The cemetery to honor the lost heroes of the academy. Erected to withstand the wits of time, the memory of the place faded instead. Mages and knights alike, the statues of remembrance gleamed in the direct moonlight. Made from lunasite, they absorbed the light before reflecting it. Like a call to the lost above, the stone people shined in guidance.
A certain person entered through the main gate. It was open entirely, the intricate lines not able to arouse any thought. Conall walked through the brick road, catching a glimpse of the pretty statues.
Most of them shined purely in blue, however, there were those that stood out. The remarkable heroes, those to stand against worldly threats, were buried in that soil.
He stared at a distinct statue, glowing in slight red. Garran, The Great Knight. The war hero of the academy lost his life over forty years ago in the battle against the mother of spiders. Once the strongest of knights, now lay with flowers.
Slowly walking through it, he stepped ever so closer towards the middle. Amidst the graves, ahead of him, he saw the dilapidated chapel. Vines gathered up the walls, piercing through the dusted windows.
Wherever the greenery didn’t reach, cracks had formed on the faded, white walls. On the roof, there was a hole inviting more light from the moon.
Conall entered the small, unkempt chapel before closing it back up. Walking slowly through the marbled nave, he quickly reached the altar. Looking at the dusty statue of the goddess on top of it, he cleaned it up before searching for the keyhole.
It didn’t take, since he knew the rough whereabouts. Behind the altar, under a ledge, the hole had been hidden.
Putting the black key inside and twisting it, he instantaneously heard the sound of stones clattering against each other. In the middle of the chapel, the marbles started to move by themselves.
After all these years, the round stairs had finally revealed themselves. Conall didn’t waste any time. He quickly went inside after lighting a candle he took from the chapel’s altar.
The stairs were foolishly lengthy. Just to reach the very bottom of the stairway, he needed more than five minutes. However, he finally reached the place.
An eerie cold surrounded him as he ventured through the almost entirely dark corridors. On each side, there was a cell, all the way up to the end, where there was a dead end.
When he looked inside of the cells, there was nothing but human remains. Skeletons were chained up to the brick walls beyond the thick, metal bars. There was no exception no matter where he looked. Forgotten by the academy, these prisoners eventually died from thirst and hunger, rotting away by crawling bugs.
However, he didn’t come here to tend to the dead. Taking out a dagger from his inventory, he stabbed through his hand. Blood adorned the short blade.
Taping onto specific bricks on the wall, he then connected them all with a circle outline. Following that, he started painting the spell. Geometrical shapes that intervened with each other, runes inside them that affected different areas of the magical circle. Thousands of minuscule lines made up and linked the entirety of the circle.
Normally, people would only have to pour mana into these specific bricks according to the description left on the shelves of the chapel, however, since he didn’t have any mana, he needed to go around the mechanism with a complicated spell.
After ten minutes of drawing blood and painting the wall with the dagger, he was done as he put the last rune inside the center of the spell.
It immediately lit up with a white light as the bricks of the walls around him started to move. It wasn’t just the wall he was inscribing. The long corridor, as well as each and every cell, began to rearrange before his eyes.
In order to dodge the flying debris, he laid down on the cold, brick floor. He felt like he was flying through the air, even though he was on hard ground, many hundreds of meters underground.
After a few seconds, the movement finally subsided and he could move again without worrying about a brick smashing his head.
There were no longer any corridors or cells. The stairway was still behind him, but in front, there was a void. All of the cells disappeared in order to reveal what they were hiding. Standing on the ledge of the chasm, he stared into the encompassing darkness that was calling out to him.
Without hesitation, he let himself go, his body descending down the dark.
He didn’t know for how long he had been falling for. The void seemed to eradicate his sense of time. The cold surrounding him gradually dropped, despite going further down Hestrea’s core.
The temperature reached levels so low Conall felt that he was bathing in snow with his bare body. However, that also told him he was close to his destination.
Without any indication whatsoever, the world around him died down. Submerged in a water-like substance, his momentum stopped after a while. Below, he could finally make something out.
A cyan glow permeated the body of fluid he traveled through. Within a few seconds, Conall had already passed through the thin, but firm membrane holding the ocean above from collapsing.
Pain struck through him as his face plummeted onto the stone of the icy caves. Nonetheless, he staggered back up, surprised that he wasn’t wet in any way.
Before the knight, glowing crystals of ice filled the tall, outspread cave. From the ceiling to his feet, they filled the area like a contagious virus.
At the same time, Conall felt an indescribable energy penetrate through him. Unlike anything he experienced in the past, the air surrounding him seemed to have a will to it. Even though everything around him was frozen, including the hard stone, he felt like this was a normal day above the surface.
The natural glimmer of the crystals wavered, intensifying before dying down.
Of course, the reason for these phenomena was the one in front of him. Conall stared at the Giant God kneeling on the ground.
Through his shoulders and chest, three poles penetrate deep into the cave. Although he easily fit the cave, his stature while on his knees steel exceeded that of four meters.
Tied down by four chains, each crude enough to restrain a dragon, his head was lowered towards the ground. The two chains that held his wrists forced him to always have them up, while the ones on his ankles restrained him from standing up.
Despite being held in these forlorn caves for an uncertain amount of time, the muscles on the giant’s pale blue body remained, standing firm like an uncorroded, sculpted stone. Conall wondered how the chains holding him were even able to do so.
Then, his glance moved up to his head. A head made up of ice. Instead of pure hair strands, long, crystal, ice-like hair decorated the top of his head.
“A giant? No, you are a giant, but only in spirit. An accursed one, at that. What’s the occasion for guesting this old, forgotten god?
The lost god raised his head slowly, looking at Conall’s body, despite those empty eye sockets from where dried, crystal blood tainted his face.
Conall stood before him steadily. Even though he was a god who had killed countless who came here in the past, he had no worry in his mind. Because he had something his predecessors didn’t.
“I came to get your heart.”
The god in front of him chuckled with a hearty, echoing laugh.
“You say that, but your mind carries no malice. Who has sent you, young child?”
“The old Heph.”
“Heph, was it? I see. Good! Good! Hahaha!”
His face looked eerie since he didn’t have eyes, but Conall didn’t plan to ruin his memories of an old friend.
After a few moments, the god finally came back to himself. Conall sensed as the sword on his side suddenly shifted positions.
He watched as the sword hovered in the air, slowly unsheathing itself.
“A giant’s spirit and a human’s body.”
The god muttered as he mused over the shiny blade of his past sword. He nodded inwardly. The red-haired kid in front of him was more than enough to undertake his trial.
“Child, you were aware of my trial before meeting Heph, weren’t you?”
He asked an interesting question. There was no such dialogue in the game, but it was a given that things would deviate even when he saved Juliette.
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With a terse nod, the god asked one more thing.
“Then, you must know how many have failed, even before my imprisonment. Are you still interested, being aware that 999 died, or are you willing to become the thousandth one?”
The giant stared silently as Conall came to a decision. One side of him was hoping the human would decline since he had the potential to transform into a giant. The other side wished he would take the trial because he had the qualities to be a giant.
‘No one had yet completed the trial? Why would I care? If I can’t get it here, who will help them?”
With a resounding decision in his mind, he replied to the giant god.
“Grant me the trial.”
Without needing reassurance, the eyes of the god glowed with a blue light as a divine voice reached the human’s ears.
“I, the god of giants, Harmis, declare to the world. The mortal, the challenger, shall undertake the trial of the heavens. Upon their death, may Hestrea take their soul. Upon victory, may they take what’s mine.”
The resounding voice stretched across all of the cave, shaking the ice crystals hanging from the ceiling. Conall felt as though it would start to collapse, however, it soon subsided.
And once it did, he felt something deep inside his soul. Like a string connecting their souls, each of them became more aware of the other’s existence.
“Are you ready?”
“Of course.”
A clear, blue sky stretched before his eyes as he suddenly found himself somewhere completely divergent from the crystal cave he was just standing in.
The sun peeked through, casting shadows on the dense, moving clouds. Conall found himself on a small cliff, surrounded by mountains behind him. From the mountain range, he could see something beyond the lush forest under the mountains.
A few miles away from his viewpoint, it was an agglomeration of large, magical buildings, all harnessed within the high city walls that stretched for miles.
However, before he could admire the floating buildings and the palace floating at the very top of the city, suddenly, a black rift roughed the beauty of the day’s peaceful sky.
From the rift in the space, ominous dark red energy poured out before the damnation began.
Yet, as though time had stoped, all of the movement halted. In his ears, a certain voice called out.
“This is the stage for your trial. Although different from the previous undertakers, this is actually the real version.”
“So the trial in the arena was a fluke, huh?”
Conall added as he realized the weight of the matter. He was in an unknown environment he couldn’t back out from.
The giant god corrected with a flustered voice.
“That’s not true. It was more of a way to get rid of the pesky and annoying little rats that only wanted my treasures. I gave them a battle with a beast one gate higher than them on a whim. I just haven’t met anyone qualified, until you.”
Shock overcame Conall.
‘Then, all those times I defeated the monster and gained a new heart, I was still not qualified?’
He wondered before an answer quickly came up. Although he could gain his cursed blood and cure it later in the game, there was no way to attain a giant’s spirit.
It seemed like he had activated a hidden requirement even he had no idea of, after tens of thousands of gameplays.
“I see. What do you want me to do?”
Despite the sudden change in the scenario, Conall didn’t hate the god that watched him. No, rather, he chuckled inwardly. This was exactly the thing a Hestrean god would do.
“Here, take it.”
From thin air, a deep blue sphere the size of his head hovered alongside him. Inside the hard sphere, there was a fluid flame that replied to any touch. Like a young animal, once he grasped the ball, the flame inside scattered away to the opposite wall.
“This is…”
Although he had a rough idea, he still waited for the god to give an in-depth explanation.
“I’d like to welcome you to the world of Lorinen. Or, rather, what used to be my world. And this… is my world’s seed, which was destroyed by the gods. The lack of will inside the planet disrupted the Calamity of Faith, as its home was nearing destruction. Yet, its defensive mechanisms were what caused its fall.”
Conall’s face immediately turned serious. The rift seemed awfully familiar to him, but for that to actually be the case, he didn’t know if he lucked out or the opposite.
‘This will definitely be harder than dealing with a Grade B monster’
“Carry this seed to the floating palace above the royal capital and hand it over to the king, the young me. I’m sure you will manage, though be aware the timeline right now is just after the Calamity released its powers.”
“And that rift in the sky, are you telling me-”
“Yes, this is just the first one, as well as the smallest one. Prepare yourself, because the demons will be littered everywhere. Also, try to bring the seed before the demons overturn the capital. If they do, this dreamscape will vanish and with it you.”
After he steeled his mind with a breath, time returned to its normal pace. Conall saw as the rift in the sky expanded and countless flying monsters descended upon the world.
Not wasting any further time, he quickly traversed down the mountains, entering the forest connected to the base of the mountain range.
However, he didn’t need to wait long for an encounter.
A small rift opened behind him, causing him to curse his luck, though it probably already was.
From the fracture in space, a bulky, humanoid monster appeared. Looking like a wall of muscles, the monster easily reached over three meters tall. It didn’t have a full head. In its place, there was simply an enormous mouth with gruesome, ugly teeth.
Alongside the normal pair of limbs, the humanoid demon had arms at his back, adding further pure power to its general strength.
Comparable to the demon goblin back in Hestrea, the mouth demon only neared the strength of a Grade B monster, he still hasn’t encroached inside the physical and mental gates.
The monster lurched forward awkwardly, finding it hard to balance himself in this change of environment.
Conall jumped to the side and the ground below him was destroyed, obliterated into dirt that flew away.
His fang already unleashed, he grazed across the monster’s red arms. Although the skin was tougher than the goblin’s one, the knight concluded that the muscle density was much lower and less regenerative.
Instead, the monster was full of vitality compared to the lanky goblin.
Despite his lacerated arm, the monster kept on ramming into the trees after him and banging onto the ground, with speeds that didn’t cower in front of the nimble, small human.
Opening its large mouth, the demon screamed at the top of its lungs. Since it was only just a mouth, the scream was excruciatingly loud, almost to the point of reaping apart Conall’s eardrums.
Because of the taunt, he lost his balance for a second, inviting the monster’s strike. He watched as the fist as big as his torso descended down at him.
However, he didn’t lose his composure. As though time slowed down for a moment, Conall watched the arm of the giant monster with calculative eyes. Moving his left shoulder and leaning backward, the attack had missed barely by a smidgen.
With a quick reaction, Conall jumped onto the monster before piercing his mouth with his sword. He needed to get rid of those vocal cords, which seemed to work.
After jumping down, the monster tried to shout, but only the voice of a gargle resounded through the forest.
The red-haired human left his position, unnoticed by the monster. With smooth motions and consecutive slashes, the big arms at the back of the demon fell off.
Enraged by the searing pain, the monster ran after Conall, trying to grab him instead of smashing his body. That didn’t last long though. As the monster was chasing down the human, it suddenly revealed itself from behind a tree.
The sharp fang easily slashed through the demon’s meaty legs, making it fall to the ground with a huge impetus. Taking down a tree with its descent, it tried to stand up with its arms, however, the imbalance didn’t allow it to move, or even stay straight.
After killing off all the three hearts of the monster, Conall exclaimed to himself with a nod of approval.
‘The sharpness it's currently giving off is no less than that of an epic item.’
He tried to, but the intention of sheathing his sword quickly disappeared. Behind him, he saw three more mouth demons rushing towards him, each varying in size.
‘This is going to be a long night.’
Conall added as the demons were already within his vicinity. The huge fists came back from the dead, but he was starting to get accustomed to the demon’s plays.
Twisting his torso, it looked as though the punch went through him, yet he was perfectly fine. Still, though he read through the simple attack quickly, there were three of them instead of one.
Finally, one of the demons landed an attack, directly on his side. Barely being able to lessen the impact with his sword, Conall felt individual ribs cracking as he was sent flying amidst the trees.
He couldn’t do anything mid-air, but when he finally landed on the hard roots of the forest floor, his body had already reacted, moving to the side.
Uprooted from the ground, a mediocre-looking tree landed on the place he lay a second ago. Gripping his sword harder, Conall quickly ran through the woods, trying to obstruct their vision of him as much as possible.
The trio were looking around the forest as they lost their target. Knocking down small trees, they tried to widen the space they were in. However, just as one was being kicked at the trunk, the human appeared from behind the tree.
Two astonishingly loud screams made Conall stagger in his movement, not able to fully reach the demon in front of him with his sword.
When the tree finally collapsed onto the ground, the demon responsible for it tried to grab the human underneath it. However, just as the monster lowered its body, a blade pierced from beneath.
The demon’s voice had been lost while it only grabbed thin air. Standing beside it, Conall swung his sword horizontally. With every strand of his lower strength in the attack, the large leg of the demon had been cut off.
Before he could attack the other leg, another demon had already come in close range. This time, Conall didn’t back down or hide behind the trees.
Standing before the incoming punch, he lowered his body while readying his sword. Just as the fist hovered above the blade, he pushed with all his strength, precipitating the charge before readjusting his sword and slashing down.
All in a matter of a blink. From the mouth to the right arm, the whole upper right side of its torso had been cut off. Then, he quickly jumped up before reflecting to the side with the help of the tree behind his body.
The third demon, the smallest of them all, rammed into the place where the human stood. Yet, as its body hit the enormous tree, the bones of its right arm broke. The impact behind the attack was enough to turn Conall into a bloody mess.
Quickly killing the hearts of the other two while the final demon recovered, he made his way towards the monster towering over him.
Even though it had a perfectly normal left arm, the demon couldn’t withstand the human knight’s battle strength.