Chapter 101: - Sun - Claiomh Solais (9)

༺ Sun – Claiomh Solais (9) ༻

Claiomh Solais was under the disguise of a Moon.

My mind turned blank for a second after coming up with that hypothesis.

“Hmm...”

“Sun during the day... and Moon during the night...?”

Lunia and Yuel seemed just as confused as I was after hearing our speculation.

“I would assume it is not as distant as the actual Sun or the Moon. Reaching that far would be impossible in the first place, so there is no reason to even worry about that possibility.”

“There’s probably a magical barrier cast around the entire floating island. To activate that and keep such an enormous spell up forever...”

“Claiomh Solais itself is probably acting as a catalyst of that spell,” I replied.

After being in this fantasy world for about 4 years, it wasn’t hard to come up with such speculations.

This was a grand spell in itself. It was in a completely different league to simple destructive spells.

“Is there a way... to even obtain it?”

“Probably, but it’s... going to be impossible for us.”

Everyone except for Yuel was a melee Knight. Plus, Yuel was also not going to be able to use much of her potential in a place like this with no forests around.

“...The Solar Eclipse will be in 2 days. Let’s think of a method until then.”

“Sure. There are probably some options that we haven’t covered.”

It was too early to give up. We tried looking for options but... something big happened on the afternoon of the next day.

Lunia cut off one of the arms of a giant.

****

“Kuaaaahkkk...!”

A scream echoed across the island. We, who had been searching through the castle of giants, immediately raced to the source of that sound.

“Tch...”

By the time we sprinted our way there, we found tens of giants standing in a circle, and at the center of them all was...

“Sister!”

Lunia was standing tall and proud, while trampling on an enormous giant that was at least 3 times bigger than herself.

“Human...! How dare you!”

“We will kill you!”

“I will not stop you if you wish to die.”

Even in the face of tens of giants, Lunia wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. I quickly squeezed my way through the giants.

“Wait wait! Let’s just confirm what happened before we do anything!”

When I asked her, ‘What’s going on?’, she started explaining the situation with a calm tone of voice.

“That thing tried to eat me. He said anyone except for the druid would be okay to eat, so I gave him something to eat.”

That something seemed to have been the arm of the giant. It was an act of self-defense no matter how you saw it but...

“Insolent humans! How dare you do this at our castle!”

“We’ll boil you alive!”

The greedy giants did not care about that in the slightest. It was because of this savageness of theirs that they were pretty much imprisoned in this floating island.

Each and every one of the giants was at the level of a mid-boss and were at semi-Grade 1 at the very least. Fighting against tens of such giants head-on was the same as asking for death.

“Wait! Please listen to me for a second, brothers!”

“Shut your...!”

“Our master, Mr. Dun Scaith will be coming here with a bunch of presents for you! Thousands of snakes and hundreds of toads!”

“Hnn?”

“Snakes?”

“Toads?”

Some of them appeared puzzled as to what those were, while others were intrigued by it. In any case, I managed to gather their attention.

“Mr. Dun Scaith is more than aware of how much hard work you have gone through! He will be bringing to you so many snakes and toads that you will be able to fill your bellies forever!”

“Hmm...”

“As long as you show your benevolence and mercy to us, our master will surely provide you with infinite meat!”

The rest will be up to you, Dun Scaith. Good luck!

After my consistent rambling about empty pacts, all the giants were convinced and went back, including the one whose arm was cut off. They weren’t very intelligent to start off with, but it was still quite surprising how foolish they were to believe in everything I said.

“Miss Lunia. Let’s go back for now.”

“...Sorry for creating a fuss.”

“No, it was thanks to you that we realized that we have to be on guard at all times.”

We stopped searching during the day and decided to move only at night. And...

‘These fuckers. I knew it.’

****

Inside the castle was a large dining room that was big enough to accommodate the huge giants. There were several traces of civilization in the form of furniture and cooking utensils that were brought by the druids when the castle was first built.

However, for the wild and savage giants, the dining room was nothing but a big conference room where fifty of them could gather for a chat.

“Boss. You know the one that’s coming to take the Sun?”

“Right right. Dun Sukiyaki? That guy.”

“His little buddy said he will be bringing snakes and toads, right? Enough for us to eat forever?”

“Yes yes.”

“So?”

“Let’s attack that guy! There should be even more meat in his house right?”

“Yes yes.”

Unfortunately, the giants were unaware of the concept of ‘trading’. Even though there were so many treasures inside the castle that they could monopolize all the meat and crops of the kingdom, they just didn’t know about the concept of giving their own to get something in return.

Their thinking process was just completely different from a human’s.

“But that’s someone sent by Uzkias...”

“When he takes the Sun, that will mean the end of the command given to us by our forefather, Searbhan, right?”

“Hmm?”

“Searbhan told us to give the Sun to whoever brings the fruits of the red rowan tree.”

“Yes. I heard that from my grandfather’s grandfather.”

“We will crush you... Hooh?”

After dashing across the castle chasing after the thieves, what the giants found was the sight of 2 thieves kneeling in front of the one who appeared like the ‘boss’ with the stolen treasures in hand.

“Ohh mighty Scaith! Our one and only hero!”

“We have stolen the treasures of the foolish giants as you have commanded!”

“Ehng? Me? When did I do that?”

“Now, let’s kill those giants together!”

“YOU DAMN HUMANS....!”

The giants poured out their wrath at the humans – more specifically, at Dun Scaith, who was the master of those thieves.

“Umm... big friends? I think there might be a misunderstanding...”

– Kwang!

Without waiting for Dun Scaith to explain himself, one of the giants smashed down at him with their enormous ax.

– Crack!

Scaith was cut into halves in an instant, but that didn’t quench the burning fury of the giants.

“Kill all the humans! Eat every one of them alive!”

The fury of the giants was then pointed at the robed men that had come after Scaith. One hundred of those enormous semi-Grade 1 or above demonic beasts pounced at them.

“Kuaaaahk...!”

“H, help!”

“Don’t eat me! Please don’t!!”

The men wearing robes were massacred one-sidedly. It was when the giants were wiping their lips off their innards after crunching through the bodies of the humans.

“Uhhp!”

One of the giants wretched as if feeling unwell, but that was only the beginning.

“Uhhkk?”

“Uweeekk...!?”

Thousands of snakes simultaneously slithered out of the giants’ mouths, eyes, and nostrils. Seeing those snakes wriggle on top of the corpses of the fallen giants, the rest of the giants were infuriated.

“Those humans are using black magic!”

“Kill them! Kill them all!”

The giants then began a fight against thousands... or rather, tens of thousands of snakes. Standing behind that unsightly fight, Dumnorix faced Korin whose lips were titled into a wicked smile.

“You bastard...”

“Huhahahahahaha...”

The main culprit behind this devious set of plans carefreely gazed at Dumnorix, who couldn’t attack him because of the restrictions of geass, and casually went over his evil strategy.

“Nobody can stop me. Whether it be you, Dun Scaith or even Valtazar! No-one! If I can’t take Koprulu... I mean, Claiomh Solais for myself, then I will burn it into ashes instead...! Wahahahahahaha!!”

“Mr. Korin. I think we look more like villains.”

“...We do.”

“Haa...”

****

Leaving behind Dun Scaith and his group that were still fighting against the giants, Korin and his crew immediately began running to the oak tree.

“Huhuhu, let them fight between themselves. It would be even better if they all die in the process!”

“Do you have no sense of shame, Korin?”

“There is nothing shameful under the name of Immortan Lork...!”

“...And what is this Immortan Lork?”

“Umm... Don’t worry about it, Sister.”

Cowardly, underhanded, crafty yet proud... That was the perfect description of Immortan Lork.

“Haa~. Looks like there are many things about my fiance that I need to compromise with... I cannot help but lament at that fact.”

“By the way, Mr. Korin. Isn’t it bad if they subjugate the giants and obtain the Sun?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Sorry?”

“When we get down to the ground... I’m going to cut off all the trees.”

“Uahh...”

Evil and cowardly.

It seemed that Korin wasn’t interested in the orthodox and rightful approach in the first place.

“History is written only by the victors. Guhyahyhyahya...!”

“Please stop with that weird laugh.”

In any case, the plan was a success. Acquiring Claiomh Solais would have been the best, but exiling two of the King’s subjects on the floating island forever was an incredible benefit regardless.

According to his first plan, Korin started looking for the branches of the oak tree that he and his group used to climb up to the clouds.

“It’s over there...!”

There were a few other branches next to it, which appeared to be the branches of the tree Scaith and his group used to climb up. However, that didn’t matter because the plan was to cut both trees down immediately after going down.

“Wait...!”

That was when Lunia stopped her feet. The other three stopped their feet with her but it was Yuel who first noticed why.

“Wickerman?”

Next to the branches of the oak tree was a large Wickerman, taller than 20 meters, gazing at them.

“Did they climb up using a Wickerman?”

“That... can’t be.”

Lunia’s assumption was denied by Yuel the druid. Essentially, a Wickerman was a hidden skill that made a wooden doll move using a burning sacrifice as fuel. A Wickerman summoned with nothing but mana shouldn’t be able to last more than a minute.

Even if it was Dumnorix, it would have been impossible for him to climb all the way up here from the ground on a Wickerman. And even if they were trying to use a sacrifice, finding one that allowed them to climb all the way up from the ground should be impossible—

“Dodge...!”

It was then. Their incredibly threatened survival instincts tried to force them into moving their bodies but before they could even react;

“KII—”

A demonic beast carrying two swords; a swordsman with purple-colored eyes pounced at them from the front.

“Sword... Fiend?”

– KIAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!

A fiendish roar echoed across the floating island.