Chapter 424: The Continent Beyond the Sea
Without lingering long in the Exile Lands, Aen and Zeke led the Orcs of the Icefang Tribe along the path they had taken to return to the Northern Regions.
This wasn’t just because their three-month period had come to an end, but more importantly because of the streams of light that had streaked across the sky.
Such strong and conspicuous phenomena—Aen and Zeke certainly didn’t believe they were the only ones able to see them.
They could, of course, interpret it as a sign brought about by Aen’s successful conquest of the Orcs of the Icefang Tribe.
Zeke had even gone so far as to plan how to link this spectacle to his envisioned Dragon-Worshipping Cult.
For instance, when Ismir roars angrily toward the heavens, the Gods would face their twilight and fall from the sky.
Yet, as the true power holders of the Kingdom of Ismir in the Northern Regions, Zeke understood clearly—this celestial phenomenon might benefit them, but it would also empower certain ambitious factions within their country.
After all, Aen was born in Greenwood. Even though he had now gained the recognition of the Northlanders, some nobles still clinging to the past would never forget this fact.
Such a heavenly omen could be used by Zeke—and by them as well. Especially now that Greenwood had, in a sense, conquered the Northern Regions, these local nobles had begun to emulate Greenwood’s ways.
It hadn’t been long since Greenwood had vied for the hearts of the Northlanders through songs spread by bards.
And even if these old nobles lacked the means to train their own bards, Zeke didn’t believe that the failed bards from Greenwood would refuse to aid them.
So, they pressed forward without rest. Many of the Orcs driven into a frenzied march by the two of them fell behind and perished in the Exile Lands—but no one cared, not even their own tribesmen.
“Look to the sky. That is the direction pointed out by the great Dragon God, Ismir.”
Even on the return journey, Zeke didn’t stop instilling Dragon-Worshipping ideology into the Orcs. He directly gathered the exhausted shamans of the tribes and transformed them all into priests of the Dragon-Worshipping Cult.
While these shamans had already shown signs of fanatical devotion, they also knew that Zeke’s move granted them greater authority.
Compared to tribal shamans, they now commanded more respect from the Orcs.
All life harbors desire for power—especially these aging Orc shamans, whose fluctuating authority had once held sway over their tribes.
Thus, these once-old shamans—now priests of the Dragon-Worshipping Cult—managed to reach the Giant Dragon Mountain Peak without a single death, as if by miracle.
They cried out that they had been blessed by the Dragon God.
Zeke was certain that, for these now-subjugated Orcs, the Dragon God Ismir had become their one true faith, and that Aen Ismir was His incarnation on earth.
A god among men.
But Aen paid no attention to these transformations.
They had run for five full days, and throughout those days, the streams of light overhead remained clearly visible, both day and night.
As they drew closer to the Northern Regions, Aen gradually noticed that those celestial streams of light were converging toward the Giant Dragon Mountain Peak.
Upon entering the region, he decisively changed course and headed straight for the mountain.
“I’m going up,” Aen said.
Zeke nodded silently.
“I won’t stop you—but you must remember, your life no longer belongs to you alone.”
Such a phenomenon, such a disturbance—and yet its center was this Giant Dragon Mountain Peak.
It was the mountain peak of the Northern Regions. Even if one ignored the deeper meaning behind it, its surface implications were enough to make them tremble.
Just look around—the nobles from Platinum City had sent envoys, Greenwood’s nobles had dispatched knights to investigate. Bards from both regions wandered about, already composing their verses, while merchants flitted through the crowds, eager to make coin.
In recent years, the people of Greenwood had believed that York City was the center of the world. But now, these celestial streams converged on the Giant Dragon Mountain Peak of the North.
If the Senate of Greenwood were to take this seriously, it might even provoke a true war against the Northern Regions.
This would not be a behind-the-scenes manipulation like before, but the real deployment of knights into the North.
Though the North had regained some vitality under their governance, to Greenwood it still remained a wasteland.
However, the title of “Center of the World” was far more valuable than whether the land was barren or not.
Thus, Zeke dared not stop Aen from climbing.
The Giant Dragon Mountain Peak was bitterly cold—colder even than the storms of the Exile Lands. The chill itself seemed like resistance. Even a powerful Iron Guard like Bazle could not ascend more than a third of the way.
To this day, only Aen had seen what lay beyond that third of the peak.
It truly felt as though the mountain possessed the will of a dragon, permitting only Aen, who bore the Dragon Soul, to ascend.
Were it not for this barrier, others would have likely surged up the mountain already, rather than waiting below.
“Don’t worry too much. The current Administrator of Greenwood, Agamemnon, is a kind and noble man. He would not easily launch such a senseless war,” Aen said briefly, as if to reassure.
In truth, Aen had only seen Agamemnon once—back when he was humiliated by the Grand Duke, and had delivered a letter on behalf of Bishop Jeven to withdraw gold coins.
As a mere merchant at the time, Aen wasn’t even qualified to meet Agamemnon.
Now he had the standing, but not the time or the circumstances to do so.
Still, since Bishop Jeven—whom Aen greatly respected—held Agamemnon in such high esteem, Aen believed that this administrator must indeed be a noble and kind man.
But Zeke—who had never even been to Greenwood—though a believer in the Lord under Aen’s influence, did not place as much trust in Greenwood’s bishops, priests, or the Lord’s servants.
As one who held power, especially over the bards of the North—the essential mouthpieces of public sentiment—he believed it was always right to question everything.
So Zeke simply said, “Perhaps you’re right. But there are some things I must act on quickly.”
Then, glancing around the area surrounding the mountain, he added, “This environment might suit the Orcs well.”
Aen nodded. “Then the former Hoover Territory and surrounding noble lands will be unified and re-designated as the Orc Province. These lands shall be granted to the Orcs as their new home.”
Zeke said, “I will proclaim your command to them—or rather, the oracle of Ismir. Then, in the Northlander way, I will ask the other guests to leave. If they refuse, then the Orcs will naturally defend their home. That too is defending your sovereignty.”
Aen replied, “Do as you say. I don’t know how long I’ll remain up there, but you must stay no more than three days. After that, you must return to the Platinum Tower. I’ve already spotted people from Antoine.”
“Ah… those who once followed me to overthrow the old nobles—how quickly they’ve fallen…”
Aen’s voice faded as his figure shot toward the mountain.
“Because they only wanted to remove the ones in power to seize that vacant authority for themselves. They never realized the times had changed. Even now, it’s already the Third Year of the New Testament Era,” Zeke murmured, as if answering Aen’s fading words.
Afterward, Zeke summoned the most fanatical of the newly converted priests from among the Orcs and began reading aloud the oracle of Ismir.
After hearing the oracle, those priests were extremely enraged. Those people had actually dared to defile the homeland bestowed upon them by the great Dragon God—such filth could only be washed away with blood.
Zeke had, of course, arranged for the local bards who had arrived here to notify those people.
But even if Zeke thought about it with Cooper’s heel, he knew those people would not retreat just because of a single sentence.
Therefore, rather than letting the Orc People wait here, it was better to have them replenish their strength in advance and sharpen their claws and fangs.
Sure enough, just as Zeke had predicted, those people found all kinds of excuses to try to remain here.
And so, they were met with the hunt of the Orc People.
All of the Orc People who had managed to follow without falling behind and reach this place were powerful warriors. Their number exceeded eight hundred, with some weaker Orc People trailing behind as they advanced toward the area.
Among those more than eight hundred Orc People, none were below Tier Three. There were more than forty Tier Four warriors, and the leader, Luke of the Icefang Clan, was a Tier Five existence.
This was an overwhelmingly powerful force—strong enough to directly overturn a marquis territory that possessed no Holy Relic, let alone these people who had merely been dispatched to investigate.
All of them combined could barely piece together two or three Tier Four Knights.
Thus, for the first time, these people experienced the Orc People’s combat style—ferocious like savage beasts.
They smashed skulls with their fists, tore bodies apart with sharp claws, opened their mouths to bite off human limbs, and then chewed and swallowed those limbs in front of the victims who screamed in agony.
Aen did not allow them to eat people—but could enemies truly be counted as people?
And for these Orc People, the term “enemy” was clearly less accurate than “prey.”
They were so brutal that the people of the Northern Regions and Greenwood nobles screamed as they fled the area, spreading the news of these beasts that had been brought out of the Exile Lands by the King of the Kingdom of Ismir of the Northern Regions.
Gradually, because of the rumors they spread, these beings came to be called beastmen.
From the coastal ports of Greenwood, one had to sail across the sea and traverse an unknown distance to reach an unknown continent.
Of course, this continent was now called “Talle” by its rulers.
And these rulers were naturally the progenitors of the Dark Creatures.
Over the past few years, they had slaughtered nearly half of the original inhabitants of the continent, transformed another portion into their racial thralls, and kept the remaining people penned in by those thrall races—either as blood sustenance or as slaves.
For ordinary humans, Tier Five was the absolute limit of what could be reached. Tier Six experts were heroes who surpassed miracles. Yet these progenitors were all Tier Seven existences—and there was even the Wolf God, an existence at Tier Eight.
For beings like them, overturning the rules of an entire continent was an effortless matter.
However, they also feared even greater existences. Thus, after the Wolf God’s explanation back then, they tried to make their thrall races resemble true races as much as possible.
At the very least, they needed a normal means of reproduction.
Either through mating, or through the granting of bloodlines.
Moreover, these thrall races had to possess a certain degree of growth potential.
Even if that growth potential was extremely harsh.
For example, for a lower vampire to become an upper vampire, it needed to consume the blood core of an upper vampire.
But if one had already reached the level of being able to devour an upper vampire’s blood core, how could that still be something a lower vampire was capable of?
Still, at least it was growth, and it could be considered a legitimate path.
In short, just as they had secretly heard from Greenwood about “order,” who could say that such rules were chaotic rather than orderly?
And it was precisely because these years of experimentation had not drawn retaliation from that existence that they believed they had done the right thing.
Thus, they began considering whether to establish nations belonging to their own races.
They did not wish to become Gods.
What was so good about becoming Gods?
They were already immortal beings, and after becoming Gods, they would be bound by their own races and gain severe weaknesses. The only thing worth mentioning would be divine power itself.
But immense power often eroded the heart—just like the Wolf God.
Before becoming a God, he had been brutally ferocious, yet after becoming a God, he had inexplicably begun using his brain.
This caused them, in private, to constantly suspect whether the Wolf God had already been killed by power itself, and that the current Wolf God was a new existence altogether.
They feared other problems arising—so they did not wish to become Gods.
“But my condition is that they must become Gods,” the Wolf God said.
He stood on the western coast of Talle, gazing at the streams of light that had grown far sparser than they had been days ago.
He knew that every single stream of light represented a captured God. In these five days alone, even if fewer than ten thousand Gods had been seized, at least eight thousand had been.
The first day had been the most terrifying—no fewer than three thousand Gods had been captured.
The Wolf God merely stood there, watching the movements of the heavens, feeling both his body and soul tremble.
He himself was a God. Standing there, he did not dare blink even once, fearing that the moment he blinked, a stream of light would卷 him away.
Yet up until now, he had not been attacked by the streams of light.
He naturally knew that the existence capable of creating such a vast disturbance and targeting the Gods must be that great existence of the Church of the Sanctuary.
And the fact that he had not been attacked—did it mean that that great existence had acknowledged him?
After all, this “World’,” compared to the entire World, was not even a drop of water in the ocean. If that existence truly targeted him, there would be no escape.
But the Wolf God was terrified. He wanted to flee this World’.
With the power he had accumulated from returning early, he could pick any already lifeless land and cause it to flourish anew.
He wanted to flee far away.
However, the Original Sin: Pride who came to speak with him told him, “That Holy Spear points outward. As long as any divine phenomenon appears within the Material Realm, it will be locked onto by the Holy Spear. No matter where one hides, they will be captured and imprisoned.”
“So relatively speaking, you are very fortunate right now. At the very least, you can still stand here, still live—and judging by the state of the Holy Spear, it does not seem to be targeting you.”