“Father, please don’t make me fight you!” shouted Lucas at the headless knight coming toward him.

Even though he was clearly not himself anymore, Lucas was reluctant to draw his sword. In his mind, his nativity has led him to believe in some kind of miracle might make his father recognize him. Maybe his father was different from the others. Maybe the once proud captain Balmore would be able to resist this ….curse. What a shallow mind! To think you were special proved that you were the same as others.

Yet no matter how much he shouted, no matter how much he raged, it would not matter to the undead before him. He was dead. The boy’s words would not reach him.

With his back against the wall, the young man was now left with two choices: to draw his sword and fight back for his survival or to die like a dog begging for something he did not understand that it was impossible.

And human’s desire to survive was an incredible thing. When face to death, you were able to do anything. At that moment your moral didn’t apply anymore, your body moved faster than usual, you could lift something much heavier than you thought you could.

So what did he choose you ask? Well life of course. In his mind, the image of his father was override by something else: the hatred, the urge to avenge him.

As he pulled his bloody sword from the corpse of the one who used to be his respected father, the young man made a vow as tears flowed down and mixed with the blood on his face.

“I swear Father! I will find the one who did this to you and make sure that he dies in the most painful way!”

* * *

Alastor’s POV

“RUN!”

Taking Alice on my arms, I ran as fast as I could. No way in hell I was going to fight that thing with Alice around. I needed to at least bring her somewhere safe.

“Come back here, coward!” shouted the giant as he began to move his colossal legs and ran after us. Each step he took felt like an earthquake. And he was fast for something that size.

“If you stop following us then I will stop!” As if something like that would work.

“Ok!”

Oh shit it did work! Was he really that dumb? Or was he confident that he could catch up with me even if I had a head start? For some reason seeing how quickly he was earlier, I had no doubt about that.

“If you promise not to touch this little girl or do anything that might harm her then I too will promise not to run away from the fight!” so far he seemed like the reasonable type. I might as well take my chance. Not to mention he was only one God and there was still five more. If I just ran away each time someday my luck would eventually run out. I might as well face it right here right now.

“Dealt!” the giant replied.

With Alice out of the way, I would at least be at peace in mind and could focus on this battle. I handed her over to one of the undeads and instructed them to keep her far away from the battlefield. Judging from this guy’s size, it would be huge so it was probably not a good idea to have her around.

“Alright let’s start this!”

“Let’s go!”

I knew nothing of this guy’s power. Surely being a God would not just make you a freaking giant, he must have something up his sleeves aside from his incredible strength. I needed to take this slowly.

Immediately I summoned five elemental orbs floating around me. These orbs shot out arcane missile imbued with their corresponding element. Perhaps he would be weak to one. But I was wrong, very wrong. His stone-skin made these missiles almost like mosquito bites. I bet that he didn’t even feel them.

I needed something stronger, might as well use that. And he already closed the gap between us in just a few steps. As he tried to stomp over me, I quickly dashed side by side, while still keeping my balance at best due to the tremors he caused.

“Annoying…..”

Uh oh….he was getting mad.

The giant raised one of his legs high, but this time he didn’t stomp immediately like earlier…..Oh shit!

“”

BOUM

The moment his leg touched the ground below, it created a shockwave so powerful that broke the terrain and blew the whole ground up like a wave of dirt and dust. The mere wind generated by that attack knocked me against one of the giant rock laying underground that was immerged by the earthquake. But it did push me away quite a distance from him.

“Damn bastard! Eat this! !” If normal spells didn’t work then how about ultimate one?

I summoned a tornado from the sky. The last one ravaged and turned a third of the city to smithereens. Let’s see how it worked against a giant.

In an instant, the giant was engulfed whole by the tornado. I could not even see him anymore. Did it work?

“What the…?”

As the tornado began to dissipate, the giant began to resurface, unharmed. All he did was covering his head with his arms and bended his knees to keep himself to the ground. Even my ultimate spell did not work against this guy.

“That was a nice breeze!” the giant mocked. Slowly standing up he ran toward me.

The giant started swinging his hands trying to catch me but to me these were easy to evade, especially with my beast form in which all my senses have been heightened to their maximum potential, allowing me to perceive thing in slow motion.

I managed to get on his back and tried to do some attack. But no matter what I did, magic or physical attack, I could not even make a scratch on his skin. What the hell was this made of? It looked like stone but so much harder.

“My skin is forged by Lord Eden himself. No magic would be able to break it! Try to use more force boy!”

Magic resistance? So similar to the dragon but much more powerful. This could be annoying.

His hands were trying to crush me like a fly. No matter how quick I was, I would not be able to stay like this forever. I needed to find a way to hurt him.

But of course he would not just let me take my time and test what would work.

Suddenly he stopped shaking and held his arms together. His entire body started to illuminate like a giant beacon. I could feel the flow of mana concentrating on the skin beneath me. Something was coming! My entire body, currently in beast form, was telling to get away as quick as possible. At this moment his body was already as bright as the sun.

“”

Magic missiles started flying out of his body and targeted me. No matter where I went, they just kept on coming and followed me. I even tried to redirect it back to the giant but he was immune to magic so he did not feel anything at all.

The area surrounding him was completely destroyed: the entire forest was gone in an instant. I guessed no more hiding place.

And I was careless, letting one of these missiles hit me. And it hurt like hell. Imagine what would happen if ten of them hit you.

If only I had a body at his size, it would be much easier.

‘A body like his….I do have something like that don’t I?’ I thought to myself. ‘Sinforma I want you to do something!’

…..

…..

…..

And here they came. My little army of undeads. While not all of them were here, I would say at least half was present.

“Using an army? Go ahead! That makes no difference to me!” Said Gnome.

“Not at their size, no! But what about this? Come to me Sinforma!” I shouted.

All the undeads surrounded me and pushed me up. As I went higher and higher, they stitched together to form a solid body. With their numbers, I could create an undead giant made of skeletons and zombies. To reinforce further, the spiders quickly used their special webs to increase our defense and the links.

And here came my giant with me fusing with it on top of its head. Standing as tall as the God Giant, this new body of mine looked humanoid enough even though it was just a pile of corpses attached to each other.

“Huh do you think that trick would do you any good?” Grunted Gnome.

“We will see about that! Charge!”

Gnome started by throwing his gigantic punch at me. However, using my own skeleton hand, I controlled my skeleton giant to evade slightly to the side and grabbed his arm, performing a throwing attack. Because my giant was made mostly out of skeletons, it was much lighter than Gnome and therefore more agile.

Using his own force, I guided his body and threw him. His colossal body was flung into the air before falling again. And damn it was heavy.

If my attack didn’t work then let his own weight be his downfall. That must have hurt.

Slowly standing up, he turned to me.

“Well done boy! That was the first time anyone has ever managed to lift me! How would you fare against this? ”

He used that magic attack again. It surprised me last time but not this time.

“”

A black orb at the size of my body appeared in the hand of the undead giant. As it held it in front of his chest, all the incoming magic missiles convergent to its location and were absorbed and replenished my mana.

Seeing his magic neutralized, the giant switched back to melee: he jumped high into the air and threw one of his kick. Using his own weight as an advantage, it would not be pretty if my undead was hit by that.

“Now Sinforma!” I shouted.

Multiples of layers of light barriers enshrouded the undead giant. One of Sinforma’s undeads, the pope Vyncis, had the ability to cast a light magic barrier. By supplying my own mana to him, he would be able cast more powerful barriers to protect my body.

And we clashed. Smashing barriers one after another, Gnome was finally stopped with only a few layers left. Without letting him time for another attack, the undead giant quickly landed one of his arms against the God’s chest.

“Take this you piece of shit! ”

A huge luminous explosion in the form of a cross exploded from my palm. In an instant the giant was blown away.

Despite hitting at point black, that attack only managed to scratch his body only a little bit.

“Nice try young one! But that alone would never be able to hurt me!” He kneeled down on his knees and touched the ground. “”

Suddenly, tree vines came out of the ground where I stood and started to invade my undead giant. Being attached to it as if it was a part of myself, I felt weak all of the sudden. Those vines….they were sucking out my mana. The more mana they absorbed the more they grew, restraining the undead giant’s movement. I couldn’t move an inch.

“Now you die!” Gnome made a battle cry as he sprinted toward me. I could not dodge this attack!!!

* * *

“How???”

“I am not done that quickly”

The giant’s fist has indeed landed its attack but it didn’t hurt Alastor nor did it destroy the undead. In fact the entire undead body was covered by a layer of transparent blue material: crystal. In magic the brighter the blue light emitted by the crystal, the more condense mana was subjected to in order to form those stones, and of course the more powerful that crystal was. In this case, the color was the brightest, like a giant glacier.

Even the vines that invaded the giant undead were turned into crystal, making beautiful lines of crystal trees.

Realizing that his fist did not harm the boy one bit, Gnome quickly stepped back in awe. It was the first time someone took a direct punch from him and did not end up as a pulp. But he wasn’t upset nor dismayed, it has been so long since he felt this excited: he has finally met a worthy opponent, one that was not even a god.

“Finally you show your true power! Good! GOOD!! I wasn’t wrong after all! Come young one! Show me your spirit!” Gnome proclaimed excitedly.

As for Alastor, he finally had the chance to use the crystal magic that he inherited from his mother after all these years. Though it was much more exhausting than normal magic, he succeeded.

Without taking a moment to rest, now that he was freed from those vines, he charged forward. The fight has turned into a brawl between two giants: one made of stone and the other crystal.

Each strike was like a tremor, vibrating the air of the entire area. If one managed to make a blow then the other would retaliate back immediately. The feud lasted for hours.

It wasn’t a quiet night for Caelum. Their city was attacked by undeads and spiders. And out of nowhere a giant showed up. Then a second one, with an even weirder appearance than the first and they clashed. The sound of their fights, the exchange of their fists resounded in the entire area. Yet no one knew what these colossal warriors were nor what their goal was. And none dared to approach them or to peek at their battle, in fear of becoming an accidental casualty. In addition, the undead threat was still ongoing.

“HAHAHA! How long have I waited for this? Someone who is capable of exchanging blows with me!” Gnome laughed loudly as he threw a fist.

“Then how about we end it now? The sun is rising already!” Alastor responded. In truth he was getting tired. Maintaining a large crystal armor at this scale for this long has drained most of his power. He needed to finish this in one single blow if he intended to win.

“You are right! All thing must come to an end someday!” Gnome’s tone suddenly changed. It was serious yet sad. “Let’s finish this with the next blow!”

“Fine with me!” Alastor answered.

Standing still among the ruins they caused, as the first ray of sunlight began to shine upon the city of Caelum, the two stared at each other. The next move would be the last one. Both had kept their trump card for this moment. The question was which one of them would attack first.

And it was Alastor.

From his giant skeletal arm, a huge luminous sword bearing the color azure manifested itself. Yet it wasn’t made of crystal. Something transparent like a mist was emitting from that sword. He raised it highly with both his arms and slashed down.

Alastor might have the advantage of speed but Gnome didn’t acquire the name “Sleeping Mountain” for out of nothing. Seeing the sword, the giant knew the danger it posed. His body changed to a golden color of sunlight, the ultimate defense, capable of reflecting all kind of magic and physical attack. Never in history has anyone managed to break through it. Just like a mountain that stood in the landscape.

But even mountain succumbed to the passage of time. However, in this case, time wasn’t his downfall. There was one thing that could surpass even the ultimate shield: soul magic. And Alastor’ sword was in fact the one legendary sword using soul magic that the hero Lakyus once held: Excalibur, Sword of Destiny.

And one person already knew the result of what would happen the moment the sword was drawn.

‘To think I would be undone by the sword I forged….what an irony!’

The moment Excalibur touched Gnome’ skin, it destroyed everything it touched, such was the power of the weapon capable of changing fate itself.

The blade cut through the giant with ease and with it, Gnome, God of the Dwarves, fell.

His giant body began to fall apart, crumbling into dust.

“You were right, Fate! He is ….the true Heir! Hahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!” and those were the last words of the God Gnome before his body faded away.

But he left something behind: a bright orb of light floated in the air where Gnome once stood. Suddenly it flew toward the last remaining person of the battle: Alastor.

“Argg!” sinking into the boy’s body, the orb pierced through the barrier of dimension and arrived at a dark place, a place created as a manifestation of the boy’s soul.

There it flew into the depths of the Abyss until it reached a giant gate before dissipating into it. With its disappearance, the gate illuminated as a new circle emerged on the door’s cipher, together with one word inside the circle: DWARF.

“One down…five more to go….”