Escape.
BANG!
Huge chunks of flesh and metal collided violently. The giant of decay, who had slammed into the metal giant with his shoulder, opened his huge mouth to bite down on the metal giant’s forearm.
– That ah ah ah ah ah!!!
The Metal Giant raised his other hand and slammed it into the Corruption Giant’s skull. The Corruption Giant’s head shattered, splattering flesh.
The rotting flesh crumbled before it even hit the ground. The headless body clenched its fist and punched the metal giant in the head again. With a heavy crash, the metal giant’s body slumped against the wall.
A new head popped out of the mangled flesh.
– Aaahhhhhhhh!!!
In the meantime, I quickly harvested the bodies of Sukus and Tonissa. Sukus was a two-and-a-half-finger human, and Tonissa was a three-finger human. The divinity of 1100 flowed through my hands and into my body.
[Divinity: 4582].
After confirming the amount of divinity I had gathered, I looked at the two giants who were still fighting furiously and said.
“It’s going to take quite a while for either side to win this one.”
“Murder!
“As my mother said, let’s stop playing and help.”
I leaned Carmen’s stunned body against the black door and drew my frost steel sword.
For now, my target was the blue jewel embedded in the center of the white metal giant’s forehead, the only thing that stood out on its massive body, so I figured if I could break it somehow, it would make a difference.
“Here we go!”
Boom!
I leapt out of my seat and into the collision of flesh and metal.
– That ah ah ah ah ah!!!
The Corruption Giant’s massive fist responded to my movement, striking the metal giant in the middle of the chest. Its tilting torso. I lunged for the metal giant as it was pushed back against the wall.
I activated the Gates of Corruption, the divine power of corruption flowing from my legs. I felt a little sick to my stomach, but I ignored it and focused on gaining more speed.
The harsh air slapped me in the face. I accelerated and accelerated, ignoring the air’s resistance. My muscles felt like they were about to explode. With my heart pounding furiously, I stomped my feet and kicked the ground.
My accelerated body soared through the air like a lightning bolt.
I saw my reflection in the glassy eyes of the slowly rising metal giant. In its opaque reflection, I thrust out my frost steel sword.
Boom!
The frost steel sword pierced the blue gem with precision. The cracked gem shattered and fell to the ground.
The metal giant moved despite the shattered gem on its forehead, its giant metal hand reaching out toward me. Still suspended in midair, I was unable to do anything about it.
“Help!”
– It ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!
The hand of corrupted flesh slammed into the metal giant’s face. I quickly grabbed the giant of corruption by the forearm and hung on. The jewel shattered metal giant struggled wildly, but its movements were noticeably slower than before, as if the jewel was its main source of power.
I stomped on every inch of its body and leapt off, landing on the ground.
BANG!
The violence that followed was one-sided. The slowed-down metal giant was no match for the Corruption Giant. Its massive metal body was dented, dented, dented, and then it stopped working, unable to withstand the merciless destruction.
The victorious Corruption Giant roared wildly.
– That ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
I smiled wryly and was about to utter a word of praise for Moorah.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
At that moment, three more metal giants descended from the ceiling.
“How long is this going to last?!”
“‘Murder…?
My mother’s answer was a bit demeaning, as if I wouldn’t know even if she asked me.
The Corruption Giant had barely gotten up from being beaten by one of the metal giants before a new metal fist smashed into its skull. As I watched the one-sided beating, I made a quick decision.
“Stay down a little longer, just long enough for me to get away!”
– And then…
BANG!
The Corruption Giant tried to roar in pain, but the metal giants wouldn’t let him. I turned my back on them and headed for the black door.
When it had opened earlier, it had obviously opened from the outside in.
“Ha!”
I slipped my hand under the massive black door and gave it all my strength to pry it open. Sure enough, the door didn’t budge.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
With a roar, a vivid dark-green tattoo of Corruption’s divinity spread over my skin, covering my entire body. The divinity, pushed to its limits, activated the Gates of Corruption without restraint.
My muscles screamed for life. Blood flow accelerated. His skin burned bright red, veins popping out all over his body.
And finally, the massive black door slowly began to lift.
With every ounce of strength I could muster, I lifted the door to my shoulder, kicked Carmen aside, and shoved her through. I quickly jumped through the doorway and shouted.
“You can go back in moderation!”
I don’t know if the giant of corruption, who was being beaten to a pulp by three metal giants, heard me, but I’m sure he’ll manage, or so I believed.
BANG!
The massive black door slammed shut with a crash. I dropped to the floor in a heap, spitting out rotten guts in return for the Corruption Gate.
“Tsk, tsk, that was hard, Mother.”
“Murder!
Mother demanded, “Why did you bring that Carmen in here alive?” I leaned back against the wall and answered.
“Part of me wanted to save them, too, but they died so quickly that I couldn’t.”
“Murder!
I said, glancing at Carmen for being too harsh.
“Besides, he’s special, isn’t he? Even if we harvest him, I think it’s better to wait a little longer and watch him.”
‘… Murder.’
After a moment of silence, my mother nodded in agreement, as if to say that I had a point.
The reason the Mother of Corruption was convinced was because Carmen was a three-and-a-half-fingered human.
A three-and-a-half-finger human who, when harvested, could grow into a four-finger human that would give her a whopping ten thousand divine powers. That was Carmen Valtas.
“Plus, I really liked his cheerful personality, so I wanted to save him personally.”
“Murder!
I just smiled quietly at my mother’s advice not to give easily.
“Jung doesn’t stop giving just because you don’t want to give it, you know? You get it when you eat and laugh together, so don’t be so upset.”
I took a moment to catch my breath and shifted a little. The passageway was cramped for metal giants, but I figured it was better to move around and see what was going on.
I picked up Carmen and walked slowly down the corridor, which glowed with a faint blue light. After a few steps, Carmen let out a low moan that brought me to my senses.
“This is—?”
“Are you awake?”
“Ugh— my head is very dizzy, it’s spinning.”
“Let’s get you down, and you can rest here for a while.”
Carmen held onto the wall and gagged a few times, then sank to the floor and turned to me.
“Are Sukus and Tonissa really dead—?”
“Yes. Unfortunately.”
After hearing my answer, he looked down at the floor with tearful eyes.
“I should have activated the ‘key’ the moment the metal giant fell from the ceiling. My greed got them both killed.”
“Did you know them for any length of time?”
Carmen shook her head.
“No. They were both recent hires. But that doesn’t make me any less at fault, does it? And where is this place anyway?”
“Beyond the black door.”
“How the hell—.”
He trailed off, not wanting to ask me.
“It would be impolite to ask about something I would rather not see, even if it meant knocking me out. Besides, Priest Marnak is now my lifesaver, and I will repay this favor with the name of the House of Valthas.”
I smirked, extending my hand to Carmen.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Carmen smiled bitterly and took my hand.
“You never say never.”
“I’m a giver and a taker, that’s why. By the way, now that you’re feeling better, I think you should start walking, because I didn’t take care of that metal giant, I just ran away from it.”
“Yeah.”
We walked slowly, approaching the end of the hallway. At the end of the corridor was a door with a blue glyph on it, but it didn’t have any ancient words written on it.
This must be the reward room!
I said to Carmen, trying to calm my pounding heart.
“I think we’ve reached the end of the ruins, let’s go in.”
I reached out and gave it a gentle push, and the door slid open to reveal a raised altar in the center of the room and an “exit” beyond.
On the altar were two objects.
A necklace with beads the size of two fingers and a sword.
Carmen’s eyes lit up when she saw the necklace.
“It’s true what it says in the book! Priest Marnak, I’m so ungrateful, but can I ask you just one favor: please give me that necklace. I will go out and make it up to you.”
He looked so desperate, I scratched my head.
“What do you want with that necklace?”
Carmen picked up the necklace and explained to me.
“This necklace is a thing called a ‘blood guide’. You bleed your blood into this bead, think of the blood you want to find, and this bead swallows the blood and points you in the direction of the blood you want to find.”
As I listened to his explanation, I remembered Carmen’s origins. His father must have been in the royal capital, so I had an idea of who he was looking for.
Carmen studied my expression and nodded.
“You’re right, I’m looking for my mother, whom I’ve never met.”
I looked into his dark eyes and quickly organized my thoughts.
The necklace meant nothing to me, not when it came to finding blood relatives anyway. It was far more profitable to be generous here and hand over the necklace and collect his reward later.
I smirked and said.
“Then you don’t mind if I keep this sword here?”
“I’m not interested in anything but this necklace, and if it weren’t for Father Marnak in the first place, I’d be a dead man walking; in fact, it’s a shame that the sword is the only thing he has to keep.”
In fact, even as Carmen was describing the necklace in vain, my eyes were drawn to the sword. The sword had a very unusual shape—.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Priest!”
Something was rushing towards this room, smashing through the passageway. I quickly grabbed my artifact sword and shouted.
“Let’s go to the ‘exit’!”
Boom!
A giant metallic hand smashed through the door and charged at us, just in time for us to dive for the ‘exit’ before the giant hand grabbed us.
I scrambled to my feet and looked for Carmen.
“You’re alive!”
A black leather-gloved hand shot out of nowhere and grasped the ground as white snowflakes fell from the sky.
Carmen, covered in snow, grinned at me.
“I don’t think I’ll be seeing anything bigger than that for a while.”
I replied with a smile.
“That goes for me too.”