Beyond the Ocean (3)
Beyond the Ocean (3)
Before departing, Eugene took the heretical scripture and sought out the statue of Goddess Vanas.
The results of taking root in the Magic Castle's abundant spiritual soil and receiving high-quality prayers and offerings were unmistakable.
"It looks alive."
The surface of the goddess statue had a hardened texture but was smooth and elastic. Deep vitality flowed over its surface. It felt as if it would gently sink in at a touch.
'A god cannot manifest directly in the mortal world.'
It was a presence that seemed to approach the faithful as much as possible without breaking that law.
"O Goddess Vanas. Here is an offering for you. Take this power. Let no evil being disturb our world, and gain the strength to protect my people."
Eugene approached the altar to place the heretical scripture upon it.
"May the castle lord's faith be blessed."
The shrine maidens guarding the sanctuary bowed to Eugene in gratitude.
However, the original owner of this offering seemed to have a strong attachment. It tried to resist the eternal severing of one of its links to the mortal world.
[Cease. Desist.]
The voice of the evil god resounded.
Ordinarily, it would have been difficult even to speak now that its followers had vanished, but this place was the sanctuary of the Wandering Castle.
It was full of mystery, and the dust of faith shed by the followers of Vanas remained. Like a sewer rat, the evil god scavenged upon it and squeezed out a final voice.
[Even the most merciless tyrant, when he severs a conquered dynasty, does not sever the rites to its gods. You, who exude such a sweet fragrance of souls, how can you be so cruel?]
While everyone in the sanctuary was bewildered, only Eugene remained utterly composed.
[Mortal. Your hands are meant to offer us the most exquisite of spirits. Perform rites for me. Guide your people to me. We shall be the ultimate partners. I will make you an emperor without equal.]
Eugene did not react to the seductive voice. Instead, he opened the heretical scripture and showed it. It was a section filled with accounts of human sacrifice.
As Eugene, holding the scripture, reached just before the altar, the evil god cried out in desperation.
[There is no sin greater than erasing a faith!]
"Wasting the opportunity to eradicate the plague forever would be the greater sin, wouldn't it?"
The moment the scripture was placed on the altar, it emitted an intense light and began to burn away. The evil god's voice also vanished instantly.
Eugene drew the bleeding dagger once used by a priest of Kalash, the god of the hungry brand.
He stared as the power of the evil god seeped out from the destroyed heretical scripture.
Crackle.
Each time the bleeding dagger slashed the empty air, blue sparks flew. The evil dregs of the evil god were cut away, leaving only pure divinity.
The sight resembled a skilled fugu chef carving out the poisonous parts.
The bleeding dagger, too, seemed content to be used for its original purpose in a ritual. From inside its blade, mystery welled up, emitting an even sharper aura.
"This is the castle lord's Eucharist..."
The shrine maidens clasped their hands together at the wondrous sight. They had never seen or heard of such a miracle.
Even Goddess Vanas's power could purify and absorb divine authority, but offering it already refined like this was far more efficient.
Just as more calories could be gained from meat by cooking and eating it.
[My first believer. My noble guardian knight. Is this truly acceptable?]
Goddess Vanas spoke.
"Is there a problem?"
[Even if it is evil, seizing a god's power would be a burden upon the soul.]
"It's not seizing. Please call it a merger and acquisition. I feel perfectly refreshed."
Eugene swept away the scripture, now reduced to ashes, with the small broom and dustpan attached to the altar.
The evil doctrine was restructured, and its pure power became nourishment for the benevolent goddess. He thought it was excessive to call such a good thing theft.
[Merger... acquisition?]
As if it were a concept she had never heard before, a cute note of curiosity lingered in her sublime voice.
The gods of this world were immortal and wielded mighty powers, but they were not truly omniscient beings.
Their station was somewhere between the Olympian gods of Eugene's memory and the kami of Japanese Shinto.
There were countless instances where powerful spirits, like the Forest Spirit he had met on the Apen Peninsula, were considered gods.
"My residents are happily married and bear many children. O Goddess, please protect them so that no tragedy befalls their births."
[As you will. I shall have our children grow and thrive in this blessed castle.]
The evil god had been called 'the one who pours forth defiled amniotic fluid.'
Now, that power was rebranded, granting Vanas a new domain of oversight.
"Shall we depart now?"
The rites had been offered, and the god's grace had become even more special, so it was time to venture into danger.
* * *
The place where the Wandering Castle descended was the southeastern coastal region of the Snow Country.
"Did I see that wrong?"
A dwarf warrior of the Hammer Brotherhood rubbed his eyes. But the scene in view remained unchanged.
"Damn. A mountain is drifting on the sea."
The dwarves moving along the shore looked at the sea with bewilderment. A massive iceberg was floating leisurely from the north.
Thump!
The sound of it colliding with a relatively smaller ice floe could be heard from hundreds of meters away.
It was a sight they would absolutely never see in the warm seas of the Apen Peninsula where they had mainly operated.
"Are there any villages nearby?"
"None, Excellency. As you can see, the current is strong and the coast is made up of ice cliffs. You can't even dock a boat, let alone fish."
Eugene's army was moving along high ground nearly thirty meters above the sea surface.
The sea surface was so dark it was nearly navy blue, as if revealing the cold it held within. Even the sea-familiar dwarves felt a vague fear at the sight.
"Even the handful of trading ships use the ports to the south and southwest."
"The lords will be astonished when they learn an army of this scale has appeared here."
"They aren't foolish enough to pick a fight with an army of this might. Besides, you've prepared generous gifts, haven't you? The lords here are the most susceptible to gifts in the world."
Eugene nodded and took out a pouch of dried sweet potato snacks from his bosom and handed it over.
"It's reassuring to have an experienced local guide."
"Thank you!"
The dog beastkin adventurer's tail wagged furiously. True to his canine roots, he could not resist sweet potatoes. Moreover, the treats made by the witches were far more flavorful than ordinary ones.
"Smash it!"
When a slippery ice path appeared, the leading dwarves pulled out sledgehammers.
In an instant, the ice was shattered, and a safe path was created as if gravel and sand had been strewn upon it.
"Drag over three more trees!"
When they encountered a stream, they cut down nearby trees and laid a temporary bridge within twenty minutes.
"As expected, they're the best combat engineers of this era."
"Is there any virtue greater than steadfastness?"
Rampage puffed out his shoulders proudly.
If dark elves could traverse even rugged terrain as if it were flat ground, dwarves would build a road over whatever stood in their way and pass.
When they finally reached a flat coastline, the adventurer stopped.
"I've found traces of yetis."
"I don't see anything."
Homi also looked around, twitching her nose adorably. But her nose could not pick up the arrogant territorial marking (Spraying) scent characteristic of medium-sized monsters.
"This is it."
The adventurer picked up something from the beach. It was a tusk nearly a meter long.
"You even managed to find it on a snow-covered shore."
"Do you think I'm an adventurer for nothing? I must earn my pay."
The size of the tooth left Rampage flustered and scrambling.
"Excellency. With teeth this size, isn't it, well, a dragon...?"
Even a dwarf who would bravely confront an ogre's axe had one thing he instinctively feared, and that was dragons.
Just as one with burn scars suffers trauma, dwarves would have their beards stand on end just at the mention of dragons.
"Calm down. It's not a dragon."
Eugene soothed Rampage.
"It looks like a tusk. Isn't it some fat animal that goes between the sea and land?"
"How did you know? We call them sea bears. They're only supposed to live in this region, so how..."
The adventurer marveled and explained the details. The Hammer Brotherhood dwarves were relieved to hear it was about the size of a cow.
'Judging by the description, it seems to be a walrus.'
Since the people of the Snow Country had never seen an elephant, they had likely named it after a similar land animal.
"If a person had hunted it, they would never leave these tusks behind. It's the most valuable part."
The adventurer held up the pair of tusks as he spoke.
"Above all, these shattered ribs and skull are proof. The yetis smash the bones of their prey with clubs and suck out the marrow. Only yetis can do this."
Eugene's army, which had spread out in three-man squads to search, soon found traces of yetis. Deep footprints brazenly stamped in the snow field revealed the creatures' destination.
"There are more here!"
There was even more than one. Footprints of different sizes were discovered at a site with seven abandoned houses.
"Sea bears, hornless reindeer, emperor turtles—this area has many large prey that yetis favor."
"It seems all the original inhabitants were driven out."
"Yes. Once, hunters and fishermen flocked from all over the Snow Country, and nearly three hundred people lived here, but now..."
It was the sight of a hometown ruined by monsters. The adventurer smiled bitterly.
"Does a yeti corpse fetch money?"
"It's basically in the same family as bugbears. It's larger and more muscular, but has little value as an alchemical ingredient."
"Damn. Is this hunt pro bono again?"
To the disappointed Eugene, the adventurer added apologetically,
"The yeti's fur pelt is a treasure, though. It carries the mystery of insulation, blocking both heat and cold. Made into clothing, it keeps you cool in the desert and warm in the polar regions."
"Oh!"
Eugene's brown eyes glittered with greed.
"But how do you intend to capture that ferocious beast without a scratch?"
As befit a creature of the cold, the yeti possessed a bulk rivaling an ogre's. Its thick fur and hide were difficult to pierce even with a heavy crossbow at close range, and its intelligence was considerable.
"How do the warriors here dispatch it?"
"They cannot catch it by ordinary means. They usually burn it to death."
The yeti's abundant fur coat provided supreme protection against cold steel but was fatally vulnerable to fire.
"They trap it in a pit filled with whale oil and shoot fire arrows, or use sticky alchemical torches to bring it down."
"That would be expensive and the success rate low. It's a monster, so its sense of smell is keen—most traps would be sniffed out."
Fire tactics were easier said than done; achieving success against a medium-sized monster in actual combat was immensely difficult.
Moreover, the cold weather made it hard to ignite anything, and with snow covering the ground all around, simply rolling in it could douse the flames.
"It is as Your Excellency says. Even when they capture one at great sacrifice, the gain is meager. Nothing but a lump of meat scorched black and hacked to pieces. That is why the lords avoid them in disgust."
The adventurer was not particularly frightened even as he advanced toward the fearsome yeti. This was due not only to Eugene's renown but also to the sheer number of doughty dwarf warriors present.
"Yet how will Your Excellency catch it? Since you are with dwarves, will you use siege weapons after all?"
"What nonsense. It's a rare opportunity—surely I must strip that precious fur hide cleanly, do you not think?"
"Pardon?"
Clink-clank.
Eugene received his flail from the supply wagon.
"Grrr—!"
Might tossed his head with pleasure at the distinctive sound of chains ringing by his ears.
"It has been a while, hasn't it?"
Eugene stroked Might's neck as he grasped the iron rod.
The unique slicing satisfaction Blackout delivered was superb, but the tactile feedback a flail could provide was irreplaceable.
"It is finally coming out."
The warriors of the Hammer Brotherhood nodded with deep satisfaction.
Blunt weaponry!
Unlike fragile blades that dulled and chipped at every turn, these solid companions were as steadfast as boulders. A weapon truly suited to a great warrior like Eugene.
Furthermore, now that Might had transformed into a World Charger, his weight limit had increased, and the flail had been upgraded accordingly.
-Your Excellency. Are you sure you wish it made like this?
-Is there a problem?
-With chains and metal this heavy, it could serve as an anchor for a galley.
The dwarf smith Walker soon shook his head. It occurred to him that he was speaking nonsense before an ogre wearing human skin.
-A galley's anchor. A Battle Anchor, then? Not a bad name.
Eugene laughed and nodded.
The third flail thus completed took the shape of an anchor with five flanges, attached to a chain the thickness of a grown man's forearm.
Gulp.
The adventurer gulped at the sight, so vicious that words failed to describe it.
Sniff, sniff.
'There was so much iron.'
The smell of iron that his dog beastkin nose picked up. It was so thick that he felt as though he could smell blood even before the fighting had started.
* * *
In a valley of the Snow Country, there lived a young yeti, twenty years of age.
Wherever he grew sleepy, he would immediately flop down, stretch out his legs, and sleep. It was a privilege enjoyed only by apex predators.
But today, for the first time, the yeti was made to feel what it was like to be prey.
Crack!
A club the size of a grown man shattered and splinters flew everywhere.
"Kkwo-?"
The yeti stared dumbfounded at the weapon, which after a single exchange held nothing but its handle. That was a colossal mistake.
Wham!
Without any preparatory motion, the Battle Anchor flew like lightning and struck his abdomen. The yeti's torso bent at a right angle.
With a grotesque scream, amplified five times the sound of a pig being slaughtered, vomit sprayed forth.
"Has it been eating bears? It is certainly no ordinary monster."
Eugene spotted a large bear paw among the half-digested chunks of flesh.
Just as the flail came down again to shatter the back of the yeti's skull, the creature barely managed to roll away.
"Aim for the eyes!"
At Cassandra's shout, the female warriors focused their arrows on the yeti's face.
But the yeti was already turning its head and fleeing. It had judged the knight before it to be an utterly insurmountable foe.
However, showing its back to a mounted knight was an act of suicide. The terrifying sound of hooves behind it closed in instantly.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
The dwarves cheered and followed after Eugene.
Each time Might's hooves struck the snowy field, clumps of snow erupted as if exploding, creating a magnificent spectacle.
Thwack!
The Battle Anchor struck the fleeing yeti square on the rump, and the creature pitched forward onto the ground.
The overwhelming impact force tore through the thick gluteal muscles and ruptured the abdominal wall and peritoneum.
"Khuuuuu-."
A catastrophic hernia occurred. The yeti inched along on all fours, its insides rent with tearing agony.
Clink.
At the metallic sound from right behind it, the yeti rolled onto its back. One hand clutched its stomach, and the other stretched out toward Eugene.
-Please spare me!
That was the posture a human had shown in the yeti's memory before being devoured alive. It knew this was an act of begging for mercy among humans, so it imitated it.
And just as the yeti had never shown mercy, Eugene showed none either.
Bam!
The yeti, now a corpse, lay sprawled spread-eagle.
"This should be intact enough to use, don't you think?"
"Y-Yes! I have never seen such a clean yeti hide before. If you bring it back, every lord will have their eyes popping out of their heads."
The adventurer, startled, nodded repeatedly. He could scarcely believe what he had just witnessed.
"It would be a shame to stop at just one. Can you find us more?"
"I shall seek them with all my heart and soul!"
Within the adventurer, the thirst for marvelous sights and a burning vengeance against the monsters that had ruined his homeland blazed up fiercely.
A yeti, previously regarded as a natural disaster, was being skinned on the spot like a calf.
Now that Eugene had come, the yeti was no longer a calamity. It was nothing more than a single oversized game animal.
"Cassandra."
"Yes, Castle Lord."
"Does Chief Alessa fancy fur coats? I feel I have not properly shown my appreciation for all her efforts."
"I am not sure. She has never indulged in luxury. She has always lived frugally to make ends meet for the tribe."
"Hmm."
Cassandra patted Eugene's shoulder when he looked disappointed.
"But the chieftain is still a woman. There is no woman who dislikes furs. Gloves, mufflers, hats—the things you can make are endless. And the color is as snowy white as it gets, which is quite lovely."
"Thank you. That provides ample motivation."
Clench.
Eugene gripped his flail tightly.
Gold and white were a classic combination. The yeti's fur would also suit Varda's golden hair and pale skin exquisitely well.
After that, a great commotion arose in the southeastern region of the Snow Country.
-There!
-Drive it toward His Excellency!
The wind that raced across the barren land was mixed with screams that one would not normally hear.
The throats that had always uttered only ferocious roars were now, for the first time, spewing fear and pain. Because of that, the beasts could not recognize that the voice belonged to a yeti.
* * *
"My lord! Envoys have come from the north!"
"Good news!"
At the shout of the steward who came running in a fluster, Chieftain Hakon rejoiced. He ruled the easternmost fringe of human habitation.
'How much can I squeeze out of them this time?'
The eastern part of the Snow Country was a sea of death. The currents were savage, and only icy cliffs with nowhere to land a ship stretched endlessly.
The moment a merchant vessel was caught in a capricious squall or strayed off course, all that awaited it was shipwreck.
-This is my land! If you do not want to die, hand over everything you have!
If the survivors stumbling down were in wretched condition, Hakon would strip them of all their wealth.
-Oh my, you have suffered greatly. Here, have some warm soup and regain your strength. We have lodgings and soft clothes ready. As long as you pay, of course.
When the survivors were intact and not to be trifled with, he turned into a merchant and gouged them thoroughly. Either way, he reaped a tidy profit.
"Summon the village warriors."
"Yes, Father!"
Since this was not their first or second time doing this, his eldest son ran out with a grim smile.
"So, what is the condition of our guests?"
"This is no time for that! You must immediately send for aid from the neighboring lords!"
"They seem to be in good shape, don't they? Their navigator must be fairly skilled."
Castaways who abandoned their ships usually stumbled down in miserable shape, frostbitten and wretched.
However, there were times when multiple armed merchant vessels landed under the guidance of excellent crews. In such cases, Hakon felt enough danger to conserve his strength.
"How many are there that you carry on so?"
"D-Dwarves fill the entire horizon. I could not properly count them because the light reflecting off their iron was blinding!"
Hakon spectacularly spat out the drink from his horn cup.
"And the yetis... the yetis..."
"What about yetis?! Are they fighting yetis?"
At Hakon's hopeful question, the steward could not answer.
The sudden appearance of a dwarf army alone had already made him feel as though he had seen a phantom.
And if he were to say this as well, he feared he would be struck in the face and accused of insolence.
End
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