Chapter 21: The Legendary Werewolf! (3)

In the long history of this ancient continent, humans are merely ordinary passersby, even though they now inhabit the most fertile eastern lands. Of course, there are also orcs, elves, dwarves, giants, and even demons…
The history of this ancient continent is so vast that its original name is unknown. Humans cannot imagine how many races have seen rise and fall under the watchful eye of this ancient land. To understand it, human magicians can only rely on prehistoric ruins or stone tablets left behind by ancient intelligent beings—cultural relics with histories spanning thousands, tens of thousands, or even longer.
Due to their great age, it is extremely difficult for magicians to decipher these relics, as they are often ruined and the stones weathered. It is a test of their patience and determination. They frown at the blurred inscriptions on the stones, struggling to identify what kind of script it is. Perhaps an entire day passes with them shaking their heads in frustration, or all they end up with is a sigh of regret.
As we’ve said before, not all magicians pursue power. Some prefer to explore unknown secrets. It is because of these magicians that human magic has undergone such tremendous changes—from rudimentary alchemy to the flourishing era of magic we see today. The evolution of magical civilization has taken over a thousand years.
Throughout this long history, human records have documented countless other intelligent species: orcs, elves, dwarves, giants, and even dragons…
At first, human magicians believed that orcs and elves were the earliest beings on this continent. But as more prehistoric records were discovered, they realized that the devastating battles of a thousand years ago were merely trivial events in this land’s history.
Hundreds of years ago, when the great King Sassen first proposed ideas to improve magic, magicians, while studying these improvements, discovered an intelligent magical species even older than orcs—demons.
Humans can proudly claim to have invented alchemy, but they cannot say that magic originated because of them.

If one were to force a conclusion regarding the origin of magic, it is likely that no one has sufficient evidence to convince others. Some magicians believe that magic originates from demons, being an improved form of alchemy based on demonic power; others think that the ancient sages borrowed magic from the elves and thus created magic; yet another theory holds that magic was created by the gods, originating from the Age of Gods!
The Age of Gods is a very vague term used by human magicians. It refers to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years in prehistory—whenever gods truly existed in the history of this continent, the period when they dominated the continent was known as the Age of Gods.
As for the gods, most magicians prefer to consider them merely a beautiful legend. After all, gods are called gods precisely because they possess incomparable and irresistible divine powers. Magicians, let alone dark magicians, do not wish for gods to truly exist in the world.
To be honest, the most advanced intelligent magical beings they have encountered are demons. But for some reason, it seems they have left this continent—no, this plane, this space… Perhaps they live in another subspace and only descend to this world through some special means.
Therefore, after the Age of Gods, human magicians do not call this period the Age of Demons but rather the Age of Chaos, which is when the first magicians believed various intelligent beings began to appear.
In subsequent history, as the civilizations of these intelligent beings evolved, species such as orcs, elves, dwarves, giants, and humans emerged, capable of dominating the entire continent. Moreover, even powerful creatures like dragons gradually appeared on this continent. Various intelligent beings waged wars from time to time to ensure the survival of their own races. Thus, magicians referred to this period as the Post-Chaos Era.
Of course, the wars between races at that time were mainly between orcs and elves, or dwarves and giants. As for humans… they were merely weak beings subservient to the elves at that time.
Perhaps over hundreds or thousands of years, the elves gradually declined due to these prolonged wars. They could no longer withstand the strength of the orcs. By then, humans had developed their own civilization. They refused to remain under the rule of the elves, as the elves, who considered themselves superior intelligent beings, would not treat humans as equals.

In the days that followed, the orcs grew even stronger, threatening every race on the continent. By this time, the elves had been utterly defeated in this protracted struggle. No matter how unwilling they were, their own strength was no longer enough to deal with the formidable orcs.

It was at this moment that the glory of human history began!
At that time, humans did not possess the bravery and fighting skills of the dwarves, nor their agile movements. Yet, relying on their innate eloquence, they convinced the dwarves with fine wine and the elves with praise, uniting them to resist the orcs. Meanwhile, they also enlisted their distant relatives, the barbarians, to join the fight.

At that time, the elves and dwarves were not on good terms either. The elves habitually referred to dwarves as “bearded ones.” Although beards were a source of honor for dwarves more than scars, the elves’ tone was clearly not complimentary. The dwarves, however, were not good with words and preferred to solve problems with their axes rather than argue.

Thus, there was long debate over who should lead the alliance. Eventually, humans persuaded both races to make concessions. Even so, the dwarves still refused to let the elves lead the alliance, and the elves refused to let the dwarves do so. In the end, humans reluctantly took on the leadership of the alliance!

Though many versions of this story have circulated over time, this is roughly how it happened…
Of course, even though humans took control of the alliance, it didn’t mean they could command the elves and dwarves. The dwarves were somewhat more cooperative, but the elves would never obey humans. As a result, the alliance was defeated by the orcs in its early stages.

It must be said, however, that humans were indeed smarter and more resourceful than the other races… I wouldn’t say cunning…
Faced with the powerful orcs, humans utilized almost every available force, including dragons! They stirred up conflicts between the orcs and dragons and used words to turn giants against orcs, so that during that period, the orcs were almost at war with the entire continent.

Throughout this time, humans absorbed the cultural achievements of the dwarves and elves. They learned weapon-making from the dwarves and acquired some knowledge of magic from the elves, laying the foundation for the birth of alchemy.

In the end, the orcs were defeated and forced to migrate to the distant West. Yet when the members of the alliance prepared to divide the spoils of victory, they suddenly realized that humans had become a force as strong as, if not stronger than, theirs. Of course, an individual human still could not compete with dwarves or elves, but this human force was based on the total human population—a number that dwarves and elves could never match. Having served mostly as mere enforcers in this long war without gaining any benefits, the dwarves and elves angrily left the alliance. Perhaps they thought about seeking revenge, but unfortunately, the dwarves were still embroiled in battles with giants over territory in the northern continent, while the elves suffered a disastrous rebellion. By the time the dwarves and elves freed themselves, they could no longer keep up with human progress. This era was called the Golden Age by the magicians—of course, referring only to the golden period of human prosperity. In the days that followed, relations between humans and dwarves, elves, and even the original barbarians remained tense, and conflicts between humans and powerful creatures like dragons also intensified. However, as alchemy, which could be used as a weapon, matured and improved, humans established their dominance over the continent. This period was called the Alchemical Age by the magicians! Starting from the Golden Age, the main players on this continent were no longer dwarves, elves, or orcs, but humans! After the Alchemical Age, human alchemists focused on improving alchemy, aiming to turn it into a more powerful and deadly weapon. Thus, inspired by elves and demons, the concept of magic was born—this marked the Post-Alchemical Age. Meanwhile, the magicians referred to the period from the Golden Age to the Post-Alchemical Age as the Pre-Magical Age! The emergence of werewolves occurred at a stage when alchemy reached a bottleneck; alchemists were eager to find ways to improve or break through. Therefore, the earliest form of magic in human magic was curses! Thus, the origin of human magic can be traced to both elves and demons, giving rise to two magical systems: one based on the dark negative energy of demons, using the pentagram, and the other based on the natural energy of elves, using the hexagram. These two systems eventually evolved into black magic and white magic. But neither of them had anything to do with the gods!

Jean Cornille was born in the pre-magic era, or more precisely, in the post-alchemy era. Unlike other werewolves, Cornille was not a pure werewolf—not that he was a Gorgon or that his power came directly from demons or anything like that. Instead, over the course of a decade or two, alchemists sought knowledge about improving magic by experimenting on him and his kind, while the mad alchemists used their own concoctions to transform Cornille. In one sentence, Jean Cornille was the most powerful of all werewolves, as he not only survived 333 full moons but was also completely transformed by the alchemists. On this basis, Jean Cornille transformed into a Gorgon after his death… those immortal creatures that filled the alchemists with endless regret and despair! Legend has it that if a person is bitten by a werewolf and has their blood drained, they will turn into a werewolf, while if bitten by a vampire, they will become that vampire’s eternal slave. The former remains free, while the latter loses their freedom. But in any case, these two unfortunate people are still alive. However, it’s different if their blood is drained by a Gorgon… Strictly speaking, a vampire’s power comes from their blood or some kind of dark force, but a Gorgon is different—its power comes not only from blood but also from the soul! Whose soul? Well, naturally, the victim’s soul. Gorgons usually don’t actively seek to drink blood; they have a more convenient method—using their innate pure darkness to devour the person, along with their body and soul, thus incorporating them into the Gorgon’s power. Gorgons were once feared and terrorized, but ultimately, it was just people’s fear of their innate immortality! Of course, no species exists forever. Legend even says that even the gods will fall—could a creature like a Gorgon be superior to the gods? Of course not! Gorgons can be killed, but the problem is that you’ll never know how many times you need to kill them before they truly die… Legend says that the number of times a Gorgon can be killed equals the number of souls it has consumed. In other words, if it has devoured ten people, it can revive ten times; if it has devoured a hundred, it can revive a hundred times. But what if it’s ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million?

Even if Gungro just stood there waiting to be killed, it’s doubtful you could ever defeat him in your lifetime. Not to mention that Gungro already possesses immense power and can transform into a bat or use black blood to escape in times of danger—this is what truly fills countless people with fear and terror!
The chances of encountering a Gungro in history are extremely slim, and people back then were accustomed to burning the bodies of werewolves, so over hundreds of years, only a handful of cases have been recorded. Yet killing these Gungros always required massive amounts of manpower, resources, and time.
Silver is deadly to werewolves, and the same applies to ordinary vampires. But for Gungros, silver isn’t that effective—let alone Jean Cornel, who survived for hundreds of years even with silver spikes embedded all over his body!
“Crack!” The werewolf effortlessly broke the shackles on his body. His indifferent expression suggested they weren’t even made of black iron but merely a few withered branches.
“Clang! Clang!” One by one, the shackles on his body were broken. He moved his left wrist with his right hand, glancing indifferently at the dozens, even hundreds, of Gungros ahead.
“Look at the mess you’ve made, you little brat!” Ivor Beric roared in fury. No one present knew that man’s horror better than he did.
Every alchemist’s manuscript from hundreds of years ago mentioned this monster named Jean Cornel.
Yes! He was no longer a werewolf, nor was he an ordinary Gungro—he was an immortal monster who was killed at the peak of his strength and transformed into a Gungro after death!
Even with silver spikes inserted into his vital organs—deadly to werewolves—those could only restrict his movements without causing any real harm. Coupled with Gungros’ superhuman ability to recover quickly, the only thing that might truly harm him was the Church’s white magic. But this man had more than one life…
“It’s over… it’s over…” Ivor Beric muttered in terror.
In truth, he understood that his so-called achievements, though attributed to Gungros and seemingly granting immortality, were far inferior to the legendary true Gungros…
In the end, they were just “excellent inferior products.” They could only rebuild their bodies by consuming blood energy—this wasn’t true immortality at all!

Seemingly in response to Ivor Beric’s words, the werewolf turned back at Ravia with a hint of mockery, saying mischievously, “He said… I’ll destroy everything I see here…”
The girl’s expression remained calm. After glancing at the werewolf, she asked softly, “Will you?”
“…” The werewolf opened his mouth, seemingly caught off guard. He had intended to scare her on purpose, but upon seeing those familiar eyes, he gave up and laughed self-mockingly. “What an annoying little brat!” With that, a wave of darkness surged from his feet, spreading rapidly across the ground. This pure, profound darkness resembled that of the dark bear.
“…” Ravia tried in panic to avoid the spreading darkness, but to her surprise, it seemed to have a life of its own—parting to the sides as it approached her, leaving her about a yard of space. Elsewhere, whether on the walls or ceiling, the darkness emanating from the werewolf spread across most of the dungeon in just a few seconds.
Yet this darkness differed from that of the dark bear—it contained streaks of bright red, making it easy to imagine what they were.
“Damn it!” Ivor Beric glared at Ravia in anger.
He was furious because it was this girl’s foolish actions that had put him in danger. Even if he managed to escape this true Gungor, his six years of research and data would likely be destroyed.
But anyway, his own life was more important than those research materials…
“Kill them!” Ivor Beric gave his hundreds of Gungors their final order.
Upon receiving the order, hundreds of Gungors turned their spears toward Connel, as they could sense that this man posed the greatest threat!
Yet Connel, who watched calmly as hundreds of his “kind” rushed at him, showed no reaction at all. He didn’t even move, letting them charge at him.
“Oh my god!” Ravia was shocked because she saw those Gungors vanish instantly after entering the werewolf’s dark realm. One-third of them disappeared without a trace, as if they had never existed at all.

The remaining Gungro suddenly halted their attack. They all stared at Connel. Without souls, they were still suppressed by instinct.
“Tch!” Under the girl’s astonished gaze, the werewolf at the center of the darkness frowned and said oddly, “So indeed, there are no souls…”
“Indeed?” The girl understood the meaning in the werewolf’s words. Seeming to grasp something, she covered her mouth in shock and said, “You… you swallowed them?”
Seeing the disgust in the girl’s eyes, the werewolf tried to explain, “As you see, they came to me on their own.” He pointed with his right hand at the darkness around them and said mockingly, “Do you think this is alchemy? Or something like… oh, magic? No! This darkness is originally part of my body. As you can see, I didn’t deliberately swallow them… Besides, these soulless creatures can’t bring me any benefit at all!”
“But swallowing…”
“Do you think these things can still be called humans? No! They’re neither werewolves nor humans, nor even Gungro! They’re nothing but corpses that attack out of instinct!” The werewolf paused, then looked at the girl disdainfully and said, “Weren’t you the one who asked me to deal with them just now?”
“But I didn’t say…”
“But for me, this is the fastest way!” Connel interrupted Ravia evilly. “I’ve said before, don’t think of me as too kind… And now, you’re almost inside my ‘body’ too. Be careful not to fall. If you drop into that darkness, even I won’t be able to save you…”
“…” The girl seemed terrified. She glanced down in panic, then, as if realizing something, glared angrily at the werewolf.
“That’s right. Don’t always give me that annoying look,” the werewolf said. The sadness in his eyes gradually faded as he laughed heartily. Then, suddenly realizing something, he frowned and said, “Damn it!”
“What?” The girl instinctively looked up and saw the giant bear of darkness surrounding the boy suddenly turn into countless streams of dark energy, sweeping toward the remaining Gungro, who were under the werewolf’s overwhelming influence. It was easy to imagine what would happen next.
“No, Thos! Don’t do this!” The girl shouted instinctively, her expression extremely anxious. Clearly, she didn’t want to see that scene again…

“Tch! An annoying brat!” Glancing at the girl, the werewolf shook his head. Raising his right hand, countless hands emerged from the endless darkness, trying to stop the dark bear from devouring the Gungro it had subdued. But the next moment, the werewolf’s expression changed abruptly. The hands made of darkness turned even darker and purer the moment they touched the bear, and that darkness surged back toward the werewolf. “Damn it!” Connel quickly severed the connection with those dark hands, watching helplessly as that energy became part of the bear’s strength. “It can even devour me in return? What kind of demon did that brat bargain with?” It was unbelievable that he, who was good at devouring others, was now having his energy taken by a mere brat. “He didn’t do that!” “Do you think I’ll believe you?” Though he said it jokingly, the werewolf’s gaze turned serious, as he sensed a power within that brat that even made him feel fear and hesitation. No! That wasn’t the power of a demon—it was higher! A far greater power! Although Connel couldn’t change the fact that he had become a Gungro, he refused to accept it. After all, becoming a werewolf was his own choice, but transforming into a Gungro wasn’t his will. Yet, whether he accepted it or not, a Gungro was a being even closer to a demon than a werewolf—indeed, a Gungro could almost be considered a type of demon. In the world of demons, mere strength wasn’t enough to make them superior to other demons; there was something even more important—rank! Rank originated from bloodline and was almost unchangeable. In the world of demons, an excellent bloodline greatly enhanced a demon’s strength. Higher-ranking demons dominated lower-ranking ones—a rule and fact that had remained unchanged for thousands or tens of thousands of years. Higher-ranking demons didn’t need to use force to subdue lower-ranking ones; simply showing their presence was enough to make them flee. There were eleven ranks among demons, from the highest monarchs to the lowest familiars. Each rank represented an insurmountable gap. A typical Gungro was roughly in the eighth rank, the leadership tier. Of course, for Connel, he was far beyond that rank—much higher! Yet even so, his power was taken from him without a doubt…

“That little brat… No! What kind of being is that bear-like creature?”
A myriad of questions arose in the werewolf’s mind.
It seemed as though he could hear the roar of that giant bear deep within his soul. The feeling that made him shudder from the core of his being, along with his subconscious instincts, all warned him—if that bear truly belonged to some kind of demon, it must be a high-ranking one! Perhaps… even higher…
“Thos…” the girl murmured.
But all that responded to her call was the giant bear, which looked around with its once-again solidified, massive body. Then, its blood-red eyes fixed on the werewolf.
Just as he had guessed, this bear would not only instinctively attack anyone hostile toward it or the boy but also those strong enough to pose a threat to it…
Obviously, this werewolf, who had lived for hundreds of years, certainly met that criterion…
“Swish!” Connel withdrew the darkness that surrounded them. After all, that giant bear was a higher-ranking being. Using such a tactic, meant only for weaker foes, on that bear would undoubtedly replenish its energy.
Seemingly understanding what Connel intended, the girl said urgently, “Don’t… don’t hurt him… I… I beg you…” Even though the other party had helped her and seemed harmless, given its immense power, she feared provoking it.
Of course, not for herself…
“Hurt him?” Connel glanced at the girl with a worried expression and shook his head in frustration. He wanted to say it was himself who would be hurt, but upon seeing the tears in her eyes, the werewolf seemed touched by memories deep in his heart. He simply nodded and said softly, “Stay back. That bear isn’t easy to deal with!”
“…” The girl hesitated for a moment before finally standing by the wall. After all, with her current strength, she couldn’t help at all.
“What a troublesome little brat!” The werewolf sneered at the boy trapped inside that dark giant bear. “So reckless. Is this the power you can currently control? I’m curious what kind of being granted you this power is… Hehe, as long as I can pull it out…”
“Please don’t hurt him!” The girl’s interruption silenced Connel’s words.
“Damn it!” Connel sighed in frustration. Clearly, he didn’t like this kind of constrained battle at all.

“Come on, let me see what kind of creature you really are!” he said, waving his finger at the giant bear. In response to his provocation, the bear let out a roar that seemed utterly real. “Roar!”