The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 119

Azadin, along with Jibek, Brand, Ismail, and the Orc necromancer Scott, who were to descend, had reinforced their cold-weather gear with blankets and were ready to go to the deepest part.

‘Leaving the knight behind and taking the scribe.’

Guillaume felt a bitter smile creep onto his face, finding his situation absurd. Wasn’t this a clear indication that they thought Brand was a better fighter than him?

But, to be honest, he was relieved not to go down there.

Every fight was a brush with death, and he was only alive thanks to the high-quality armor made by a master craftsman. Even if he talked about a knight’s duty and honor, going out to fight meant he could die at any moment.

“Well then, let’s deal with the Wendigos as quickly as possible.”

“May you have good fortune, Envoy Azadin.”

Guillaume sincerely wished Azadin well and blessed his path.

*********

The group, descending the frozen path, soon discovered a pile of supplies. These weren’t sewage-borne trash, but clean provisions.

“Oh, a palanquin!”

Scott was delighted to find a box-like structure made of wood.

“A palanquin?”

“It’s what our Orcs use to avoid close combat. Seeing it here, it must belong to Walter.”

“Hmm. It doesn’t have wheels, so it doesn’t fly automatically. Do people carry it while someone rides inside?”

“Yes. It can go through narrower paths and stairs than a carriage.”

“It might be comfortable for the one riding, but it seems harsh on those carrying it.”

“That’s why I use the undead.”

“……”

“It evolved from there to wheelchairs. But, ah, I want to earn a lot of money and get a magic carpet.”

“A magic carpet? Like the flying one in old stories?”

“Actually, it just floats slightly above the ground.”

“There’s such a thing? Hmm, I’d like to see it if it exists.”

“It’s expensive. Ah, of course, if you give me a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, I could trade it for a magic carpet.”

At Scott’s words, Azadin didn’t get angry but instead interpreted Scott’s words.

“From the way you say that, it seems you know a dealer who would give you a carpet for a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture. Does the Kurt Pantheon Alliance have some kind of open-air market?”

“Hmm. I misspoke.”

“You don’t want to talk about it?”

“Well, seeing that snake-headed woman, if I reveal such information, many will call me a traitor. I do consider the leader my employer and am loyal, but that can’t last forever, right?”

“Leader?”

“Let’s call you that. Even if I hide my beautiful Orc appearance with illusions, if I use necromancy, you humans become too wary of me. Calling you leader will quickly establish our relationship and ease their caution, don’t you think?”

“It feels like you’re shifting the responsibility onto me.”

“You’re the leader, so you should bear that much responsibility. The honor of having a genius of a great era like me as a subordinate…”

“Ah. Quiet.”

Azadin spotted enemies in the underground passage. A group of furry, antlered Wendigos wearing clothes and large shoulder pads was approaching. They were originally hobgoblins who carried the palanquin, but had turned into Wendigos.

“Grrr.”

The Wendigos emitted cold air from their mouths and picked up battle axes.

“Head!”

Azadin threw an ice chunk, striking a Wendigo’s head. As the Wendigo staggered with its neck bent, Brand rushed in and cut off its legs with Walter’s axe-spear.

“Well done!”

Jibek also swung his sword with Brand, splitting another Wendigo’s jaw and shattering its collarbone with a thrust.

The Wendigo, unable to walk properly with its dangling arm, tried to spew cold air from its mouth. However, the cold air leaked down its broken jaw, causing its own body to freeze.

Everyone shuddered at the sight of it turning into an ice pillar with its own cold. But, once again, they had defeated the Wendigos without any harm.

‘If the numbers are small, it’s not a problem at all. The problem is…’

Azadin trembled at the uneasy chill he felt each time he approached.

Then Ismail spoke.

“I see the altar.”

“You see it?”

“Yes. There, in the ice…”

“Ah.”

Among the ice hanging from the ceiling, there were transparent icicles that reflected the surroundings, illuminating the space below the waterway.

“We’re almost there.”

Azadin held his breath and approached the ice waterways, looking down. He could see the Wendigo altar, an altar of cannibalism.

Around the altar, made of some beast’s bones and filled with a terrible curse, huge monsters, different from ordinary Wendigos, were roaming. They were originally the minions of the spider queen Atra and the rat king Mezeri, but they had become corpses and transformed into Wendigos.

Their massive and threatening appearance, incomparable to Wendigos made from ordinary people, made even Azadin tense.

“They’re too big and numerous. Can’t we lure them out and deal with them?”

“Let’s try.”

Scott began to manipulate the Wendigo that had been turned into an ice pillar by Azadin’s group with necromancy.

“Now you’re using it openly.”

“Hey, paladin. I’m saving the world right now. Can’t you imagine how many people will die if those Wendigos are released, are you too unintelligent to imagine that?”

“I tolerate it because I understand. But if someone doesn’t keep bothering you, won’t you recklessly use the evil magic of necromancy?”

“So, every time I use necromancy, you’ll bother me. Then, if you receive help from that evil magic, you’ll have to thank me every time. Isn’t that fair?”

“……”

“Why? Is it too shameful for a paladin to thank an Orc?”

“First, I thank you for helping us in the Wendigo attack earlier. We would have surely suffered damage without your help.”

“Ah… you’re the type to be thankful from the start?”

Scott, chuckling at Jibek’s thanks, manipulated the Wendigo and sent it down to the underground where the altar was.

Immediately, a Wendigo that was originally Atra’s minion shot a thread from its tail, ensnaring the undead controlled by Scott. Then, it snatched it up like a fishing rod and smashed it to pieces with its front legs in mid-air.

“Grwoooar!”

“Damn it.”

The ice broke, and bizarre monsters, spider-like but with antlers and long fur, appeared from below.

These monsters, once Atra’s minions but now dead and turned into Wendigos, climbed up the ice wall from the underground passage, targeting Azadin’s group.

-Hammer of Judgment!

Jibek threw his mace, unleashing white magic. With a roar, the ice wall collapsed, and the spider Wendigos climbing it were swept away by the debris and fell below.

However, the giant spider Wendigo pushed against the collapsing ice wall with its body and climbed up.

-Swish!

Ismail’s arrow pierced the spider Wendigo’s mouth.

Azadin threw an ice chunk, hitting the tail of the arrow fired by Ismail, and it was lodged into the spider’s mouth. The arrow pierced through, causing the spider Wendigo’s head to tilt back.

While the spider Wendigo was disoriented, Brand ran with his axe-spear and slashed off the front legs that the spider Wendigo had embedded in the ice wall to climb.

The spider Wendigo, with its legs severed, fell below, stopping by embedding its antlers into the wall.

That made the situation worse. The spider Wendigo, with its antlers stuck in the wall, couldn’t touch the ground and wildly flailed its legs in the air. That, in turn, hindered the other Wendigos.

“Good. It seems we’ve taken them down individually to some extent. Let’s bypass them and approach the altar!”

Azadin avoided the spider Wendigos, went to the side, and jumped down the ice waterfall there. It was quite a height, but Azadin planted his sword into the ice wall, slowing his descent, and landed lightly on the ground.

“Krrr.”

Wendigos with long snouts like rats, who seemed to be Mezeri’s apostles, greeted Azadin with curved, sickle-like blades in both hands.

“You’re going to fight me with swords?”

Azadin gripped his sword and ran forward.

-Kazas Hese Hwanghak! [Kazas’s Swift Strike]

Azadin’s body moved greatly horizontally, swinging his sword. The moment the force, like a storm, was transmitted to the sword, it instantly calmed down, leaving only a refined sword aura.

He had been running wildly, but suddenly, in the area where the sword reached, he sublimated his previous violence into a controlled speed, executing a horizontal slash.

-Thwack!

Azadin’s sword cleanly killed the Wendigos who were Mezeri’s apostles. Moreover, at the same time as cutting them down, Azadin’s body slid across the ground, instantly changing his position.

“Amazing! That’s why his swords never last!”

Ismail clicked his tongue, realizing why Azadin consumed his weapons so severely.

“Cover me! I’ll investigate that altar!”

Azadin asked his companions for help and rushed towards the altar.

*********

The Wendigos emitted cold air, freezing the surroundings. The cold emitted by these terrible monsters, created by the re-mutation of the undead, was as cold as a nightmare.

‘It’s getting hard to endure.’

Azadin took a deep breath and circulated blood throughout his body. It consumed a lot of energy, but it chased away the cold. He broke through the Wendigo horde and approached the altar.

‘If I hold a funeral for the sacrificed victim on the altar… what will happen?’

The one sacrificed to the evil magic. If Azadin entrusted his death to the three archangels he believed in, the benevolent angels, and purified him, he could weaken the Wendigo’s divine object that was activated using him.

Azadin was also a disciple of Elder Kazas, who studied Nether magic, so he was not ignorant of Nether magic and rituals. He had pretended not to know and asked questions in front of Madam Liz and others.

Azadin found a person’s corpse lying next to the altar. The one used as a sacrifice to unleash the Wendigo was a young man. He was a servant of Sir Brock, with a sturdy and handsome appearance.

As Azadin approached the corpse, the Wendigos launched a concentrated attack on him. However, Azadin’s companions also launched a fierce counterattack, taking on the Wendigos’ assault.

“Good!”

Azadin secured the body of the sacrificed man and had his hands placed on his chest. His abdomen was already torn open, his entrails eaten, and pieces of flesh were missing from his body. It was the trace of the Wendigo ritual activated through human sacrifice, cannibalism, and eating human flesh.

‘That woman!’

Azadin felt his anger towards Madam Liz boil over.

She had consistently made excuses, saying she had no choice and that it had happened by accident, but looking at the corpse, he could see that it was all lies. It was absolutely not a coincidence or a mistake as she had claimed.

‘It was completely intentional, wasn’t it?’

Azadin frowned and began to consecrate the corpse.

“Archangels of wisdom, courage, and mercy, have mercy. Have pity on the soul of this one who had no choice but to face death, and guide them on their path.”

It was at that moment.