Chapter 8: Makoto Takatsuki Takes on an Ancient God
The radiant giant’s mouth was contorted in apparent glee as it spoke to us.
“...Child of man, are you?”
The giant’s voice was deep, resonating in my gut like a bass note from a subwoofer.
Fujiyan was still mumbling to himself and holding his head in his hands. Nina prepared for battle with her back facing Fujiyan. Lucy had just spaced out with her jaw on the floor.
Meanwhile, my Calm Mind skill was keeping me composed. Probably. I grabbed Lucy’s hand and approached Fujiyan and Nina until we were all shoulder to shoulder. Fujiyan had the dungeon escape items, which we’d need to use while huddled up if we wanted to get everyone out of here safely.
But I decided to observe for a bit longer. An optimistic thought crossed my mind—what if this wasn’t a bad guy? What if my Detect Danger skill was just giving me a false positive?
“You have my thanks. You all have freed me from my seal.”
Did we do something? I glanced at Lucy, but she rapidly shook her head from side to side. She seemed to be pleading that it wasn’t her fault, but wasn’t she the one who’d touched the magicite first? I’d assumed that Lucy probably screwed something up, but that didn’t turn out to be the case here.
“It was I,” answered Fujiyan in a trembling voice. “It was my use of Appraisal on this magicite that proved to be our undoing.”
“I was felled in the old war and petrified within this seal...” the giant continued. “The seal may have weakened... But I still could not break free of my own accord... I required the recognition of another.”
I sighed.
“So, appraisals can actually break seals?” I didn’t know that kind of sealing magic existed. Still, that didn’t necessarily mean it was Fujiyan’s fault, right?
“Hey, anyone would’ve tried to appraise a magicite that huge. We can’t blame you for it.” I comforted my friend. No need to get so down on yourself, Fujiyan.
“No normal eyes could have broken my seal...” the giant boomed. “None besides those that could see through the disguise of a god, Divine Eye.”
“Divine Eye?” I asked. Did Fujiyan ever have that skill? No, wait, he already said that he used Appraisal, so maybe this meant that his Appraisal skill was god rank?
“The Appraisal skill I possess is by no means god rank,” Fujiyan said, shutting down my guess. Right, it was only at ultra rank.
“...Is that so? Still, my seal was broken... I need nothing more.”
So, I guess we saved this giant? Everyone spoke the same language at least, and it didn’t seem like it was going to attack us.
Or so I thought...
“...I hunger.”
...Until I heard those words. And saw how the giant’s gaze lingered intensely upon us. Hey, guy, we saved you, remember? Don’t give us that look.
I felt a chill race up my spine.
“D-Dungeon escape!” Nina shouted after swiping the items from Fujiyan and activating them. Phew! I sure didn’t know how to use them myself.
The four of us were enveloped in light. When it dissipated, we found ourselves standing in front of the cave entrance to the dungeon.
Were we safe? No, not yet.
“Let’s get away from here,” I said. Staying in this spot would keep us within the danger zone.
“W-Wait, are you sure we should just ignore that thing?” Lucy asked with fear in her voice.
“Let’s return and report it to the guild’h!” suggested Nina.
“Yeah, good idea,” I agreed. Nina was right about this. Fujiyan, however, was still feeling guilty. “Everyone,” I continued, “we’ve got to return to town. That giant could come to chase us.”
The rest of the party nodded, then we all made our way back to the path.
But...something started floating.
The ground before us expanded upward. With every passing second, the soil sculpted itself into a human-shaped figure.
And then, the mass of earth began to dimly glow.
“...And WHERE are you going?”
Crap! What was with this guy?! We couldn’t get away!
“Boss, run!” Nina demanded, facing the giant.
“Y-You mustn’t! Attacking it will—”
Fujiyan tried to blurt out his warning, but it was too late. The giant’s head was already targeted by the arc of Nina’s kick.
GOOUNG!
The impact sounded like the dull ring of a heavy bell. The giant did nothing beyond waiting for the kick to connect. Was it a slow mover?
“...Wait.”
The giant’s hand extended.
“Huh’h?” Nina blurted. She must have been planning to hit and run, to land her kick and back off. Her hops were so swift that the giant looked like it hadn’t even reacted.
The giant’s movements were sluggish...until you suddenly noticed that its fingers were just close enough to caress Nina’s skin.
Nina was sent flying.
“Ugaagh! Huuugph!” She crashed into a distant tree with a thud and didn’t get up.
What?! Nina was a silver rank adventurer! What did that giant just do? It had sent Nina flying with an attack that I could barely comprehend.
“Fujiyan!” I shouted. “What is that thing?!”
“A wicked giant who was sealed away in a stone as punishment for angering the Sacred Deities... And because of my appraisal, its seal was lifted... I know nothing more than that.”
A wicked giant... Yeah, that phrase sure had an ominous ring to it.
“Fujiyan, use your items to heal Nina,” I said. “Lucy and I will buy you some time.”
“V-Very well! But please, do be careful!” With that, Fujiyan scampered away.
Lucy was standing next to me; she’d already begun her incantation. She wouldn’t have had nearly enough time against a normal enemy, but the giant before us seemed to move pretty lethargically. However, it still had that bizarre attack motion it’d used to strike Nina, so we needed to be on our guard.
“F-Fire Storm!”
Lucy blurted out her spell in time. The giant was caught burning inside of a swirling inferno, by a blaze even larger than the one that had incinerated the griffin.
“Good job, Lucy! You pulled off a high rank spell!”
“W-Well, I can succeed on one try out of ten!”
Uh, did she seriously just bet on a 10% gacha roll? No, let’s not worry. I’ll just think of it as Lady Luck being on our side. I couldn’t imagine that any normal magical being was capable of damaging this giant, but Lucy’s Fire Storm surged upward as though to scorch through the sky itself.
“Okay, at the very least, that had to have left a mark,” I said. “Let’s run away with Fujiyan and Nina.”
“W-Wait... I’m not used to high rank magic, so I might be a little manasick...”
Lucy was staggering. It was a sensation that I had no experience with given my limited mana—when people with vast mana reserves like Lucy cast powerful spells, the ensuing activation of the mana within their bodies inflicts a stupor. I’d heard it was a feeling similar to being drunk on alcohol. I held Lucy’s hand and walked toward Nina and Fujiyan.
When I found Fujiyan, he was using a healing item on Nina. Good, we had a shot at escaping.
Ah, the innocent times when I truly believed that.
The ground quaked with a roar.
Even the air itself trembled. Every bird in the canopy above instantly took flight. The distant howls of animals could be heard from far away. Unless those cries came from monsters instead.
I fearfully turned my head to see the giant trudging forward beyond the raging hellfire.
“It’s...unscathed?!” Lucy said with a shivering voice.
Without my Calm Mind skill, my spirit might have just broken on the spot. This was an enemy unfazed by magic that had taken out a griffin. The four of us had no hope of victory. I wanted to run, but I doubted that we could escape the unpredictable movements that our enemy seemed capable of. What could we do?
Fight the ancient god?
Yes
▶No
Oh come on, it was more than just a giant? I was against a full-on deity? What kind of game spawns enemies like this right at the start? This fantasy world had some busted difficulty balancing.
“Lucy, run away with Fujiyan and Nina,” I murmured.
“Wh-What about you?”
“I’ll buy you time,” I answered. “#@||?&!^*}{**#%~$&%+!! <Water, Flow>. Water Magic: Fog.”
I changed the elemental-generated water into fog. A mist blanketed our surroundings in an instant.
“...Well now, elemental magic,” came a deep voice. It sounded vaguely curious.
So, it knows what elemental magic is? I wondered. This giant was pretty well researched. Would my attacks work at all? My doubts grew by the second.
“Lucy, please, just go.”
“B-But—”
“Fujiyan’s a good friend of mine. I’ll catch up later.”
“...Don’t you dare die on me.” Lucy glared at me to drive the point home.
“I won’t.”
Funny how she had the same train of thought as the goddess. Speaking of which...
O Goddess! Could you please bestow your wisdom unto me? I thought. Despite her usual nagging, I didn’t get a response. C’mon, now’s the time I could really use some advice!
Thud, thud, signaled those unmistakable heavy footsteps as the ground quaked with each impact. The fog was too thick for me to see my hand in front of my face, but that giant was absolutely headed our way. Lucy ran toward Fujiyan—there was no visibility around here, but she had sharp ears.
All right, let’s do it.
Stealth skill.
My plan here was simple: cut off my enemy’s vision with the fog, slice into it with the Dagger of the Goddess, and then return to hiding via Stealth. This was a slapdash idea concocted in the hopes that the giant would slow down if it didn’t know where I was. It was all but guaranteed that my spells wouldn’t affect this giant since it was already immune to Nina’s kicks and Lucy’s magic, but perhaps the goddess’s dagger...
Thud, thud. The footsteps grew closer.
I held my breath and waited for the giant to pass me by. I planned to aim for the back—ideally, the ankle, somewhere around the Achilles tendon. That would slow down its walking speed. I just had to hold my breath, wait for the enemy to pass me by, and—
“...What are you DOING?”
“Huh?!” I was shocked. The giant’s hands extended toward me.
What the heck! Why didn’t Stealth work?!
C-Crap! It’s going to catch me! I thought. That meant I wouldn’t be able to run! Or wait, was I going to get eaten?
Dodge!
The giant’s hand had come terrifyingly close, but I’d activated my skill in time and then slashed with my dagger like crazy. I felt no resistance at all.
My luck held out enough to avoid the giant’s grip. Thank goodness.
And then, I felt my feet sinking into something.
“What have you DONE?!” the giant suddenly bellowed. “YOU DARE...”
Its voice had sounded so civil before, but now it contained a distinct dash of fury. The ground shuddered, and with a single gust, my fog was dispelled.
“Huh?”
Was that giant’s hand...missing a finger? D-Did I cut that off? I seriously hadn’t felt a thing, though.
“...That dagger... Where did you get it?”
Hmm... I wondered if I should be honest and say that I’d received it from the goddess.
“That does not belong in human hands...” rumbled the giant.
“What?” The next moment, the giant was right in front of my eyes. Before I could even consider escape, it had grabbed me, and was now holding my body in a vice grip.
Dodge!
But I couldn’t run away. I was caught!
The giant brought its face close to me while it kept my body constricted in both hands. It looked me over with a pupil as large as my head.
I was gonna get eaten!
So, this was how my adventure was going to end...
“Wait right there!”
A beautiful voice rang down from the heavens. It was a dead ringer for the goddess’s, except I wasn’t hearing it in my head; I was hearing it with my actual ears. But what surprised me the most was...
“...This voice, could it be Lady Noah?”
The fact that this giant had heard it too. Its formerly blank expression was now contorted in surprise. Those hands were still binding me tight, though. I-It really hurt...
“Pops, stop this at once. That child is my acolyte.”
“...Oh dear. ...Is that so? ...My apologies.”
The giant suddenly released its grasp on me...while I was still in mid-air. So, naturally, I fell a few meters to the ground.
“Owwwch...” I’d landed flat on my ass. Well, hey, it could have been worse.
“O Goddess,” I called out after shakily picking myself up.
“Tee hee. Be grateful, Makoto. It’s quite fortunate that you’re my believer.”
“So, umm, what’s going on?” I asked.
“...We Titanea serve the more divine Titans,” explained the giant. “If you are Lady Noah’s believer, then you are as good as family to me.”
“O-Oh... Um, okay.”
This conversation was a bit too much of a curveball for me to follow, but it sounded like this old giant fella was part of this “Titanea” race and on the goddess’s side. Which meant that a single word from the goddess was all it took for the giant to settle down. That said, I wish she could’ve stepped in earlier given how quick she normally is to chew me out.
“Thank you very much, Goddess,” I said. I figured she deserved some appreciation first. I seriously thought I was a goner there.
“Oh, Makoto, you’re such a scaredy-cat,” said Noah. “The Titanea don’t eat anything but plants that grow out of the ground. They wouldn’t ever eat a human!”
“Wait, is that true?”
“...Indeed. ...I do not eat meat.”
He was a vegetarian the whole time?! Well, I’d prefer it if he would avoid looking right at us while talking about how hungry he was. You’re taking years off my lifespan, giant.
“Wait, then why did you hit Nina?”
“...I was surprised to be attacked so suddenly. ...I only meant to give a light flick.” The giant was expressionless, but his voice sounded apologetic. Guess he was sorry for what he’d done...
But still, that level of force was his idea of a flick? Incapacitating a silver rank adventurer with a single blow before she could even react? This guy was on a heck of another level.
“Ah! Makoto, Pops, I’m out of time. You handle the rest, now.”
And with that, I no longer heard the goddess’s voice. Wait, what was I supposed to be handling? The giant was nodding for some reason.
“Heeeeey! My esteemed Tackie!”
“Hey, giant! You get away from Makoto!”
Huh? Fujiyan and Lucy were supposed to have run away, but they were coming back. I’m pretty sure that I’d told them to run, though. Then again, I’d gotten caught like a dumbass after saying that I would catch up.
“M-Mr. Takatsuki?! You cut off the giant’s finger with that dagger!” Nina exclaimed in abject shock. Which reminded me...
“Oh, uh, sorry ’bout that,” I apologized. “You know, for cutting your finger off... Is it the kind of thing that you can stick back on?”
“...It matters not. ...A new one will grow in a mere ten thousand years.”
“U-Uh, cool, glad that works out.” The conversation felt a bit dragged out, but I think he forgave me. Everyone else, however, froze at the sight of me having a leisurely chat with the giant they’d narrowly escaped from.
“Oh yeah, don’t worry, the giant here’s a good guy.”
I explained the relationship between the goddess and the giant dude to everyone.
“My word!” Fujiyan exclaimed. “So this fellow is a friend of the goddess you worship?”
“Hold up, Makoto,” Lucy demanded. “Nobody ever told me you were the follower of a wicked god!”
“M-Ms. Lucy?” cautioned Nina. “The giant is right there...”
Needless to say, everyone was surprised.
“...We Titanea are the guardians of the Titans. ...But once our masters lost Titanomachy against the Sacred Deities, the Titanea banded with the rest of the Gigantes races and challenged the Divine Plane.”
“Ah, the other war... Gigantomachy, right’h?” Nina said.
“It all adds up,” Fujiyan nodded. “Your race was branded as ‘wicked’ because the Titanea also fought against the Sacred Deities.”
Were we talking about myths again? How long has this geezer been around, anyway?
“...I was petrified into stone about fifteen million years ago,” he answered.
Yikes, he’d read my mind. Also, that was such a huge number that I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“Anyway, you mentioned that you were hungry, right?” I said to change the subject. Lucy bolted up in fear. She didn’t have to worry though, since this guy only ate plants. “Fujiyan, do you have anything like bread or fruits?”
“Oh, why yes, I do.” Fujiyan used his Storage skill to pull out a handful of assorted snacks.
“...Ah, the nostalgia. ...To think the day would come when I could once again savor the blessings of the land.” The giant consumed his apples and loaves of bread with joy. Fujiyan brought out some wine as well, and gladly drank some alongside the giant.
“...I must thank you,” the giant said after finishing his meal. I would’ve thought that he was far from full given his size, but he seemed satisfied. He then looked down at us.
“...O, beastwoman child. ...I apologize for earlier.”
“N-No worries! I was the one who attacked first anyway’h!” Nina hastily shook her hands from side to side.
“...May you have the blessing of the Giant of the Land.”
“What?” For an instant, Nina was encased in a gentle glow.
“Oooh, I dunno why, but I feel pumped with power’h!” Nina glanced over her newly energized body. “Let’s see... Hiyo’h!”
Nina lightly kicked a nearby stone. With a FWOOSH, the rock instantly grew to the size of a boulder and flew off, leveling every tree in its path.
“Whew, that’s somethin’,” Nina remarked.
“My trusted Nina, might I ask what has happened?” Fujiyan asked.
“O-Oh, nothing. I just wanted to test stuff out for a bit, but wow, this is wild’h!”
Nina did some swift roundhouse kicks in midair. I was impressed that she could pull off a 1080 degree spin in a single jump. Oh hey, an impact crater formed in the ground right as she landed. Nina seemed impressed at the strength of her new techniques.
“Nina, were you not a believer in a goddess before?”
“Ha ha... We beastmen aren’t very religious,” Nina chuckled. Guess not everyone was an evangelical believer in the Sacred Deities.
“...Now to you, the one who so graciously offered me food.” The giant’s massive eyes turned to Fujiyan.
“In that case, O Giant, may I perhaps receive that severed finger?”
Fujiyan apparently wanted the giant’s finger that I’d cut off earlier. What could he possibly do with it? Lucy and Nina had vague looks of disgust on their faces, as though to say “what a creep.”
“...If that would be enough to satisfy you, then do as you please.”
“You have my gratitude!” Fujiyan wouldn’t accept something that had no meaning, so I was sure he had his reasons. He held the finger gently before vanishing it with his Storage skill.
“...Next shall be...the half-elf child, are you?”
“...Y-Yes.” Lucy seemed to still be a bit scared.
“...You’ve yet to gain control of your magic, I see.”
“Y-You can tell?”
“...When I see your mana surge like an explosion, I can.”
Ah, so I wasn’t the only one who thought of Lucy’s mana that way. It reminded me of the time we’d synchronized.
“...Lend me your staff.”
“This?” Lucy held up the wooden staff she always used and offered it to the giant. I hoped that it wasn’t going to break...
The giant plucked a single hair from his head and wrapped it around the staff. The strand of hair transformed into letters of light for a moment before being absorbed into the wood.
“...I shall return this. ...It should now be easier to perform ground magic.”
“G-Great...” Lucy accepted her staff and began chanting an incantation.
“Ground Magic: Stone Shot!”
A boulder that rivaled Nina’s shot from the end of Lucy’s staff.
“Yikes!” Nina shouted as the boulder grazed past her.
“S-Sorry!” Lucy apologized. Guess her butterfingers weren’t getting cured overnight. Still, she’d activated a ground magic spell in an instant, despite not ever succeeding during all of our training. Looks like she got a pretty nice boon.
“Phewww,” Lucy said. She gripped her staff and looked over it while shivering. It must’ve been a pretty emotional experience for her.
“...Now then, that is all.”
“Huh?” I blurted out. What about me?!
“Hey, what about Makoto?!” Lucy shouted on my behalf.
“...You have Lady Noah’s blessing and were even granted a divine treasure, yet you still want? ...Greed will come to bring you ruin...” the giant warned.
I was silent. When he put it that way, he was right. Guess he wanted me to be happy with what I had.
“...If you ever need rescue, ask for me through Lady Noah. I shall save you. ...Once.”
Ooh! I had a support summon now. I was going to be sure to call for him the next time I found myself in a sticky situation.
“...But if I am far away, I will not be able to arrive immediately. Ask in advance if you require me.”
Ah, that made sense. Guess I wouldn’t be able to ask for a lifeline when a strong monster was already at my throat.
“...And as a deity, I abide by the Divine Plane Doctrine. I do nothing that would upset the ecosystem of the physical plane... Should you ask me to destroy a nation, I would refuse...on the grounds of the Divine Plane Doctrine.”
This offer sure came with a lot of strings attached, O Giant. But if he was refusing only on the grounds of some rules...then that meant he actually was strong enough to destroy a nation. Yikes.
Tell the giant your wish?
Yes
No
Oh. RPG Player, were you already giving me a choice? If you wanted me to come up with a wish on the spot, then I didn’t have—wait, yes I did.
“Could you possibly rescue Lady Noah from the Seafloor Temple?” I asked.
The old giant’s expression shifted into one of surprise.
“...I’m afraid I cannot. ...For Lady Noah to regain her power, a believer must be the one to reach the Seafloor Temple. ...Even if I were to save her, Lady Noah’s strength would not return.”
This was sounding like an obligatory rule. And by the way, Goddess? You never mentioned that part to me. I swear, she always leaves out the important bits...
The old giant chuckled a bit.
“...You wish on behalf of my master before your own desires, eh? I like your spirit.”
Oh, he complimented me. Guess I got a good charisma roll on that response.
“...I shall give you one piece of advice,” the giant said.
“Advice?”
“...That Elemanti you dare speak...is the language of the gods. Cease it.”
U-Uhhh... But I thought I couldn’t use elemental magic without it...
“...Elemanti has meaning only because the Titans speak it. If you wish to use the power of the elementals as a human, then you must see the elementals, converse with the elementals, and befriend the elementals.”
“Except the elementals are kinda invisible,” I pointed out. It would’ve saved me a lot of trouble if they weren’t.
“...Look,” the giant said sternly as he suddenly gripped my head. Again, give me some warning before you do that kinda stuff!
I felt a strange mana flow into my body. Was this a synchronization?
“Wha—?” I said with surprise. Before my eyes, a dim stream of light began to spread. I was surrounded by dots of luminescence glowing in green, blue, yellow, and white, varying in sizes from large to small.
“Amazing...”
This must have been what it was like to be surrounded by thousands of fireflies...not that I’d seen any in Tokyo. But suddenly, the lights were extinguished.
“Ah...”
I stretched out my fingers but grabbed at nothing. The giant had already retracted his hand.
“...Did you see?”
“I-I did.”
I’d seen them. So, those were the elementals. There were an astonishing number of them, and they formed a powerful flow of mana.
And elemental magic existed to control them? No... Not quite. These beings didn’t exist to be controlled by humans. The throngs of elementals constituted the mana of the natural world. At most, they might provide a bit of help as they pleased. To order them around would be an insult.
“...I see you understand.”
“I do.”
I now had a new goal: learn to see the elementals. That was my top priority.
“...Those without the capacity cannot see. ...It seems the elementals have taken a liking to you. ...Elemanti is a language that the Titans use to command the elementals. ...And the elementals do not like being commanded by anyone else.”
“See the elementals, converse with them, and befriend them,” I recited.
“...Go forth, child.”
“Thank you very much.” I committed every stern word the giant had told me to my memory. After all, he’d given me such invaluable advice.
“...Now then, farewell.”
And so, the giant vanished into the ground.
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