Chapter 196

Chapter 196
## Chapter 196

White Giant (3)

[———!!]

The monster’s screech, saturated with wrath and homicidal intent, reverberated violently, rattling the landscape.

Rumble—! Crack! Boom—!

The devastation didn’t cease with the sound. The terrain fractured, and violent tremors erupted as the creature thrashed in agony.

“Hahaha! This bastard still has plenty of fight left in him!”

Harley let out a boisterous laugh, balancing atop the monster’s skull with his ten-ton mass.

He continued to channel “Gem Eye: Coercion” at maximum capacity to pin the beast to the earth.

Naturally, completely neutralizing a titanic humanoid entity that scaled as tall as a ten-story complex and weighed hundreds of tons was an impossible feat.

However, because its physiology mirrored that of a human, the mechanics of its recovery posture were entirely predictable.

‘I happen to have an exceptional grasp of physical anatomy.’

Because he had spent years modifying his own biological structure, he had become a master of physical systems, making it simple to disrupt the precise pivot points the monster needed to push itself upward.

‘The drain on my energy is severe, meaning I can’t hold this posture indefinitely. Still, we managed to buy more than enough time for the evacuation.’

Furthermore, he was infusing his life force with an undercurrent of ‘madness’ to fuel the “Gem Eye: Coercion”, which yielded a far more potent suppression against the beast than initially anticipated.

Had it not been for that volatile mixture, a far greater expenditure of raw strength would have been required to keep it down.

Rumble—

Even so, the thresholds of his endurance were fast approaching.

“Whoa there! Someone’s in a hurry! You can afford to take a longer nap!”

Harley nimbly shifted his stance as the titan finally planted both palms into the dirt, forcing its torso upward.

Right on cue,

Whoosh—!

An ivory hand, easily matching the dimensions of Harley’s fully transformed state, tore through the air toward him with a deafening gale.

“Oof!”

Naturally, Harley wasn’t about to let such a predictable strike connect; he avoided the trajectory effortlessly and relocated to safety.

Thanks to the window of time he provided for Isea to personally oversee the relocation of the populace, he was the sole combatant left in the immediate blast zone…

“Hmm, just as I suspected, rupturing its internal systems yields negligible results. I didn’t anticipate it remaining fully operational even after its cardiac core was obliterated.”

“Ugh, I can’t even tell if my strikes are registering at all.”

…Aside from Heinrich and Geos, who had been relentlessly hammering away at the creature’s massive flank.

“Khahat! I suppose the cranium is our primary target then? I attempted to shatter it while perched up there, but the bone density is absurd, and it’s saturated with madness. Doesn’t the most heavily armored sector usually house the critical vulnerability?”

Harley rendezvoused with his teammates, tossing out his observations casually.

While Heinrich and Geos possessed impressive statures in their own right, they resembled small children standing beside his towering form.

…Yet all of them were dwarfed by the entity looming before them.

The White Giant had now achieved a fully erect posture, glaring down upon the group with a face contorted in rage.

It appeared as though the firmament itself had been blotted out, plunging the entire battlefield into a massive, suffocating shadow as they cast their gazes upward.

[——?! ——!]

‘Hmm, it seems thoroughly displeased.’

A guttural vibration erupted from its dense, hyper-developed musculature, its thick throat pulsing rhythmically with every breath.

At this juncture, it seemed to have entirely forgotten about the fleeing orphans it had previously hunted, focusing its singular gaze intensely on the vanguard… specifically targeting Heinrich and Harley.

Mirroring the creature’s escalating malice,

Whoosh—! Boom!

A massive arm, already raised toward the clouds, descended with the velocity of a lightning strike, pulverizing the coordinates where the warriors stood.

Of course, a veteran party of their caliber wasn’t going to be caught by a straightforward blunt assault, and the skirmish resumed in a pattern identical to the opening exchanges.

‘This titan undoubtedly possesses a form of intellect… but it lacks the rational discipline required to employ it effectively. Then again, it originates from the depths of the abyss, so such chaos is standard.’

It had somehow deciphered human speech and even weaponized the vulnerabilities gleaned from their dialogue to manipulate the situation.

It had demonstrated a degree of low cunning, attempting to exploit those emotional levers to turn the tide of engagement.

‘Yet, throwing its entire mass into the settlement was an inherently flawed tactical decision.’

Leverage is only effective so long as the captives remain breathing.

By wiping them out completely, it succeeded only in triggering the absolute wrath of the hero…

‘Wait. Is there truly no strategic objective behind this?’

A sudden, jarring hypothesis materialized in his mind.

Their adversary was a manifestation born of the abyss.

Was it logical to evaluate its strategic choices through the lens of human rationale?

‘If my premise is correct, its actual objective would be… ’

When lives are extinguished, the survivors are consumed by fury.

Some fall into deep mourning, others are swallowed by despair, some succumb to absolute futility, and a few lose their sanity entirely, unable to process the horror.

‘Every single one of those is a distilled negative emotion.’

To an entity forged in the abyss, those dark sentiments weren’t merely a passive energy source.

‘They serve as a catalyst to consume evil karma… and accelerate its evolution.’

He understood this mechanic profoundly, more so than anyone else on the field.

Because—.

‘…Hans operates on the exact same principles.’

The Immortal King Hannibal Strauss—Hans, for short.

The historical lineage of Immortal Kings had been utterly subjugated by the dark compulsion to blanket the realm in mortality, prompting successive invasions across the lands.

While Hans managed to suppress that destructive instinct utilizing the “Mind Hub”, the sheer magnitude of that primitive pull was undeniable.

He had not only perceived that corruption indirectly during his encounters with the residual shards, but he had also deciphered the ancestral data recorded within the cognitive echoes of the previous Immortal King.

‘And Hans stands as the current vessel for the accumulated evil karma of those who came before.’

With the transition of the Immortal King identity, the successor would absorb a portion of the ancestral dark legacy, elevating their power parameters exponentially.

Granted, his baseline strength was already overwhelming from the moment of inception, given that he was a concentrated manifestation of demise harvested directly from the void.

The inaugural Immortal King, recognized as the premier spellcaster of his era, managed to reduce half of the civilized territories to ash despite choosing an unfortified window for his assault, and…

The second Immortal King, a mediocre practitioner of the dark arts who merely chanced upon the core, succeeded in laying waste to the western territories, even though the regional defenses were fully mobilized.

‘Naturally, this specific titan doesn’t appear to possess the evolutionary framework necessary to transmit evil karma to a lineage… ’

The critical realization at this moment was that this White Giant shared the exact same capacity to amplify its threat level by gorging on evil karma, mirroring the mechanics of the Immortal King.

‘…Is there an attempt being made to forge a successor to the Immortal King?’

Heinrich’s brow furrowed tightly as his blade cleaved through the air.

He was entirely certain that this catastrophic event was no random anomaly of nature.

This wasn’t some passive entity drifting aimlessly along the spatial threshold; it was an apex horror that belonged at the lowest tier of the void, yet it had abruptly ruptured the planar boundary to manifest here.

Furthermore, it arrived saturated with an immense density of madness.

Connecting those variables pointed directly to a singular orchestrator.

‘The Oath of Heaven’s Defiance. The faction currently manipulating the catalyst of madness harvested from the deep. They have orchestrated this.’

When viewed through that perspective, the sudden materialization of the titan at this precise coordinate ceased to look like a random occurrence.

Regardless of how many systemic vulnerabilities remained within the Lesque Kingdom due to its history as the definitive battleground against the second Immortal King, the chronological alignment was far too precise.

‘…Was the objective to ensnare Heinrich, the Saint? Or did the ambient madness radiating from Harley serve as the beacon?’

Even if chance had played a role, the underlying cause was irrelevant to the immediate task.

‘…My only directive is to halt its progression and terminate its existence right here.’

A sharp luminescence ignited within the eyes of both Heinrich and Harley as the former swung his blade and the latter embedded his talons deep into the creature’s pale hide.

[“I’m entering the fray to assist! The orphanage residents and the local populace have been secured behind a provisional defensive field in a neutral zone, so they are clear of the crossfire.”]

[“Understood. With the civilian factors removed from the equation, shall we proceed to execute this monstrosity?”]

Isea’s vocal transmission crackled through, confirming her re-engagement.

They had thoroughly analyzed the entity’s combat patterns, leaving no further variables to cause hesitation.

Whoosh— Thump!

The titan’s colossal right foot descended like a falling mountain, aiming to flatten Harley.

Yet, by the fraction of a second the sole impacted the earth, his silhouette had already shifted to its rear.

His transit velocity was so extreme that the displaced dirt from his takeoff had yet to complete its trajectory.

Harley, touching down on the terrain, dropped into a predatory crouch, baring his fangs as his expression twisted into a savage, bloodthirsty smile.

Crack! Creak—!

The sound of grinding metal resonated from his hyper-compressed muscular fibers, and the “Mad Dragon’s Heart” throbbed with violent intensity, circulating highly concentrated energy streams throughout his circulatory path.

“Haha! To begin with…!”

A combination of ancient markings, biological energy signatures, and pure ‘madness’ began to optimize and fracture his physical vessel, driving his output far past conventional biological constraints.

The trait of “Super Regeneration” was left with the task of instantly repairing the collapsing cellular matrix.

“Let’s meet eye to eye, pal!”

The muscle groups in his thighs, infused with the predatory traits of the mutated Minotaur genes he had integrated, expanded drastically.

As he propelled himself upward using both palms braced against the dirt,

Boom—!

His physical form launched skyward like a kinetic projectile.

His trajectory targeted the titan’s right popliteal tendon.

Thump—!

The monster’s massive leg buckled violently, causing its entire posture to tilt.

Even with a mass scaling hundreds of tons, it wasn’t immune to basic physics.

It was mathematically inevitable that its equilibrium would shatter when a mass as dense as his collided directly with a structural vulnerability.

It scrambled to stabilize its center of gravity using its left limb…

“Haa—!”

Whoosh—

However, those defensive adjustments were rendered obsolete; its left leg was already deeply lacerated from prior engagements, and Heinrich delivered another calculated strike with his blade at the absolute zenith of the creature’s imbalance.

[———?!]

The massive form of the giant began a heavy descent toward the side Harley had compromised.

As its instinctual reflexes took over, forcing its arm outward to break the impending impact,

“Hoooo—”

Geos drew a profound breath, elevating his polearm—.

And unleashed a rapid succession of thrusts into the vacuum within a single heartbeat.

While his offensive output had yielded minimal permanent damage until now due to the creature’s rapid tissue restoration capabilities,

Boom—!

The kinetic force proved sufficient to shatter the giant’s wrist joint right before it could anchor to the terrain, forcing the entire entity into a chaotic roll.

[———!!]

The landscape groaned under the immense weight, and a violent shockwave rippled outward across the terrain as the titan bellowed, writhing in pure indignation.

As it attempted to leverage its left palm for stability while pushing off with its rapidly mending right hand,

Wooong—

Isea’s gravitational manipulation triggered once more, multiplying the atmospheric weight pressing down on the beast’s torso.

It was a flawless demonstration of battlefield synergy, executed seamlessly through their shared tactical cohesion and communication arrays.

[“My ability to sustain this suppression is highly limited due to its innate sorcery dissipation!”]

[“Hahaha! A moment is all I need! We’re initiating the next phase immediately!”]

[“Hold on, clarify your objective!”]

Harley, however, simply accelerated forward, choosing to communicate his intent through raw execution.

He navigated to the coordinates of the titan’s skull and vaulted into the air with maximum propulsion.

“Up we go—!”

[“Wait! Harley, if you put yourself in that trajectory, even your physique will…”]

“Hahaha! That’s precisely the point!”

Both of his fists were brought back, tightly clenched, as his spinal column arched backward like a drawn bowstring.

Descending rapidly from the upper atmosphere, his velocity enhanced by gravitational acceleration,

He drove both fists downward, channeling his entire mass into the momentum.

Boom!

The titan’s cranium was violently driven back into the dirt.

The outcome was entirely natural, equivalent to a structural impact from a demolition tool weighing dozens of tons.

[“Are you functional?! Isn’t that level of recoil excessive, even for your recovery threshold?!”]

[“Hmm… My joints feel a bit rigid.”]

Inevitably, Harley, as the source of the physical impact, couldn’t entirely neutralize the kinetic feedback.

He merely rotated his wrists a few times before directing his attention back to the pinned skull beneath his feet.

“This perspective feels incredibly familiar. Quite a sentimental view! Now then, shall we proceed to pulverize this?”

He aggressively anchored his stance, employing “Gem Eye: Coercion” to locking the monster’s physics in place.

The structural integrity of its cranial bone was immense, sustaining only a minor depression even after absorbing the full force of his ‘Gravity Hammer’.

[“…What if we attempt to sever the cervical pathway?”]

[“Oh? That’s an excellent tactical suggestion, old man!”]

[“In that case, I shall handle the execution.”]

Severing the neck proved to be a complex endeavor, likely due to it being an inherently critical zone.

Of course, that complexity merely translated to a slight extension of the timeframe required.

The giant ultimately managed to fracture the binding field and resumed its thrashing, but its resistance was short-lived, and its head was eventually separated from its torso.

And at long last,

‘Oh, look what we have here?’

Harley grinned with genuine amusement, retrieving the prize yielded by their triumph.

—

The western frontier of the Azeria Empire.

“Ugh!”

“What kind of abomination is this! How are we supposed to neutralize an entity of this scale?!”

An absolute slaughter was actively transpiring within a military outpost stationed at the border.

Countless veteran infantrymen had already been reduced to casualties, and the master-ranked combatant serving as the garrison commander was numbered among the fallen.

“Sound the retreat! Fall back! Our priority must be delivering this intelligence to the main legion!”

“Negative, if that entity breaches this perimeter and advances toward the civilian centers, the body count will be absolute!”

“We lack the tactical options to contain it! Securing the perimeter warning takes precedence!”

The surviving officers ultimately managed to transmit the critical data after a frantic withdrawal, sustaining heavy losses during the retreat.

However, upwards of ninety percent of the station’s manpower had been systematically wiped out in the engagement.

Standing amidst the center of the crimson deluge and shattered armor, the White Giant responsible for the devastation,

Thud— Thud!

Perceived the oppressive internal constraints that had locked away its power finally fracturing, and was overcome with pure ecstasy.

To be precise, the structural seals hadn’t been entirely dissolved.

Only the restriction blocking one of its nasal pathways had cleared.

[Haa—]

Even that minor release brought immense gratification to the entity.

Because it marked the return of its respiratory function.

The atmospheric gases around its position were drawn into its lungs at an incredible velocity as it initiated a profound inhalation.

And following that…

[Huu—]

From the subsequent exhalation,

Whoosh—

A catastrophic, highly corrosive plague cloud expanded outward, contaminating everything in its path.