Chapter 111
Chapter 111
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: Judgment of Atala (14)
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Kadim gritted his teeth and bent his pinky finger back without hesitation.
Crack!
The knuckle swelled black and blue. His forearm spasmed from the pain, and cold sweat beaded across his forehead. But his quick action had successfully suppressed the madness for the moment.
"Hoo..."
His vision, however, was already surreal, as if he were seeing hallucinations. He gathered his wits and clicked his tongue briefly.
'She's overlaid the ritual space onto reality... I don't know how she did it, but the shaman's got some brains.'
The shamans of the wilderness sustained their lives through the ruins' rituals, so they could never leave them. But by superimposing the ruins directly onto reality like this, she could apparently exert some influence without dying.
The voice echoed again.
He hadn't expected to hear that title again. Kadim let out a cold sneer and ground out his words.
"That 'Source of Calamity' nonsense again...? Did you get a revelation from Atala or the Forgotten God too?"
"If you don't know, forget it. Anyway, why do you keep averting your eyes?"
"You know that one's a fake and I'm the real Great Warrior. If anything, aren't you and the fake Great Warrior closer to the 'Source of Calamity'? The guy you just killed might outnumber everyone I've slain in my life."
A fragile silence drifted amid the corpse mounds piled like hills in the ruined arena.
Soon, burning resentment laced the voice echoing in his mind.
"I killed that high demon, not him. This is the blood I got from slaying it."
He uncorked the iron flask and shook it. A thick bloody scent spread, and the ruins' afterimage trembled faintly. While he was at it, he shoved forward the tattoo engraved with the 'Branding Needle' to drive the point home.
"Besaka, Ketura. The other wilderness shamans have already acknowledged me as the Great Warrior. The 'Branding Needle' you have was prepared for me, not him. Besides, you chose confinement to regain your power in the first place. Tell me, did your lost divine powers return when that fake Great Warrior showed up?"
"Finally, a warning. Fulfill your duty. Hand over Cyril's 'Branding Needle,' dispose of the fake Great Warrior, and return quietly to the wilderness dust. If not, I'll crush your withered skull and tear your soul to shreds so it can't even reach the heavens."
His killing intent reverberated through the overlapping space in a deep bass rumble. The inner echo paused briefly. Instead, a hazy wave of tension and fear from the shaman's heart trickled in.
But soon after, an unexpected response came.
"...?"
A voice lost in trance, cracking dully. The dust storm surged unnaturally along the flow of divine power.
Whoooosh...
Kadim chuckled inwardly. What an ironic moment. The Great Warrior was the mediator between the War God and humanity. Cyril had been right after all—when the true 'Great Warrior' returned, the shamans' divine powers would return too...
With evidence like this, he figured the shaman would finally admit the truth.
He was dead wrong.
"..."
Divine power granted miracles, but it didn't open the eyes of one sunk in the well of delusion.
At this point, she was senile. Further talk was pointless. As planned, he'd just have to split the fake Great Warrior's and the shaman's heads quickly.
...Before the 'madness' swallowed him and he botched the judgment.
Kwa-bam!
Kadim hefted his axe and leaped toward Goltaran.
A shrill voice stabbed into his mind.
―――― Kwaaang!
Shhh...
Too late. Goltaran's divine image scattered like dust, and the axe blade struck only the empty ground. The shaman must have used a ritual to teleport him elsewhere.
Where to was obvious. He'd need the 'elixir' to heal, so she'd summoned him to her side. Then the entrance leading to them would be...
That fragment of the ruins' landscape hanging in the air.
Kwa-bam!
Kadim kicked off again for another leap. But in an instant, a massive earthen wall erupted, blocking his path.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The shaman's triumphant voice cut off midway. Kadim had done something unbelievable.
He shoulder-charged right through the earthen wall.
―――――― Kwa-bam!
Even as she summoned more earthen walls in succession, the result was the same. Each time Kadim hurled himself like a cannonball, the thick, stone-hard walls crumbled like sandcastles. Eventually, even the shaman realized it was just wasting divine power and stopped calling them up.
But Kadim knew she wouldn't have just that as a backup.
The moment the ruins' fragment loomed close, the earth stirred to life.
Kugugugu... Kwaaang!
It happened just like that, no exaggeration.
The ground split open with cracks, and from the strata rose a colossal figure. Dust billowed thickly, a vast shadow engulfed the arena, and its surface bore intricate ritual patterns like petroglyphs. Less a creature than a geological feature, the rock giant stood like a gatekeeper, peering down at the axe-wielding warrior.
- Kugugugu...
"..."
Kadim swallowed a laugh. It reminded him of the liquid giant he'd fought in the ruins before. He'd wondered if lava giants, rock giants, or ice giants might appear later—and here one was. His words had jinxed it.
- Kugugugu...
This rock giant was probably one used for 'trials' too. No doubt a brutal one. Its sheer size made it hard to fight, and shattering that solid rock with mere metal would be no easy task.
But things were different now.
Kadim had his first playthrough's power and the divine weapon that called forth ruin. Though he couldn't summon the full divinity, the indestructible black iron and its honed edge made 'Judgment of Atala' more than worth it.
He leaped up and swung the axe. Rock shards burst like fireworks.
―――――― Kwagagagagak!
- Kugu...
The rock giant staggered slightly. A massive gash like a plow furrow scarred its chest. But Kadim's face was grim—not pleased.
Bend the finger back bend the finger back bend the finger back...
Crack!
Bending his ring finger silenced the whispers. But it was just a stopgap. He had to break through before the madness overwhelmed him entirely... yet this rock giant was tougher than expected.
Wooong! Rumble, krududuk...
The ritual patterns on its surface glowed. The fallen shards returned. Fully repaired, the giant swung a fist down at Kadim with fury.
―――― Whooosh, Kwaaaaang!
That simple motion became a natural disaster. A fierce shockwave spread through the ground, sending everything attached to it floating into the air. The cracked earth subsided, pouring soil and rocks into the pit from which the giant had risen.
Kadim dashed left to evade, then leaped onto the giant's shoulder. He scanned for a 'core' but found none. As a fallback, he targeted the head with crossed axe strikes.
―――― Kwagagak, kwagagak!
Another huge mark remained. But it repaired quickly again. At the same time, a compressed shockwave erupted from the rock's rituals. Like stepping on a bomb, Kadim was blasted far away and crashed.
The rock giant followed up, dropping boulders, punching, stomping, unleashing every disaster to crush him. The echoes shook the heavens and earth, toppling the remaining arena structures.
Now that they'd clashed, it was clear.
This wasn't some mere trial guardian.
Maybe at its base, but it had been heavily modified, far removed from the original. Probably the excited shaman, reclaiming her divine power, had slathered it with enhancement rituals. If she could wield something like this freely, what need was there for a Great Warrior at all?
And he couldn't ignore it. When he tried slipping into the ruins, that expulsion ritual shoved him back out.
Thud!
'Fucking shamans and their dogshit tricks...'
As he cursed inwardly, the rock giant's fist came flying from behind. With no choice, Kadim reversed his grip on the axe head, wielding it like a blunt mace.
―――――――― Whooosh, Kwa-bam!!!
Planting both feet firmly, he countered the giant's fist. The impact felt like catching a meteor. Crushing pressure threatened to shatter his spine and limbs, but he barely held without buckling.
Yet the giant suffered more.
Crack, craaack, kwadududuk!
The shock from the fist traveled to its shoulder, demolishing the right arm entirely. The damage was so vast it couldn't repair properly, dropping thick rock chunks.
Kadim furrowed his brow.
The repair ritual wasn't omnipotent. If the damage was too severe, the ritual itself broke, preventing reversal. He'd unconsciously reversed his grip to parry—and accidentally hit the giant's weak point.
'Not much of a 'weak point,' though...'
For giants or golems, 'weak points' usually meant obvious cores or vitals. Calling the obvious fact that blunt force devastation prevents repair a 'weakness' was questionable.
But right now, Kadim had the power to exploit even that non-weakness.
Ignoring his mangled fingers, he gripped the axe haft with eight fingers. Spinning the head like a hammer, he charged the rock giant headlong.
"Hraaaaaah!!"
―――――――――― Kwa-bam, kwa-bam, kwagagang!
From legs to thighs, waist to ribs, chest to shoulders, Kadim rampaged across the giant's body, hammering wildly. Cracks spread from each impact point, merging massively at intersections.
- Kugugu, kugugugu...
―――― Whoooosh, craaack!
The giant swung fists repeatedly and detonated surface rituals. It struggled to shake him off, but it was futile flailing. Its heavy, slow movements had power but couldn't match a charging berserker's speed.
The melee dragged on for a full incense stick's time.
Destruction outpaced repair. Finally, cracks riddled its body beyond mending.
―――――― Ku, kwagagang!
The rock giant collapsed like a crumbling castle. Thick dust rose, boulders piling into a cairn. The totaled giant would never reform.
"Hoo..."
Kadim caught his breath, his face twitching with suppressed mania. His back and palms were slick with cold sweat. Close call, but he'd passed the 'trial' before the madness took his mind.
Wrong.
Kugugugugu, kugugugugu, kugugugugugu...
No sooner had one rock giant fallen than the ground quaked again.
The furious earth sang. Scattered tremors merged into thunderous pulses like drums uniting. The strata warped into human forms, and majestic 'divine images' rose from the ground.
――――――――― Kwagagagang!
The shaman shrieked like a demon, as six rock giants rose like mountains.
As Kadim stared dumbfounded at the walking catastrophes,
Suddenly, half of them collapsed spectacularly.
―――― Kwarururur, kwarurururu...
"...?"
He hadn't even twitched a finger yet. The remaining giants froze like statues. Kadim tilted his head, trying to figure it out, when panicked voices flooded his mind.
[Thud! Roarrrrr!
[...No, nooo!! Nooooo!!]
Desperate screams followed, mixed with chaotic noise and roaring flames.
He had no clue what was happening. But he knew whose voice that was earlier. Kadim scowled and murmured the name lowly.
"...Duncan?"