Chapter 409

Chapter 409

“—the good king of giants?”
Orse frowned.
He was leaning back against a pile of rubble, looking around with a blank stare.
I grabbed his shoulder.
“Yeah. We need to get deep into the basement of the headquarters. If I’m not mistaken, they’re still there.”
“What the heck are you talking about–whoops–they’re all gone.”
“Damn it, stop nagging me and get up, I’ll explain the details as we go!”
“Fucking bastard—! Do you think anyone does this because they don’t want to get up, and you expect me to do anything about it when their body won’t move—!”
Orse coughs up blood again.
Apparently, I was hurt a lot worse than I realized.
I’ve never been one to be reckless, and I’ve never been one to be a pushover.
Still, it was time to move on.
I was trying to figure out how to get this thing to come to its senses.
Orse stared at the sky, then suddenly sat up.
“Navardoze—?!”
“Oh, my God.”
My long legs were shaking.
Look at this guy, you said he couldn’t move.
Orse’s gaze remained fixed on the center of the sphere Akasha had created.
With each burst of flame, the shadow of a giant dragon peeked through.
It was Navarordze, battling Akasha.
Suddenly, four wings exploded from Orse’s back.
“Cough!”
“What?”
The wings were also in terrible shape.
The pterygium was torn in several places and tattered.
The dripping blood had already formed a puddle.
I don’t know about you, but if I had nerves in my wings, it would be painful as hell.
“Crack, crack, crack!”
Still, Orsay was moving with an obsession that bordered on madness.
It was a bird that was coughing up blood and still flapping its wings, ready to take off at a moment’s notice.
I lunged forward and caught him around the waist.
“Hey, where are you going?!”
“Let him go! Navarordze must die by my hand!”
“What?”
A sweat poured down his forehead.
Some things are just immature, but this one pissed me off.
Kwazik!
I lifted my waist up and stuck the orse on the floor.
“Ewww, how dare you—.”
“Do you have any idea what your sister is fighting right now?”
“That’s none of my business. Get out of my way!”
“This guy is such a—!”
The hand that gripped his throat tightened.
I didn’t understand.
I thought he had a good heart, if not a good mind.
Orsay, who had been shaken to the core, suddenly bared his teeth and cried out.
“He’s saying that Navarordze shouldn’t be dead now! He hasn’t even given back what he’s been given yet!”
“What?”
Orsay’s pupils narrowed vertically in extreme excitement.
One of its horns was broken, and it was spewing life as fiercely as ever.
That was the car I was going to say something about.
The surface of the sphere in the sky exploded and part of it fell off.
It was a drop in the bucket, a tiny drop in the ocean.
“That’s—.”
We turned our heads at about the same time.
The detached debris flew rapidly westward.
There was no sign of life there yet.
On the floating surface of the drift ice, the roots of the balds, left as a monument, rose.
The black, round shape disappeared over the ocean.
A black wall rose along the horizon.
“Well.”
“Fuck, everybody get down!”
I exclaimed, pressing down on Orse’s head.
People nearby gasped and fell to the ground.
Kwahhh-!!
A shockwave swept through the area, accompanied by a belated explosion.
“Off!”
“Oh, God, save me!”
The dust that had been rising above the headquarters vanished in an instant.
Trees were uprooted, rocks flew through the air.
Orse’s body swelled rapidly as he escaped my hold.
The storm of fire and darkness stabbed deep into the sky before slowly dispersing.
“Fuck—cool, cool, cool!”
I staggered to my feet.
I looked around and realized that it was a mess.
The root had disappeared without leaving a trace.
Only the unruly waves raged where the white hand had been.
I bit my lower lip as I thought of Navarorde.
“Sister.”
It was a power I’d never seen before.
Even the Giant King’s Bombardment Wasn’t This Bad
All around me, I began to hear the sounds of suffering.
Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously injured.
Orsay, back to his original form, spread his wings to block.
“You—!”
[kkkkk—.】
The wound stretched further, but he didn’t care.
The attitude was, “I don’t have time for that.
Orse simply craned his long neck and stared at the orb that had swallowed Navardoze.
【——that monster sacrificed too much】.
“Huh?”
[Gave my life to save a bunch of wretches. Ha, funny you should say that—did you think I didn’t know you went to the rocks alone every day?
Orsay chuckled.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what he was talking about.
That was before we moved our headquarters.
Navarordze carried his dying body and gave his life to Ceniel day after day.
She said she kept it a secret from everyone, but it didn’t seem to be a perfect secret.
“—Is that what you meant?”
【This is unacceptable. I don’t like that monster, but he doesn’t deserve to meet a pathetic end in a place like this. At the very least, he deserves to live to see the day he dies at my hands.】
“Nobody’s dead, asshole. You’re talking like an asshole.”
I smirked and spat on the floor.
This is the problem with males anyway.
You’re ashamed to show goodwill or show affection, Won.I leaped over Orsay’s head, breathing harshly.
He stretched out his index finger and pointed to the pit where the headquarters had originally been.
“Nobody’s dying. Let’s go.”
[I’m sure].
“Don’t you believe me?”
[Heung.
No further explanation was needed.
As far as proofs go, you’ve already done enough.
Chaaaaaah!
Orse’s wings exploded.
The moment I grabbed its horns, the behemoth shot forward.
“There it is!”
We descended into a giant pit.
It didn’t take long to discover the passage.
A door barely big enough for one person to fit through was set into the steep interior wall.
Orse frowned.
[How the hell am I supposed to get through that thing?
“It’s wide in there, we’ll just have to flash it just before the crash.”
[Damn, just try not to].
Orse growled.
As he adjusted his wings, the direction changed.
It was a car with a giant head about to crash into a wall of rocks.
Poof!” Me and Orse’s bodies turned into particles and scattered.
My darkened vision is back.
An ice cave opened up before them, large enough for all but Navarordze to pass through.
【This is—!】
“It’s been a while. Really.”
It was the first time since I came with my father.
Nostalgia tickles the bridge of my nose.
The ice, which covered all directions, up, down, left, right, and center, was probably about the same age as the star.
Quack!
Suddenly, the entire cavern shook violently.
The ceiling in front of them collapsed, sending chunks of ice the size of fists raining down.
[Cough!
“Keep going!”
Additional sphere shards had fallen.
I took a stance and swung my sword.
Boom!
The shattered ice exploded.
After the breakout, Orsay picked up the pace.
I shouldn’t have stopped.
The winding passageways led deep into the depths.
The vibrations were intense as we traveled, and the ceiling and walls collapsed.
“Damn it, do it in moderation!”
Each time, I swung my sword.
Orsay summoned the power he knew he had and used the blink.
I felt like I was on the most dangerous ride in the world.
How long has it been since then.
We finally arrived in front of a huge stone gate.
[This is—?
“Now go back to being human. Don’t use the blinker, I can’t see through it anyway.”
Orsay did just that.
I looked up at the stone gate with a strange feeling.I remembered.
The specially treated doors blocked most attacks, including magic.
The shimmering mana of the bald race, which should have been completely gone by now, leaked from the doorway.
“You should stay.
I rubbed my palm against the blade and blood trickled down.
He swung his arm around.
A fan of blood smeared the stone door.
Koo-koo-koo-koo-koo—!
Slowly, the door opened to reveal the scene inside.
“Same old, same old. Damn it.”
An indescribable odor washed over me.
I never get used to it, even the second time around.
Since the source was destroyed, the shimmering mana is much less than it used to be.
After about ten minutes down the hallway, the space opened up.
A large chunk of ice stood in a clearing that was almost too big to take in at first glance.
It was so large, it was like a glacier drifting across the Sea of Wraiths.
Orse looked around and raised an eyebrow.
“How—!”
“Hah–thank goodness. You’re still here.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
A giant head, white and bare, half buried in the ice.
Torsos, limbs, wings, etc.
The rest of the body was gone, except for the head.
“This is where it all started.”
I remember carrying my father to the hospital like it was yesterday.
I leapt onto the ice and headed for his head.
Up close, I could see it.
The head was also not intact.
The lower part of his neck, trapped in the ice, was slowly turning into particles of light and dissipating.
Orse cleared his throat.
“——Explain.”
“He’s the old king of the giant race I told you about. He died fighting Ceniel in the distant past and crashed here. He’s been well preserved, so I guess he didn’t die right away like the others.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, isn’t that the stone you’re talking about?”
“Right.”
Pook.
I drew my sword and stabbed him in the unlit eye.
A trickle of crimson blood trickled down his neck.
The darkest blood in the world, the blood that turned him from an ordinary boy to an immortal.
“It’s not going to be fine.
I took a deep breath and got down on one knee.
I remembered when I drank his blood in the past.
The essence of power, second only to the sphere on the ground, burned away the curse that remained in my body.
My father used to say something like this.
Don’t even think about drinking more, even for fun.
You’re only alive because the curse buffered you.
“Who would have thought I’d see this day?”
I couldn’t help but smile.
I stretched out my arm and received blood.
The liquid pooling in the concave palm was surprisingly hot.
Orse, who was watching me with bated breath, was stunned.
“Wait a minute. What are you trying to do, why would you—!”
“This is the only way to do it now.”
“Wait!”
Orsay pleaded with him, but he ignored him.
Blue blood rushed down my throat.
It’s hot, too.
The nasty liquid was telling me what my esophagus looked like.
And just like that, every last drop disappeared into my stomach.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, my vision pinged.
My legs gave out and my hips hit the floor.
I could hear Orse calling my name in the distance.
“Whoa—whoa—whoa!”
I could see why my father had said that.
It feels more disgusting than the first time you drank alcohol.
I can’t get up even if I want to.
It’s like something is pulsating inside of me, but I can’t quite feel it.
“That’s–whoa, that sucks.”
I still had to get up.
I stood up, using the sword as a staff, and opened my mouth.
“Up—let’s go back.”
You’re crazy!
Before I knew it, Orsay was supporting me.
Sickerman’s body puffed up.
His horns, tail, and wings sprouted while retaining his human form.
Orse, now a quarter dragon, carried me on his back.
He was just about to drive off toward the stone gate.
“That’s not where—.”
[What?
“Where’s the time—everyone’s going through the motions—the dead don’t come back——.”
I’m getting a little dizzy.
I don’t know what I’m talking about either.
The disgusting sensation was morphing into a pain that seemed to burn veins throughout his body.
I’m angry.
Pain never gets used to.
I know.
Still, you have to shake it off.
Because it’s what I have to do.
Because only you can do it.
“Hoooooooooo!”
I staggered, aiming for the air, and swung my sword.
A straight line cut across the icy ceiling.
The silence was deafening.
It didn’t take long.
The sword had done its job, and it was back in its place.
The lines on the ceiling widened and red light poured out.
Kaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!
The darkness blocking my vision split in half.
【What—!】
Orse’s eyes widened.
On either side of the open ceiling was a cross-section of the land.
In the distance, I could see the night sky.
The sphere that filled the sky had changed from the last time he’d seen it.
The turbulent mass of power, a mix of green, blue, and gold, reminded me of this star from space.
I don’t know why it became a tail.
This is something you’ll have to figure out.
I swallowed the blood that had risen to my throat.
“Let’s go upstairs. Fuck.”