Book 4 Chapter 84 - Witch’s Forest (4)

Game of Divine Thrones

Kriemhild’s face was one of shock as Verserios replaced Grandia and appeared in Woohyuk’s hands.

“Is, is that… an exclusive weapon?”

She had noticed that Verserios was no ordinary weapon.

Demonic energy pure enough to be considered as the abyss itself.

Countless souls trapped inside were echoing their screams.

A literal hell was unfolding before Kriemhild’s eyes.

“As your master, I order you.”

At his words, Verserios activated and erupted in a dark aura.

Its second seal was released during Woohyuk’s battle against the Demon King Volak, so its power had increased.

Whether she was an ordinary human or the Witch of Envy, Kriemhild wouldn’t come out unscathed after receiving an attack from it.

“Tch…!”

Sensing a crisis, Kriemhild quickly raised her staff and cast a spell.

An enormous black monster appeared above her, floating in the air.

“Get rid of them!”

Kriemhild’s monster worked with the Nephilim and attacked her opponents.

Boom!

Boom!

On one side, the Nephilim’s eyes locked onto its target and rushed forward, and on the other, a sharp claw ripped the air and flew to Woohyuk.

Both of them didn’t look like simple opponents.

“Kill the enemies that lie before me.”

Once he uttered those words, jet black wings sprouted out of his back.

The tip of Verserios’ blade flashed and shot out a pitch black wave towards the nephilim’s waist.

Swoosh!

With a sinister slit, the nephilim was cut in half.

“Wha, what the!?”

“Why are there wings on your back, brother-in-law…?”

Tinia and Silvia’s jaws dropped from the surprise.

Following the surprise was fear.

Their life-savior who had raised them was actually their ancestor, while the man with whom they had eaten dinner was in fact a demon.

By now, they couldn’t make any reasonable thoughts and decisions.

Whoosh!

While the girls stood there dumbfounded, Woohyuk swung his sword and discharged demonic energy horizontally to the monster in the air.

Meanwhile, the surrounding enemies were facing the undead soldiers in a deadly battle.

“Are, are you actually a demon king?! How else could you be so powerful?”

“No, I am Asura.”

Strictly speaking, Woohyuk was a human that had combined with the previous Demon God Asura.

However, he wasn’t a half-human half-demon existence like succubi or incubi.

And the only reason why he had called himself a Demon King before to other demons was to facilitate their negotiation talks.

But since he didn’t need to converse and negotiate with Kriemhild anymore, he couldn’t be bothered to keep up the act.

“Asura? I’ve never heard of that name amongst the 72 Demon Kings… Then are you actually a human? No, there’s no way you could’ve obtained this much power by making a contract with a demon. Just what are you?!”

“I told you already. I’m Asura.”

While Asura was the previous Demon God’s name, it also meant the eternal battlefield where souls fought every day.

Therefore Woohyuk had been walking down the path of Asura since the very beginning.

“How terrifying… To think that a being like you intruded in my sanctuary… What is your objective? Is it Medusa’s temple like you mentioned earlier?”

“Who knows? For now, I just want to cut your head off.”

It was best to get rid of any individuals that could later harm Tinia and Silvia right now.

More so if it was Kriemhild, the Witch of Envy.

If she were left alone, many innocent people would get killed by her.

As Woohyuk looked down upon Kriemhild, she raised her staff once again.

“So the negotiations have broken down. Fine, I’ll just face you myself!”

Kriemhild summoned another pair of monsters above her. The two reached down and swallowed the remains of the nephilim.

Soon, the monsters started glowing in a violet shine and emanating a ferocious aura.

“Tinia, Silvia. Do you trust me?”

Woohyuk asked the girls as he stared straight ahead.

He was trying to reassure the two of them.

“Yeah, I do. But you need to tell me the details later on.”

“I also trust you, brother-in-law. That’s why I’ll help you out with the best of my abilities.”

The sisters tightly grabbed their weapons and wore a confident expression.

Woohyuk nodded and slowly started advancing.

‘I’ll go straight for the kill.’

He had asked all sorts of questions until now because he wanted to learn about the Nibelungenlied’s true ending, but now that was unnecessary.

Rather, he had to suppress Kriemhild and free Sieg from his constraints to clear the quest.

He couldn’t waste time anymore, as Kriemhild could start a dangerous counter-offensive.

“Hehe… You shouldn’t advance too much. Who knows what could happen to those two girls if you step away too far from them?”

Kriemhild immediately began swinging her staff with a grin on her face.

Within the dark smoke of the forest, small but long monsters crawled out and ran towards the sisters.

“Don’t even think about it!”

Tinia swung Tabris around and cut apart the snake-like monsters.

However, their numbers were overwhelming and she couldn’t face them alone.

When the situation wasn’t optimal, Silvia cast her magic chains and tied the monsters together.

“Now!”

“Yeah, I got it!”

As Tinia raised Tabris, the runes on the blade shone brightly.

Kuoooooo!

A turquoise vortex began forming around her, and the black monsters were ripped to shreds.

The vortex’s power was several times stronger than usual as the magic chains had linked the monsters between each other.

‘Looks like I don’t have to worry about them.’

As he watched the sisters fight together, Woohyuk’s worries were put at ease.

At that pace, the two girls could fight back without his help for a while.

However, to avoid the worst case scenario, he called the undeads to gather.

[Protect them.]

Undeads didn’t have emotions, therefore they weren’t affected by Kriemhild’s power of envy.

Currently, they were a lot more reliable than the mercenaries that had collapsed on the ground.

When she saw the undeads gather and help the two sisters fight against the monsters, Kriemhild’s annoyance had reached its peak.

“You’re as persistent as a cockroach. Sigh… I have no choice.”

Kriemhild clapped her hands, and dark humanoid silhouettes began emerging from the monastery.

They were the Eclipse clan members.

Amongst them was Steve Miller, the clan leader.

“What are you planning this time?”

“I’ll make sacrifices to grant my husband the power to defeat you.”

The Eclipse clan members were expressionless, just like mindless puppets.

They had lost consciousness and were being controlled by Kriemhild.

As they gathered around Sieg, Woohyuk brandished Verserios.

“I won’t let you do as you please.”

“Try stopping me if you can. But I won’t go down so easily!”

Kriemhild shouted with pride.

Immediately, the pair of violet monsters flew down towards him.

Woohyuk jumped into the air and barely avoided the claws aimed at him.

‘They’re quite fast.’

She may have revealed her history and her secrets to them, but in essence, Kriemhild was still the Witch of Envy.

Moreover, they were in her sanctuary.

The battle was disadvantageous to him from the very beginning.

Woohyuk was struggling against Kriemhild, when suddenly…

Stab!

Slice!

The Eclipse clan members grabbed their weapons and one by one, they began committing suicide.

They were the offerings for the ritual to awaken the fallen hero.

Before Woohyuk had realized, a magic sigil had appeared beneath the puppets’ feet.

Seeeep.

The mountain of corpses had created a river of blood, and the magic sigil slowly began absorbing the dark red liquid.

Soon, Steve Miller cut his own throat, and…

“Ho ho ho ho ho! The preparations are complete! You shouldn’t let your guard down, alright?”

Even though she was slowly being overwhelmed by Woohyuk, Kriemhild wore a large grin.

‘It’s come to this.’

Woohyuk sighed as he watched the sigil activate.

He had taken too long to stop Kriemhild as she was fighting on the defensive.

But this outcome was inevitable as Woohyuk’s overall stats were still low.

“AAAARGH!”

Sieg let out a painful cry as he clutched his head on the floor.

It was far too excruciating to withstand a forced awakening.

Once he saw the man wriggle in pain, Woohyuk stared at Kriemhild reproachfully.

“Would you even sacrifice the man you love to protect this place?”

“Sacrifice? I’m only helping Sieg regain his original strength and abilities. Now, take a look. Isn’t my Sieg just dashing?”

Sieg stood up, surrounded in a blood red aura, with crimson eyes stained with madness.

The hero of the Nibelungenlied was no more.

‘Did she awaken him as a berserker?”

A demon blinded by rage and a desire to slaughter that had lost all sense of reasoning.

‘If he starts a rampage here, Tinia and Silvia will be in danger.’

Once his thoughts reached that conclusion, Woohyuk ordered his undeads.

[Block him and limit all of his movements.]

His army of undeads had just finished their battle against the monsters.

They didn’t have to protect the unconscious mercenaries anymore.

A few undeads were more than enough to protect the sisters.

Seeing Woohyuk deal with this situation with a calm mind, Kriemhild tried to provoke him.

“Do you really think that those measly bunch of corpses can face my dear Sieg? Sieg is a Dragonslayer. He ate the Evil Dragon Fafnir’s heart and was drenched in its blood. Most attacks won’t work on him, alright?”

“I already know that.”

Woohyuk had already heard of Sieg’s story.

He had journeyed across every corner of the Eeth continent to restore the Edda Chronicles. During his adventures, he investigated and analyzed countless versions of the Nibelungenlied.

He had only used the undeads to buy some time.

Woohyuk glanced back at Tinia and Silvia to make sure of their safety, and resumed his battle against Kriemhild.

Clang!

Crimson sparks flew as Verserios clashed with the violet monsters.

“Are you trying to end this fight as quickly as possible? I can sense your hasty thoughts. But that’s not going to happen. I’m planning on resisting like this until the end!”

Kriemhild raised her staff and cried out.

Immediately, a black monster appeared behind her and opened a bloodshot red eye.

Woohyuk fell back as soon as he saw it.

‘It finally opened its eye.’

[The Avatar of Envy].

It was a being born from human thoughts.

A demon born from the collection of countless souls with envy in their hearts.

This monster only reveals its complete form when Kriemhild orders it .

‘I can’t miss this opportunity.’

The Avatar of Envy could be called Kriemhild’s alter ego.

If he could injure it and defeat it, Kriemhild would temporarily become defenseless.

Swoosh!

The two violet monsters flew towards Woohyuk again, and he avoided them by twisting his body.

He then proceeded to fly at full speed towards Kriemhild, when…

Whoooosh.

The red eye shook and sent out an odd wave of mana.

It was a curse that devastated the opponent’s spirit and dropped him into an endless mental hell.

It was a power Woohyuk wasn’t confident he could block with his current spirit stat, but he didn’t care.

Not only was he a necromancer, he was also Asura.

‘Dark magic won’t be very effective on me.’

It was a logic similar to that of a salamander, a fire elemental, being unable to get damaged by fire magic.

Kriemhild was obviously aware of this fact, and she was just trying to buy more time.

Once Woohyuk reached his opponent, Kriemhild stepped aside in fear to avoid him.

However, Woohyuk had already predicted her next move and swung Verserios in her direction.

“Urgh!!”

A pitch black wave of energy cut Kriemhild in her flank.

Soon enough, dark blood began seeping out and dripping down from the wound.

‘Success.’

It wasn’t a fatal wound, but he had managed to hinder the witch’s movements a bit.

However, there was no time to continue fighting using this method.

He had to end the confrontation before Sieg could lay his hands on the two sisters.

While Kriemhild was staggering, Woohyuk headed for the Avatar of Envy behind her.

‘He has a lot more stamina than her.’

Kriemhild was a fast opponent with a small build. She was a hard target to hit.

On the other hand, the Avatar of Envy was a strong opponent, but couldn’t move.

When it showed itself, it would always protect Kriemhild from behind.

“It’s my win, Kriemhild.”

Woohyuk announced as he swung Verserios.

With a loud explosion, the red eyeball was cut in half.

Slash!