The Demise of Gikas
Wendigo sliced through the thorny tentacles and leaped toward the wall of the nest. It's not an attack I can't block, but getting hit by something that pierced even rock won't feel good. Dodging the tentacles, he reached the wall and kicked off it, launching himself high into the air. Mysticism swirled around him, condensing on his ice sword, which gleamed with solidified frost as it plunged straight toward Gikas's head.
『Hahaha! You think that puny thing can hurt me?!』 Gikas retracted its tentacles and wrapped itself in sticky, sewage-like mysticism like armor. As Wendigo's mysticism clashed with Gikas's, a deafening roar echoed through the nest, as if the world itself were crumbling.
Wendigo grimaced. The frost encasing his ice sword was rapidly losing power upon colliding with Gikas's mysticism. This guy's stronger than that wild boar bastard.
『Spirits' power is frail! How fleeting is the mysticism of nature before the might forged in death, resentment, and curses!』 Gikas's mysticism, grown by devouring the world's negativity, was as unique as its filthy nature. It corrupted and weakened anything born of nature—a mysticism of negation. It gnawed away at Wendigo's frost.
Wendigo kicked Gikas in the face and retreated. He reshaped his ice sword into an ice club. Gikas's massive bulk shook the ground as it rampaged, then charged at him with astonishing speed.
『I'll rip your hide and limbs to shreds!』
"Feels like fighting a damn train!"
Wendigo swung the club at Gikas's maw. With a crack, Gikas's head snapped sideways, but the charge didn't stop. Its rough-shelled body barreled toward him relentlessly. Wendigo raised his club to block. Kagagagak!!! The collision produced a chilling screech, shoving Wendigo backward as the floor shattered beneath him.
The charge combined the weight of its colossal mass with agility that belied its size. Wendigo was genuinely surprised by the overwhelming destructive power of that simple combo. Three hundred years spent bulking up hadn't been wasted. Sheer mass made for an excellent weapon in itself.
I underestimated this thing.
『Hahahahaha!』
Gikas laughed maniacally in ecstasy. The more it chased Wendigo around the nest like a whirlwind, the more certain it became. Parasites were mere tools for management. True strength came from one's own power!
『Die in despair, cursing your own arrogance!』
Ignoring the taunt, Wendigo swung his club. Gikas sneered, assuming it was desperation. No matter how many swings, its shell wouldn't crack—that was its belief. And it wasn't mere arrogance. Gikas's body, tough and elastic, shrugged off the impacts with ease.
But overconfidence and carelessness were different beasts. Gikas noticed the change only after the twentieth clash. Its smug demeanor vanished, replaced by bewilderment. Somehow... Wendigo's mysticism showed no sign of depleting.
『You bastard, what trick are you pulling?!』
Wendigo answered Gikas's bellow with a courteous club to the face. His club brimmed with mysticism.
『Guh!』
Gikas's did not. Its vicious, malice incarnate mysticism was potent but finite. The club pierced through, smashing into its body. The shell held, but the insides didn't. Frost spread like thorns, and Gikas howled in agony. The nest itself seemed to scream with it.
Rocks tumbled as the lair crumbled. Wendigo dodged them and vaulted onto Gikas's back in an instant.
"Hah!"
With a shout, he battered Gikas's body mercilessly with the club. No shell was invincible, no matter how tough or elastic. Like taming a raging bull, repeated blows let the frost seep in. Gikas's mysticism could no longer hold his at bay.
『Get off! Get off meeee!!!』
The pain of its flesh freezing alive was unprecedented. Gikas thrashed and screamed, unaccustomed to hurt after three centuries in hiding. As it rampaged, smashing its own nest, Wendigo dismounted without a second thought.
Gikas barely clung to reason and glared at him. It admitted its mistake.
『Insolent wretch! You're no ordinary spirit. Hiding your power to toy with me!』
"Doesn't even consider it was your own delusion causing the mess. Three hundred years just handed to you on a platter?"
On second thought, it had been. For a creature living off sacrifices from its spawn in the nest, time meant little growth.
Wendigo stopped pondering and gathered his mysticism. Gikas's hexagonal maw gaped open, mysticism pooling at its center.
『Don't you dare lecture me! What does a spirit-born wretch like you know? I transcended my birth through knowledge and effort!!!』
Gikas's foul mysticism wasn't just victims' grudges and curses. Endless self-loathing, distrust, and resentment toward the world. Its own malice and the victims' twisted together inseparably. In short... a complex of inferiority.
"Way too much inferiority. Comparing your talent to others only hurts you."
『Shut up! What do you knowwww!!!』
A crimson-black breath erupted like karmic fire. Wendigo hurled the club aside and braced himself. His chest swelled massively.
《■■■■■■■!!!!!!》
His frost-laced roar exploded like a storm. Gikas's mysticism ran deep but wasn't infinite. The clash of breaths ended in Gikas's defeat. Draining even its last drop from the floor, Gikas's breath faltered, and Wendigo's roar slammed into it.
『Kaaaaak!!!!!』
Gikas's head and chest froze solid. It tried to summon tentacles in frenzy, but the invading frost froze them too.
Thud! The colossal body collapsed, triggering a minor quake in the nest.
Wendigo approached slowly. Even in death's throes, Gikas glared up at him.
『Don't... look down on me!』
"...Pathetic."
Sincere pity in his voice, Wendigo infused his claws with mysticism and shoved them into Gikas's maw. Rummaging inside, he yanked out the source of its life in one go. Gikas let out a final screech and perished.
Wendigo prayed it would be reborn with overflowing talent next time. Honestly, it was kinda pitiful.
No talent, so it holed up for three hundred years? Unimaginable. Pretty tear-jerking. If it'd honed what it had, it might've been decent...
Then again, with that twisted mind, maybe it's for the best it didn't.
Thinking that way made its resentment over talent seem almost merciful.
Wendigo turned his attention to its heart. It pulsed with dense mysticism, though tainted by Gikas's foul essence—reeking problematically.
Would eating this grant Gikas's mysticism? ...Feels like it'd make me sick. Who'd eagerly swallow something stinking of sewage?
After much deliberation, he decided.
I'll ask Skadi and go from there. Not that he lacked the guts to eat it.
* * *
Gikas's death wrapped up the issue, but Wendigo couldn't rest. Plenty of cleanup remained. Not just Dmitri and Ivan's tribes—warriors from several others had banded together...
"They say if you ask the Spirit, you get his blessing."
"Can't we do the same?"
Warriors had eyes and ears. They'd realized Wendigo was leading the people and spread the word upon returning home. If they didn't know him, they might suspect enslavement, but Wendigo's actions around the villages dispelled that. Tales from returning warriors helped too.
"He faces demons alone for our sake!"
"Fruits grow even in winter there, with spring breezes."
"Warriors call it paradise on earth."
Of course, word-of-mouth added exaggeration. Still, not baseless. Skeptics convinced by warriors arrived, awed by the village's warmth and ripe crops. The tales were true! Seeing is believing. They vowed to join Wendigo come spring—winter made moving risky now.
Skadi handed departing folk talismans infused with warmth.
"Lord Wendigo's blessing will ward off the cold on your journey."
"Th-this precious talisman..."
"You've chosen to serve Lord Wendigo, so you're family to me too. I pray we meet again healthy and whole."
Her bright smile drew bows of gratitude before they left.
Wendigo eyed them dubiously.
"Technically, it's your talisman's power, not my blessing."
"Doesn't change that they owe you the favor!"
Skadi beamed proudly, clinging to him. Her sparkling upward gaze was burdensome, but he didn't push her away.
After prying off someone who hates letting go, what can you do?
Stroking her head, she grinned happily. He asked,
"What about Gikas's heart? Found a use?"
"Oh, I thought long and hard... Got the best idea."
Best idea? Wendigo perked up. Something useful from that hard-won prize? He wasn't greedy for power boosts—just beneficial...
"Bury it in the ground!"
"......"