Chapter Seventy

The next thing Arden knew, he stood in a forest. A familiar forest. However, instead of stone trees, everything was alive and vibrant. That included many creatures. His heart froze in fear as one such creature walked past him. It towered at least a hundred meters into the sky, easily as tall as if not taller than any tree in the area. Like the familiar forest, the creature was familiar yet different. It was a giant, but far larger, and the bulges on its chest told him it was female. The giant wasn’t alone. Trotting next to the massive giant was a much smaller version of the giant that he faced. Small was maybe not the right word. Even in presumed childhood, the young giant was a dozen meters tall. Giants really earned their name. When a child giant could step on him by accident, they were massive. Despite their size, they moved through the forest without damaging anything. In fact, the forest itself moved out of the way to accommodate them.

Before the giant’s left his sight, a force pulled Arden along. That was when he noticed he couldn’t move. He was just along for the ride. Whatever happened next must be important if it forced him to watch.

Soon, they arrived at a familiar cave. At least it was familiar on the outside. Instead of bones inside, a natural wonderland greeted him. Animals of all types, most of which giant sized scurried about. As the giants passed them, each animal paused and dipped their heads.

A sinking feeling came over Arden as he took in the animals and compared it to the bone piles. He really hoped he was wrong, but considering the size of the forest, there were a ton of animals living in it. Just his tiny part of resurrected forest was teeming with life.

Arden scanned the cavern again, frowning when he realized it might not be the same cavern after all. It was far larger. It had to be to accommodate the much larger giant. His attention shifted toward the center where a shining green crystal sat. Curious if he could, he tried listening to the melody and found he could. Another parallel to the bone filled cavern appeared as he found the melody radiating off the crystal and the female giant were the same. The melody was so potent and vibrant he felt like he had to squint to hand the vibrancy, but that was only in his head. It was far healthier and potent than he ever heard before. It truly was a better time if his guess of it being in the past was true.

Time passed with Arden watching the two giants go about their daily lives, which mostly consisted of pampering the animals in the cavern. As much as he was enjoying watching their lives, he was wondering why the bone forced him to watch. He couldn’t help but brace himself for the coming disaster. Only a devastating event could ruin the paradise before him. How could anyone destroy this paradise? Even if they wanted to, how could they? Even the smallest creatures gave off an aura far eclipsing his parents. The paradise was just as deadly as it was beautiful. His little woodland creatures couldn’t even survive standing next to these powerhouses.

That wasn’t even counting the two giants. When he tried to gauge the strength of the female giant, he simply couldn’t. It was so far beyond anything he ever felt, he couldn’t imagine anything beating the giant. He did a double take on the smaller giant. Somehow, the child giant was stronger than the adult version that lived during his time. Again, his mind circled back to how anything in the cavern could die. Everything was just too strong.

The answer finally came so suddenly, he jerked in surprise. One after another the hundreds of creatures fall over dead. At first the giants didn’t notice until a bear-sized beaver the female giant stroked between its ears fall over dead. One moment it was alive and leaning into her ministrations, then the next it was lifeless. It was as if someone had flipped an off switch. Instead of the rage he expected, like the adult version of the smaller giant, the female giant wept. Tears flowed as she surveyed the cavern. The paradise of minutes prior was quickly turning into a graveyard.

Worse with each death, the aura radiating off the giants dimmed. They weren’t the only thing affected by the deaths. The cavern itself shrank. Everything just lost its luster and grandeur.

Suddenly, the giant’s tears vanished as she jerked up. Fear and anger manifested as she looked toward the cavern entrance. Before whatever she sensed entered, she looked toward the child giant and spoke in a surprisingly soft tone for such a massive creature. “My precious Tinus, please stay here. Bad people are on their way. No matter what, don’t follow me. You must survive. I leave the tending to the forest to you. Make me proud. Remember, I’ll always be with you.”

Tears welled in Tinus’s eyes, but he listened to his mother’s orders and hid behind the crystal. His mother never hid her duty and cost from him. He knew how important they were to the forest. If both of them died, the forest would never recover.

As the now half sized female giant walked out of the cavern not sized to her current size, Arden got pulled along. His mind flashed back to the massive bone at the center of the cavern during his time with a lump in his throat forming. He may have found the original owner of the bone. Now he wished he didn’t for a different reason. At first, he was terrified of whatever creature the bone came from, but now he wished the bone didn’t exist because of what it meant. The female giant wouldn’t return to the cavern alive. Whatever killed all the creatures would claim the life of the massive giant. Despite that certainty, he hoped it wouldn’t come to pass.

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When she exited the cavern, she took off at a sprint. Each step-built momentum until she rocketed down the tunnel like a cannonball out of a cannon. In mere seconds, she traversed the tunnel far faster than either Arden or the present-day giant did. If Arden wasn’t used to flying fast, the speed would have overwhelmed him. Even though he could fly faster, the fact such a massive being could run so far filled him with awe. What could take down a being so strong? That was when he realized she wasn’t as strong as she seemed any longer. Just as fast as she ran, her strength diminished. By the time she was a kilometer away from the cavern, she had a quarter of the strength she had originally and was near the same size as the present-day giant. That didn’t mean she was weak. Far from it. She still barreled through the forest at an absurd rate of speed, but like her aura and size, her speed slowed with each step.

Her eyes widened, and she skidded to a halt before diverting her route by swinging on a tree. Said tree groaned, but it held. That only drove home just how much her strength and size diminished. When Arden first saw her, the tree wouldn’t have been barely a sapling compared to her size, but now, it could withstand her swinging on it.

The reason she dodged revealed itself moments later as a flaming meteor crashed down. Unfortunately, it wasn’t alone. Another meteor descended. This time much faster. With her momentum lost, she was a sitting duck. No matter how strong she was, her mass made it hard to accelerate in an instant. All she could do was dive for cover, but there was no cover to be had. The meteor cut through the canopy and crashed down on her legs, scorching and deforming them. She wasn’t helpless, though. A moment later, her legs reformed, but her charred skin remained. With pain-filled but determined eyes, she shot to her foot and grabbed the smoldering meteor, uncaring that it burned her hands. Even with Arden’s impressive vision, he couldn’t see what she was looking at as she wound up and sent the meteor back the way it came. A shock wave buffeted the trees, knocking over several smaller ones as the meteor shot off.

Even before either of them could see the outcome of the action, a shadowed being appeared behind the giant and cleaved through her heals. Somehow, the black blade, far too small for the giant’s massive Achilles tendons, cut through them like nothing, sending the giant crashing to her knees. Before she could recover, another meteor came crashing down. This time she couldn’t dodge not that she tried. The trees surrounding her bent in the way whether to protect her on their own accord or with her magic.

Of course, the trees failed to stop the meteor, but that wasn’t their goal. They sacrificed themselves to slow the meteor down and succeeded. She caught the red-hot meteor, uncaring of her blistering hands and arms, and launched it once more. This time because she was on her knees, the meteor didn’t launch with a shock wave. It didn’t have to, though. The meteor had a different target.

Instead of launching straight upward like the last one, it shot up, then spun back and crashed behind her. Right on top of the shadowed being. Surprised the being didn’t react in time. A squashing sound reached Arden’s ears, causing him to wince, but when he returned his attention to the giant, any sense of minor victory vanished. What he predicted happened. Well, not yet, but it was now a certainty.

The shadowed being didn’t go down without one last attack. Blade capable of slicing through the giant without resistance now stuck out of the giant’s back. At first it seemed like a minor wound, but upon seeing the giant’s limp arms Arden understood the blade hit something vital.

Battle won the culprit of the meteors came floating down into view. The saddened expression on the human’s face wasn’t directed at the meteor that ended his ally’s life, but it was focused on the giant and the surrounding forest. Said forest was already burning. Without intervention, the fire would run wild. Said intervention didn’t come, though. Was this fire the cause of the ash? Arden put that question away for now as he focused on the interaction. There was no anger, only sadness as the two adversaries locked eyes.

The human spoke with a voice thick with emotion. That was when Arden noticed there were tears in his eyes. “Ainas, why didn’t you accept our offer? We could have ended this with minimal bloodshed.”

Ainas released a deep wheezing sigh, blood dripping down from her mouth. “Ignis, if only you understood the mistake, you and the others are committing. I understand your plight, but killing the primes of nature isn’t right. There is always a cost to such actions. A cost I’m not sure you understand the severity of. I only hope you realize the cost before it’s too late.”

Those were the last words she spoke, as a moment later, she closed her eyes as her chest stilled. Despite knowing the giant died, Ignis whispered, “I’m sorry, Ainas, mother of beasts, but we must barrel ahead. We understand the costs but must pay them for a chance at a future. Burn down the present at a chance for a future.”

With a snap of his fingers, he ignited the giant’s body. In moments, only a single bone remained.

That was when Arden noticed something missing. The man didn’t have Ortus bracelets. He used magic without cards.

Arden didn’t get to see what happened next as he snapped back to the present a moment later. The first thing Arden saw was an enraged giant ready to squash him like a bug.

Fortunately, the squashing part never came as the bone shined brightly as a familiar soft voice from the distant past spoke.