41 episodes
Fenrir quickly turned around as if conscious of Ethan.
‘Where does it hurt?’
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“Hmm, maybe?”
The past he had seen through his jet-black eyes flashed through Ethan’s mind.
-Would you mind protecting the people of this city a little longer?
Moreover, as I continued to observe, Fenrir was spreading enormous energy throughout the city.
As if the whole city was enveloped with divine energy.
That must have been the reason why Shinsu felt pain.
Ethan clicked his tongue low.
‘I don’t know English. A hundred years ago, he didn’t do such reckless things.’
But now, Fenrir was acting as if he was eager to show off his divine power.
It was strange to spread his aura to the city, even at the cost of suffering.
That was then.
It seems that just spreading the divine power in the city was not enough.
Fenrir let out a cry into the air.
oo!
Ethan raised his eyes and looked around Fenrir.
What he couldn’t see in his previous life was clearly visible in Ethan’s eyes now.
‘According to the cry, the divine power is spreading around.’
It was similar to divine magic.
The magic and magic of the place where they heard the cry of the gods would disperse, and the madness of the monsters would decrease.
All monsters are sensitively affected by magic and magical powers and accumulate them in their bodies.
That is why Fenrir was crying to suppress the magical powers of the monsters with the perm effect.
‘Are you usually protecting the city with divine power and suppressing the monsters of the cursed forest with howling?’
Ethan continued his guess.
‘But when the red moon rises and magic and magic flourish, even the divine beasts cannot suppress the monster’s madness.’
It seemed like a pretty good fit.
But there was something subtly odd about it.
Ethan’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Then why are you crying here and not in the forest?”
Ethan’s question was understandable.
In order to maximize the effect of the perm with howling, it would be effective to do it as close as possible to the cursed forest.
But Fenrir stayed only in the temple.
Always radiating immense divine power, as if never leaving the city.
“… no way?”
At that moment, a thought crossed Ethan’s mind.
* * *
Kick!
Ethan headed towards the prayer room where he had first met Lucio.
There the apprentice priest was standing there.
The apprentice priest saw Ethan and raised his hand to block it.
“You cannot pass through this. There is only the prayer room here, so I will guide you to the accommodation.”
However, Ethan ignored the apprentice priest’s words and asked bluntly.
“Is it true that the tomb of Priest Luca Rossi is in the basement of the prayer room?”
“Hmm, yes.”
“I want to see the grave.”
The apprentice priest’s expression finally hardened.
“No outsider can interfere with Priest Luca Rossi’s sleep. That’s respect for the dead. Only immediate family members are allowed in.”
Ethan muttered to himself.
‘It’s because they’re clumsy anyway.’
That was then.
“what happened?”
Lucio suddenly appeared from the hallway over there.
The apprentice priest told Lucio about the past as if he was lucky.
Lucio frowned as if he could not understand the English language.
“Why are you so curious about my grandfather’s grave? You are a strange person.”
“There is something I want to check.”
Lucio looked at Ethan as if he was trying to guess what he was thinking.
It would be incomprehensible
However, Ethan’s actions were extremely rational.
self-interest.
As Edan had speculated, if there was anything in this place where enormous divine power and magical power were intertwined, it was an opportunity for Edan, like the Holy White Beast.
A great opportunity to develop new magic!
At that, Lucio laughed in dismay.
‘You must have heard the rumor.’
Rumors that the grave where his grandfather was buried is affecting the Cursed Forest.
Although he was a priest walking the path of training, he was angry because he was also a human being.
Lucio said, trying to contain his anger.
“It’s not a matter for someone who’s only been here two days to interfere. Your attitude only seems to be an insult to this city. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Please return to your accommodation.”
Lucio turned right back.
I didn’t even want to talk to that arrogant boy.
Then a boy’s voice came from behind.
“Are you aware that the state of the divine beast is dangerous?”
At those words, Lucio’s footsteps stopped.
Ethan continued.
“If you leave it like this, the divine beast will definitely weaken.”
“… … .”
But Lucio didn’t say anything.
‘That guy, maybe?’
Ethan’s eyes widened at the unexpected reaction.
Lucio had already noticed.
Fenrir is sacrificing himself to protect this city.
Lucio, clenching his fists, finally turned back and looked at Ethan.
“Is it ok to be so arrogant if you perform a miracle to bring the holy beast back to life? It’s not priestly at all.”
Despite the provocative remarks, Ethan only raised his eyebrows.
He was waiting for Lucio’s next reaction.
“Whoa.”
Taking a deep breath, Lucio gave Ethan a chin.
“Follow me. There’s nothing to hide anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”
* * *
“Here it is.”
The sarcophagus was dimly revealed by the lamp that Lucio was holding.
Ethan created a light with divine power and looked around me.
Luca Rossi’s tomb was in a place made like an underground cavity.
‘It’s amazing. Roots of trees remain on the walls and floors.’
Some tree roots wrapped around the pillars supporting the ceiling.
‘If you removed the root of the tree when making the grave, there should be traces of new growth, but that’s not the case at all.’
There was something strange about the roots of trees that stretched all over the underground cavity.
Long after the tomb was built, it did not appear to have pierced the wall or floor.
Ethan brought the lamp closer to the floor.
The bricks laid on the floor were cut away from the tree roots.
‘It feels as if the tree roots were preserved and made from the time the tomb was built.’
Ethan got up and asked Lucio.
“Why is only Priest Luca Rossi buried here?”
“He said he wanted his grandfather to be buried under the temple.”
Lucio answered meekly.
There was nothing to be proud of anyway, so there was nothing to hide.
“Is this underground cavity also created then?”
“yes. A man who had been very frugal in the past was strangely obsessed with this catacomb to the extent that he wasted his money. Thanks to him, my father and I suffered quite a bit.”
“Hmm.”
Ethan nodded his head and looked around the crypt slowly.
And I came to this conclusion.
‘You are full of divine power.’
It was as he said.
The divine power that was constantly flowing from the coffin where Luca Rossi was sleeping was spreading around it.
It was completely different from the rumors I had heard from the merchants.
-After Priest Luca Rossi was buried in the basement of the temple, it was said that it had a bad effect on the Cursed Forest.
-The magic has affected even the bone marrow, so it is said that even when you die, you are still emitting magic.
Ethan rubbed his chin.
‘I thought it was because of this grave that that bastard stayed in the city… … .’
Wasn’t Fenrir firmly not howling in the temple, not in the Cursed Forest?
The reason Ethan came to Luca Rossi’s tomb was because he thought there was some relationship between the rumors and the actions of the divine beast.
“It was a false rumor.”
It was when Ethan mumbled that.
Lucio said it to Ethan as if he was looking for it.
“yes. you’re right. As you are a priest, you know very well, but in fact, this place is filled with only divine power.”
Ethan meekly agreed.
In the meantime, when he saw the root of a tree clinging to the sarcophagus, he tilted his head.
‘This?’
It was the trace of the tree’s roots being purified by divine power.
I wouldn’t have been able to find it otherwise.
However, Ethan had divine power and magical power.
So I was able to find something strange at the root of the tree.
‘The traces of magic remain very minutely at the root of the tree.’
It was not something that ordinary priests could easily notice.
A hundred years ago, when dark magic and holy magic were fighting each other, it was a small trace that only famous priests would notice.
In particular, Ethan was a man with a lot of flair when it came to dark magic.
No matter how small the traces of magic were, they could be identified.
‘Are the roots of trees infused with magical powers purified here? So where did this tree’s root come from?’
The answer seemed to have already come.
Cursed Forest.
Ethan realized why Luca Rossi had built a tomb here.
‘Did you want to protect this city even after death?’
Luca Rossi was trying to protect the city by herself, even after telling the gods before she died.
Ethan smirked.
The roots of the trees that grew bizarrely by absorbing magical energy from the cursed forest had penetrated into the basement of the city.
And Luca Rossi at the time would have expected it.
If you leave it like this, the city of Pache will die.
‘I followed only the back of a saint, but it was because he was quite a faithful man.’
Although Ethan felt bad for Luca Rossi, he was more inclined to admit it.
Luca Rossi was devout, unlike other priests who only bought their mouths.
‘So, I wasted my money and built a grave, and I came to suppress the magic of the root of the tree with that grave.’
On the other hand, Lucio was offended by Ethan’s smirk.
“Why do you laugh when you look at someone else’s sarcophagus?”
“You still haven’t noticed?”
“What?”
“Where do you think the roots of this tree come from?”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
Lucio was taken aback.
Since he was a child, he had seen his grandfather’s grave, so he had no doubts about the roots of the tree.
However, as Ethan pointed out, the existence of the tree roots came to mind.
Ethan personally informed Lucio.
“The trees of the Cursed Forest have taken root in the basement of the city. Luca Rossi knew this and spent her own money making a tomb in the basement of the temple to protect the city.”
“… … !”
As if he had not expected that, Lucio was greatly surprised.
“But as the years passed, the energy of the cursed forest grew stronger. On the other hand, the remains of Luca Rossi have lost their sacred power. The timing was so perfect that people mistakenly thought that the magic of the forest was getting stronger because of Luca Rossi.”
“… Grandpa didn’t say anything.”
Lucio put a hand on his forehead.
I remember when I was young, vaguely resenting my grandfather for wasting his family income.
Some people even ridiculed it as something my grandfather did because he was old.
He became a priest and abandoned his resentment towards his grandfather, but he did not know that such a story would exist.
“So now I have to go even to Shinsu. The divine beast releases as much divine power as possible, suppressing both the magical power that seeks to penetrate the city and the magical power of the forest.”
“Nonsense.”
Knowing the story, Lucio stumbled and put his hand against the wall.
He looked at Ethan and muttered:
“It is absurd to find something like that by just scanning the grave. I will not believe what you said.”
“If you don’t want to believe it, drink it.”
Ethan replied indifferently.
Then he hurriedly approached the sarcophagus.
Lucio suddenly came to his senses and tried to restrain Ethan.
“What are you going to do? Your business is over, so let’s get out of here.”
Then Ethan raised his eyebrows in a strange way.
“When did I say I was done with my business?”
“what?”
“I’m here to pave the way to the Empire, so we have to deal with it.”
Ethan chuckled.
I couldn’t miss the golden opportunity to grow my new magic.
He had no intention of saving the city by admiring the priests who tried to protect the city even after death or the gods who wanted to keep their promises with the priests.
‘I guess I did it because I wanted to.’
Ethan thought so.
So Ethan was going to do what he wanted to do.
He had only one desire to satisfy.
‘This time, all I have to do is complete my revenge properly.’
In order to do that, I had to increase my strength by any means possible.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
Ethan slowly raised his hand and placed it on the sarcophagus.