Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Mountain Lord (1)
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Near a mountain peak not far from the coal mine.
Crunch! Thump! Thump! Thump thump thump!
The sound of clawing through snow echoed endlessly.
Hard ice shattered, revealing a deep hole punched through beneath.
The digger took on a human form, but stood over five meters tall and weighed two tons.
A monstrous brute that could tear a fearsome ogre apart with its bare hands.
It was a Sasquatch, one of the dangerous magical beasts that inhabited Meurso Mountain.
Whack— whack— whack— whack— whack—
Deep inside an ice cave shrouded in total darkness, the Sasquatch kept burrowing downward.
Its arms began moving even faster.
Its arms, scooping out the earth, were covered in deep wounds.
Wounds it had suffered a few days earlier while fleeing a horrifying existence.
Born as a mighty magical beast, it had spent its entire life as a terror to other monsters—until it suddenly met its match.
The Sasquatch, which had only ever known domination and never bowed to another, thought for the first time that day.
‘That thing.’
Before it, he was nothing more than a pathetic lump of meat.
...He had no idea how he survived afterward.
To escape that thing's teeth and claws, the Sasquatch had hurled itself off a cliff, barely clinging to life.
Its innate monstrous survival instinct warned the barely alive Sasquatch.
Hide in a safe place until the wounds healed.
And so, the Sasquatch had ventured deep into the snowy mountains, digging into the frozen ground until its fingertips split open.
At that moment.
...Whack!
The Sasquatch's hand stopped dead while tunneling.
A blue glow, twinkling like fireflies amid the dirt clods, was seeping out.
As the blue light enveloped the Sasquatch's arm.
Tssst—
The wounds began to heal bit by bit.
Gazing at its cleanly restored arm, the Sasquatch snorted in satisfaction.
The blue glow was the vital energy of the Meurso Mountains.
The purest crystallization of mana.
For mana-based creatures like magical beasts, it was the ultimate source of growth.
The Sasquatch began excavating a circular chamber around the mountain's vital veins to hibernate.
Whack— whack— whack— whack— whack—
Before long, a dome-shaped cave was complete.
Blue light shimmered along the earthen walls like a flowing Milky Way.
Finally, the Sasquatch curled up in its new lair.
Tssst—
The frozen mountains' vital energy began flowing into the Sasquatch.
Broken bones knitted back together, severed muscle fibers reconnected strand by strand.
One week.
If it hibernated for just one more week, the Sasquatch's body would return to its original state.
...No, more precisely, absorbing the pure mana would rebirth it with an even mightier physique.
The Sasquatch dreamed sweet dreams.
These wounds were merely growing pains for an even larger, tougher body.
When it emerged, it would be far stronger.
As it dreamed of the future.
...!
Instinct suddenly screamed a warning.
Leave this place now. Flee.
It was the exact same premonition as when it had encountered ‘that thing’ before.
The Sasquatch hesitated.
Abandon the hard-earned nest and follow instinct, or risk staying put?
A quick scan revealed nothing amiss.
Then again, what could happen this deep in a tunnel?
It had dug decoy tunnels everywhere in case other predators followed, set plenty of traps.
Not content, it had blocked off passages with ice and dirt, disguising dead ends.
Nothing would happen.
The Sasquatch ignored the instinctual warning and curled up tighter.
Right then.
Crunch! Crumble crumble!
Something was drawing near.
Ruuuumble!
The Sasquatch bristled its fur against the possible foe.
The dirt mound ahead trembled faintly.
If an enemy appeared, it would claw its face to shreds—that was the plan.
But.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The deafening roar came not from ahead, but from above.
The moment the Sasquatch whipped its head upward.
Splat— boom!
A large, pointed metal lump burst through the cave ceiling.
...Crunch!
The sharp iron stake impaled the Sasquatch like a skewer.
The Sasquatch vomited blood in absurdity and injustice, but no one acknowledged it.
The pathetic, lonely end of a high-rank magical beast.
A blizzard raged across the vast snowfield.
...Boom! ...Boom! ...Boom! ...Boom! ...Boom!
Iron stakes were being hammered into spots all over Meurso Mountain.
The prisoners had begun their final task.
"Erect it! Erect it! It's tilting!"
"Pull that rope tighter over there! Right! Right... not left, pull with your damn eating hand, you rice-brained bastard!"
"I eat with my left hand!"
"Huh!? It's falling! Uwaaaaa!"
"Hold the rope right, you lunatic!"
They were driving stakes into the snowfield everywhere.
Claaang! Thud! Boom!
The prisoners chipped away the ice, then lashed stakes with ropes atop it for stability before climbing temporary ramparts and swinging hammers down.
Crack— craaackle! Rumble!
Every alternating blow from the massive hammers split the ice as the stakes sank deep.
The number had already surpassed a hundred.
The countless stakes the prisoners had slaved over—nearly dying in the process—now studded the snowfield, creating a maze-like scene.
Meanwhile.
‘Good. Severing nicely.’
Federback watched it all from atop a high hill.
...Boom!
Each time a stake pierced the ice and buried deep into the ground.
...Snap!
A strand of the mountain's vital veins, through which its energy flowed, was severed.
With every cut, the landscape in the valley below shifted moment by moment.
Craaaackle...
The green patterns that had melted into the snowfield were once again blanketed in ice.
The geothermal heat rising from deep underground had been cut off.
The thawed earth froze over at rapid speed, and every sprout and flower withered dead.
Federback nodded.
‘As expected. Nothing harms Mother Nature's health like human filth.’
Stakes laced with prisoners' hair and spit.
They corrupted the mountain's pure energy.
And that wasn't all.
As the stakes severed the vital veins, the flow of vital energy began to disrupt.
Like a cerebral hemorrhage bursting blood vessels in a human brain, causing a stroke.
The entire mountain screamed in agony.
‘If you're going to keep rejecting humans, just die.’
Federback gazed up at the lofty peak and murmured.
During the Great War with the demon realm, nature had not been on humanity's side.
As if exacting revenge for past suffering, Mother Nature empowered the monsters with brutal weather.
Humanity had been pushed to the brink of extinction, trampled amid endless torment and screams.
‘...No humans were preaching about protecting nature back then.’
Humans must protect nature?
Absurd arrogance.
If nature willed it, wiping humanity from the world would be child's play.
‘That's why you discipline it thoroughly when you must.’
Federback hammered stakes polluted with prisoners' filth and malice all over the Meurso Mountains.
And each time, vital veins snapped one by one.
‘Reviving a mountain is hard, but killing one is all too easy.’
Much like how it's easier to kill a patient than to cure one.
Soon.
Ruuuumble—
A faint earthquake rumbled from afar.
Only then did Federback nod.
‘The bastard sucking up the mountain's vital energy has opened its eyes.’
There was one creature nestled in the richest yolk of the converging vital veins.
The world called it the mountain's master—the Mountain Lord.
‘Until its patience completely runs out...’
Federback closed his eyes and counted inwardly.
‘...5.’
The faint quake persisted.
‘...4.’
And it was growing stronger.
‘...3.’
The moment Federback murmured the number.
Booom!
Unable to wait, an explosion erupted from the cave at the valley's end.
No need to count 2 or 1.
The Mountain Lord.
The culprit that turned Meurso Mountain into a human-uninhabitable zone had revealed itself.
One minute before the Mountain Lord appeared.
‘Go on, spin your wheels. You'll all be dead soon anyway.’
Iwan smirked, standing atop a rampart erected to drive in the stakes as he gazed at the distant peak.
...Creak! ...Creak! ...Creak!
The deeper the stakes sank, the more the rocks atop the distant peak seemed to shift.
He could even see how a boulder that had been steady just moments ago now tilted faintly once the stake was fully driven.
Iwan was certain.
‘By the time all these stakes are in, an avalanche will hit.’
Every stake destabilized the upper peak's foundation further.
At this rate, an avalanche would surely sweep everything down here soon.
Iwan called his gang.
In a low voice, he issued orders for what was to come.
"No need to drive all these stakes. The upper ground's dangerously unstable already. A few steps from us up there would trigger a collapse."
Time to bail.
"What about the others?"
"Why worry about that?"
Iwan planned to betray even the other prisoners, climb the peak, and trigger the avalanche.
"To fool the enemy, you fool your allies too. Advance the plan thirty minutes. Just a little vibration's enough. Like how a snowball rolled from the peak becomes a massive boulder down below. Who cares about the trash? Let 'em get swept away and die."
Iwan flashed a triumphant smile and turned.
"Alright, let's move out... Huh?"
But he couldn't finish.
A terrifying roar echoed as something burst from the distant cave.
The moment he glimpsed its pale, bloodless face and blazing red eyes.
"?"
Iwan could no longer tell if this was a dream or reality.
...Splat!
Soon, Iwan's head exploded while he stood dazed.
The Mountain Lord sharpened all its scales.
Then it swung its razor-sharp claws and talons, slicing nearby prisoners like insects.
"Aaaagh! It's a dragon!"
"S-s-save me!"
"Monster! Moooosteerrr!"
The prisoners shrieked piercingly upon meeting the Mountain Lord's burning gaze from on high.
But that only further provoked the attacker's fury.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!
Dozens of prisoners died with a single swipe.
Yet unsatisfied, it roared thunderously once more.
Its winter den, the sacred nexus where all the mountain's vital energy converged.
That energy had abruptly cut off, so of course it awoke in rage.
And the ‘hunter’ who had orchestrated it all from the start finally moved.
"Finally showing your ugly mug."
Federback.
Descending into the valley, he swept back the white hair that had covered his face.
Before him loomed the king of the human-uninhabitable zone, rearing its massive body.
Federback declared.
"Ice Dragon Adara. From this moment, I subjugate you."
This was the true purpose of leading the prisoners on an expedition to the abandoned Beauvoir mine.