Chapter 161: The Forest of the Fallen (Part 1)
Outskirts of Heaven. Purgatory.
Shirone didn't even have time to look around before he touched his head. He had fallen headfirst, so it was a miracle his skull wasn't shattered.
He might have lost consciousness for a brief moment, but when he came to, he was standing on both feet, unharmed.
Tess checked her body and said, "Are we alive? Or are we dead?"
"We're probably alive. I'm hungry, so..."
Rian's comment about being hungry, even in this situation, showed his boldness, but in reality, he was trying to reassure Tess.
"Maybe we didn't fall from the sky," Shirone explained, using his expertise. "It's more like spatial teleportation. We just came here through a tunnel, and the space folded, showing us various landscapes."
In the end, it was spatial teleportation. However, the distance traveled was beyond comprehension, resulting in strange phenomena.
The party looked around. Tall trees with long leaves blocked the sky.
From above, it seemed like there were no gaps, but light managed to seep through, illuminating the world. Moss and mushrooms grew in the shade, and the ground felt damp.
Yet, it didn't feel like their original world.
The secret to the feeling of time standing still lay in the size of the rocks.
The age of a space can be determined by the weathering of rocks. But here, the rocks were of varying sizes. There were small pebbles, but also boulders as large as houses. Unless someone had moved them, this was impossible.
"Maybe the material here is different. For example, it might have durability that prevents it from eroding over time," Canis suggested.
Ancient artifacts were made from minerals that didn't exist in their original world. And the fact that they were ancient artifacts meant they were from a time before history. If these were from heaven, then the rocks that had endured eons were living proof.
"So, is this heaven?"
"Let's check the Spirit Zone first," Amy said.
Everyone checked their ability to cast magic. The Spirit Zone was an omnipotent realm, but there was a sense of unease that their powers might be disrupted in a world physically separated from their own.
Fortunately, magic worked normally.
"So, this is heaven? Well, now that we've seen it, should we go back?"
Everyone looked at Tess. Not expecting this much attention, she awkwardly smiled and waved her hand.
"Ahaha, no, just kidding."
"No. I was seriously considering it too."
If Rian was saying this, it showed how tense everyone else was.
As if to prove this, Shirone's party hadn't moved a single step from where they had arrived.
Shirone took a small but significant step forward and said, "Let's move. Whether we fell from the sky or the space folded, we saw a city, right? Let's head there. At least there's civilization."
Where there's civilization, there's law. Of course, whether that law aligned with common sense was unknown, but it was a more realistic judgment than spending the night in a forest where anything could appear.
"But how do we find the city? We don't know the direction."
"I can do that."
Amy's eyes turned red. Using her self-image memory, she pointed in the direction Rian was standing. "Based on the coordinates, the city should be that way."
Amy's self-image memory perfectly restored specific moments. Even after traveling astronomical distances, it worked the same.
This was based on the fact that her ability wasn't mathematical. Just as a compass always points north regardless of space, she had a kind of magnet that could find the center despite any variables.
Following Amy, the party didn't miss the sounds in the scenery. They heard the chirping of insects and birds, but for some reason, they couldn't see them.
Realizing this was a phenomenon they shouldn't overlook, they stopped walking when they heard the sound of grass rustling in the forest.
Tess, with her keen senses, drew her saber and turned around. Rian stood beside her, gripping the hilt of his greatsword.
"What is it, Tess?"
"I don't know. It feels like someone's approaching."
Amy asked with a tense expression, "Are you sure it's someone? Not something?"
Tess couldn't answer. The breathing sounded human, but she couldn't be certain.
There was no guarantee that people lived here.
In a situation where any kind of monster could appear, the party's tension reached its limit.
Swish! Swish!
The sound of vegetation shaking grew closer and faster. Tess was certain it was heading straight for them.
The mages entered the Spirit Zone, and Rian drew his greatsword, ready to swing it the moment something emerged from the forest.
As Rian took a deep breath and waited, he made a puzzled expression.
Based on the frequency of the sound, the enemy should have arrived by now. But only the sound persisted, and the enemy didn't show itself.
"Rian, it's better to step back."
Tess's voice trembled.
She thought there was only one possible explanation. The sound was coming from a place much farther away than expected.
As Rian took a step back while maintaining his stance, the ground shook. Thud! Thud!
Finally, the creature burst through the thicket and revealed itself.
"What... what is that?"
Shirone looked up. He tilted his head back as far as he could.
It was a giant.
A giant standing 8 meters tall. It was mostly naked, with scraps of cloth hanging here and there.
Its beard reached its chest, and its face was covered in grotesque wrinkles. In contrast, its body was as robust as a young man's.
Tess, thinking strategically, looked for a weak point. The groin area was flat. Though the face and chest looked male, there were no genitals.
"Uh... we've got a bit of a bad situation here."
Arin spoke up. Tess, who had left the scouting to Rian, turned around and asked, "What's wrong? Is there a worse situation than this?"
"I don't know what's worse, but this is a first for me."
Shirone also turned to look at Arin. How was her Clairvoyance perceiving the current giant?
"I can't read its emotions. Whether it's angry, laughing, or sad. Everything's a mess."
The most surprised was Canis. Harvest, who had materialized behind him, also tilted his head and observed the giant.
"Arin... can't read its emotions?"
That shouldn't be possible. In theory, it was impossible.
Clairvoyance's ability was to bring out the characteristics of all things in the world on an equal level.
Even if someone like Sakiri from the Magic Association blocked emotions, at the very least, a Clairvoyant should be able to see that.
The fact that the giant's emotions couldn't be read was clearly bizarre.
"Those who come to Purgatory... Deniers of God..."
The giant's words were incomprehensible. There was no way to translate them. The only person the party could rely on was Arin.
But she shook her head again.
"I don't know. I can't decipher it."
Not only Clairvoyance, but even telepathy didn't work. Arin was as good as blind. Unable to read the enemy's expression, she borrowed Canis's eyes.
"Canis, does that giant seem hostile?"
"It seems so, yeah."
If even Arin, who specialized in mental sensing, couldn't detect any killing intent, what did that mean? Even with the Metagate, the reason they had stepped into this unknown world was because they trusted Arin's abilities.
Without Arin, it was impossible. Amy, thinking the same, left the final judgment to her.
"Arin, what should we do now?"
"What should we do? Obviously, we should run!"
As Arin quickly ran away, Amy was stunned.
Canis chased after her, and the others began to retreat.
Amy, who was the slowest to react, looked back at the giant. It had uprooted a tree nearly 2 meters tall and was chasing them.
"Graaaaaah!"
The giant's roar was as loud as a sonic cannon. Amy, in a daze, finally leaped out of the way.
The roots of the tree the giant swung grazed her collar.
"It's big, so it won't be able to keep up! Let's just run for now!"
"You should've said that sooner!"
Amy, who had caught up to Arin using Schema, shouted. Fortunately, she had dodged the attack, but if she had been even a moment slower, her back would have been split open.
"Sorry! I didn't expect this to happen."
Arin didn't shirk responsibility.
Since they had entered heaven, they were a team. As a non-combat mage, her role was to discern the enemy's disposition and objectively analyze the situation to relay it to the leader. With that function paralyzed, all she could say was sorry.
No one blamed Arin because they were a community bound by fate. But the future was worrisome.
Arin's mental abilities were a tremendous asset. It was too early to conclude that they didn't work on just one giant, but the journey had already gone awry from the start.
As the ground shook, Shirone looked back. Thinking that something big would be slow was a miscalculation. The giant was right on their heels.
Through Arin's mental channel, Tess's voice was heard.
Shirone, give us an order. Shouldn't we just teleport away?That's dangerous. We still don't know where we are. If we encounter something even worse, we'll be wiped out.But we can't keep running, can we? Honestly, I can't even see what's around us right now....You're right. Then let's fight here. Dealing with the giant seems like the first step.
As Shirone chose the combat route, Rian and Tess dashed toward the giant.
Shirone took the center, with Amy and Canis on either side, while Arin supported from the rear.
Rian, as the vanguard knight, attacked first.
Fighting an 8-meter-tall enemy came with many unpredictable variables. Attacks from above were hard to predict, and the only vulnerable spot was below the knees.
Rian aimed for the Achilles tendon.
As the greatsword swung, the giant swung a tree trunk. The weapons collided mid-swing, and the tree trunk was torn apart as if it had been sliced.
It wasn't a clean cut. The giant's strength was so overwhelming that Rian's weapon was destroyed.
The impact sent Rian flying 3 meters. He managed to land, but his legs dragged across the ground.
Feeling a cramp in his right arm, he gripped the blade of his greatsword with his left hand and took a combat stance.
The giant's strength was immense. But what was more surprising was its speed.
"How is this possible? It defies the laws of physics."
An 8-meter-tall creature would need hundreds of times more muscle strength than a human to support its body.
Just standing was astonishing, but its combat movements were on par with a beast.
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"Heretics... must be punished!"
The giant, spouting incomprehensible words, picked up a broken sapling and threw it at Tess.
The moment the one-meter-long sapling slammed into the ground, Tess kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
The giant, who had been in a throwing stance, followed up with a punch. Tess, floating in mid-air, seemed to have no way to dodge.
At that moment, her body flew forward as if defying inertia, landing on the giant's fist.
It was anti-gravity.
Charging along the giant's forearm, she slashed its left eye with her saber and jumped off. As the giant raised its upper body, covering its eye, she shouted to the group.
Tess: "Now!"
Shirone fired a Photon Cannon. Considering the monster's size, this wasn't the time to conserve mental energy.
A beam of light, comparable in size to a cannonball, struck the giant directly in the abdomen.
The giant's body bent as if cradling the Photon Cannon, and its legs lifted off the ground.
The sight of the giant being pushed back was hard to believe, even when seen with one's own eyes. Canis, who had been hit by the same technique before, winced as if feeling phantom pain.
Shirone's group thought it was over. But the giant's legs, which had been parallel to the ground, came down and pressed against the earth, stopping its momentum.
Everyone was speechless.
The giant had withstood the Photon Cannon. Wasn't this the same magic that had produced nearly 5,000 units of destructive power in the Chamber of Achievement and Sacrifice? It was absurd for a living creature made of flesh and blood to endure such a force. Even an iron gate would have been destroyed.
Amy: "Oh my god... How can it still be fine after taking that hit?"
The giant's expression was contorted. Its wrinkled face was grotesquely terrifying.
At that moment, Amy's Fireball flew in from the side and scorched the giant's face.
Amy's judgment was effective. Fire was the natural enemy of cells. No matter how strong its muscles were, burning it would be enough.
The giant, its beard now on fire, staggered while clutching its face.
Seeing the giant's face engulfed in flames sent shivers down their spines. Beneath the melting, dripping skin, new skin was regenerating.
Tess muttered in disbelief, "That's a schema, isn't it? How does a giant have a schema?"