Chapter 249: 132. An Extra Priest -1 (Part One)

Translated by: A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

**

“Excellent. Who would’ve guessed that the demonic energy reserve of a mere pet would prove to be of such great assistance!” Count Timong spoke loudly as the volume of his voice grew even louder. He was currently staring at the large pit on the ground of the ice castle.

The pit itself was quaking violently at the moment.

The terrain rumbled and a monstrous howl escaping from the hole reverberated thunderously in the sky.

The giant sealed down there was throwing a mighty tantrum, trying to escape from its confines. However, other Jötnar were preventing its escape attempts by blocking the pit with sturdy chains secured to the stakes driven into the ground.

“Be more patient, oh dear Mist Calf. It’s still too early for you to wake up from your slumber.”

This being was created out of mud by one of the kings of the titan race. It was a mud giant named Mist Calf.

Out of the few Jötnar who had managed to cross the dimensions from the Realm of the Titans, this creature was easily the most powerful.

If Timong could feed this mud giant enough demonic energy and mature it, ensuring that it grew to even greater strength…

‘I can use the giant’s heart and shatter the doorway between the dimensions!’

He’d be able to realize the perfected power of the warp gate!

The method to eternally seal away something, casting away even the living to another dimension – with such magic…

“We will be able to eliminate Holy Emperor Kelt Olfolse.”

History’s strongest human and also its worst Holy Emperor, Kelt Olfolse! He’d be sealed away forever.

As long as that man was removed from the picture… then it didn’t matter whether it was the Crown Imperial Prince or the Sword King, none of them would be an opponent for the Vampire King.

That was the sole reason why the noble Vampire King hadn’t personally marched into the Theocratic Empire as of yet.

“However, it still lacks enough energy.”

Count Timong rubbed his chin in contemplation.

He was a true Alchemist at heart, so he strove to achieve only absolute perfection. That meant he had no desire to release the half-baked mud giant and utilize its heart.

In order to further perfect the mud giant, many more offerings would have to be brought in.

“…?” Count Timong shifted his gaze and stared into the distance. An army of zombies staggering about were heading somewhere.

‘Now that I think about it, somewhere near here is…’

There was a fortress of the living called Ronia near here; a fortress created to appease the rage of the undead, apparently. That location was protected by a ragtag bunch of convicts pretending to be soldiers.

‘If I remember correctly, that place is referred to as the Sacrificial Castle, isn’t it?’

A sinister grin floated up on Count Timong’s lips.

What a fitting name that was.

‘It sounds like a perfect place to turn into a den of sacrifices, doesn’t it?’

Indeed, it should be relatively simple enough to turn all the humans living in that location into sacrificial offerings.

“Oh hear ye, my dear Jötnar!”

Count Timong called out and the Jötnar slaving away began gathering around him.

About thirty massive Jötnar came together, their steps rocking the land. At around eight metres tall, they towered over Count Timong, so they ended up looking down at him.

The Vampire raised his head up to them and issued a new order, “Go and occupy the Sacrificial Castle. Offer up every single human living there as sacrifices. And then…” Madness crept into Count Timong’s shouting voice, “Bring forth the glory of opening the world’s very first perfected warp gate!”

Zombies gathered into a horde and began shuffling ahead to kill the living.

Count Timong began shattering various hidden jars that had been maturing for untold dozens of years inside the ice castle.

Various undead tumbled out from the broken jars and joined up with the horde of the zombies.

The Jötnar marched along with them.

Their destination was the Sacrificial Castle, and the fiefdom of Ronia.

**

Shuppel furrowed his brow, staring at the masked man before him.

‘An extra?’

‘What was that? Could it be a name?’

He had no idea what the term even meant, and assumed it to be the name of this Priest.

This person before his eyes didn’t seem to be hostile towards him, but the smiling eyes barely visible beneath the bird-beak mask were getting on his nerves somewhat.

Shuppel kept his sword ready, but before he could say something, the man under the bird mask broke the tense silence first, pointing with his finger. “You know, it’s quite dangerous for you to keep pointing that thing at me.”

“What was that?” Shuppel tilted his head in confusion, but that lasted only for a second or two.

The ground next to him suddenly shot up. He quickly spun his body around and spotted a ‘monster’ standing tall amidst the snow, which was now falling back down like dust.

Greyish hide covered its tall frame, while a hideously melted-down head was held in its left hand. In this undead’s right hand was a badly-chipped sword.

It was a dullahan!

The creature buried underneath the pile of snow had woken up from its slumber after the sun went down.

Shedding cold sweat, Shuppel tried to dodge, but by then, the undead’s sword was already flying his way. The rough yet still sharp, chipped blade unhesitatingly flew in towards Shuppel’s unguarded chest.

‘I can’t dodge this!’

He tried to block by raising his sword. However, he realized he was too late. It was going to be difficult to avoid getting a grievous wound from this dastardly sneak attack!

But right at that moment, someone grabbed the scruff of Shuppel’s neck and tossed him to the ground.

He hurriedly shifted his eyes and stared at the Priest that had yanked him down. Shuppel might no longer be in the dullahan’s reach, but the Priest was now standing before the undead, instead.

“Listen to me! That thing’s too dangerous! Escape from here!”

A dullahan was a mid-tier undead. A rookie Priest who was only around the level of ‘average’ would find it exceedingly difficult to deal with such a creature.

Just as the thought began forming in Shuppel’s head, the dullahan started its second attack.

The blade was swung towards the bird-masked Priest. The latter injected divine energy into his hands and lightly swung his fist.

The blade and the fist collided, and the chipped weapon was flung away.

“What the…?!”

Before Shuppel could finish his gasp of surprise, the Priest took a little step forward with his left foot, steadied himself, and punched the midriff of the dullahan hard.

Bang-!

The surrounding air exploded with the powerful impact noise, and the dullahan’s body flew up before crashing back down on the snow-covered ground.

The undead flailed its limbs about like an overturned insect and howled out monstrously.

“Can’t even dodge a dullahan’s sneak attack yet? Man, that is so disappointing.” The bird mask shot a glare at Shuppel next. “What was the point of getting revived, if that’s the case?”

Shuppel froze in surprise, before shooting a meaningful glare back at the mystery Priest.

‘Who is this? Wait, could he be Allen?’

The people with knowledge on his revival and resurrection were limited to Allen and his close confidantes.

Shuppel had heard that the Seventh Imperial Prince had come to visit Ronia, but he didn’t even dare to entertain the idea of going to see his little brother. He didn’t feel he was in any position to meet an Imperial Prince.

‘However, if this man really is Allen, he shouldn’t have a reason to hide his face. No need to hide his identity at all.’

Just as important, a prince from the Imperial Family wouldn’t have enough leeway to casually visit Shuppel in the first place.

It was around at this point that the bird-masked Mister Extra shrugged his shoulders as if he had sensed Shuppel’s suspicious glare. “His Highness the Seventh Imperial Prince has sent me.”

That explanation only roused Shuppel’s suspicions even further.

‘Did Allen have a confidante named Extra?’

In the meantime, the bird-beak masked man walked past Shuppel and stopped some distance away. “What are you doing, still looking so dazed?”

“Huh?”

“That dullahan. It’s not dead yet.”

Shuppel spun his head around to look at the dullahan.

The undead was slowly getting back up to its feet. Its midriff had burned away from divine energy, and all sorts of rotting intestines had tumbled out of the gaping opening. But befitting its moniker as an undead, it continued to glare at the living while lifting up its sword.

“Go on. Fight it.”

Shuppel shot a glare at the bird-beak masked man.

The man was standing back, his arms crossed in front of his chest. The eyes under the mask were smiling away again.

It was like he was looking at a lab rat right now, and Shuppel felt quite displeased.

“I’m merely here to confirm any changes to you post-resurrection. To observe if there have been any notable effects, even on a former Priest such as yourself.”

‘So that’s how it is.’

Shuppel finally understood this situation.

The man named Extra was indeed a confidante of Allen, and had come here under the latter’s orders. His job must’ve been to confirm if there had been any side effects from the resurrection.

‘Even though we used to bicker a lot, that Allen… Does he still care about me?’

The reason why the Seventh Imperial Prince didn’t come personally and sent his confidante instead must’ve been in consideration of his own position, Shuppel thought.

—

Meanwhile…

‘Treating normal people turned them into awakened Priests.’

Allen, wearing the bird-beak mask, was closely observing Shuppel.

‘It’ll be a smart thing to confirm if there had been any other notable changes or not when a Priest was healed by me.’

(TL: “Jötnar” is plural of “Jötunn”. ‘Mist Calf’ isn’t a weird mistranslated name, but an actual mud giant that appears in Norse mythology.)