“What’s wrong, surprised?”
Iris turned around with a playful smile, looking at Yuuri who had just returned.
“What a pity I can’t touch it. Otherwise, that fluffy belly must feel amazing to pet.”
As she spoke, Iris mimed stroking a belly. There was no actual sensation, yet the Wolf King still wiggled its body in cooperation, letting out a comfortable purring sound.
So strange.
Is this really the Silvermoon Wolf King? Are we sure it’s not just an oversized dog?
“Sometimes, animals might see things more subtly—things ordinary people can’t sense. Looks like your animal friend is quite special.”
Faced with the cooperative Wolf King, Iris didn’t hesitate to lavish praise.
Weird, since when did the Wolf King become her animal friend?
What’s more troublesome, the Wolf King was originally her hunting target. But after going through all this together, there was a bond forged in battle. If she really wanted to strike, she’d have done it while it was still weak.
Now, she didn’t even have the slightest thought of attacking it. Looks like this quest is probably going to fail.
If she couldn’t get the Wolf King’s magic core, she’d have to try her luck and see if she could get a magic core from killing the other infected Silvermoon Wolves. Even if she couldn’t use it to submit for the quest, she could sell it to the guild, or trade it at the black market.
Of course, she hadn’t forgotten she still had a score to settle with Broll. She’d have to squeeze a good sum out of him then.
For now, she’d deal with the rabbit, roast it, and fill her stomach first. She glanced at Iris, who was currently playing with the Wolf King. This time, she probably didn’t need to worry about Iris getting hungry and pestering her for body control.
Roast rabbit, roast rabbit…
“Mmm…like this, ohh, is that so? What else? Ooh…”
While skewering the rabbit and setting up the grill, Yuuri heard Iris’s voice from behind—she really sounded like she was communicating with the Wolf King.
Hmm… She is a heretic god after all, so understanding animal language probably isn’t hard for her. The only thing that surprised Yuuri was that the Wolf King could see Iris. Could it be that the Wolf King decided to side with her because it had noticed Iris beforehand?
Thinking about it, it really seemed possible.
“Iris, what’s it saying to you?”
Roasting the rabbit and gnawing on some black bread, Yuuri couldn’t help but ask.
“You mean this child?”
“Yeah.”
“It says a black tree suddenly grew in the forest, and then members of its pack started going mad—one at first, then it spread, until it was the only one left sane. Then the crazed ones started attacking it.”
A black tree.
Catching the key word, Yuuri frowned. A black tree that could infect monsters… Yuuri suddenly had a dreadful suspicion.
No way… If it really was that thing, she wanted to run right now.
“Yuuri-chan? You look awful, don’t tell me you know what that black tree is.”
“I just have a guess, not sure if it’s really that.”
“Oh~ she says she knows what that thing is, and even has a way to deal with it.”
Huh?
Yuuri stared at Iris, who turned to the Wolf King. What nonsense was she telling the Wolf King?
What do you mean, I know what that thing is and have a way to deal with it?
If her guess was right, she’d run away right now, okay!?
Don’t feed the Wolf King such nonsense!
Yuuri’s inner protests were useless. The Wolf King seemed to understand Iris’s words, straightening up with a flash in its deep green beast eyes.
She saw the Wolf King looking at her and letting out several low howls.
A sense of impending doom welled up inside Yuuri. She could only look at Iris, hoping for a translation.
Before Iris could speak, Yuuri’s body suddenly felt weightless, and then she was tossed onto the Wolf King’s back.
“That child said it’s going to take you to solve the problem.”
Hearing the mischievous laughter of the little heretic god, Yuuri clenched her fists.
This… If only she had a physical body, she really wanted to… Ugh, slow down, slow down!
The Wolf King carried her, dashing through the forest under the bright moonlight. Yuuri could only watch as the campfire’s glow faded into the distance, finally vanishing from view.
Her roast rabbit… wuwu.
On a high slope, the Wolf King finally stopped, lowering its body and letting out a growl full of anger toward something below.
Yuuri’s gaze followed, and the moment she saw it, all the blood in her body seemed to freeze.
What kind of sick joke is this.
On the clearing below, a pitch-black, twisted entity was quietly rooted in place.
Even with some distance between them, Yuuri could clearly feel the suffocating, soul-chilling aura of death in the air.
Centered on the thing, for dozens of meters around, not a single blade of grass grew. Only writhing black matter covered the land, and even the moonlight that shone on this patch of earth seemed distorted and much dimmer.
Her premonition hadn’t been wrong—the worst-case scenario had appeared right before her eyes.
That was… an Abyssal Nest.
Yuuri’s heart sank. This was not something she could handle.
From the outside, it might look like a newly born, small nest, but its danger level already far exceeded an average B-rank commission. If she’d known such a thing existed here, she wouldn’t have taken this quest even for a hundred gold coins.
Once rooted, the Abyssal Nest would frantically devour and absorb all energy around it, converting it into Abyssal power and feeding it back to the Abyss itself.
Their existence was the very embodiment of the Abyss’s devouring will. A portion of their power would be used to hatch all sorts of Abyssal monsters from the nest, pouring out in endless waves.
The moment she saw the nest rooted there, Yuuri instinctively took a step back.
This was not something she could deal with. Before the nest noticed her, she needed to get out.
But the Wolf King had other ideas. With an enraged howl, it charged toward the nest.
The moment it sensed a threat, the black mist around the nest began to churn violently. Twisted figures emerged from it, leaping at the Wolf King.
Now what?
Go along or… No, the moment the Wolf King rushed down, Yuuri was already dragged into the mess—she had no choice left.
She glanced at Iris, still floating at her side. The little heretic god’s face showed no hint of change.
“Yuuri-chan, your animal friend has already gone in. Aren’t you going to help? If you don’t, that child won’t last long~”
The little heretic god’s lips curved in a teasing smile—Yuuri could sense a double meaning.
But with the monsters already staring her down, Yuuri had no choice but to fight.
Grasping the pendant at her neck, this time the summoning went unexpectedly smoothly. With a loud boom, fire burst forth, entwining her sword and illuminating the surrounding darkness.
Below her, the Wolf King’s charge was blocked by monsters emerging from the black mist. Not only were there low-level monsters, but even some of its own kind that had been completely transformed.
Under the moonlight, the Wolf King’s strength and speed were greatly enhanced, and it could even use magic to create torrents of mana for attacks. Coupled with its agile speed, it was both hard to hit and always ready to unleash a devastating magic torrent.
Just thinking about it gave her a headache.
Thankfully, that wasn’t Yuuri’s problem to worry about. She just needed to deal with the monsters in front of her.
But the flow of monsters was endless—kill one wave, and another would quickly surge from the black mist.
If this war of attrition kept up, she’d eventually be worn down.
“Tsk tsk… Yuuri-chan, your animal friend is way stronger than you. It sweeps away whole crowds at once! As for you, you only get one at a time—at this rate, how long will it take?”
As if the unending waves weren’t enough, she still had an annoying presence at her side, ceaselessly delivering psychological attacks.
She really wanted to cut her down along with the monsters.
“Left, right, Yuuri-chan, you’re so slow~ I don’t even know how you’ve survived until now.”
Yuuri fell silent.
She could only swing her sword, cutting down monster after monster, but this couldn’t go on forever.
After clearing several waves, she noticed a pattern. The monsters from the black mist didn’t pour out non-stop. Instead, after clearing one wave, another would emerge.
If she deliberately left one monster alive, did that mean a new wave wouldn’t appear for a while?
With that in mind, Yuuri swiftly wiped out the next wave, intentionally leaving one monster alive. Confirming her suspicion, she shot her grappling hook and quickly pulled herself to the Wolf King’s side.
If the nest wasn’t destroyed, she and the Wolf King would eventually be worn out. But she couldn’t deal with the nest alone, so she had to help the Wolf King defeat its transformed kin first. Only then could they attack the nest together.
The hook shot out again, snagging an infected Silvermoon Wolf. Yuuri closed in and swung her blade in a blazing arc…
…………….