Chapter 119
Chapter 119: Got to Find a Way to Wipe Out Every Last One of These Savages
The Inheritance Temple was an extremely unique location.
It would seek out those in its vicinity who were qualified to receive the Inheritance, and bestow divine power upon them in advance.
This granted divine power might manifest through special physical constitutions in those Qualifiers.
And in the Extreme Northern Ice Plains, only the Savage Beasts could receive the recognition of the Inheritance Temple.
Only a Qualifier could awaken the Temple.
Viktor had initially expected to search through several tribes before finding such a Qualifier, but his luck held.
The sole survivor was a Savage Beast youth who appeared to be no more than his mid-teens.
The red fur on his body had only just begun to grow in slightly, and his limbs, hardened by years of life in extreme conditions, were exceptionally robust. He was dressed in a loose, white-spotted animal hide.
The hide garment had been scorched charcoal-black under the terrifying flames.
Yet despite being within such ferocious fire, his body remained completely unscathed.
This was the manifestation of his divine power—immunity to high temperatures.
Converted into game terms: immunity to fire-attribute damage.
The Savage Beast youth stared at the cold-faced Viktor and chattered loudly, waving his arms and legs about as he cried out, clearly agitated.
Seeing that Viktor showed no reaction whatsoever, the youth simply dropped to his knees before him, knocked his head against the ground repeatedly, and then lay prostrate without moving.
He appeared to have taken Viktor for a deity representing fire and flame.
Viktor simply watched all of this with cold detachment:
"Uncivilized savages without a shred of rational thought—wielding the meager power handed to them from outside, running amok along the borders of a vast empire."
He turned his head toward a nearby pole, from which various pieces of flesh and blood dangled. Dimly, Viktor appeared to make out some indescribable remains among them.
And on the pole, there seemed to be some articles of clothing, frozen stiff.
The sight filled Viktor with a revulsion so strong it made him sick.
He would have liked nothing more than to resurrect every one of these dead Savage Beasts and grind their bones to dust a thousand times over.
"You know, Weija."
"This is why—aside from Gwen—I despise every Knight in the Northern Frontier."
Including Angus.
He fancied himself a paragon of justice, yet the only thing in his head was the Inheritance of the Goddess of Justice.
Until that Inheritance at last fell to Gwen—and even the Goddess of Justice deemed Angus's behavior to have crossed from obsession into wickedness.
And so Gwen killed him.
Not only because Angus had intended to unite the north in resistance against Auréliane's rule.
But also because Angus had already accumulated sins too deep to be redeemed.
Even without having done anything directly himself.
But this was the north, where the borders harbored those Savage Beasts called the 'Savage Beasts.'
His inaction alone had already constituted an enormous sin.
Viktor made no effort to see whether Weija would respond. He simply looked down with disgust at the Savage Beast prostrating at his feet, as the enormous Lava Arm extended from behind him in an instant.
In a flash, the Savage Beast youth before him was snatched up and gripped within that Lava Arm.
The arm contracted with crushing force, as though intent on grinding his body into a pulp.
Amid the roaring howls of the endless blizzard, the ferocious screams and the crack of shattering bones could be heard clearly even a hundred meters from the settlement.
Just before the youth in his grip might have been squeezed to death, he stopped the arm's contraction and ceased paying any further attention to the half-dead wretch in his hand.
As long as there was still a breath left in him, Viktor would not spare him another glance.
The road to the Inheritance Temple was still very long.
He hauled the mangled Savage Beast along and continued walking through the wind and snow without a second thought, leaving the settlement behind him—reduced to rubble—burning with fierce and unrelenting flames.
***
On an expanse of snowfield, a light scattering of fine snow drifted through the air, like so many delicate, broken petals.
A white-haired old man stood within it, his white hair and white eyebrows lending him an almost seamless quality against the snow.
A clean, white fur-lined robe was draped across his shoulders, and as the snowflakes settled upon it, it gave him an air of cold aloofness.
Surrounding him were dozens of powerfully built Savage Beasts.
Each one was armed, and the tips of their weapons burned with vivid red flame.
They tore at their throats in battle cries and charged at the old man with their weapons raised.
The old man watched several Savage Beasts bearing down on him and showed not the slightest sign of panic.
Instead, he slowly raised his arm and moved his fingers through the air, tracing white-blue patterns in the space before him.
A faint frost began to slowly crystallize across his gloves.
An exceptionally long ice battleaxe suddenly materialized in the old man's right hand. He swept it forward with ghost-like speed, and in a single stroke, cut down the several charging Savage Beasts.
Looking at the Savage Beast limbs splattered with blood, the old man simply flicked the remaining blood from the ice battleaxe, looked at the few Savage Beasts trembling and stumbling backward, and broke into a hearty laugh.
"Come on, keep going."
He crooked a finger provocatively at the remaining Savage Beasts.
Those Savage Beasts looked at one another, stuck between advancing and retreating.
They hadn't come here to pick a fight with this old man.
On the contrary—it was they who had been surrounded by him.
Many among the Savage Beasts had seen his face before and naturally knew who he was.
Vladimir Lebedev.
The Northern Frontier's most powerful 4th-Tier Mage-soldier, known as the 【Supreme Penitent of Eternal Ice】.
These Savage Beasts had come here merely to scavenge, checking whether there was anything nearby worth stealing, any creature that might serve as food for later.
What they hadn't expected was to stumble upon this particular nightmare of the Savage Beasts in this very spot.
But retreating without a fight was not the Savage Beast way. Though 1 of their own had been killed, they still believed they could defeat the demon who had long plagued their kind.
The Savage Beasts let out a roar toward the sky, as though invoking power from above, launching into an unintelligible cacophony of battle cries that no one could understand.
As though the preliminary invocation had concluded, the Savage Beasts began swinging their flame-burning weapons, circling around Vladimir and closing in from all sides.
"What gibberish are you lot talking—can't understand a word!"
He laughed heartily, then his brow settled, and a frosty aura began seeping from his body.
As a Mage-soldier, Vladimir preferred to combine magic with his physical body in combat.
1 Savage Beast raised a flame-tipped spear and drove it viciously toward the back of Vladimir's head.
Vladimir stepped back, his palm encased in a gauntlet of ice, and seized the fragile shaft of the spear in a dead grip.
Frost crept slowly from the gauntlet along the spear tip, crawling toward the burning shaft.
The Savage Beast wrenched backward sharply—only to find the spear locked immovably in place, as though jammed fast. It simply abandoned the spear and charged at Vladimir with its powerful body.
In the same moment, the old man swung the now-frozen spear and hurled it rearward with full force—the high-velocity ice spear drove clean through the skull of a dual-blade-wielding Savage Beast that had been positioning itself not far behind.
He turned back: the charging Savage Beast was already within less than 10 meters.
His right leg kicked out with sudden force, and the ice-hardened boot shattered the Savage Beast's skull to pieces.
The blue glove on Vladimir's right hand flared faintly, a dagger of ice materializing in his palm—he drove it into the headless corpse, then hurled the whole thing at a red-furred Savage Beast holding a battleaxe not far away.
Corpse and body slammed together, the colossal impact tearing through the entire snowfield, ripping a deep gash into the earth.
The Savage Beast and the corpse tumbled down into the ravine together.
Rubbing his gloves, Vladimir slowly bit down on a cigar.
Mage-soldiers' magical attributes were essentially singular.
For a Mage-soldier with formidable physical strength, however, a single magical attribute was still an immensely powerful asset.
He held an unlit cigar between his teeth and walked slowly toward a Savage Beast that was backing away behind him.
Perhaps it was the terror radiating from his presence.
That Savage Beast had even forgotten about the flail in its hand, and stood frozen in place.
Vladimir stepped forward, closing the distance in an instant.
The force was applied with precise precision—just enough for the enormous impact to set the Savage Beast's organs rattling, sending it stumbling back several steps and over the edge of the cliff.
In that last second, the Savage Beast caught the edge of the snowfield with one enormous hand, attempting to haul itself back up and face the enemy again.
Vladimir strolled leisurely to the cliff's edge, looked down at the churning frozen ocean below, and smiled.
"Hm!"
He crouched down, set his glove against the hanging Savage Beast's arm, released a pulse of ice magic, and froze it to the cliff edge.
Having done all this, he paid no mind to the Savage Beast's howling and casually patted his pockets.
Then his expression shifted slightly.
"Tsk—damn it, forgot my flint."
As an ice-attribute Mage-soldier, he naturally had no use for the fire-element magic these savages played with.
As though struck by an idea, Vladimir lowered his head and raised an eyebrow at the Savage Beast.
The poor creature hadn't yet figured out what Vladimir meant—until it saw the old man reach for his belt buckle, at which point its expression changed instantly.
It hastily extended its one free, unfrozen hand and waved it frantically through the air, gabbling a torrent of incomprehensible words.
Though Vladimir could not understand the Savage Beast's language, he understood perfectly what it must be saying right now.
A jet of fire abruptly shot from the Savage Beast's hand, and the old man laughed out loud, stepping back 2 paces.
The tall flame landed precisely on the cigar, lighting it, and a dense tobacco smell drifted out.
He took a long drag and blew out 2 smoke rings.
"Sssss~Phwoo—hahaha!"
"Love fighting you lot from the 【Blazing Sword】 most—good fire starting technique."
"Good kick to it!"
He laughed heartily twice more, crouched down, and let ice condense once again into a battleaxe on his glove.
He brought it down in 1 swift stroke, severing the Savage Beast's hand. He watched as the Savage Beast fell away helplessly into the abyss.
The frozen ocean surged up several meters of waves, until from beneath the ice, a dark shadow slowly surfaced and swallowed the body.
A faint tinge of red spread across the water.
Vladimir rose to his feet, cigar between his teeth, pools of red spreading behind him across the snow.
He exhaled a pensive smoke ring and called out toward the sky.
"You scared yourself half to death watching that—come on out."
A young-looking man came running out from behind a frozen tree, face full of worry.
He came to Vladimir's side, looked at the gruesome wreckage of bodies around them, and couldn't suppress a wave of nausea.
"G—General."
Vladimir turned and walked on, asking as he went:
"Tell me—what ridiculous nonsense have those Knights stirred up now?"
The adjutant beside him quickly produced a wanted notice and handed it to Vladimir.
He took it with the cigar still hanging from his mouth, and gave it a casual glance.
There was a portrait of the person on it as well.
"Yesterday, they issued a wanted notice. It's probably already spread across the entire north by now."
"Those Knights—they're hoping our 'Pallid Mage Society' can help apprehend this person."
Vladimir took a long drag on the cigar, letting the smoke tumble out.
"Hiss—"
"This kid looks a bit familiar. Name's Viktor?"
"His name is known to everyone in the Royal Capital—his reputation has even reached up here. But still..."
The old man spent his days smoking cigars, doing a bit of dancing, and beating up Savage Beasts.
He wouldn't have paid attention to something like this.
But 1 thing, Dike understood perfectly well.
The old man would never go and help those Knights—because...
"Hoh hoh, he's a Mage?"
"Tell those Knights—any Mage is free to pass through my territory without obstruction."
He laughed heartily 3 times, and then as though struck by a thought, turned back to look at Dike.
"What did this person do, that's got them hunting him across the entire region?"
"Uh..."
Dike was slightly awkward about this, but said it all the same.
"Viktor—he beat Angus and his son into a complete state of incapacitation."
"So they're absolutely determined to find Viktor and demand an explanation..."
Vladimir was quiet for a moment, then said:
"Have the boys down there go look for this person. Make sure to find him."
"And then..."
"I absolutely have to have a drink with this guy! Hahahaha!"
He gave Dike a clap on the shoulder with tremendous force, sending Dike into a fit of coughing.
"General, General—hold on with the hitting—cough—there's still one more thing."
"Oh?"
Vladimir came back to himself, looking somewhat curious.
"That Duke friend of yours in the Royal Capital—his daughter has arrived."