Green and black colored mana scattered all around the tree, an indication that the ritual was progressing smoothly. Elders from the Iron Tribe poured out mana that whirled around the tree and softly passed over the path of fire. Perhaps, influenced by that, the tree’s flames also swayed like the mana. At that moment, the tree’s mana that blanketed the castle trembled a bit. 

Renu crumpled his face grimly. ‘Is it an intruder again?’

A couple of days ago—when their enemies escaped like dogs with their tails hanging low from their backs, there was an attempt to infiltrate the castle at the end of a battle.

‘It must be that bastard!’ Renu stroked his face down. He felt the bandage’s texture and the grotesque skin that was below it. He thought of the bastard who left him in a state like this.

‘I should’ve caught him then!’ Renu thought he should’ve captured that bastard and given him the same—no, tens and twenty times the amount of pain he felt. Renu would’ve burned that bastard up, cured him, burned him once more, and then, cured him again. And only if he did that kind of torture for dozens of years, a small part of the rage he felt in his heart would subside. But...