Chapter 171
— Record, Year 6969 —
The Human Kingdom was small back then—fragile, surrounded by threats. Everyone looked down on us. The Elves. The Dwarves. Even the Beastkin.
We were backed into a corner.
From the southern border, an army of demons was advancing.
At that time, King Altros Hunderburg sat on the throne. A ruthless man, but fair. Cold, but deeply loyal to his people. He was exactly the kind of leader we needed in those times.
Altros wasn’t alone. He had seven trusted friends—more than friends. Brothers. They stood beside him through every hardship, willing to make any sacrifice to ensure humanity would rise to it’s peak and make it’s place among the great Kingdoms.
The Elves and Dwarves didn’t attack us outright, but they offered no help against the demonic threats. In a way they wanted us to get wiped out.
Our soldiers were dying everyday and the number of demons were Increasing at an incredible speed.
That’s when one of the seven brothers—Neo Lopez—proposed a dark, forbidden idea to Altros.
Altros rejected it immediately. Called it blasphemous. Warned Lopez never to speak of it again with anyone else.
And so, Lopez said nothing.
But that didn’t stop him from executing his idea.
In secret, he began carrying out his plan deep within his mansion’s underground chamber.
Every day, he had demon corpses stolen from the battlefield by loyal soldiers. The bodies were smuggled into his basement—raw, still radiating infernal energy.
Then came the children.
Ten of them. Orphans. Poor, starving, desperate. They would do anything for a meal.
And Lopez gave them one.
Raw demon meat and demon blood.
Every day, for the next seven days, he fed it to them forcefully.
On the eighth day, six of the children died—vomiting black bile, convulsing in agony.
The four who survived… changed.
Their bodies mutated. Their strength multiplied. Their eyes turned hollow and cold. They no longer looked human.
They became monsters.
Monsters on our side.
Lopez trained them himself. Conditioned them to obey. Turned them into perfect weapons, ruthless killing machines.
He named them ‘The Vendigos of Lopez Squad’.
They were fast. Merciless. Silent. They didn’t speak. They didn’t sleep. They existed only to hunt and eat.
Lopez kept them hidden, waiting for the right time.
That time came sooner than he had expected, in the mid-winters.
The demons launched a full-scale invasion. The harsh and extreme cold crippled our soldiers, made it difficult for them to fight properly. The southern defenses fell in a heart beat. Villages burned. The kingdom bled as the Demon armies walked in and started killing the citizens mercilessly.
King Altros was out of options and desperate.
Without any choices, He turned to Lopez.
Lopez didn’t wait and unleashed his own monsters.
For the first time demons… felt fear.
That night, terror gripped the kingdom—not from the demons, but from what hunted them. No human was allowed to get out of their houses until the dawn.
The Vendigos stalked the streets like shadows. They didn’t fight—they slaughtered demon armies like chickens. No matter how strong the demon, they fell within seconds in front of the Lopez Squad.
The demons fled from the kingdom. But the Vendigos didn’t stop.
They pursued and slaughtered them without showing any mercy.
One by one, they killed the retreating demons.
Until one stepped forward—Gurua, the second and one of the most powerful demon general.
She was powerful beyond belief. She tore through three of the four Vendigos, leaving only one alive.
His name was Mikael and he was the strongest in the Lopez Squad. They fought for three days through the valleys of the Southern Borders.
At last, Mikael killed Gurua but even after killing her, he stayed inside the valley and continued eating Gurua’s body for the next ten days.
By the time the search parties arrived, he was gone. They only found Gurua’s bones and fighting marks all over the valley.
Mikael never returned to the Human Kingdom after that.
—
Neo Lopez and his allies were hailed as heroes. Altros awarded them seven-star nobility—an honor of brotherhood.
The kingdom flourished in peace and harmony, no one dared to look down on us and no one dared to offend us.
Ten years of peace followed.
Then came the horror.
I still remember that day very clearly, A messenger burst into the royal court with a single line:
“The Lopez Household has been wiped out.”
Over 700 trained knights. 200 Royal Guards. Gone. Slaughtered in a single night.
No warning. No survivors. Just dead bodies and not normal ones.
Every body was mutilated—faces chewed off, entrails dragged from split stomachs.
On one of the corpse’s back, there was a symbol etched.
An eye carved inside a claw.
This body belonged to none other than Neo Himself.
Altros knew.
He didn’t need confirmation.
Mikael had returned.
The Demon they created… was now hunting them.
Altros tripled security across the kingdom. Paranoia gripped him. Until his dying breath, he lived in fear—waiting for Mikael to come for him.
He made elaborate arrangements to protect his bloodline. His descendants. His legacy.
But The Vendigo never returned.
Years passed.
And like all horrors… it became a story. In the future it might became a Myth.
But beware—
The Vendigo cannot die… unless he is killed. He will roam this world among us.
—————————————-
*Thud*
Charles closed the book, the pages settling with a soft groan of age. He looked over at Gregory, his expression grim.
“It’s been three hundred years,” Charles said, his voice low. “How is that possible? How can someone live that long?”
Gregory answered without hesitation. “The Vendigo can’t die unless killed. He’s not bound by time. He’s a cursed demon in human flesh.”
Charles frowned, still processing it. “But… why now? Why return after all these years?”
Gregory’s gaze was hard. “I don’t know. That’s why I need to speak to His Majesty immediately.”
Charles nodded slowly. “Yes. And I still need to deliver my own report.”
Without another word, the two men closed the ancient book and stepped out of the chamber, descending from the seventh floor, they headed towards the Royal Castle.