Ch.55The Forest of Demonic Beasts (1)

After leaving the empire, I was moving toward the forest guided by Mary.

According to Mary, it was the Forest of Demonic Beasts.

Unlike monsters, demonic beasts rarely left their territories and didn’t deliberately attack humans, which is why they were classified differently from monsters.

The Mad Bull, which accounted for half the blood flowing through my body, was one such demonic beast. Mary informed me that it was a powerful and large bovine demonic beast that was quite docile for its kind—it wouldn’t bother you even if you entered its territory, as long as you didn’t target it or approach too closely.

Various demonic beasts inhabit the Forest of Demonic Beasts. Humans had tried to conquer this forest multiple times, but it was too vast and filled with everything from poisonous insects to bizarre demonic beasts.

Eventually, humans gave up on conquering the Forest of Demonic Beasts, which rarely left their habitats. They simply avoided approaching it altogether, figuring they just needed to stay away from the interior.

As a result, all kinds of demonic beasts made their home there, with the most famous being the Were Beasts.

These were demonic beasts that took the form of animals standing upright. Were Beasts, which combined the best traits of various animals, were said to overwhelm even skilled knights.

Depending on their appearance, there were all sorts of Were Beasts—tigers became Were Tigers, bears became Were Bears, and so on. Unlike humanoids who retained animal characteristics, these creatures didn’t live in groups.

There were also other demonic beasts like the Saber Tiger with its huge body and fangs, and the Swamp Crocodile that ambushed from marshlands.

As Mary mentioned that some demonic beasts were difficult even for Masters to defeat, I headed toward the Forest of Demonic Beasts with excitement, eager to test my newly acquired axe.

* * * * *

Inside a pure white room. Uldur Church’s information management department, where people analyzed and discussed numerous documents piled on desks.

Saintess Lumina visited this place.

“Where is Wrath currently moving to?”

Her purpose was singular: to eliminate the being revealed in Uldur’s revelation. Half of the intelligence department had been assigned to track Wrath, one of the beings from the recent revelation.

The other half was pursuing Envy, another being from the revelation, and the Undead Doom Knight who had critically wounded the church’s holy knight Bell.

“Wrath is currently moving westward from the empire. He’s not avoiding imperial territories but literally moving straight ahead… If he continues straight, he’ll reach the Forest of Demonic Beasts.”

The Forest of Demonic Beasts. A forest that even the Laugiel Empire, the most powerful human nation of the current era, had given up on conquering.

The deeper one went, the more demonic beasts, poisonous insects, and plants one encountered—to conquer it would require burning everything to the ground, but the forest was too vast.

Eventually, decades ago, even the empire abandoned the conquest, and the forest became off-limits.

And now, Wrath was heading there?

‘It’s perfect for hiding. Humans can’t operate properly in that forest, but Wrath has poison resistance, and no demonic beast in the outer parts of the forest can defeat him. But… what about the center?’

Humans didn’t know what existed in the center. They couldn’t even properly conquer the outer areas before retreating, so how could humans know what lived in the center?

Perhaps the elves knew, but due to the war with the empire, humans couldn’t approach them now.

‘Sigh—I don’t know how much damage the emperor inflicted on the elves, but they must be furious since they scorched imperial territory. Why did he have to provoke the elves at this time of all times…’

Blaming the now-vanished Emperor Krex Rausel of the empire, she shook her head and issued orders.

“Call all the divine knights. I will bring Uldur’s light to this world by mobilizing them along with the choir, the Holy Knight Order, and all the judges to eliminate Wrath. Urgently inform all personnel…”

At that moment, someone rushed into the intelligence department. So urgent was their business that they flung the door open and approached the Saintess directly.

“Saintess. There are reports of anomalies in the Land of Death, located in the southern empire and northern part of the magic kingdom of Salion.”

The Land of Death. The region where a Death Knight who destroyed a kingdom hundreds of years ago was subjugated.

When the Death Knight was defeated, it released tremendous death energy that contaminated the land, which still hasn’t been properly purified.

“Anomalies in the Land of Death? What do you mean?”

“Skeletons emitting purple death energy have been observed wandering in the Land of Death. It seems… a new Death Knight may have been born.”

“That’s impossible! How could a Death Knight emerge in a land where even undead couldn’t naturally spawn for hundreds of years due to the death energy… Unless?”

In the recent battlefield between the empire and the elves, countless Masters had died. The empire had about 100 Masters. All those beings died, and their bodies?

The elves left the bodies exposed as an example, and while the church searched for and purified these bodies, some might have been missed.

Additionally, Envy, who appeared a few days ago. That monster, presumed to be an undead lich, had harmed church members purifying the empire and taken bodies, according to reports. Since the revelation mentioned that it commanded corpses, it might have entered the Land of Death and raised those skeletons.

“I’ll… give up on Wrath for now. This situation may also have been caused by Envy, mentioned in Uldur’s revelation. Gather all forces in the southern empire immediately. I will go there personally.”

“Yes!”

As the Church of Light prepared to deal with the new threat…

“Saintess! Urgent news! The Hero has appeared! We’ve received word that he’s heading here riding a unicorn!”

As if good news accompanies bad, amidst the stream of gloomy reports came a ray of light.

“It means Uldur hasn’t abandoned us yet! Bring the Hero here immediately!”

With those words, the Saintess prepared to receive the Hero, while the intelligence department personnel continued working without rest.

* * * * *

Boom— Boom—

The noise generated with each of my steps. A sound that struck fear into humans, but there were no humans in this city now.

It seemed the rumors of me destroying the imperial palace had spread here, as humans had long fled at the sight of me.

The lord governing this territory had apparently done the same, as only animals like dogs and cats could occasionally be seen in this large city.

Of course, they fled when they saw me.

“Still, we made it here without any trouble!”

Mary spoke with a smile, seemingly pleased that we had reached near the Forest of Demonic Beasts without fighting.

I was also relieved that there were no annoying humans charging at me, realizing that having a reputation, whether infamous or famous, helps avoid troublesome situations.

“Mmmrrrr— Moooo? (We’ll reach the Forest of Demonic Beasts once we leave this territory?)”

“Yes! We just need to get out of here! All that time following the queen around different places paid off! The master of this forest is currently asleep but stays in the center, so we just need to be careful about that area!”

As we conversed and broke through the city, we finally caught sight of a massive forest similar in size to Elvenheim.

After seeing only human cities and villages for a month, the forest seemed to bring peace to my mind.

Mary was also delighted to see a forest after so long, flying happily through the air when…

Bark bark bark—!!

Wooooooo—!!

Yip——!!

As if greeting us, all sorts of demonic beasts were charging toward us. These appeared to be the Were Beasts Mary had mentioned—four-legged beasts running quickly on two legs.

Faced with this sudden situation, I told Mary to keep her distance, then gripped the chain part of my axe and swung it at the demonic beasts.

Whoooosh——!!!

The axe flew with a cutting sound. The 5-meter axe was sufficient to tear apart the 2-3 meter demonic beasts.

Yip——!!!

In an instant, 3-4 demonic beasts turned into bloody pulp and disappeared. Seeing this, they should have hesitated, but…

These demonic beasts kept charging at me as if they would die if they didn’t escape the forest.

“Khan—!! Wait. Something’s wrong.”

Mary’s stop signal. Sensing something amiss, I also stopped my attack against the demonic beasts and watched what would happen… The demonic beasts running out from the forest passed right by me.

Not just one or two, but dozens, hundreds of demonic beasts passed by me. I frowned, realizing something must be happening in the forest.

Whoooosh——!!!

A sound like helicopters flying came from the forest. Tensing at the sound and sending Mary further away…

Bees emerged from the forest. Not just one or two, but hundreds of bees over 3 meters in size swarmed out, covering the sky.

“Kyaaaah——!!! What is this, what is this?!”

Mary, apparently seeing these insect monsters for the first time, was startled and quickly used invisibility magic to conceal herself.

I also frowned at the sight of hundreds of bees and raised my hand toward the sky to shoot lightning.

Rumble——

Then I lowered my hand that had been pointing at the sky, calling down lightning upon the bees.

Crash——!!!

The lightning that struck the ground swallowed several bees.

However… the gaps left by the few that fell to the ground were immediately filled by hundreds more, and even the fallen bees regained consciousness and rejoined the swarm.

Whether the bees knew I was the one who summoned the lightning, or they just thought a large prey had arrived, I wasn’t sure.

But hundreds of bees rushed toward me.

Their enormous 3-meter size, wings to match, and stingers that appeared and disappeared from their tails as if ready to fire at any moment. Add to that the massive jaws on their 1-meter faces.

With hundreds of these creatures that could withstand lightning, it was no wonder the demonic beasts fled. Such things were no different from natural disasters.

I gripped the chain part of the axe in my hand and spun it around. Ready to swing the axe whenever they came within range.

Before long, the bees finally entered my range, and the axe, charged with lightning, advanced and cut the bees in half.

Swoosh——

With a sound like a guillotine falling, ten bees had their bodies severed.

But the bees were not in quantities where the death of just ten would make a difference, and they flew toward me, clicking their jaws.

Buzz——!!!!