Chapter 204: The Rising Giant
Russell had no idea his single move would take Girard out of commission. As expected, Girard could charge even with his head, which had been torn off above the nose, without any hesitation.
A whip made of vertebrae extended at a startling speed. The bone segments and joints joining them grew as if they were reproducing themselves. The bone whip struck Russell with a terrifying rush of wind.
Russell swung his greatsword, intercepting the whip. Instead of bouncing away, the whip wound itself around the blade. Despite coming into direct contact with the blade, it was extremely hard and sturdy, not getting cut.
A brief struggle occurred. Russell could feel his feet dig into the ice floor. Girard’s head was regenerating as the dark particles converged. Soon, a mouth appeared, and the lips moved.
“Are you weaker than you look?”
It was a trivial provocation. However, he couldn’t ignore the provocation. Russell gave a vicious grin and stiffened his biceps.
His thighs and biceps bulged. His pants constricted, and his coat appeared ready to burst at any minute.
Crack!
The frozen floor beneath Russell split apart with several fissures and caved in, unable to resist the pressure.
Girard also channeled all of his magical strength. The air hummed and shrieked as the whole room shook. The weakening barrier, which had barely been able to prevent the collapse due to the two superhumans’ combined summoning of magical force, was now vibrating fiercely.
Russell, whose eyes were now emanating piercing purple light, twisted his wrist while gripping his greatsword.
With that smooth maneuver, the delicate balance of power that had been carefully maintained was disrupted, and the scales swayed in Girard’s favor. Russell swung his greatsword and unleashed the bone whip, kicking the floor.
CLANG!
A bolt of blue lightning, accompanied by thunder, burst and spread across the blade. The chilly voltage instantly froze and broke the surrounding air, propelling jagged fragments ahead.
Girard, who appeared to be losing his balance and tumbling backward, regained control with a strange movement. The spatial distortion split in several directions, like shattered glass, and the falling Girard vanished before reappearing unhurt and standing upright.
At that point, Russell’s magical eyes flashed, and Girard’s magical power, which was attempting to split space, came to an abrupt halt. Then, images of Girard falling and standing appeared and shattered.
“Keugh!”
The trauma of having his magic forcibly dispelled was intense. Girard, who appeared to have received little physical injury, coughed fiercely and spat blood from both mouths, as if the motion had taken its toll.
“Tch, your eyes really are annoying!”
“I’m glad you like them.”
Girard strengthened his magical might, incensed by Russell’s ridicule. His body, which was already murky and black, swirled with magical force, exuding a menacing aura.
“I’ll gouge out your eyes and crush them!”
Girard’s right arm moved, producing an afterimage.
SWOOSH!
Hundreds of whips emerged from his arm with alarming speed, overwhelming the space around him. Girard’s right arm wasn’t visible. To an outside spectator, it may have appeared that his arm had been severed from the shoulder, but the gray afterimages extending twenty meters in front of him revealed that his right arm was moving at incredible speed.
BUZZ!
Russell’s great sword produced hundreds of afterimages as he swung it in reaction to the sound of swarming bees. Countless flames appeared in the abyss and dissipated as embers.
THUD, THUD, THUD!
The moment the greatsword and bone whips collided in the vacuum was fleeting. However, those few moments transpired so quickly that numerous little sparks constantly exploded and vanished around Russell and Girard.
The bone whips that had dominated the area in front of them unexpectedly ceased moving. As the myriad afterimages around them faded away, an unsettling silence settled. No, the sound had yet to reach them because time had been significantly extended. At this point, the sound was rushing to catch up with its own slow footsteps.
The whip, which had vanished, returned under Russell’s feet. The wiggling bone whip rose up like a serpent attempting to bite its prey, heading for Russell’s throat.
Girard’s power, as well as the bone whip, appeared simultaneously. Russell’s one-meter radius fractured like broken glass, revealing many images of him.
It displayed Russell to the left and right, above and below, and diagonally. There weren’t any blind spots; every direction was a blind area.
Russell moved at that same moment.
As he extended his palm forward, his magical power increased, and his ax responded. The ax, which had flown far away and was imbedded in the wall with only the handle visible, twisted around on its own and flew toward Girard’s back.
Girard was forced to turn around and concentrate all of his magical strength in his left hand to stop the frost and ice-infused ax.
Russell’s enormous ax made from the frost giant’s body did not betray him. The ax, which had even frozen the magical power and forced Girard to cut the link, severed Girard’s left elbow.
“Ugh!”
Russell faced the tips of the bone whips that were firing at him from all directions, while Girard let out a painful groan and twisted his body.
Hundreds of whips with several joints sank into Russell. Russell’s right hand seized one of the whips.
“Impossible!”
Girard roared. The bone whips, which had split space and attacked from all sides, were securely gripped by dozens of Russell’s right hands, which had appeared from each fragmented vision.
“You lack imagination.”
Russell’s supernatural eyes allowed him to see through Girard’s illusion. It was remarkable magic that removed the restrictions of eyesight by separating a specific place, allowing strikes from all angles while diverting his own to match.
However, its size was limited, and it could only be flung up to twenty meters from Girard. Of course, the fact that it could alter space gave it a huge advantage, but Russell’s magical eyes could perceive the flow of magical power and interfere with it simultaneously.
And Russell had channeled the space isolation that had occurred around him into his own magical power, making it his own. He utilized the same approach to break through Definus’ wind barrier.
WOOOOSH!
Russell invoked his magical power. The magical power that was fiercely whirling within his body formed a wide circle that stretched from his toes to his head.
BOOM!
Russell’s magical power seeped into the ground as soon as he moved his left foot forward. The seeping magical power was organized into a certain formation based on the master’s will.
THUD, THUD, THUD!
The floor immediately ascended. It seemed as if a dormant volcano buried underground was extending its limbs. A magical force erupted diagonally like lava, becoming a massive conical shape that flew toward Girard’s torso.
Girard attempted to split space again to resist the freezing wave, but Russell’s magical eyes broke his spell during the casting, causing his defense to fail. Girard was eventually buried in ice as the onslaught spread quicker than he could extinguish it.
The shattered and shorter bone whip in Russell’s hand suddenly changed course in the air, as if it had its own volition, and soared toward him.
The bone whip, which had grown to several meters in length, coiled tightly around Russell. It resembled a serpent trying to strangle its prey.
However, the inside of the bone whip was riddled with hundreds of sharp thorns. Russell’s body burst with lightning just as the whip was about to wrap around him.
Russell, covered in lightning, dashed across the floor. With each step he made, the frozen floor cracked, scattering white shards everywhere.
A bright red light exploded from the center of the iceberg that had formed out of the frozen water. The white surface flashed bright red and then unleashed a red lightning bolt. The bolts entwined and detonated, causing flashes of light.
A heat so intense that it could melt human flesh struck Russell directly.
CRASH!
Russell flew dozens of meters in a moment and crashed against the ice mountain on the other side.
The attack wasn’t over. Girard emitted an infinite quantity of black magical force from his entire body as the iceberg exploded like an eggshell.
“Kreugh!”
White fractures emerged all over his dark body, indicating that he was pushing himself too hard. Another Girard at the hall’s edge, who was touching Jayvir’s severed skull, spat black liquid from his mouth while chanting a spell.
Although they were separated, they were all one, making the scenario easy to understand. The separated Girards quickly shared thoughts via the connecting thread of consciousness. Because the thoughts were their own, their consciousness was communicated as quickly as a bolt of lightning.
‘We cannot win. His reaction time is not human. Similarly, his physique exceeds that of a human. Even a magical power user or knight cannot manipulate magical power. However, he is also an expert magician. He concentrates nCounty entirely on frost and electricity, but that is dangerous enough. What has happened so far?’
‘The ritual is ongoing. His magical power, however, has already begun to seep in. Extracting it immediately will take a long time.’
‘What if we go ahead with the transformation now?’
‘Side effects are unknown.’
‘We can’t hold out much longer. Proceed.’
Girard, having made up his mind in an instant, flew his levitating form toward the location where Russell had crashed. At the same time, he gathered magical strength in his left palm before slamming it into the vacuum. Then he shouted.
“Answer the covenant!”
Something frozen and shaking began to move in response to Girard’s forceful commands. They were the monsters of the abyss, carried away by Russell’s chilly sea.
The flesh of the monsters, which had been partially entrenched in the pure white frost and ice, melted in an instant. Melted blood rose into the air and gathered near Girard, forming long legs.
The amount of blood obtained was small in comparison to the beginning. Girard gritted his teeth when he understood that Russell’s onslaught had killed half of the monsters and sent them back to the underworld, but there was no other option.
“Come forth!”
OOOOOOH!
With a sigh that shook the hall, the accumulated blood solidified and took the shape of a door. And as soon as the door appeared, half of Girard’s torso was ripped away with a tearing sound. He yelled.
“Aaaaargh!”
The same thing happened to the other Girard, who was conducting the ceremony from the opposite side. He yelled, tears of blood spilling from his eyes.
The black door swallowed in half of Girard’s shadowy black skin as well as the creatures’ blood. It didn’t look like a regular door.
BAM!
With a tremendous bang, a black shadow emerged from the opposite side of the iceberg. The greatsword Nahilnir was too large for the typical person to handle and swing.
The greatsword, endowed with purple magical power and emitting starlight-like light, was poised to pierce the door.
Girard, who was vomiting blood and chanting a spell on the opposite side, raised both hands before slamming them down. The crash broke Girard’s hands.
When the spell was finished, Jayvir’s body began to glow crimson.
As half of Girard’s torso was severed and used as an offering, and the blood of the underworld’s monsters functioned as a medium, a huge amount of magical power accumulated at one time.
Everything happened at once.
BOOM!
With a tremendous bang, a circular shock wave erupted, breaking the floor and sending the ice pillars flying in all directions.
A big figure’s shadow flashed in the dense ice dust. The shadow waved its hand, sweeping away the ice particles and settling them down. It was Russell.
Russell, covered in ice and frost, squinted as he stared forward.
“What the hell is this?”
“Heh heh heh heh… The descent of the great one……”
Someone answered Russell’s query. Russell looked down. He noticed a black liquid oozing all over his body. Girard’s left leg and lower body were severed, leaving just his right leg and a portion of his head intact.
“We will all become one in his embrace. And he will guide us to the path of eternal happiness and paradise……”
Hearing Girard’s chuckling laughter, Russell looked ahead. The ice dust that was still hanging densely was moving from top to bottom and bottom to top.
WHIIIIIIING…!
Russell’s eyes shone purple as they scanned the surroundings. He saw a strange flow in his eyes.
The magical force that had fluctuated due to the conflict between Russell and Girard had faded.
CRACK!
There was a sudden bang, like a massive glass pane smashing. Russell switched his attention to the source of the sound.
A black hole, barely imperceptible to his eyes, was present.
Russell’s eyes widened. He knew the hole. To be more specific, he recognized the nothingness within the hole.
The strange scenery and vibe he had sensed while in Errandis territory were pouring from within.
Twelve gray fingers gradually emerged from within. Russell was startled that he had learned about them at some point.
Despite having plainly observed it, the fingers had appeared ‘suddenly’. He had not witnessed the process. As if refuting his past experience in an instant, the fingers eliminated the process and continued to exist.
As the twelve gray fingers forced open the black hole, the edges cracked with a crackling sound. And what shattered was space itself. Perhaps it is more accurate to refer to it as a dimension.
A big gray skull appeared out of the hole. Dozens of pitch-black eyes with no discernible whites or pupils. There was no nose, but there was one mouth. The massive mouth was sewn shut with thick black thread.
However, as the gray monster used its strength, the black thread snapped and the mouth opened.
━Grooooooan……!
“Ugh……!”
Russell groaned and covered his ears. The sound that shook not only his body but also his spirit reverberated all around.
The previously subdued magical force rose again, as if cold water had been thrown at it.
The hall, which had been filled with snowfields and frozen seas, collapsed, and the icebergs turned to dust. The barrier collapsed again, but the debris did not fall on Russell or the gray giant.
The debris converted to dust as if by magic as soon as it entered a particular radius around them.
[We have… finally… Come this far……]
Russell raised his head as he heard a familiar voice. The gray giant, having almost pushed its upper body out of the hole, began to rise. It climbed indefinitely, as if there was no end to the tight hole. The castle collapsed.
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