22 – Episode 22
Wendigo dodged the thorn tentacles and jumped towards the wall of the nest.
“It’s not an attack I can’t defend against, but it won’t be good if I get hit.”
Avoiding the tentacles that could pierce even rocks, Wendigo reached the wall and jumped high.
The mysterious energy that swirled around him intertwined with the ice sword, and the ice sword, wrapped in condensed cold, plunged towards Gikas’ head.
“Huhahahahaha! Do you think you can only inflict such a minor wound on me?”
Gikas retracted the tentacles and covered himself with a sticky, viscous substance like armor.
When the energies of Wendigo and Gikas collided, the nest reverberated with a loud noise as if the world was crumbling.
Wendigo frowned.
The cold surrounding the ice sword would not lose its strength so easily when it clashed with Gikas’ energy.
“He’s stronger than that wild boar.”
“The power of spirits is weak! How fleeting is the mystery of nature in the face of the strength honed in death, resentment, and curses!”
The mystery of Gikas, who grew devouring the negative aspects of the world, was as peculiar as his own tainted nature.
A mystery of corruption that pollutes and weakens what is born from nature.
That mystery gnawed at the coldness of Wendigo. Wendigo kicked Gikas in the face and stepped back.
Wendigo transformed the ice sword into an ice club. Gikas’ body trembled, causing earthquakes, and then rushed towards Wendigo with astonishing speed.
“Tear apart your flesh and limbs!”
“What a feeling to fight a train!”
Wendigo swung the club towards Gikas’ head. With a thud, Gikas’ head flew to the side, but the attack did not stop.
Covered in rough scales, Gikas’ body continuously charged at Wendigo, and Wendigo defended himself with the club.
Crash!!!
When the club collided with Gikas’ body, a chilling sound accompanied Wendigo being pushed back. The floor on which they stood could not withstand the impact and broke.
A charge combining the weight and size that did not match the agile speed.
From that simple combination emerged an overwhelming destructive power that surprised Wendigo quite a bit. It seems the three hundred years spent growing in size were not in vain.
Overwhelming mass itself was an excellent weapon.
“I underestimated this guy.”
“hahahaha!”
Gikas erupted in ecstasy. Like a whirlwind, he raced towards Wendigo, gaining more and more confidence in his ability to overwhelm him.
He regarded parasites as nothing more than a means to manage the lower beings. Ultimately, his own strength was the truth!
“Die in despair. Curse your own arrogance!”
Wendigo ignored Gikas’ provocation and swung the club. Gikas laughed, considering it a reckless move.
No matter how hard I swing the club, I believe the shell won’t break.
Gicas’ belief was not arrogance. Gicas’ body, which was both tough and flexible, easily withstood the impact of the club.
However, arrogance and complacency are completely different things.
Gicas noticed the change after the twentieth collision. He erased his relaxed appearance and showed confusion.
Hmm… the mysterious aura of Wendigo seems to be diminishing.
“You there, what trickery are you up to!” Gicas shouted.
Wendigo responded with a friendly swing of the club. Wendigo’s club was still full of mystery.
“Grr!”
Gicas’ aura couldn’t match that. The intense mystery, like the essence of evil, hit him, but it wasn’t infinite.
The club pierced through Gicas’ aura and struck his body. The shell was intact, but the inside was not.
As the cold chill spread like thorns, Gicas screamed. The pain was unbearable, and the nest echoed with screams.
The rocks fell, the nest crumbled.
Wendigo dodged the rocks and quickly climbed onto Gicas’ back.
“Hah!”
With a powerful swing of the club, Wendigo struck Gicas’ body. No matter how tough and flexible he was, the shell was not invincible.
Continuing to strike with the club, like taming an angry bull, the coldness seeped into the shell. Gicas’ aura could no longer defend against Wendigo’s aura.
“Come down! Come dowwwnnn!!!”
The pain of freezing while still conscious.
Gicas writhed and screamed in agony, experiencing a pain he had never felt before. He had never felt pain before because he had lived hidden for three hundred years.
As Gicas started to rampage, destroying his own nest, Wendigo calmly descended from his back without a trace of regret.
Gikas barely held onto his sanity and glared at Wendigo. And then, he admitted his mistake.
『Detestable! You were no ordinary spirit. To hide your strength and deceive me!』
“You’re just deluding yourself and causing chaos. Have you lost all sense after three hundred years?”
Come to think of it, he had lost all sense. How useful could time be to a creature that had lived by devouring offerings brought by its offspring from the nest?
Wendigo ceased contemplating and summoned mystique. As Gikas’s hexagonal mouth gaped open, mystique began gathering at its center.
『Dare not to attempt teaching me! What could a creature born as a spirit possibly know! I, I have transcended my birth by knowledge and effort!!!』
Gikas’s denied mystique wasn’t solely comprised of the grudges and curses of its victims.
Endless self-loathing, distrust, and resentment toward the world.
Gikas’s malice and the malice of its victims were so intertwined and tangled that they became Gikas’s mystique, inseparable.
To put it more concisely…
It was a culmination of inferiority complex.
“Your inferiority complex is excessive. Comparing your own talents with others only brings you pain.”
『Ridiculous! What could you possibly know!!!』
A fiery red breath akin to hellfire erupted. Wendigo hurled its club and poised itself.
His chest swelled immensely.
《 ■■■■■■■!!!!!! 》
A roar imbued with chill swept like a tempest. Gikas’s mystique was impressive, but not infinite.
The clash of these two breaths concluded with Gikas’s defeat. As Gikas’s breath, spent down to the last drop of mystique spread to the floor, Wendigo’s roar struck Gikas hard.
『aaargh!!!!!』
Gikas’s head and chest froze. Gikas tried to extract tentacles in a frenzy, but the cold consuming his body froze even the tentacles.
Thud!
As the body collapsed weakly, a small tremor shook the nest. Slowly, Wendygo approached Gikas.
Even in the midst of dying, Gikas eyed Wendygo.
“I told you… not to look down on me!”
“… Pitiful.”
Wendygo expressed sincere feelings as he infused his nails with mystery. He pushed his nails into Gikas’s mouth.
Wendygo stirred Gikas’s insides, quickly finding the source of his life and pulling it out in one go. Gikas took his last breath accompanied by an agonizing scream.
Wendygo had prayed for Gikas to be born as a talented individual. It was honestly a bit pitiful.
“To live three hundred years being talentless. It’s unimaginable.”
He was quite a tearful fellow. It would have been better if he had honed his talents in something more fitting…
“Come to think of it, he was a twisted one from the start. Maybe it’s better that he had dissatisfaction with his talents.”
Thinking this way, it seemed better that he had dissatisfaction with his talents. Wendygo shifted his focus to the guy’s heart.
Gikas’s heart exuded a deep mystery. The only problem was that this mystery was tainted by Gikas’s corrupt aura, making it quite repulsive.
Would consuming this give Wendygo Gikas’s mystique?
“…It might cause problems if I eat it.”
Indeed, how many beings could willingly put something that emanates the scent of corrupt water into their mouths?
After a long contemplation, Wendygo came to a conclusion.
“I should ask Scadi and decide.”
It’s not like he lacked the courage to eat it; he just needed a second opinion.
* * *
With the death of Gikas, the problem had come to a conclusion, but Wendigo couldn’t rest. There were various matters that needed attention.
Not only the shortage of Dmitri and Ivan’s tribe but also the warriors from several other tribes had united…
“They say if you ask the spirits, you can receive their protection.”
“Can’t we do that too?”
Realizing that Wendigo was managing people, the warriors, with eyes and ears, spread this fact widely when they returned to their tribes.
If one didn’t know much about Wendigo, they might suspect he treated humans like slaves. However, Wendigo’s presence wandering through the villages was enough to dispel such suspicions.
The stories of the returning warriors also had a significant impact.
“He cares for us enough to face the devil alone!”
“They say fruits ripen even in winter, and the spring breeze blows in his village.”
“Warriors called it a paradise on earth.”
…Of course, stories passed from mouth to mouth weren’t without exaggeration. Still, they were not entirely baseless.
Those who had come reluctantly, persuaded by the warriors and felt the warmth and well-grown crops in Wendigo’s village, were impressed.
The warriors’ words were true!
Seeing is believing. When spring comes, they pledged to join Wendigo. They couldn’t move recklessly as winter was approaching.
As they departed, Skadi gave them charms filled with warmth.
“While you return, Wendigo’s protection will drive away the cold.”
“To receive such a precious charm…”
“Since you have decided to worship Wendigo, you are like family to me. I hope to see you again in good health.”
With a sunny smile, Skadi spoke, and they bowed in gratitude before leaving the village. Wendigo watched them, becoming more distant, with a sense of loneliness.
“If we were to dissect it, it’s not my protection but the power of the talisman you created.”
“Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I owe Wendygo-nim a favor!”
Scadi proudly exclaimed, sticking close to Wendygo. It was awkward for Wendygo to meet her sparkling eyes, but she didn’t push her away.
‘I had to remove what she didn’t want to let go of. It’s inevitable.’
Wendygo ruffled Scadi’s hair, and she beamed with joy. Wendygo asked her,
“How about Gikas’s heart? Have you found a way to utilize it?”
“Oh, I’ve thought about it quite a bit… and I’ve come up with the best solution.”
At the mention of a good solution, Wendygo harbored expectations. After all the trouble she went through to catch it, there must be something useful, right? Not necessarily for gaining strength but something beneficial…
“Seems like burying it in the ground is the best option!”
“…”