His eyes stung so much that tears and snot flowed down. He knew he looked miserably ugly, but if he could survive by doing so, Jaena was willing to become even uglier several times over.
Regrettably, Jaena’s desperate cries didn’t seem to reach Ban and Orma, but those who had been pouring oil on Jaena hesitated and reacted to his words.
“…Orma?”
“If it’s Orma, isn’t that the name of the Evil God?”
“Ho-how dare you ominously call upon the Evil God!”
Whoever they were, they panicked as soon as they heard the name ‘Orma’. Well, they had said they were killing him as a sacrifice for some unknown ritual, so the god they believed in must also be an evil god similar to Orma, or they must believe in some random thing as a god. Quick-witted Jaena thought this was his chance and cried out Orma’s name again.
“O-O Orma! Save me! These people dare to kill your believer!”
As if those words had some effect, someone gasped in shock. Even Jaena could feel the air turning cold. They were flustered as if they’d heard something unfilial like ‘Excuse me, but are your parents by any chance odd numbers?’
“Wh-what should we do? That bastard just said he’s a ‘believer of Orma’…”
“How could a beastman not worship Muhwi!”
“Then his value as a sacrifice…”
Jaena urgently strained his ears and concentrated on the conversation they were having in whispers. Only at times like this did his cunning work quickly, and Jaena vaguely realized that the condition for the sacrifice in the ritual they were performing had to be ‘a believer of Muhwi’.
But it was strange—how were they certain that Jaena was a believer of Muhwi just by looking at him? In the first place, since crossing over to this continent, most of the people Jaena met were surprised by and unfamiliar with his very existence as a beastman. Hadn’t even Ban looked surprised when he first saw him? But knowing that ‘beastmen’ are believers of ‘Muhwi’ meant that perhaps…
“Be quiet. He’s obviously talking nonsense. Believing in an Evil God—there’s no way such an absurd thing could happen!”
“Right, he’s even the successor of the tiger tribe. There’s no way the successor of the tiger tribe wouldn’t believe in Muhwi.”
They even know that I’m the successor of the tiger tribe. They probably figured it out by looking at the bracelet.
Then there was a high chance they were fellow beastmen. Jaena slowly began opening his eyes into slits again to confirm the identity of the assailants. His field of vision was low because he had collapsed sprawled on the ground, but he could still see much more clearly than before.
But clearly… he had heard human voices…
Instead of human legs, he saw several sleek bodies and what appeared to be long tails before his eyes. The tails that wriggled and moved were slender, and instead of soft human skin or fluffy animal fur, shiny scales intermittently reflected the sparks flying through the air and glittered.
Jaena slowly lifted his head with a dazed face. What he eventually saw through the acrid smoke was a tongue too thin and long to belong to a human. The moment his eyes met the vertically slit pupils, Jaena screamed inwardly, wanting to faint.
‘…Sn-snakes! They’re snake tribe!’
Please save me, O Orma!
* * *
“…I’m going to die from the noise.”
Orma, who had been riding the horse, scrunched up his face and muttered in irritation. At those words, Ban, who had been looking around for no reason, was startled and opened his eyes wide, asking cautiously.
“I’m sorry. Did I do something wrong? Did I get on your nerves?”
“Ah, no, not you… That bastard Jaena keeps whining and praying to be saved.”
“What? You mean you can hear Jaena-ssi’s prayers?”
“Not particularly useful though.”
If it were useful, he’d at least tell him in detail where he was and what he was doing, but all that reached Orma through prayer was just crying that he felt like he was going to burn to death. He didn’t mention the location or who kidnapped him—just kept saying he didn’t want to die without revealing anything else.
The only helpful thing was that, as Ban had said, the destination became clear—the place where fires kept breaking out, just like ‘feeling like burning to death’ suggested.
“Hmm… The distance is quite far. Still, we must be getting pretty close—the burning smell has gotten stronger.”
Not only that, the sky was also covered in ash, making it dark and gloomy even though it was morning. If a fire of this magnitude had continued, it was natural that there would be nothing alive in the vicinity.
That’s why there was no one who answered that they’d seen Jaena when touched by my shadows. Because they’d already burned to death. Orma clicked his tongue and urged the horse faster toward the place where gray smoke was rising in the distance.
The surroundings were all scorched with only blackened burn marks remaining, and as they gradually got closer, flames slowly began to appear. The scene that was revealed made even Orma stick out his tongue at how terrible it was. As if covered by his shadows, the field was densely packed with blackened burnt grass like a forest.
The strange thing was that even though it had burned brightly enough for the fire to continue for several days, something still retained its form. The distant sea of red flames contrasted with the blackened field, creating a horrific sight just like the hell humans imagined.
However, Ban didn’t seem particularly surprised even seeing this scene and just slowly surveyed the surroundings. At his calm appearance, as if he had expected it to be like this, Orma found himself staring intently at Ban before asking.
“You don’t seem very surprised, so I guess you expected this?”
“…Well, I was surprised actually. But I wasn’t expecting this terrible scene—I just expected that this place was originally called the ‘Black Wildwood.'”
“Black Wildwood?”
Orma recalled that Jaena had said something strange yesterday about the curse of the Black Wildwood or something. Was that something that actually existed?
“It’s a name given because black grass forms a field, and it looks just like a forest.”
“Then you’re saying that’s not burnt and charred, but originally black grass?”
“That’s right.”
In the game, the ‘Black Wildwood’ wasn’t a place you absolutely had to go story-wise, but it was a location most users stopped by to obtain items related to Muhwi.
However, at that time, it was already after the apocalypse had arrived, so all the residents living here had died, boasting an even more bizarre and desolate landscape than now. Burnt corpses scattered everywhere and crows feeding on those corpses, and the black field that created strange sounds with the wind.
Some people hushed up this place that was nothing but black, saying it was a place touched by Orma’s curse, but if you played the game even a little, you’d learn that this place had nothing to do with Orma at all.
“This is where beastmen called the Sa tribe, or snake tribe, live in hiding.”
“There are beastmen here, not near Yeru?”
“Yes. It’s said that the snake tribe was punished and expelled by the god Muhwi.”
“…What did they do wrong for Muhwi to punish them?”
Orma fiddled with the horse’s reins he was holding with a slightly displeased face. Of course, Muhwi was a god with a strict personality, but he was a god who clearly distinguished between rewards and punishments and was fair and just, so he wouldn’t have punished them without reason.
“I heard they stole the god’s fire.”
The story of stealing the god’s fire, running away, and being punished by the god—there are several similar myths on Earth too. A representative example is Prometheus from Greek mythology.
However, if there was a problem, it was that this part was glossed over, so he didn’t know the details.
If you asked why he just passed it over even though it was an item that was quite helpful in clearing the mid-boss, it was simply because it had nothing to do with Orma, the Final Boss.
Whenever a new area was unlocked, Ban accessed the game community in advance to acquire rough information in order to focus only on following the main story. He steadily performed only the places he absolutely had to go or quests he had to complete, and as for other helpful items or rewards, he only did things related to Orma.
The Black Wildwood was the same. Just looking at the name, wondering if it was related to Orma, he quickly skimmed the community and then asked in a comment on someone’s story summary post, ‘Is this related to the Final Boss?’ Fortunately, the comment came quickly.
[Nope but do it anyway. Helps with mid-boss and story’s fun too lol]
Aha, so it’s not related to Orma. Then thinking he didn’t need it, he only conveyed his thanks.
[Thank you. Thanks to you, I’ll skip it and move on.]
Since such a response comment usually isn’t left on a carefully written story post and recommendation, the original poster’s displeased comment was added.
[Are you like an Orma obsessive maniac?;]
It was a sarcastic remark thinking Ban was unnecessarily picking a fight, but regrettably, Ban didn’t know words like ‘obsessive maniac.’ Is he just asking if I’m obsessed with Orma? He roughly read the context and left a comment.
[Yes.]
After that, no notification that a comment had been posted rang out.
Lmaooooooo
Biggest simp