Ch.22Chapter 22

Wendigo slashed through the thorny tentacles and ran toward the wall of the nest.

‘Not an attack I couldn’t block, but nothing good would come from getting hit.’

Avoiding the tentacles that had pierced even rock, Wendigo reached the wall and leaped high, using it as a foothold.

The mystical energy swirling around him condensed into his ice blade, and the sword, wrapped in materialized cold energy, plunged down toward Gicas’s head.

“Huhahaha! Do you think you can wound me with just that?”

Gicas retracted his tentacles and surrounded himself with sticky, sewage-like mystical energy like armor.

When Wendigo’s mystical energy collided with Gicas’s, a thunderous sound that seemed to shake the world echoed throughout the nest.

Wendigo frowned.

The cold energy enveloping his ice blade rapidly lost power upon colliding with Gicas’s mystical energy.

‘This one is stronger than that boar.’

“The power of Djin is weak! How fleeting is nature’s mystical energy before power forged in death, resentment, and curses!”

Gicas’s mystical energy, which had grown by devouring the world’s negativity, was as peculiar as his foul character.

A mystical energy of negation that corrupted and weakened anything derived from nature.

That mystical energy was eating away at Wendigo’s cold energy. Wendigo kicked Gicas in the face and retreated.

Wendigo transformed his ice blade into an ice club. Gicas’s massive body moved around causing tremors, then charged toward him with surprising speed.

“I’ll tear your hide and limbs to pieces!”

“It feels like fighting a train!”

Wendigo swung his club toward Gicas’s snout. With a crashing sound, Gicas’s head flew sideways, but the attack didn’t stop.

Gicas’s body, covered in rough hide, continuously charged toward Wendigo, who raised his club to block the attack.

KAGAGAGAK!!!

When the club collided with Gicas’s body, a chilling sound rang out as Wendigo was pushed backward. The ground beneath him crumbled under the impact.

A charge combining the weight of a massive body with agility that didn’t match its size.

Wendigo was quite surprised by the overwhelming destructive power of this simple combination. The three hundred years spent growing in size hadn’t been in vain.

Overwhelming mass was itself an excellent weapon.

‘I underestimated him.’

“Huhahahahaha!”

Gicas burst into maniacal laughter, consumed by ecstasy. The more he raced around the nest like a whirlwind, driving Wendigo back, the more certain he became.

Parasites were nothing more than a means to manage underlings. In the end, one’s own strength was the truth!

“Die in despair. While cursing your own arrogance!”

Wendigo ignored Gicas’s provocation and swung his club. Gicas sneered, thinking it was an act of desperation.

The belief that no matter how much the club was swung, his hide wouldn’t break.

Gicas’s belief wasn’t mere arrogance. His body, combining hardness and elasticity, easily withstood the impact of the club.

However, arrogance and carelessness were clearly different.

Gicas noticed the change only after the twentieth collision. He wiped away his relaxed expression and displayed bewilderment.

Somehow… Wendigo’s mystical energy showed no signs of diminishing.

“You, what trickery are you using?!”

Wendigo responded to Gicas’s shout with a friendly clubbing. Wendigo’s club was still filled with mystical energy, and…

“Kugh!”

Gicas’s wasn’t. The mystical energy as vile as the essence of evil was intense but not infinite.

The club broke through Gicas’s mystical energy and struck his body. The hide remained intact, but the inside didn’t.

As cold energy spread like thorns, Gicas howled. His agony was so great that the nest seemed to scream with him.

Rocks fell as the nest collapsed.

Avoiding the rocks, Wendigo instantly climbed onto Gicas’s back.

“Hup!”

With a shout, Wendigo thoroughly beat Gicas’s body with his club. No matter how hard and elastic, even hide wasn’t invincible.

Repeatedly striking with the club like subduing an enraged bull, cold energy seeped into the hide. Gicas’s mystical energy could no longer block his.

“Get off! Get ooooff!!!”

The pain of his body freezing while still alive.

Gicas screamed and writhed in pain unlike anything he’d experienced before. Having hidden for three hundred years, he’d had no reason to feel pain.

As he began thrashing about, smashing his own nest, Wendigo descended from Gicas’s back without the slightest hesitation.

Gicas barely held onto his sanity and glared at Wendigo. Then he acknowledged his mistake.

“Insolent creature! You were no ordinary Djin. How dare you hide your strength and mock me!”

“You’re the one who misunderstood and caused a scene. Did you waste those three hundred years?”

Come to think of it, he had. What benefit could time bring to one who lived by eating offerings brought by his offspring in the nest…

Wendigo stopped his thoughts and drew up his mystical energy. As Gicas’s hexagonal mouth opened, mystical energy began gathering at its center.

“Don’t you dare try to lecture me! What would you know, born as a Djin! I, I have transcended my origins through knowledge and effort!!!”

Gicas’s impure mystical energy wasn’t made solely of the resentment and curses of his victims.

Endless self-loathing, distrust, and resentment toward the world.

Gicas’s mystical energy was created from his malice and his victims’ malice, so intertwined they couldn’t be separated.

To put it more simply and briefly…

It was a collection of inferiority complexes.

“Your inferiority complex is excessive. Comparing your talents with others only hurts yourself.”

“Silence! What would you know!!!”

A dark red breath like karmic fire erupted. Wendigo threw away his club and took his stance.

His chest expanded greatly, and…

《 ■■■■■■■!!!!!! 》

A roar containing cold energy swept like a storm. Gicas’s mystical energy was deep but not infinite.

The collision of the two breaths ended in Gicas’s defeat. When Gicas’s breath, having used up to the last drop of his mystical energy, ceased, Wendigo’s roar struck Gicas.

“Kaaaack!!!!!!”

Gicas’s head and chest froze. Gicas tried desperately to extend his tentacles, but the cold energy consuming his body froze them as well.

Thud!

As the massive body collapsed helplessly, a small earthquake shook the nest. Wendigo slowly approached Gicas.

Even as he was dying, Gicas glared at Wendigo.

“Don’t… don’t look down on me!”

“… How pitiful.”

Wendigo expressed his sincere feelings as he infused mystical energy into his claws. He pushed his claws into Gicas’s mouth.

Wendigo rummaged through Gicas’s insides, found the source of his life, and pulled it out in one go. Gicas let out a single cry and breathed his last.

Wendigo prayed that Gicas would be born with abundant talent in his next life. Honestly, he felt a bit sorry for him.

‘Living in seclusion for three hundred years because of lack of talent. I can’t even imagine it.’

He was quite a pitiful creature. If only he had honed skills that matched his talents…

‘Come to think of it, perhaps it’s fortunate since he was twisted from the beginning.’

Thinking about it this way, it seemed better that he had been dissatisfied with his talents. Wendigo turned his attention to the creature’s heart.

Gicas’s heart emanated intense mystical energy. The problem was that Gicas’s impure mystical energy clung to it, making it quite disgusting.

Would eating this give him Gicas’s mystical energy?

‘… It seems like I’d get sick if I ate it.’

Indeed, how many beings would willingly put something that reeked of sewage into their mouths?

After long deliberation, Wendigo reached a conclusion.

‘I should ask Skadi Brynhild before deciding.’

It wasn’t that he absolutely lacked the courage to eat it.

* * *

Though Gicas’s death resolved the problem, Wendigo couldn’t rest. There were still various matters to settle.

Not only Dmitri and Ivan’s tribes, but warriors from quite a few tribes had united…

“They say if you ask the Djin, you can receive his blessing.”

“Can’t we do that too?”

The warriors had eyes and ears, so they realized Wendigo was governing people, and they returned to their tribes to spread this news.

If someone didn’t know much about Wendigo, they might suspect he was using humans like slaves, but the behavior Wendigo had shown while visiting villages was enough to dispel such suspicions.

The stories of warriors who returned to their villages also had a significant impact.

“He faced the demon alone, showing how much he cares for us!”

“I heard that in his village, fruits ripen even in winter, and spring breezes blow.”

“The warriors called it paradise on earth.”

… Of course, as stories passed from mouth to mouth, there was some exaggeration. But they weren’t entirely baseless.

Those who came with half-belief after being persuaded by the warriors were amazed to see the warmth permeating Wendigo’s village and the well-ripened crops.

The warriors’ words were true!

Seeing is believing. They vowed to join Wendigo when spring came. After all, winter was approaching, and they couldn’t move carelessly.

Skadi Brynhild distributed talismans imbued with warmth to those departing.

“Wendigo’s blessing will drive away the cold during your journey home.”

“To give us such precious talismans…”

“Since you’ve decided to serve Wendigo, you’re like family to me. I pray we meet again in good health.”

As Skadi Brynhild spoke with a bright smile, they repeatedly bowed in gratitude before leaving the village.

Wendigo watched them disappear with a sullen expression.

“Technically, it’s not my blessing but the power of the talismans you made.”

“Still, the fact that they received your grace doesn’t change!”

Skadi Brynhild clung to Wendigo and proudly exclaimed. Though her sparkling upward gaze was burdensome, Wendigo didn’t push her away.

‘Having removed something that didn’t want to be separated, I have no choice.’

When Wendigo patted her head, Skadi Brynhild smiled broadly with joy. Wendigo asked her:

“What about Gicas’s heart? Have you found a way to use it?”

“Ah. I’ve thought about it a lot… and came up with the best solution.”

At the mention of a good solution, Wendigo felt hopeful. After all the trouble catching that creature, surely something useful would come of it?

He wasn’t even hoping for increased strength. Just something beneficial…

“I think burying it in the ground would be best!”

“……”