Episode 218 Lycanthropes (3)
“Uh, yeah. I’m busy, so I’ll have to call you back later. Take care.”
The phone call with his friend ended with a short farewell.
He put down his smartphone and glanced at the bed in the corner of the room.
“Ha…”
He sighed deeply, looking at the man lying on it, seemingly lifeless.
‘He’s still out cold. Well, it hasn’t even been a day yet, so it’s understandable.’
He already knew that, but with so many things happening at once, he couldn’t help but feel anxious.
Hugo slumped down on the edge of the bed where Han Seong-hyeon’s main body was sleeping and massaged his forehead.
‘Things are already hectic enough, and now Hans and Harley are both…’Fortunately, Harley wasn’t as bad as Hans, who was practically on a rampage, slaughtering everything in sight.
He was just a bit… uncontrollable.
Thanks to “Tyrant of Madness”, he was still able to manage the madness to some extent.
‘But the problem is that he can’t completely block its influence!’
It was an unavoidable side effect of using madness to break through his limits.
And those minor side effects…
Combined with Harley’s already barbaric nature, his simple-mindedness, his tendency to solve everything with violence… had created a truly disastrous synergy.
‘For now, I’ve managed to distract him with food and keep him occupied… but…’
That wouldn’t last forever.
He needed to find a more permanent solution.
‘The easiest way to deal with a bomb is to just detonate it. Somewhere safe, where it won’t cause any damage.’
And he already had the perfect place in mind.
The preparations were already underway.
‘The most pressing issue right now is…’
Heinz the Second was busy preparing to attack the Obaifo Clan, having contacted Vice President Kayla McClair of the Republic, and the other avatars were relatively stable, so there was only one place that concerned him.
‘…Enamel Continent, Elven Kingdom.’
______________________
[Giant sighted in Southern Altarica Forest. The Altarica Forest Guardian and the Guardians are currently engaged in battle. Reinforcements have been dispatched, but they’re proceeding cautiously to minimize casualties, so it won’t be over soon.]
[That’s the third giant, after Bella Canyon and Sorata Swamp. Multiple giants are appearing at once after the Lycanthropes’ ritual. It seems their connection to the abyss… and the Immortal King is confirmed.]
[Tsk, I felt sorry for them and left them alone, but… To think they were the Immortal King’s minions all along. I shouldn’t have trusted them!]
‘Well, I’m also quite surprised… ’
Harris, who had just finished eliminating a general-level Lycanthrope in the north,
Sighed inwardly, listening to the reports coming in from all over the kingdom.
He had already fought four more battles after the first encounter, moving clockwise.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the leaders of the other groups were only knight-level, unlike the first general-level opponent.
Thanks to that, he had enough energy left to stay connected to the network and listen to the reports in real time.
‘Just how many of them are involved? And they were all hiding until now? That’s even more surprising.’
There were reports of battles everywhere.
Against giants, against large groups of Lycanthropes…
The Elven Kingdom had been in a state of emergency for a while.
-Harris: I wonder what those marks on their chests are… They must be how they blocked the World Tree’s detection and why we couldn’t sense them.
-Hannibal Strauss: Hmm, it’s similar to the restrictions I saw on the Oath of Heaven’s Defiance members. It’s more like a mark of a contract with a higher being than a restriction. Of course, it doesn’t seem like a normal contract, so the price must be quite high.
-Heinz the Second: Those bastards are everywhere. It’s been confirmed that the Obaifo Clan is also part of Oath of Heaven’s Defiance.
‘Hundreds of them are bound by contract? What, is their leader a Demon King or something?’
The situation was complicated, and Harris sighed heavily, slumping down on his air cushion.
One thing was certain: they had been preparing for this for a long time.
He had heard about the general locations of Oath of Heaven’s Defiance’s executives when he brought Succubus Siana under his control.
‘The Clown. He’s been active in Oath of Heaven’s Defiance for over 20 years. His main areas of operation are the eastern part of the Empire, the entire Republic… and the Enamel Continent.’
He couldn’t even imagine what that guy had been doing for over 20 years.
‘Ah, this is bad. I don’t want to deal with this mess. And the rewards are pretty lackluster.’
The World Tree’s reward after he destroyed the first altar must have been a special service for a newbie or a bonus for defeating a general-level opponent. The rewards he received after that were much weaker.
And he hadn’t even received anything for the last altar…
‘Well, it was already completed, so I couldn’t completely close the crack. But I hope it’s not over yet… Maybe there are still more rituals?’
As he was lamenting to himself,
‘…We meet again. And it seems he’s noticed me this time. Is this one a general too?’
He sensed a ferocious aura rushing towards him.
It wasn’t possible for him to detect Harris, who was assimilated with nature, from such a distance. He must have smelled the spirit.
‘Thanks to Harley, I know more about their traits now.’
The first one he encountered had been preoccupied with the ritual, so it had taken him a while to sense him.
But a general-level Lycanthrope’s senses were sharp enough to detect not only physical phenomena but even traces of magic. It wasn’t easy to hide from them just by using spirits.
He could try to confuse them by disrupting their senses like he did with Harley, but…
‘This one seems stronger than that guy.’
But Harris was also much stronger than before.
He now had two Highest-level spirits, Watt and Pascal!
‘First strike wins!’
Harris drew his bow, Themis, and focused his energy.
The werewolf was only a few seconds away.
But that was more than enough time to launch a preemptive strike.
______________________
The giants that appeared in Enamel didn’t only attack Elves.
Since secrecy was their top priority in the initial stages, they had to open cracks in areas far from the World Tree.
Even though the Lycanthropes could block the World Tree’s influence with the contract they made through the Revolutionary, it wasn’t perfect, so they had to be cautious.
[———!]
Kaboom—!
“Hunting formation! Don’t be reckless! Just hold them off until reinforcements arrive!”
A hunting party from Wild Land, the beastmen’s nation, in the northwestern part of Enamel, consisting of ferocious beastmen, clashed with a White Giant.
“Hahaha! I’ve never seen prey this big! This is exciting!”
“Those Ion Continent bastards, they were having all the fun! We should have joined them.”
“Shut up and focus! Dozens of our men are already dead!”
“…Tsk!”
Some of them even joined ongoing battles between Elves and giants, having been called in as reinforcements.
Like in Sorata Swamp, the eastern border with the Lizardmen community ‘Central Swamp’.
“Tsss— We’ll join you, Forest Guardian.”
“…I’m grateful for the assistance, Kerich. I thought I was going to die… But…”
“Chissss—? The Forest Guardian is asking for help? We need to pull back the others and call for reinforcements. Sssss— It won’t take long since the swamps are connected.”
Relations between the non-human races weren’t that bad, and they had been warned about the giants’ threat during the recent Continental Summit, so it was only natural for them to help each other.
It was unfortunate for the mastermind, but thanks to the swift initial response, the situation was being contained faster than expected.
However…
“Wow! This is better than I expected! I never thought we could summon those giants whenever we wanted! That Revolutionary guy, I underestimated him!”
Lycanthrope King Baucalacas chuckled, counting his subordinates.
He hadn’t opened the cracks because he trusted the Revolutionary, who had disappeared after their deal.
He had just been reluctant to abandon the plan, which had been in the works for so long. It was a plan to weaken the World Tree’s influence while also supplying madness to strengthen their forces.
‘That guy, he was watching us from the beginning, wasn’t he? Well, I’m grateful for the gift! Thanks to him, we suffered fewer losses than expected.’
Although two of his generals were dead and another one was on the verge of death, it was still a relatively small loss compared to his expectations.
The main reason was that the Forest Guardians, the master-level Elves who protected each region, were preoccupied with the giants.
“Kihihihik! Well, what can they even do with those giants rampaging everywhere?”
But he couldn’t delay any longer.
The Elves weren’t stupid. They must have realized something was wrong and were preparing countermeasures. They would have also contacted the neighboring countries for assistance…
To protect Drasha, the capital of the Elven Kingdom, where the World Tree stood.
And it was…
Right there.
“Kihihihit!”
Crack—
Whoosh—
Two-legged beasts started to rise from the bushes around him, accompanied by his suppressed laughter.
Their yellow eyes glowed with a blood-red madness.
Crack!
Crunch—
Their bodies swelled, as the madness mixed with their innate dark magic power ignited their life force, granting them monstrous strength.
They were outnumbered compared to the initial group, but their overall power had actually increased.
‘It won’t last forever, but everything will be over before then!’
Baucalacas, the Werewolf King, glared at their target with his blood-red eyes, joining his subordinates.
Grrr—
Grrr! Woof—!
And so, the transcendent King, five generals who had surpassed mastery,
And hundreds of Lycanthrope knights and warriors
…launched their attack on Drasha, the capital of the Elven Kingdom.
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The Lycanthropes had made extensive preparations for this invasion.
The ritual to open the abyssal cracks and the contract marks on their chests were just a small part of it.
King, with the Revolutionary’s help, had spent years shaking the World Tree’s causality.
He had also personally infiltrated the Elven Kingdom, mapping out their defenses and creating entry points.
They had also trained to avoid the spirits’ detection network, even developing countermeasures to detect and evade traces of spirits.
It was a plan that had consumed countless hours, resources, effort… and even lives.
“Hurry! Move them inside!”
“Bring all the arrows from the warehouse!”
“All those who can fight, to your positions!”
But no matter how thorough their preparations were, there was a limit.
They couldn’t sneak hundreds of invaders into the capital without being noticed.
The Elves of Drasha had already begun preparing for war before the Lycanthropes even arrived.
[How are the preparations?]
[We’re ready to defend. The Guardian Captain and the Head Gardener are already in position, and the nearby Forest Guardians are on their way.]
[Ha… This is my fault. We should have intercepted them before they reached Drasha. I was too late to realize that there were more of them than we expected.]
They had been discovered, but that didn’t mean their efforts were in vain.
Their goal had been to limit the battlefield to Drasha, the capital, where they had to protect the World Tree.
And as the Lycanthropes gathered near Drasha and began their attack, the real war finally began.
And at that moment…
“······!”
Harris, who had just finished eliminating a general-level Lycanthrope some distance away, suddenly felt a strange sensation and looked up.
“What is this…?”
It was his intuition.
A strong premonition transmitted through his connection with the World Tree, which was even stronger than the other High Elves’.
‘…Double? No, triple?’
For some reason, he couldn’t clearly grasp the World Tree’s will, but he could understand its meaning.
His gaze shifted towards Drasha, the capital.
Gulp—
It was a clear sign of danger… but for some reason, he could smell a jackpot.
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