Ch.6161. Blood-Red Wolf

The biggest difference between the Glacier Titan and my mobile city is the presence or absence of self-awareness.

The Glacier Titan is, metaphorically speaking, a natural phenomenon.

It’s a structure formed by an abandoned ice deity drawing in surrounding ice. Rather than being a monster that attacks first, it’s a type that causes damage to its surroundings due to its passive abilities.

The cold it emits can kill even a first-class tank in 10 turns, freezing all objects in areas it passes through.

Even without this blizzard, it generates enough cold to drop temperatures below freezing in an even wider area.

Additionally, the spirits naturally summoned in this cold instinctively attack humans and others who oppose nature. So whether you like it or not, if you don’t want to die, you have to defeat the Glacier Titan, making it ultimately a hostile entity.

In contrast, my mobile city cannot boast the same natural disaster-level combat power, but it possesses a distinct “wolf” consciousness.

Since its origin is a wolf deity rather than an ice deity, its ice-related special abilities are limited to output that can at most kill lower-level beings in the surrounding area.

However, in exchange, this mobile city can move actively through its clearly possessed consciousness—and its close combat specs are even more powerful than the Glacier Titan’s.

Despite being so massive that orcs mistake it for a moving mountain peak, it moves at considerable speed. It’s even larger than the Glacier Titan in pure size according to the settings—and its hand-to-hand combat skills are excellent.

For some unknown reason, it has intelligence based on Fenrir’s sub-form, but fundamentally, the skills of the wolf deity who was the original owner of the wolf avatar are actively reflected.

In addition to these conditions, the wolf avatar naturally has its own unique special abilities.

First, there’s the wolf control ability—or rather, what should be called “governing authority over wolf-type beings.”

This ranges from ordinary wolves (Animals) to giant wolves, dire wolves, magical beasts like winter wolves that inhabit northern regions, and moon wolves.

It even extends to somewhat ambiguous wolf-like beings such as werewolves, the rare winged Valkyrie wolves, and possibly even wolf beastmen who might fall outside the category.

Somehow, it seems that anything in wolf form qualifies—frozen wolf corpses (undead), animal spirits of wolves, and even ice elementals that merely take a wolf form.

Rather than simply mentally controlling them or using something like hypnosis, it creates an instinctive sense of obedience toward that being… saying it like this makes it sound like brainwashing, but essentially it’s a subtle ability that isn’t quite brainwashing.

Also, perhaps as a result of my divine “rage,” the mobile city can emit not only ordinary blizzards but also blizzards tinged with a vivid blood-red color.

This blizzard, which deals mental attribute damage instead of cold damage, naturally inflicts “rage”-type debuffs like fury, madness, or frenzy instead of conventional speed reduction or attack speed decrease debuffs.

Of course, these types of debuffs are typically buffs commonly used by Berserkers or Barbarians, so I wondered if they might actually strengthen enemies…

But after checking, I found that the merit of stat increases from this type of debuff was gone, leaving only the demerits, which seemed fine in its own way.

And the most decisive difference is—naturally, the city placed on top of it: Petit Moscow.

As the name suggests, it’s modeled after Moscow, the capital of Russia, serving as the capital of the Soviet Holy Republic, with much of its appearance also taken from Moscow.

The part that could be called my temple is based on St. Basil’s Cathedral, making it splendid and beautiful, while the government building area is modeled after the Kremlin Palace.

Additionally, since I intended to commit to the concept, I created a Red Square and Soviet-style apartment buildings, resulting in a city that is… well, let’s say it has a very red flavor?

Agriculture is possible thanks to the underground farm of S…talin, who was originally a druid but has now become “something orc-like” due to my blessing.

With the orcs who joined using their nomadic instincts to tame wolves, wild horses, or sheep, using wolves as sheepdogs, the livestock infrastructure is also resolved, alleviating food concerns.

But the true value of this city lies elsewhere—the fact that the city itself is a fortress.

It can form remotely operated magic turrets on its surface, has a protective barrier covering the entire city, and as a kind of ultimate attack, can form and fire a super-massive magic turret—the so-called Tsar Cannon.

As the capital of the newborn Soviet Holy Republic, there truly was no better city.

※ ※ ※

And so, after the city was completed.

‘Hmmmm…’

While I was reorganizing the divine realm and military forces once again, I suddenly received an opinion from Commander-in-Chief Rael Auredottir.

“O Great One, I’m not sure if I should say this… but I’ll speak anyway. Among my subordinates, there’s an opinion that the Revenge Hound is not quite suitable as a mount.”

It was a reasonable point. No matter how fast and combat-capable the Revenge Hound might be, it is essentially a fierce beast specialized for bipedal movement.

《So, you’re saying the Revenge Hound is unsuitable as a war mount?》

“…Yes, that’s correct. Based on my limited insight, I believe we need a new beast created specifically for mounting.”

This opinion hit my blind spot precisely.

In the game Dungeon & Adventure, the appearance of mounts was merely cosmetic material for looks. What actually enhanced the rider’s combat power were the mount’s stats and combat abilities.

But this is reality.

No matter how strong a mount might be, an uncomfortable form would negatively impact combat effectiveness. Rael Auredottir had risked being disrespectful to convey this opinion to me.

She was saying we needed a new mount with an ergonomic body structure, something comfortable to ride like a horse and convenient for combat.

《Rael Auredottir.》

“Y-yes?”

《You’ve done very well. You’ve fulfilled your duty faithfully.》

“I-I am honored…!!”

Finding this opinion quite credible and reasonable, I actively incorporated it while also commending her for having the courage to express her opinion without knowing how I would react.

Such talent—someone who can say “No” based on their own convictions in any situation rather than being a yes-man—is precisely the kind of person who should be employed and highly regarded as a group leader.

《Take this, Rael Auredottir.》

“Th-this is…!?”

《It’s your axe. Reforged with my blessed blood.》

“…!?”

After bestowing upon her a processed version of the axe she used in life as a reward, I immediately began creating a new mount as per Rael’s request.

The base was naturally a wolf, given the wolf deity aspect, with some vampire qualities added to create something like a vampire wolf.

Its size was much longer than the average modern horse length of 2.4 meters, at 2.8 meters. I also reinforced its back, having heard somewhere that feline animals have relatively weak spines.

The resulting beast was named the Blood Wolf.

True to its name, it had blood-red fur and large fangs, and thanks to its vampire characteristics, it was tougher than imagined and suitable for future customization for named entities.

It could carry an adult man covered in metal without tiring, gallop at 80 km/h, move without issue despite considerable injuries, and possessed the tenacity of the undead.

When test-ridden by a Blood Warrior who was formerly from the Rom Empire Legion cavalry, he declared it superior to all war horses he had ever ridden—proving it was worth creating.