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96. Head for the Holy Land

As soon as the door of their accommodation opened, Ko Byeong-gap’s eyes darted open. What he felt as soon as his consciousness awakened was quick movements heading toward them. He shot up reflexively and picked up the sword by his bedside. He then sprinted to the door. Five Spirit soldiers entered the building. The sky over the open door was still dark, still, an hour left before dawn.

“What?”

Before they could say anything, Ko Byeong-gap asked, and then a Spirit soldier opened his palm. Light came out of it that lit up the house. Another soldier took a step ahead and answered.

“What? That’s what I want to ask! Come on, wake them up!”

He exclaimed. There was no need as Dorma and Marilyn were climbing out of bed on their own, woken by the disturbance.

“Lord, what is this?”

“What kind of act is this?! You came in the middle of the night and pointed spears at your guests!”

Marilyn ranted, but the Spirit soldier growled without backing down.

“Get out of the way! Get out of here! Now!”

“We’re still–!”

“Marilyn, it’s done. Stop it.”

Ko Byeong-gap calmed her down first. He asked with his sword lifted.

“What’s going on? If you want us to leave, shouldn’t we know the reason?”

The Spirit soldier had a lot to say, but he condensed it to a single statement.

“The Gruggles are coming!”

“…”

Ko Byeong-gap and his party rushed to the wall. He could hear the situation roughly the moment they left the cabin. The outline of the case was simple. Many Gruggles were seen from the west side, where Ko Byeong-gap and his party came from.

The Spirit soldier’s words took on the nuance, ‘You must have brought them in!’ However, Ko Byeong-gap found it unfair.

“We’re not some kind of piper. What kind of tricks did we use to attract them?”

When they reached the wall, it seemed that the Lord of the castle was already standing there. He also seemed to have woken up, and his face was filled with fatigue and irritation. They needed an explanation, but it was urgent to understand the exact situation. Ko Byeong-gap climbed up the wall and looked out at the wilderness across from him.

Dark lumps loomed over the field.

‘…What?’

Their pulse was dull and loose. The Spirits were arguing with each other, so he thought there were thousands of Gruggles. However, the number of enemies was at most hundreds. It wasn’t enough to beat the fortress wall. If this were Valtadren, Doran would’ve led the guards and caught them without such a fuss. And yet, to the face of the serious Spirits, Ko Byeong-gap thought it was shameful of them to be so worried. However, he couldn’t say that out loud.

It was best to show off strength at times like this.

“I’m in a terrible mood right now.”

Lord Kunta suppressed his anger as he spoke. It wasn’t known whether his anger was directed at Ko Byeong-gap’s party or the Gruggles. Ko Byeong-gap just pulled out his sword.

“You think we got them involved.”

“Please understand. We have no choice but to blame you because you showed up, and they popped out from the same direction.”

“Well… I want to defend myself, but let’s put out the urgent fire first. We’ll take care of them. Lord, you can provide support from a distance. There will be no damage done to the castle.”

“Ha! You mean you can get rid of them all?”

Kunta asked in a sneering tone, but Ko Byeong-gap was confident. Of course, some of them were strong. However, very few of the Gruggles he had ever defeated were more than B-class monsters. At best, if they were low-level monsters, Ko Byeong-gap, Dorma, and Marilyn were enough alone.

“Yes, we fought with these a little bit. We can take a hundred or so of them quickly.”

“Hah.”

“Dorma, Marilyn, let’s go. We need to beat them before they get any closer to the castle.”

“Yes, Lord.”

“I see.”

They went to the end of the wall and were about to jump off at once, but Kunta grabbed them just before taking off.

“Stop!”

“Why?”

“Did you think we were losing our minds just because of those little bastards? Can’t you see that?”

Kunta suddenly reached out and pointed in one direction. Ko Byeong-gap looked to where he pointed. All he saw was darkness filling the space.

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing.”

“Are you blind? Can’t you see that black thing?”

“No, what are you talking about? It’s dawn, so of course, it’s black… what?”

His head turned at lightning speed.

The morning was dark, as always. In the midst of this, there was an unusually dark area. Until he heard Kunta’s words, he thought it was a mountain. No, of course, he would think it was a mountain, but it wasn’t. The black area was getting closer and closer to them.

“I… that…”

His voice trembled slightly. Kunta replied in a voice of resignation.

“Yes, Titan!”

***

‘It’s distracting…’

Ko Byeong-gap was mesmerized as he appreciated the titan’s prowess. He was across the horizon. Nevertheless, his enormity was evident. It was different from when he heard it in the stories. To be honest, he didn’t even realize what he saw at first and felt like he was dreaming.

‘I’ve dealt with a few large-scale monsters, but that’s too much, isn’t it?’

Looking closely at a medium-sized monster was already enough to drop his jaw. How about the large and the even larger ones? However, if the monsters considered to be large were compared to Titan, they would be nothing more than ants.

‘I can’t measure him, but he must be 300 meters tall.’

At least 300 meters was the minimum. Ko Byeong-gap looked back at his men and saw Dorma and Marilyn frowning. It seemed to be written on their faces, ‘How do you defeat that?’

“Lord… even for you, it’s too dangerous…”

Marilyn lost her composure and stuttered.

“Uh… what can we do?”

Dorma was no different. Ko Byeong-gap gritted his teeth.

‘How do I know what I’m going to do? The more we wait, the bigger it gets!’

Titan grew closer and closer as they contemplated, and the little Gruggles were marching beside it. The Spirits rushed into battle.

Ko Byeong-gap said to Kunta, “Didn’t you say Titan walked past here last time? What did you do then? Do it again this time–”

“That’s impossible.”

Kunta answered straightforwardly.

“The situation is different then.”

“What do you mean different?”

Kunta sighed and explained briefly. At that time, they found Titan first. Thanks to that, they were able to act ahead of time. First, many of the Spirits of Light exercised their power in exchange for their lifespan. They made the entire castle transparent, and several martyrs who volunteered to be bait desperately caught Titan’s attention.

It had resulted in success. Titan passed by without noticing the existence of the castle. Of course, all the Spirits who acted as bait died, and the Spirits of Light had also weakened due to their excessive use of power.

“It’s a waste to make it transparent now. Titan is already targeting the castle! You’re wrong, and we’re all going to die. How can you beat him?”

“Damn it!”

His clenched hand trembled. He looked far into the distance, and as the sun slowly rose, Titan’s image became clearer. Soon, he heard the shouts of the Spirits.

“Fire! Fire altogether!”

The Spirits began to make and fire different projectiles. Fire, electricity, ice, and so on.

“They won’t go back just because we’ve driven you out. I’ll only be heartbroken as the blame is on me! Oh, my!”

Kunta left with those words and rushed to his soldiers. He led them enthusiastically, despite his despair in the face of death. At that time, Marylin came to him and whispered, “Lord, we have to run.”

“…What?”

“I’m sorry about the situation here, but it’s something we can’t handle. With Lord’s car, we’ll be able to escape from that thing.”

Ko Byeong-gap couldn’t answer easily. His lips felt chapped, so he licked them repeatedly. Marilyn looked at Ko Byeong-gap and whispered again.

“Lord, this isn’t our fault. There’s no evidence that we brought them in. You don’t have to feel responsible for anything. And… Lord has something important to do, right? I dare say so, but our lives can’t be wasted here.”

What she said was correct. How many lives hung around Ko Byeong-gap’s neck? If he thought about it coldly, it would be reasonable in many ways to run away from everything. However.

‘You want us to leave the Spirits alone and save ourselves? Leave them struggling like that?’

His moral sense rejected it. Morality wasn’t always rational. Ko Byeong-gap shook his head.

“We can’t leave on our own.”

“But Lord…!”

“Stop. Don’t say any more, Marilyn.”

“…”

“Lord, do you have another alternative?”

“Think… let me think.”

‘As expected, do I have no choice but to use soul-based items?’

The only thing that came to his mind was buying the ancient shop’s soul products for 700,000 crystals. Using a soul allowed him to gain a lot of power for a while. Yet even with that power, he wasn’t sure how to use it against that giant.

‘Darn it, since when did I start thinking about taking someone else’s help? Was I this dependent?’

However, soul products came with great risks. He wasn’t just talking about the aftereffects that came after the lasting effect was over. From the moment he would take in a soul, he had to engage in an ancient battle for his spirit and self. Also, maintaining his true self would be more difficult as he used the souls repeatedly.

‘If I’m lucky, I might make it this time. But every time a crisis hits, am I going to gamble over the ownership of my body? What if I lost control of my body?’

He couldn’t rely on the power available to him forever. Whether she knew his troubled mind or not, Marilyn spoke as if she was frustrated.

“I know it’s rude, but I’ll tell you regardless! I understand that Lord has a good personality. But as a king, sometimes, you have to be as cold as ice.”

“…”

“How are you going to target that massive thing without a single siege weapon? Please listen to me this time. The sin of disrespecting Lord will be sweetly accepted after we leave this place!”

Marilyn’s shoulders shook. He could feel her earnestness in her reprimand. Ko Byeong-gap blanked out for a few seconds before grinning. When she saw his smile, Marilyn looked stunned.

“Why… why are you laughing?”

“Thanks to you, I found it. Thank you, Marilyn.”

“What? What did you find?”

“How a creature deals with a mountain.”

As soon as he thought about it, he acted.

***

“If I give the signal, please act on time.”

“…I see. I’m going to do my best.”

“Let’s go.”

Ko Byeong-gap and his party fell from the wall and crossed the land with a fierce advance. The horde of Gruggles clung to each other, but they ignored them and passed them by. They had no time to deal with small fish.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The ground rang whenever Titan took a step. He was growing close and would reach the castle in the next few minutes. The closer he moved to the bastard, the more his neck stiffened. Their distance narrowed to only about a hundred meters when Ko Byeong-gap fired a single sword slice as a test.

The crescent sword hit Titan’s body directly. Rotten flesh sloughed off, but he didn’t budge.

‘I’ll have to do this a hundred times to make a difference.’

It was tiring, but the big thing was ignorant.

“Be careful!”

Dorma screamed. The sky seemed to be growing dark, and Titan’s feet fell. They quickly spread out and dodged it.

“Get up!”

“Yep!”

Shortly after, the three began climbing his massive legs. Thanks to Dorma’s sorcery, they were able to do so as if they were spiders. Passing up his calves and thighs, over his pelvis, and then across his ocean-like chest, they were finally able to settle on his clavicle.

“Gasp, gasp!”

Ko Byeong-gap was out of breath, but there was no time to rest. They jumped up in unison. Ko Byeong-gap and Marilyn stood on both cheeks, and Dorma stood on the back of the titan’s nose.

“Whoa–!”

The sound of Titan’s cry was almost deafening. Ko Byeong-gap frowned and grabbed his sword, drawing forth aura.

“Marilyn, let’s go!”

“Alright! Haaaah!”

“Attack!”

Ko Byeong-gap and Marilyn stabbed their swords into his massive cheeks and ran along his face. Within a moment, his cheeks cracked, and his lower jaw drooped. Its mouth was open like a madman.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Of course, the titan’s body shook. It was a battle on its own to not fall off.

“Dorma!”

“Alright!”

As Ko Byeong-gap gave the signal, Dorma started their next objective. The objects that had been floating behind Dorma’s back entered Titan’s mouth all at once.

“You like to eat, right? Eat as much as you want!”

What they poured into Titan’s mouth was the gasoline they had brought with them for the trip. A whopping 10 barrels with 40 liters each!

“Hap!”

Dorma fired a pile of dark spines to finish. The barrels were torn to shreds, and gasoline poured out.

“It’s done!”

“Great! Everyone, run away as far as you can!”

“Yes!”

Dorma and Marilyn quickly moved down to the ground. Ko Byeong-gap fired a mass of his aura towards the sky before following them.

Boom!

The energy exploded like firecrackers, sending a signal to the Spirits. As soon as he sent the signal, he fell off without looking back.

Flop!

“Ouch…”

He managed to reach the ground, and his shaky legs propelled him forward without a chance to rest. He didn’t want to be trampled to death. He glanced back while he ran away. Dozens of fireballs were sailing toward Titan’s face.

“Boom.”

A few seconds later, flames soared from Titan’s mouth.