Chapter 256 - Paying the Price (2)

Having gotten the people of Enkelmann on their knees, Narva asked a simple question regarding hierarchy - now that he had defeated the leader of Enkelmann, it only made sense for him to rule them.

Terrified, the citizens had no choice but to submit to Narva.

Thinking that his question was courteous, Narva wore a grotesque smile, similar to the one he had shown Harz before disposing of him, as soon as the people of Enkelmann acknowledged him as their new leader.

It was an eerie, uncanny smile that no human could possibly make, and it sent chills down everyone’s spine. Narva only smiled like this when he was delighted.

“Okay, I’m not completely satisfied, but this is good enough.”

Having received his confirmation, Narva quickly stopped smiling. He then rubbed his hands together and asked, “Hmm, was his name Harz? Contrary to his appearance, he led a surprisingly righteous life. Oh, and he had a pretty close relationship with Henry.”

Arthus had given Narva his name, and Dracan had bestowed knowledge upon him. He had emerged as one of the nine survivors of the bloodbath between the thirty Chimeras.

He was the ninth apostle.

Every Chimera who had become an apostle had several special abilities, one of which being Absorption Through Predation.

Narva had eaten Harz, and so through that predation, he had managed to absorb his memories and strengths, making them his own.

It was an incredible ability.

This wasn’t any type of special power, but an inherent ability that only beings evolved from human test subjects could possess. Dracan had come up with this ability through his constant use of humans as test subjects in creating Chimeras.

This ability essentially served as proof of their evolution. Although Dracan had bestowed knowledge upon them, the apostles could gain access to things that knowledge alone couldn’t offer, such as empathy, through human predation.

Of course, Narva didn’t need, nor want, to acquire empathy; he had devoured Harz because he had wanted his memories.

Narva stopped rubbing his hands together and crossed his arms. Many of the memories he had absorbed from Harz were about Henry, whom Narva had known about beforehand from Dracan.

Narva laughed as he had found some of Harz's memories to be quite amusing.

“Henry aside, Von’s moniker is the Protector of Enkelmann? He must have a strong attachment to this tiny city. People even called him Henry’s Sword...? Okay then, I can’t disregard such important information.”

Finishing his thoughts, Narva slowly opened his eyes. Then, still maintaining his smile, he said to the kneeling people, “People of Enkelmann, congratulations on becoming my subordinates.”

Narva started his explanation to the citizens in a distinguished tone. However, no matter how politely Narva tried to act, nobody could brush off his murderous aura. Everyone was still terrified.

However, Narva didn’t care how terrified these people were. He merely continued, “It is all thanks to the great Arthus that we have come together. I will now bestow upon all of you the great blessing of Arthus, whom I worship.”

Narva kept speaking elegantly, but it was a bizarre mixture of formal and informal speech. Nonetheless, he was quite pleased with his speech, but...

“Arthus...?”

“Did he just say Arthus?”

“Did I hear that right?”

“Arthus, as in that guy who was the grand duke...?”

The citizens caused a commotion as soon as the familiar name left the monster’s mouth.

This wasn’t the reaction that Narva wanted. As Arthus' apostle, he could not tolerate these peasants uttering the name of the god he worshiped with such ignorance. Narva’s face turned purple as an uncontrollable anger overtook him. Breathing heavily, he hissed, “You lowly bastards...!”

“H-huh?”

The citizens panicked, and Narva’s anger only grew more intense.

“How dare you...! How dare you disrespect the name of the great Arthus...!”

“W-we’re done for...!”

“R-run!”

The citizens instantly realized that they were in great danger. Fearing for their lives, they scattered in all directions, running away from Narva like madmen.

The huge crowd dispersed like a swarm of bees.

However, Narva stayed still, his entire body now purple. Enraged, he shouted, “HHRAAAA!”

Narva’s ear-splitting road echoed throughout Enkelmann, causing everyone's eardrums to burst, blood flowing from their ears. Everyone passed out due to the shock.

There wasn’t a single person who remained conscious. Everyone was lying face down, some of them on their chins, facing the direction in which they had tried to flee, but even though everyone had passed out, Narva was still furious.

“You scumbags! You are not worthy of...! Of being blessed by the great Arthus...!”

Narva was genuinely furious, so he decided to change up his plan and choose a different course of action, one that was almost entirely based on his anger.

Narva started shaking as he curled up. Soon after, purple tentacles sprouted from all over his body. He looked like a bundle of tentacles, but this wasn’t the end of his transformation.

Tentacles kept growing and twisting until Narva turned into a grotesque flower of tentacles. He had transformed into a hideous, huge, thick, violet flower.

Having finished his transformation, Narva spread his petals akin to a beast opening its mouth and dispersed purple spores in the air. The spores spread far and wide, attaching to all the Enkelmann citizens passed out on the ground.

The spores caused the victims excruciating pain, which in turn caused them to regain consciousness.

This was a terrible curse.

When the citizens woke up, they all shook violently due to the mind-numbing pain. It was so bad that they couldn’t even make a sound.

As their limbs twisted and deformed in grotesque ways, the people suddenly jolted from their spots and stood up.

“Khaaaaa!”

Some were unable to withstand the excruciating pain of the spores and died, but those who survived that agony rose to their feet with cloudy eyes and scars all over their bodies. They rose to a new life, for they weren’t dead.

The apostle had used his power to rebuild these people, to make them beings with only a few emotions and thoughts.

This was Narva's new plan.

The reborn people of Enkelmann murmured, “Long live the... great god Arthus...”

Those were the first words of the people of Enkelmann as they awoke to their new lives.

***

“What the hell...!”

Henry looked down with a pale face. In a sense, this was an incredible view. The citizens of Enkelmann reminded Henry of zombies, a type of undead, and they were charging at him like actual zombies.

Henry had decapitated the first man who had lunged at him. He had then used Fly to escape the hordes of zombies coming at him from all directions.

More zombies came out of the woodwork. They all gathered in one spot and used each other as a footstool to get closer to Henry, creating what looked like a human tower.

Henry’s mind raced as he watched them, and soon he remembered one of the most horrific incidents that had ever happened because of a wizard who used black magic.

‘It’s just like back then...!’

Henry recalled the incident in which many people had been turned into zombies.

Back then, Henry had hunted down the black magician and given him the punishment he deserved. Then, with the help of the priests of the Church of Peace, he had turned all the zombified people back to normal.

It had been a very time-consuming and arduous task. However, he had no choice but save the innocent citizens.

Just as his thoughts reached this point, Henry thought of what Arthus had told him back in Charlotte Heights.

‘Is this what he was talking about?’

Arthus had told them that he had left them a present. He was the only one capable of committing such a horrifying atrocity.

Henry was overtaken by a sudden rush of rage, his hands trembling. He hadn’t expected Arthus to do something like this. Was he dealing with black magic again?

At any rate, Henry’s anger wouldn’t resolve the tragedy in front of him, so all he could do at this moment was to find a way to save these people.

‘Damn it!’

There were only a few options, but Henry still had to make the best use of them. After swearing in his mind, Henry clasped his hands together and shouted, “Blizzard Storm!”

Whoosh!

Henry’s emerald-colored mana surged into the sky, creating a fierce blizzard that raged like those unforgiving ones in the northern parts of the continent.

Henry didn't hold back on using his mana. Like an overflowing river, Henry continuously used his mana to freeze everything in Enkelmann.

Crack! Crack!

With this, all of Enkelmann had frozen, literally everything that Henry’s blizzard had touched.

Rapid freezing was the best Henry could do. Henry froze all the zombified people alive, planning to later request help from the Church of Peace like he had in the past.

That way, he could unfreeze and turn them back to normal one by one.

“Ha...”

Henry was exhausted, beads of sweat rolling down his temples. Even though he was a 7th-Circle Archmage, magic that could quickly freeze an entire city was difficult even for Archmages.

‘Good thing I took the Black Tear.’

In many ways, taking the Black Tear had been a good thing for Henry. After making sure that the entire city was frozen solid, he summoned Elagon.

“Elagon.”

- Khu?

As he called for Elagon, the bracelet on his wrist lit up, and within seconds, Elagon was summoned to Henry’s side.

Elagon flew in the air freely, just like in the past.

“I have to leave for a while, but I need you to keep the ice from melting in the meantime,” said Henry.

- Khu!

Elagon was a water spirit, but he was an ice spirit as well, so his ice properties had evolved along with the water ones. Therefore, this frozen city would be like a playground for Elagon.

On top of that, Elagon had plenty of mana, so as long as he was here, the ice wouldn’t melt, and the city would remain exactly the same.

‘I don’t have time!’

After asking Elagon to keep the city frozen, Henry quickly cast Teleportation, or rather, was about to.

The coordinates were set for Charlotte Heights, but he couldn’t teleport there because he would have to tell the others what had happened in Enkelmann, including Von.

‘Damn it! Von’s going to lose his mind if he finds out!’

However, Henry quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to keep this a secret forever anyway.

With a deep sigh, Henry reticently cast Teleportation to Charlotte Heights, where his allies would be waiting for him.