Chapter 22: Trembling

“Huff… Huff…”

A towering man from the Northern Border gasped for breath as he fled forward with reckless abandon.

He dragged his right arm, which wouldn’t stop bleeding, the severed stump a gruesome blur of flesh and blood.

You’ve got to be kidding… Even if it’s a monster… it shouldn’t be like this…

His eyes widened as chaotic thoughts mingled with unprecedented fear gripped his heart.

Even back when he was on the battlefield and saw his comrades killed, he had never been this terrified.

The man’s leather boots stomped heavily into the mud, splashing filthy water that soaked his tattered pant legs.

Behind him came the sound of snapping branches—the thing was still relentlessly pursuing him.

“Damn it—why did things turn out like this!”

The man cursed, a rusty taste of blood surging up his throat.

Three hours ago, he had been in a small tavern in Renn Town, drinking ale with his companions and laughing at those ridiculous rumors about Gro resurrecting the dead that they had been told.

Now? Now he wished he had never opened his damn mouth.

Bang!

A tremendous crash echoed from behind as a tree trunk burst apart.

The man shuddered all over, not daring to look back.

But he knew—that oak tree, thick enough for three men to embrace, had been split in half like a fragile reed under the monster’s axe.

This poor mercenary had once seen that figure sweep across the battlefield unchallenged.

—Kastit’s “Blood Axe” Regnar.

In the man’s memory, Regnar was the kind of monster who could single-handedly carve through an infantry regiment in front of two opposing armies.

But that damn monster Regnar should have been dead long ago.

Half a month ago, this warrior who should have retired long since had appeared before the mercenary group.

After a desperate fight to the death—Gro should have chopped off Regnar’s head with his longsword…!

So what exactly was the thing chasing him now?

“Huff… Huff…”

The heavy footsteps crushed unhurriedly through the dry branches and fallen leaves, like the Grim Reaper’s countdown.

The man desperately sped up his steps, only to trip over a protruding tree root and fall heavily into a pile of rotting leaves.

He struggled to get up, but discovered his legs no longer obeyed him.

Fear flooded his spine like ice water—not because his legs had gone weak, but because he saw his right leg bent at an unnatural angle, with stark white bone shards piercing through the flesh.

Under the moonlight, a figure over two and a half meters tall appeared in the man’s view.

Rusty double axes dragged on the ground, their blades still hanging with fresh fragments of viscera.

The creature had the head of a wolf, but where fur should have been, it was covered in traces of suture lines, the dark red muscle tissue exposed and constantly writhing with each breath.

What made him feel the most bone-chilling horror was the black-gold flames flickering in its hollow eye sockets.

“Blood Axe… Regnar…” The man crawled backward desperately with his intact left hand, his severed arm leaving a trail of blood on the muddy ground, his voice hoarse.

“You clearly… should be dead! Why are you still alive…!”

The wolf-headed warrior’s actions paused for a moment.

Regnar tilted his head, as if thinking and recalling something.

This motion allowed him to see the fatal wound on Regnar’s neck—the trachea and artery had been neatly severed, now forcibly joined together by some black substance like stitching.

When those mismatched eyes looked down upon him, the man felt a warm, uncontrollable flow in his bladder.

“Lilian…” Regnar’s voice sounded like rusted gears scraping against each other. “Sorry… all of this… is for Lilian…”

Only then did the man notice that at the wolf-man’s waist, besides three heads—all belonging to his companions from tonight—there hung a filthy cloth doll.

Although the doll’s hair embroidered with golden thread had been soaked through with blood, it was evident that Regnar had done his best to preserve it.

“You… can you let me go?” The man scooted backward using both hands and feet, his back pressing against the cold rock wall. “I’m just a sentry! I had no choice but to follow Lord Gro’s orders—”

After hearing the name ‘Gro’, the wolf-headed man suddenly let out a deafening roar, the flames in his right eye surging violently.

Regnar hurled one of the battle axes by his side.

The mercenary only felt a chill on his left side—the sharp axe deeply embedded into the rock wall next to his left ear.

His face turned deathly pale, and his entire body slid down the rock wall behind him as if losing all strength.

There was no way out.

Regnar advanced with heavy steps, the other battle axe dragging on the ground with a horrifying sound.

Borrowing the dim moonlight, the mercenary clearly saw the flames on his chest, the black-gold light faintly illuminating the surrounding ground.

The man instantly understood why the killed Regnar could stand before him once more—the so-called ‘True God of Death’ could indeed make the dead stand up again, but the resurrected thing…

couldn’t be considered a living person at all.

“Wait…” The man suddenly shouted hoarsely, attempting to do something before his death. “Your daughter… Lilian! Isn’t she the one with golden hair and blue eyes? About this tall?” He gestured with his remaining hand the height of a child. “I—I saw her in Aressto! She said she misses her dad—”

“Liar.”

The battle axe sliced through the air.

The man didn’t even clearly see the motion before feeling a chill at his waist.

Then, in disbelief, he watched his lower body still kneeling in its original spot while his upper body had already slid to the ground.

Strangely, he didn’t feel pain right away, only suddenly sensing that the night wind had become exceptionally biting.

“Lilian… she’s asleep… she’s a good child who never wanders off recklessly.” Regnar spoke in broken fragments.

“Asleep?” The mercenary subconsciously murmured, but the wolf-headed man ignored his words.

“Not enough yet…” Regnar’s voice floated into the mercenary’s ears on the wind.

“Need more…… to exchange for her……”

The man’s head drooped powerlessly.

The last sight to enter his eyes was his lower body still twitching.

Before his consciousness fully vanished, Regnar murmured strange words in his hoarse voice:

FLESH AS THE LURE, BONES AS THE BRIDGE…

TRUE GOD OF DEATH, GRANT ME ETERNAL LIFE…

Immediately, Regnar pulled out the giant axe embedded in the rock wall and swung it mercilessly toward him—

…….

Renn Town, temporary camp. Inside Kaze’s tent.

“What? Kol’s team is off their posts again?”

Upon hearing the news, Kaze frowned as he looked at the irritated Alyssa and couldn’t help repeating her words.

“You look big and tall with a fierce face—but inside you’re just a softie? This isn’t the first time I’ve reminded you. Stop playing the saint all day and cleaning up messes for your subordinates when they skip out—”

Alyssa glared at him fiercely and tossed her tea-colored long hair back with a flick. “You’d better drag those bastards out before I track them down in a tavern, bathhouse, or some other godforsaken place.”

After spitting out those harsh words, Alyssa left.

“That old hag…”

Kaze couldn’t help pressing a hand to his forehead.

Looking at the pile of intelligence still waiting to be processed on the table, he finally felt he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Who said taking a desk job in administration would mean easy days all the time…”

If it were any other personnel missing from their posts, Kaze would likely be on high alert, suspecting they had met with an accident… but the ones Alyssa mentioned, Kol’s group, were notorious slackers who never stayed at their posts for even a second longer than necessary.

Relying on their long acquaintance with Gro and senior status, Kaze couldn’t really discipline them.

“This time they really need a proper lesson.”

Kaze made his decision.

This time he had to be ruthless.

He picked up the greatsword he had left gathering dust and cobwebs in the corner of the tent and slung it onto his back.

“If only my weapon were as cool as Mr. Saint’s…”

Unaware that the crisis had already struck, Kaze recalled the majestic figure of that powerful saint during combat and murmured with lingering admiration.