Chapter 22

The wendigo cut through the thorny tentacles and leapt towards the wall of the nest.

‘It’s not an attack I can’t block, but there’s no good in getting hit.’

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

The mystery swirling around him condensed on the ice sword, and the sword, wrapped in materialized cold energy, plunged down towards Gikas’s head.

『Huhahaha! Do you think you can wound me with just that!』

Gikas withdrew its tentacles and surrounded itself with a slimy, sewage-like mystery like armor.

When the wendigo’s mystery collided with Gikas’s mystery, a thunderous sound that seemed to shake the world echoed through the nest.

The wendigo frowned.

As the cold energy enveloping the ice sword collided with Gikas’s mystery, it rapidly lost power.

‘It’s stronger than that boar creature.’

『The power of spirits is weak! How fleeting is nature’s mystery before the power tempered in death, resentment, and curses!』

Gikas’s mystery, grown by devouring the world’s negative elements, was as peculiar as its own dirty nature.

A mystery of negation that polluted and weakened things originating from nature.

That mystery corroded the wendigo’s cold energy. The wendigo kicked Gikas’s face and retreated.

The wendigo transformed his ice sword into an ice club. Gikas’s massive body moved around, causing earthquakes, then charged at him with surprising speed.

『I’ll tear your hide and limbs apart!』

“It feels like fighting a train!”

The wendigo swung his club towards Gikas’s snout. With a screeching sound, Gikas’s head flew sideways, but the attack didn’t stop.

Gikas’s body, covered in rough shells, continuously charged at the wendigo, and the wendigo raised his club to block the attacks.

Kagagagagak!!!

As the club collided with Gikas’s body, a chilling sound rang out and the wendigo’s body was pushed back. The ground he was standing on crumbled under the impact.

A charge combining the weight from its massive body and nimble speed unbefitting its size.

The wendigo was quite surprised by the overwhelming destructive power from this simple combination. The three hundred years spent growing its body hadn’t been in vain.

The overwhelming mass itself was an excellent weapon.

‘I underestimated it too much.’

『Huhahahahaha!』

Gikas burst into maniacal laughter, immersed in ecstasy. The more it chased the wendigo around the nest like a whirlwind, the more confident it became.

Parasitism was merely a means of managing underlings. In the end, the strength of the main body was the truth!

『Die in despair. While cursing your own arrogance!』

The wendigo ignored Gikas’s provocation and swung his club. Gikas sneered, thinking it was an act of desperation.

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

Gikas’s belief wasn’t just arrogance. Its body, combining hardness and elasticity, easily withstood the impact of the club.

However, arrogance and carelessness are clearly different.

Gikas noticed the change only after the twentieth collision. It erased its relaxed expression and showed bewilderment.

Somehow… there was no sign of the wendigo’s mystery diminishing.

『You, what trick are you playing!』

The wendigo responded to Gikas’s shout with a friendly clubbing. The wendigo’s club was still full of mystery, and.

『Kugh!』

Gikas’s mystery couldn’t keep up. Its mystery, as vicious as the essence of evil, was strong but not infinite.

The club broke through Gikas’s mystery and struck its body. The shell was intact, but the inside wasn’t.

As cold energy spread like thorns, Gikas howled. It was in such agony that the nest seemed to scream with it.

Rocks fell as the nest crumbled.

The wendigo dodged the rocks and instantly climbed onto Gikas’s back.

“Hup!”

With a shout, the wendigo thoroughly battered Gikas’s body with his club. No matter how hard and elastic, even a shell wasn’t invincible.

As he continuously struck with the club like subduing an enraged bull, cold energy seeped into the shell. Gikas’s mystery could no longer block his mystery.

『Get off! Get ooooff!!!』

The pain of the body freezing while still alive.

Gikas screamed and writhed in pain unlike anything it had experienced before. Having hidden for three hundred years, it had never experienced pain.

As it started rampaging, smashing its own nest, the wendigo descended from Gikas’s back without any hesitation.

Gikas barely held onto its sanity and glared at the wendigo. And admitted its mistake.

『Detestable thing! You weren’t an ordinary spirit. How dare you hide your strength and mock me!』

“You’re not thinking about how you misunderstood on your own and caused a fuss. Did you waste those three hundred years?”

Thinking about it, that was correct. How beneficial could time be for a creature that lived by eating offerings brought by its offspring in the nest…

The wendigo stopped his thoughts and drew up his mystery. As Gikas’s hexagonal mouth opened, mystery began to gather at its center.

『Don’t dare try to teach me! What does a born spirit like you know! I, I have transcended my birth through knowledge and effort!!!』

Gikas’s impure mystery wasn’t made solely of the resentment and curses of its victims.

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

Gikas’s mystery was created by the intertwining of Gikas’s malice and the victims’ malice to the point where they couldn’t be separated.

To put it more briefly and simply…

It was a collection of inferiority complexes.

“Your inferiority complex is excessive. Comparing your own talent with others’ only hurts yourself.”

『Shut up! What do you know!!!』

A dark red breath like karmic fire burst out. The wendigo threw away his club and took a stance.

His chest swelled greatly, and.

《 ■■■■■■■!!!!!! 》

A roar carrying cold energy swept like a storm. Gikas’s mystery was deep, but not infinite.

The collision of the two breaths ended in Gikas’s defeat. As Gikas’s breath, which had consumed every last drop of mystery it had drawn up, ceased, the wendigo’s roar struck Gikas.

『Kaaaaaaak!!!!!』

Gikas’s head and chest froze. Gikas tried to bring out its tentacles in desperation, but the cold energy that had invaded its body froze even the tentacles.

Kung!

As the massive body collapsed powerlessly, a small earthquake occurred in the nest. The wendigo slowly approached Gikas.

Even as it was dying, Gikas glared at the wendigo.

『Don’t… don’t look down on me!』

“… How pitiful.”

The wendigo expressed his sincere feelings as he infused mystery into his claws. He pushed his claws into Gikas’s mouth.

The wendigo rummaged inside Gikas, found the source of its life, and pulled it out in one go. Gikas breathed its last with a single scream.

The wendigo prayed that Gikas would be born as a talented being in its next life. Honestly, he felt a bit sorry for it.

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

It was quite a pitiable creature. If only it had honed something that matched its talents…

‘Come to think of it, maybe it’s fortunate that it was a twisted creature from the start.’

Thinking this way, it seemed better that it had been dissatisfied with its talents. The wendigo turned his attention to its heart.

Gikas’s heart emanated a deep mystery. The problem was that Gikas’s impure mystery was clinging to it, making it quite disgusting.

Could he gain Gikas’s mystery if he ate this?

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

Indeed, how many beings would willingly put something that smells strongly of sewage into their mouth?

After long deliberation, the wendigo came to a conclusion.

‘I should ask Skadi before deciding.’

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

---

Although the problem was resolved with Gikas’s death, the wendigo couldn’t rest. There were various things that needed to be sorted out.

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

“I heard that if we ask Spirit-nim, we can receive his blessing.”

“Can’t we do that too?”

The warriors had eyes and ears, so they realized that the wendigo was ruling over people, and they spread this fact widely when they returned to their tribes.

If they didn’t know much about the wendigo, they might have suspected that he was using humans like slaves, but the appearance the wendigo showed as he went around the villages was enough to push away such suspicions.

Additionally, the stories of the warriors who returned to each village had a big impact.

“He’s someone who cares about us so much that he faced the devil alone!”

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

“The warriors said it’s a paradise on earth.”

… Of course, as stories passed from mouth to mouth, there was some exaggeration. But it wasn’t completely baseless.

Those who came with half belief and half doubt at the warriors’ persuasion were amazed to see the warmth permeating the wendigo’s village and the well-ripened crops.

To think the warriors’ words were true!

Seeing is believing, as they say. They swore to join the wendigo when spring came. It seemed they couldn’t move carelessly as winter was approaching.

Skadi handed out talismans imbued with warmth to those leaving.

“Wendigo-nim’s blessing will drive away the cold during your return journey.”

“To give us such precious talismans…”

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

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

The wendigo watched them leave with a sour expression.

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

“But it doesn’t change the fact that they received grace from Wendigo-nim!”

Skadi clung to the wendigo and exclaimed proudly. Though it was burdensome how she looked up at him with sparkling eyes, the wendigo didn’t push her away.

‘It can’t be helped since I removed what didn’t want to separate.’

As the wendigo patted her head, Skadi grinned happily. The wendigo asked her,

“What about Gikas’s heart? Have you found a way to utilize it?”

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

At the words “best method,” the wendigo felt expectant. After all the trouble to catch it, wouldn’t something useful come out of it?

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

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

“……”