Wendigo (3)

“Did you see that?”

The orc mage, Walter, boasted.

“What are you doing?”

“That woman summoned the Wendigo but failed to control it. To seal the Wendigo, we have to kill her. But she has half of the copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth that we used as a ritual power source. I have the other half.”

“There’s a copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth here? How many pages?”

“I have two. She has two.”

So, there were a total of four pages of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth present here.

‘This is amazing.’

Azadine currently possessed five pages. Adding these four would bring the total to nine. At that level, killing Azadine with the Curse of Servitude would be utterly impossible.

“What is a Wendigo??”

“It’s the name of that massive Nether creature.”

At that moment, Lady Lise erupted in fury.

“That’s a blatant lie! Killing me to seal that monster? Nonsense!”

At her outburst, Azadine stepped forward.

“Lady Lise?”

“And who the hell are you?”

“A woman named Fran is dead. At the hands of Sir Brock.”

“Is that so? Tch. A pathetic girl. She brought it on herself with her foolishness. But Brock killed her personally? So what? Does he expect forgiveness just because he dirtied his own hands?”

“Before that, let me ask—why did you turn her into Atra’s servant?”

“Why? Because she seemed so obsessed with beauty and love. I simply gave her the chance to devote everything to the goddess of beauty and love.”

“If you were angry about adultery, you must know that your husband was far more at fault.”

“Do you take me for a fool? You expect me to step aside for some dreamy little wench? Don’t make me laugh! I refuse to go back to the jungles of Vthuma!”

While Fran had been naïve and simple-minded, this noblewoman, Lise, was far more cunning and terrifying.

“Ugh…”

Sir Brock trembled in fear at her words.

“Do you get it? If you ever try to seduce another woman again, I’ll kill her, chop her up, and cook her into a stew! But you? I won’t kill you. I’ll make sure you live in constant fear. You’ll spend your whole life haunted by the disaster your own desires brought upon you!”

‘And yet, he still tried to cheat on a woman like this? Was he brave or just an idiot? No… probably both.’

Azadine was once again impressed by Sir Brock’s foolishness and asked.

“Well, leaving aside your marriage troubles, what’s going on with that giant monster outside? Did you really summon it?”

“Summon? Do I look that powerful? That massive thing? That Wendigo was originally sealed here. Long ago, the Kurt God Clan made immense sacrifices to imprison it. And through the Light of the Crown, even its connections were severed, preventing it from manifesting in this world.”

That was different from what the orc said. The orc claimed she had summoned it… but she insisted it was already sealed here. Considering the overwhelming size of the creature, her words seemed more credible.

Perhaps for that reason, Walter immediately reworded his claim.

“To be precise, the Wendigo wasn’t sealed here—it was exiled here. Bringing back an exiled being is still summoning. It’s just a terminology issue. I wasn’t trying to deceive you. If I were, I’d say I was a half-orc. A half-orc.”

Walter, this orc, tried to prove his honesty by mocking humans in front of them.

‘Just what do these damn orcs think of humans?’

Azadine was irritated by the orcs’ arrogance, but both the orc and Lady Lise were so agitated that they were talking too fast. If he let them ramble on, this place would turn into a marketplace.

“Alright, enough. So whether it was summoning or unsealing—why did you do it?”

Azadine asked Lady Lise.

“I never intended to unseal the Wendigo. Who in their right mind would want that? I just wanted to form a simple servant contract and extract some of its power.”

“Simple?”

Extracting power from a Nether being? That alone would warrant execution as a dreadful black magic user. Yet Lady Lise treated it as a trivial matter.

“But those damned Kurt followers had other ideas. They thought that if they released this enormous thing, the Eight Kingdoms would be forced to deplete their national power. If the followers of the Yaegas God Tribe exhausted the kingdom’s strength, their time would come. That’s what they believed! They interfered with my ritual and forced me to break the seal! It’s not my fault!”

To those listening, her words were utterly shocking.

From Lady Lise’s perspective, she never intended to release the Wendigo. She only sought to siphon a little power from a Nether being, but things escalated beyond her control. In that sense, she might feel wronged.

‘Even if what you say is true, from the perspective of the King’s Church, burning you at the stake wouldn’t be enough.’

The Holy Knight Zebec realized that his circumstances were getting increasingly complicated. First, he had ended up in a group that included the Messenger Clan, an orc necromancer, and Naga agents. Now, he had to deal with a noblewoman meddling with Nether creatures.

Still, to resolve this situation, her knowledge and information were necessary. Azadine pressed her further.

“So. Do you think you can fix this?”

Azadine directed the question at Lady Lise, but Walter the orc answered instead.

“Kill the medium—that woman—and return the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth copies to the Light of the Crown. That will allow us to banish and reseal the Wendigo!”

“Don’t make me laugh! You just want an excuse to kill me!”

Lady Lise roared in fury.

“But why are the two of you staring each other down?”

“My magic and the orc’s magic are currently clashing. If either of us lets go, the one who withdraws will be burned to death.”

“She tried to escape, so I cast a binding spell to stop her. She countered it, and now we’re stuck holding each other in place.”

So, right now, the orc and this noblewoman were like two stags locking horns in the middle of mating season—except their struggle was going to end with both of them dead.

“Kill that orc! Then I’ll take care of the Wendigo.”

“What nonsense. Everyone, do not trust that woman. She is an evil sorceress! I am the one who can handle the Wendigo.”

“An orc dares say such things!?”

“You’re a witch yourself!”

Watching the exchange, Sir Brand suddenly turned to Sir Brock and apologized.

“Uh, hmm. I’d like to apologize for being too harsh earlier. Of course, I’m not excusing your adultery, but… your wife really is terrifying.”

She was a woman scary enough to turn her husband’s mistress into a monster. Of course, Sir Brock was the one who messed up first, but perhaps Brand thought he had been too severe in his condemnation.

“What are you saying? Oh, right… You’re Brand the scribe, and that gentleman over there is Lord Guillaumevalt, isn’t he?”

“That’s right. It’s been a while, Lady Lise.”

“Hah…”

Lady Lise lowered her head.

“I’ve been caught using Nether magic. Now what?”

Even if she survived this, news that she was a sorceress who used dark arts would spread throughout noble society. Not only had she wielded Nether magic, but she had also been deeply involved with the Nagas from the very beginning.

She had secretly colluded with the Kurt God Clan and, despite her rivalry with her husband’s mistress, had forcibly turned a citizen of Hubris into one of the Kurt God’s servants. Her crimes were immense.

“You nobles wouldn’t allow a woman who conspired with the Kurt God Clan to remain as a lady of the court, would you? Let’s make a deal.”

Walter, the orc, gripped his poleaxe.

“I will clear the way. Slay that witch! If she dies, the Wendigo’s existence will weaken, and if we return the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth copies to the Light of the Crown, the Wendigo will be sealed once again!”

“Wait. So what happens if we use the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth? Does it disappear?”

Azadine asked.

“It will vanish. Well, not completely. The Heavenly King’s Book of Truth will fuse with the Light of the Crown and can later be manifested again under the right conditions.”

“……”

The Heavenly King’s Book of Truth copies would be lost. There were four pages here, and losing them was a huge waste.

However, considering the enormous Wendigo, this wasn’t the time to be weighing losses and gains. The real issue was—what if sealing the Wendigo failed even after returning the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth to the Light of the Crown?

Would they need to use Azadine’s own pages as well? If that happened, he would lose his key bargaining chip when negotiating with the Messenger Clan and the Aragasa.

‘The reason I feel somewhat safe despite the Curse of Servitude is because I hold the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth. If I lose it… No, even aside from that, is it really the right decision to return the book to the Light of the Crown right now? The nobles and kings have grown corrupt, and the Light of the Crown is only weakening more and more.’

As Azadine hesitated, Lady Lise caught on to his reluctance.

“If it were me, I could resolve this without losing the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth. Kill that orc!”

“She’s worse than a mere black magic user—she’s a Nether sorceress. No matter how dim-witted humans may be, surely they aren’t foolish enough to trust a Nether sorceress?”

The orc was in a position where he should be begging for his life, yet he was busy insulting humans. Everyone was dumbfounded.

Just then, the sound of a wolf’s howl echoed through the underground passage.

“This isn’t good.”

“It’s a Wendigo pup.”

The corpses within the tunnels had transformed into small Wendigos and were now rushing toward them.

“I was told not to use necromancy… but in a situation like this, there’s no choice!”

As the situation escalated, Scott McGreen formed a hand seal and stomped the ground.

“Rise! From beyond death!”

His shadow slithered along the ground, following the light cast by the glowstones, reaching the corpses frozen beneath the ice.

Sewer rats shattered the ice as they rose as undead creatures. Even as rats, they were the size of small dogs, fattened by feeding on waste from the city’s drainage. Their undead forms trembled with an eerie glow in their eyes.

“Go!”

At Scott’s command, the undead rats dashed across the ground toward the Wendigos. The Wendigos ignored them at first, trying to rush at the humans, but as soon as the rats clung to them, Scott changed his hand seal and crossed his hands.

“Corpse Bomb!”

The rats’ bodies exploded, scattering their bodily fluids and flesh onto the Wendigos.

“Unholy Manipulation!”

Scott fired black magic bullets at the Wendigos covered in the rats’ remains. Two of them writhed, then suddenly turned on their fellow Wendigos, beginning to fight among themselves.

“Hm. Only two? That’s not much control for the amount of magic I used… Magic doesn’t seem to work too well on them.”

Scott took a swig from his canteen, gulping down water as he stepped back before forming another hand seal.

“I warned you not to use necromancy!”

Zebec roared in anger, but Scott shamelessly replied.

“Oh? Have I just insulted the dignity of dead rats? Is the Holy Knight of the King’s Church now angry on behalf of sewer vermin because I used necromancy on them?”