Side Story 28: The Three-Eyed Fenrir, Belzac. [Release Version] (Patreon)

Typos and some changes to Asaka's rant.

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[“I am Belzac and my soul has awakened from its slumber in this shrine of mine. I can feel my bloodline waning but, at the same time, I can feel my descendant growing in power. I have been informed by the Goddess of Monsters, Edna, that you human pups know them.”]

The telepathic voice was deep and growly, a bit like an older man. From my experience with Yorshka’s [Telepathy], a person’s voice would usually be transmitted and could be heard by the recipient, as using telepathy was similar to speaking inside your mind. You were speaking your thoughts out loud, literally in this case.

Still, this voice wouldn’t have been so imposing wasn’t it coming from the skeletal remains of a giant wolf with three eye sockets. Belzac, the S rank [Three-Eyed Fenrir]. That was the being that was speaking with me and Asaka. After learning that Segawa-Sensei was reborn as one of this monster’s descendants, our parties looked up as much information about him as we could find in Firwood.

Little did I expect that Asaka and I would meet this thing on this day. As such, neither of us knew what to reply to.

[“… Your silence is unacceptable. I wish you to learn more about my descendant. I awake every time a new [Belzac’s Successor] evolves into a fenrir of any kind. It should not have been special as it is likely for opposition to grow and slay them; however, this time, Goddess Edna spoke with me. She told me it was time for me to act.”]

A tingling sensation spread around our skin, causing goosebumps. As Asaka and I looked at each other, we noticed two pathways — one behind the statue of the fenrir and another to the side, where a row of human skeletons was seated. Even without speaking, I could guess Asaka’s intention and readied myself to pick her up and run for it.

<[Terror (Moderate)] inflicted on [Human, Tatsuya Nagata]>

However, in the next instance, the pressure increased even more and our limbs felt paralyzed, unable to act. [“Your motives are clear. I can smell your fear and desire for flight. However, you shall not leave until I have said my piece and you have accepted my proposal.”]

The statue suddenly rumbled as if it was alive, revealing a small compartment on the front of the statue’s stone stand. From here, I could not see what was hidden there.

[“Boy, come, pick it up.”] The pressure around me subsided, causing me to fall on my knees, sweating and breathing heavily. I clenched my teeth as the [Terror (Moderate)] subsided, strengthening my will to resist it next time. With my hands clenched into fists, I stood up and obeyed the monster, taking out a small wooden vial from the compartment.

“What is this?” I asked, opening it up only to see some red viscous liquid inside it.

[“That is most likely the last remaining amount of my blood in this world. After I was slain by the combined might of the elves and humans, my pack and my worshippers quickly retrieved my corpse. These humans you see here entombed me inside this place, to keep my body safe while building a shrine for my soul to rest in,”] Belzac explained, only to make me question how he was able to do that. Peolynca had gods, and one of those gods was the Goddess of Death and Necromancy, Ilsaphone, who ruled over the souls of the deceased.

Noticing this, Belzac continued, [“It was my plea to her, who was gracious enough to grant me mercy for an agreement. My soul was transformed into an onnikai, bound to this statue to prevent me from going feral. Over the two millennia, I have waited for a worthy successor, but none of them have ever reached S rank, dying before they could. However, now, the second-highest authority of the Marsven pantheon has spoken to me, telling me it was time.”]

“Urgh!” I turned around to Asaka’s groan, falling to the ground just like I had. Brushing the sweat on her forehead with a hand away, her eyes narrowed in rage as she looked at the statue. “Asshole!”

Oi! Your loud mouth will get us killed, Asaka!

However, the wolf spirit did not give much attention to Asaka at all, as if everything before him was beneath his interests. [“As per my agreement with Goddess Ilsaphone, I am to help her create a patron race for her with the help of the onnikai. To do so, I must meet with my descendant.”]

“And you want us to do that? Bring that wolf here?” I knew he was talking about Sensei here, but I would rather not trouble her with this kind of nonsense. Call me paranoid or what, but I had a bad feeling about this Belzac.

[“Goddess Edna has informed me that you are connected to my descendant by fate. As such, you two shall act as my messengers. Swear to bring my descendant to me, and you may leave this place with your life.”] Suddenly, the blood vial in my hand shivered, causing me to flinch back. The amount of weird stuff today was insane! [“To ensure your survival until then, I shall grant you two a measure of my power. For the boy, my blood was blessed by Goddess Ilsaphone. You shall become a druid who can channel the might of my blood without needing to consume more of it, it shall be one with you. A glimpse of the power of an S rank will be wielded by you.”]

What?!

I eyed the vial of blood in my hand. I could feel something stirring inside me that I hadn’t felt since I first learned you could wield magic in this world. An excitement. An exhilarating rush at the idea of more power and abilities. The gamer’s sense for progression as a new ability was dangled right in front of them like a carrot.

Honestly, what was OP about my profile? Outside of my [Rush Hour] unique skill that I gained when I came to this world, what other “goodies” have I gained since I came over here? Sure, I was trained by one of the best spear wielders you could find, but honestly, I couldn’t consider myself OP yet. Competent, sure, but not “one-shot, galaxy spear” type of overpowered.

From what I’d heard from Tamae about Sensei’s abilities, I really was a bit envious of how broad her repertoire was. Black lightning, summoning giant wolves, mana threads, and the abilities of an assassin all combined into the body of a B rank fenrir. On the other hand, all I had were the spear techniques Yorshka had trained me to wield.

What could I gain from this blood?

I gulped. Curiosity was enticing me to accept Belzac’s offer, especially since this deal also included getting out of here.

[“For the girl, I shall grant you the power of my deceased pack.”] Small clouds of black smoke appeared from all three tunnels, which included the one we came into this room from. Four of them congregated around the statue, swirling around in the air. [“The souls of four of my pack members turned into onnikai by Goddess Ilsaphone. Although they sadly lost their egos through the two millennia, they can still serve as guards, keeping you safe and granting you the ability to control these powerful A rank souls. Now, accept my gifts and bring my—”]

“Yeah, fuck no, asshole. As if we would agree to something shitty like that!”

“Asaka?!” I snapped my head around with my eyes widened in shock. I rushed over to her and grabbed her shoulders. “Hey, hey, are you an idiot, Asaka?! Didn’t you hear what he just said? We can’t leave this place alive if we don’t accept his proposal! You felt it for yourself, right? His [Terror Aura], or whatever intimidating skill he had, could paralyze us as we stood!”

Asaka clicked her tongue at my words, pushing my hands off her shoulder and glared right back at me. “Me? An idiot? Stupid! How about you think for yourself for a bit instead of getting tunnel vision at the bait dangling right in front of you! Did playing all those video games really rot your mind when we still went to school together?”

She then pushed me aside, took her mace in her arm before casting a spell. “Divine power of the heavens, bless my mind and body with holy strength. To smite the enemy in the Goddess’s way, and to become a beacon for the faithful. To protect the light in your incandescent sight! Holy Eminence!”

As Asaka raised her mace up in the air, the spell was activated and shrouded her whole body in holy light like a light bulb. This light grew, creating a protective aura around her. Once it was finished, she used [Synergist’s Oath] to transfer the spell effect to me before casting it again on herself.

<[Holy Eminence] inflicted on [Human, Tatsuya Nagata]>

<Holy Eminence: A holy spell passed down the leading order of the Church of Aurena. A spell that casts a protective shroud around the caster, vastly increasing holy and dark resistance within the influence of the aura. Strength and Intelligence is increased by 10% of the base value while also attuning all physical attacks with the holy element>

[Holy Eminence] was a spell only cardinal-ranked clergymen or above could learn from the holy scriptures within the library of Aureolis’s basilica, the headquarters of the church of Aurena. Since Asaka was a saint candidate, she was allowed to learn custom spells that only the high-ranked clergy were privy to. Even if she was just recently appointed, it was still her right, apparently.

The spell is primarily a defensive spell to protect yourself and those around you, however, considering how Asaka was more a battlemage with decent Strength, the spell was mostly used to help her smack things better. In this case, though, she really was only using it defensively.

“Don’t forget what we learned in Rashan village, Tatsuya. Onnikais are born from dead lesser fae whose rage or anger caused them to be reborn. If these four were blessed by the Goddess of Death, then they would be weak against holy spells.” Asaka’s reminder made sense. Even if Belzac was still this powerful as an onnikai, he couldn’t be powerful enough to resist Asaka’s magic.

Still, I had to question her actions. “But, what are you trying to do by antagonizing him? Two power boosts are right in front of us, but you’re rejecting them? We could use more power, Asaka.”

“Yeah, and I agree, obviously. But you have to be a dumbass to accept the proposal of some random ancient being. This isn’t a game, Tatsuya. Aren’t you even one bit suspicious at the fact he wants you to drink his blood? What about those spirits, huh? He says they are egoless, but how am I supposed to know that? Don’t you think he wants to control us?” Asaka’s assumptions hit me like thunder. Without a doubt, I had just allowed the gamer side of me out, and was about to accept the wolf’s proposal without doubting it enough. After all, he barely gave me any details on how all of this worked.

Asaka continued, “Besides, I’m willing to meet up with that bitch again, but I’m not doing any favors for her. Even if you turn out to be an asshole of a villain who tries to take over her body to be reborn, as if I would tell you anything after you tried to threaten me.” Her petty side was giving her a reason to decline the fenrir’s deal. Looking at her with bafflement probably was the appropriate action.

“Thirdly, and lastly.” She raised her arm, pointing at the statue. “I know this is a bluff. If you could just kill us, then why didn’t you speak with us while we were above ground, huh? Why are you speaking with us now only after we fell? It’s like you said, you are trapped here. Your area of influence is small. You cannot afford to just leave us here to die, otherwise your little descendant will never find you. If you kill us here, then forget ever fulfilling your plan, because the moment the others come here to find us, they will beat your ass for what you did.”

Wait, was Asaka always this cunning?! I was seeing a new side of this “yankee,” a term we Japanese use for adolescent delinquents.

“Besides, I have enough on my plate with how I still have to work for the church just so they don’t get suspicious. And then, of course, I have to take care of these idiots. And now you want to give me more responsibilities?! As if. Fuck that! I’ve had enough of working for others, dammit.”

… As much as she’d surprised me with her intelligent side, it dawned on me that it was all wasted with how shitty her work ethics was. Still, regardless of her second and, unofficial, fourth reason, she was bringing up a bunch of stuff I’d overlooked. About to drink some super old blood wasn’t the most sensible idea I’ve ever gotten.

As Belzac stayed quiet, Asaka gave out a smug “Hmph” before telling me to throw the blood vial away and follow her into one of those tunnels. But before we could, the pressure of Belzac’s [Terror Aura] assaulted us once again. However, with us prepared for it, Asaka’s and my mental resistance skills activated perfectly, helping us resist the tension, although we still felt slightly unwell as we continued moving forward.

Oof, if I didn’t have Asaka with me, damn, I probably wouldn’t have made it through.

But that relief was quickly dispelled as the two of us could only look in shock at what Belzac did next. The shadow from underneath the statue moved, shrouding the onnikais in it like an armor of shadows. They moved into Asaka’s [Holy Eminence], unperturbed as the holy attack singed the shadow armor.

As I was prepared to fight back, the shadows grew into skulls and shrieked like banshees, dispelling the holy aura around us into particles. We both stepped back, readying our weapons as we realized we had sorely underestimated this monster. Even if it was dead, it was once an S rank monster.

[“Female, you are too feisty for your own good; Indeed, you speak the truth, my powers are restricted to this shrine of mine. I am but a shadow of my former glory. However, I did not lie when I told you cannot leave this place alive. Covered in the enchantments of these human worshippers of mine, I can control who may enter and who may leave. There are no exits to find or create while I am unsatisfied.”]

W-What?! Then, the guy really wasn’t bluffing!

[“Do not misunderstand my intentions, humans. The blood and onnikais are not an extension of my will, but they are, as I said, a gift to help you survive. Now, what is the incentive for you to fulfill this duty, you may ask? My answer is the favor of Goddess Edna, the wife of Origin God of Darkness, Marsven,”] Belzac stated.

“Huh, you do know the church of Aurena preaches that worshippers of Marsvens are misguided followers at best and unforgivable heathens at worst, right? Why should we trust you?” Asaka responded with a forced smile.

[“The origin gods are the only ones you may believe in if it comes to the preservation of this world, for mortals only seek for power, regardless of whether it would harm this world or not. My descendant has caught the attention of Goddess Edna, but cannot commune with her. If you seek a way to your true home, then I would suggest you work for those who have this world’s good in mind.”]

Wait, does he know the truth of who summoned us to this world?!

“Hold on, you know we are visitors from another world?!” I shouted.

[“Indeed.”]

“Then tell us, who was it? If it wasn’t Goddess Aurena, then tell us who it was! Who brought us to this world!?” I demanded, but it seemed Belzac couldn’t care less about my worries.

[“If you wish for knowledge, then you must work for it. You have gained none of my goodwill during this discussion, so I shall not bequeath you with what you seek. Go, find my descendant and bring them to me!”]

Frowning, I looked above me to the ceiling and bent my knees. I activated [Dragoon Jump] and jumped upwards, thrusting my spear forward, drilling the tip of my spear into the earth. When I repeated this action and attacked the same hole I made just a second ago, I noticed how it wouldn’t go any deeper. I tried it two more times before giving up. There really was something stopping me from going forward.

“Asaka…” I looked over to her, seeing her biting her lips as she tried to contemplate a plan. When she opened her eyes, she gave out a defeated sigh.

“Using my brain only to fail. Every fucking time,” she murmured, before stepping forward and picking the blood vial I had thrown on the ground. I had closed it earlier so the content wouldn’t spill, believing that wasting any of the blood probably would have enraged the wolf even more. “You don’t mind us checking the tunnels, right?”

[“There is no issue. Go, please your curiosity.”]

Asaka placed the vial of blood on the statue and called me over to help her explore the tunnels to make sure the fenrir wasn’t lying to us.

After making it far into the tunnel, the awkward silence from before continued. This time, however, I had something to say to her. “Asaka, that argument you made… well, it was pretty cool, you know. Didn’t know you could debate that well when we went to school. Then again, with how often you argued with people in Aureolis, I should have guessed it.”

“Well, not like you or any of the other students at Shirako High wanted to learn anything about me. Congratulations for learning that the mind-numbing education my parents imposed on me wasn't wasted.”

“Your parents are politicians, right?” It wasn’t a secret that Asaka’s constant delinquency was usually swept under the rug by her parents. With how she was known for dyeing her hair blue and painting graffiti in alleyways, if her parents hadn’t been influential, she probably would have been kicked out of school at some point. “With how successful your parents are in the political sphere, and with how you actually aren’t just another idiot, I have to ask — why did you become so rebellious? My father feeds me with a silver spoon, so I know how people like us are set for life if they just study and work hard enough.”

“Pah, shut up,” she scoffed at me, her eyes flaring up in anger. Crossing her arms and looking the other way to hide her expression, I now had a feeling that it was something family-related at this point. “You don’t know shit about my parents. Sure, in public, they are doing well and all, but you can’t say the same about their private life. Pfft, absolutely no affection, a household with a constant business atmosphere, disregarding anything that doesn’t suit their plan. You would suffocate if you were in my shoes.”

“…” I stayed silent. There was no way to stop her rant at this point, and it would be better for her to unleash it all.

“Do you want to know what they told me when I asked them why they were being so strict to Onii-chan and me? They told me, ‘This marriage is a business venture between our families. We need to make it work, so do your part, Asaka.’ There was no love between those two when they agreed to get married, there never was. The only reason they got together and gave birth to two children was to continue their families’ influence in politics.”

She then turned around, eyes filled with tears now. “My big brother was supposed to inherit everything since he was eight years older than me, you know. He was groomed since he was small to become their heir, and they admitted right in my face that they only wanted me because my mother’s family needed somebody to inherit something. Do you know how fucked up all of this was for me when I grew up! My life has been a constant rollercoaster of drama!”

“I-I’m so—” I wanted to apologize for opening her wound, but she did not allow me to speak.

“And then big brother died when I was still in middle school! Do you know how much I cried when I heard that the only person who ever showed a hint of love and warmth to me had died two days earlier just because my parents were selfish enough to ‘grieve’ by themselves because they didn’t want to hear me wail like a dying monkey?! Just saying, they used this ‘grieving’ moment to recreate my education program before leaving for work as I cried alone in my house!”

With her bare fist, she struck the wall cracking it slightly as the tears dropping on the ground echoed throughout the tunnel. Breaking down onto her knees, she finished her story, “I learned a year later by eavesdropping on a conversation between my tutor and parents that brother died from stress. My tutor complained that they were pushing me forward on the same path, having learned nothing of what they did…”

“… I-I am sorry,” was all I could say.

“Don’t be. Whew! Weirdly enough, revealing everything the second time really does wonders. I didn’t feel so good when I told Haruka-chan all of this,” Asaka stated, clapping her cheeks.

“Hold on, Haruka-chan knows everything already?”

“Yeah, why do you think we got along so well despite hating each other’s guts for the first couple of months? You know, my parents forbade me from visiting a therapist since they feared I would spill everything and that it could be used as blackmail on them, but I probably wouldn’t have ended this way if I could speak my mind. At least, that’s what I read on the internet.”

“… So the reason why you hate taking on responsibilities is because—”

“Of my parents, yeah,” Asaka answered before I could finish asking. “They were demanding and without love. Anything I could do to harm them was like candy for me. Even seeing them erupting in rage was more enjoyable than the constant poker face they kept up, even at home. When they scolded me after I took up graffiti, that was probably the most parenting I ever experienced from them, hahaha!”

Asaka then stood up, murmuring, “I wonder how they are feeling now? Did they replace me with one of my cousins?” before gesturing for me to continue walking.

As she wiped the tears from her face, I sighed.

I really didn’t know much about you, Asaka. Never even tried to get to know your situation.

Our exploration yielded nothing. Belzac hadn’t been lying when he told us there was no exit. After I tried digging a path up and saw that it was protected by a black sheet of some kind, we gave up and ran back to Belzac. Considering our friends were still fighting against the grimgarians, we really didn’t have any more time to waste, so we reluctantly agreed to Belzac’s proposal.

“Just to be sure, this blood won’t corrupt me or something, right? It won’t turn me into a werewolf, right?” I asked, scared of drinking the blood after everything Asaka mentioned.

[“A druid is a warrior mage who is attuned to nature, able to bring out the power of a monster’s blood by drinking it. This blood is special, though. You will not need the natural disposition to nature as other druids, but you will have a harder time taming the power. On the other hand, you won’t need to drink more blood to wield my power, a definite boon.”]

I glanced at Asaka; she was prepared to cast healing magic in case this would hurt. I gulped some spit and breathed in deeply. Closing my eyes and nose, I chugged the red liquid down my throat in one gulp. The metallic taste spread around my tongue as I sucked every bit of blood down into my stomach.

For a bit, nothing happened to me. No System messages nor any strong feeling. As I felt I was overreacting too much, I slowly opened my eyes in relief…

… only to be assaulted by a gut-wrenching pain, as if something was twisting my organs up and squeezing everything from them.

“ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Tatsuya!”