Ch.131Chapter 131

“…The Outer God suddenly disappeared?”

“Yes. We’re quite bewildered ourselves… And also, as it turns out…”

Marenne couldn’t help but be perplexed.

She had been dispatched with several regular knights after receiving reports that a powerful Outer God had suddenly appeared in the village of Vandre and was causing havoc.

After hastily burning fuel to reach the location, the news that greeted Marenne was utterly anticlimactic.

“As it turns out?”

“That Outer God somehow specifically targeted and demolished only buildings where particularly vicious criminals were located. For instance, slave traders…”

“Slave traders? What are you talking about?”

“Ah, well…”

Since the Outer God was the primary concern, Marenne had been listening to the village chief’s complaints, but the keyword “slave traders” struck her as particularly disturbing.

The village chief, having spoken those words himself, now appeared flustered and at a loss.

There’s definitely something going on here.

“Don’t tell me the knights have been taking bribes from slave traders.”

“That’s… correct. But they threatened us not to speak of it…”

Marenne sighed and called over the knights who had accompanied her.

“From this moment, strip every knight in this village of their qualifications. I’ll leave the cleanup to you.”

“Yes! Understood.”

In this harsh world, to do such despicable things for personal gain.

This was exactly the kind of situation Marenne despised most.

“Hmm.”

Having resolved the immediate issue, she returned to the original problem.

No matter how she thought about it, Marenne couldn’t explain this strange phenomenon.

“Could this truly be… the machinations of an Outer God?”

Since the return of the War God, all sorts of strange things had been happening, Marenne thought.

Come to think of it, Tanthyn had been acting strangely lately too.

Could it be…

“I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Marenne hurriedly boarded the returning train.

Tanthyn had always been several steps ahead of her, so why hadn’t she recognized his actions?

To think that the return of an old friend could cloud her judgment to this extent.

“Wait for me, Tanthyn.”

As the train departed into the distance, there was a figure watching from a high mountain, standing in the snow.

“Huff, huff.”

As soon as the train had left, the figure howled like a wolf and said:

“Deputy Commander, I’m heading to where the humans are!”

The being who had caused that righteous commotion in Vandre village reported thus before vanishing.

#

‘The one pretending to be the War God’ was glaring at me with a very bewildered look.

It must be wondering why another me had appeared when it had clearly killed what it thought was me.

I should provide an answer to this dull-witted Outer God who still hadn’t figured it out.

“You still think what you killed was me? Look carefully at what you actually killed.”

At my words, the Outer God gnashed its teeth and lifted its leg.

And finally, the identity of what lay on the floor became clear.

A being with horns on its head.

And the separated body had wings attached to it.

The Dragonslayer’s lesser dragon.

The Dragonslayer’s plan had been as follows:

1. Send Bell to Vandre village to cause a commotion. — Since bringing the full presence of a great Outer God would annihilate everyone, reduce the presence as much as possible with The Chronicler’s help.

2. During this process, create a lesser dragon in my exact likeness to observe the behavior of the Outer God pretending to be the War God.

3. And the moment the Outer God acts impulsively, immediately teach it a lesson.

And this Outer God had perfectly fallen into The Dragonslayer’s plan, as intended.

“H-how did you…!”

However, the Outer God seemed surprised by something else.

“Why would the Dragon help someone like you!”

The Outer God roared, raising the scales that had grown on its cheeks.

Come on, getting angry won’t give you any answers, so why bother?

You should blame your own stupid head for attacking without even checking whether The Dragonslayer and I were friends or not.

…But I couldn’t say that, so I just replied:

“Is that any of your business?”

“Y-you damned human…!”

The War God glared at me as if about to pounce at any moment. Behind it, I could see the Knight Commander.

Despite being freed, she hadn’t fled but remained still, seemingly lost in thought. I looked at her with somewhat sympathetic eyes.

Not running away and just standing there like that.

I don’t know what happened, but I hoped she would return to normal after I restored the War God to its original state.

And to restore the War God to its original state…

“…I suppose I’ll have to beat it down first.”

As I gripped my drawn sword with both hands, the War God seemed to take this as a provocation.

It immediately moved its vicious body quickly and lunged at me.

Ting!

The War God’s ferocious axe collided with my sword.

With this single exchange, I realized one thing:

If I hadn’t used The Advisor’s ability to push my physical capabilities to the extreme, I would never have withstood this blow.

A crater formed in the ground from where I stood.

It felt as if my knee joints were being crushed, but my body endured nonetheless.

This meant that I could somehow buy time until the Deputy Commander returned.

“Unnecessarily tough, aren’t you.”

The Outer God said, pushing my sword away forcefully with its two-handed axe.

Due to the overwhelming strength of the War God’s body, I was sent flying backward and crashed into the wall.

“Ugh…!”

I felt a sudden wave of nausea.

I was horrified at the thought that I had almost splattered today’s menu all over the sacred brazier.

As if unwilling to give me time to recover, the Outer God was already flying toward me.

“You discourteous bastard! In a duel, you’re supposed to wait when your opponent is exhausted!”

Boom!

Despite my protests, the Outer God’s charge didn’t stop, so I finally threw myself sideways to avoid the attack.

“Eek! You unromantic brute!”

Using that momentary pause caused by the collision with the wall, I swung my sword at the Outer God’s side.

But the Outer God, as if anticipating this, twisted its arm at an unnatural angle and blocked my sword with the handle of its two-handed axe.

So this is the body of the War God, said to have the greatest combat sense.

I felt a different kind of awe than when I had watched the Deputy Commander fight.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Outer God’s attacks continued immediately after blocking mine.

As I barely avoided the attacks aimed at my neck, I felt chills down my spine from the axes passing right in front of my nose.

After barely deflecting the axe with my sword, I hooked my blade onto the War God’s armor and pushed forward.

“Huaaaah!”

Crash!

With a heavy sound, my sword pierced through the War God’s armor and penetrated the wall of the Deputy Commander’s office.

But the Outer God, perhaps realizing that I wasn’t trying to kill it, smiled wickedly.

Whoosh!

After barely avoiding another swinging axe, I quickly pulled out my sword and stepped back.

“Damn, you crazy—!”

This was too disadvantageous for me.

Killing the War God would not be a good decision.

His military power would be of great help in stopping the Giant of the Snow Mountains later.

But from the Outer God’s perspective, it had no problem fighting with the intent to kill me.

It was already too difficult for me to face the War God when I hadn’t even become as strong as Baekgamyeon yet.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After parrying the Outer God’s axe with a few sword strikes, the Outer God suddenly showed a crazed look in its eyes.

Ting!

It finally deflected my sword away and pressed the end of its axe against my neck, knocking me down.

“Gak!”

“For a runt, you held out quite long.”

The Outer God looked down at me, exhaling rough breaths.

Despite saying that, it seemed quite exhausted itself.

If I had held out a little longer, I might have been able to do something.

What a shame.

That I couldn’t subdue it myself.

“Finally, a look of resignation. Yes, this time I’ll truly cut off that head of yours.”

The War God’s axe was raised high, and as it swung horizontally to align with the floor—

Thud.

The sound of flesh meeting flesh was heard.

Since my neck hadn’t been sliced yet, someone must have caught the Outer God’s wrist.

I opened my eyes to see who had done this, and a sensation of joy overtook my entire body.

“Deputy Commander!”

How does everything fall into place exactly according to plan?

I was amazed at The Dragonslayer’s grand scheme.

“D-Deputy Commander.”

The Outer God tried to act as if it were familiar with the Deputy Commander, calling out in a friendly voice, but it was too late.

The scales protruding from its cheeks, and the clear posture of trying to attack me.

Because of all these elements, the Deputy Commander already had a look of certainty in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Tanthyn. For not noticing your signal sooner. I feel deeply ashamed.”

As the Deputy Commander spoke, the Outer God shook off his wrist and faced him.

The Deputy Commander approached me, helped me up, and looked at the Knight Commander.

“Are you alright, Commander?”

“I protected her when that thing acted impulsively.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

The Deputy Commander drew his greatsword and pointed it at the Outer God pretending to be the War God.

“You dared to impersonate my friend. I’ll make you pay dearly for that.”

Hatred boiled in the Deputy Commander’s eyes.

“You pathetic Outer God.”