Ch.7373. Tragedy in the Countryside (3)

“Ugh, urgh…”

After crashing to the ground, the bandit leader groaned from the intense pain shooting through his entire body while simultaneously circulating his aura quickly to get up and assess the situation.

“Kuurgh…”

At least one part of his body was broken, and the impact to his legs was particularly severe, making running impossible.

Additionally, his bow had been cleanly snapped in half, and his quiver seemed to have flown off somewhere.

*Shing*

[Great Nature, grant me healing light.]

Hastily drawing his backup weapon, a scimitar, he tried to use healing magic to recover his body just enough to be able to fight…

“That monster…!!”

At that moment, the monstrous figure who had sent him flying entered the bandit leader’s field of vision.

This creature, swollen to almost the size of an ogre, had its entire body transformed into a grotesque form.

A deformed, swollen right arm as thick as a torso, covered with patches of red hair.

A left arm composed of dozens of steel cables ending in sharp, arrowhead-like blades.

It had one head in the center, plus a wolf’s head growing from its right shoulder that gazed skyward. The central head was also half-covered in flesh.

Beyond that, the creature was not only swollen with bloody flesh masses, but these masses were sporadically sprouting red hair and horn-like protrusions resembling tusks.

And all over its body, densely growing eyes of different colors and shapes.

‘What… what the hell is that?’

As the bandit leader instinctively looked for an opportunity to flee from this bizarre creature unlike any living being he knew, right at that moment…

*Woong…*

“…Kuurgh!”

Suddenly, the monster’s eyes flashed, and various spells flew toward the bandit leader’s body and mind.

His body slowed down, strength drained from his arm muscles, and his surroundings began to feel darker than before.

On top of that, his aura circulation slowed, and his sensitivity to magical power became dulled.

Strange magical energy attempted to seep into his mind, and wounds he thought were adequately treated suddenly reopened, causing blood to gush out.

In this disorienting situation, the bandit leader tried to maintain his composure, but…

[■■■■■■■■───!!!]

The monster—Cardio, who was barely holding onto his sanity with nothing but revenge—was quicker to launch his attack.

Cardio charged forward, planting his massive right arm on the ground and thrusting his shoulder like a siege hammer.

Having lived his entire life as a bureaucrat with no combat experience, there was no technique to be found in his attack, but technique wasn’t necessary.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!

With that tremendous mass plus acceleration, the power contained in his body was so powerful that the surroundings were devastated by the impact of his charge.

With each step, the ground shook, the impact resonating through everything around him, the power so immense that the surroundings trembled as if in an earthquake.

As this literal armored elephant charging at full speed approached, the bandit leader tried to evade with his diminished physical abilities, but…

CRASH───THWACK!!!!

Cardio kicked the ground hard, deliberately creating a shockwave that knocked the bandit leader down, then immediately swung his thick arm to strike his head.

The impact was so severe that even with aura, the bandit leader’s internal organs would have been severely damaged by the shockwave alone, let alone taking a direct hit to the head.

And as the bandit leader lay there, nearly dying from concussion, the wolf head growing from Cardio’s right shoulder opened its mouth and released a sound wave.

[■■■■■■■■■!!!!]

Strangely, the sound wave had no physical force; rather, it actually restored the bandit leader’s consciousness…

He suddenly noticed that the surroundings appeared to be moving slowly, like a video edited to play in slow motion.

The moment he recognized this sight, the bandit leader predicted what fate awaited him and began to plead, wailing—

‘No, no. No, please, not that—’

The blade cables from the left arm pierced the bandit leader’s body and began to burrow inside, beginning his torment.

Following Cardio’s desire to kill as painfully as possible the man who had led the violation of his younger sister, healing magic was forcibly cast on the bandit leader, causing his wounds to regenerate.

After 34 minutes in real time—which felt like 340 minutes, about 5 hours and 40 minutes, to the bandit leader—

《If you wish, become my believer and escape from the shackles of pain.》

‘Y-yes, I will! Please, please take my soul!’

Only then was he able to end his own life by becoming a believer of some merciful deity.

“We meet again.”

“Ah, aaaah, aaaaaaaaah!!!!!”

After suffering once more at the hands of Cardio’s soul that he met there, his soul was completely broken, bringing his end.

※ ※ ※

《Are you satisfied, Avenger Cardio?》

“Yes, YES! I am, my lord!”

《Good. Then go and live freely in this divine realm.》

After sending off the believer with a refreshed expression from having achieved his revenge to the city in the divine realm.

‘Hmm…’

I was lost in thought for a moment, looking at the intermediate-level sinner’s soul I had obtained.

In truth, souls of intermediate-level sinners or higher are rare.

The way I obtained this sinner’s soul, and other intermediate-level souls, was only possible because I deceived them into becoming my believers by promising to free them from pain.

For ordinary souls, such opportunities rarely present themselves.

Generally, intermediate-level or higher individuals who become targets of revenge are not only powerful but often hold high positions, making it a series of challenges for ordinary people to kill them for revenge.

As a result, many attempts to kill them fail, and even when successful, most are disguised as accidents or assassinations…

Even when killed up close, the avenger usually needs to escape quickly, leaving little opportunity to inflict prolonged suffering.

For these reasons, most souls go to the deity they believed in, but very rarely, circumstances align perfectly, and souls come into my hands.

I wanted to make use of these five intermediate-level sinner souls I now possessed.

They were too valuable to simply stamp out as hunting hounds like lower-level souls, and I needed to decide how to treat higher-level souls I might obtain in the future…

Above all, if I made sinners into my Angels of Avenge, it could damage the symbolism that the Angels of Avenge hold.

To my believers, the Angels of Avenge are received as something akin to saints.

Therefore, even though no formal hierarchy exists outside of combat situations, they are revered and treated with higher respect even among equals…

But turning these wretched souls, who committed sins against my believers and were dragged here, into Angels of Avenge merely because they were powerful would be a foolish act that would lose my believers’ trust.

‘Alright, you’ll take the path of beasts.’

After this brief contemplation, I quickly reached a conclusion and began infusing my power into the souls to modify them.

Since I also had the divinity of wolves, I would base their form on wolves… but they needed to have an appearance that anyone would recognize as sinners who had committed crimes.

What I envisioned was essentially meat shields.

Massive creatures standing at the front of formations, collapsing enemy lines to make it easier for the Hounds of Retribution or Wolf Berserkers to rampage, and potentially draining enemy resources.

To put it bluntly without any embellishment, I wanted meat shields—giant meat shields covered in metal.

I named these creatures Wolf Trolls.

These beasts, with the appearance of bipedal werewolves resembling trolls, were literally a fusion of trolls and wolves.

I gave them the troll’s brute physicality and regenerative abilities, covered them in armor, and added wolf physical characteristics.

This way, with the troll’s characteristically long arms ending in hook-like claws that could be used like whips, they had a considerably wide attack range. With no special abilities but all the intermediate-level resources poured solely into physical capabilities, they could be expected to have significant breakthrough power once set to charge.

The Wolf Trolls were thus completed as large monsters perfect for reckless deployment.