Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 175

Lundringgen

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Snow fell in the forest. For over ten thousand years, the warm sunlight had been blocked by clouds, and snow fell with the cold wind, soon painting the forest white.

In the fierce cold, the snow did not melt but only piled up. All the trees except for one could not bear the weight of the snow and fell, and snow piled up again on top of them.

After several years, the forest disappeared. From a distance, it looked like snow had fallen on a plain, and even then, the snow continued to fall.

The World Tree stood in the middle of the forest.

Even as the forest disappeared, the World Tree remained steadfast. As the ceaselessly falling snow touched the World Tree, it turned into steam and dissipated, and the wind calmed around it.

“Ugh.”

The old god, Etemos, raised his head high under the World Tree. His gaze swept over the fruits hanging from the World Tree’s branches. The length of the branches was as long as the height of the ancient tree, reaching hundreds of meters, and the number of fruits on the branches was countless.

Thud—

One fruit fell from a branch.

Etemos watched silently. Falling from that height would surely be fatal. However, he did not react, because the speed at which the fruit fell was slow.

Swish, swish…

The magic emanating from the World Tree distorted the surrounding environment. The fruit swayed this way and that, as if a leaf was fluttering in the wind, before gently landing on the ground.

“You’ve made something quite interesting.”

Etemos chuckled.

The fruit was an egg-shaped, translucent membrane. Inside the amniotic fluid-filled membrane was a lifeform curled up like a fetus. Until a few years ago, that lifeform was an elf, because the World Tree bore elves as fruit.

“Since you can’t kill us, you’ve tried all sorts of methods.”

A group loitering under the shade of the World Tree ran towards the fruit. These were elves who had undergone mutations due to the magic of the old god. They were not beautiful, nor were they intellectual, but rather monsters.

“Fruit!”

“It fell!”

The monsters tore the fruit with their claws and dragged out the lifeform inside. It was not an elf, nor was it a child. It was a fully grown human, curled up and opening its eyes.

“Cough!”

The monster held the human, who was breathing roughly, and left the forest.

“51 today.”

Etemos counted the number of fruits that had fallen that day and clicked his tongue.

“The production isn’t increasing. Is there a lack of fertilizer?”

At that moment, magic stirred violently.

Etemos turned his head. Karkas, who had taken over Rod’s body, was flying in from afar. He flapped his wings with all his might and landed behind Etemos.

Thump—

The fruits hanging from the World Tree’s branches fell in droves.

“Be careful!”

Etemos frowned.

“I would have called if I needed you, why did you come?”

– Tiamar has moved.

“So what? I knew that.”

– She’s not alone.

“What?”

He suppressed his anger and narrowed his eyes.

“You don’t mean she’s using humans. Are you saying there’s another dragon besides you and Tiamar?”

– Yes. Although it seems inferior compared to this body.

“Did she reproduce or something? It should be impossible since she’s not hermaphroditic.”

He asked, so what?

– Can those things fight a dragon?

Karkas’s gaze turned to the fallen fruit.

“How could they without wings?”

A hand suddenly popped out of the fruit. Just as one of the monsters reached out to tear the fruit, the hand grabbed it and pulled it inside. The monster was startled but was dragged in before it could react.

A crunching sound was heard.

Blood splattered out of the fruit. The human had devoured the monster. It had been starving because it had fallen from the World Tree too early. Crunch, crunch, it ate the monster to replenish its deficient nutrients.

“Kyahhhh!”

Another monster attacked the human in anger, but the human hunted even that one, and only after eating three more did it become docile.

“There’s no need to catch them with that, is there?”

Etemos smiled as he watched the human crawling out of the fruit.

“There’s a reason for creation. That’s not made to catch gnats. It’s made to catch the Emperor’s puppets. I’ll send you something else to catch gnats. That should be enough.”

– If possible, I’d like to check that out too. Can you send it to the Peak [dwarven mountain fortress]?

“Well, that much is fine. What about the others?”

– Not needed.

He nodded.

“How’s the heart?”

– Satisfactory. Though not perfect.

“It can’t be helped since it’s not real.”

His gaze turned to Karkas’s chest. On the surface, it was just covered with scales, but if one focused on the flow of magic, they could feel an unstable current.

The flow shook wildly every time the dragon’s heart beat.

“Since it’s a body that’s as good as dead anyway, I thought I could just make a heart, but it turned out like this. I got played by Rod.”

Etemos scratched his head nervously.

“Where did he hide it? The Dragon’s Heart, something so hard to hide, where did he stash it? Are you sure he really hid it? Or are we looking for something that doesn’t exist from the start?”

– No, it exists. Rod has fallen as a mortal, he wouldn’t have lasted without the heart. If he didn’t have it, Alleon would have risen up long ago.

“Considering when Alleon was active… we should assume Rod removed the heart recently.”

He clicked his tongue.

“Still, it should be enough to face Tiamar. That’s why you’re there in the first place, right? As long as you don’t exert unnecessary force, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

###

Bang, bang, the cannons fired.

“Stop them! Don’t let them come up!”

A group of dwarves positioned on the mountain aimed their cannons at the group of humans climbing the mountain. The cannons fired again, and gray smoke obscured their vision.

“Damn it!”

As the wind blew the smoke away, the dwarf commander cursed. The group of humans was still approaching. They must have been hit by the cannonballs. Their bodies were wounded here and there, but they did not stop walking.

“Next!”

Dwarves with muskets stepped forward in front of the artillery.

“Fire!”

Bang, bang, bang!

There was no change. Even though they fired in unison from a distance of less than half a hundred meters, the bullets did not penetrate the armor. The commander gritted his teeth as he realized that the armor the enemy was wearing was made of mithril or orichalcum [legendary metals].

“Next!”

The commander shouted as if spitting out blood.

Screech!

A bizarre scream erupted. Those who were dwarves but no longer dwarves rushed towards the Familiars [monstrous creatures]. Only when they showed themselves did the Familiars stop walking.

“For His Imperial Majesty!”

The dwarves only watched the chaotic battle between the Familiars and the monsters. They briefly sighed as if rain had fallen in a drought and reorganized, without interfering in the chaotic battle.

“Don’t get close! You’ll get swept away!”

Monsters with bloodshot eyes had no concept of kinship.

There were also enemies who charged with the monsters, but the result was disastrous. They suffered great damage because the monsters attacked their own kind while running together. After that, they didn’t even think about cooperating.

“Damn monster bastards.”

It was a curse referring to both the Familiars and their former kin.

“Okay! Prepare to fire!”

The dwarves took up firing positions. The monsters would soon be slaughtered, so they intended to unleash their firepower as soon as the chaotic battle ended. However, as they took their positions, another bizarre scream was heard from the sky.

“S-Scatter!”

Flames engulfed them. Wyverns flew in from the sky, spewing breath. Setting up a wall of fire as if drawing a line, the wyverns quickly soared upwards.

Boom! Kaboom!

Sparks flew into the gunpowder barrels. The dwarves who barely avoided the breath were caught in the explosion and could not continue the battle. The surviving dwarves were suppressed by the Familiars who followed.

###

“The situation is not going smoothly.”

Gehard shook his head.

“It seems they want a war of attrition. They are avoiding large-scale battles and resisting at every Peak [dwarven mountain fortress]. As you know, the dwarves have established bases underground, so it will take time and cause a lot of damage to occupy them one by one.”

I nodded.

“Do the wyverns follow orders well?”

“Yes. Fortunately.”

I looked at the hillside burning fiercely.

It was the place where the wyverns had breathed fire just before.

“It’s a pity we can’t take them inside the mines. If that were possible, the damage would be much less.”

I smiled bitterly.

“It can’t be helped. We can’t reduce their size.”

Gehard was attacking the dwarves’ bases.

Since the battle with Alleon in central Pantonia, he had been clearing the dwarves’ territories, called Peaks, one by one.

A Peak seemed to refer to a single mountain, but in reality, it was a word that encompassed the entire territory of the dwarves.

Dwarves were a race that based themselves in mines, and this place was where several mountain ranges met. Instead of remembering the names of countless people, they called it a Peak.

“There are many indeed.”

I looked at the scenery through the eyes of the Familiar I was inhabiting. There were so many Peaks that I wondered if it would have been better to use the term ‘Ten Thousand Great Mountains’ rather than Peak.

Even after occupying more than thirty Peaks, we had not yet reached Gotaba’s base, the Red Mountain.

“How are the other places?”

The Imperial Army was simultaneously clearing out the Nagas and Lizardmen.

Both races had sent expeditions before the Pantonia battle. Since the Empire was between the old gods and them, they were less affected by the old gods, so clearing them out was easier.

“No need to worry. They won’t have any more influence on humans. They will now be seen in history.”

“Indeed…”

The two races were virtually extinct.

Even if there were survivors, they had lost their spawning grounds, and how could they recover without a base to create spawning grounds? They would only slowly wither away.

At least the Nagas could escape to the deep sea, so there might be a very small hope, but the Lizardmen had no hope at all. Because Tiamar had gone.

“I heard Tiamar rampaged quite a bit.”

“She had been suppressed for a long time.”

“Was it called a warm-up?”

That was what Tiamar had said when she was going to the Ukahn Kingdom. She must have been unable to control her power since she had not been released from the seal for long.

And the Lizardmen disappeared into history.

Except for the six wyverns left to help conquer the Peaks, she had descended upon the Lizardmen’s territory with dozens of wyverns.

The result was obvious.

“I told Yulia to come here immediately.”

Unlike the Nagas, there was no need to wage a mop-up operation.

“Tiamar… I mean, the human Tiamar.”

Gehard’s voice was filled with concern.

“Are you thinking of letting them meet?”

There was no need to ask who with.

“Someday.”

The dragon Tiamar and the human Tiamar.

I had met three Tiamars, but the Tiamar who had taken over Vlad’s body had disappeared. There was no need to check. She must have gone to find her main body. From the moment she broke the seal and revealed herself, the souls scattered throughout the world would have gathered.

The only fragment that did not follow the main body was the human Tiamar.

“Please be careful, Your Majesty.”

“Do you think she will betray us?”

“No. She would not betray Your Majesty’s trust of her own will. But if it is not her will, it could happen. Even if she has become an existence like us, her soul is different, is it not?”

Different. Because I didn’t create it.

“Even if she wants to be with us, her soul may be drawn to the main body. So, if possible, it is better not to let the two meet…”

“It’s okay.”

I interrupted him.

“Attraction doesn’t always go in one direction.”

“Yes?”

“It can be reversed. Just as sometimes the small swallows the big.”

“You mean…”

Gehard’s eyes widened.

And just as he was about to say something,

“Your Majesty.”

A servant was looking for me.

Not at the Peak, but at the Olympus Imperial Palace.

“We have a guest.”

Reading the servant’s thoughts, I paused for a moment.

“A guest.”

It was unexpected. No, the word unexpected was not right. It was a guest I had not thought of, expected, or anticipated. I had only kept their existence deep in my memory.

For such an existence to come to me as a guest.

“Where is Tiamar?”

“She is with Calliope. Shall I call her?”

“Yes, you should.”

The guest was Lundringgen.

The old elf whose body Rod Ailetrione had borrowed.

Benefaction

Lundringgen.

A special name to the other races. When the old gods ruled the world, Rod Ailetrione became Prometheus under the name Lundringgen.

He helped the other races establish civilizations, and the name Rod called himself at that time was Lundringgen. To be precise, he borrowed the body of an elf named Lundringgen.

This was why the dwarves felt inferior to the elves. The first race Rod reached out to was the elves. The dwarves were next, and the other races were far behind.

‘Lundringgen.’

I had forgotten him. I couldn’t help but forget him. I had never seen him without Rod inhabiting him. To me, Lundringgen was just a shell, so he was outside my interest even when Rod was active.

But he had come to find me.

“Could it be Rod?”

Skadi asked.

“Maybe.”

“Even if the body was taken, the soul might have remained, right?”

That could be the case if he was an old god for whom the body was just a decoration. But Rod was a mortal. If he lost his body, his soul would be nothing more than a mindless mass of magic.

“First, let’s see for ourselves.”

The old elf entered the audience chamber with the guards.

“······.”

The elf’s face was marked with the traces of time. Even for a race that lived a life close to immortality, they were only close, and they had not overcome time.

Moreover, he must have lived for over ten thousand years.

He was holding a neatly packaged box in his skinny hands. The guards had tried to check the contents just before entering the audience chamber, but he had refused. It was a gift for me.

Step, step…

Lundringgen looked up at me from below the throne.

“You’ve changed a lot, human Edar.”

To have changed must be referring to the soul.

I also noticed the change in him. Rod, who had always been inhabiting him, was gone. When Rod was inhabiting him, Lundringgen felt like a giant, but now he was just an old elf.

“I am Lundringgen. As you may already know, I was Rod’s servant. Not a servant of a vampire, but in the sense of being his attendant.”

“Why have you come?”

“I have come to pass on his legacy to you.”

A legacy.

“Is Rod really dead?”

He nodded heavily.

“He chose death himself.”

“······.”

“He was tired. He could have lived if he wanted to, but such a life would have been meaningless. So he decided to end it.”

“I see.”

I looked at the box he was holding.

“Is that the legacy?”

Lundringgen unwrapped the box and opened the lid. The object in the box was an orb. A colorless, transparent orb. But I felt the magic within it.

“Do you remember? That he named you as his successor?”

The moment the orb came out of the box, magic burst out of the box as well. Magic blew in as if a wind had blown. It was an intense flow of magic that even stimulated my soul.

“This is what he refined his own heart into. He made it just before Alleon incited the Grand Assembly to capture him.”

“Indeed.”

I realized the identity of the foreign feeling I had felt from Karkas. The reason why the flow of magic was unstable must be because of this. Because the body didn’t have a heart, so it must have had a fake heart.

“Matter is insignificant compared to spirit. But he was a great man even with just a body. Even the races revered as gods coveted his body and did not hesitate to trap his immortal soul in his body.”

Lundringgen came up the stairs and held out the hand holding the orb to me.

“Take it. It is yours now. Successor.”

I sat still and looked at the orb.

I hoped that I would hear a voice, like the ring containing Vlad’s soul fragment or Tiamar’s pendant. But I heard nothing. It was just emitting magic with all its might.

The orb was just a tool containing Rod’s magic.

“Did Rod tell you to give it to me?”

“No. It is my will.”

The old, grizzled face smiled.

“He told me to take the heart. As a reward. It was a reward for the servant who had devoted himself to him and stayed in his place until the end.”

A heart as a reward.

I could understand what feelings Rod had for him. He was the attendant who had been protecting him when even Tiamar and Alleon had betrayed him. He had also borrowed his body for over ten thousand years.

“However.”

“However?”

“He instructed me not to hand it over to Tiamar and the false god.”

“That’s right. But why did you decide to hand it over to me?”

Just as I was about to ask if he was asking me to save his race,

“I want nothing. I just thought this was right.”

He spoke as if he had read my mind.

“Do not have mercy on my race. They have committed sins, and they must pay the price.”

For a moment, his expression was slightly distorted.

“Do you hate your own kind?”

The emotion in his expression was hatred. He hated his own kind.

“You know how long I have lived. I have lived longer than history. I saw him create the World Tree, and I saw the World Tree bear elves instead of fruit for the first time.”

As I said, he had lived for at least over ten thousand years.

It was not for nothing that Lundringgen was compared to Prometheus.

“And every time, my body was led by him, not me. You may not understand. Because you are also in a position to borrow other people’s bodies.”

“Hmm.”

“You have to experience it to know what it’s like to have another will reside in your body and use you. Do you know what changes occur if you do that not for a few days, but for thousands of years?”

I understood what he was saying.

No matter how firm one’s ego is, the ego comes from experience. If one lives a life hundreds of times longer with the will of another than the life they lived with their own will, their ego is bound to change.

“You were influenced by Rod?”

“The time we spent together was too long. At some point, I became distant from my own kind, and I began to identify myself with Rod and think like him.”

“······.”

“Of course, I am not Rod. But I know how Rod would have acted.”

Lundringgen’s atmosphere changed. The magic emanating from the orb enveloped him, creating an aura of oppression as if Rod had inhabited him.

“And Rod said. He doesn’t care who will succeed him. But he said it was hard to watch the achievements he had built up disappear in vain.”

He continued, saying that he felt the same way. The achievements Rod had built up were built by using him. He felt like his achievements were disappearing.

“Take it.”

I grabbed the orb.

With a whooshing sound, magic enveloped me.

“You will use it more effectively than maintaining my fleeting life.”

The magic quickly subsided when I did not respond. The magic that had filled the audience chamber returned to the orb. I put the orb back in the box and handed it to Skadi.

“By the way.”

Lundringgen stroked his beard and asked.

“How long are you going to make your guest stand?”