Chapter 37

Thud!

Tarka’s staggering huge body collapsed to the ground with a thunderous sound.

Silence fell for a moment at the unbelievable sight.

“Th… What is this atrocity!”

A huge, low roar that could hardly be called a human voice burst out nearby.

Arandel, who let out that beast-like roar, shouted with eyes half-rolled back.

“We believed! Is this what a priest would do?!”

Hamel silently raised his hand and pointed at the fallen Tarka.

“Look over there.”

Arandel wanted to break that loathsome arm and neck.

But.

Gnash

Grinding his teeth, he trusted Hamel one last time.

No, it was closer to habit.

Over the past two days, nothing Hamel had said had been wrong.

Wriggle

“…?”

Something was moving where he turned his gaze.

Could the beheaded Tarka be alive?

No.

Something had been off from the start.

‘…There’s no blood?’

Even if worshipped as a god, that body was made of bone, flesh, and skin.

If cut, it should bleed normally.

On the floor, only a little sticky fluid like old grease trickled; there was no blood.

And the cross-section of the severed neck.

Something writhed there, trying to reattach the severed neck to the body.

Tarka did not possess such a power.

Then…?

“What on earth is that?”

At Arandel’s hollow murmur, Hamel wiped the rotted, festering blood from his blade and answered.

“I don’t know either, but I do know one thing.”

“…”

“That we are already too late.”

Tarka, who had been awaiting Hamel’s party here, was no longer the god the clan worshipped nor the master of the forest.

He was merely a rotting corpse exuding stench.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[Krr… Krrk… Aruk.]

Tarka slowly raised his body.

Red froth of saliva and blood formed at his mouth; perhaps from falling, one pupil was empty while the other bulged as if about to pop out and fluttered.

Wriggle wriggle

A white thing wriggled and fell from the empty eye socket.

Maggots.

The thing shook its dangling neck and groped out a voice.

[Die… die… Ungrateful… you humans who don’t even know favor.]

“Aaaaaah…”

At that horrific sight, Arandel and the clan’s elites were all speechless and groaned.

The god they had served had become the shape of a demon.

Their shock was beyond imagination.

Hamel stepped forward to face the dead Tarka.

What had to be done was clear.

He had to free that already-dead body.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Hamel said calmly to the stunned Arandel.

Arandel still showed no reaction.

He wasn’t expecting an answer, so he didn’t mind.

Silently, he moved forward.

The closer he got, the stronger the stench assaulted his nose.

It was all too familiar to Hamel.

So he had become numb to it.

More than disgust, the awful smell brought loss to Hamel’s mind.

That scent pulled up layered memories, past recollections he’d relentlessly tried to forget.

In forms not faded at all.

Crack

Hamel clenched his sword until it crushed in his grip.

Clang!

With a sharp metallic sound, Hamel’s body was knocked backward.

He swung his sword to counter, but the thing was already gone.

Hamel quietly bit his lip.

After the fight began, Hamel moved deeper into the forest.

He judged the creature’s huge body would be at a disadvantage tangled among the trees.

It was a miscalculation.

“…”

A massive form streaked like wind beneath the thick canopy’s shade.

Its deep blue fur melted into the shadows as if ink were spilled across the night sky.

It was unseen and unhindered.

It was the master of the forest.

It passed through the woods like wind and prowled through the darkness.

‘It’s coming.’

Focusing only on sound, Hamel turned swiftly and swung his blade at the air-cleaving noise.

Clang!

A white, sharp tooth flashed out from the darkness.

But only for a moment.

The creature collided with Hamel’s swung blade and vanished, leaving only red sparks.

Only then did Hamel realize.

This place was still the creature’s hunting ground and territory.

Even if it had become a head-dangling corpse, that had not changed.

‘This is bad.’

Time was not on Hamel’s side.

The neck he’d half-severed in his initial strike was slowly knitting together.

And with that, its attacks were growing stronger.

It would only take a moment.

If he could hold it for just a little while, he could sever the spine he hadn’t managed before and fully decapitate it.

‘But at this rate…’

Before his thoughts could linger, a yellow gleam raced through the darkness, breaking Hamel’s reverie.

Tarka closed the distance in an instant and rammed Hamel with its head.

Expecting to be bitten, Hamel desperately thrust his sword out, but it struck the hard skull and did nothing to slow the creature.

Bang!

If hit by a carriage, would it feel like this?

Hamel flew into the air, dizzy from the impact and nearly losing consciousness, but he gritted his teeth and held on.

Then he twisted his body in a flash.

The next moment.

Chomp

Dozens of teeth appeared where Hamel had been and tore at the air.

He couldn’t entirely dodge them.

His shoulder was half-ripped off along with his armor.

Had he not dodged at all, his head would have been torn off.

Hamel barely landed on the ground.

“…Grit.”

He clenched his teeth to regain his wits.

Under normal circumstances he might have managed, but he’d expended too much energy over the past two days.

Recovery was slow and the pain hard to endure.

Hamel gripped his dangling shoulder to set it back and thought.

His breath was ragged and his head dizzy.

This was dangerous.

Hamel carefully grabbed a flask at his waist.

He had tried not to use it, fearing at any moment he’d be consumed by madness, but he had no choice.

The yellow gleam slowly closed distance from the depths of the darkness.

Now it didn’t even seem to think about hiding its body.

Just as Hamel was about to open the flask’s cap.

“Shoot.”

Fwoosh

Dozens of arrows brushed past Hamel and lodged into Tarka.

[Krrk…]

As Tarka faltered, dozens of forms ran past Hamel and charged at the creature.

There was no need to wonder who they were.

“Should we buy time?”

Arandel emerged behind Hamel.

Hamel nodded in response.

“Just hold on a moment, please.”

“Leave it to me.”

At that, Arandel bit into something he was holding and threw it to the ground.

Hamel couldn’t tell what it was, but it was a stag’s heart for the druidic ritual.

The next moment.

Crack crack

Bones twisted as the body suddenly began to swell.

It was a violent, tumultuous transformation, like a pupa emerging.

“…What is this.”

Another blue wolf.

For a brief moment Hamel was surprised, then Arandel, having completed his change, stretched his neck and roared.

“Aouwuuuu!”

Howling, Arandel looked at Hamel for a moment then charged at the creature.

In the darkness, Tarka and the Blue Mane clan’s warriors began to fight.

Each time it swung its limbs and gnashed its jaws, the Blue Mane clan’s elites were flung about.

Only Arandel was restraining its movements, biting at its limbs.

A short while passed thus.

‘It’s done.’

His injuries had somewhat healed.

Now Hamel had to step in and finish it.

‘Azure Flame alone isn’t enough.’

Perhaps because of the divinity it once possessed.

The Azure Flame could not burn the body of Tarka, who had once been revered as a god.

It seemed the only way was to sever its neck completely.

‘We must stop its movement.’

Only one method flashed through Hamel’s mind.

Talisman control ritual, Shadow Bind (spell).

It was the technique Hamel had used when drunk on dragon’s blood to bind Ajidahaka.

‘Let’s do it.’

There was little hesitation.

He could barely sense mana and had never truly wielded it by will, but somehow he felt he could do it.

Hamel extended his talisman and aimed at Tarka racing through the darkness.

By now the clan had been knocked out, and only Arandel was struggling to withstand its attacks.

Mistakes were not allowed.

There was only one chance.

Hamel took a long breath in and slowly exhaled.

The tension that had stiffened his shoulders eased.

The tremor in his hand subsided.

He could do it now.

Vrrrr

Hamel focused on the energy deep within his body.

Mana had always existed within Hamel’s body.

He just had not known it.

Hamel threw a stone into that energy.

The stone thrown into the lake immediately caused ripples.

The ripples spread and traveled through the circuits running through his body.

‘So that’s what it is.’

Mana settled into Hamel’s sight.

The darkness began to come into clear view.

Feeling the mana in his body fully, Hamel stirred waves in its flow.

The lake that had small ripples began to churn violently.

What had simmered lightly now met a storm and, like ocean waves, swept and battered every part of his body.

Grit

Crimson blood flowed between his clenched teeth.

His innards flipped and blood reversed.

But Hamel did not stop.

Pain was familiar.

His mind would not falter.

Mana settled into the sword Hamel held.

The talisman responded to the gathered mana with a faint vibration.

As if to signal readiness.

Hamel looked steadily at Tarka.

Then he pointed the tip of his sword at it and murmured quietly.

“Talisman control ritual: Open.”

The forest trembled.

The currents flowing through the air reversed in an instant.

“Shadow Bind.”

Whoosh

A black shadow streaked forth.

The forest’s shadows were no longer Tarka’s.

At this moment they belonged to Hamel.

Hamel did not doubt it.

He drove his blade into the ground, Azure Flame gleaming blue around it.

In an instant Hamel closed the distance and Tarka stood before him.

From the ground.

From the trees.

Bound tightly by shadows that extended from the earth, the trees, and the rocks.

The shadows creaked as if about to snap, but it was enough.

Hamel pushed off a tree and leaped into the air.

Then, opposite to before, he brought his sword down from above.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Screech

The blade cut through the spine and dove into the wound he had left earlier.

The head could no longer hang to the body and dropped with a thud to the ground.

Tarka fell like that and lay motionless in silence.

It was over.

“…”

Hamel stood there, staggering.

Someone approached and stood behind him.

“Arandel.”

“…Thank you.”

Arandel, having returned to human form, offered thanks with a complex expression.

Hamel slowly shook his head.

After all, Hamel had not saved their god.

And more than that…

“It’s not over yet.”

“…What do you mean?”

Arandel asked back, sounding weary.

Though it pained him, Hamel’s conviction was firm.

“The deterioration happened far too quickly. Tarka should have had more than enough time.”

“…What does that mean?”

“It means there was a culprit who accelerated Tarka’s decline.”

As Hamel finished speaking.

Clap clap clap clap

The sound of clapping began to echo.