Chapter 309 – City of Giants (Four)

Before departing for the city of the Giants, Rael had said this at the settlement.

The three eyes possessed by the Giant race.

The left pupil gazed upon the vast sky.

The right pupil gazed upon the wide earth.

The upper pupil gazed upon the enemy before them.

The pupils, each looking in different directions, held the power to track the movements of all things, and that was said to be the source of the transcendent reflexes possessed by the Giant race.

And now.

Khum’s three pupils were looking down at a man standing at the end of a precarious path.

Having flinched at the light that had seeped in over the long years, they were now wide open, bloodshot.

“O Great Being! I shall grant you the honor of becoming a part of my power!”

Having finished reciting the incantation, Indiago stretched out his sweaty palm towards Khum.

His entire face was flushed with the ecstasy of anticipation and excitement for the power of the ancient being he was about to harbor.

And then.

“……?”

Nothing happened.

Indiago hurriedly turned his head and exhaled a fierce breath towards the Doctor, who lay collapsed before Ray.

“What is the meaning of this! You said that if I recited the incantation, the weakening, binding, and Exploitation Magic engraved on this bastard’s body as a precaution would activate!”

The Doctor showed no reaction.

He merely looked at Indiago, who was facing Khum, through the eye sockets with their faint Eye Light.

────.

At the presence he felt then, Indiago turned his head again, and he saw it.

The corner of the Giant’s mouth, torn open to a terrifyingly long extent.

Khum was laughing.

Following that, sticky lava flowed down as the colossal body rose from the lake.

With his upper body revealed, Khum appeared to Ray as a mass of dark Indigo Mana taking the form of a Giant.

In that instant, he understood.

What the Giant, formed from Crimson Mana that the Doctor had created on the Sky Island, had been imitating.

Indiago seemed to have all his senses frozen, like prey before a beast.

Khum mimicked the action of the small human before him, as if to mock him.

That is, he stretched out his palm.

Just as Indiago was doing.

──────.

An incomprehensible muttering continued.

Along with it, Indiago’s body began to be pulled into Khum’s palm, particleized into Indigo Mana.

“What in the…!”

Gritting his teeth, blood vessels bulged on Indiago’s face as he resisted desperately.

But, caught in the immense suction emanating from Khum’s palm, he could neither flee nor counterattack.

Crackle!

“Doctoooor! You damnable—! From the beginning, you planned for this—! Me—! Me—! How dare youuu—!”

A shout soaked in madness and anger echoed loudly through the underground space.

Sssssssss——

Starting with the outstretched hand, as his limbs and body vanished, Indiago was left with only his face in an instant.

In his final moment, his swaying gaze happened to turn this way.

In the brief moment their eyes met.

Ray could see it.

The sight of the anger covering his face rapidly clearing away, replaced by thick ecstasy and intoxication.

Indiago was laughing.

Precisely, while looking this way.

Sssssssss——

After his complete disappearance, only his clothes, covered in scorch marks, remained.

The absorbed Indigo Mana of Indiago seemed to resist briefly within Khum’s body, but soon completely merged with the existing Indigo Mana, losing any trace of its original form.

Khum, wearing a satisfied smile.

He turned his head, discovered this side, and began walking through the lava towards them.

The Doctor muttered.

“Sizzle… It’s your defeat, sizzle sizzle….”

“Perhaps.”

Ray assumed a posture to tear off the Doctor Golem’s head and throw it over the pit.

“Watch closely. The sight of the hope you harbor being shattered.”

Crunch!

The Golem’s head soared.

Fixed in mid-air by the swirling wind, it spun round and round before stopping, unable to turn its head away from the scene unfolding below the pit.

Kwoong—! Kwoooong—!

With each step Khum took through the lava, the path and the terrain along it shattered helplessly.

A shadow growing ever larger.

A massive tremor shaking the area.

Within it, Ray stared at Khum with an unwavering gaze.

Khum was sucking in the surrounding Atmospheric Mana indiscriminately, as if sating a hunger accumulated over long years.

The absorbed Mana of various colors tangled and mixed, and each time, the Indigo Mana forming Khum’s body grew darker and more turbid.

Kwoong—! Kwoooong—!

It seemed nothing resembling proper reason remained within Khum.

The body turning black.

It was merely a mass of pure malice towards the world.

Swoosh——!

Having closed the distance, Khum stretched his hand towards Ray at an unbelievable speed.

But on the hand that pressed down on the ground, only a long, slashed wound remained.

Ray, who had already moved his body to a protruding part of a nearby cliff, held a knife forged from yellow Mana in his hand.

Fizzle! Fizzle fizzle!

The long trail of yellow Mana left along the wound sparked and tried to burrow into Khum’s body.

But the next moment, it was swallowed up and vanished by Khum’s Mana rushing in from all sides.

Followed by the wound closing instantly.

Confirming that sight, Ray vacated his spot.

Kwaang—!

A giant hand grazed the hem of Ray’s clothes by a hair’s breadth and collapsed the cliff face.

Scorching, stifling dust.

A deafening roar.

Kwaang—! Kwaang—! Kwaang—!

Within it, each time Ray launched his body, countless wounds were carved onto Khum’s upper body.

‘Attacks of this level are insufficient.’

A Gem’s Mana can be said to be the source of all Mana in the world, containing light of near-infinite purity.

Its characteristic is to reveal a deep hostility towards Mana of turbid colors, purifying and annihilating it.

But it was utterly useless against the current Khum.

The Indigo Mana forming Khum’s body.

Because the sight of it repelling the light Mana and the wounds rapidly sealing was repeating.

No matter which colored Gem’s Mana he used, the result was the same.

‘…Perhaps my communion with the Mana is insufficient.’

He was certainly doing his best.

To draw out the power of the orange gem, the emotions of stability and comfort.

To draw out the power of the yellow gem, the emotions of excitement and thrill.

To draw out the power of the green gem, the emotions of solidarity and curiosity.

To amplify the power of the Mana, he had opened all the gates of emotion he had unlocked so far.

If there was one gem among his current possessions he had not yet activated.

‘The Indigo Gem.’

The reason was clear.

Inferiority, depression, anxiety, etc.

Because he had never felt the emotions associated with the Indigo Gem in his life.

The words he heard while learning Magic from Graham echoed in his head.

「Mana tends to wave its hand to those who are honest with themselves.」

“……”

I think I’m already honest enough with my own emotions.

Do I need to become even more honest?

Is there an emotion I’m hiding even from myself?

Oooong!

Then, an anomaly occurred.

The Indigo Gem, summoned regardless of his will, was slowly being pulled towards Khum.

The boy stretched out his hand.

The Giant also stretched out his hand.

The Indigo Gem, halted in mid-air, began to vibrate violently.

Crack! Crack crack crack!

Khum moved his lips.

Through the bizarre smile, the language of the Ancient Era spilled out.

─This is mine.

─It is not something a lowly creature like you can handle.

No, it’s mine.

Under normal circumstances, he would have thought that and flared up, but currently, Ray had no room to feel such emotions.

The unidentified memories that kept making his head throb.

The specific types of emotions he was raising to maintain the Mana output.

And the concentration of his mind to prevent the Indigo Gem from being taken.

Many elements left no room to fall into other thoughts.

Crack crack crack!

After a fierce struggle of power, the Indigo Gem was sucked into Khum’s hand.

As if pulled by a powerful suction, all the Indigo Mana within Khum’s body momentarily moved towards the gem.

The gap revealed in that instant.

Not missing it, Ray created a giant blade of wind and launched it.

Slice.

Khum’s arm, cleanly severed, fell into the lava.

But Khum showed no sign of caring about the lost body part.

As the Indigo Gem, having moved along the arm, settled in the center of his chest like a heart.

─Guoooooo.

He let out a resounding roar that seemed to shake his entire body.

Following that, the Indigo Mana of the gem circulated like blood through his vessels, newly filling Khum’s entire body.

A new arm sprouted from the severed area, and Indigo Mana, rising like mist, covered his entire body.

Through it, Ray could see it.

Khum’s body undergoing Mana-ization, like a Spirit.

‘I’ve heard from Rael.’

It was a reproduction of the very form that led the Ancient Era to ruin.

The situation was not good.

The Mana-ization of the body meant that dealing with Khum, against whom Magic was already ineffective, would become even more troublesome.

Tap! Tap! Tadak!

For now, Ray stepped on the protruding parts of the cliff and quickly headed upwards over the pit.

Due to Khum’s rampage, there was no longer any space to set foot below.

─Guoooooo!

Khum, half-Mana-ized, embedded his hand into the cliff and pursued fiercely.

Ray turned his head and looked at the three eyes flickering within the Indigo Mana.

“……”

The more time passed, the more disadvantageous it became.

Because Khum was continuously increasing his power by sucking in not only the Indigo Gem but also the surrounding Atmospheric Mana.

He had to make a decision quickly.

It was then that Ray discovered something.

Deep within one side of Khum’s chest, there was an area where the Indigo Mana was not properly gathering.

Rael’s words came to mind.

In the battle just before the Seal, Khum had received a great wound in his chest.

‘If I can directly attack that spot…’

Having made his decision, Ray turned his body and jumped down.

Evading the swinging arm, he leaped into Khum’s mouth, which was roaring.

─────.

His vision rapidly darkened.

External sounds also became inaudible.

The Indigo Mana spread all around slowed his falling speed, giving a sensation akin to sinking into deep water.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue….

Mana of various colors, emanating from the Gems and the Ring, enveloped Ray’s body in the form of thick layers.

Those brilliant colors felt like the sole luminescent bodies brightly illuminating the surroundings in the gloomy sea of darkness.

In response, the Indigo Mana clung to him from all sides, trying to erode the body and mind of the unfamiliar intruder.

Oooooong───

While sinking towards his destination, a fierce battle of Mana raged along the boundary of Ray’s skin.

His bodily senses became entangled.

How much time had passed?

Ray sensed defeat.

The Indigo Mana rushing in from all sides was truly endless, and the limits of his mental strength were gradually approaching.

The negative kinds of emotions harbored by the Indigo Mana were sinking the various-colored emotions residing in Ray’s chest.

‘Is it a failure?’

His consciousness grew hazy.

Did he regret his choice?

Not particularly.

Because it was clear that targeting the deep-seated weakness in Khum’s chest was the best judgment he could make in the current situation.

He had bet on the option with the highest probability and merely failed at it.

He had lived that way until now.

And that was his way of life.

Suddenly, such a thought occurred to him.

‘…Perhaps.’

The continuous series of gambles that had persisted since the beginning of his life.

Wasn’t it a miracle-like feat to have achieved victory without a single defeat until now?

Slowly, his eyes closed.

His thoughts grew hazy.

The boy thought that perhaps the emotion he was feeling now was extreme fatigue and exhaustion.

Because he had run all the way here without a single proper rest.

With his darkened vision, past events flashed by like a panorama.

The deaths of the underpass children and Niles.

The old man who had searched for the Rockdeer that saved him in the past and the secretary who followed him.

The Madam who, having lost her young son, kidnapped children to fill the void.

And also…

The moments of emotional realization rose like mirages and vanished.

Each time, the candles of those corresponding emotions lit in his heart also went out one by one.

In the end, no emotion remained in Ray’s Vessel.

Yes.

So he had returned here after all.

To the state of complete emotionlessness, identical to when his perception of the world began.

The stillness and darkness felt cozy.

Ray stopped thinking any further.

How much time passed like that, wrapped in Indigo Mana?

───.

────.

High above his head.

The presences of emotions felt from the surface awakened Ray’s spirit.

Their number was countless.

Their kinds were also immensely diverse.

Suddenly, a crack formed in his thoughts.

Do I truly not regret this moment right now?

Am I truly unafraid of death and able to give up on life?

The scattered fragments of memory returned to their places and took shape.

His heart, which had slowed infinitely, began to beat rapidly again.

In the end, he thought.

I want to continue living, feeling those countless emotions residing above my head.

“……!”

Ray’s eyes snapped open.

In his Vessel, a completely new kind of emotion he had never experienced before was blooming.

It was a pure desire for life.