Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: King of the Mountain Giants
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The Great Demon King once again took steps that were burdensomely heavy for any single person to bear.
Iven had moved to the southernmost point of the western continent Gehenna through the portal Iveldra had opened. Amid the thick fog laced with poison, perhaps due to the gray, dead sea, he slowly walked toward the mountains.
"Mountain Giants."
"The very ground we're standing on right now is all Mountain Giants."
Iven looked down at the earth at Hyeon's words. And he realized. Gehenna's end was nothing more than a cluster of Mountain Giants, differing only in size.
They clung to each other in tight embraces, drawing fragile breaths.
"How do we communicate with them? Are they, like, sleeping?"
At Iven's question, Hyeon rose into the air, and Iven spread his wings to follow. Floating in the sky, the two caught their breath for a moment and observed the Mountain Giants' movements. Then Hyeon spoke, gazing at the colossal Mountain Giant that stretched its hands toward the distant sea, as if touching the heavens.
"Most think Mountain Giants lack consciousness, but for us Demons, consciousness itself isn't that important. What matters more is what will they possess. The wills of each race that receives the Great Demon King's will differ, and the Mountain Giants' will is to connect the continents."
"Connect the continents?"
"Do you know why they swim all the way to the eastern continent? It's because their homeland is both this land and the eastern continent, my lord."
Iven couldn't comprehend Hyeon's words, but whether due to the influence of the horns he had usurped from the Great Demon King, he could empathize with the Mountain Giants' will even without understanding it.
They were clearly yearning desperately for something.
To return to a homeland they could never go back to.
"Before Orga fell into the Orega Sea, this land was originally one massive continent. The Mountain Giants were noble beings propping up the continent's edges. But when Orga fell and the land shattered, countless Mountain Giants died."
It wasn't just that they literally couldn't return.
This world had been divided, and they could never go back to the time when it was one whole world, so what they meant by a place to return to was that era of the single, unified land that had already vanished.
"Their numbers have been dwindling ever since. Mountain Giants don't reproduce. But even so, through their deaths, they're returning to Gehenna's earth, literally extending the continent with their own bodies. They're reclaiming this coast nonstop, filling up the sea as if to reach Helred someday."
The Mountain Giants' will was to connect the two continents.
"Without drinking or eating, without leaving descendants, simply toward their homeland... Kgh."
Suddenly, Iven clutched his head as a headache struck.
"What's wrong, my lord?"
Iven raised his hand,
Boom!
and blasted away a nearby Mountain Giant.
"Old memories... are surfacing."
At his rage, the Mountain Giants clung to each other and wailed heavily. The earth trembled in sorrow.
"Memories turn to emotions, and all emotions explode within me as anger."
"Iven, you must accept the anger."
Iveldra had approached his side before he knew it. Iven turned back to Hyeon and asked,
"How do I sway their hearts? Can I just kill them all according to their will?"
"No, my lord. You simply command. Commune with them and bestow a new will. You said to give it to one of them-or all-so bestow a horn on any one. They will naturally follow your will."
Iven nodded and flew toward the tallest Mountain Giant within his sight. From atop it, he extended a hand like black tentacles and cried out.
"Mountain Giants! I am Demon King Iven van Ivelhac. Your master and the one who will convey your strongest will. From now on, through my wretched eyes, I bestow horns upon you. Follow me. Prosper."
In that instant, Iven opened his wretched eyes.
The method he had learned after usurping these eyes and the Great Demon King's horns-drawing horns from the eyes-was wrong.
The Great Demon King transmitted his will to the Demon King, who then passed it to his race through the horns. But horns weren't just for transmitting will downward.
"Entrust your will to me."
Iven reached out to the tallest Mountain Giant, igniting it with karmic fire. The towering giant, seized by the karmic fire, screamed and clutched its head with both hands.
And from its head grew horns like trees, just as before. The Mountain Giant, shedding tears like oceans, extended its hand toward the master before it.
"I feel your will. Longing, despair, and the desire to die to connect them."
Through the tallest Mountain Giant, Iven felt the will of them all.
"Having received your will, I want to twist off my own neck."
They didn't want to live. They only wished to become soil through death, reconnecting the lands into one. That will flowed through Iven's horns and reached his eyes.
"Ah, such wretched lives."
Iven opened his wretched eyes again, and all the Mountain Giants he gazed upon screamed as horns sprouted from them.
Trees grew on their heads.
To Iven looking down, it resembled a black forest sprouting. And amid the screams of these mountains and forests, one Mountain Giant-the first to receive the will from the highest point, now most resembling a human in form-knelt before Iven.
This Mountain Giant, with horns far larger than the others, its tree-like horns draping over its neck, brought both hands to Iven and spoke.
"M... aster......"
Iven approached its sorrowful eyes and said,
"From now on, some of you will have work to do-for me, and for yourselves."
The humanoid Mountain Giant cupped its hands around Iven like shielding a candle flame, feeling him, that karmic fire. Through the dark purple flames, they sensed each other's wills.
Iven saw the first victims of this world's twisting. Its sorrow was so horrific it was nearly unbearable to face, and thinking of how it and its kind had endured eternity in this state made even their previous meaningless invasions pitiful.
They had committed slaughter solely due to the previous Great Demon King's rage, beyond their own will.
That must have been the case in that burning coastal village that day too.
But Iven decided to bear even their sins.
"The power I grant you is strength. Those among you who can bear it, take only as much as you can handle. And head to the sea."
"As... my master... wills......"
"Take your largest kin and create soil. Fertile land connecting all of Gehenna's earth."
Iven had the goal of unifying the Demons to establish an empire, and he conceived one way to lead them. His top priority was...
"We will plant seeds of life atop your bodies to sustain us."
Producing abundant food from Gehenna's barren land. And by reflecting each race's traits and wills in such plans, allowing them all to share and harmonize with their own power.
"And you-do not die. Lead your kind's prosperity. Name yourself Nephil-no, Nephilim, the race that yearns for him."
"Ne... phil... im."
Thus, a new king of the Mountain Giants was born on this land, utterly different from before.
He led the Mountain Giants toward the distant sea, following Iven's will. But just as the plans began to take shape one by one...
"Kgh, this is......!"
Iven felt extreme rage once more.
"It's the backlash from sharing the horns. If you don't vent the anger, it will become uncontrollable."
Iveldra and Hyeon approached, and Iven blocked them while barely managing to speak.
"Hyeon, go realize the plan! And... Iveldra! Take me! Somewhere with no one!"
Iveldra scooped up Iven, whose speech and aura had changed, and vanished somewhere.
"It's only the beginning, my lord. Please, overcome the Demons' sins."
Hyeon bowed to the empty air and headed to the sea after Nephilim.
"Kgh! Cough!"
And Iven, transported by Iveldra to Gehenna's most barren place, spewed out the ugly emotions born from absolving his race's sins.
"This is......"
Something horrific had been born into this world.
***
"What do you think, Hero?"
Sherbandnel, finally met, spoke boastfully. Though unlike before, he lacked one arm and eye, his dignity remained exactly as when they had last met.
"What in the world is......"
"The sword that cleaves the great ocean, which I crafted-Hoshekh Hatar."
Bulki looked up at the massive ship prepared before him. It was so enormous that "ship" felt insufficient, and its peculiarity was its razor-thin width, impossible to imagine floating on water. It truly resembled a sword cleaving the great ocean, like the steed of a giant dwarf king.
"Hoshekh Hatar-piercing through hardships. A fine meaning, King of the Dwarves."
"Grateful for the Hero's approval. I don't know why your face looks so grim, but from now on, we'll head inside, so stay sharp. There's still a problem that requires your power to solve."
Thus, the Hero's party followed the dwarf king's guidance, entering the colossal vessel with a dozen dwarves.
Of course, unaware that I-the witch who would absolve the Hero's sins-followed behind.