Chapter 52

Gunrod ran away, sweating profusely, without looking back.

At first, when he realized that Wendigo’s true form was a doppelganger, he had a tiny bit of fighting spirit left.

However, that fighting spirit was extinguished when he faced the frigid wind and snow mist that began to swirl with Wendigo’s roar.

He realized that this was a being he couldn’t face.

“Horse that runs a hundred li! Give me your tireless stamina and speed like the wind!”

Gunrod, true to his nature as the most vile and wicked shaman among those who participated in the plan, fled without a shred of shame, abandoning his companions.

The other shamans, not expecting Gunrod to be the first to run away, couldn’t help but be shocked as they watched his retreating back.

This calamity had occurred because of the plan he himself had devised. How could he be so irresponsible!

In this desperate situation, a young shaman called out to his companions.

“Let’s all join forces and escape! If we combine our powers…”

“You idiot. After seeing how many of those doppelgangers there are, you still say such things!”

The young shaman’s proposal was drowned out by the sneers of the other shamans. While they were shocked by Gunrod’s vile act, they were no less despicable themselves.

Rather, as if glad for the opportunity, one shaman spat on him and chanted a spell.

“What are you doing!?”

“You seem to lack talent anyway, so sacrifice yourself for me!”

The madman’s curse imbued in the spit traveled up through the marrow and burned away the young shaman’s reason.

The young shaman trembled, letting out a terrible roar. His body turned red, his eyes became cloudy, and his mind forgot fear.

“Graaaah!!!”

“Go. Go and pour out everything you can do before you die!”

The young shaman, no, the madman, charged towards Wendigo’s doppelgangers with a monstrous cry.

Wendigo reassessed the shamans at this surprising sight. He had thought they were trash from the beginning, but he didn’t know they would exceed his expectations to this extent.

‘My nose really does its job well.’

If they were such fellows, it would be fine to kill them a bit roughly.

Wendigo observed the shamans through the owl’s eyes while directing his doppelgangers.

“■■■■■!!!”

“Graaaah!!!”

The doppelgangers wrapped in snow mist charged with a roar. Of course, there was no need for all the doppelgangers to engage the madman.

The madman instinctively tried to cast the shamanism of the tattoos engraved on his body and the lightning-imbued mace…

The doppelganger didn’t wait for the madman to cast his shamanism. Claws filled with cold energy were fiercely swung towards the madman.

The claws tore the madman’s chest to shreds. Frost fragments and wooden thorns stuck in the wounds wriggled, amplifying the madman’s pain.

“Gyaaaah!!!”

As he screamed, the doppelganger, without the slightest agitation, struck the madman’s head with its fist.

Perhaps because his body had hardened due to the effects of shamanism?

The madman’s head didn’t shatter under the doppelganger’s punch. It was unfortunate for the madman.

He would have to endure a few more punches before being liberated from the pain.

Crack!

“Damn it!”

The shaman who had planted the curse in the madman cried out, turning pale. He had expected that he wouldn’t last long against a spirit, but he didn’t know it would be this useless.

Perhaps the young shaman’s death by having his head crushed made a big impression on them?

The shamans hurried their steps with hardened faces. To get as far away from Wendigo as possible.

‘Not that they can escape the forest like that.’

The owl that had flown into the sky tracked the enemies, and Wendigo directly controlled two of the doppelgangers to create ice harpoons.

As root-like ropes grew from the bottom of the harpoons, the doppelgangers threw them.

The harpoons flew through the air, tearing it, and pierced through the body of one of the shamans.

“Ugh, uwaaaaah!!!”

The shaman, not expecting a harpoon to fly from beyond the snow mist, screamed and grabbed his shoulder.

The arm pierced by the harpoon froze instantly, gnawing away at the shaman’s life.

In this situation, death was unavoidable.

‘I have to cut off the arm!’

The moment the shaman took out his sword to cut off his arm.

The shaman’s body was dragged into the mist by an irresistible force.

Gunrod watched this scene as he ran through the forest, turning his head. The screams of the dragged shaman echoed through the forest.

‘What… What on earth have I meddled with?’

Realizing that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong, Gunrod moved his trembling legs with difficulty.

To escape this forest as quickly as possible.

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Gunrod fled more desperately than ever before, but he couldn’t escape the forest.

It wasn’t because his abilities were lacking. With his shamanism, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had already left the forest, but…

“To go this far? Why on earth!”

“Gunrod! The trees are moving!”

The trees swayed as if alive, blocking their path.

Gunrod nervously wielded his whip. The whip spewed flames, trying to burn the trees, but it wasn’t of much use.

Cold energy burst out from between the tree bark torn by the whip, swallowing the flames.

Seeing that Gunrod’s whip was useless, Pedric pulled out his trump card.

“Stand aside. I’ll carve a path with this stone sword!”

The stone sword Pedric pulled out was a relic of a warrior once called ‘The Warrior of Rock’.

This stone sword, which was originally a treasure inscribed with shamanism, had grown even stronger while holding the hero’s fame and stories.

Drawing his own blood to smear on the blade, Pedric chanted a spell.

“I command the stone sword, son of the great mountain and warrior of rock, that accompanied the unbreakable hero in every moment. Those trees…”

Flinch.

Pedric’s eyes widened at the warning sent by his danger-sensing talisman, and he turned around.

What entered his eyes was a harpoon flying fiercely towards him.

At the momentum that seemed about to pierce him at any moment, Pedric reflexively screamed.

“… not the trees, block that harpoon!!”

As the shamanism contained in the stone sword awakened, it left Pedric’s hand and collided with the harpoon.

Indeed, it was a relic used by a hero. The stone sword, having destroyed the harpoon, returned to Pedric’s side without a scratch.

As Gunrod and Pedric aimed their weapons, glaring beyond the mist, the doppelgangers walked out from there.

One of the doppelgangers.

The doppelganger possessed by Wendigo stepped forward and spoke.

“You’ve run quite far. I might have lost you if I wasn’t careful.”

“Why are you going this far! What have we done so wrong!”

“?”

As Gunrod shouted with eyes full of resentment, Wendigo closed his mouth in bewilderment.

Wasn’t it Gunrod who first made plans to attack the villages? If anything, Wendigo was closer to self-defense.

As Wendigo stared blankly in disbelief, Gunrod racked his brains to find the reason for this situation.

Logically, there was no way he would go this far just because they tried to attack some villages.

It was an outrage that couldn’t be committed without digging up mystery to control doppelgangers and the forest.

Gunrod’s eyes flashed as if he had realized something.

“I see… I understand now. You must be preparing a massive ritual gathering the forest people.”

“What nonsense…”

“Indeed. I was wondering why you were throwing meaningless questions as a test. Were you trying to hide your secret!”

Before Wendigo could burst out cursing in bewilderment, Pedric shouted in shock. There was certainly a possibility.

Doppelgangers created by pouring out mystery, watchful eyes spread everywhere, and even attempts to control the forest by manipulating it!

As Pedric agreed with Gunrod, Gunrod nodded as if confirming it was correct.

Wendigo was so dumbfounded that he started to refute. Although he was planning to kill them, he couldn’t help but open his mouth because it was too absurd.

“Your thought process is pitiful. Think logically. Have you forgotten what brought you to this forest in the first place? If I had intended to hide something from the beginning, there would have been no reason to let Isaac live, would there?”

“You’ve become talkative. Has your pride been hurt now that the truth is out? The reason for letting that Isaac go can be easily guessed. You intended to string along the shamans, didn’t you!”

At first, Gunrod thought Isaac had encountered a stroke of luck, but now he could be certain.

The ice crystal Isaac brought was something any shaman would drool over and covet, and the fact that his level had risen was enough to pique any shaman’s curiosity.

There was no better bait to entice shamans!

“I don’t know what kind of ritual it is, but it must be an evil ritual that requires shamans as sacrifices.”

“Someone listening might think I’m the villain. Who was it that was trying to spread poison in the villages and cause trouble?”

“… That seems irrelevant to the current conversation.”

Perhaps because he wasn’t particularly proud of his life, Gunrod swallowed his shame and rebelled.

When pushed to the edge of a cliff, anyone will resist.

Cloak and shoes, belt and talismans.

Gunrod and Pedric awakened all the shamanism they possessed.

Wendigo was quite impressed by the mystery they emitted. While their personalities were like starving wolves, their talents were quite decent.

‘If only their characters weren’t so twisted, I would have employed them.’

“Even if we die, we won’t let you get what you want!”

Gunrod roared and swung his whip.

Indeed, as befitting someone who didn’t think of the consequences, the shamanism imbued in the whip burned fiercely, using mystery as firewood, and spewed flames.

Wendigo watched the two silently while sending his doppelgangers charging.

As Gunrod’s whip wrapped around a doppelganger’s neck, the doppelganger grabbed it intending to tear it apart, but it wasn’t a good choice.

Creak!

“Let’s see if you can move after your head flies off!”

The whip tightened with a shrieking scream, about to cut off the doppelganger’s neck. Moreover, as it spewed karmic fire, the doppelganger’s upper body burned to the point where its form was unrecognizable.

Gunrod, intending to drive in the wedge, stomped the ground and swung his club.

Heat haze rose from the club embedded with ogre bone fragments, and the club recreated an ogre’s strike, smashing the doppelganger’s upper body in one blow.

Bang!

“Hahaha! What use is there in putting mystery into a doppelganger? In the end, it’s nothing more than a doppelganger!”

The doppelganger’s upper body was torn apart and flew away, and the mystery that lost its vessel spread into the air.

Gunrod wasn’t the only one who gained the upper hand.

Pedric, being a shaman who handled the stone sword, blocked Wendigo’s ice sword with solid defense and controlled the stone sword to cave in one doppelganger’s chest.

Gunrod rushed towards another doppelganger and shouted boldly.

“Have you lost your composure? Come on, provoke us again! I’m curious how much of your mystery is left!”

“How about letting us go now? No matter how great a spirit you are, it would be difficult to subdue us without loss!”

Pedric shouted as he stabbed the stone sword into a doppelganger’s chest.

Logically, if they resisted this much, it wouldn’t be strange for a normal spirit to release them with a contract condition of secrecy.

… However, Wendigo was a being to whom their common sense didn’t apply.

“Indeed, your skills are excellent. I didn’t expect the doppelgangers to be subdued so easily.”

“Then will you let us…”

“However, that’s not a reason for me to let go of black-hearted fellows like you.”

Pedric frowned and clicked his tongue. He thought Wendigo couldn’t negotiate easily.

It was a wrong thought.

… Wendigo had no intention of negotiating with them from the beginning.

“If you insist on going that far, fine. Let’s see if you can after we’ve smashed all your doppelgangers…”

The moment Pedric was about to fiercely pull out the stone sword.

The doppelganger with the stone sword stabbed in it grabbed the sword’s handle.

Pedric twitched his eyebrows and strongly controlled the shamanism.

He thought with the power of the stone sword, he could easily tear through the doppelganger’s arm and break free…

“I’ve always thought that shamans’ shamanism tends to rely heavily on tools.”

As the mystery controlling the doppelganger pulsed strongly, stems growing from the doppelganger wrapped around the stone sword.

The doppelganger that had spewed out mystery returned to being a wooden doll, but Pedric couldn’t help but be shocked.

To think that the stone sword that should follow his control couldn’t move an inch against mere plant stems!

Pedric hastily opened his spirit vision to check the state of the stone sword. The shamanism cast on the stone sword was still working.

The problem was that the stems sealing the stone sword were continuously regenerating broken stems by receiving mystery through the ground.

Pedric was terrified by this brute force approach.

“What kind of insane act is this!?”

“Insane act? Competing with quantity is a kind of direct approach, isn’t it?”

Pedric wanted to curse at the insane spirit’s insane nonsense, but he quickly threw his body backward.

As if not allowing even a moment’s rest, one doppelganger was fiercely leaping towards him.

Pedric hastily called for help from Gunrod.

“Gunrod. Help me quickly!”

“Shut up. I’m in a tight spot myself!”

Of course, Gunrod’s situation wasn’t good either.

His prized whip and club had also become useless!

‘What kind of mystery is being used in such a brute force way!’

The moment he wrapped the whip around a doppelganger and swung his club, cold energy burst from the doppelganger’s body, freezing the whip and club and destroying the shamanism.

Of course, with the shamanism gone, the whip and club were nothing more than useless trash.

All Gunrod and Pedric could do was just run around trying not to get caught by the doppelgangers…

“Kuhek!?”

“Got one.”

Pedric resisted for a moment using his sturdy body as a weapon, but in the end, his chest was pierced by a doppelganger’s claws and he died.

Gunrod took out an axe from his waist and struck a doppelganger’s head. He glared at the dead Pedric and Wendigo who was watching blankly from behind, spitting blood.

“I curse you. Even if I become a ghost after death, I will curse you!”

“Your tenacity is impressive.”

As Wendigo showed a relaxed appearance, Gunrod was about to charge towards him, disregarding his life.

However, he paused as he noticed something strange. The doppelganger that had killed Pedric was approaching Wendigo with the corpse.

‘Is he planning to take the corpse back?’

Of course not. What would Wendigo know to perform evil shamanism using corpses?

Wendigo created a seed in his hand.

Plop!

Wendigo stuffed the seed into Pedric’s corpse. Then the corpse began to wriggle and move.

Wendigo looked at this scene and spoke flatly.

“I hope it grows into something good to use as a warning sign this time.”

“What do you mean…!?”

Gunrod stepped back in horror. The wriggling corpse fell to the ground, and then sprouts appeared and gradually grew into a tree.

The legs filled with muscle became sturdy roots, and the arms became branches with lush leaves blooming.

Pedric had become a tree. Moreover, a tree with his pain-filled expression at the moment of death still remaining.

Gunrod unknowingly dropped his axe at this horrifying sight.

“You madman… You madman!!!”

“Don’t worry. I’m not tormenting the soul or anything like that.”

Don’t worry, he says. How on earth could one believe that!

Perhaps because he faced a terrifying future where even his soul(?) and corpse would be desecrated?

Gunrod, gripped by fear, turned his back even though he knew there was nowhere to escape. Of course, he didn’t manage to leave the forest.

A moment later.

With a miserable scream, another human-faced tree grew.