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Chapter 161: Karma
She slaughtered every one of their people.
He is their vengeance—
Their lingering grudge—
The last survivor.
“...”
Isaac felt a sharp ache in his chest the instant the giant’s anguished roar burst from its mouth.
In every way, the giant stood at the farthest extreme from him—yet the pain he felt sprang from empathy, and Isaac knew it.
There was no time to put that feeling into words.
The others were already clamoring with questions.
“What are you talking about? She turned our land into a wasteland?”
Nameless, who had lived in the Abyss Realm longer than anyone, couldn’t hold back and blurted out the question.
It was hardly the moment for a leisurely back-and-forth, but she simply couldn’t stay silent.
The giant shouted, his voice raw with injustice, as though he had been waiting for the chance.
“What wrong have we done? We merely existed! We lived as we were, and all we desired was peace!”
“…”
“My people never wished to take up sword or spear! Our soil was fertile, and that alone let us enjoy happiness—!”
Tears streamed from the giant’s eyes.
He looked nothing like the tranquil guardian deity they had first seen.
As if at last releasing the rage he had swallowed for so long, he bellowed, aggrieved:
“What crime did we commit? Do you even forbid us to exist?! Humans—selfish humans! Do you believe the universe turns only for you?”
For a heartbeat, everyone fell silent.
The sorrow and hatred in the giant’s voice were not born in a day or two; they were burdens even his colossal frame seemed unable to bear.
“…He sounds… incredibly sad,” Sharen muttered, and nobody answered her.
They understood he felt wronged—but could they truly sympathize with a giant who had appeared out of nowhere? Not quite.
“Prepare your spells!”
Regant’s long shout rang out. The mages raised their hands, weaving incantations, and seeing this, the giant tore ever more violently at the air itself.
Kwa-d-d-d-d-duck!
‘Could sheer muscle really rip space apart like that?’
Isaac sensed some other force at work, but he had no time to puzzle out what it was.
“Fall back, all of you.”
The Grandmaster gathered the party.
Isaac still felt a strange kinship with the giant’s sorrow, but reason demanded a clear-headed response.
Clenching his fist, Isaac watched the spells streak toward the titan.
‘Will that really work?’
From his perspective—he had wanted to test the giant with his own blade—the rain of magic looked dubious.
Inside the dark cavern, the barrage resembled a meteor shower streaking through the night sky.
A bolt of lightning split the clammy air, followed by winds, fire, and ice hurtling toward the giant in rapid succession.
Kwaang! Kwaaaang! Kwa-a-a-ang!
“Keep firing! Don’t stop! Pour everything you have into it!”
At Regant’s command, the mages unleashed every spell they knew.
Raging torrents of light, heat, and pressure flooded the abandoned mine.
Most of them had never exhausted their full power in a real battle. A few fumbled their casting, but the spells that did fly were dazzling in a riot of color.
Dust billowed, settling in a long sheet.
When the smoke cleared, the giant was still there, one massive palm covering his face.
“I-I don’t believe it…!”
Regant’s voice quavered.
Even with the Tower’s finest mages assembled and blasting him with their absolute maximum firepower, they had managed only to leave soot and scratches on the giant’s palm—no serious damage at all.
They could hurt him, yes—but the exchange rate was dreadful.
Several mages were already gasping, that last salvo having spent their entire reserves.
“So… it doesn’t work,” Regant muttered, pressing a hand over his face in frustration.
“What are those things?”
From ritual research to his recent obsession with transcendent races, Regant felt as though he had slammed into yet another towering wall.
Meanwhile, the giant exhaled a heavy breath, glaring at them as if to ask, Is that all?
The only silver lining was that, in blocking the magic, he had eased his grip; the widening fissure behind him had shrunk for the moment.
But anyone could see it was just a matter of time.
They couldn’t cut him with swords.
Magic was ineffective.
Given time, the creature would inevitably break free.
A calamity had come without warning.
And for the Tower’s mages, the headache was only beginning.
* * *
A tent had been pitched outside the abandoned mine. Beneath its canvas, Sharen fanned herself with one hand, grumbling,
“Ugh, it’s so sticky and hot in there!”
Her light complaints bought them a brief pause from the grim reality they faced.
Rihanna knelt under the tent flap, looking gloomily aware that she was no help in their present predicament—though truth be told, few among them could do anything useful right now.
“Hoo…”
Everyone wiped away sweat brought on by the muggy air, gulped water, and let the dust caking their throats wash down. Only then were they ready to talk strategy.
“So, what do we do now?”
Regant approached, toweling his brow. He had already stationed mages inside the mine. Given the giant’s massive body, they estimated they still had a few hours of breathing room.
Before the creature ripped the fissure wide open and crossed over, they had to find some way to resist it.
“Isaac Logan, what do you—”
Regant cut himself off, glancing around.
“Where did Isaac go?”
When he asked in bafflement, the Grandmaster pointed toward the mouth of the mine.
“He said he was going to try speaking with it for a moment.”
“With it? You mean the giant?”
Regant’s reaction made Rihanna’s face stiffen for a heartbeat. No matter how strong Isaac had grown, was it really safe for him to face the giant alone?
“Yes. After all, Isaac does have a connection—of sorts—to the woman the giant has named its enemy,” the Grandmaster said.
Scratching his head, Regant backed off. Fair point. If the mages’ spells barely scratched the creature, expecting a slender sword to slice it was folly. Now was the time for hard realism, not heroic romance.
Rihanna rose quietly. A Silence spell didn’t just erase voices; it muffled every minor sound—rustling cloth, soft footsteps—so her movement went unnoticed.
While the others discussed the giant in earnest, she, who could not even wield a sword, felt utterly useless.
On her way toward the mine, a woman stepped into her path. Marlin of the Leivice family fixed Rihanna with a steady gaze.
The two taciturn women exchanged no words. Marlin merely turned and, without a word, began walking alongside Rihanna toward the abandoned mine.
* * *
“Could you tell me exactly what the Silver Clock did?”
Seated at last, Isaac looked up at the giant as he spoke.
Inside the abandoned mine, all was still.
Only a handful of mages watched from afar, far enough that Isaac’s low voice could not reach them.
“...”
The giant remained wordless.
With his fingers he kept widening the fissure; by now, it was large enough for a clenched fist to pass through.
“I need to know,” Isaac said.
“Are you not afraid of me, human?” the giant rumbled.
“A desire to understand can be stronger than fear,” Isaac replied calmly.
The giant offered no further words, focusing instead on rending space with a deep thoom.
“...”
“You said all your fellow countrymen were slain,” Isaac continued, gazing up at him.
“You called yourself their vengeance, their grudging spirit, the last survivor. Those words… touched me more deeply than I expected.”
He now understood why.
“I think I want this conversation because I share that experience myself.”
The giant froze. With eyes so large, he could not mask the direction of his gaze; he was staring straight at Isaac.
“A shared experience?” he asked at last, interest flickering.
“That is why the Silver Clock took an interest in me—and why people say I carry karma upon my back.”
Isaac drew a breath.
“This is my second life.”
A flash of puzzlement crossed the giant’s eyes, but Isaac went on.
“In my first life, the Transcendent race violently subjugated the human world. Their invasion succeeded, and we were driven to ruin.”
“…Ruined?”
The giant’s eyes widened, as though he could scarcely credit the tale.
“My comrades, my friends, my master—left behind in that timeline. I’ve met them again here, but…”
Isaac gave a bitter smile.
“They aren’t quite the same comrades who fought beside me that day.”
Take Damien, the thief-turned-pupil: a betrayer in the previous life, yet living decently now.
“Now I understand why karma weighs on me and why ominous energy surrounds me.”
I am their vengeance.
Their lingering grudge.
The last survivor.
Through the giant, Isaac grasped the full weight on his shoulders.
“...”
“Such a thing is possible?” the giant asked for the first time, genuine wonder in his voice. Was it resentment that their supposed victory had been twisted?
Isaac nodded.
“It was made possible by the mana the Tower amassed over many, many years.”
“Why were you the one chosen?”
The question sounded as though the giant was really asking himself why all his kin had died while he alone survived.
Choosing his words with care, Isaac answered in a slightly rueful tone:
“My divorced wife—my former spouse—made the choice. I knew nothing of it.”
The giant studied him, then spoke with a wry sympathy.
“You, too, bear a heavy burden you never intended to pick up.”
Isaac said nothing. To claim the burden was light would have been a lie.
“Just so you know, I’m keeping this secret. From my ex-wife.”
“I do not even know who your wife is, human.”
“…That was pointless to say, wasn’t it.”
---The End Of The Chapter---
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