Chapter 376
Chapter 376
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 376
Chapter Title: Titan Village (1)
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# 376
Titan Village (1)
[Titans. That was the term for the giant race born in ancient times who still lived to this day.
They were innately enormous, powerful, and pure.
Pure.
Yes, they were pure.
Though they sometimes unleashed merciless destruction when problems arose due to their fidelity to instinct, in most situations they strove to live alongside other beings.
Despite possessing overwhelming power, they never flaunted it or sought to dominate other races.
They lived together with others, and that was what they desired.
But then those who sought to exploit their power appeared.
People who took advantage of the Titans' pure and innocent hearts to satisfy their own greed, trying to command these giants despite their own weaker strength.
They were humans.]
"Huh? Why do humans come up here?"
And humans had dwelled in the heavens long ago?
Rokan briefly doubted the book's credibility but continued reading for now.
[Of course, humans weren't the only ones who tried to use the Titans. Other races attempted it too, but humans were the ones who succeeded and caused the greatest incident.
In the end, one human succeeded.
He deceived Tamos, the most powerful among the Titans, inciting him to acts of destruction and trampling and dominating the other races of the heavens.
Naturally, all the benefits derived from that went to the human.
Countless races beneath the mighty Titan lived like slaves, cowering under a reign of terror and iron-fisted rule.
But where there is oppression, there is resistance.
An alliance of multi-racial resistance fighters formed, furious at the human who wielded Tamos to flaunt his power.
They couldn't possibly challenge Tamos directly, so they began guerrilla warfare to weaken his forces and inflict even the slightest damage.]
"What idiots."
[That was where the problem arose.
Those who lacked the confidence to assassinate Tamos dared to raid a Titan village and kill a single female Titan.
Just one female Titan at that.
Titans, whose greatest weapons were their strength and destructive power, were relatively weaker in their females.
It was hardly an achievement worth noting, but it caused Tamos to go berserk.
She had been his lover.
He had stepped to the forefront following the human's words in the first place to make life easier and happier for her and his clan.
With her dead, Tamos no longer had any will or purpose left.
From that moment, Tamos began to rampage. He unleashed even more merciless violence and destruction.
As if seeking revenge on the world that had taken his lover from him.
The humans suffered the same fate. Even the human who had served as his closest aide and advisor got caught in the backlash.
What if he had ignored the words and quietly lived in the village? Wouldn't he have built a family in that untouched land and lived a simple, happy life?
Half-mad, Tamos became far more violent than before, to the point where merely seeing a human would send him into a frenzy.]
"Deserved it."
Rokan was human himself, but he had to acknowledge this. If someone went through that and still blamed themselves while retreating into seclusion, wouldn't that make them the ultimate pushover?
He could understand the Titan's feelings and clicked his tongue at the resistance fighters' foolishness.
"Hmm?"
Continuing to read, Rokan confirmed that things had spiraled to the worst.
As Tamos's rampage threatened to destroy the world, all races and powerhouses of the heavens gathered.
[They pooled their strength to resist Tamos, but the result was disastrous.
Despite using every means—ambushes, assassinations, traps—they failed to kill him.
They could repel him several times, but never finish him off.
This only amplified the fear of Tamos across the entire heavens.
And based on that fear, Tamos ascended to the ranks of the gods.]
"Impressive. So it's not just faith?"
For Rokan, who had believed faith in a god was the only way to gain divinity, this was quite a shock.
Acquiring divinity and godhood through fear rather than faith?
It was astonishing, but not incomprehensible.
Faith was ultimately a manifestation of will, and fear was the same, wasn't it? That was how he could absorb massive amounts of divinity without directly ruling.
[The one who sought to destroy the world ascended to godhood.
The worst possible situation for the heavens.
But at the same time, it became the solution.]
"As expected."
[Those who attained godhood could no longer directly intervene in the mortal world or the heavens.
This applied to Tamos too, the one trying to destroy the world.
His body and soul were sucked into wherever the gods resided, and peace seemed to return to the heavens somewhat anticlimactically.]
"He wouldn't just leave like that."
[But the problem was that Tamos resisted that law. He defied the compulsory law with his divinity, continuing his destruction.
The world was once again dyed in destruction and fear, filled with screams and wails.
The resistance had no way to counter it.
Even Majesty Masters couldn't stand against him—now a god?
With him smashing through traps and everything else with raw power, resistance became meaningless. They could only huddle and pray he ascended to the 'divine realm' soon.
Time passed, and when half the heavens lay in ruins, Tamos could hold out no longer and departed the heavens.
It seemed peace had arrived.]
"So that's how it began."
Having read that far, Rokan recalled a certain word.
Would Tamos, having attained godhood, abandon his hatred for the world? Could he shed all his karma and emotions like an enlightened immortal?
No. He would intervene in the world another way.
"Corruption."
Through corruption itself.
It made sense how gaining the power of corruption granted vastly superior combat prowess compared to before.
Even the smallest fragment was part of a god's power.
The Corrupted God, Tamos.
That was the moniker of the Titan who became a god.
"Guess it's a blessing that the Titans as a whole don't believe in him?"
According to Motron's records, right after Tamos left the heavens, some Titans sought to inherit his divinity and take the absolute throne. The resistance, terrified of his combat power, hunted Titans to nip it in the bud.
In that process, many who accepted Tamos's divinity and the power of corruption went mad, but since his legacy wasn't theirs alone, they were defeated.
The faith of each race's strongest warriors.
Though somewhat distorted, the praise for slaying Tamos coalesced into immense divinity that empowered them.
Meanwhile, the Titans had lost both fear and faith. As a minority race, they couldn't overcome the majority races' divinity.
The typical races barely survived by fleeing to harsh lands or the mortal world, hiding and avoiding extinction—but they couldn't show themselves to the world for an incredibly long time.
Only when the fear and oral tales of Tamos faded did explorers discover them, and now they were slowly beginning exchanges and communication.
"Damn."
Learning the truth about the Titans left Rokan with a strange feeling.
Didn't this make him the bad guy for flying in to beat them up?
He didn't mind playing the villain, but this felt oddly nuanced.
"Corruption, huh..."
At the same time, he felt a nagging itch. Like if he thought a bit more, he'd grasp a clue.
"Come to think of it, is the main scenario quest done?"
Titans and corruption. Those were the key elements threading through the main scenario quest Rokan had resolved before ascending to the heavens.
But there was no mention anywhere of a new main scenario quest after that.
Was there no main scenario related to the heavens at all, or had he just not discovered it yet?
If it connected to the mortal world's scenarios, maybe he'd just uncovered that clue now.
"Would he really give up?"
He had annihilated the Ragnarok Team and other corruption followers, and was still pursuing and exterminating the remnants.
As a result, the Ragnarok Team was so thoroughly crushed that it was unclear if they'd quit the game or were leveling new characters.
In a game with this many players, no sightings despite huge bounties meant one of those two.
But could they really say Tamos's schemes and attempts ended just by defeating followers and capturing the corrupted Titan?
Rokan couldn't easily nod.
The opponent was a god. That level of damage wouldn't even register.
[Cut the Grass and Dig Up the Roots][Quest]
You have discovered traces of the Corrupted God who seeks to destroy the world.
Find and destroy his traces to prevent repetition.
-Success Condition: Destroy traces of the Corrupted God
-Success Reward: Massive experience, Ancient Divinity
"This is...!"
The quest appeared the moment he realized it.
Rokan instinctively knew this was an extension of the main scenario quest.
"Traces of Tamos, huh..."
Still vague, but now he could infer plenty. What else could "traces of a god who attained godhood" mean?
"An altar?"
Exactly—an altar.
Just like Stormwind and other gods, there would be altars somewhere in the world receiving the Corrupted God's power, Tamos, or allowing his descent.
The most likely spot was right in front of him.
"Definitely looked like an altar."
This place he was in, the upper part of the secret space—didn't it resemble an altar?
An altar right next to the Titans' stronghold.
This screamed corrupted altar.
"Guess I should head out first."
He didn't know if they'd given up or were still searching or lying in wait, but the vibrations from above had stopped.
Even if they ambushed him, he was confident he could hold or escape using Stormwind's incarnation, so Rokan turned and strode back.
Rumble.
He activated the mechanism again, opening the entrance and slipping out.
"...?"
Fortunately, no one was there.
It seemed the Titans who had sensed him and come to greet had given up and left after not finding him.
"Hmm, definitely an altar..."
Securing the area and looking around, Rokan was convinced.
The identity of this ruin-like structure was an abandoned altar.
Untended for ages and half-destroyed, but it was a god's altar—maybe it still worked?
If so, better to strike first before anyone else used it.
"Aura Bombardment!"
Resolved, Rokan immediately unleashed his power.
Gathering all his strength, he poured it toward the altar.