Illyan's mind was hazy as the unrelenting feeling of being crushed made him wish for death. He couldn't feel any of his limbs or any other body part. The only reason he knew that he was still alive was the pain coursing through his body.

His eyes were closed the entire time as the broken bits of ice were flying around at high speed, so he didn't have an idea of how far and deep this worm had gotten. Nor did he know how much time had passed. His reality perception was distorted as he was focusing only on circulating the power of his gift throughout his body.

That was one of the two reasons why he was still alive. Although bloodied to the point of bleeding out and with crushed bones to mere powder but still alive. The only relief he felt was that he managed to throw his friend upwards and save his life. Albeit with one hand less.

The other reason, however, was quite ironic.

Wooooo-rgh!

The tangle of flesh and bones pressed upon him was wriggling while tanking most of the damage caused by Frozen Worm crashing every piece of ice it could see. The antlers were not only the cause of doom for him but also for the Wolf Beast that got stuck with its antlers in the Frozen Worm’s protrusion.

As Illyan had to endure all the pressure, the sharp shards of ice, the beast had to endure a hundred-fold more. At this very moment, there was already no similarity with wolves as it did in the past.

Now, its flesh and bones were uncovered while it was staring at its prey with empty sockets for eyes on its skull. It was a beast no more.

It was a monster. An undead monster.

Illyan heard about the undead from a young age when his parents were still alive. He remembered the stories about not going out during the night and never desecrating a dead body that wasn’t buried.

The stories of the dead coming back to life to bring misery to the living.

But was this really the same case?

This beast was weird from the very beginning. Illyan didn’t perceive it as much before as he didn’t know that it seemed to be different from normal beasts but now he remembered… The small details that made him wonder…

In the first place, the fact that he was stuck in this monster’s stomach for over three years was unthinkable. Not mentioning his gift, even the monster’s body should react in some way to either digest him or throw him up.

But what if its digestive system was defective from the very beginning?

The more Illyan thought about it, the more he felt something was profoundly wrong.

He covered his eyes with his hands and risked another injury to his eyes to look at it. If not now when it couldn’t sweep its hands on him and needed to endure all of the destruction then when?

However, despite all of that, it was still extremely difficult for him to focus. The Frozen Worm was swimming in the solid sea at an extreme speed, making not only ice but also air and water that was trapped in the ice in the form of water capsules constantly giving him a hard time to even breathe.

Fortunately for him, he was used to not breathing for prolonged times, and his body would also be able to withstand it.

Thanks to that, after a few minutes, he finally could open his eyes widely and focus on the beast that, albeit in a sorry state, was still looking at him with hatred in its eyes.

He could almost feel the intangible feeling of its feelings. Yet the face it was making was completely the same as he remembered it from his past.

But the way he perceived it back then was completely different. Back then he thought that it was an evil monster that was enjoying the suffering of humans as it delighted in eating human flesh.

Nothing changed as he still thought so. But…

The motive was completely different. While back then he thought of it as just a mindless beast full of evil, now he saw the emotions that were similar to that of humans.

Hatred.

Hatred that seemed to be full of insanity hidden by its creepy smile as it gazed at his kind.

‘Stone. You must overcome this. It won’t be able to hurt you. You grew while it regressed. It is a pitiful creature worthy of regret. Ending its life won’t only give the release of yours but also its too.’

The words of Zephyr resurfaced in his mind. She told him this when he was facing the hallucinations of this monster during his trip to the Spirit World…

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‘She knew?’ This was the first thing that came to his mind when he finally remembered. In truth, he thought she said what she said to help him overcome his fears. But now when he thought about it, it seemed that she knew something was wrong. And since she was part of himself then it meant that his inner him knew it all along. However, it was hidden deep in his subconsciousness.

In the end, this thought came to light in the form of Zephyr, his imaginary friend—or what he should call her. Even the hallucination that he had was probably influenced by her thinking, as the Wolf monster was already rotting in that image.

But still… That didn’t explain anything. Why was it like this, and what was this creature truly?

Illyan always thought of it as the 'Wolf Monster' for the sake of simplicity, but it was obviously far from normal wolves. Only its look resembled wolves, albeit distantly. But now, only bones and rotten flesh remained, making it look horrendously dissimilar to any other 'living' creature.

Another difference he noticed during this reunion was its ability to talk. Even if the complex emotions this monster held were easily missed by his younger self, this significant detail was impossible to ignore.

That made him wonder if it was some kind of evolution that Kaoran once talked about. He said that there were circulating legends about non sentient creatures getting enlightened and gaining intellect equal or even superior to other sentient beings, such as humans.

But Illyan didn’t think that this was the case. On the contrary, it felt like the Wolf Monster was devolving despite the increase in its strength and ability to control coldness to some extent.

Looking at its wild yet sorrowful visage as it shuddered from all the pain, he felt conflicted. However, despite knowing all of this, he couldn’t forgive it. He didn’t want to either. That it had some unbearable problems didn’t matter to him, as it had literally killed his entire village, together with the others that were probably dead already.

Still, the look of anger and hunger, as its jawless maw spewed saliva in hopes of tasting his flesh, made him pity it a bit.

“Arrrgh!”

Its muffled roars resounded as it tried to claw him. But it was not successful, which frustrated it to no end.

“Wh–yyy?! Huu–maaans! Why did yooo-uuu dooo th—aaaat to meee—?!”

It once again started to speak. Illyan didn’t understand how it did it as it missed most of its jaw, not to mention that he was aware that the structure of most animals disallowed as good pronunciation of words as that of humans.

“Flesh! Flesh! Flee—sh! Hu–man Fleesh! Wh-y?! Why do I?! N–eeed it…”

Its incoherent mumbling was chilling to hear, as Illyan didn’t have any other chance. Even the destruction and the speed of their movement didn’t stop him from hearing its lamentations.

Its voice that at first reminded him of an old man then turned more feminine and younger sounding as it was lamenting. In this way, its voice started to change from one voice to another. This made Illyan realize that it wasn’t exactly its voice. It was imitating a human voice.

It was as if it was some kind of curse…

‘Curse?’

Since he never thought deeply about it, he missed many little details.

And this thought process made him remember.

‘Didn’t that image of this monster in my hallucination show that it had some kind of black rods impaled in it?’

He focused his eyes even more at the body of the monster and then widened his eyes in disbelief. There were still bits of skin and fur covering its body in some places, but when he focused more, he noticed that many parts of its bodies were forcibly held together by the same black rods…

It was no wonder that this walking corpse still didn’t decompose itself to the point of collapsing.

At this moment, Illyan was very sure that this wasn’t the work of this monster.

This monster was a victim. And he could deduce from the beast’s unending hatred for him, no, for humanity he could only guess…

That this monster was the result of human work.

This deduction made Illyan feel the chill up his spine.

He knew the cruelty of humans, as there were many who bullied him when he was younger. But his outlook changed when he lived through the real cruelty when his village was destroyed by those monsters. That made him loathe them and fear them at the same time.

He thought that only a beast that can’t feel empathy could be so cruel.

Of course, as time passed, he got to know even more cruel humans, such as the ones from the Blood Crow Alliance.

But they were just mad men following the teachings of another ‘monster’.

But this…

He didn’t know how or why.

But he felt sick. He felt indignant. He felt angry.

The thought that all his suffering came from the hands of humans… Who probably didn’t even plan the attack on the village…

It was just an insignificant incident that took the lives of insignificant people.

His wounds started to tighten around the antlers as his anger fueled his regeneration, but he didn’t care.

Instead, he looked at the beast that should have been his last target of revenge so he could feel the peace of mind.

Unfortunately, he hardly knew that it would be his first target instead.

“WHO?! Who did this to you?! And why? Who are you?!” And so he screamed with so much power that his vocal cords got damaged. However, in his rage, they soon regenerated again, and the physical pain meant nothing to him at this moment. The mental anguish that was filling his mind right now was the thing that truly wounded him.

Looking at the disgusting creature that changed over the years from beastly to horrifying outlook, he couldn’t help but think that he wanted to die from all of this intake of information. He thought that his mind was strong after all of the things that happened. But that was not the truth. He was still the sensitive little boy that he was once. And this knowledge destroyed him and his heart.

However… He still didn’t forget. This was just a temporary feeling. He still had many things to do in his life.

And right now, a new task appeared on his list.

“Tell me who!” He stared dead into the eyes of that monster, his eyes devoid of any negative emotions towards it. Only wrath remained. So much that even the beast’s hatred waned for a second. But that was really only for a second. The beast could speak right now, but that didn’t mean it was more intelligent. In truth, it was long gone.

“Ah–Ahg–Hu–maans--Taaa—booo….Ea–ting Fle—sh! Hu–man! Eat! Corppp-ssees…”

It was hardly understandable, but the key words that it uttered weren’t missed by Illyan.

‘Taboo? Taboo concerning humans? Or eating? Is it corpses eating humans or… Humans eating corpses? But which ones? That of hum-?!’

Then it finally dawned upon him.

“Aaaargh?! Huuu-maans…. Eeexp–eeerimeeent.”

The beast was still groaning as it was talking while its empty eyes were gleaming with desire when it talked while also sounding so sad.

“Prooject… WENDIGO…”