrifying.