Chapter 92

The moment he swung the ice sword, Wendigo noticed that the power of the sword strike was stronger than he had intended.

He felt the mystery he had imbued to check if the opponent had hidden claws resonating with the ice sword and drawing in the mystery floating in the air.

‘Looks like it’s going to uproot them completely rather than just checking for claws.’

Though it wasn’t the strike he intended, Wendigo had no intention of stopping the sword attack.

If they couldn’t even withstand a single blow, that would mean Isabel and her followers were only at that level.

When he struck the ground with the ice sword full of mystery, the ice sword poured out mystery like a collapsed dam.

No special spells or powers were needed.

The wave of pure cold energy and the shockwave contained in the sword strike were more than enough to bring catastrophe to this land.

The enemies were swept up by the hard wave, whether it was ground or ice, and screamed as their limbs were torn and crushed.

A reddish ice mist rose to cover the catastrophe, and Wendigo glared at Isabel through the mist.

“I guess she wasn’t one to die from just this much.”

“Wendigo, ordinary humans wouldn’t even leave a corpse from this.”

“A witch isn’t an ordinary human.”

Wendigo’s judgment wasn’t wrong.

In a situation where ordinary humans would have chosen to flee, Isabel burned with murderous intent.

The fanatical belief that all the trials(?) she had experienced so far always made her reborn as a more noble being.

Because of such belief, Isabel had never doubted her thoughts and choices…

Whoosh!!!

“Aaaagh!!! Put out the fire, put it out!!!”

“Sa-Save me! I’ll get up and fight again, so please… Aaaaagh!!!”

Therefore, Isabel didn’t hesitate to sacrifice her followers. Weren’t they no different from beasts anyway?

If so, sacrificing their lives for her and becoming the cornerstone of a new kingdom would be a more valuable death!

Isabel, who offered her followers as sacrifices to the god, once again recovered the spirit’s body and went a step further by forcibly twisting the spirit’s body.

“■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!!!”

The spirit’s source burned in cursed flames and lost its original form.

Naturally, a spirit that has lost its source should return to nature and circulate the world…

“Useless spirit. Know that it’s an honor to be reborn through my flames!”

Isabel snatched away the last mercy given to the spirit and put a collar of powerful mystery in its place.

The spirit’s body made of charcoal collapsed, and the spirit was reborn as complete flames.

If it had been an ordinary spirit, it would have screamed at that terrible and atrocious act, but…

‘Whether it’s flames or a lump of charcoal, I can kill a spirit all the same.’

Wendigo wasn’t shaken by the opponent’s change in appearance.

After all, he had torn out and even eaten the source of another spirit, so why would he be flustered by something like this?

Wendigo turned his eyes away from the flame spirit’s clamor and decided to take down the most important thing first.

“Wh-What!? Damn it, he’s charging!!!”

“… We’re all dead.”

Wendigo charged towards the followers, and Gulmag, noticing his purpose, rushed out together.

Isabel startled when she saw Wendigo rushing towards the followers rather than herself and stretched out her hand. She realized what Wendigo was aiming for.

“Those are my sacrifices!”

It was quite a sight to see her proudly calling her subordinates sacrifices.

Wendigo mocked Isabel as he bisected the followers and froze them to death by spewing cold energy, while Gulmag swung his stone club whenever flames entered his sight.

The battlefield instantly became chaotic, and Isabel spat out curses with bloodshot eyes.

“I will surely burn both of you to death!”

“■■■■■!!!”

The newly born flame spirit approached Isabel’s side with a strange cry, and she infused it with power while shouting at the witches.

“Don’t just tremble like idiots, push your power into the spirit!”

“B-But our power might have adverse effects on that spirit… Kyaaah!?”

Isabel grabbed the neck of the witch who talked back to her and burned her right there.

The witch’s claim was quite plausible, but to Isabel, whose anger had reached its peak, it sounded like an incredibly dull answer.

When they would die if they couldn’t kill the two monsters right in front of them, where was there time to consider such things!

“… Then cast spells on those knight bastards. Spells related to the body should work well on them!”

Isabel, who had burned the witch, shamelessly reversed her orders, accepting the point the dead witch had pointed out.

The witches, fearing they might be burned to death too, hurriedly began pushing power into the twin knights.

The twin knights, Dylan and Cole, startled at the alien energy digging into their bodies and turned to look at Isabel.

“Isabel-nim! What are you doing now!”

“We never permitted such a thing!”

At the two knights’ opposition, Isabel snorted and nodded to Ellen.

Ellen, realizing that Isabel had completely lost it, sighed and withdrew her power from the puppets.

She needed to concentrate all her power to enchant the two knights.

“What a shame. You were both good in bed.”

“Ellen!!!”

The twin knights looked at Ellen with expressions full of betrayal until the very end.

They had believed that the emotions they felt were truly pure love.

However…

“Why… am I?”

“Damn it.”

In their last moment, the twin knights realized that all the emotions they had felt were nothing more than Ellen’s tricks.

Ellen completely suppressed the twin knights’ minds and cast a terrible spell on them.

“My beloved knights. Die for me.”

“Aaaaargh!!!”

The twin knights, under a spell that drew out power beyond their capabilities in exchange for their lives.

With the witches’ support added on top, the twin knights’ bodies grew far larger than before, and their muscles swelled as if about to burst.

Isabel burned all the followers who had been puppets and glared at Wendigo.

‘I’ve burned everything that would have been my foundation.’

Her followers, who were no different from her troops, had all turned to ashes.

The knights who were supposed to be in charge of her military power in the future had all died or reached a fate of death.

So this fight must be won, but…

Flinch.

The moment she made eye contact with Wendigo, Isabel felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

---

Wendigo marveled at the fact that the number of followers Isabel had personally burned was greater than the number he had cut down.

It was the first time since Oneton that he had encountered someone who treated their allies’ lives like insects to this extent.

‘She truly deserves the title of witch.’

“Wendigo, are all witches like that?”

“… That’s an incorrect generalization. Skadi is a witch too, but she’s kind, isn’t she?”

“Sorry. I didn’t know Skadi had become a witch.”

“If you’re sorry, deal with those knights for me.”

Wendigo spoke, pointing at the twin knights rushing towards him.

Gulmag nodded and raised his club. Honestly, dealing with the twin knights was easier than facing the flame spirit.

At least humans die when you hit them, unlike fire.

Having entrusted the twin knights to Gulmag, Wendigo raised his ice sword and charged towards the flame spirit.

The flame spirit was emitting quite a massive amount of mystery thanks to devouring human lives.

If Wendigo hadn’t killed the followers, it probably would have become a very troublesome existence.

“Burn that bastard to ashes right now!”

“■■■!”

The flame spirit flew towards Wendigo and exhaled its breath. The momentum was so intense it seemed like it would turn Wendigo to ashes immediately…

“Shut up.”

Wendigo swung his ice sword towards the breath while spewing cold energy from his entire body.

The ice sword cut through the flame breath as if it were nothing and aimed for the spirit’s head.

The spirit, seeing the ice sword approach right in front of its face, startled and moved its hand to grab the ice sword.

Indeed, devouring human lives indiscriminately seemed to have helped, as the flame spirit resisted the cold energy spewed by the ice sword and was about to roar at Wendigo…

Bang!!!

“■■■■■■?!”

“Did you think I could only swing a sword?”

An ice pillar that sprang from the ground struck the flame spirit’s abdomen, and the spirit staggered, spewing flames.

Wendigo didn’t miss this opportunity and twisted the ice sword to cut off one of its arms. Then, a chunk of the mystery constituting the spirit fell off.

The flame spirit screamed and swung its arm towards Wendigo.

Just as he was about to swing his sword to cut off that arm too.

“Die!”

“!”

Wendigo was shocked to discover a spear of black flame flying from behind the flame spirit.

Who could have expected that she would sacrifice even the flame spirit to attack him?

Wendigo kicked away the flame spirit and retreated backward, and the spear Isabel had thrown pierced straight through the flame spirit.

“■■■■■■■■■!!!”

“… Come to think of it, black flame is still flame.”

Wendigo stood his ice sword and looked at the flame spirit with bewilderment.

The flame spirit, having absorbed the spear of black flame, assimilated with the spear and began to burn black, growing in size.

Its size was now two heads taller than Wendigo, and the flame spirit looked down at Wendigo, about to sneer…

“Do you think this is a situation to sneer?”

“?!”

Crack!!!

While the flame spirit was growing in size, Wendigo exploded the mystery he had pushed into the ground, and a huge ice spike just the right size for the flame spirit sprang up from the ground.

The flame spirit panicked and exploded black flame, but the ice spike absorbed Wendigo’s mystery and became even harder.

“■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!!”

The ice spike vertically pierced through the flame spirit.

The flame spirit writhed in pain, but the ice spike remained unmoved.

Isabel created a huge fireball to save the flame spirit and threw it towards the spirit.

She thought she could shatter the ice spike and heal the flame spirit at the same time.

Of course, Wendigo had no intention of giving such an opportunity twice. Creating an ice spear with extremely compressed cold energy, Wendigo threw the spear towards the fireball.

The cold energy focused to a single point instantly penetrated Isabel’s unnecessarily large fireball, and without stopping there, flew towards Isabel.

Isabel pointed at the ice spear aiming for her and screamed.

“Block it!!!”

The witches reflexively drew out their power at Isabel’s scream.

Rocks flew in, lightning struck, and wind swirled to hit the ice spear.

The witches’ desperate efforts couldn’t block the ice spear but succeeded in altering its trajectory.

With an explosive sound like lightning striking, the ice spear plunged into the ground, and the cold energy contained in the ice spear instantly robbed the surrounding area of warmth.

The witches, terrified by the cold energy following their footsteps, ran to Isabel.

They thought Isabel’s flames could block the cold energy.

“Isabel-nim! Help us!!!”

“Fi-Fire for us!”

Isabel bit her lip and raised flames behind the witches.

While she didn’t care about the others, it was clear that losing the witches now would make it even harder to face Wendigo.

However, it was unreasonable to try blocking cold energy that was difficult to stop even with full power with ordinary fire, not black flame.

The flames turned to smoke as soon as they collided with the cold energy, and the witches were swept up by the cold energy and turned into ice statues.

The witches near Isabel could avoid the cold energy, but they trembled as they watched their comrades freeze to death just a few steps away.

They let out silent screams as they looked at Wendigo slowly approaching.

“We… we’re all going to die.”

“We shouldn’t have followed. We shouldn’t have followed!!!”

Some of the witches shed tears of resentment.

They hadn’t followed the Red Rose Dawn Society from the beginning because of delusions like attacking the forest or grasping power.

They had only fled to avoid persecution from people!

“Shut up! If you have the strength to spout such nonsense, then right now that spirit…”

“Get lost! We have no intention of dying because of your delusions!”

Isabel tried to berate the witches as usual, but the situation was too different.

A cornered rat will bite the cat.

The witches pushed Isabel away and started fleeing without looking back.

Isabel raised flames, greatly angered by that foolish behavior. She intended to burn the traitors alive.

However, Isabel staggered from pain rising from below.

“Cough?!”

Isabel checked the blood that flowed out with her cough and looked at her abdomen.

An old dagger was stuck in her belly, though she didn’t know who had stabbed her.

Isabel couldn’t even guess who the culprit was. There were too many witches that flashed through her mind.

“How dare… How dare you stab me, born of noble blood!!!”

“Didn’t you know that even mere beasts respond to violence with violence? You should have treated your subordinates better.”

“!”

Isabel hurriedly raised flames and turned around at the chilling voice.

However, how fast could the attack of Isabel, who had lived her entire life demanding pain and sacrifice from others, possibly be?

Wendigo lightly swung his ice sword and cut off Isabel’s arm.

“Aaaaargh!!! My arm, how dare you take my arm!!!!!!”

“……”

As Isabel grabbed her arm and wailed, Wendigo looked down at her pitifully.

To think someone who had lived her entire life parasitizing others and controlling them through pain would react so sensitively to her own pain…

Wendigo swung his ice sword with contempt for Isabel, and Isabel’s head rolled on the ground.

After confirming her hideously distorted face, Wendigo looked around.

Gulmag had already torn one of the knights to death and was cornering the remaining knight, while Ellen, who had shown herself to be the core of the Red Rose Dawn Society, had disappeared somewhere…

‘The vassals will catch the witches on their own.’

The vassals who had already been contacted would have formed an encirclement with bloodshot eyes, so it wouldn’t take long for the witches to be captured.

Whoosh!

“?”

As Isabel’s body began to burn black, Wendigo swung his ice sword down towards Isabel’s body.

However, Isabel’s body moved as if it had a will of its own and grabbed Wendigo’s sword.

Isabel’s severed head opened its mouth, burning black.

“It’s… unfair.”

“The ones who should feel unfair are the followers who died because of your greed.”

Isabel’s body boasted strength that couldn’t come from such a thin body and pushed away the ice sword.

Isabel’s body moved grotesquely, ran towards her head, and placed it on top of her severed neck.

Then, black flame burned greatly and completely incinerated her body, leaving only a skeleton. The skeletal Isabel shook her head violently and let out a monstrous cry.

“I… I will become queen. I will become queen!”

“I don’t think anyone would like a skeleton queen.”

Wendigo grumbled as he looked at Isabel, who had become a burning skeleton.

Unlucky bastards always had lifelines that were too long for their own good.