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chapter 83




“Are you certain that Iris joined hands with the Demigods?”
[That’s how it appeared to me. There was one time that Iris summoned me, but when I finally arrived, I was met with quite the surprise. The Lord of the Demigods was standing right beside her.]
“…”
He’d seen her standing with none other than Lord.
Frey had no choice but to accept the truth.
[It wasn’t just me either. Barbaros and Zefar were there too. Kuku! It was certainly rare for three Archdukes to gather in one place. Only Iris, who had a once in a thousand year talent, could do it…but.]
“She never summoned you to fight.”
[Right. Because our power is very limited on the continent. I don’t know what exactly happened after the war, but I think Iris made some kind of deal with Lord.]
“A deal? What deal?”
[I’m not sure. But it seemed she didn’t want to fight a losing battle against Lord, so she wanted to negotiate more favorable conditions.]
“When did that happen?”
[It wasn’t long after you disappeared. So about 4,000 years ago.]
“…”
Iris, no.
Schweiser and his other friends seemed to have guessed that Lord was the reason behind his disappearance.
Lord did not leave any trace of his actions, but in truth, the fact that there were no traces was the best piece of evidence.
What Asura was talking about happened right after Frey had been trapped in the Abyss.
Schweiser thought that Iris had gone into hiding at that time because she could not handle Lukas’ death.
But that wasn’t the case.
It seemed Iris was moving alone to achieve some sort of goal.
[Iris changed a lot since you disappeared. It used to be hard to guess what she was thinking, but it became impossible. However, she didn’t go crazy. That’s for sure. I’ve seen enough crazy humans to tell the difference.]
“…”
[Anyway, after her deal with Lord, she began working with the Demigods.]
“Is it possible that they controlled her mind? Or threatened her?”
[I don’t know about threats, but it wasn’t mind control. I’m not sure if there’s anything that could subdue her mind in the first place.]
Frey agreed.
No matter how powerful the Demigods were, Iris’ spiritual power was not something to be trifled with.
All five heroes, including Frey, were masters of their respective fields, which meant that their mental states were far beyond the capacity of normal humans.
In particular, Iris was a witch who specialised in Demon contracts, so her resistance to mental attacks was much stronger than the others.
[Over time, the frequency with which she summoned me began to lessen, and then she suddenly ended the contract a few hundred years ago. Without even the slightest explanation. I heard the same thing happened to Barbatos and Zefar.]
Asura’s lips curled upward.
[Zefar was extremely offended by that, and he hasn’t signed any contracts with mortals since then. He’s quite narrow-minded.]
“…is that all you know?”
[That’s right. No…wait.]
Asura seemed to think about something for a moment before opening his mouth.
[Iris…seemed to be searching for something.]
“Looking for something? Like what?”
[That human. The one with white hair and golden eyes. His name was…]
“Schweiser Strow.”
Asura nodded as Frey supplied him with the name.
[Right. That was the name. The one who was called the Great Sage. Iris seemed to be looking for his inheritance.]
“Schweiser’s inheritance?”
[Right. I heard her muttering about finding a ‘core’ or something.]
“…!”
Core.
The only thing that Frey could think about at that moment was Anastasia, Schweiser’s magnum opus.
A Golem core that stored a whopping 1 million ME.
‘Iris knows about Anastasia?’
He didn’t know why Iris was looking for a core. However, if he was able to complete Anastasia, he felt like he’d be able to understand why.
Anastasia would have the answers to most of his questions.
‘I’m running out of time.’
Frey realised once again that he did not have the time to relax and enjoy a slow pace.
[Is that all you wanted to know?]
“Yes.”
[Good. You still have two more requests. Tell me what you want.]
Frey pondered for a moment before asking.
“Can you kill Oydin?”
[Impossible.]
Asura shook his heads.
[I’d never do something demeaning. I’m not bragging or anything, but I’ve never harmed my contractors. No matter how many favors I owe you, it’s not something I will do.]
It was a pity, but he knew he was asking for too much.
“Then what about returning to the Demon World without listening to Oydin’s orders?”
[That’s easy enough.]
Doing that alone was quite easy.
Although his current strength in the outside world wasn’t complete because of the faulty summoning, he was still not something that Frey and Ivan were capable of handling on their own.
[Then there’s one more.]
“…could you sign a contract with me?”
“With you?”
Asura spoke in a surprised voice.
[Didn’t you say before that you weren’t interested in signing contracts with Demons?
“I’m no longer in a position where I can pick and choose as I like. I have to use every option available.”
It was clear to him that a contract with Asura would be of great help to him. Although his powers were restricted on the continent, the power of an Archduke was not something that could be ignored.
Asura looked at him with a slightly weird expression.
[Do you still intend to kill all the Demigods on the continent?]
“That is my only purpose in life.”
[Kukuku!]
It was a clear voice filled with determination, and Asura could not help the laughter that escaped his lips.
Demigods.
They were transcendent beings who were practically the rulers of Middle Earth.
If a Demigod appeared in the Demon World, Asura would not be afraid of them.
Each of the six Archdukes, who each ruled over a hell, was no less powerful than the Demigods.
In fact, it was safe to say that they were stronger than the Demigods, excluding Lord and the Apocalypses.
That’s why Frey’s existence was so interesting.
Compared to Demigods, humans were insignificant beings.
Yet one of these insignificant creatures had declared that they would annihilate the Demigods.
And it wasn’t the case where this man was ignorant of the Demigods’ power. Instead, he was probably someone who had more knowledge about the Demigods’ strength than anyone else in the world.
Nevertheless, he didn’t hesitate to fight back. Even when he was afraid, he struggled to overcome it.
Asura realised exactly what Frey was.
[You are a true warrior.]
“I’m a Wizard.”
[I mean your fighting spirit, you fool.]
“…”
It had been a long time since he’d been called a fool.
Asura let out a hearty laugh.
[Fine. I’ll sign a contract with you. You don’t have much talent, but I will do it because of our agreement. Kuku. You will be my most interesting contractor since Iris.]
Woowoong.
Blood-colored patterns began forming in front of Asura, and when Frey took a closer look, he realised it was the summoning circle used to summon him.
[This is my summoning circle. Make sure you memorise it well so you can summon me when you get the time. We will form the contract then.]
“Got it.”
Asura’s figure slowly began to blur.
Frey wasn’t surprised at all. After all, this was a phenomenon that he had already witnessed once that day.
His soul began leaving Asura’s Soul space.
And just before he left completely, Frey heard Asura mutter under his breath.
[What an interesting human…]
* * *
Frey blinked.
He had returned to reality.
They had spoken for a long time in the Soul Space, but only a few seconds had passed in reality. (TL:…so why did he spend half a day with Hruhiral then?…)(YH: author won’t reveal naughty things)
Asura looked at Oydin and said.
[I’m heading back.]
“Wh-, what did you say? What are you talking about?! I summoned yo…”
[So noisy.]
Asura swung his arm. The sword in his hand twisted and barely missed Oydin.
Crack! Crack!
Crash!
“…urk!”
Hundreds of trees behind Oydin were swept away in an instant.
With only the wind pressure released from his lazily swung blade, even the heavy forest trees that were deeply rooted in the ground were sent flying.
[You should be more concerned about whether you’ll survive tonight, puppet.]
“…?”
Puppet?
Gurgle…
While Frey was trying to decipher the meaning behind those words, Asura’s body transformed into blood and fell to the ground, soaking it once more.
Ivan, who was unsure of what was going on, could only ask with a confused expression on his face.
“What the hell? Why did he just leave? Frey, what did you do?”
All he knew was that Frey spoke to Asura.
He was asking because this guy looked innocent, but he knew that Frey had something to do with what happened.
“Well. It’s a good thing for us in any case.”
“That… but something doesn’t feel right.”
“Let’s focus on Oydin first. Just because Asura is gone doesn’t mean we can defeat him.”
Frey’s expression was a bit strange.
He looked at Oydin while pondering the words Asura had said while leaving.
Oydin trembled.
“I, I don’t believe this! Bullshit! H-, he…clearly said that I could use Asura to avert any crisis!”
“…”
Now that he thought about it, there was something he couldn’t understand.
Who taught Oydin how to summon Asura?
‘It could be Iris.’
He couldn’t let a clue about her slip away.
Oydin looked exhausted, but he didn’t let his guard down. Because he still had his divine power.
“Uahhh!”
Crack.
The ground split apart, and undead began appearing once again.
This time, there were many more of them, but there were four Death Knights at the front who stood apart from the group.
They all wore blood red armor.
“Ivan, watch out for those guys with red armor at the front.”
“What are they?”
“Bloody Knights.”
“Huh?”
“…in short, they are a higher ranking undead than Death Knights. They have a more developed combat ability compared to Death Knights.”
“Uh…so they’re basically just sturdier punching bags?”
Frey opened his mouth before closing it again.
Ivan shouldn’t die at his level.
Then he turned back to Oydin.
He was flying in the sky on the back of a Bone Drake he’d summoned.
Did he intend to run away?
But he was acting strangely.
“Ivan, can I ask you a favor?”
“Go ahead.”
After seeing Ivan snort, Frey covered him in some strengthening spells. They wouldn’t help him much, but it was better than nothing.
Ivan smiled as he saw his faintly glowing body.
“This is nice.”
“Be careful. They aren’t easy to handle.”
“Got it.”
Frey flew up with a flight spell and shot after Oydin.
The Drake was flapping furiously as it headed towards its destination without looking back.
It didn’t take long for Frey to realise where Oydin was headed.
The top of Hruhiral.
Oydin landed there before turning around to glare at Frey.
Anger and hatred were clear in his eyes.
“Who the hell are you? And what trick did you use against Asura?”
“It’s pointless to tell you since you will die here.”
“You can try…!”
Oydin shook his hand.
The Bone Drake shot forward with a loud roar.
Thud!
Then the body of the Drake that was rushing towards Frey froze in a block of ice and fell to the ground.
“Eeeek…!”
Oydin shook his hand again, and purple energy began to flow from it.
Undead began to rise from the branches of the World Tree, and upon seeing this, Frey couldn’t help but say.
“I also have a question.”
“Shut up!” (TL: how rude)
The undead began rushing toward him.
However, Frey quickly understood that Oydin was no threat to him.
Was it because Oydin had been weakened?
If so, then why was he so weak? Was it because he expended a lot of energy to summon Asura? Or was it because of the Bone Drake and Bloody Knights he just summoned?
It was possible since summoning Asura consumed a large amount of energy.
After all, summoning an Archduke was no easy task.
If another Archduke other than Asura had been summoned, then everyone in the village including Frey and Ivan would have had to risk their lives to force it back.
There was only one thing that Frey was curious about.
Why was Oydin investing so much energy into tricks like summoning Demons despite being an Apostle?
Crack! Crack!
All the undead became frozen and shattered.
Oydin’s gestures became more frantic. However, in contrast to Oydin, Frey’s facial expression became.
A haze of icy air seemed to come from his body.
“Nozdog has control over the power of death. Yet you seem to only have the ability to summon undead.”
“This is the power of death…! I, I control death…!”
“This is just necromancy. I don’t understand. Are you really Oydin?”
“What…what are you talking about?”
“…”
Crack.
The sound of Frey stepping on a piece of ice was particularly loud.
Oydin, who received his sharp gaze, shivered subconsciously.
“You, are you even an Apostle?”
(TL: Yes, I know ‘Bloody Knights’ sounds strange, but that’s the romanization. And we don’t actually know if they are Death Knights with bloody armor or if they are actually connected to blood, so I don’t want to call them ‘Blood Knights’)