Chapter 140
Chapter 140
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: Shattered Beliefs
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“Kuhahaha!”
The great warrior’s hearty laughter blended with the sound of rain, echoing through the Marias Great Forest.
Even amidst the pouring raindrops, the massive flames of Horua rising from the village center showed no sign of flickering, so the Marias Tribe sat around it, grilling meat and enjoying the festival.
The rainwater might mix in, but for those living in the great forest, a bit of rain in their food was no issue at all.
“The Griffin Kingdom’s nothing special!”
“The Royal Knight Order? We have our ancestors with us!”
“Long live Lord Horua! Long live the Great Warrior!”
The Marias Tribe raised their cups in triumph, reveling in their victory. Watching them, the great warrior smiled in satisfaction and turned to the shaman Sung beside him.
“We’ve won.”
But at his firm declaration laced with laughter, Sung’s expression darkened instead.
“It’s not a victory—it’s survival. Have you forgotten our original purpose?”
At those words, Valkzar’s face, which had been soaring with triumph just moments ago, hardened.
Sung pressed him sharply, as if snapping him out of his drunken revelry in sweet victory.
“There’s no turning back now. To survive, we must seize another chunk of Griffin territory.”
“Yeah, I know.”
The war had only just begun.
But Valkzar had his own confidence. He was no longer fully human—he was now something close to a demigod.
He knew the flames weren’t eternal, that they would eventually fade.
But they would burn until he secured a foundation for his tribe to live on.
That was why Horua had abandoned the forest to join the fight.
Just then, a woman came rushing up in urgency.
While everyone else was enjoying the moment, she alone wore a tense expression as she spoke to Valkzar and Sung.
“Gr-Great Warrior! That woman has been in labor since earlier. It looks like we need to deliver the baby right away.”
“Hmm.”
He’d heard that the pregnant hostage named Iluania was going into labor, but had it come this soon?
After a brief moment of thought, the great warrior nodded slightly.
“Proceed. Above all, the hostage’s life comes first.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The woman spun on her heel and dashed off. Sung, who had overheard, curled his lips into a sly grin.
“Perfect. We’ve gained another card to hold off the necromancer.”
“Hmm.”
“And if it’s a child, it’ll be even easier for us to handle as a hostage.”
“Yeah.”
Truth be told, even the great warrior knew this wasn’t right. Kidnapping a pregnant woman and using her child as a hostage too.
But for the Marias Tribe and the great forest, he had dedicated his body.
Yeah, that made it okay.
As long as he fought for them, that was enough.
As he thought that—
[Kieeeek!]
A chilling scream pierced the air.
The deep, resonant cry cut through the forest, infusing the fierce rain with an ominous dread.
But it didn’t end there.
[Why do I have to die? I didn’t do anything wrong, so why me?]
[Just kill that bastard first, why do I have to go first?]
[Please spare me, please spare me, please spare me, please spare me, please spare me, please spare me, please spare me.]
[Will burying her here be okay? But miss, are you really fine with this? It’s your child.]
[I heard this forest is full of magic beasts, so for now...]
[Bel’s arm was crushed, Delrun’s eye was gouged out, and Hal’s leg was severed. I thought I was the only survivor, but my head was smashed.]
[I told you to be careful, but I never said to abandon me.]
Ghosts gathered high in the sky, pouring out their tales of woe and grudges, lamenting their own deaths.
The Marias Tribe, in the midst of their festival, fell into chaos, but the great warrior gritted his teeth and drew the spear he kept at his side.
“Bring the hostage! The necromancer’s here!”
Was it because it had absorbed the pouring rainwater?
The spear he always carried felt unnaturally heavy in his grip right now.
He had touched the necromancer’s reverse scale, so this wasn’t entirely unexpected.
But if he showed the pregnant woman in labor, the necromancer wouldn’t dare act rashly.
With that in mind, the great warrior issued his order.
But—
“Ah, ahh.”
For some reason, the shaman Sung ignored his command, staring up at the sky with a creepy grin.
Countless souls filled the heavens, as if it were the very spectacle he had long awaited.
“Sung...?”
As Valkzar called his name with growing unease, Sung shook his head in eager anticipation.
“He says that even as a black mage, he is not a black mage.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Bring the hostage now!”
“Do you truly believe that will stop this catastrophe?”
“......”
What did he mean?
His thoughts weren’t connecting clearly, but he sensed Sung harbored different intentions and that he had been used.
Shing!
Valkzar immediately thrust his spear to Sung’s throat, threatening him.
“You bastard! What’s your goal?”
“I needed to see it.”
Even as the spear tip grazed his throat and blood trickled out, Sung kept staring skyward indifferently.
The feast of countless souls who had perished in this land of tragedy.
“He possesses the talent chosen by the continent itself! He obtained the demon stone called both blessing and curse! And he even found the most suitable master on his own!”
His voice grew louder.
To Valkzar, Sung now seemed like an entirely different person.
Dizziness struck suddenly, making Valkzar stagger, but Sung’s voice pierced his ears clearly.
“And yet! And yet! And yeeet! All because of that one damn belief! Refusing to handle the dead! That stupid belief in respecting them! Because of that self-imposed chain!”
Twisted rage.
Sung clenched his fists, grinding his teeth as he shouted.
“He couldn’t even properly wield his innate power! Can a knight call himself a knight without using his sword? Can a necromancer call himself one without handling souls?!”
That was why he was called a necromancer.
Unlike other necromancers, he didn’t treat souls as tools.
He comforted them.
But now, things were different.
Like touching a dragon’s reverse scale.
The great warrior had precisely struck the one part Deus Verdi must never touch.
“Here he comes.”
Sung’s fingertip pointed through the dense trees.
“The one who discarded the name necromancer and became a true necromancer approaches!”
[My body’s burning! It’s burning!]
[I don’t want this! Let me rest! I don’t want to fight anymore!]
[This isn’t right! I prayed so hard and gave offerings, this can’t be right!]
[We were supposed to die together, so why are you all still alive?]
“Show us your skill! Prove you have the power to threaten them!”
The unintelligible screams of the departed mingled with the cold rain.
In the inexplicable terror that chilled their bodies like ice in the rain, no one could move.
Then, an emotionless male voice rang in everyone’s ears.
“Shut up.”
Whoosh!
The massive flames of Horua that had warmed the festival in the village center extinguished.
Deep darkness settled over the forest.
The village was pitch black, moon and stars alike obscured by the souls blanketing the sky.
The souls, which had been noisily spewing grudges, simultaneously fell silent and began thrashing about.
They turned into white flames, encircling the entire Marias Tribe village.
Like a prison.
“This is Deus Verdi wielding souls as tools! Wielding his full power without restraint! The king of the departed! Another who strides toward the pinnacle of necromancy!”
Before he knew it, a black robe draped Sung’s body. Valkzar didn’t know what it signified.
But the robe bore Dante’s emblem.
“Come now, Great Warrior! As you wished, I’ve granted you power! I persuaded Horua, brought in kingdom nobles, and laid the foundation for the future! I presented the path to save the Marias Great Forest from gradual desertification!”
“......You bastard.”
“Go fight! Stop that man who will become king of the departed! That’s the price you owe me for the power I gave you!”
The Sahar Desert bordered the Marias Great Forest. People believed the forest held back the expanding desert.
But those living in the great forest and Horua knew the truth.
In the end, the cursed land called the desert would conquer the great forest.
If they did nothing, their home would vanish.
The answer came from shaman Sung. Because he was of the Marias Tribe, the great warrior had fully trusted him. Now, he ground his teeth.
“You’ve betrayed us!”
“Yes! Exactly! Better than this place, I found people who would awaken my true talent! And they wanted to see that man’s end!”
The price of joining Dante.
This was it.
Dante’s members, eager to witness the necromancer’s full power, were now watching Deus Verdi with their own eyes.
His opponent was the fire guardian god who had abandoned his home to descend among humans.
If anything, it would be more than enough.
“Come on! If you stay here, the entire Marias Tribe dies! Don’t you have to protect them?”
Valkzar thrust his spear through Sung’s throat, but he was sucked away somewhere, only to reappear on a hut roof behind.
“I’ll kill you for sure!”
“Such composure!”
Grinding his teeth, the great warrior moved to pursue Sung again.
[Kieeeek!]
A scream laden with agony plummeted like a meteor. A soul cloaked in white flame struck Sung squarely.
“Gahk!”
He vomited blood from the heavy blow.
[Kwaaaagh!]
[Stop it!]
[It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!]
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Some of the souls hovering in the sky relentlessly hammered down on Sung.
The hut he’d been on was already half-destroyed and collapsing, and amid the debris, Sung rolled on the ground, spitting blood in misery.
“Kwaaaaagh!”
Moreover, white soul flames clung to his hands and feet, burning away his flesh in agony.
“......”
Even Valkzar shuddered at the brutality.
But Sung’s burning body floated up and flew off somewhere.
To the village entrance.
Between the dense trees, a man finally revealed himself. But his appearance was vastly different from what the great warrior remembered.
Sunken eyes.
Long hair soaked and dripping from the rain.
Evil spirits clinging to his entire body, spewing their grudges.
Deus snatched Sung’s flying head, slammed him to the ground, then dragged him by the hair.
“Kwaaagh!”
Gazing down at Sung’s charred robe, Deus murmured quietly.
“Dante’s lackey.”
“Guhk! Kek!”
Sung’s limbs were burning away, yet he wouldn’t die. Was that some form of necromancy too?
In that instant, the great warrior was seized by an indescribable fear. A kind of truth dawned on him.
‘Death may not be death.’
Ignoring the great warrior’s reaction entirely, Deus looked down at Sung and said,
“Take a good look. See who you’ve made your enemy.”
A warning to all of Dante’s members watching through Sung’s eyes.
Valkzar, with Horua’s wings unfurled, stepped forward to block the approaching Deus, who dripped malice.
He had to reveal that this whole situation was a trap.
“Deus Verdi! Hear me out! This is all a trap! That man orchestrated it!”
“......”
“This war itself was a plan to pit you and me against each other! The hostage is safe! In fact, we’re helping her give birth right n—...”
Before he could finish, Deus’s eyes had already turned toward the hut holding the hostage.
Countless souls already enveloped the hut, blocking anyone from entering or exiting.
[A monster indeed.]
Even the guardian god Horua acknowledged it.
Valkzar suddenly wondered why Horua hadn’t detected Deus entering the forest.
‘Damn it, he’s no longer a guardian god.’
Horua had already abandoned his role as forest guardian to save the forest.
Now, not even Horua could sense everything in the woods.
“We only fought to survive too! Against the disaster of the desert, we had no choice b—...”
Meeting Deus’s eyes, Valkzar’s mouth froze shut.
It was pointless.
The man before him wasn’t listening.
No mercy would come, no matter what he said.
Gripping his spear and spewing Horua’s flames, Valkzar glared at Deus.
Yes, this was war.
Kneeling in fear and begging mercy was wrong.
With that resolve, Valkzar glared at the enemy.
But Deus, conversely, scanned the village folk trembling beyond Valkzar and said,
“You will all die.”
With utter certainty, like a vow.
“But that death won’t be the end you imagine.”
Having discarded the name of necromancer.
In the eyes of Deus Verdi, now a true necromancer, only thick, muddy killing intent remained.