CHAPTER 77: VERDANDES

0% We must not pass on the undying embers of calamity to future generations. For the sake of House Sahila, for Kehlryn, and for the dark elves.

The hero Sahila had made every effort to completely annihilate the devil Verdandes. It was an endeavor for which he was willing to sacrifice even himself.

Thus, the final measure he arrived at was to seal the devil’s very being within his own body.

The will of the great hero would surely be able to suppress the devil’s presence. No one doubted this fact.

***“...”

The devil whispered to him, as faint as the breath escaping from a dying old man’s lungs.

Sahila simply ignored it.

***The devil whispered to him.

“How noisy.”

Sahila spat out the words with a weary face.

***The devil whispered to him.

“Stop. Stop. Stop.”

Sahila closed his eyes, muttering to no one.

***The devil whispered to him.

“AAAAARGH!!!”

Sahila covered his ears and screamed convulsively.

***The devil whispered to him.

“SHUT UP!!!”

Sahila swung his fist at the mirror.

***“...ord! My lord!”

“...!”

Sahila barely regained his senses.

“F-Father...”

The first thing he saw was the small boy pinned beneath him—none other than his own son.

One hand was reaching for the boy’s throat, while his other hand was restraining it. Retainers in full armor surrounded them, unable to intervene.

“What...happened...?”

“During the meal, you suddenly stood up and approached the young master. And then...”

The retainer couldn’t finish, but it was enough. Sahila had momentarily lost himself, consumed by the devil’s power. And that brief lapse nearly led to irreversible consequences.

“Father, a-are you alright...?”

Even so, the child worried for his father. This was possible not because he was mature, but because he didn’t understand what had just happened. How could he imagine that his father had just tried to kill him?

Sahila embraced his son with all his might.

A retainer sighed briefly.

“My lord...”

That sigh carried many meanings.

It was time to endure humiliation.

“Prepare for the transfer of the seal.”

In the end, the great hero had to face reality—face the humiliating fact that containing Verdandes was beyond his capabilities. That completely destroying the devil’s power and existence was nearly impossible.

***Verdandes’ power had vanished.

This was the conclusion Kella reached as she belatedly realized her condition. She could no longer feel even a trace of the mighty devilish power that had been part of her until moments ago.

“Impossible...”

That power had been on a different level from the trivial abilities other devil worshippers received from their masters. It was the result of harnessing the power sealed within Verdandes’ Eye, a genuine part of the devil’s true form. In essence, it was Verdandes itself.

Yet, to extinguish the devil?

Even Sahila, the great hero who had nearly reached the 8th rank and earned the title of a Star, couldn’t accomplish such a feat. So who or what could possibly dare to destroy that devil’s power?

This was why Kella denied it. She retraced her familiar sensations, trying once more to awaken Verdandes’ power.

A look of joy spread across her face as some kind of force responded to her call. It was clear—this transcendent power could only belong to Verdandes, the mighty and wicked devil of the desert.

Kella summoned all her strength to draw out the power of her master.

Pure energy of the desert, untainted by any impurity, gathered at her fingertips.

“?”

What?

Kella stared at her hand, flabbergasted, frozen in place until Kieran broke free from her mind control and knocked her out with a resounding thwack.

“...”

Meanwhile, Kieran felt bewildered. He looked down at the hilt of his sword, which he had used to knock Kella unconscious. He wondered if it was truly okay for things to be resolved so easily.

Having felt the full extent of Kella’s power and been driven into a corner, he felt an unexpected pang of guilt.

The knight remained wary of the cunning devil worshiper who had fallen, wondering if this too might be part of her plan.

But then...

“Kahhk! Kagh!”

Kella’s collapsed body began to twitch and convulse.

***Where is this?

It pondered in a barren world of nothingness, trying to remember.

But it ultimately gave up as there seemed to be a more pressing question.

Who...am I?

It asked itself, but the result was the same as before. Only silence returned. No matter how hard it tried, nothing came to mind.

Just as it was about to give up again—

No...

A consciousness, clear to the point of arrogance, rose within it.

I am...the Sand Mountain That Shrouds the Sun...

Who dares to define me...to confine me...?

The empty world was suddenly filled with a raging sandstorm.

***It was a bizarre sight. The devil worshiper Kella was writhing on the floor with her eyes rolled back, wallowing in the dark red blood she had just vomited. Greedily, as if scooping up spilled gold coins.

“My lady! Step back!”

Kieran hurriedly moved to shield his lady. Setting aside the ominous and eerie nature of the scene, Kella’s power was rapidly regenerating.

But it was no longer stable.

Crack, crack. Her movements twisted unnaturally, defying the limits of the human body. She was no longer a wielder of devilish power—she was reduced to its puppet.

The remnants of Verdandes had faintly dissolved within its power, which Kella had absorbed. That lingering fragment of ego responded to its rampaging main body elsewhere, and in doing so, it consumed and overpowered Kella’s mind.

“Gurrrgh—”

The thing that was once Kella clawed at Katria and Kieran, drooling blood-tinged saliva. The darkness that arose from her hand became a wave of sand, threatening to engulf them.

Kieran immediately scooped up Katria and leaped back to create distance. After safely setting her down, he prepared to go on the offensive once more.

***Even when she was at her best, Kella had shown reluctance to engage in a frontal clash against Kieran. In her mindless state of uncontrolled power, there was no chance of an equal fight.

The battle ended in an instant, and the ominous sandstorm that had filled the room ceased.

Thud. Kella’s severed head hit the floor, separated from her body.

At last, it was all over.

Kieran wanted to savor this moment of victory with Katria. But what he saw instead was his lady in a state of agitation.

“Kieran, we need to get to the mage tower right now.”

“What is the matter?”

Katria had immediately recognized the strange phenomena Kella had exhibited—Verdandes was going berserk.

Why? She didn’t know. But the aftermath was undeniable. The sheer force of it had driven even Kella—who had wielded power without the devil’s direct consciousness—into a mindless frenzy.

If that was the case...what about Risir, who held Verdandes’ entire consciousness within him?

“Risir, he’s in danger! We must go help him immediately!”

***“Oh, Katria. Perfect timing. Here—you can take this back now.”

Risir was still in Meltas’ research lab along with Master Meltas, and something else.

He showed Katria an object on the desk.

Verdandes’ final struggle had been in vain. It had writhed within the prison that was Risir until the very end, ultimately losing itself.

The great sandstorm of malevolent will was no more.

“Hey, little one. What’s your name again?”

-I’m Verdandeshu! The shand mountain that covers the shun!

“It’s not Verdandeshu, it’s Verdandes~“

“Ver...Ver...What a weird name!!! I want a different one!”

Instead of the great devil, what stood there was a sand elemental in the form of a small girl.

“...”

***Patriarch Borad Sahila.

He dedicated his life to fulfilling his father’s last wish of destroying Verdandes, but ultimately failed to achieve this goal. However, the vast accomplishments he left behind became a legacy passed down to future generations.

***Duhonne Sahila.

Inheriting the will of his ancestors, he too made the destruction of Verdandes his life’s mission, but also failed. Nevertheless, he detected movements of the devil’s secretly growing in power within the seal, discovered flaws in the binding, and reinforced it.

***Yona Sahila.

Abandoning the goal of destroying Verdandes, he focused on strengthening the seal. Realizing that no seal could prevent the devil from multiplying its power, he sought a new sealing method.

His efforts culminated in the creation of a contract seal that bound the target through a pact and prevented power growth by consuming that power.

***Lopis Sahila.

Recognizing the limitations of the contract seal, she sought a new sealing method but failed. Realizing that no sealing techniques more efficient existed, she refocused on destruction.

After another failure, she discovered new information and warned future generations that Verdandes’ revival was imminent.

***The current matriarch of House Sahila, Leshana Sahila.

She had no interest in the sealing or destruction of Verdandes. Her mother, the previous matriarch, had left her a warning: Verdandes’ revival couldn’t be prevented and it was fast approaching.

Perhaps she would be the first Sahila since the founding patriarch to face the devil directly. Could there be a greater honor?

...Could there be a greater burden?

With resignation—and resolve—Leshana Sahila set out to lay the groundwork to prepare for Verdandes’ imminent revival. To protect her kin and ancestors’ legacy from that mighty being that could neither be fully sealed nor destroyed.

The pressure was suffocating. It was a grand task of carrying on her ancestors’ glory, yet also a terrifyingly heavy burden.

She frequently asked herself: Can I really do this?

But the answer was meaningless. Regardless of possibility, it was something she absolutely had to accomplish.

And so, Leshana Sahila spent each day in anxiety and determination—ready to face the day of reckoning whenever it might come.

***Amidst the sudden loss of contact with her son and the unsettling movements detected both within and outside Kehlryn, Leshana Sahila had a premonition that something was about to happen. House Sahila had already captured numerous devil worshippers.

Then, one day...

“Matriarch!!!”

At last, what she had been waiting for arrived. The head of House Sahila closed her eyes in silence.

After a long pause, she finally spoke, her voice steady with resolve.

“Speak.”

“Verdandes’ curse...!”

Verdandes had cursed the Sahila family. The curse, sealed away along with the devil, would surely devour the Sahilas upon Verdandes’ return.

And its first target would undoubtedly be their matriarch.

Leshana smiled with composure, the wisdom in her expression carrying a soothing power.

“Calm yourself. I am fine.”

“Verdandes’ curse has...vanished!”

Leshana Sahila.

In her generation, she had finally accomplished the long-standing mission of House Sahila by eradicating Verdandes.

“How come?”

Whatever the case, it was done.

***

[Title : ahh this game gets stupid hard in the late game i cant play more than an hour a day]

Post : bro why tf is the min level for the fate quest boss in the 70s wtf

: bruh im already shitting blood fighting lvl 50 mobs and they want me to be 70??? yea im quitting

: nah tbf thats like super endgame content lol

: min lvl 70?? thats gotta be post-Kardum at least

-[OP] : black tree thumper village

: ohhh kehlryn lmao

: yeah that place is legit a wall

***

[Title : nah but the kehlryn timeline makes zero sense wtf lol]

Post : bro if that bish kella was just stopped from last hitting katria that one time

none of this would’ve happened ya?

: FR kella’s crazy ass unseals verdandes, comes back to kehlryn, and just free farms everything

like wtf her growth rate is actually broken

by in-game time shes leveling up faster than the players lmao

: so basically kehlryn got wiped bc of us??

: well at least it’s black tree thumper village so i feel less guilty q.q

: for today only, we give thanks for their blackness

: even verdandes would back off from u devil cunts

***

▷Region: ‘Kehlryn’ has been deactivated

***

▷Fated Entity: ‘Verdandes, Master of All Sand and Wind [Lv.78]’ has been deactivated.

▷Fated Entity: ‘Kella, the Sand Bearer [Lv.73]’ has been deactivated.

▷Fated Entity: ‘Worshipers of the Sand Tempest [Lv.71]’ has been deactivated.

▷Fated Entity: ‘The Eternal Sand Devourer (Leshana Sahila) [Lv.71]’ has been deactivated.

...

...

...

...

...

***

Perks will be awarded.

***

A new system [Faction Enhancement] has been unlocked.

***

▷Faction Enhancement: You can distribute experience points to grant beneficial effects to your allies.

***

Choose the recipient for experience point distribution.

[Self] , [Faction]

***

If no selection is made within the time limit, a recipient will be automatically chosen.

***-Please allow me to remain as your maid, Master. At least until I’ve repaid my debt to you!

This was the first thing Katria said to me after the series of events had concluded.

Living together, I came to realize that having a maid who takes care of household chores and provides various conveniences warmed a man’s heart in many ways.

-That’s problematic.

Still, I declined.

For a long time, I had been mooching off the Gray Tower under the pretext of mediating between the tower and its various sponsors.

But all things must come to an end. Most of the mediation work was finished, and I’d gained nearly everything I could from staying here.

All that remained was either delving deeper into magical theory or receiving specialized practical lessons from Master Meltas and the other mage masters...but these weren’t things I could just dabble in while crashing at the mage tower under the excuse of earning my keep.

The moment I stepped into that realm, I’d essentially become some hybrid of an honorary mage and a formal honorary mage. Any further involvement would be greed and misplaced priorities.

To maintain positive relations with the tower in the future, it was time for me to establish my own foundation.

In short, I planned to leave the Gray Tower soon and return to a life without a fixed residence. That meant I was in no position to keep a maid—nor did I have any reason to.

Especially when said maid wasn’t a slave with nowhere to go, but a noblewoman from the great aristocracy ruling the South.

Faced with this undeniable logic, even Katria couldn’t insist further.

-I understand! Then I’ll come back soon, with dignity and pride! Not in disguise, but as my true self, standing tall!

With that, the dark elves energetically returned to their homeland.

They departed with a promise to repay the favor in full.

-That entity holds great significance for our family and our kin! I’m entrusting it to you, Master! Please consider it a token of my sincerity and trust!

And along with their gratitude, they left behind a certain troublemaker—Ver-something, the desert imp of the sand hills.

As I was bustling about, preparing to move out of the tower quarters where I’d been staying for a while...

“...Huh?”

Something strange entered the corner of my vision.

If I wasn’t mistaken, it was—

***

A new system has been unlocked.

***