29 – Episode 29
The warrior Lektar brought back was not in his right mind.
His trembling pupils continued to scan the surroundings, and his body was tense as if he could flee at any moment.
Seeing the warrior’s unconventional appearance in the plain, Lektar frowned. What on earth did he see in the forest to end up like this?
Onerthon suppressed his anger and interrogated the warrior.
“Tell me. What did you see in the forest?”
“The forest… the forest? Yeah, we were in the forest. We were in the forest.”
The deranged warrior kept muttering the word “forest” repeatedly. He couldn’t be considered in a normal state by any means.
Feeling frustrated, Onerthon lifted his heavy body and locked eyes with the warrior. The mystique embedded in Onerthon’s eyes began to shine eerily.
While most spirits regarded magic as trivial, Onerthon was a spirit who believed that magic had its uses depending on how it was used.
And this was one of those moments.
As the warrior met Onerthon’s gaze, he gradually lost himself in the magic. Lektar, wary of that ominous magic, glared at Onerthon.
No matter how urgent the situation was, it was still unforgivable for the warrior to cast magic recklessly, especially when he was his subordinate.
“Wasn’t there a more sensible way?”
“That’s noisy. If you want to argue, blame the weakness of your own warriors. How weak must they be to lose once and lose their minds?”
It was a typically Oneton-like response, skilled at provoking the other party’s temperament.
Ignoring Lectar’s reaction, Oneton commanded the warrior.
“Recall what you saw and heard.”
“Forest… Blinding snow… Giants…”
The warrior, Sekunda, slowly opened his mouth, recalling the memories.
* * *
The squad that Sekunda, a warrior of the Blue Mane tribe and a dog-human hybrid, belonged to, entered the forest according to Lectar’s orders.
The forest was colder and darker than any forest or plain Sekunda had ever experienced, but he was not worried.
“At best, those who hide in the forest can only be strong in the forest.”
This forest was like the final destination for the defeated and the fugitives.
How famous must this forest be for even the canines who live in the vast plains to refer to it as the ‘end of the world’?
Literally, reaching this forest meant there was no going back.
…Although being pushed close to this forest was a complaint in itself.
“Ignore it. I just want to know how the Blue Mane tribe ended up like this…”
“Halt. I smell human scent ahead.”
As the leader of the tribe, Roqan, a goat-human hybrid, sent the signal, the warriors all stopped in unison.
They stared into the depths of the forest, their animal eyes shining. It was quite far and hidden by the bushes, but the form of a target was clearly visible.
It was a fairly large and well-made target, but the warriors were not concerned. For the nomadic tribes of the plains, stealing targets was no different than a daily task.
Such things crumble quickly when hefty warriors swing their double-sided axes.
“Thunk! Thunk thunk!”
“Calm down, calm down.”
The warriors stared down the wolf, barking without a hint of caution.
The wolf, forced to join by Oneton, the warriors didn’t trust its instincts. Frankly, they weren’t fond of it.
Its temperament was filthy, its appetite insatiable, and commanding it proved to be excessively demanding.
No need to go far; even now, it was the same.
Rokan, holding the leash, tried to calm it by pulling, but it wasn’t easy.
Excitement was an issue, but with its size and the protection it received, controlling it was no walk in the park.
“Is this creature influenced by the blood of its master, resembling my lord?”
Despite that, its whimpering sounded peculiar.
The seasoned warrior sensed something different from the typical ferocity of a hungry beast in the wolf.
Could it be that even a protected wolf would be frightened?
“That can’t be.”
“Wait, isn’t there a thick fog approaching from the front?”
“What?”
The warriors watched in astonishment as a fog rolled in, spreading through the already dark forest.
As the wolf, disdainful of the approaching fog, bared its teeth…
“Uh…uh-oh!? Hey, little wolf!”
—
“Capture that damn thing, quickly!”
They turned around and tried to escape.
The warrior shouted in disbelief.
Is it even possible for a wolf, who has received protection, to be scared of mere fog?
Despite the desperate struggles of the wolf, the warriors held their ground firmly.
If this guy had escaped, Oneton would have blamed Lektar, and an angry Lektar would have blamed the warriors.
“Crack, creak!”
“This damn wolf… huh?”
“What’s wrong? The fog is too thick!”
The fog swallowed the warriors in an instant. That was fine… The problem was what happened next.
The fog gradually thickened, and something began to appear from within.
It was a giant.
A giant wearing a deer’s skull, spewing fog from its mouth, was walking towards them.
A shiver ran down the warriors’ spines, making them flinch.
The appearance of the giant was surprising, but it wasn’t necessarily terrifying…
‘Why am I scared?’
The warriors had experienced monsters similar to the giant, even if it wasn’t an actual giant.
Dangerous monsters like trolls or ogres had appeared in the eastern plains.
So, they weren’t warriors who would be afraid just because of its size…
Sssshhh.
Warriors instinctively drew their weapons, even though Rokan hadn’t given the command.
One warrior gestured with his spear towards the giant’s leg and muttered, “That thing… has no footprints?”
“!”
Can one believe that a giant, at least twice the size of a human, is approaching without making a sound or leaving footprints?
Realizing that the creature was no ordinary being, the warriors clenched their teeth.
Fortunately, those with connections to spirits sensed something unusual. If not for that, they might have thought they were bewitched and fled without hesitation.
As the giant extended its hand towards the ground, its eyes moved like a living snake, wrapping around its hand.
In an instant, the eyes transformed into a handle of an axe. Although the axe didn’t match the giant’s proportions, no one relaxed their guard.
… Yet, the warriors couldn’t keep up with the giant’s movements.
It seemed blurry, as if something indistinct. The warriors, realizing too late that the giant had disappeared, were thrown into confusion.
“What the!? Where did it go?”
“I-it was definitely here in front…”
As one warrior searched around in confusion, he stopped abruptly when he felt the gaze of others on him.
The warrior noticed the darkening surroundings and, a moment later, the chilling cold.
As the cold breeze swept by, the warrior raised his head.
“…Ah.”
That was the warrior’s final word.
Casually swinging its axe, the giant sent the warrior’s head soaring into the sky.
Amid the bizarre scene of no blood spilling and the giant’s presence felt yet unseen, Rokan shouted as if in a scream, “Attack!”
“Attack!”
The warriors surrounding the giant moved in fear, abandoning themselves to terror.
Someone swung a sword.
Someone brought down an axe.
Someone thrust a spear, but…
“What, what’s this!”
“This madness!?”
The warriors’ weapons cut through the air.
The giant, boasting an agility incongruent with its size, gracefully dodged the attacks by bending its waist.
The warriors, astonished, attempted to retrieve their weapons, but it was already too late.
The giant swung its hand axe like a whip. The warriors’ screams echoed, arms and legs flew, and the unlucky ones lost their heads.
The giant seized the leg of the nearest warrior and swung it towards the others.
Being killed by the axe was cruel, but dying by a fellow warrior’s attack was even more horrifying.
As screams collided with screams, a horrifying cacophony erupted.
Amidst the chaotic blend of screams and the stench of blood, Sekunda, in panic, released his spear.
In his mind, there was only one thought.
“If I don’t escape, I’ll die!”
Sekunda had lost not only his fighting spirit but also his honor.
His legs instinctively fled from the giant without a moment’s hesitation. While running, Sekunda glanced back.
Rokan, who had been hurling curses at him, had his head split in half. Sekunda, shocked beyond belief, turned his head away.
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There was no time to feel guilt. If he didn’t leave this place right away, he would die.
It seemed other warriors had the same thought as they began fleeing after Sekunda.
However, unfortunately, they were not as nimble as Sekunda.
“aaargh!”
“Sekunda, help us, Sekunda!”
As the presence of his comrades diminished one by one, so did the screams and curses.
The fact that nothing could be heard anymore terrified Sekunda. When nothing else could be heard, that moment was the sound of his death.
“Thud!”
“Gasp!?”
Sekunda, fleeing, was startled by the howl of a wolf coming from beside him.
The wolf that first sensed the danger was panting and rushing towards them.
The moment Sekunda locked eyes with the wolf, he felt an ominous presence.
Even if it was an ordinary wolf, it would be intimidating, let alone one not under the protection of Oneton.
“Get lost!”
“Grrr!”
In response to Sekunda’s threat, the wolf bit into Sekunda’s leg.
Its sharp teeth were sufficient to pierce not only Sekunda’s leather armor but also his softer skin.
Screaming in pain as flesh was torn away, Sekunda collapsed. He tried to get up, but it wasn’t easy.
When the wolf ran off into the distance, Sekunda resigned himself.
‘…So, this is how I die.’
Accepting death, Sekunda felt emptiness. Letting go of everything, there was a sensation as if fear had washed away, leaving him.
He turned his body laboriously to face the giant. The giant stood not far away, motionless.
“Did that wolf survive?”
It was an unjust act. Who in the world would want the one who used himself as bait to survive?
Fortunately, it seemed the giant had no intention of sparing the wolf.
The giant’s handaxe cleaved through the forest, parting ways with the wolf’s waist. Sekunda, observing the scene without missing a detail, sighed.
“Well, he wasn’t someone who could escape from the beginning.”
The giant was approaching slowly. No, not slowly?
He couldn’t tell.
Even though what was in front of him was clear, Sekunda couldn’t gauge how fast the giant was approaching.
Only when the giant leaned down to look at him did Sekunda become certain of the giant’s position.
As the skull split open, a deep darkness resembling a black void entered Sekunda’s eyes. It wasn’t that he had been wearing the skull; the skull had been his head.
So, that’s the mouth… no, can we call that a mouth?
“I don’t know… I just wish it would be over now.”
Sekunda stared at the giant’s mouth with a hopeless gaze. He prayed for those teeth to tear into his throat quickly.
But… the giant didn’t bite him. The giant put his hand into his own mouth.
“…?”
Sekunda froze at the sight that was utterly incomprehensible. The giant pulled something out of his mouth…
“A seed?”
There was no time to resolve the confusion. The giant’s fingernail had pierced Sekunda’s mouth.
Sekunda’s mouth hung wide open in the face of an irresistible and overwhelming force. He screamed in agony as his jawbone contorted.
“aaah!!!!!”
Sekunda felt something piercing through his teeth. The pain was excruciating, but not knowing why it was happening made it even more terrifying.
Why in the world would anyone plant seeds in their teeth?
As his fingernails came off, Sekunda spat out a mouthful of blood. Desperately, he tried to reach into his mouth, but he couldn’t extract the seed.
What kind of seed is this, to be shoved into a person’s mouth? He didn’t even want to imagine.
“What… What have you done!!”
“Silence.”
Sekunda closed his mouth under the oppressive sensation, as if his heart had been seized. Just one word, but it felt as heavy as a ton.
The giant stared through Sekunda’s eyes and spoke.
“Go back to your base, and I’ll spare your life. If you safely return to your base, you’ll live… Otherwise, it’s up to your imagination.”
“What… What does that mean!?”
Perplexed, Sekunda reached out toward the giant, but the giant had already disappeared.
Sekunda stared blankly at the spot where the giant had been and at the corpses of his fallen comrades.
It was too brutal to be called a dream, yet too horrifying to be denied.
Sekunda gripped his jaw in response to the throbbing pain in his gums.
The vivid pain and the even more vivid alien sensation of the seed.
With those two sensations, Sekunda staggered to his feet. He had no more mental capacity to think.
He just tried to remember the last words the giant had said.
If it doesn’t go back, I didn’t want to imagine what would happen.
* * *
Sekunda’s tale concluded there.
Oneton furrowed his brows. He hadn’t imagined that Wendygo would move on its own.
“This uncouth fellow…”
“Who is this fellow? Do you know the identity of the giant mentioned by the warrior?”
“Yeah. Since I know, wait a m… wait.”
Oneton blinked, then tore off Sekunda’s head.
Hot blood stained the ground as Sekunda’s head rolled.
Has this spirit finally gone mad?
Unable to bear it any longer, Lektar drew his sword.
“This mad spirit is blatantly crossing the line!”
“There’s a reason for that, so calm down.”
“Shut up! Just a pathetic excuse for tearing the throat of a barely surviving warrior…!?”
Lektar, about to burst into rage, was horrified by the sight before him.
Whether Oneton’s excuse was false or not, a seed fell from Sekunda’s mouth and burrowed into the ground.
In an instant, the seed began to grow into a form.
A massive body filled with muscles and a deer skull for a head.
The tree that grew from the seed took on the form of Wendygo.
The sound of the breaking tree lingered for a moment.
“Oh, it’s happening.”
“This damn bastard…”
As the figure of Wendigo uttered absurd words, Oneton roared, bursting with life.