All the knights stared at the overwhelmingly massive, incredibly ugly monster. The chaotic aura kept colliding with the coldness in the air.
Like a giant mountain suddenly breaking free of its seal and rising from the ground, everyone was utterly shocked.
"Under the Delin estate… there was actually a monster like this hidden?"
"What the hell is that thing!?"
Someone voiced confusion, but no one could answer.
Viktor stood among the crowd, letting the foul stench released by the monster sweep across his body over and over.
He lifted his head, looking at the terrifying creature burning with black flames. A steady flow of magic power began surging inside him.
[Believer of the Goddess]
This term does not refer to a believer of any specific goddess. In the game, this is the name of a monster type.
These creatures' faith is extremely obsessive, their sense of "belief" twisted to an extreme stance.
As if they had lost all rationality, they instinctively resist any being that goes against their belief, carrying out deranged acts of fanatic devotion.
As believers of a certain goddess, they are the condensation of consciousness, an embodiment of extremity.
[Believer of the Goddess], it did not originally have this form.
It may once have been a human, a devout worshiper of a deity.
But after being submerged in time, those fanatics had their beliefs warped beyond recognition. Until their faith completely overshadowed their reason, willingly turning themselves into the "embodiment" of the belief in their hearts.
Their bodies became numb under the control of their minds, and eventually were completely polluted by their faith.
Normal believers have pure and righteous faith.
They can even receive the genuine blessing of a god's messenger.
But in the eyes of extremist believers, there is only absoluteness.
To the extent that they believe they themselves are the goddess's divine messengers.
In the far northern frontier, Angus's extreme sense of justice attracted this hideous [Believer of the Goddess].
These extreme believers were not born within the Empire.
Because strict doctrines and righteous guidance kept the Empire in a state of equilibrium at all times.
Those chaotic believers existed almost entirely in the goddess churches outside the Empire.
Their obsession with their faith reached a level that made people gnash their teeth, to the point even the goddess utterly gave up on them.
Yet precisely because they received no guidance from the goddess, they became even more convinced that everything they were doing was correct.
In order to prove themselves as the goddess's true messengers, these extremists carried out twisted "judgments" across the world.
Their goal was singular, to make the goddess descend upon the world once more.
By any means necessary.
Now, this grotesque creature amid the snowstorm endured the burning agony devouring its body and thrust countless thick, twitching tentacles from the darkness of its form, breaking through the wind and snow to attack directly.
Gwen swung her sword, standing in front of Viktor.
Those tentacles reached Gwen in an instant, but the next second, they all froze.
They immediately twisted direction and rushed toward Viktor from all sides.
Viktor simply watched the raging black mass without reacting.
Wind blades rose around him, turning into a storm, slicing every incoming tentacle apart.
The severed limbs fell to the ground, twitching continuously before turning into drifting ash and burning away.
At this moment, Viktor looked at the suddenly appearing health bar of the believer and spoke calmly.
"Only this level?"
[Lv40]
The believer before him wasn't strong. It had even needed to hide its true body beneath the Delin estate and use Jashu's body to orchestrate everything.
Perhaps Jashu had never existed at all.
It was nothing but an extremely hideous, self-lost void of faith.
Soon, the black magic circle beneath Viktor's feet faded like a tearing curtain into drifting smoke, flying toward the monster's body.
On the snowy ground, a massive green magic circle appeared. Red patterns gradually spread across the vast snowy plains as it bloomed.
The thin layer of snow melted visibly into water, flowing outward.
The long-dormant soil beneath their feet emerged before everyone's eyes.
Under the intricate formation being constructed, green buds suddenly burst out of the soil, rapidly growing upward.
Countless plants sprouted within the endless white, dyeing the land with the color of life.
High in the blue sky, a dazzling red sun hung overhead, its blazing light making the area feel much hotter.
As though a god who controlled fire had focused its gaze on this eternally frozen tundra.
[Forest Fragrance: Scorching Earth]
Everyone froze.
The endless white snowy plain was actually disappearing.
The original few meters of green ground expanded outward rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, waist-high green grass and flowers had already engulfed the armored knights.
The knights stood stunned, the thick green reflected in their eyes rendering them speechless.
This was the Northern Frontier.
The far northern region of the Empire.
For hundreds of years, it had always been blizzards and unending winter.
Even in the hottest season, there were only a few days without snow.
And now, it was far from that season.
At this moment, no one could comprehend Viktor's power.
To change the weather and ecosystem of the Northern Frontier at will, what kind of terrifying magic was that?
Sweat poured from the knights' foreheads.
They didn't know if it was from the sudden rise in temperature.
But everyone understood clearly. Just moments ago, they were holding weapons and confronting this terrifying man.
Looking back now, how utterly foolish that was.
Under the blazing sun, the black flames seemed to burn even hotter.
"Jashu's" torn voice continued screaming in agony.
Trapped in endless torment, it kept shouting, "Save... me..."
That trembling, warped voice traveled far. Kefra, standing amid the green, felt her heart tremble.
Clearly, the grotesque mass of flesh before her was not even remotely the same species as the Jashu she remembered.
Yet she had a faint intuition, this evil existence was still her younger brother.
Countless knights felt the shock of that screech, and sweat dripped even faster.
Huge trees burst from the newborn soil, shooting toward the sky. Lush branches covered the once-empty plain.
At this moment, Viktor kept his hands in his pockets and spoke lazily, "Kefra."
Hearing Viktor's voice, Kefra snapped out of the influence of that twisted scream.
Before she could look his way, Viktor continued.
His voice was soft, but everyone could hear it.
"I've already thought of tomorrow's news headline for you."
['The Delin family's second son attempts rebellion, personally killing his father.']
Kefra trembled violently, staring at him in disbelief.
Her expression held complexity, and overwhelming pain.
She opened her mouth, but every word felt like a heavy stone stuck in her throat.
As a politician, she understood all too well.
For something this evil to appear inside the Delin family, the family that ruled the Northern Frontier in the name of justice, if this spread, it would be like slitting the entire Delin family's throat.
No one would trust a "just" family that bred an abomination within its walls.
The entire Delin family would be branded as colluders with monsters, by the people of the frontier and by the entire Empire.
Viktor wasn't done speaking.
"Want to preserve the Delin family?"
"Then do as I say."
Kefra's fists tightened slightly.
She had no choice.
In this moment, she suddenly remembered Viktor's words, the hatred between him and the Delin family had only just begun.
"…Okay."
That weak word sounded like it cost Kefra all her strength.
Her father's tragic death, her brother's misfortune, someone who valued family as much as she did felt that pain more than anyone.
But no matter what, this was the only way to survive the crisis.
Seeing this, Viktor's eyes curved slightly.
"You made the correct choice."
Suddenly, the trembling wind stopped altogether.
The sun's blazing brilliance dimmed, though the scorching temperature still baked the black abomination.
The world grew pitch black.
The bright sun in the sky was abruptly replaced by a pale full moon. Everything around them seemed to sink into a void-like darkness.
Even time itself… was being affected?
The knights stared into the dead silence of that darkness, overwhelmed.
But suddenly, within the boundless dark, a bright white magic circle appeared.
Threads of magic pulsed, gradually completing the formation.
The sky looked like it held two moons, faint moonlight illuminating the land.
"That… that's not a moon!"
"That's an eye!"
One of the knights suddenly shouted, as if realizing something.
Everyone looked up.
A massive pitch-black figure slowly emerged in the sky.
Though it blended with the darkness, everyone could vaguely see its strange outline.
Those two moons became eyes. Its huge body held a scythe, gazing down at Jashu.
[Chaos-type magic: Moonlight]
Whoosh!
In an instant, the scythe blade ripped through the silent darkness, tearing open a glaring white gash in the air.
The sharp blade stabbed deep into the monster's body.
Instantly, the abomination felt excruciating spiritual pain, even though its flesh had no wounds.
What was cut was its mind, its soul.
The enormous shadow swung its scythe again.
Two intersecting white slashes split through the darkness, as if to tear the entire space apart.
Finally, as the glowing scars widened, the darkness faded.
Sunlight once again returned to their eyes.
The knights stared at the violently writhing mass of flesh, puzzled.
"Is… the monster dead?"
If it survived such a powerful attack, then just how strong was it?
Remembering the scene just now, all the knights thought, such a powerful spell could probably only be used once.
After all, mages had limits.
So all eyes focused on the believer, quietly watching its crazed twitching.
Countless mouths and tentacles convulsed across its body, as if in unbearable agony.
The chaotic, twisted voice continued slowly, "You... can't... kill... me... "
"You... can't... kill…"
Before it finished, the voice was abruptly cut off.
"Really?"
"In that case..."
Viktor quietly raised one hand, hovering it in the air.
"We'll do it again."
A crisp snap rang out.
In the blink of an eye, the world plunged into darkness once more.
Moonlight fell upon everyone's faces again.
When the twin moons reappeared overhead, like hunters lurking in the deep dark, that overwhelming shock once again filled every knight's mind.
Leaving only... A blank void.