Ch.44. Submit to Vengeance.

Bjorn Wolfson.

Born as the eldest son of Wolf ‘The Hunter’, the chieftain of the Gray Wolf tribe—a renowned hunting tribe in the uncharted northern territories of the Rom Empire—he carried the surname meaning “son of wolf.”

The tribe’s only shaman and priest of the Wolf God proclaimed that Bjorn was destined to be loved by the god, placing the expectations of the entire tribe upon him.

Of course, Bjorn was born with exceptional talent that didn’t disappoint these tribal expectations. Rather than feeling burdened by such expectations, he enjoyed surpassing them and astonishing the tribal elders with his achievements.

At age four, he gained the ability to handle magical power, acquiring one of the qualifications of a lower warrior. By seven, he received the blessing of the Wolf God and began growing several times faster than ordinary people.

By the mere age of eleven, Bjorn’s body had developed to that of a seventeen-year-old—equivalent to a modern high school sophomore—and his physical composition seemed fundamentally different. He hunted a subadult brown bear head-on, earning recognition as a lower warrior and adult member of the tribe.

Two years later, at thirteen, Bjorn’s body had not only matured into adulthood but had grown larger and more muscular than any man in the tribe. While hunting a ferocious ogre that attacked the tribe, he awakened his Aura in a life-threatening moment.

Aura.

This special magical power, refined into a form specialized for warriors, is both the symbol of a mid-rank warrior and a force that transforms the awakened into superhuman beings beyond their species.

The mere awakening stimulates the entire body, causing rebirth as a superhuman. When Aura envelops even a sword made of cheap scrap metal, it becomes a legendary blade capable of cutting through metal. When projected from the skin to cover the body, it provides protection stronger than full plate mail while simultaneously granting powerful resistance against magic.

However, despite these excellent capabilities, awakening Aura was extremely difficult. No mid-rank warrior had appeared in his tribe for several generations… until Bjorn awakened his Aura while fighting the ogre.

After an intense battle, the ogre fell to Bjorn’s newly awakened Aura. Naturally becoming the tribe’s hero, he inherited the position of chieftain from his father a year later at the age of fourteen.

His military might as an Aura awakener and mid-rank warrior, combined with the honor of being the hero who saved the tribe in crisis, firmly united the entire tribe under his leadership.

Thanks to this, Bjorn led the Gray Wolf tribe to glory with continuous success.

After defeating the young female chieftain of the neighboring Red Wolf tribe—who was also a mid-rank warrior like him—in a duel, he formed a marriage alliance with her and merged the two tribes. With this strengthened power, he continued to subjugate surrounding tribes and expand his influence.

His personal life wasn’t bad either. His wife, the former chieftain Rael, was deeply in love with him as a strong man, making their marriage harmonious. They had six children, making him truly a winner in life.

Moreover, his tribe had grown too large to be called merely a tribe anymore, reaching a scale where it could establish a nation with proper organization. However…

This is where the problem arose.

The Rom Empire, which had already established civilization further south of these frigid lands, could not allow the growth of these northern barbarians and sought to subjugate them.

Under Bjorn’s command were 189 mid-rank warriors, 39 mid-rank shamans, 16,000 lower warriors, and various monsters tamed through tribal arts—trolls, snow bears, winter wolves, ogres, hippogriffs, and more.

Additionally, northerners were physically larger than southerners by nearly a head’s difference, with innate strength almost comparable to orcs. Bjorn believed they had a good chance of victory—but this was a misjudgment.

While southerners might have been inferior in raw physical specs compared to the rugged northern warriors, they were well-trained legionnaires of the empire with superior equipment.

Against the overwhelming phalanx formation of over 30,000 advancing with shields and spears, the northern warriors, skilled only in chaotic combat, were helpless.

Moreover, the empire’s diverse military branches played a decisive role.

For lower warriors whose armor was limited to tough leather at best, the javelins and crossbow bolts thrown by the legionnaires were like an inescapable rain of death. Even the few barbarians who resisted with their tough skin eventually fell before the violence of numbers.

The northern shamans and the fierce beasts tamed by special handlers were indeed powerful, with many mid-rank monsters, but they simply melted away under the concentrated fire of heat rays from the mid-rank priests who served Bestia, the God of Furnace.

Given this overwhelming disadvantage, there was a limit to what Bjorn and his elite guard of mid-rank warriors could accomplish, despite being near the threshold of high-rank.

Though merely a hundred warriors slaughtered over eight thousand legionnaires, they too were reaching their limits in terms of stamina and remaining Aura as living beings.

To make matters worse, the Chosen of the Pantheon, Apostles of the Gods, appeared before these exhausted warriors.

Having reached the tremendous realm of high-rank warrior and receiving various blessings as beloved by the gods, the Apostle began slaughtering Bjorn’s elite guard single-handedly. Realizing the futility of his own strength, Bjorn called upon the tribal god who had blessed him for help.

Having helped him through various extreme situations before, and being a tribal god who was worshipped and gaining followers, Bjorn had no doubt that the tribal god would help him as always, but…

《Why should I?》

“…What?”

《Why should I make enemies with the Pantheon for the likes of you and your rabble?》

The response from the god was beyond his imagination.

《Oh, and I’ve been scouted by the Pantheon. So don’t contact me anymore. Well, you couldn’t even if you wanted to.》

With that final insult, the tribal god severed the connection with Bjorn, his former apostle, and withdrew all blessings from the tribe.

“The Wolf, the Wolf God…”

“Why? Why? Why? Why?”

“Abandoned! We have all been abandoned!”

Naturally, morale plummeted when they realized the god who was supposed to care for their afterlife had abandoned them… Thus, the war ended in defeat for the northerners.

After such a devastating defeat, perhaps intending ethnic cleansing, the Rom Empire forces attacked the city where the unified tribes lived, plundering and burning everything while conducting mass slaughter.

Except for a very small number of warriors, most northerners were killed or enslaved, and unfortunately, the fate of Bjorn’s family was no better.

His father died defending the city, struck by the empire’s catapult. His mother took her own life to avoid dishonor.

His wife Rael fought valiantly alongside him on the frontlines before being cut in half at the waist by the Apostle’s hand. His first, second, and third sons met the same fate.

His fifth son was killed while resisting the plundering imperial forces, and his fourth child, his eldest daughter, was violated before being thrown into a fire pit.

Even his youngest daughter, only eleven years old, went missing. His despair was beyond imagination, but his ordeal was not yet over.

Captured by the Rom Empire forces, he was forcibly taken to an arena called the Colosseum, becoming a spectacle for southerners. He was forced to fight for his life against warriors from other captured tribes, even against those who were once his subordinates.

Given how desperately hopeless and humiliating this was, his tribesmen gradually lost their will to live or died in defeat in the arena.

By the time only Bjorn and one warrior who was once his close aide remained alive…

《Fear not, for I have arrived.》

With a red halo, the God of Vengeance appeared before his eyes.

※ ※ ※

“Haa, haa, haa, haaaa…”

Thud.

Immediately after Ma-Duk, the God of Vengeance who had appointed him as his apostle, disappeared, Bjorn collapsed to the floor, exhaling rough breaths from the belated exhaustion.

Unlike the tribal god who communicated through mental connection, a god who revealed himself directly emitted such an overwhelming presence and pressure that Bjorn’s mental strength was completely drained.

‘It was real…’

And right after that, although Bjorn thought the situation seemed like a dream, he could feel that everything was real from the powerful strength within his body and the emotions transmitted from the necklace that had melded into his body.

Despite having burned with hatred toward all gods, Bjorn now genuinely believed in Ma-Duk, the transcendent being (god) who had extended a hand to him when he had fallen into the abyss, with a devotion far deeper than his previous tribal faith.

Despite having openly expressed anger toward gods, Ma-Duk had bestowed such blessings upon him without taking offense. For Bjorn, Ma-Duk was the only true god.

Moreover, unlike the sword-shaped divine artifact he had used before, this necklace-shaped divine artifact conveyed that Ma-Duk viewed Bjorn as a precious treasure and favored servant from their first meeting.

‘Ma-Duk…’

As Bjorn temporarily removed the divine artifact from his body and was using it like a sacred symbol to offer a solemn prayer…

“Chief? Is something wrong?”

Yon, the only other survivor from the tribe, approached him and carefully questioned the solemn Bjorn, who then spoke to him.

“I have found hope, Yon.”

“…Hope? How could such a thing exist for us who have been abandoned by ‘it’…”

Having become pessimistic and cynical after being abandoned by their god, Yon spoke with a calm voice tinged with despair, but seeing him, Bjorn silently opened his hand to show what he was holding—the divine artifact.

“…Chief. This is, could it be…”

“Yes, Yon. Unlike the one who abandoned us, this is a divine artifact bestowed by the God of Vengeance, who extended his hand to us when we had fallen into the abyss.”

With a calm voice unconsciously mixed with yearning, Bjorn spoke to Yon—

“Yon, would you also pledge allegiance under the name of Ma-Duk?”

“…As long as he does not abandon us, I would gladly do so.”

That day, the number of Ma-Duk’s believers doubled.