Chapter 366

Chapter 366

Chuangkar’s head burst apart.

His now-headless body flailed momentarily, then collapsed to the ground.

It was an oddly anticlimactic end for the old orc who had seized control of the dark elf village.

Zeon approached Chuangkar’s corpse.

Even amidst the battle, there had been something that had continually caught Zeon’s eye.

It was the necklace hanging around Chuangkar’s neck.

A necklace made from a mixture of human and beast bones, from which an ominous black aura had been emanating all along.

Even after Chuangkar’s death, the black energy from the necklace showed no signs of dissipating.

“Aaaagh!”

“Help us!”

The dark elves still bearing the brands screamed in agony, as if their bodies were being ripped apart.

Zeon picked up the necklace.

The moment he did, he felt a searing pain, like being branded with a red-hot iron.

The black aura from the bone necklace tried to bore into Zeon’s hand.

As it entered his skin, his senses became disoriented.

A wave of nausea swept over him like seasickness. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears, and his vision suddenly blacked out.

‘A curse?’

Zeon had already experienced the curse of the Grim Reaper.

It wasn’t difficult for him to recognize that this black energy was a type of curse.

Focusing his mind, Zeon tried to probe the necklace further.

There was something else besides the curse—an alien presence.

The moment Zeon infused the necklace with mana...

“……”

A vision emerged in the blackness of his mind.

An old orc wandering the desert.

The old orc was on the brink of death.

His body had already reached the end of its life span.

His kin had abandoned him, and he was left behind, alone in the desert.

He staggered in search of shade, but there was nowhere in the desert for him to rest.

Despair crept into the old orc’s heart.

A warrior for many years, the orc didn’t want to die so pitifully. And so, gritting his teeth, he moved.

One step. Another step.

The old orc walked and walked, until he had spent the last of his strength and collapsed.

He didn’t even have the strength to move a finger.

The searing heat had drained all the moisture from his body, and his vision had grown blurry, the world becoming a haze.

That’s when ‘he’ appeared.

Whether man or woman, orc, human, or elf—he couldn’t tell.

The old orc’s unfocused eyes could no longer discern form.

But he didn’t care.

For someone one breath away from death, the identity of his savior didn’t matter.

‘He’ placed a bone necklace around the old orc’s neck.

The moment it settled, an overwhelming surge of vitality coursed through his body.

Like a dried-up spring suddenly flooding with rain, a vast reservoir of life burst forth.

That power filled the old orc with strength and pulled him back from the edge of death.

Rejuvenated, the orc searched for ‘him’—but he had vanished without a trace.

Maybe it had been a mirage, a hallucination before death.

But the bone necklace around his neck was proof that ‘he’ had been real.

That presence had truly existed.

‘He’ wanted nothing in return.

No price, no request for saving a life.

He had simply saved the orc.

From that moment, the old orc’s path was set.

He would survive, no matter what, and meet ‘him’ again.

But not in a wretched state.

He would gather power, amass influence, become more glorious and formidable than any other orc, just to face ‘him’ again and say, ‘Look at what your child has achieved.’

From then on, the old orc began to grow his faction.

Living longer than most, he had immense experience and knowledge.

And the bone necklace offered more than just vitality.

It stimulated his brain, enhancing his intelligence to a level he had never known.

With this newfound intellect, the old orc expanded his power.

It was thanks to that intelligence that he could subjugate the dark elves.

Zeon muttered to himself.

‘This must be Chuangkar’s memory.’

The bone necklace in his hand was showing him Chuangkar’s past.

And it whispered to him—

That he too could become as intelligent as Chuangkar.

That he could do what Chuangkar had done.

All he had to do was wear the bone necklace.

The necklace was trying to seduce Zeon.

But his will was not so weak as to be swayed by the allure of a mere item.

He resisted its temptation.

Instead, he focused on uncovering the identity of the one who had given the necklace to Chuangkar.

Crack!

At that moment, a fissure split the necklace and black light burst forth.

Sensing danger, Zeon hurled the necklace far away and shouted.

“Everyone down!”

No sooner had he spoken than everyone dropped to the ground.

BOOM!

The bone necklace exploded in midair.

A wave of fire and shock rippled through the village.

Houses made from beast hides were incinerated or torn apart.

Even though it had exploded at a distance, the dark elf village was devastated.

Had Zeon reacted even a second slower, most of the elves inside the village would have been killed or gravely wounded.

“Ugh, damn. I nearly died.”

Levin grumbled as he got up.

Despite his harsh words, he was completely unharmed.

The same went for Brielle.

But the crisis wasn’t over.

Most of the elves were still writhing in pain from the brand.

Floa called out urgently to Brielle.

“Hurry! Erase their brands!”

“Lay them in front of me!”

Brielle replied as she pulled out vials from her cone-shaped hat.

Up to now, it had been Zeon and Levin’s turn.

Now, this was her domain.

The longer it took, the harder it would be to erase the brands.

She needed absolute focus.

Brielle cleared her thoughts and devoted herself to healing the dark elves.

* * *

Erasing the brands from over a hundred dark elves was no easy task.

To make matters worse, she ran out of elixirs and had to make more.

With each passing moment, the elves endured hellish pain.

If Gaia had been able to help, it would have been much easier.

But Gaia was currently digesting the Scythe of the Reaper and couldn’t assist.

So Brielle had to rely solely on her own strength to remove the brands.

It cost her several times more mental energy.

Fortunately, despite the time, she was steadily making progress.

Meanwhile, Zeon and Levin cleaned up the orc corpses scattered across the village.

Zeon dug a large sand pit and dumped all the corpses inside. Then he buried them with sand.

Though they had finished cleaning, neither of their expressions were bright.

Because the village was completely destroyed.

The houses made from beast hides had been burned or shredded beyond repair.

The dark elves’ home was in ruins.

“Haa…”

“Sigh…”

The dark elves could only sigh as they looked upon the destruction.

Watching the home they had protected for over a century lie in ruins crushed their spirits.

They didn’t even know where to begin rebuilding.

The elves lost heart and slumped to the ground.

Floa and the warriors tried to encourage them, but it was no use.

The dark elves had lost everything—even the will to live.

The elders, who had led the village for decades, just stood in silence, staring at the wreckage with faces that looked decades older.

Watching them pained Floa and the warriors deeply.

Even then, Brielle’s healing continued.

Fatigue was etched into her face.

There were still many dark elves waiting for treatment. She couldn’t rest for a moment.

Over twenty were still unconscious from the pain. The remaining brands were particularly vicious.

She couldn’t rest until they were gone.

That’s why Brielle worked without pause to erase them.

Even Levin had tried to stop her.

“You’ll collapse at this rate. You haven’t eaten anything. Please, take a break.”

“I can’t.”

Brielle refused firmly.

“Uugh!”

“Just kill me already…”

The untreated elves moaned in pain.

Brielle couldn’t ignore their suffering.

Even if she had lost the title, she still carried the pride of a High Elf.

A High Elf must never refuse the plea of a fellow elf.

So long as she had the power, she was obligated to help.

Then, a thought struck Brielle.

“That’s it! If I use Ciela’s Furnace, I can enhance the elixirs!”

She had forgotten, but in her subspace inventory was Ciela’s Furnace, a treasure of the High Elves.

With it, she could amplify the effects of her potions.

She hurriedly retrieved it.

Fwoosh!

At her will, pure white flames erupted from Ciela’s Furnace.

She placed the elixirs over it.

The potions began to bubble, releasing a fragrant aroma into the air.

The dark elves’ eyes widened.

Just inhaling the scent eased their pain considerably.

Brielle focused her mind and adjusted the furnace’s flame.

She heard nothing else.

She saw nothing but the bubbling potion.

All her thoughts and senses were directed toward the furnace and the elixir.

Everything else faded.

Time seemed to slow.

When the color of the elixir changed, Brielle instinctively knew—

Its potency had increased.

She rushed to the suffering elves with the enhanced potion.

She poured it over the brands and administered it orally.

The effect was immediate.

Fsssh!

Brands that had resisted all treatment began vanishing as if they were lies.

“It’s working.”

A look of joy bloomed on Brielle’s face.

All the brands were being erased.

The very root of the pain that tormented them was being pulled out.

Proof of that was the color returning to the faces of the elves who had been gasping for life moments ago.

Floa, seeing the elves recovering, teared up.

She hugged Brielle tightly and said,

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I will repay this debt, no matter what.”

“Oh, it’s not that big of a favor…”

Embarrassed, Brielle blushed.

Zeon and Levin watched her with warm smiles.

“She did it in the end.”

“Seriously, she’s amazing. That tiny thing is tougher and more persistent than anyone.”

The young elf who had once been lost in the human world had now grown into someone capable of saving others.

The dark elves she had saved gathered around her.

Amid the crowd, Brielle shone brightly.

But Zeon’s expression was not as cheerful.

Because of ‘him’—the one he had seen through the bone necklace.

“Who… was that? And what did he want, giving such an item to an orc?”

He even wondered if it might have been Nigel, the half-dragon.

But the presence he’d felt was entirely different from Nigel.

‘With Nigel… and now this ‘him’… Unexpected things are unfolding everywhere.’

Something ominous was already beginning beyond Zeon’s sight.