episode_0035

Do you know a monster called Wendigo?

A monstrous beast with a deer skull with long antlers for a head, from which rotten flesh dripped.

It’s a shame I can’t describe it in detail, but no one could possibly give a detailed description with this creature in front of them.

It was so disgusting that I couldn’t even bear to look at it directly.

A rotten stench permeated the air, but the laboratory itself was already filled with smells impossible to detect from outside, so my nose was already numb.

Whether it had eyes or not, something reddish was located in the hollows of its skull, staring directly at me.

Its human-sized claws looked as if they were sharpened daily; if they touched my stomach now, they would surely pierce it.

As if it wanted to hide the rotten flesh bound by strange needles, it covered its entire body with green algae found only in lakes, and it was already swinging its front paw at me.

I winced slightly, my numb nose scrunching, and raised my hand.

Splash splash, a single bubble that had risen from the floor surged violently.

The pristine white single bubble soon transformed into a powerful wave.

Did these brilliant waves, lacking any sunlight to illuminate them, receive even the meager light of the laboratory?

Even the Wendigo’s two red eyes, which would embrace no one, were reflected in this brilliant wave.

The laboratory, however, greeted the wave that appeared ready to engulf everything.

[Screech!!!]

Look, hasn’t it already torn off the Wendigo’s left arm, engulfing it?

Was it because I was running wild after a long time?

Or was it because the mental power that forms my [Mind Blade] had advanced a level?

The waves, shining bluer than when I fought the Queen or the wolf, were razor-sharp.

The monster, profusely bleeding like sewage water, gradually began to retreat.

Its huge teeth, which had been violently rattling as if to devour me at any moment, now seemed to tremble in fear, and only the sound of grinding bones could be heard.

But the grinding sound lasted only a moment; it then let out a booming roar and began to climb onto the ceiling.

A wise choice.

Originally, waves do not reach the sky.

That is the natural order, and one of the laws that applies even outside of [The Garden].

Does it still think like a living creature?

As a fellow thinking creature, I respected it, but at the same time, I also wanted to express my condolences.

Pitifully, what the small deer encountered was someone who could pierce the sky with waves.

I just hoped that the dripping flesh was not its last breath.

Thump, thump, thump

The whale arrived.

What are you doing, not bowing your head when the master of the waves has arrived?

Bang!!!

Now, not even the wretched scream of this small deer could be heard.

Only the deer skull, soaked in rotten sewage water, hit the laboratory floor with a desperate sound.

The two red eyes that had stared directly at me were blinking and moving around as if they hadn’t yet realized they were dead.

The detached chunks of flesh flew around, freeing the humming, heat-generating machines completely.

I looked up at my blades, still dancing in the sky, forming a brilliant wave sword technique.

I had thought there would be a change in the whale as my mental power stat evolved to a higher level, but this range and power were beyond what I had anticipated.

Back when mental power almost determined stats, I thought a range like this would require not just an orca, but the very whale that causes these massive waves to materialize directly as a sword technique to be formed.

Of course, my mental power advanced a level before the sword technique reached that level, so I never actually saw if that was true.

[Are… you… human….?]

A deep, resonant voice that seemed to echo from within the skull.

However, behind the shadow of that profundity, the screams of many people were mixed in.

I thought it could only scream, but it can speak human language? Isn’t that a great discovery?

[Hey, Master. You don’t think this is the end, do you?]

A familiar voice came from above my shoulder.

Ah, who is this?

Isn’t it my old friend, Brownie?

“I thought you were dead. You didn’t say anything the whole way to [The Garden].”

[If I sense danger for my Master, I should at least let you know. My olfactory alarm is competent.]

He tapped his nose with his fluffy paw and said.

“Then this is an emergency of a different caliber than the current danger.”

[At the very least, I might have to return to my massive form, you might think it’s just that much now, Master.]

“Hm?”

[Look around here, don’t you wonder why it’s so big? There are an unusually large number of cells, and the machines are state-of-the-art. Could they have built such a massive, what you call a ‘small laboratory,’ in someone else’s territory, [The Garden]?]

“…..So you mean.”

[Exactly. It’s highly likely that this was the main base. Look, it doesn’t seem like they’d build this entire lab just to create one Wendigo that could be finished by your single sword technique.]

By then, the small creature was poking at the fluffy, cotton-like corpse that had fallen from the Wendigo’s body onto a machine from which black smoke was subtly rising.

“So this Wendigo is just one of the experimental results?”

[A result… To be precise, it doesn’t seem to be the result of an ‘experiment.’]

Brownie buried his black nose into the corpse, sniffing its scent for several minutes.

Knowing how excellent a dog’s sense of smell was, and how terrible the corpse’s stench was, my face instinctively contorted.

[Ugh….]

The dog, which had been burying its head in the corpse, finally seemed to have figured something out. It lifted its snout from the corpse and pawed away the sticky, sewage-like fluid clinging to its nose.

[Yes, this isn’t the result of an ‘experiment.’ To precisely weave so many souls together to bring a single life into being? At least, my former Master never attempted something like this.]

“Then did this [Demonic Cult] do something even the Queen couldn’t?”

The dog pondered its answer for a moment, then shook its head.

Its hesitation seemed to convey a question, as if wondering why on earth the [Demonic Cult] would do such a thing.

[They could do it, but it wouldn’t be efficient… Is there really a reason to weave so many souls together…? Perhaps it was unavoidable…?]

I stared intently at the two skulls, which had now lost their red glow.

More delicately, I withdrew the magic that had spread to the far reaches of the room and placed my hand on the repulsive body.

To absorb even the magic within it.

As I placed my hand on the corpse, Brownie seemed to realize what I was about to do. He grimaced and climbed onto my shoulder.

Disgusting.

Only the word ‘disgusting’ still came to mind.

I clearly felt the screams and shrieks of people, adults and children struggling in agony.

I wondered if this was what I had thought, and tried to pull my hand away.

“Gah… Haaack…”

Suddenly, I choked.

Instinctively, my arm, which had been touching the corpse, was already pulled away, and a period of darkness enveloped my senses.

I saw nothing and felt nothing, but for a while, I couldn’t even think of deploying my magic.

A similar feeling to when I saw the Vampire Queen.

Such a gap that I felt pathetic for having briefly felt exhilarated during the fight with the Wendigo.

Two eyes.

Two red eyes, incomparable to the Wendigo’s two red eyes, were felt through my magic.

The outside looked human, but the inside was something too excessive to call human.

Like prey seeing the eyes of a predator, my legs trembled, and I barely managed to regain my composure and deploy my magic, only then able to see Brownie’s worried face.

[Hey, Master, are you reacting like this just from an afterimage?]

Only then could I properly perceive what was in front of me, and the two eyes I had felt were no longer present.

Seeing my reaction, Brownie nodded and, bypassing the Wendigo, extended his paw towards an entrance far in the distance.

[What if they tried to control this power and failed? They’d probably want to just seal it away here.]

“Who… on earth… is this…?”

Then Brownie closed his eyes and opened his small mouth.

[Hey, Master, do you know who the original owner of [The Garden] is?]

“Original owner….”

[I heard from my Master that before the World Tree existed, an unknown god chose this place as their base. However, their power waned, and they eventually vanished somewhere.]

“The fallen god and [The Garden]….”

[Master…?]

A passage from a lore book flashed through my mind.

[There was a god who lived in the roots of the tree that supported both the earth and the heavens. She always desired to make the earth her own. After countless hours and immense effort, she finally seized the most fertile land on earth, nearly causing a war among the gods. But don’t worry! A mighty god planted a tree for humanity, driving her away!]

Good heavens, such an enormous figure was slumbering.

I thought it was just a single tree stuck in the middle of the desert,

I thought it was just a singular hell embedded in the desert of nature,

But it was a tree with roots that once dominated that desert.

This god’s name.

The fallen god.

Daughter of [Mischief].

An existence that shouldn’t be on earth.

The god hated by other gods.

Should I not recall this god’s name?

Because a being of such a high level can cause shock just by thinking about them.

Only then did my expression harden at the immense pressure I felt from behind the door, yet I moved forward.

Shouldn’t I at least get a look at that god’s face?

[Mind Blade]

Even if it means clashing with her.