288. Song of the White Wolf (1)
288. Song of the White Wolf (1)
- 1 -
The blazing summer sun painted the Seberun Jungle of southern Hilsa lush green.
A truly horrific sound cut through that beautiful forest.
"Kuaaak...!"
A scream that shook the jungle before it was cut short.
The touch that caused it came from a blood-red power.
Chiiiik —
Blood steamed and turned to mist above the blood-iron encasing her hand.
Blood droplets that had leaked from the holes across the victim's entire body gathered like beads and were sucked into the woman's mouth.
The red-eyed woman narrowed her eyes.
Her white hair had already turned red, but not because it was soaked in blood — it was because of her power.
"..."
Thud!
The werewolf woman who had once been called a Celestial Slayer and a Blood Demon indifferently tossed the corpse aside.
Dozens of monsters and humans gathered around her.
At first glance, it was a menacing scene that looked ready to erupt in battle at any moment, but they simply lined up in order and did not fight each other.
"All cleanup is complete, General."
One of her three adjutants, Barto the red moon bear beastman, reported.
Behind him, other soldiers were dragging the corpses of dead Norn Empire soldiers and piling them up in one place.
"Not yet..."
Shue said as she drained blood from the commanders she had been forced to kill.
"Three. Capture them."
Shue pointed to one spot with her finger, and three adjutants rushed out without a moment's hesitation over who went first.
The wild-born bear beastman Barto, the death knight Ethel who was one of Libertas's summons, and the human knight Simon whom she had met in Hilsa.
They dashed out without waiting for orders, passed between gaunt trees, and leaped through the air as if flinging themselves down a steep slope.
Before them appeared scouts who had been hiding in terror.
"R... Run!"
They began to flee the moment they saw the silhouettes of their pursuers, but it was a futile struggle.
- Brought them back.
The death knight reported, and a scout was forced to his knees before her.
"Th-the White Vampire... this demon...!"
"Shut up! You bastard...! P-please spare me! I beg you!"
Looking at the scouts who hurled curses and pleas at her simultaneously, Shue indifferently turned her head.
"Erase their memories... Release one, and sell the others as slaves in Hilsa."
Her command was carried out at once.
Hooded monsters who walked out from among the monster army raised their hands.
From beneath their sleeves, stark white bone tipped with sharp claws was revealed.
"H-hiiiik...!"
"U-undead! D-don't kill me...! They say our souls won't even reach the afterlife!!"
Soldiers reciting superstitions about the undead.
Fortunately(?) for them, the task assigned to these skeleton mages right now was not killing, but merely memory erasure and illusions.
Shue surveyed the battlefield with an expressionless face.
"Haa..."
It was a space entirely dyed red.
But the red color here was not blood — it was light emitted by the air itself, dominated by her power.
The actual casualties had not been many.
She had successfully thwarted yet another imperial provocation by annihilating the mercenary group that had just signed a 'Hilsa border plundering' contract with Norn.
With this, the remaining threats in the southern border region of Hilsa had been mostly eliminated.
"..."
Afterward, she watched the soldiers divide the area among themselves and plant seeds.
Black chrysanthemum seeds.
Infused with Libertas's mana, these special seedlings — mutated from Hilsa's chrysanthemums — would grow quickly, help protect Hilsa's borders, and soften the hearts of the people.
- Spread them out evenly and plant them!
"Plant them around the villages, near the farms, and where the water used to be, too!"
As she watched the adjutants split up and disperse to their assigned zones on their own, Shue too looked down at the seeds in her hand.
The black seeds emitted a dim light in her palm.
'Seeds imbued with Master's power...'
As it happened, the place where she stood was beside a small pond of fate.
"Grow well..."
Shue crouched down with a small smile.
The ruthless predator who had swept the battlefield with her blood-red aura was nowhere to be seen; there was something innocent about the way she tapped the dirt mound with her palm.
"Let's all go..."
But that smile soon vanished, and her face returned to its cold expression.
Her white wolf ears, hidden from view, perked up.
From beyond the forest, another presence was approaching.
"We keep moving..."
The white wolf woman began to walk again, her steps soaked in blood.
Tonight would be long.
Still...
'I'll be able to return soon.'
For the day she would see her master again, Shue clenched her fist.
- 2 -
While Shue was stabilizing the southern border of Hilsa, various changes were taking place inland.
The Philisya Hilla Fortress in the Philisya region, in the northeastern part of the Kingdom of Hilsa.
The front of the city's Adventurer's Guild was bustling with adventurers as always, but today there was one special topic.
"Look at this! Another high-grade dungeon's been discovered!"
"Another one? Dungeons are sprouting like mushrooms these days... where were they all hiding before popping up?"
At the shout of a young adventurer reading the notice posted on the guild door, the surroundings stirred.
Recently, after Hilsa joined the Grakheisen alliance and seized the upper hand in the battle against the Norn Empire, people had returned to their daily lives.
The adventurers were no different.
Their current interest lay in the dungeons that had begun appearing all across the Kingdom of Hilsa.
Not the southern front governed by Shue, whom enemies called the 'White Vampire' or 'Blood Snow Maiden', and whom the people of Hilsa called the 'White General'—a title born of awe.
"For real? Why are so many dungeons being discovered lately?"
"Carlton. You heading out again this time?"
A middle-aged adventurer asked the red-haired man.
Although his fame was mostly confined to the inland, not the border, he was known as one of the strongest adventurers in Hilsa.
"Of course. If it's a high-grade dungeon, the rewards are too good to ignore."
Carlton answered with a relaxed smile.
A magic sword obtained from clearing another dungeon hung at his waist.
"You should be careful. There's talk that the dungeons around here have become more dangerous than before."
A female mage who was a party member said worriedly.
"But we still have that 'White General' protecting us."
Another adventurer laughed and retorted.
"She clears out dangerous dungeons when Norn isn't invading, so if we don't go fast, there'll be nothing left for us to take."
Carlton's expression hardened.
The heroic figure who had protected Hilsa from the Norn Empire's invasion.
It was certainly something to be grateful for—she had helped their homeland, Hilsa—but as adventurers, they couldn't bring themselves to feel purely grateful toward the White General when she was taking away their quest opportunities.
'It's just pointless jealousy.'
"Alright, dungeons should be finished by the hands of adventurers! Gather up!"
Carlton shook off his thoughts and called his party members together.
This party of five was, like their leader Carlton, one of the most experienced adventurer groups in Hilsa.
"The location is the northern valley. They say it was detected last night."
The adjutant-like man spread out a map.
All the party members studied the map with serious expressions.
"Why did a dungeon suddenly appear?"
"Monsters and dungeons just sprout up all over the place at random anyway. You think there's a reason?"
"I know, but haven't there been an unusual number lately?"
A blonde priestess raised a question, but all the other adventurers seemed to regard it as nothing significant.
"What does that matter? If there are a lot, it's a good thing. Most of the inland dungeons these days are under 'management' so there's no chance to make money. This is an opportunity. A chance to go to the border and aim for greater experience and fame. Let's go."
Carlton led his party members out of the guild.
Following them, over ten parties moved together toward the valley.
Even for a dungeon where a rampage had not occurred, gathering over ten parties together to clear it was standard procedure for something at the high-grade level.
Of course, Carlton was naturally established as the leader of this adventurer group.
"I'm sensing an evil power."
"This is it. We camp here today! We enter at dawn tomorrow! Let's plunder the core and live it up!"
- Whooa!!
Carlton, who had nodded at the blonde priestess's words, raised one hand and shouted to the adventurers, then rested for the day.
Though it was early evening, they had been traveling for three days.
So they rested in front of the dungeon, and the next morning.
"Is everyone ready?"
At Carlton's question, the adventurers all answered, 'No issues!'
"Alright, let's go in."
At first, the place looked like an ordinary cave.
But the deeper they went, the more the surroundings changed.
Strange blue crystals lined the walls, and odd black grass grew and swayed across the floor.
As they carefully advanced, something suddenly fell from the ceiling.
"Watch out!"
Carlton shouted, but it was already too late.
Something that looked like a giant spider lunged at one of the mages.
"Urk...!"
"Jason!"
Kwang!
The mage barely activated a defensive spell, but the moment it collided with the spider's claws, cracks spread and the barrier began to waver.
A shield warrior next to them took on the spider that had attacked first, buying them a moment to breathe, but dozens of giant spiders began appearing all around.
"We can't get surrounded! I'll break through one side! Red Sword Party! Follow me!"
Carlton drew his magic sword and shouted.
As red light illuminated the cave and flames blazed, some of the spiders flinched and retreated.
"Monsters of this level already appearing..."
Carlton gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tightly.
And the next moment, he threw himself toward the swarm of spiders.
Fortunately, these monsters feared flames, so they succeeded in subduing them by having the mages cast fire magic. The spiders only feared it slightly; their recklessness and aggression were even greater, and they never retreated.
"Treat the wounded! Send them outside the cave!"
As Carlton gave orders, he bit his lip and looked around.
This dungeon was no ordinary place. They had already suffered casualties in the very first battle.
But they could not retreat. Wealth and honor lay ahead, and behind them was only obsolescence.
The continent was already chaotic enough these days. Carlton's heart overflowed with the desire to leave this inland region and go to the border.
"Let's move again!"
He took the lead gripping his sword, and the adventurers who had secured the area followed.
The battles after that were fierce too.
The dungeon's monsters were stronger than expected, and the traps were lethal. At one point the floor collapsed, resulting in a meaningless death.
"Damn it. This was a more dangerous place than the previous dungeons... Is it really the same high-grade?"
Carlton had also been wounded on the forehead. Dark red blood obscured his vision until the cleric managed to heal him.
"Keep going. We've already reached the fourth floor."
After countless hardships, they broke through the dungeon.
All the way to the spot on the fifth basement floor that was clearly the boss room.
In the center of the room, something moved to greet them—a monster of massive size. Its hide seemed made of rock, its eyes red, and it had two heads.
"A Twinhead Ogre Lord...? The high-grade dungeon Lord is...?"
Carlton's voice trembled.
- Kuoooo - !!
Along with a thunderous roar bursting from the two heads, five ogres sprang out around the throne where it sat.
The remaining number of parties was seven in total. This was the result of reorganizing the survivors after the sacrifices had been made.
Carlton and one other party took on the Twinhead Ogre, and the other parties each took on one ogre, fighting calmly yet fiercely.
- Kuooook...!
Kung!!!
"... Got it! Damn it...!"
"Damn it. Anderson... you weren't the kind of man to die in a place like this..."
In the end they succeeded in seizing the core, but the losses were heavy.
The sacrifice itself was fine. Adventurers always stood on the boundary between life and death, after all.
"Just why were there so many monsters, and why were they so strong?"
"From what I've heard, other dungeons have been like this lately too. As if the dungeons had all become enraged at once."
"Fuck..."
The difficulty of this 'high-grade' dungeon was unreasonably high, far beyond existing standards.
Perhaps they would not have been surprised if they had known of the era 200 years ago, when dungeons reached their peak and dominated the continent.
But there was no such person here.
For those who remembered that era were only the '13 Stars,' the symbol of the continent's greatest adventurers, and, roughly, the nobles of the demon realm—their archenemies.
"... Many died."
The white-haired werewolf woman, Shue—a subordinate of that very 'creator'—was looking down at the adventurers' retreating figures from atop a tree near the dungeon entrance.
They had the dungeon core they had hoped for in their hands, but no sign of elation was visible in them.
Because too many sacrifices had been made.
If they knew that the one who created this dungeon was Shue, who had been given the dungeon core by Libertas, they would be furious and despondent, demanding why that 'White General' who had saved their country was doing something like this.
But Shue was truly unbothered.
She neither sympathized nor grieved.
For though they might possibly become Libertas's subjects, they would not become her subordinates.
"Let's go back."
Such things were happening in numerous regions across the central and southern parts of the Eastern Continent, but their distribution was not uniform.
Countless wild monster chieftains were receiving dungeon cores and transforming their lairs into dungeons, without even knowing what they were doing.
The shadow was already spreading thickly over the center of the Eastern Continent—
Until the day of the total solar eclipse when darkness would cover the world.