Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Wendigo 2
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Sir Brock, who had slain the spider woman, was too overcome with mental shock to move, his legs giving out beneath him.
“Are you alright, Sir Brock?”
Zibek supported him.
“I’m… I’m sorry. I’ve shown you an unsightly display.”
“The mental strain must be immense. But still…”
Danger still lingered.
*And that danger is your wife.*
Zibek couldn’t bring himself to say it.
But then, suddenly, all surrounding sounds vanished. It felt as if sounds were being absorbed into something, like cotton soaking up water.
Without a word, everyone looked up at the sky. A mountain loomed above the thick fog. The peak piercing through the fog, which lay like clouds over the ground, looked so majestic it didn’t seem real.
But…
The mountain was moving.
“That’s… a Nether monster.”
Azadin furrowed his brow.
It was a massive beast covered in fur. Blanketed in gray fur and vaguely humanoid in shape, it could have been a hairy human or a bear.
The difference lay in its sheer, awe-inspiring size and the unmistakable sense of wrongness emanating from it. It stirred a visceral disgust, as if beholding something that had no right to exist in this world, every pore on their skin standing on end.
At that moment, the monster raised what looked like a forepaw. Or at least, that’s what they perceived—it was so enormous that from down here, it seemed to move in slow motion.
But then a gust of wind erupted from the ground.
“Damn it! I-it’s coming!”
Azadin and his companions immediately took shelter beside the stone walls of the building. But could human-made structures withstand a swing from such a colossal beast?
Sure enough. The monster’s massive forepaw raked the ground and passed straight through the wall, slashing at Sir Brock, who hadn’t yet escaped.
“Eek!?”
Sir Brock trembled in shock… but nothing happened.
The beast’s enormous paw passed right through him like a mirage or illusion.
-Grrooooaaaaarrr!
A fierce gale followed, however, sending Sir Brock tumbling across the ground like a pebble. Swept up by the wind and flung aside, he crashed into an abandoned rafter on the ground.
“Gah!”
“Oh. My god! A Nether monster! It hasn’t fully manifested in our world yet, but it’s close! If it’s stirring the winds already, it won’t be long!”
The orc necromancer Scott Macgreen shouted from his wheelchair, gripping the ropes on the ground.
“That thing… manifests? Soon?”
Azadin gaped at the mountain-sized monster.
Sir Brock had survived only because it hadn’t taken physical form yet. But if such a colossal beast solidified…
Its mere existence would be a threat. A single stumble or two as it walked would trigger earthquakes.
“We have to kill the summoner before it manifests! Otherwise, everything in this area—including us—will die!”
“But the summoner…”
Sir Brock struggled to his feet. He had been tossed by the gale from the massive monster, but his full plate armor was so fine that it had protected him from the impact.
“You’re saying we kill my wife?!”
“…”
Everyone stared at Sir Brock in stunned silence.
“If you’d managed your household properly, this wouldn’t have happened!”
Brand shot back.
“I know I’m at fault! But this is too much! Everyone does it—why must something so cruel happen to me?!”
“You’re still a green boy. Hm?”
A wolf’s howl echoed from afar. As the wind blew, the colossal Nether monster grew translucent and vanished once more.
“It’s gone?”
“It didn’t vanish! It just can’t fully manifest in our world yet. The King’s Radiance is blocking its presence from taking form here!”
As Scott explained, the spiderwebs suddenly began to freeze. Black mana gathered around the naga and wererat corpses ensnared in them, raising them once more.
“N-necromancy!”
“Not me.”
As Scott spoke, the corpses began to mutate.
-Crack… crunch…
Their bones shattered, skin burst, and fur sprouted from within. Coarse, thick fur like that of a Kerim mountain goat grew out, horns protruded from their heads, and a terrifying chill emanated from their breaths.
“So this is what’s freezing them.”
Monsters resembling shrunken versions of the massive Nether beast appeared before them.
*********
“…and that’s what happened.”
Azadin explained everything to Shati and inspected the blade of the sword at his waist. The edge was chipped and the blade twisted—it was in no condition to use.
“That’s why you came here?”
“Yeah. That bell tower or whatever in Karagala wasn’t even comparable. The damn mountain was moving, I tell you.”
“Karagala’s bell tower is pretty huge too, you know?!”
“Sure it is. But have you seen it with your own eyes? It collapsed when the Naga Empire fell, so no one’s seen it since.”
“Ugh. Still…”
“Now’s not the time to compare sizes with some Naga Empire ruin. If that thing manifests, fights between the Yaegras divine kin or Kurt divine kin won’t even matter.”
Azadin flicked the sword’s body with his finger, clicked his tongue, and leaned it against the wall. He glanced toward the trapdoor entrance through which Shati had come.
The trapdoor at the top of the stairs was too small for Azadin, Ismail, Midiam, and their Kerim mountain goats—not to mention the knights’ horses—to enter.
“Sweater, you stand guard here. And, um…”
Azadin unpacked weapons from his saddlebags. He pondered the gleaming longsword and a decent steel sword, then strapped both to his waist.
“The monsters’ fur was so thick it ruined the blades too easily.”
He handed a short spear to Brand. Brand had also broken his weapon fighting the monsters.
“Thanks.”
“No, I’m the one who’s grateful. Sir Zibek…?”
“I’d like to replace my weapon as well.”
Zibek’s steel sword was dull too. It could be resharpened, but not leisurely in this situation.
“Ugh. Weapons stock is depleting fast.”
Grumbling, Azadin distributed weapons from his mountain goat’s saddlebags to the group. His lightened mount let out a joyful bleat.
“I’m hungry. Got any food?”
Even in this situation, Scott sought food.
“Shall we head into the sewers then? Sir Brock, you’re the lord here—mind guiding us?”
“I don’t know them well. When I inherited the fief contract from my father, I toured the sewers once, but I understand they were built long ago, sank, and a new village was built atop them. The old city became underground waterways and sewers.”
“You don’t know the paths inside?”
“There’s a large bronze map marking the routes, kept in each sector. Copying it would prevent getting lost.”
“Hm. I see. Does your wife know this place?”
“Probably.”
“That’s bad news.”
Azadin’s group unpacked supplies from the horses’ and goats’ saddlebags, reorganized, and hacked off the arms and necks of the fallen naga corpses with axes.
“Let’s go!”
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“But just what are you all, exactly?”
Sir Brock eyed Azadin’s group curiously.
“I was wondering that too.”
Guillaume Balt was curious about Azadin’s group as well.
“Heh heh. We’re explorers of knighthood.”
Brand puffed out his chest proudly.
“…”
“Tch. Spouting nonsense…”
Shati grumbled, brushing back her hair.
“Anyway, this one’s a prisoner, and this one’s a convert who promised to become a mercenary instead of staying a prisoner.”
“Huh? Why am I treated different from that orc?”
“You ran away again this time.”
“I healed you guys too, didn’t I?”
“That’s why you’re still alive. Otherwise, you’d be dead.”
“You say that, but if I dig deeper, it means you don’t really want to kill me. Heh. Humans often fall for my charms anyway.”
“Quiet now. Noise in the sewers will give away our approach.”
Azadin said so and began walking silently. When Azadin, Ismail, and Midiam moved quietly, not even their footsteps could be heard.
But…
-Clink.
-Clank.
The knights in metal armor couldn’t muffle their footsteps easily, no matter how they tried.
Brand was the worst. His makeshift armor—old leather reinforced with iron scraps—clanged like junk with every step.
“…Stealth is out of the question.”
Azadin quickly gave up and strode forward.
“Is it alright? It’s so dark.”
“Ah…”
Azadin’s eyesight pierced the darkness, but most couldn’t. Even fellow Aragasans Ismail and Midiam couldn’t see in pitch black like him.
“Here.”
Scott picked up a stone from the ground and chanted a spell to make it glow. It was simple colorless magic, but he cast the light spell on several stones and distributed them to the group.
His casual mana expenditure suggested such spells were trivial to him.
*They call him a genius, so he’s got some skill.*
Azadin took a glowing stone, gripped it, and led the way.
The sewers should have been damp from seepage above, reeking of moss and mold… but there was no smell. The air was frozen solid, water iced over, and the walls’ moss and mold all brittle and crumbling.
“Cold.”
“The chill pools at the bottom. It’ll be colder deeper in.”
“The floor’s iced over.”
Azadin’s group carefully buttoned their collars and ventured inside.
Soon, they reached a confluence where sewers merged. Inside the large chamber where daily sewage and groundwater flowed together, a lone orc leaned on an axe-spear.
Across from him stood a voluptuous B’tuma woman with black hair and dark skin.
“Liz!”
Sir Brock recognized her and called her name.
“You dare call my name! Brock!”
“I-I was wrong!”
“Do you even know what you did wrong?!”
“That’s…”
“Now, now. Enough. Something bigger than your marital spat is happening. Calm down first.”
Azadin intervened to stop the couple’s emotional clash. Meanwhile, the orc necromancer Scott recognized the orc facing the lord’s wife.
“Walter?”
“That you, Scott? You little punk, riding around in a wheelchair to dodge muscle duty, but looks like you’ve bulked up since.”
“Busy times. What’s going on?”
“Ask that woman. Oh, and don’t get between me and her right now.”
“…Pardon.”
Scott picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it between the orc and the lady.
-Crack!
Electric sparks flew as the stone exploded. Imagining what would happen to a person was horrifying enough.
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