It was born in the cold.
The first thing it saw after being born was only the whirling blizzard.
No parents, no friends—nothing at all was near it.
But one day, those who said they would become its friends approached.
“We will make you into a special existence. In return, make sure no one can approach us.”
As they said that, its friends gave it a crimson light.
‘What exactly changed?’
At first, it could not feel what had changed.
Its body grew a little larger, but that was all.
The world was still empty and lonely.
But the moment the things that had once been prey approached, it realized.
The prey that should have simply frozen solid were, at some point, turning into beings like its own children.
‘Ah, I see.’
Its friends had kept their promise.
So it, too, had to keep its promise with its friends.
So that no one, no threat of any kind, could approach its friends.
Thinking so, it seized everyone around it and made them into its children.
But a moment ago, the presence of its children had vanished.
‘What happened?’
At first, it simply denied reality.
There was no way the children who numbered in the hundreds could suddenly disappear. Such a thing was impossible.
After it realized it was true, it sank into grief.
And when that grief ended, only rage remained.
Grrrk—.
Its massive body, buried beneath the snow, slowly rose.
The home where its children had lived collapsed, and above it, fingers made of crimson ice emerged.
“Graaaaah!”
At last, having raised itself up, it roared.
It would eliminate those who had dared harm its children, those who sought to interfere with its friends.
In the name of the ruler of the northern mountains, the Wendigo.
**
The land that had once been a village of monsters vanished in an instant.
And at the same time, what revealed itself from beneath the snow was a gigantic monster.
Its bones were ice made of blood, and its flesh was the rotting body of a human.
Its head looked as though countless humans had been forcibly kneaded together to form the skull of a deer, and its overall shape resembled a deer-man with grotesquely long limbs.
A Wendigo, a magical beast that existed in the north.
A monster that isolated people in blizzards, then devoured the starving humans to satisfy that hunger.
But if you excluded the blizzard, its combat power was a little below that of a troll.
For us, it should have been something we could deal with without much trouble.
If that thing had been an ordinary Wendigo.
“That’s a Wendigo?”
Brandon let out an incredulous laugh.
“It’s completely different in size from the one in the book!”
Cecilia cried out, her voice mixed with a scream.
Theodora said nothing, but I could feel strength entering her weary hand.
Senior Lena aimed her bow at the creature’s head and murmured softly.
“About twenty meters tall? That’s nothing like the size of a normal Wendigo.”
“Looks that way.”
As far as I knew, an ordinary Wendigo was about the same size as a troll.
That alone was enough for it to be called a giant, but this thing surpassed giants and was closer in size to a drake or wyvern.
Unlike the others, however, what bothered me more than its enormous size was the creature’s chest.
Ordinarily, a Wendigo’s chest contained a massive ice crystal that served as the role of a human heart.
But in that monster’s heart, there was no ice crystal to be found.
Instead, what occupied that place was something in the shape of a heart, made of crimson mucus.
The moment I saw it, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
‘Red Blood?’
Could that possibly be Red Blood?
The instant I thought that, the Red Blood inside my body throbbed.
The emotion I felt from it was anger.
At the pulse that seemed to shout, ‘How dare you compare such a defective thing to me!’ I frowned slightly.
‘The feeling of its energy is definitely similar, but the quantity and quality are far inferior.’
If I had to compare it to something, it was closer to the result of someone attempting to replicate Red Blood.
‘Because you are one of our brothers as well.’
For a moment, I recalled what the village chief had said.
‘So that’s why.’
The village chief must have thought that I belonged to the same place as the ones who had made the Wendigo like that.
No, even if we did not belong to the same group.
‘He must have felt we were the same sort.’
The realization made me feel unpleasant, but I gripped my spear and did not let down my guard.
Because the dense killing intent radiating from the Wendigo that had just risen was beginning to bear down on us.
“Theodora, can you use Wave of Sacred Flame one more time?”
“Impossible. I could force it out, but it won’t have the same power as before.”
I nodded at Theodora as she answered with a pale face.
It was impossible to rely on Theodora’s firepower.
The rest of us were also exhausted from battle, and it would likely be impossible for them to inflict any meaningful damage on that enormous body.
In that case, only one thing remained.
‘I’ll absorb that thing’s heart.’
Considering how abnormally good the absorption rate of the village monsters had been a moment ago, I should be able to absorb that as well without much trouble.
“I’ll take that thing on. The rest of you, keep your distance and support me.”
“Are you insane, Ashen?! If you do that, you’ll die.”
At my words, Senior Lena grabbed my shoulder with a horrified expression.
“Lena is right. At this point, running away would be the wiser choice.”
Cecilia also looked me straight in the eyes and shouted.
“No, I’ll be fine. No, rather, other than me, no one here can bring that thing down.”
“Because it’s giving off an energy similar to your power?”
Brandon asked me in a heavy voice.
The others did not say it outright either, but perhaps they had been feeling the same thing ever since we entered the village, because they were looking at me with worried eyes.
“Yeah. I felt it while fighting the village monsters earlier. Those things die to me with abnormal ease. So even if I face it head-on, there should be a chance of winning.”
“But if you make a mistake, you’ll die all the same.”
“That’s true. But that’s not a reason not to.”
“What?”
“If that thing remains here, far more people will get caught up in this. If I run away knowing that, I can’t call myself a knight. And besides…”
I slowly looked over each of my companions, including Theodora, and smiled.
“That’s why I’m entrusting my back to all of you.”
I once again wrapped myself in the armor of Red Blood and looked at the Wendigo.
As though it had completely shaken the snow from its body, the monster was slowly taking heavy steps forward.
“Then I’ll be counting on everyone for support.”
Before my companions could answer, I quickly kicked off the ground and rushed toward the Wendigo.
Boom—!
With a thunderous roar that shattered the snow, my body became a crimson flash and approached right in front of the Wendigo’s feet.
Seeing that, the Wendigo’s hand shot toward me with incredible speed.
An agility surpassing the reaction speed of most squire-class fighters.
Despite its gigantic bulk, its movements were astonishingly nimble.
I kicked off the ground once more and leapt onto the creature’s hand.
Because of the shape of its limbs, which were so thin, it was rather narrow, but given its sheer size, a path wide enough for a person to walk was visible.
The problem was that from the moment I climbed onto its body, the blizzard and cold continued to torment me.
‘Focus.’
Gritting my teeth, I performed a tightrope walk along the Wendigo’s arm.
The creature tried to slam its other hand down on me, but Theodora was one step faster.
Whoosh—.
It was not as powerful as the Wave of Sacred Flame, but a massive white flame flew toward the Wendigo’s face.
Perhaps because it could not afford to take an attack to the face while trying to attack me, the Wendigo immediately covered its face with its other hand.
Instead, it tried to shake the arm I stood on and throw me off.
But Cecilia’s magic fixed my feet to the ice.
“It’s Icewalking. It’s a spell that lets you walk on an ice wall as if it were flat ground.”
From some distance away, I heard Cecilia shout as if boasting.
I let out a small laugh at Cecilia’s attitude and moved along the Wendigo’s arm again.
Because of the blizzard, fast movement was still impossible, but thanks to the Icewalking spell, I was able to approach the monster’s heart.
Even after that, the monster did everything it could to kill me.
It fired ice crystals from its mouth, but they were struck by Senior Lena’s arrows and shattered to pieces.
Its breath of cold exploded inside its mouth just before it could unleash it, hit by a barrage of magic bullets fired by Brandon.
There were rare attacks that broke through my companions’ defenses and reached me, but I fixed my entire body in place with the tentacles of Red Blood and swung my spear.
Each time that happened, the bones in my limbs actually cracked, but I used the power of Red Blood to forcibly hold my body together and kept moving.
After passing its forearm, then its shoulder, and finally reaching its chest.
My eyes met the Wendigo’s.
Perhaps it had only just discovered that it and I resembled each other, because the glow that looked like pupils was trembling.
‘What are you?’
The Wendigo’s eyes asked me.
“Probably something similar to you.”
At my quiet murmur, the Wendigo’s two eyes trembled.
‘Why are you interfering with me?’
“Because you crossed the line that all living beings must uphold.”
‘But I want to be friends with you.’
“……”
‘A kin I finally found. I want to be friends.’
“Sorry, but I have no intention of doing that.”
‘Why?’
“Who knows.”
The Wendigo looked at me with desperate eyes, wrapped in confusion.
Looking at it, I fell into thought for a moment, then answered in a quiet but firm voice.
“Because I want to become something better than that.”
An existence that could protect someone with this power.
After saying that, I drove my spear into the Wendigo’s heart without hesitation.
Thunk—.
Considering the Wendigo’s size, it was a depth no greater than being pricked by a needle.
But the moment my Red Blood came into contact with its own, it began greedily plundering the things the Wendigo had consumed.
“Gwooooo!”
At the sensation of its very existence being plundered, the Wendigo screamed.
And I, too, let out a scream.
The moment Red Blood plundered the creature’s power, the memories of the victims the Wendigo had devoured flowed into me.
Someone died together with their child while trying to protect them.
Someone desperately tried to run away, only to have their limbs torn off and die.
A young child searched for their mother, only for their neck and torso to be separated.
An old man tried to calmly face death, but burst into tears at the very end.
And all those memories mixed together within me and began to change.
Worry into sorrow.
Sorrow into anger.
Anger into an impulse for destruction.
‘Now, break everything as you please.’
Inside me, Red Blood whispered.
It told me to give myself over to that destructive impulse at once and destroy everything.
‘Don’t make me laugh.’
I desperately held onto my fading sense of self and resisted Red Blood.
‘I will never become a magical beast like that.’
Seeing that, Red Blood sneered.
As if saying that, in the end, I would inevitably become like this anyway.
I gave a small smile toward that Red Blood.
‘Looks like you’ve forgotten.’
When I first obtained you, the one who subdued you was me, remember?
The moment I made up my mind, the sense of self that had been slowly fading began to assert its presence once again.
‘Don’t forget, Red Blood.’
The one living this life.
‘The one controlling you.’
Is me!
Feeling Red Blood’s momentum slowly retreat, I gradually opened my eyes.
And what I saw were my companions looking down at me with worried expressions.
“Ashen! Ashen!”
“I told you not to push yourself!”
“Mr. Ashen, are you all right?”
“For now, we should use healing magic.”
“No, there’s no need.”
I smiled at my companions and stood up.
“How long was I asleep?”
“About thirty minutes. You wouldn’t wake up right after stabbing the Wendigo’s heart, so we were worried.”
It took thirty minutes?
I looked surprised at Senior Lena’s words and got to my feet.
I had thought my body would feel heavy with exhaustion, but instead, it felt as light as a feather.
‘It’s not just my body.’
The energy within me had also risen to about 1.2 times what it had been before.
Of course, it was still lacking compared to knight-class, but with this much, I could say I had reached the peak of squire-class.
‘What bothers me a little is that I can still feel that destructive impulse inside me.’
Since it was being suppressed by my sense of self right now, it should be fine for a while.
And even if it wasn’t fine, I could not stop here.
Looking at the shattered remains of the Wendigo, I sighed inwardly.
It had been a monster, but it was not an existence capable of deciding to do something like this on its own.
Someone, the source of all these incidents, must be hiding in the dungeon.
‘There’s no way I can stop.’
Having risen from my place, I looked at my companions and said,
“Let’s head straight to the dungeon.”
**
The deepest part of the dungeon.
“Hmm?”
At the sudden sense of loss, he raised his head.
He had certainly left a beast outside the dungeon to guard this place, yet he could no longer feel its presence.
‘Did the Wendigo die?’
A pity. I thought it was a somewhat useful beast.
Finishing that brief thought, he lifted his head and looked ahead.
He saw the brothers offering another sacrifice to the dark-red barrier.
‘It is nearly over.’
Once that seal disappears, another relic left behind by the Saint will fall into our hands.
Of course, the hunters who killed the beast might arrive in the meantime.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
For him, that would only make things more interesting.
“Now, shall we prepare to welcome our guests? Today, you will feast.”
In response to his words, the dagger answered with a bizarre cry.
Its blade, made of the same dark-red liquid as the Wendigo’s heart, shuddered.