WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 325: Episode 61: Gigantomachia (3)
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[Little one, who are you?]
Three of the countless arms extending from the giant had seized me, Yu Junghyeok, and Kim Namwoon.
Dangling in midair, I stared at the giant with dazed eyes.
How had the door opened so easily?
I couldn't understand it.
The door sealing the giants beneath the seventy-seventh underground floor was originally impossible to open from within. It had been the same in both the 47th and 211th rounds. That was why we'd prepared a Sacrifice beforehand...
[Hmph... Plausibility is troublesome. It's been getting worse lately.]
Crackle.
Sparks spread across the giant's entire body.
The giant tore off one of his fingers and threw it outside the door. As if they had been waiting, the sparks rushed at the finger and melted it away. Then the sparks slowly faded.
It was an unbelievable sight.
He had replaced the Plausibility cost of a Sacrifice with just one finger?
Nothing like that had ever been possible in any of Junghyeok's rounds.
Rumbblee!
A faint aura rose from the giant's body. He concealed his power, but an immense Status, whose depths were impossible to measure, lay dormant within his body.
One of the oldest beings in the world. A myth accumulated through the ages. Just sensing the passage of time lingering on his surface was enough to make my heart tremble.
This was a Titan.
Without a doubt, a Primordial Giant.
The myths pulsing through the giant's body were old, but they were still alive. Yet his appearance looked very different from the original work I knew.
「The Primordial Giants Yu Junghyeok encountered had always been nearing death amid decline.」
It was strange.
All giants survived by relying on the Great Fables of "Titanomachia" and "Gigantomachia." As the influence of those myths weakened or their transmission became more distorted, the giants' power weakened as well. Because Olympus constantly held "Gigantomachia" events, their Great Fables should have been significantly weakened by now.
[Little one, do you intend not to answer? My patience is as deep as the sea, so I'm confident I can wait.]
Yet the giant's voice held an unbelievable vitality.
A possibility suddenly crossed my mind.
「Maybe we arrived in the underworld too early?」
If this "Gigantomachia" hadn't happened yet, and the giants' decline hadn't crossed its critical point, it was entirely possible.
The giant continued.
[But I don't know whether my other friends will be as patient. It's been a long time since little ones as delicious-looking as you entered.]
Namwoon couldn't even think of an answer, his jaw trembling. As if Namwoon were adorable, the giant stroked his cheek.
[You are a child steeped in sin. Children like you taste best when they burst in the mouth. You became the body of a Colossus yourself... Could you be the child who was torn apart last time?]
Prisoners who fell underground while trying to escape Tartarus usually became food for the giants. The trembling Namwoon looked as though, if he were human, he would've already started foaming at the mouth.
The giant turned his gaze back to me.
[You smell of many things. Constellations, angels, demons, humans... and even an Outer God. What kind of fable are you?]
I didn't answer. Sometimes, there were answers more certain than words. Even if my opponent was a Primordial Giant, I couldn't cower from the start.
[The Demon King's Status has been unleashed!]
Once I slipped out of the giant's grasp, I could see him more clearly. He was even bigger than I'd imagined, likely more than a hundred meters tall. It was far beyond anything we could fight.
[I'll eat that child.]
[Let's tear him in half.]
Voices crawled out from all around us.
I spoke in a cold, warning voice.
"We aren't food."
"We came here to negotiate."
Junghyeok added. He had also escaped the giant's grasp, radiating the Status of a Transcendent.
The giant replied, unmoved.
[That isn't for you to decide.]
I knew it would come to this. The giants' downfall had ultimately begun with that arrogance. Without hesitating any longer, I activated my constellation's declaration.
[It is an honor to meet you, great ‘Princes of Hundred Hands’, ‘Hecatoncheires Three Brothers’.]
At my words, three hundred eyes opened in the darkness all at once. Those eyes belonged to only three giants.
The three giants spoke together.
[Interesting. You came here knowing who we are?]
The Hundred-Handed Giants, with fifty heads and a hundred arms.
I knew the names of these Titan giants.
Mighty Storm, Briareus.
Charging Boulder, Cottus.
Changing Limbs, Gyges.
They were living witnesses to myth, having endured both "Titanomachia" and "Gigantomachia." Every kind of fable from Olympus had accumulated intact in their bodies. If they were "books," I felt as if I could sit here and read them for months, even decades.
[The Fourth Wall smacks its lips greedily.]
This was myth.
The oldest stories in the world. Things passed down through mortals until they finally formed a single worldview.
The three giants looked identical, except their eyes were different colors. Briareus had blue eyes, Cottus had earth-colored eyes, and Gyges had green eyes.
I stared calmly into those hundreds of eyes and spoke again.
[I have come to free you, and every member of the giant race here, from Tartarus.]
My constellation's declaration rang out and echoed through the darkness. It was loud enough for not only the Hecatoncheires but every giant in Tartarus to hear.
I heard a few giants rise in the darkness. Still, no one spoke, because the Titan before me said nothing.
The Hecatoncheires each reacted differently to my words. Cottus looked uninterested, while Gyges looked bored.
Briareus alone was different.
[That is an interesting joke. I want to eat you even more now.]
Despite the chilling threat, I smiled.
"As you can see, I'm so small you won't even have time to taste me. That guy has much more to eat than I do."
I looked at Junghyeok. As if he had been waiting, his muscles flexed.
Crack!
His frame began to grow.
Two meters, three meters, four meters...
Junghyeok rapidly grew taller. Holding the Black Heaven Demon Blade, he looked at Briareus.
Half of the hundred eyes watching us filled with suspicion.
[Gigantification? How do you possess that skill?]
"I learned it from you, Briareus."
The sky-shattering power of [Sky Splitter Sword Art] shimmered around the Black Heaven Demon Blade.
Like a small hero standing against myth, Junghyeok growled.
"More precisely, from you in a previous round."
* * *
Strictly speaking, Junghyeok only had one master, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint. The core of his power was [Sky Splitter Sword Art], honed through repeated Regression.
That didn't mean Junghyeok had mastered only one technique.
Over countless regressions, he had learned many different techniques from many different beings.
The skill [Gigantification] was one such technique.
The Stigma [transmission] was another.
Briareus, who had taught him Gigantification, had some connection with Junghyeok. Those blue eyes resembling the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's were proof of it.
[A young member of the giant race visited this place not long ago. In return for awakening that child's Fate, I heard a few stories. I wondered what they were about, but they were stories about you.]
In the First Martial World, I had sent the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint to Tartarus in exchange for her help. She must have told them about us then. I didn't know what that stubborn Transcendent had said, but I started to think this might work out better than expected.
[You are the singularity the Constellations speak of. The being that moves the great cart.]
[Is the Scenario truly heading toward ■■?]
The giants who had been ready to devour us only moments ago now sounded strangely weary and relieved. No, it was less relief than resignation.
[You have piqued our interest. Then tell us, how do you intend to free us?]
"I'll trigger Gigantomachia."
I went straight to the point. We had already met the Titans, and there was no backing down now, so it was better to press ahead.
The Hecatoncheires Three Brothers were key figures in both "Titanomachia" and "Gigantomachia." With them, overturning "Gigantomachia" according to my plan wasn't impossible.
"We are prepared. If you're willing..."
[I refuse.]
"Why?"
[Little one, you would not understand even if I told you.]
The Hecatoncheires Three Brothers and the giants had been imprisoned in Tartarus for a very long time. They hated this prison more than anyone and held deep resentment toward the Twelve Seats.
Why would they refuse liberation?
「Kim Dok ja’s head is stu pid.」
I quickly recalled the contents of TWSA, but no useful insight came to mind.
Even TWSA, that bundle of exposition, didn't explain the giants in detail. In the later parts of the story, when Junghyeok had more contact with the giants, he drew his sword before opening his mouth.
Just like now.
―Stay still, asshole. If you draw your sword here, we're really all done for.
After glancing at Junghyeok as he released his grip on the sword hilt, I looked back at the giants.
I had to think of a way. A way to persuade these masses steeped in tens of thousands of years.
Unexpectedly, Briareus spoke first.
[Young Constellation, how many "Gigantomachias" do you think have existed in this world?]
Letters rippled across the giants' faces. Their fables had begun telling a story. Sentences carrying ancient emotions.
[The Scenario Interpreter's Attribute effect has activated!]
[Your understanding of fables has rapidly increased!]
Through those sentences, I caught glimpses of the giants' memories. The ancient histories of "Titanomachia" and "Gigantomachia."
[The result of every Scenario has already been decided. We are only tertiary characters in that Scenario. We have already fought countless "Gigantomachias" that you know nothing about.]
Scenario 60, "Gigantomachia." The giants were trampled within that Scenario.
Olympus, victorious in war, periodically reopened "Gigantomachia." Again and again, the giants were dragged into that war. Wearing ragged clothes and equipment, they became prey for hundreds of armed Constellations and Incarnations, until their bloodstained scars became lies and their bravery a mockery.
[We lost.]
That happened ten times.
[We lost.]
A hundred times.
[We lost again.]
It repeated more than a thousand times.
[And now you ask us to stand on that battlefield once more.]
It was just like Junghyeok's Regression.
[How long will you summon the ghosts of the past? How long will you wear and defile the shells of dead myths?]
In a different sense from Junghyeok, these giants were regressors.
They were beings who had finally grown tired of that Regression.
[Little one, we do not seek liberation. We are no longer curious about that story.]
Footnotes:
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