Chapter 37: The Cry from the Depths (4)
“Well, if we keep killing them, something will definitely come out.”
“Groooaaarrr!!”
The Stone giants roared simultaneously. Ronan, gripping his sword tightly, charged forward.
Knowing the power of his sword, there was no need for heCitation. Ronan dashed forward in a straight line, swinging his sword. The legs on both sides of the giant at the forefront were severed.
“Growl…!”
The torso of the legless giant collapsed forward. Ronan leaped over the falling giant’s back, using it as a springboard, and landed on the shoulders of the giant right behind.
Thud!
As Ronan spun through the air, the giant’s head landed on the ground.
Thud!
“Roooaaargh!”
Blood spurted from the clean cut. The giants on either side clenched their fists in anger. Ronan leaped vertically to evade their attacks.
Kwaaang!
Two massive fists collided in midair.
‘They really look damn ugly.’
Had he been hit, he would have been smashed beyond recognition, but since he wasn’t hit, it didn’t matter. Debating between left and right, Ronan sprinted along the arm of the less attractive left giant.
Thud!
Ronan drew a circle with Lamancha once again. A yellow line appeared around the giant’s nose, and its upper part fell off. The giant whose half of the face was missing looked at Ronan with widened eyes.
“Gro… growk?”
“What are you looking at?”
Ronan swiftly turned his body and struck the left giant’s eye socket with a well-aimed blow.
Shlaaack!
Oozing liquid spurted from the giant’s bisected pupil.
“Gr-groooaaargh!!”
A scream of agony erupted from his mouth. Despite cutting into rocks, there was no resistance as if cutting through water. Even without infusing mana, the effect was impressive.
The giant who had become a leader raised its hand to cover its eyes. Ronan’s arm shot forward.
Thud!
Ronan, with his blade embedded between the giant’s fingers, scrambled the giant’s brain before retracting.
“Grawk.”
The lifeless body began to tilt. Less than a minute had passed since the start of the battle. The blood-soaked blade was gleaming triumphantly. Ronan looked around at the other giants and spoke.
“At this point, you should be frightened. Aren’t you even a bit afraid?”
He felt that unnecessary killing was starting to weigh on him. Frankly, Ronan hoped that scaring them a bit would make the giants flee. The giants responded with defiant roars as they charged relentlessly.
“Groooaaargh!!”
Ronan sighed. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to stop now. He leaped towards another giant and muttered to himself.
“Well, if that’s how you want it.”
The smooth black blade extended like a snake. As always, it didn’t take long for the job to be done.
****
“Wow, this is amazing. It works like this too.”
Ronan dipped the tip of Lamancha’s blade into the pool of blood at his feet. As the pool rapidly diminished, a radiant energy akin to a crest began to emanate from the sword.
Behind him, the dismembered bodies of Stone giants were strewn everywhere. Looking at the carnage, Ronan shrugged his shoulders.
“What were these guys trying to achieve in the end?”
“…What exactly are you?”
Doron stared at Ronan in disbelief. Steam was rising from his body, soaked with the giants’ blood.
It was unbelievable even when he saw everything that happened. Ronan hadn’t set foot on the ground until he wiped out twenty-six giants. It was a sight akin to a predator hunting its prey.
“By any chance, do you not have a scabbard for that sword? If you keep carrying it on your back like this, your butt might fall off.”
Ronan swung Lamancha, now soaked with blood, into the air. The sound echoed like a ghost whistling. Doron, who belatedly regained his senses, opened his mouth.
“Ah… looks like I need to make a scabbard again. Sorry, but could you wait a bit?”
“Why do you need to make it again?”
“I entrusted the final decorative work to another smithy, but they barged in. It probably wasn’t destroyed, but the remnants might be buried somewhere deep.”
“Hmm… Well, we can look for it later. Anyway, what were you about to say earlier?”
“What was I going to say? Ah, right. Your memory is good.”
Ronan nodded his head. Doron couldn’t hear his words fully due to the interruptions from the oblivious rock creatures. Without taking his eyes off the unreal carnage, Doron continued speaking.
“I think… there’s a possibility that the king of the Stone giants has appeared.”
“A king?”
“Yeah. Whether it’s a king or a leader, it’s someone who plays a role at the top. The fact that so many gathered here, along with the actions the Stone giants displayed today, made me sense some sort of organization.”
“Hey, isn’t that a hasty judgment?”
“Of course, there’s a high chance. But, as you know, we dwarves have the most interaction with the monsters underground.”
Doron recounted the stories passed down among the dwarves about the king of the Stone giants. The king, several times larger than the typical Stone giants, resided deep underground, ruling over the Stone giants’ kingdom.
“So, the attacks on the miners in the tunnel and the dozens of them following us all the way to the forge… you think it’s the doing of the Stone Giant King?”
“I can’t be certain, but apart from that, there’s no other plausible explanation. We’ve never experienced or heard of such a thing…”
Ronan scratched his chin. It sounded like an unbelievable story, yet it seemed oddly convincing. After all, in a decade or so, winged buggers would descend and wreak havoc in the world; there was nothing that couldn’t be believed.
“Fine, then. I’ll go check out where these guys came from. Whether it’s a king or whatever, once we kill them all, this kind of thing won’t happen again.”
“Wait a moment… How about waiting a bit? Reinforcements have been called, right?”
“That’s why I’m going right now. I don’t know who that girl will bring along, but I can’t just let her wander into the underground infested with monsters by herself.”
He realized it from the recent display of aggression. Coexistence with Stone giants was impossible.
Determined, Ronan stretched and yawned. He used his finger to scoop up some giant’s blood and smeared it on Dydican’s nose.
A pungent smell of sulfur emanated from the blood. Dydican, who had been twitching his eyebrows, stirred and woke up as Ronan poked his nose.
“Grrooaack! Hrrrk…”
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“Wh-what’s this?! What’s that smell…”
“Dydican. Can you move? No, you have to move.”
“Ronan? Ugh… damn it. What the hell happened? Why does it feel like there are more corpses?”
Dydican covered his head like someone suffering from a terrible hangover. Ronan briefly explained the current situation.
Dydican, as if suffering from a severe hangover, clutched his head like a person in distress. Ronan recounted the current situation briefly.
Having heard that he was going to find the king of the giants all of a sudden, Dydican furrowed his brow.
“What were you talking about the Stone king?”
“I don’t know either. I’ll finish it up and come back, so go up with Doron. If you ask Cita, It probably will heal your injuries.”
“Cita?”
“You saw it last time. The black, featureless bird, remember?”
“Ah.”
Dydican nodded. He stared at the rolling head of a Stone giant that had ended up at his feet. Suddenly, his eyes widened.
“Wait a moment, Ronan.”
“Why?”
“What’s this?”
Dydican nudged the giant’s head with his foot. As he furrowed his brow and examined the back of the giant’s head, he extended his index finger.
“This.”
“What is it?”
Ronan squinted. Where Dydican’s index finger pointed, there was a pattern etched into the giant’s head. Faintly emitting a peculiar light, it gave off an alien impression.
“Do they have tattoos too?”
“I don’t think so. The feeling is odd… Wait a moment.”
Dydican furrowed his brow further and began examining the corpses of other giants. While the body parts were different, the same pattern was engraved on each corpse.
The werewolf’s intuition was sending a warning. Dydican, who had been drooling, called Doron.
“Doron, come take a look at this for a moment.”
“Hmm?”
Doron, who was walking over with a stagger, examined the pattern. After gently stroking the pattern with his wrinkled hand, Doron spoke up.
“I… I don’t really know. It seems like some kind of magic…”
“Magic?”
“Yeah. But I can’t really tell what kind of magic it is. You’re saying this was engraved on the giants’ bodies?”
Ronan nodded. Doron scratched his beard, pondering. Eventually, he shook his head. Even after hundreds of years, he had never seen anything like it.
The mystery only deepened with each new piece of information. Ronan muttered a curse under his breath.
“Damn, it’s making me more curious. I’ll be back.”
“Even if I tell you not to, you’ll leave anyway. Please be careful.”
“Sure, Ronan. Something about this doesn’t seem right.”
“Don’t worry, nothing much will happen. With this, what could possibly be scary?”
Ronan shook Lamancha. After seeing the two off, he headed deeper into the Stone. It didn’t take long before he came across a massive passage leading further downward. The traces left by the giants were evident.
“After the King of the Stones, it’s unknown magic.”
The eerie passage was shrouded in darkness. The sound of water seemed to echo from somewhere.
Should’ve brought a torch or something. I wonder if everyone’s found some by now. Ronan continued to think various thoughts as he pressed on.
How much time had passed? His narrow view widened as a vast space opened up. Ronan halted his steps. The spectacular sight before him dwarfed even the grandeur of Cappadocia.
“This… is truly… incredible.”
The space was so expansive that he couldn’t gauge its end. Ronan looked around like a person overwhelmed.
Various glowing mosses covered the walls and ceiling of the vast chamber. Rather than a Stone, it felt like being cast into a night sky full of stars.
Somewhere, flowing water formed a stream. Animals, whether birds or insects, flew around, making it difficult to tell which they were. Enormous mushrooms with tentacle-like extensions, resembling jellyfish, sprouted here and there.
A unique ecosystem had formed within the Stonernous night sky. It was an environment where several smithy buildings could be constructed, more like a village than a few forges.
“Is the kingdom of the stone giants really here?”
Ronan took slow steps. The damp floor bore the dense footprints of Stone giants. While he didn’t know where they were hiding or whether he had killed them all and they weren’t visible anymore, he could deduce that giants had once congregated here.
“No, that’s not it. Something’s off, for sure.”
Ronan muttered under his breath. The remaining footprints were all relatively recent. If this was the stone giants’ kingdom, there should have been older traces. Based on the clues, Ronan formed a hypothesis.
It seemed that the giants who had been wandering the underground had gathered here momentarily. They had all moved uniformly towards Cappadocia. As if following someone’s orders.
“Ugh!”
While walking and looking at the floor, Ronan bumped into something and hit his forehead. As he cursed and raised his head, he saw a wall made of yellow crystals.
The wall extended upward with a gentle curve. What the hell are these doing in the middle of the Stone? It was a moment of absentmindedly inspecting the wall.
“Damn.”
Ronan took a sharp breath and staggered back, nearly dropping his scabbard.
It wasn’t a wall. A giant covered entirely in crystals was sitting hunched over. Ronan had mistaken the giant’s back for a wall.
This giant was on a completely different scale than ordinary Stone giants. Even while hunched, it was impossible to gauge how large it would be when standing.
But something was off. Ronan frowned.
“…Dead?”
The giant remained hunched, unmoving. There was no sound of a heartbeat, no scent of sulfur that emanated whenever Stone giants breathed.
What in the world is this? Could it really be a Stone giant? Ronan tried to closely examine the giant. Just then, he heard a voice from across.
“Got a problem?”
“Not exactly sure. The connection with the last dispatched entity has been severed.”
“Damn it, what do we do now? There are no giants left.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ve confirmed that all the facilities have been destroyed anyway.”
Instinctively, Ronan concealed his presence. He pressed his body against the giant and slowly moved in the direction of the voices. Before long, he spotted a man and a woman engaged in conversation.
“Well, that settles it. With this, the empire’s alchemy and metallurgy will likely experience a setback.”
“There’s a high chance of that. Most of the craftsmen are probably dead.”
‘Who are these bastards?’
Listening in on their conversation, Ronan furrowed his brow. Judging from their physique, both of them were human. The woman wore a pure white robe, while the man was clad in armor.
The appearance of the robe was particularly unique; the hood that covered the face down to the nose reminded him of the messengers depicted in fairy tales. Just as the woman raised her palm, she interrupted the man.
“Wait a moment.”
“Hmm? Why?”
“I sense an intruder.”
“An intruder? How did the mana barrier not detect anything?”
“I can smell sulfur. Right over there.”
The woman pointed in Ronan’s direction with her chin. The man in armor raised an eyebrow.
“Really? I’m not so sure.”
“Wait and see. I’ll be back.”
“No, let’s just shoot once. We’ll know. Fireball.”
Suddenly, the man raised his arm. He cast a spell and a fireball shot forth from his hand, heading straight for Ronan.
“Damn it…”
Cursing, Ronan leaped back, hitting the ground. The fireball that hit the giant exploded, producing a loud noise. The man who saw Ronan’s reaction whistled in admiration.
“Hey, there really was something!”
“He got quick reflexes. Be careful not to miss it.”
“Sure. Fire Wall.”
As Ronan turned to face the man, suddenly, a wall of flames sprang up around him. The flames surrounded Ronan. The man approached Ronan slowly and spoke.
“What are you?”
“…I was going to ask you that same question. What is a man and a woman doing alone together in this gloomy underground?”
“Huh, a cheeky little brat, aren’t you? I don’t particularly like your attitude.”
The man flicked his finger into the air. The wall of fire began to narrow gradually. The mushrooms and mosses that came into contact with the flames crackled and sizzled as they burned.
“What should we do? Killing him is probably the right choice after all, right?”
“Though I have many questions I want to ask him… but it seems like killing him is a better option.”
“Indeed. Such minor issues could delay the arrival of the stars.”
“What?”
Ronan’s eyes widened. His heart started racing in response to a specific word. The two people turned their heads upon hearing Ronan’s voice.
“What’s up, kid? Do you have something to say?”
“What did you just say?”
“Hmm?”
“Arrival of the stars, what does that mean?”
The man and the woman faced each other. The woman tilted her head. The man scratched the back of his head and looked at Ronan again.
“As much as it pains me to admit it… I can’t answer that question. Unfortunately, that’s one thing I can’t tell you. Since you’re going to die anyway, ask me something else.”
The man shrugged as if regretful. Ronan clenched his scabbard. He felt his breathing quicken. A slightly defiant voice escaped his lips.
“No, You both have to answer. You need to come with me.”
“Huh, you think you can catch me?”
The man chuckled. ‘He’s really quite amusing.’ Just as he was about to say that, Ronan’s figure vanished from sight. Only the divided wall of fire remained, flickering in the darkness.
The man’s eyes widened. A voice echoed in his ear.
“Yeah.”
The disappeared Ronan reappeared between the two.
Thump.
The man’s left arm fell on the ground.
