Northern Mountains (3)
The heart beats excessively and the senses become infinitely sharp.
A piercing pain pierces the nerves, and unexplained irritability soars.
-I’m annoyed. Yes, let’s kill it!
A ringing like an auditory hallucination spread in my head, and I tried to force an action.
Also in a violent way.
That sudden madness was happening right now inside Harley in real time.
It was a situation that had no choice but to be confused no matter who went through it…
‘Well, it’s incomparably weaker than when you accepted the Immortal King’s heart. You don’t have to worry too much about this, right?’
Naturally, it wasn’t a big problem for him who had a “mind hub”.
Harley’s got a little taste. It didn’t happen yesterday or today.
Ignoring the abnormalities inflicted on the mind, he carefully observed the changes in the body.
It wasn’t just the heart beating wildly and blood flow faster.
The energy of ‘madness’, which cannot be accurately grasped, swirled through his body, further activating all his physical abilities, including muscles and senses.
Yes, it’s like…
‘Like these orcs now.’
Tighter skin, swollen muscles, and sharper reflexes.
Is it that the downside is that he loses his reason and rushes to his instincts?
‘Of course, it doesn’t seem to have that much effect on me.’
The amount of madness that had now entered his body was too small to further strengthen his monstrous body.
In order to experience a meaningful reinforcement effect, you would have to accept insanity dozens of times more than this.
‘But it’s because I accepted it as a magic stone at once. I couldn’t feel it well before, but now I can clearly feel the madness spreading everywhere.’
It spread in the heavens and earth, gradually accumulating in his body every time he breathed, gradually inflating the size of the madness that had already entered his body.
However, Harley, who was diligently moving while organizing her thoughts, looked at the few remaining orcs, and noticed one difference.
‘The amount of madness entering through breathing is different for monsters, right?’
The fight against the orcs was slowly coming to a close thanks to his activity, so he relaxed his body and looked at it more closely.
‘··· Monster has the highest absorption rate, next is me, and the last is human.’
Perhaps this difference was the cause of the monster madness, and it was probably the reason Harley felt the abnormality.
‘Are monsters and madness a good match? It could be that they are looking for something like wildness and instinct.’
In fact, it would have been easier for him to manifest madness than for someone with strong reason.
In order to get more detailed information, I had to risk accumulating more madness than I do now…
‘No problem for me. Where, as much as we can?’
It didn’t matter to Harley, a savage warrior from the subject.
“Kreuk…”
dump-
“…it’s over. Although the original orcs had a strong fighting spirit, they were never at this level.”
When the last orc fell and the battle was over, the wizard Fabiela, who was maintaining the shielding curtain, let out a short lament.
“It’s difficult to deal with these guys because they’re good at fighting, but now they don’t even budge against any kind of blow…. To be honest, without Harley, I would have given up right away and went down.”
Guide Marcus, who was fighting from the rear to protect the wizards and archers, received these words and started cleaning up in a hurry.
With the provided cleaning magic tool, the blood stains on the body and equipment are removed, and the juice is applied to absorb the smell.
Right now, the noise and scent of blood are not leaking thanks to the shielding curtain maintained by the wizard, but as soon as it is removed, monsters will begin to gather from all directions again.
“Ohh? Was Marcus in the world only this much scared of orcs?”
“Whoa… Mikel. You seem to be forgetting something important.”
In response to Mikel’s provocation as he retrieved the reusable bolt and wiped off the blood, Marcus continued speaking quietly as if chastising her.
“This is the northern mountain range, which is also called the hometown of monsters, and we have only been here for a day, and our destination is deep enough to go for a few more days.”
It was common sense that the deeper you go, the higher the density of monsters, and stronger ones come out.
There are limits to magic tools that kill ghosts, so it is obvious that things will become more difficult in the future.
Mikel didn’t know what to say about that, so he just pouted his mouth.
Since everyone was a veteran, the cleanup was done in an instant.
“Laugh.”
Harley came out of the burial pit dug while the party was busy doing other things, pounding her shoulder with a buildable shovel.
Originally, the party was trying to move by leaving the seat as quickly as possible before the smell of blood spreads far away.
Burying the corpses of monsters one by one was too inefficient.
But things changed when Harley showed her overwhelming physical ability to dig a huge pit in just minutes.
Of course, that method was not as perfect as in the case of the orcs who just followed them, but without that, you would have to face a lot more monsters.
Finally, with the orc corpse thrown into the pit by the swordsman Flora, Harley quickly covered it with a pile of dirt with her immense strength.
“… it’s amazing every time I see it. How do you do that all the time? Aren’t you tired?”
‘It’s just the right time.’
Harley, who got the job done in an instant while receiving the admiring gaze of the party, disassembled the shovel again and took it, and gently brought out the words he had been thinking about to the party.
“Ah, so that’s it. I’m slowly losing my energy! Can I receive my share of the Manastone first?”
“Well? What does that have to do with the magic stone?”
“hahahaha—! It’s the magic of our clan’s vision. Eating mana stones to absorb the energy contained in them, you can see from my body, but I can’t handle it with just a few meals!”
“Ahh···.”
The party nodded vaguely at Harley’s words, who picked it up as much as they could, but of course not everyone was like that.
“Uh, you eat magic stones? Barbarians are like that… Ouch!”
puck!
Mikel spoke like an idiot, then stabbed Flora in the side and glared at her.
But as Flora frowned as she faced her more confidently, Mikel let out a small sigh and mumbled what he was about to say.
“…I’ve never heard of Southerners eating magic stones…”
‘Even if I’m a savage, I don’t really care.’
But that’s probably because he’s not a real Southerner, so he didn’t say anything to them.
As Harley’s weight increases in the party, it doesn’t feel too bad to be considered for even the smallest details.
“If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter. When I go back, I will try to compensate for the necessary expenses to some extent.”
“Oh— After all, the knights are big!”
After getting everyone’s consent, as time went on, the campsite with great care was established.
‘what?’
Harley’s expression changed strangely as she looked at the magic stone she had been working on.
Naturally, I thought there was a lot of madness in the monster’s manastone, but the amount contained there was strange.
It’s not that there isn’t at all. not really···.
“Can you give me my share of the things I’ve recently caught?”
“Well? Well, it doesn’t matter. But is there any special reason?”
“ah! Of course, the fresh ones taste better and the effect is even better! Ha ha ha!”
The amount of insanity overall was much reduced than the orc manastone he felt at first.
Even to the extent that there were hardly any leftovers in some manastones.
‘…if the host dies and the utility value disappears, will it be dispersed into the air again?’
And it will later enter the body of another monster and become a seed that breeds new madness.
“Then, I can do this.”
As soon as the distribution was over, without hesitation, he grabbed a handful of mana stones and brought it to his mouth.
Clap, clap—!
“Uh… me, me…!”
Ignoring everyone’s absurd gazes, Harley diligently uses “monstrous food” to chew magic stones.
The energy that had been lost to him started to fill up again…
pounding—!
The buds of madness in his body began to grow like weeds in the rain.
***
A young and gloomy ghost in a creepy space that seems to freeze even the soul.
Even though it is not a cemetery, but an ordinary hillside, there is an atmosphere that makes you feel like a magician.
[… girl, I will offer my allegiance to the king….]
A woman’s weeping voice resounded in all directions.
At the same time, the air around them fluctuated, and thousands of ghosts bowed down in unison.
woo woo-
The translucent beings who gathered regardless of type such as Phantom, Wraith, and Specter all exuded a gloomy energy, and their existence alone was dropping the temperature to below zero.
‘This is another spectacular.’
Hans, unaware of the surreal situation, looked down at them calmly, admiring the surroundings.
Representing the ghosts, the front one was the Banshee Queen, dressed in a black veiled hat and a mourning dress with her finely braided hair….
She was also a member of the highest rank in the Immortal Army.
[Good job, Olivia. You’ve collected a lot more than I thought.]
[As the king’s commandment… Minimize conflicts with humans… and concentrate on bringing children together…]
Phantom bodies have an overwhelming advantage in moving secretly because they have no substance by their nature.
Although there was a disadvantage of taking more lethal damage from energy such as magic or divine power, there was no such advantage in avoiding fighting and uniting in one place like now.
Hans looked closely at Olivia, the Banshee Queen, who stood politely in front of him.
The pale-skinned lady dressed in black mourning was renowned for her vicious abilities in contrast to her beautiful appearance.
Like Enthracio and Karam, it even appears in history books.
‘It’s a special ability for genocide. Ordinary people who are not equipped with any spiritual defense can die instantly just by hearing that cursed scream.’
The fact that her notoriety became known in earnest was because such an incident actually took place.
The incident where tens of thousands of citizens were slaughtered in a city that failed to prevent her intrusion through negligent handling was so important to the post-war record with the successive immortal kings.
But her true worth was not only in her fighting ability.
[Olivia. You have work to do.]
[O king… Say anything… I will do my best to fulfill it.]
Hans slyly turned his head to look at a group of humans drooling with a bewildered expression.
Staring into the void with unfocused eyes—those belonging to the oath of reverse heaven.
It was put aside for a while, as it was the first priority to collect the immortal army, and it was only a matter of time before Hans decided to find them.
With a barrier of any level, his overwhelming black magic and the “Eye of the Abyss” link cannot be avoided.
The guys here right now were also caught in the midst of retrieving the undead, and they had to catch it.
‘Of course, doing that takes a lot of work, but it’s the same as if you still can’t afford it.’
Only the most urgent western part of the continent was roughly arranged, and the undead in other regions had not yet been fully settled.
In proportion to the continent becoming chaotic, the undead, who are ‘own’, will also continue to be consumed.
Even with ordinary individuals, the top-ranking executives were too precious to lose.
‘That’s how you got Olivia.’
Ghosts are not bound by physical restrictions, and can roam freely wherever there is no special defense.
And Olivia, who leads them all—.
He was in charge of information under the Immortal King, who was responsible for all necessary information in the war against the continent.
[This is where these guys belong.]
Hans continued looking at the warlocks.
The interrogation through 「Eye of the Abyss」 gave it a little taste, but it was deliberately moderately adjusted, so it didn’t really affect my life.
[Make sure to dig out all you can about these guys.]
[I will follow your orders… Please set your final goal… I will do my best to make it happen…]
[Khhhh— of course…]
Hans smiled sullenly and spread his arms out.
The air around them rumbled, and darkness like an abyss spread out as if it would swallow the world.
[Absolute obedience.]
All he wanted was a horse that would faithfully follow his orders.
Those who obey can get a short period of probation, but those who don’t follow through to the end face only death.
They didn’t need any mercy.
[According to the will of the king…]
Olivia, the Banshee Queen, bowed politely again at the intimidation of the Immortal King’s declaration.
And to proceed with the work, she slowly approached the warlocks who were still sitting dazedly.
so after some time has passed.
Thousands of ghosts — secretly spread out into the world.
