Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: The Nightmare-Devouring Swamp (2)
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Federback entered the forest.
The brave soldiers of the North couldn't just keep screaming like little girls forever.
"Ahem, cough."
They followed behind Federback with embarrassed expressions, reluctantly trailing after him.
"......"
Federback surveyed the vegetation in the forest.
Dark leaves blocked out the sunlight.
A dense forest of bare, skeletal dead trees stretched like the bones of an old man.
Beneath the tangled tree roots sprawling over the mud, it felt like every ugly secret of the world was buried.
The swamp area, where purple mist swirled, undulated slowly and gloomily.
"Not a single insect chirps," Haundid said, swallowing dryly.
In this vast forest, the only sounds came from Federback's group.
Even the wind didn't blow here.
Without wind, the grass and leaves naturally remained still.
Everything was in extreme silence.
The soldiers following Federback whispered among themselves.
"It's just like what my grandma told me when I was a kid."
"So, your grandma actually came in here? Broke the taboo?"
"Uh, she said she heard it from her grandma."
"So your great-grandma came in here too? Broke the taboo?"
"Fuck yeah, probably, you prick—why keep nitpicking?"
"Hey, I just like things clear-cut."
The Nightmare-Devouring Swamp.
This was the forbidden place for all Northerners.
Naturally, the rumors surrounding it were all terrifying.
A merchant caravan that had pushed straight through the forest instead of detouring around it due to a tight deadline vanished overnight. Knights heading to the battlefield entered and never returned. Those who came here to end their own lives left no trace of their remains behind.
And that wasn't all.
Haundid broke out in cold sweat as he spoke.
"I didn't know the Nightmare-Devouring Swamp was here. I thought it was a bit further up."
"It was originally."
"......Pardon?"
Haundid's eyes widened at Federback's words.
Federback continued in his usual indifferent tone.
"This forest. It used to be higher up."
"Then why has it come all the way down here...?"
"It came down. Because there was nothing left to eat."
"?"
Haundid and the others tilted their heads in confusion.
Federback added an explanation.
"It moved to find new prey. This forest is alive."
The soldiers' gazes turned to where Federback pointed.
And then.
"Gasp!"
Even the unflappable Northerners drew in sharp breaths.
Beneath the black, twisting tree roots lay white bones scattered about.
As they ventured deeper into the forest, the number of skulls increased steadily.
...Halt!
Before they knew it, the horses had stopped in their tracks.
"Wh-what's wrong with these beasts?"
The horses just stood there trembling, refusing to budge.
"We'll go on foot from here."
Federback dismounted without any particular reaction.
Haundid and the others looked around uneasily.
A cluster of black trees towering high enough to blot out the sky.
The bark, twisted deeply like the wrinkles of an ugly old hag, was covered in clusters of black mushrooms.
The tongue-like leaves were blackened as if covered in lesions, sucking in all the sunlight.
The swirling purple mist choked their breaths.
It felt like a fist had been shoved down their throats.
Right then.
"Hm."
Federback halted.
Haundid's expression hardened.
"This is......"
It was the first skeleton they'd spotted.
A frayed rope around its neck suggested it was someone who had chosen their own end long ago.
The problem was that they'd passed it about an hour ago.
"We're going in circles, aren't we?"
"Is it this purple mist? My head feels fuzzy."
"See that sword mark on the tree? I carved it 30 minutes ago!"
The soldiers murmured.
Finally, Federback spoke.
"You all wait here. I'll go on alone from this point."
"N-no, Young Master! It's too dangerous!"
Haundid stepped forward, but Federback cut him off decisively.
"Just watch the horses. It'll take a little time, so ration the food."
"Young Master!"
Haundid approached, but Federback was firm.
"It seems only those who received the invitation can enter."
"You mean the mage's invitation? But......"
"The purple mist is thickening. This is the forest's turbid qi. Non-mana users will have trouble neutralizing it."
Federback turned his head without another word.
And then.
Tsssss...
White chill emanated from Federback's body, pushing back the surrounding purple mist.
"Wait here."
With that single unclear command, Federback vanished into the purple mist.
He'd taken only two or three steps, yet he was completely gone.
Faced with this bizarre phenomenon, Haundid and the rest could only stand there speechless.
Federback stepped inside the purple mist.
In just three steps, the voices of Haundid and the others faded from his ears.
'Some boring trick.'
Before his regression, Federback had grown accustomed to the great mage's barriers—one of his hero party comrades—so he felt no particular surprise.
'......Take it all, sweep it all away. Monopolize everything.'
Recalling the last words of a comrade now gone from this world, Federback pressed deeper into the forest.
The sparse black trees grew denser until they stood like walls.
Trunks and roots connected like the walls of a labyrinth.
The canopy above was still shrouded in dark leaves, so no light penetrated.
He couldn't tell if it was still day outside the forest or if night had fallen.
'Brings back memories.'
Federback recalled the time before his regression.
Long ago, when the hero party had just formed, they had suffered endlessly in this forest.
Back then, there were many more comrades besides the hero, warrior, mage, and saintess.
'Archers, thieves, soldiers, porters—plenty of them.'
And half of that large group had perished right here, in the Nightmare-Devouring Swamp.
It had nearly shattered the hero party before they even set out—a monumental disaster.
'First, I need to meet the one beyond this mist.'
Federback waved away the mist clinging to his skin.
At that moment.
Flutter—
Something wrapped around his fingertip.
It was a thread even finer than a hair.
Seeing the thread coiling around his finger, Federback nodded.
'Finally showing itself.'
Silhouettes stirred beyond the mist.
Clack— clack— clatter—
The remains scattered under the tree roots began to rise.
Most had turned to white bones, but some hadn't fully rotted yet.
Suicides with purple tongues lolling out shuffled forward, nooses dangling from their necks.
Federback drew his sword.
"Just grabbed something random from the armory..."
Compared to his old famed sword, White Scale, it was little more than a piece of scrap iron.
"Still, should be fine for lopping off rotting corpse heads."
Federback swung the iron sword.
Against these undead minions of the swamp, even Meursault swordsmanship wasn't necessary.
Just slash along the visible lines.
...Slice! ...Slice! ...Slice! ...Slice! ...Slice!
The necks and waists of the moving corpses were severed one after another.
But.
Tsssss...
The mutilated corpse remnants reverted to their original forms.
Whether reduced to bones or still bearing flesh, they revived like immortals.
Just like the mudmen they'd encountered in the mud pits.
An ordinary person would have lost their sanity to this horrifying sight.
But.
'Same as ever.'
Federback remained unperturbed.
'The purple mist isn't controlling the corpses. It's those things hidden inside.'
His hawk-like sharp eyes pierced the purple mist.
At a glance, the cursed corpses seemed to regenerate within the mist... but that wasn't the case.
The purple mist was merely an illusion unsettling the minds of those trapped in the forest, unrelated to the corpses' revival.
The true mechanism driving the corpses was.
Snap—snip!
The threads severed by Federback's sword.
Swish—
The threads clinging to his blade dangled like a woman's hair.
Federback peeled them off and said,
"I know you're there. Come out."
Atop a tree where the purple mist swirled especially thickly.
Federback stared straight at it.
Clack—clack—clack—clack—
The corpse puppets advanced on Federback.
Their limbs were manipulated by threads too fine to see.
Federback clicked his tongue.
"Annoying."
Sword aura coated his blade tip.
A gas so dense it was nearly liquid.
The aura blade Federback unleashed traced a white trajectory.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
The threads puppeteering the corpses snapped in bundles, followed by the tree trunk splitting in half.
Then.
[O—oooooh...]
A grotesque noise began emanating from above the leaves.
And soon.
Thud—boom!
Something enormous and furry leaped down from the tree.
Beyond the swirling black leaves gleamed eight blazing red eyes.
Its body was so covered in fur one might mistake it for an ape, but the moment it extended the eight legs tucked inside its carapace, no such mistake was possible.
'......J'ba FoFi. Haven't seen this ugly spider in a while.'
A massive body dyed pitch-black, eight razor-sharp legs.
Eight glowing eyes like burning coals, fur thick as pubic hair.
This was the native species inhabiting the Nightmare-Devouring Swamp, the lord ruling this domain.
In the distant future, the Empire would name it J'ba FoFi, meaning "the one that squeezes out human oil."
'But for now, it's nameless.'
Humanity had yet to learn of this spider's existence.
But Federback already knew all about J'ba FoFi.
J'ba FoFi.
It was a direct descendant of the ancient spider "K'unni Baven," which dominated the mythic age long ago.
In the mythic era, monstrous spiders vast enough to blanket the continent existed among the era's most wicked beings. The strongest and most ferocious among them was K'unni Baven.
This K'unni Baven was infamous for devouring gods, a testament to its immense power and intelligence.
'J'ba FoFi is K'unni Baven's direct lineage... but time has diluted its blood.'
Its power and intellect were laughable compared to its ancestor.
But blood from a god-slaying spider didn't just vanish.
Thud—boom!
J'ba FoFi bore down on Federback with its colossal bulk—over ten meters even excluding its legs.
Federback held his sword horizontally.
"After the Ice Dragon Adara, now the giant spider J'ba FoFi?"
The once-silent forest trembled greatly at J'ba FoFi's roar.
Gazing at the purple mist pulsing in time with its heartbeat, Federback nodded.
"I'm confident against big game."
As always, his tone was utterly serene.