Chapter 366

Chapter 366

Chuangka’s head burst apart.

His body, now missing its head, flailed as if not knowing what to do, then collapsed where it stood.

It was far too empty an end for the old orc who had occupied the Dark Elf village.

Zeon approached Chuangka’s corpse.

There was something that had kept catching his eye even while he fought Chuangka.

It was the necklace hanging around Chuangka’s neck.

The necklace, made by mixing human and monster bones, had been leaking ominous black energy for some time now.

Even though Chuangka’s life had ended, the black energy flowing from the necklace did not vanish.

“Aaagh!”

“Save me!”

The branded Dark Elves screamed in pain, as though their entire bodies were being torn apart.

Zeon picked up the necklace.

In that instant, he felt a pain like being seared with a red-hot branding iron.

The black energy from the bone necklace tried to dig into Zeon’s hand.

From the moment he was exposed to the black energy, his senses were disrupted.

He felt nauseous, as though he had motion sickness, and ringing echoed in his ears. His vision went pitch black for an instant, and he could see nothing.

‘Is it a curse?’

Zeon had already experienced the Grim Reaper’s curse.

It was not difficult for him to realize that this black energy was a kind of curse.

Zeon focused his mind to learn more about the bone necklace.

That was because, aside from the curse, he felt a foreign energy within it.

The moment Zeon injected mana into the bone necklace—

“......”

A vision appeared in Zeon’s pitch-black sight.

An old orc wandering the desert.

The old orc was dying.

His body had already reached the end of its lifespan.

His kin no longer cared for him, and he had been left behind alone in the desert.

The old orc walked in search of shade, but nowhere in the desert was there a place for him to rest.

The emotion called despair settled in the old orc’s heart.

The old orc, who had lived for long years as a warrior, did not want to die so emptily. So he gritted his teeth and moved.

One step, then another.

Until the very moment his breath allowed it, the old orc walked and walked. And when all his strength finally ran out, he collapsed.

He did not even have the strength left to move a finger.

The blazing heat had drained all moisture from his body, and the focus vanished from his eyes, making everything in the world appear blurry.

That was when ‘that being’ appeared.

He could not tell whether it was a man, a woman, an orc, a human, or an elf.

The old orc’s unfocused eyes could not see a clear shape. But the old orc did not care.

To an orc on the verge of breathing his last, the identity of ‘that being’ did not matter in the slightest.

‘That being’ placed a necklace made of bone around the old orc’s neck.

The moment the bone necklace was placed on him, the old orc felt immense vitality surge through his entire body.

In a body whose life force had been depleted like a dried-up spring, it was as though a heavy downpour had fallen and formed a vast lake.

The lake breathed vitality into the old orc, and thanks to it, he narrowly escaped death.

The old orc, having regained his strength, searched for ‘that being.’ But ‘that being’ had vanished suddenly, nowhere to be found.

Perhaps, as he faced death, he had seen a mirage or a hallucination. But the bone necklace around his neck proved it.

‘That being’ had not been an illusion.

It was clearly an existence that truly existed.

‘That being’ wanted nothing from the old orc.

It did not ask for any price for saving his life.

It had simply saved the old orc.

From that moment, the direction of the old orc’s life was decided.

It was to survive no matter what and meet ‘that being’ again.

He could not meet ‘that being’ again in a shabby state.

He wanted to build a force more splendid and powerful than any other orc’s, then meet ‘that being’ again. He wanted to show that being that its child had succeeded this much.

From then on, the old orc began expanding his power.

The old orc, who had lived longer than other orcs, possessed extremely rich experience and knew many things.

The effect of the bone necklace was not limited merely to invigorating him.

It stimulated and activated the old orc’s brain cells. Thanks to that, the old orc became incomparably smarter than before.

With his dramatically increased intelligence, the old orc expanded his forces.

The fact that he had been able to dominate the Dark Elves was also thanks to the old orc’s increased intelligence.

Zeon muttered,

‘These are Chuangka’s memories.’

The bone necklace in his hand was showing him Chuangka’s memories. At the same time, it whispered to him.

You can become smart like the old orc too.

You can do what Chuangka did too.

All you have to do is put the bone necklace around your neck.

The bone necklace was tempting Zeon. But Zeon’s will was not so weak that he would fall for the temptation of a mere item.

Zeon rejected the bone necklace’s temptation.

Instead, he tried to investigate the existence of ‘that being’ who had given the bone necklace.

Crack!

At that moment, cracks spread across the bone necklace, and black light burst out.

Sensing something ominous, Zeon threw the bone necklace far away and shouted,

“Everyone, get down.”

No sooner had his words ended than everyone threw themselves flat on the ground.

BOOM—!

The bone necklace exploded in midair.

Immediately afterward, immense flames and a shock wave struck the village.

The houses made of monster hide burned or were torn apart.

Even though the bone necklace had exploded far away, the Dark Elf village was completely devastated.

If Zeon’s reaction had been even a little slower, most of the elves in the village would have died or suffered severe injuries.

“Ugh! Damn it. I nearly died.”

Levin grumbled as he got to his feet.

Unlike his rough words, his body was perfectly fine, without a single wound.

The same was true for Briel.

However, not every problem had been resolved.

Most of the elves were still suffering from the brands.

Floa urgently said to Briel,

“Hurry and erase their brands.”

“Lay everyone down in front of me.”

Briel answered and pulled elixirs out of her pointed hat.

If everything until now had been Zeon and Levin’s work, from this point on, it was her domain.

The more time dragged on, the harder it would become to erase the brands.

She had to concentrate.

Briel cleared away her thoughts and focused on treating the Dark Elves.

---

Erasing the brands of more than a hundred Dark Elves was by no means easy.

To make matters worse, she ran out of elixirs midway and had to make more.

The more time passed, the longer the Dark Elves had to endure hellish pain.

If Gaia had helped, erasing the brands would have been much easier. But Gaia had to digest the Reaper’s Scythe, so it could not help Briel.

Because of that, Briel had to erase the brands entirely with her own strength. As a result, she had no choice but to expend several times more mental strength.

The only fortunate thing was that, though it took time, the Dark Elves’ brands were steadily being erased.

In the meantime, Zeon and Levin cleared away the orc corpses scattered throughout the village.

Zeon dug a huge sand pit and pushed all the orc corpses into it. After that, he moved the sand again and completely covered them.

Though all the orc corpses had been cleared away like that, Zeon and Levin’s expressions were not especially bright.

It was because the village had been completely destroyed.

The houses made of monster hide were torn apart and burned, looking impossible to reuse.

The Dark Elves’ home had been completely ruined.

“Haa!”

“Phew!”

The Dark Elves sighed as they looked at the utterly destroyed village.

Watching the home they had protected for more than a hundred years destroyed made them suffer.

They could not even begin to guess how they should rebuild it.

The Dark Elves lost their will and sank to the ground.

Floa and the warriors were at least moving busily to encourage the Dark Elves, but it was useless.

Having lost everything, the Dark Elves had even lost the will to live.

The Dark Elf elders who had led the village until now simply stared at the ruined village with faces that looked as if they had aged decades overnight.

Floa and the warriors’ hearts ached as they looked at those elves.

Even at that moment, Briel’s treatment continued.

Exhaustion was plain on Briel’s face.

There were still many Dark Elves waiting for her treatment. Because of that, she could not rest for even a moment.

More than twenty people who had fainted from being unable to endure the pain still remained. The brands carved into the remaining Dark Elves were even more vicious.

She could not rest until she had treated all of them.

Because of that, Briel could not take proper rest and remained absorbed in erasing the brands.

It got to the point that Levin tried to stop her.

“At this rate, you’ll collapse first. You haven’t eaten anything. Please rest, even for a little while.”

“I can’t.”

Briel firmly refused.

“Uuugh!”

“Just kill me instead.”

The Dark Elves who had not yet received treatment were crying out in pain.

Briel could not turn away from their suffering.

Even if she had lost her qualifications, Briel still had pride as a High Elf.

A High Elf must not refuse the hand of a kinsman asking for help.

As long as her ability reached them, she had a duty to help her kin no matter what.

Suddenly, Briel’s thoughts reached an item in her subspace.

“That’s right! If I use Siela’s Brazier, I should be able to strengthen the elixir for them.”

She had briefly forgotten, but inside her subspace was Siela’s Brazier, a treasure of the High Elves.

If she strengthened the elixir using Siela’s Brazier, she should be able to amplify its effect.

Briel hurriedly took out Siela’s Brazier.

Whoosh!

When her will activated it, a pure white flame soared up from Siela’s Brazier.

Briel placed the elixir over Siela’s Brazier.

As the elixir bubbled and boiled, a fragrant scent spread in every direction.

The Dark Elves’ eyes widened when they smelled the elixir.

Simply smelling it had considerably reduced their pain.

Briel concentrated and controlled the flames of Siela’s Brazier.

She heard no sound at all.

She saw nothing but the elixir placed over the brazier.

All of Briel’s nerves, all her thoughts, were directed toward Siela’s Brazier and the elixir.

She forgot everything else.

Strangely, time seemed to flow slowly.

The moment she saw the color of the bubbling elixir change, Briel instinctively realized it.

The elixir’s effect had been upgraded.

She hurriedly took the elixir and ran to the Dark Elves still groaning in pain.

She sprinkled it on the brands and had them drink it.

The effect appeared immediately.

Hissss!

The brands that had not budged at all under the previous elixir began to vanish as if it were a lie.

“It worked.”

A light of joy appeared on Briel’s face.

Everyone’s brands were being erased.

The source of the pain tormenting them was being pulled out by the roots.

As proof, color began returning to the faces of the Dark Elves who, only a moment ago, had been gasping as if their breath might stop.

Seeing the Dark Elves improve, tears welled in Floa’s eyes.

Without realizing it, Floa hugged Briel tightly and said,

“Thank you! Thank you so much! I’ll definitely repay this favor.”

“It’s not really something you need to call a favor......”

Embarrassed for no reason, Briel blushed.

Zeon and Levin looked at Briel with smiles.

“She did it in the end.”

“She really is amazing. For someone so small, she’s not usually this stubborn and tenacious.”

The young elf who had once lost her way in the human world had now grown into a being who saved other elves.

The saved Dark Elves gathered around Briel.

Among the many Dark Elves, Briel shone especially bright. But Zeon’s expression as he looked at her was not especially bright.

It was because of ‘that being’ he had seen through the bone necklace.

‘What the hell is that bastard’s identity? What did he want, giving an orc an item like that?’

He had wondered if the identity of ‘that being’ might be Nigel, the half-demon dragon. But the feeling was distinctly different from the Nigel Zeon remembered.

‘After Nigel, now there’s this being too....... People I never expected are appearing.’

Something ominous was happening outside Zeon’s field of vision.